"You wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down" 

 - Toni Morrison

This is one of my favorite quotes. I actually had no idea that this is the way it's worded, and please excuse the bad language. I guess the only reason why this quote is my favorite is because it's completely true. After getting through about a year and a half of high school, I started dating Hunter. As we started getting more and more serious, he started choosing to hang out with me over his friends. It was obvious that some of his friends weren't getting anywhere in life. Sometimes I felt guilty about him hanging out with me all the time, but he simply told me that those "bad" friends weren't going to get him through college, weren't going to help him get a job, and weren't going to help make him successful. He said hanging out with me was important because I was going to do all of those things (he still talked to his "good" friends and has made more since he's been in college.) I'm now in my senior year of high school, and have found his reasoning to be completely true. Some of the friends that I'd had since the beginning of high school were starting to have a negative impact on me. They were either completely fake, talking about me behind my back, or just headed in the wrong direction. Being friends with them wasn't doing anything good for my life. I was going to be the one to go to college, have a job, and get good grades. I've given up tons of friends and free time because I need to be successful. Ever since I've "given up the shit that weighs me down" I've gotten better grades, kept my job, applied to colleges, and made new, better friends. The friends that I have now are going to help me through the next few years of my life. They aren't weighing me down.