Chris M.
A while ago I didn’t have any real friends I connected with. I mean, there were people I liked, of course—but did I trust them? Did I feel good when I was around them? Did I bond with them?
Well, that’s what makes me so excited for high school: my last fresh start! The “real high school experience” with a giant public school in the city, after going to a Quaker school for a year (and an international school in China before that). There will finally be more than two or three social groups to choose from, and someone is bound to know that listening to Dark Side of the Moon while watching The Wizard of Oz on mute is totally a thing.
But I’m a little worried, and I think that worry was inflicted on me by the paranoid kids at my private school. They say that in public school:
- Everyone does drugs.
- I’ll get stabbed or shot.
- I’ll be lured into a gang.
- Bullying is EVERYWHERE.
- The academics suck.
- The teachers are underqualified and mean.
Obviously, this is totally ridiculous. I’ve attended public schools in the past, and I know that this snobby attitude is definitely not accurate and shouldn’t scare me.
On the other hand, though: I’ll be on my own. Not just because it’s a huge public school, but because it’s HIGH school. Nobody’s going to hold my hand through geometry like they did in algebra 1. I’ll get detention if I get lost and am late for class, and my grades will really matter.
Hopefully I’ll be able to keep up. But what if I can’t? ♦