Graduation - the Beginning of the Real Life?

As a child, I never really thought about life; I knew I was alive and I was thinking that life would always be that way. I didn't have a lot of trouble, I was just having fun with other children, everyone around me was happy and no one seemed to have any problem that was more serious than losing a toy at the playground. 
That was until I went to elementary school. I had really been looking forward to going to school, being one of the "big kids" who know a lot of things. I hated elementary from the first day on. I hated having to spend time at school on things I already knew. There were quite a few interesting things we learned at elementary school though and that were the days when I came home and was simply happy. I spent my whole time at elementary thinking that life would be better once I'm done with school because working couldn't be worse than this, could it?
When the time had come for me to go to fifth grade, to another school, I was really excited. The holidays didn't seem to go by and my pleasant anticipation grew with every day. Then, when the holidays were finally over, secondary school turned out to be even worse than elementary. My new classmates seemed to hate me, I didn't have that one class teacher that held most lessons but for each subject I got a different teacher. And the surprise tests started. We hadn't had any surprise tests at elementary. We had known exactly when the next test would be. But in secondary, that calming feeling of security was simply wiped out. So I spent years at secondary, wondering how long it would take to get to 11th grade and finally being able to decide what I want to learn. During this period of my life, I thought that the real life would begin once I'll have retired in about half a century. To me, "life" meant to be able to do whatever I want to with the time I have. I can't remember the time before I went to kindergarten. So my real life would come when I'm old. 
11th grade came just as fifth grade has come; I was excited, I couldn't wait to finally be allowed to choose the subjects I want to take. Well, there wasn't much to choose; out of 14ish subjects I used to have, I had to pick 10, but there were strict rules concerning what can be chosen in which combinations. So in the end I was stuck with 4 subjects I absolutely hated, 2 I didn't care about and 4 I actually wanted. Turned out later that one of the subjects I wanted simply wasn't a good choice, but it's fine, I hate it but I'll get through it. In a good two weeks I'll never have to worry about it anymore, so that's great. I just remembered the saying on our graduation pullovers; it says "start life", as if life would start right after graduation. But if my life starts in a few weeks, what has this all been? What has all the time spent laughing, crying, dreaming, creating.. what has this all been if not life? It won't magically get better. We won't be happier just because we graduated. Life won't get easier. Life won't simply begin after graduation. It'll be different of course, it'll be difficult, it'll be easier at times. But we've already experienced major changes in our lives, so that's not a concept that's new to us.
Nevertheless, there's a bit of truth in this saying; it'll be the first major decision that only we alone can make. We'll decide where to go, how to get there and at which pace. We'll decide on our occupation, whether we want to study or do an internship first. We will have the power to decide, on our own, what we'll turn our life into. May it be getting famous, earning lots of money or doing what we really want to do against all odds - it will be us who decide.