For me, high school was like any other period in my life: good times mixed with bad (although of course everything seemed SO much more dramatic at the time). I liked high school, but I definitely don't look back on it and think it was the best time of my life and wish I could go back. College was lots of fun and where I made some lifelong friends, but I'm also happy with my life now.
I don't idealize any particular part of my life and think it was the be-all, end-all but I do have fond memories of high school. I thought middle school was a bit more tumultuous than high school. High school had its fair share of dramatics, but there were so many more options available for me in high school than in middle school: more activities, more people (the middle school was medium sized but my high school was pretty big so it was entirely possible to go from one group of friends to another without missing a beat), and people with cars (meaning I wasn't 100% dependent on my parents to get places).
I liked high school because I liked my friends and I found stuff to do that I liked. In middle school, the extracurricular activities were mostly sports (which I suck at) and student government (which I had no interest in). In high school, there was a club for just about everything as well as school sponsored groups. I joined the dance team (and quit going to studio dance classes) - interestingly there was no dance option when I was in middle school, but thanks to the success of the dance program at our high school, all the middle schools in our district now have dance programs which I think is a great opportunity, especially for people who can't afford to take a lot of dance classes at studios. Because I joined several activities, I had a bunch of different groups of friends with almost no overlap between them so I didn't feel as hemmed in as I did in middle school where I was mostly friends with whoever was in my classes or on my bus.
High school brought my first serious relationship as well as my Jordan Catalano, so I definitely had some emotional highs and lows but it was good for me to learn a lot of that stuff when I was young.
I don't know that there was one specific day that I would say was my best day in high school. I know some people say graduation, but by that point I was so ready to move on that actually going to graduation was just kind of an obligation so that I could fulfill the rite of passage, have my family see me in my cap and gown, and then start the next part of my life. It's weird that I remember it that way because the video footage of me at Grad Nite shows me happy and having a good time, not scratching at the walls trying to get away.
I think that might be why I enjoyed high school, college, and my adult life - whether it's an hour, a day, or a year, I always figure if I'm here (wherever here may be), I might as well have fun, so let's find something interesting to do!
The weird thing is that because my high school was so big, there were lots of people who I never met. My entire senior year, most of my classes were full of people I didn't know. Aside from dance and choir (where people tended to stay once they got in), my academic classes usually had one person who I already knew beforehand. I think in my physics class, there were all of three people I knew before the class. Previous to that, I usually had a handful of friends in each class. Some people I actually met AT graduation because we were seated in alphabetical order. When I was in college, I came back for the holidays and was surprised when I ran into some classmates at the mall. When I say classmates, I mean that we graduated the same year but had never been friends or even spoken five words to each other. I was shocked that they even knew my name. Some of them I ended up being friends with briefly and then drifted out of touch after a few years, but it was so surreal to me to think that after four years of attending the same school, we didn't have a conversation or call each other on the phone until AFTER graduation.
Some of my favorite memories revolve around the shows we did for choir, dance, and drama. As much work as rehearsals could be (and they were a lot of work - rehearsals started months ahead of time and steadily increased in length and frequency until just before the shows so that the week before, we were usually practicing every day after school until late into the night), it was fun to see a group come together with a common purpose and create something together. As with any group of people, there were squabbles, drama, people who didn't get along, etc. but when it was showtime, everyone had the same goal: put on a good show and have fun doing it. We all wanted to make our friends, families, and each other proud of what we had done so all that petty crap got put aside for a few hours.
Aside from that, my favorite high school memories were all hanging out with my friends doing stupid stuff like ditching school to go to Denny's or the beach or making up silly lyrics while we were driving around. Even though my boyfriends were important in the grand scheme of Life Lessons, most of my best memories were with my friends just goofing off.