It was finally, FINALLY, time for Tao to walk up, get his diploma, and leave the cursed place known as high school without ever looking back. And all he had to do was survive the ceremony, his last obstacle.

Staring at really nothing, Tao was mentally screaming. This. Was. So. BORING. Sitting under LED lights that made his eyes burn and being stuck in a gown with a dumb cap and surrounded by people he would rather never see again, Tao could easily name multiple places he’d rather be at. His room, his office/studio, the park, really anywhere. Anywhere would be better than this.

“-who have achieved outstanding academic achievement, please stand up when,” the voice of the principal announced, and Tao had to hold back from sighing and making everyone near him give him death glares.

Watching as people began to rise, Tao couldn’t help but feel some animosity towards a lot of them. It was not because he knew his name wasn’t one there despite him on average always receiving good grades. No, if anything, he was glad he wasn’t on that list as hated being called out. No, the animosity was towards the people themselves.

Most of the people there (because Tao knew that it would be flat-out wrong to say it was everyone. It was rare for one thing to be used to apply to an entire group, that would be going against the very idea of nuance) were the ones who were snobs. They were the ones who were the most passive-aggressive people Tao had ever met, and who thought that high school had been the greatest years of their lives. They were the people who constantly made Tao just completely unsure of how to navigate the murky waters of the social aspect of high school. One moment they’d be willing to talk and ask for help, the next they’d take subtle but painful jabs at him with their words. They were the ones who complained about the most trivial of things, the ones who could be easily qualified as “spoiled brats”.

Now, Tao knew that there was usually something more to that. Everyone has seen it in the media. The rich kids who seem to have it all, but in reality their home lives were colder with parents not really being present in their lives. And yes, Tao could understand that that would influence someone, usually in a bad way. He got it, he really did.

But, just because someone has something that might influence the way that you act, that is not an excuse for them to act like complete jerks to everyone else.

    The thing that causes them to act in certains ways gives an explanation/context, but that does not make it an excuse for treating people like scum.

    Tao knew that very, very well. So, despite the fact that his peers might have their reasons, he felt no regret in wishing to never see them again. They treated him poorly, so he was well within his right to cut them out of his life (and that was something that he felt people needed to be told. That if someone is treating you horribly, or treating someone you care about horribly, then you are well-within your right to cut ties with them and that if you don’t then the person you let down is within their right to cut you out). Toxic relationships are toxic, there is nothing wrong with getting rid of that relationship. As he stared at the people who were standing up with pride as their names were called, the people who would constantly take jabs at things that he had no control over, Tao didn’t feel any remorse in the fact that he would most likely never see them again.

    In fact, if anything, he would be incredibly pleased if he never saw them again.

    “-please give these students a round of applause, they’ve earned it for having achieved such levels in their academics!” the principal’s voice once again reached Tao’s ear, shaking him from his rather rambling thoughts.

    Clapping because he would receive some hardcore death glares if he didn’t Tao couldn’t help but find another thing that made this ceremony so incredibly useless.

    Singling out these people and giving them applause like they were these special ones compared to everyone else really did do a number on a person’s self-esteem.

    Now, this was something that had never really bothered Tao. In all honesty, there were many things that Tao just rolled with. He tended to not care about things that people think he should care about, but really it gave him the upper-hand in that those things didn’t slam into him. However, just because he’s like that doesn’t mean that it’s the same for everyone else.

    Tao looked around, spotting familiar faces. Sean, a peer who was actually pretty chill but who struggled with math. Jamie, a girl who was incredibly skilled in making friends but tended to not grasp the technical parts needed to English classes. Adam and Josh, two twins who were always a riot to watch but who both fell short when it came to history class. There were them, and so many more. And Tao knew that, for the most part at least, that these people were fine. They weren’t cruel or anything of the like. They just struggled academically. And Tao also knew that was a source of insecurity for many of them.

    They hate the fact that they couldn’t do as well as other people in class. And Tao knew that by singling out the ones who did well academically, that the ones who didn’t do so well felt their self-esteem take another hit.

    Singling out people who seemingly “excelled” in certain areas made those who were supposedly not up to those standards feel inferior. It took a hit at their self-esteem, and it ended up doing more damage to something that was possibly already damaged.

    The praise for the small amount of people who reached “beyond the standards” was not worth the damage it caused for the greater amount of people who felt insecure about not meeting those standards.

    “Lotsa bitter thoughts today, huh Zitao?” he thought to himself, causing a small, but humorless, smile to form on his lips, “not that I can blame myself, this whole thing just isn’t worth it. Might as well try to stave off boredom in some way, thinking in long rambling streams is a way to do it. Talking to myself, eh maybe not so much.”

