Expectations vs. Reality: High School

By: Paola Valadez

Over elementary school and middle school, many people will say these exact words to you, “ You will have to wait until you are older.” And you are waiting to be in high school because you want to drive, go to mall with your friends without your parents, have parties, have jobs, and be as free as you can be. The reality is that you might be afraid to go behind the wheel, your parents might be too over protective to let you go to the mall with friends as well as to leave you to have parties. You probably will not have time to have a job or be free because you will have homework, extracurricular activities and have stuff to do at home.

This is the sad reality, I am not saying that you will not have time to have friends, but if you think you can be with them 24/7 and keep good grades, you are out of your mind. I blame High School Musical for setting our standards too high for high school.

I am writing this article from my perspective, it might be different for you, but if you go to a school like KIPP, what I am about to say is most likely pretty accurate.

You probably think lunch food will get better over the years- it doesn’t. Maybe you think that you will have all your classes with your boy/girlfriend, but there is a probability that you will not have classes with them. And remember those friends that you swore to always be friends with? You will probably stop talking with half of them. And there will be times that you will have to stay up until 3 am in the morning to complete your homework.

I hope I have not disappointed high school for you, but since I am telling you the bad stuff about it, I feel obligated to inform you about all the good things that come with it as well.

You will make life-lasting friends, and you will discover your passions. You will be asked by/or ask someone to homecoming and prom in the most special way you can think of. Yes, you probably will have melt downs from all the stress, but guess what? Everyone else feels that same way, and ya’ll will help each other with that. You will enter clubs and extracurricular activities like dance, math club, or cheerleading, and it will be one of the best experiences of your life.

I know that it seems like I wrote more about the negative side than the positive, but trust me, those positives will last with you so much longer than the negatives.