My advice:

Take a nap.

Here, Here! 13 Years Of Perfect Attendance., by , The Washington Post via Yahoo!.

. . . Stefanie Zaner, Iron Kid of Darnestown, is closing in on her 2,340th straight day of public school. The 18-year-old is unlikely to get the standing ovation afforded Ripken for his streak when she arrives at Northwest High School on Friday for the last day of senior classes in Montgomery County. But hers is a rare accomplishment. Not once in 13 years was Stefanie marked absent: not for a cold, a family vacation, a college visit or a senior skip day. She once went on a freshman trip to Shanghai with the school marching band and boarded the plane with her clarinet only after securing written assurance from the principal that the trip would not count as an absence. She has never broken a bone, thrown up or caught the flu or even a bad cough, she said. "There were days in high school when I thought she was too tired to get up," said Debbie Zaner, Stefanie's mother. "But by high school, it was up to her. It wasn't up to me." . . .

In five years, no one will care that you missed no days of school and got straight As. Furthermore, college visits are way more important than attending class during your second semester of your senior year.

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High School? Hmm...

Inspired by one of my pals since kindergarten, I figured I would reflect on a seminal time that has shaped my current existence, for better or for worse. You can play along at home, if you like.

But first, my favorite news article of the day. From the Los Angeles Times Calendar: "Revisionist history with an acute vision: ‘Mirror’ shows a Europe conquered by invaders from the Americas". By Cindy Chang. Read it while you can. An LA Times subscription might be necessary later.

"[Ecuadorean artist Eduardo Villacis] proposes this alternate history in a mock museum exhibit that documents the conquest of Europe by the Aztecs through an array of fake artifacts and explanatory captions written in the simplistic, knowing tone of museumspeak. This is what Mexican schoolchildren might have seen on a field trip to the local museum had their Aztec ancestors colonized Europe, instead of the other way around.

In this world, there are no more Christians, leaving modern-day Amexicans to speculate about what god the natives of "U-rop" might have worshipped. "Entglitcz" is a lost language and Shakespeare completely forgotten. The Aztecs are just as cruel in victory as the Europeans were, enslaving the natives to build new cities on top of the ones they have destroyed."

Now back to the fun!

Fill this out about your YEARS of high school! The longer ago it was, the more fun the answers will be.

1. Who was your best friend?
Ava, Vanessa, and sometimes Shannon.

2. What sports did you play?
Soccer during my senior year. Cheerleading in tenth grade. Dance and horseback riding tenth through twelfth.

3. What kind of car did you drive?
None. I got my licenses--St. Thomas and California, respectively--in college.

4. It's Friday night, where were you?
Either at the movies with my friends, or at home watching Boy Meets World.

5. Were you a party animal?
Nope.

6. Were you considered a flirt?
Not even.

7. Ever skip school?
On Senior Skip Day. And even then, I came in for AP Economics.

8. Were you a nerd?
Yes. Expounding on this point is unnecessary

9. Did you get suspended/expelled?
For what? Like I ever did anything wrong.

10. Did you attend the Rally's?
The pep rallies? There wasn't really a choice not to. You could hide in the bushes if you wanted to hide your school spirit, but our school wasn't big enough for someone to go unnoticed for long. If you meant the fast-food place Rally's, we didn't have those on St. Thomas. We still don't.

11. Who was your Favorite teacher(s)?
Ooh. This is hard. I liked my history teacher in eighth grade, and my health teacher from seventh through twelfth.

12. Favorite class?
Tough one again. My least favorite class was AP Chemistry. What a cruel joke. Second-runner up: American History taught by a conservative Republican. I often wonder what happened to him, and how he feels about his party now.

13. What was your school's full name?
The Bayside School.

14. School mascot?
Dolphin.

15. Did you go to Prom?
Yes, both of them.

16. If you could go back and do it over, would you?
No. I have other things to do with my life. Like saving the world.

17. What do you remember most about graduation?
My salutatorian speech. Then being shown up by Shannon, yet again, with her tearjerking, manipulative valedictorian speech. Oh, and the 20+ people who showed up to cheer specifically for me. That was shocking.

18. Who was your high school sweetheart?
I never had none. And I'm still not getting any.

19. Where were you on senior skip day?
At home. I didn't feel like going to the beach with everyone. Then I went to school, as I mentioned in number 7.

20. Did you have a job your Senior year?
Nope. I had plenty of activities and international travel to keep me busy.

21. Where did you go most often for lunch?
I had Quiz Bowl practice during lunch.

23. What did you do after graduation?
I spent the summer working for a day care center, being let go from said day care, then working at the concession stand of the movie theater, until I left in August to start college in LA.

24. When did you graduate?
1999

25. Who was your Senior prom date?
I went with my friends.

26. Are you going to your 10yr class reunion?
Yes. I am.

27. Who was your home room teacher?...
We had a different one every year.

28. Who did you go to Sadie Hawkins with ?
What an outdated concept. If you want to go with some guy to a dance, then ask him. Who is this Sadie person anyway? To answer the question, we never had any Hawkins dances.

29. Who did you go to Snowball with ?
Snowball? It doesn't get below 60 on St. Thomas.

30. Who did you not like?
I'm not going to name names. But there were some people who were mean to me. Most people were nice, though, even if they never completely understood my quirky nature. And it's whom.

31. Who was your all time crush?
We don't need to talk about that. Though I will say that I did have crushes on at least seven guys during my four years of upper school. That was nothing compared to my raging hormones in middle school. At least eight crushes in those two years. The most serious crush waxed and waned from seventh to ninth grade. That's all I'm going to say about that.

Feel free to share your own musings about high school. Keep it clean, people.