As a 2010 high school graduate, I am the future of the country.

Everything depends on me, from repaying the national debt to solving the energy crisis to reviving the fine arts. I’m sent off into the world with encouragement and a little push. My teachers want me to believe I’m ready. But for all that encouragement, “prepared” isn’t exactly the word that best describes how I feel.

I’d like to feel ready. I’d like to be able to say that high school has been exactly what educators want it to be: a “solid academic foundation for the future,” a time to “set goals” so that I can “graduate as an effective citizen.” But high school hasn’t been that. The struggle to learn how to survive high school, not the classes I took or the goals I set, defined my last four years.

I can say with absolute certainty that I have mastered high school chemistry. But at the end of it, what is there to say except, “So what?” High school chemistry will soon be overshadowed by college chemistry, as will calculus and U.S. history.

Did I really just spend four years of my life working hard to get into a university that will only make me retake the most difficult classes? The thought puts quite a damper on my bravado. I find myself asking, “What was the point?”

Luckily, I’ve discovered there is a point. Growing up has made me realize there was something I learned from high school, even if it wasn’t chemistry or calculus. I learned how to be a human — how to have fun, secure friendships, manage my time, and, most importantly, how to learn.

That’s right. I just said the most important thing I ever learned in high school was learning how to learn.

The more classes I took, the more apparent it was that getting As wasn’t about being smarter. It was about knowing how to read between the lines of the textbook, how to hear what the teacher isn’t saying, and how to make the project specifications bend to what I want to do instead of the other way around. And unlike high school world history, those are skills I can use long after I graduate.

So what about all that chemistry? I learned it is a vehicle for teaching me something really important. It was never about chemistry; it was only a way to keep me from getting bored while they taught me something real. It’s only now that I realize my education is only beginning.

Now that really does put a damper on my bravado.

Isaac Reynolds is a 2010 Redmond High School graduate who will be attending the University of Washington in the fall.