Freshman Fantasy Meets High School Reality
Feature Writer:
Kimberly Canter, 14
New York
"High school will be the best four years of your life." "Once you get to high school, everything's going to be great." "Your teen years are going to be so much fun."
Sometimes, I can't help but wonder what kind of an ignorant fool came up with these sayings. Throughout my childhood, I was told how wonderful and amazing high school would be. It became some form of a holy image; an exclusive club of cool, smiling teens that my friends and I gossiped about but would never reach. The teachers treat you like people, there are parties all the time and everyone goes, all the seniors are cute and amazingly single-the list of myths seemed never ending. I, for one, was so anxious to arrive at high school that it seemed like September could not come soon enough.
Suddenly, the first day came and I found myself thrown into a completely new and overwhelming world. Yes, the teachers did treat us more like humans, but the lectures were so boring and the homework so plentiful I had no time to appreciate this. Sure there were parties, but it's not like lowly freshmen were invited and, if we were, we wouldn't have had fun. Sorry, but drugs and drinking are not my thing. And the cute single seniors? I doubt they even knew what a freshman was.
I was a little disappointed, but I decided that once I got past the initial shock of this whole new world, it would be all that everyone promised. However, after the first few weeks, I was even more discouraged. Besides the fact that I was practically failing out of math alongside the rest of my class (apparently the middle school hadn't "prepared us well" for an honors course), I was swamped in work, bored in classes, and utterly disgusted by the cockroaches living in the gym locker room.
What had happened to the perfect high school I had dreamed about? The amazingly sweet boyfriend and the fun nights out with friends? Apparently, they were about as attainable as the pony I had dreamed of as a little girl.
Instead of the legendary school spirit I had hoped for, I found my friends and I squished in a corner of the gym during pep rallies, too young to drive home and thus being subject to the mocking of the "upperclassmen" and desperate attempts to rally cheers for our football team. This task might have been a bit easier if the team had actually won a game or two since 1970.
Instead of the perfect dates my best friends and I had been sure would magically appear each weekend, we found ourselves sitting on each others couches watching movies and eating junk food, just as we always had.
Our dreams of being the first freshman to be voted Homecoming Queen were quickly replaced by dreams of making it to fourth period in the mobile classrooms without slipping down the icy stairs. Each day seemed to bring new evidence that this place really might not be heaven on earth, but just another building in which I would spend the majority of the next four years.
Disappointed as I was, the year continues to fly by, gaining speed as the months have passed. Slowly, but surely, I have adjusted to this unfamiliar land and even find a few things that I like about it. Sure, it wasn't the dream world I had hoped for, but then again, I'm "only a freshman." I'm stuck here for another three years, whether I like it or not, and who knows? Maybe I'll even end up loving it here so much that I too will tell my children how wonderful my high school years were, and how they're going to be "the best four years of your life."
Guidance for Grownups
Go to our new Guidance for Grownups section for special activities and tips on this feature!
|
 |
 |
|
Check out the bulletin boards and see what other teens are saying!
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Like what you see at TeenVoices. com? Send in your writing or artwork and you could be published in Teen Voices or TeenVoices.
com!
|
|