Again wanting to sigh, Tao just looked straight ahead, trying to come up with ways to distract himself while also trying to tune out the senseless droning that anyone who stepped up to the podium would do. Sleep had long since not been an option, the chairs being ridiculously uncomfortable with the bright lights making this place a less than ideal setting to take a nap. He tried counting the tiles on the ceiling or trying to plan out a project he had been wanting to draw, but it all failed to keep him distracted.

The lights were burning his eyes, the chair was uncomfortable and his tall stature wasn’t helping, he felt hot, the cap was itchy, and he kept fidgeting a bit. Bouncing his leg, twisting his fingers around the fabric of the robe, tapping, Tao just felt like he could not sit still. He knew, for a fact, that he was annoying the people around him, but Tao felt like he was beyond the point of caring too much. He just wanted this damn thing to be over with. So he kept trying to come up with ways to distract himself and make the experience more tolerable. Occasionally, he would let his conscience tap back in to reality, only to hear the speeches done by one of the various valedictorians of his school (which, for the record, he still didn’t understand. He was pretty sure there was only supposed to be one, but then again the school was full of try-hards so it kinda made sense in its own weird way). He didn’t know how long this went on for (so, he supposed he succeeded in distracting himself? Sorta?), but when he heard the principal again, he almost felt like crying tears of relief.

“-names are called, please come up to receive your diplomas.”

Now alert, Tao waiting in anticipation for his name to be called. This was a signal that the entire ordeal was coming to an end, and even though there were plenty of people after his name, he was relieved to know that this was at least the homestretch. The torture if this whole damn thing was finally approaching its end.

Finally, as he was waiting in line, Tao saw as he slowly approached the beginning where he would receive that stupid piece of paper that the whole useless ceremony was over with.

“Huang Zitao,” the principal said, and Tao walked up, taking the diploma and shaking his hand, “congratulations.”

Tao gave the man a smile, even though he had completely butchered his name even though he had personally approached Tao to know how it was pronounced, “Thank you sir.”

Walking down the steps, Tao briskly made it back to his seat, briefly pausing for the mandatory photo of him walking back. Knowing that that photo was going to be pretty terrible, Tao cringed before he finally made it to his seat, waiting for the rest of his class. Again, he began the game of trying to distract himself, but this time it was bit easier since he knew that the end was steadily getting closer.

He watched as students slowly made it back, and when he saw Ben come to the podium to give the final speech where they would switch their tassels, Tao felt the happiest he had been during the entire day. The speech was something he only half-listened to, but he was at full attention when the cue came for the tassels to change.

“-and with this, we say goodbye to our time in high school and enter our careers as college students,” Ben said, smiling as he closed out his speech, “congratulations to each and everyone of us, we made it.”

And with that, everyone broke out into cheers. Families in the bleachers were hollering and clapping, some throwing whistles or even airhorns. Teachers and staff members were more subdued, clapping but with wide smiles on their faces.And the students?

As soon as Ben said his last words, the students all stood up and immediately threw their caps into the air. Despite hating the entire thing, he couldn’t help but throw his cap with the rest of them. He may have never wanted to see some of these people ever again, but he did make it through the Hell of High school. He deserved some form celebration before the one he would definitely have with his family later.

    Looking up so as to make sure he didn’t end up smacking himself with the corner of the cap, Tao threw it into the air as high as he could, smiling as he finally felt closure. He had made it.

------------------------------------------------------------

“So, how’s it feel being free of the grind that is high school?” Tao’s mother asked, turning around in the passenger seat to look at her youngest.

“It feels great,” Tao instantly replied, “and I also feel like I want to sleep for a decade.”

Rose laughed in her seat next to him, reaching over to ruffle her brother’s hair, “Yeah I remember that feeling. After dinner, the rest of the night is all to yourself.”

“What’re we having tonight anyway?” Tao asked, curious as to what his parents had planned.

“Well, I was wondering if you had any ideas,” his dad replied, which made Tao smile at the familiar routine that came with any question asking about dinner.

“We decided to go out for dimsum if that’s alright with you,” his mom quickly cut in, obviously not really willing to let the usual banter that came from this topic begin.

“I’m always good for dimsum Mom, how dare you assume otherwise,” Tao fired back just as quickly.

“Good, because I’m not sure what we would’ve done if you had said no,” a laugh followed the statement, “we didn’t really have anything planned as backup.”

“That’s unlike you two,” Rose said, her eyebrow raised as she looked at her parents.

“It happens, can’t always plan everything,” was the casual reply, which caused Tao and Rose to both nod in agreement because yeah they couldn’t argue with that.

The rest of the ride was unknown to