Advice: High School Experiences
Don’t let social drama be a distraction
“I think that in high school it’s best to just keep to yourself and not get caught up in other people’s drama, because if you get caught up in that, it will get in the way of your schoolwork. If you’re really involved in someone else’s life and what’s going on with that person, then you have no time to do your homework or study. If focusing on gossip is all you want to do in high school, that’s not going to get you anywhere.”
Featured: Not free to be herself in high school
“I thought I loved high school. I would have told anyone that I was incredibly happy and that every day of high school was the greatest day of my life. I didn’t realize until I went to college that I hated high school. This surprised me, realizing that I had been really unhappy. I had been unhappy because I had created this persona for myself and had become so locked in to being the way people saw me instead of being who I was.”
Supportive teachers helped through hard times
“My home life during high school was difficult because my parents got divorced right before my freshman year. After only knowing life with my family together, I all of a sudden felt on my own and like I needed to take care of myself, in addition to getting an education, playing sports, and doing everything else I wanted to do. I latched on to some teachers, authority figures who I could trust and model myself after.”
Don’t waste time worrying what others think of you
“I sometimes found myself worrying too much about what other people thought of me, and it really wasn’t helpful. The more I worried about my social life, the worse my grades were. You shouldn’t care about how people view you in high school because in four years you’ll be out of the school and probably even out of the town your school was in. That social stuff really won’t matter anymore.”
— in Don’t waste time caring about what other people think of you
Tough time moving from school to school
“High school was kind of a joke to me. I didn’t even want to go. My family moved around a lot and it was hard for me to settle in to one place and make friends. I’d make friends and then we’d move, so I kind of gave up on school. I actually dropped out for a while, and I was working for my uncle doing construction, making like six dollars an hour. I didn’t see myself having much of a future in that, so I went back to a couple more schools and finally finished. Then I was like, ‘Uh oh, now what do I do?’”
Editor’s Pick: Losing her father and leaving school
“My dad died in 2008 and I dropped out of high school my junior year for about three or four months. I just went to work full-time to keep my thoughts away from school and my dad’s death. I didn’t want to go to school because I didn’t want to be faced with the questions about why I hadn’t been in school. It was embarrassing to me. I let my teachers down, I let my mom down; I let a lot of people down. Finally during my senior year I realized that this is not a game; this is real life and I have to support myself. What could I do without an education?”
Our Picks in High School Experiences
Editor’s Pick: Losing her father and leaving school
“My dad died in 2008 and I dropped out of high school my junior year for about three or four months. I just went to work full-time to keep my thoughts away from school and my dad’s death. I didn’t want to go to school because I didn’t want to be faced with the questions about why I hadn’t been in school. It was embarrassing to me. I let my teachers down, I let my mom down; I let a lot of people down. Finally during my senior year I realized that this is not a game; this is real life and I have to support myself. What could I do without an education?”
