People towering above. The scent of sweat lingering. A maze of hallways. It’s high school: a concept made of dreams, but the reality quickly quiets those dreams. Where are the social hierarchies, the intense drama, and the popularity contests? People have many expectations about high school, but it is actually a far cry from the favorite childhood movies.
Over the years, Hollywood has established the image of high school as being a drama infested center with cliques, the stereotypical football player and cheerleader romance, and backstabbing friends where no learning whatsoever actually takes place. Just think about “Mean Girls,” “Clueless,” and “High School Musical;” high school is nothing like what these movies portray it as. While students might not necessarily believe the image that Hollywood shows is completely accurate, society is conditioned to expect certain things about high school that aren’t true.
“I expected it to be very strict with lots of homework and no free time,” Lincoln East freshman Kayla Wischhof said. “I thought that I would get trampled in the hall. I also thought the classes would be a lot harder.”
In reality, high school is just an extension of middle school but with more people, more classes, and gradually more responsibilities. Incoming freshmen oftentimes have the perception that high school is drastically different from what they know school to be, and quickly realize that it’s far more similar than different.
“I was surprised by how easily I found my classes and got into a routine,” Wischhof said. “I had about the same amount of homework that I had in middle school, so that was also surprising to me. And nobody actually trampled me like I thought. Something I wasn’t surprised by is that the food was still bad.”
In addition to the everyday experience of high school, students also have high hopes that high school is a time where drastic personal growth occurs and a lot will be accomplished.
“I think that by the time I leave East, I will have a wider variety of friends,” Wischhof said. “I will have completed a lot of different classes that were not offered to me before high school. I also think I will be more outspoken because as I meet new people and take different classes, it’ll push me out of my comfort zone which will help me be more confident in how outward I am.”
Regardless of freshmen hopes, high school does not guarantee growth or accomplishing things. It’s up to the individual to make it happen. There are many seniors who are disappointed with their high school experience, however, there are also many who are satisfied. Ky Frederick, a senior at Lincoln East, feels the latter.
“I really expected to have a lot of friends, and so I’m happy that I was able to talk to and meet more people, as well as taking cool classes about stuff I’ve never learned before and being able to take those skills outside of school,” Frederick said. “I am happy with what I’ve accomplished and I think that it was more than what I expected as a freshman, especially junior year with how hard the classes were and how busy I was.”
From freshman to senior year, high school definitely brings a multitude of opportunities, challenges, and surprises. While it’s not what many expected it to be coming in, it is a place to learn, meet people, and discover passions, but it is up to the student to make the experience worthwhile.
