1) Don't believe the "High School will be the best Years of your Life!" people
Who the crap are these people? High school wasn't even the best of my teen years, let alone my entire life!
Everything gets better after high school. Even if it gets temporarily worse at times, it is way better long-term to be an adult than to be in high school.
2) You will likely be a nervous wreck
Yes. I was, and not even for situational reasons. I was nervous because that was my temperament, and it just kinda settled in like that.
3) You will lose and make friends along the way.
True. Not just for high school, but for all stages in life. In high school, and even college, and even beyond that, most of your friendships will be proximity friendships. Meaning, you will be friends with each other because you're in the same place at the same time, and you enjoy each other's company, but it goes no deeper than that. If you make deep, long-lasting friendships in high school, that's really great for you, and you should cherish those friendships. But, if you don't, realize that it's not expected that you do.
5) Try to keep your things in your locker organized;
Ahaha I've struggled so much with that. Horrible memories.
6) If you're taking Gym (aka P.E, Physical Education) (which is practically mandatory
), keep Deodorant, and possibly a small bottle of Shampoo and bar of soap (I
highly recommend Tea Tree Oil Soap, as it will help with B.O. immensely) along with a quick change of clothes on hand if your Gym Change Rooms have Showers.
As a horribly uncoordinated kid, I hated gym, and yes, it was mandatory for all four years. I was fortunate enough to opt for swimming and golf for at least some of that, where I wasn't great but I could at least hold my own. All other forms of physical activity were totally disastrous for me.
But yes, personal hygiene. Make sure you shower regularly, shave (whatever you have to shave) regularly, use deodorant, dress properly and in clothes that fit, etc. A lot to remember, but make sure you take care of your hygiene every day.
- If you're into something, whether academic or otherwise, stay into it. There is a good chance that someone, somewhere along the line, will give you a hard time of it.
I don't give a rip about anyone from my high school, and they don't give a rip about me either. When did this start, you might ask? Pretty much the moment I graduated. So, don't bend over backwards caring about the opinions of people you will only know for a few short years of your long long life.
- Don't expect a great deal of understanding from anyone. This is as true of teachers and administrators as it is of the students. You already seem to have a measure of self-awareness. Develop that and get to know yourself even better.
Yep. Teachers and administrators are paid very little, treated with no respect, and they're all out of fs to give, as they say. Don't expect them to make any special effort to understand you just because, especially if they're some admin who doesn't know you from Adam. If it's your favorite teacher, then maybe they will try to understand you, but even favorites let us down sometimes.
- If you are the type who would like to have friends, (not implying that you don't already have them) then try to have them based on interests or shared sympathies and not an abstract concept of a social ladder.
Shared sympathies, definitely. Interests are certainly a good place to start. Social ladder, no way.
Things may have changed a lot since I was in school, but I don't think street fighting is her biggest concern here.
Perhaps I'm more out of touch than I realize though.
I know, right? I come from a working class background, and I never had to deal with any of this stuff to this extent. Y'all make it sound like you're from the ghetto.
People picking fights with me was a problem earlier on, but this tapered off significantly as I got older... and larger. I was always one of the smallest kids in my class, but when I graduated high school at 16 I was 6'2" and still growing fast. Maybe that had something to do with people not trying to fight me as much. Or maybe it had to do with me not letting myself get rattled by a few rowdy a-holes. When they saw they couldn't provoke me no matter how hard they tried, I guess they stopped trying.
Maybe it had something to do with the other students becoming more mature, but I'm not holding out any hope for that
Everyone's high school experience varies, depending on how "high up" the social ladder they are and such. My personal experience wasn't horrible, it was just OK. I guess I am lucky because some folks on here had traumatic expeirences in high school, with bullying and such. I only had one real friend, and he wasn't in all of my classes so I was pretty much alone. A few people did chat me up sometimes, but they weren't friends, just acquaintances. Other than that, I was mostly invisible, but that didn't really bug me because I wasn't thinking about the social part.
I had been bullied, a lot, and not only in physical ways. I was pretty unpopular as well. But overall, it wasn't that bad, because the bullies had no power over me, and because I'm not exactly a social butterfly to begin with.
High school was better than being at home for me. I was hardly a social butterfly, but took more beatings and more severe beatings at home than at school. Less mental abuse at school too. It wasn't all great, but you may find that school isn't the worst part of your life, keep an open mind and try to make the best of it.
I'm the same way.
There's an old joke that goes like this:
>I went on Facebook to see how my high school bully was doing. He's still married to my mom.
Except for many of us, it's not a joke.
[sigh]
In order to navigate the dating world as a 50 year-old male I'm obliged to try to make sense of women with years and years of experience in this field. Unfortunately they've used this experience to become ever more subtle with their non-verbal communication and hints. It's very difficult, but when I see teenagers who like each other interacting their signals are so very obvious to me now - of course they weren't when I was a teenager. I'm not trying to say that socializing will be easy in high school, but it's never going to get any easier without practice, and the signals you need to use for navigation won't get any more obvious than they are now.
I have this problem relating to social etiquette. So many questions. What am I supposed to bring to a party? If I'm having friends over, what should I do to prepare and make them feel comfortable? What about if people randomly stop over? So many different questions with different answers, and debatable answers depending on whom you ask, and they all revolve around:
1. What is acceptable?
2. What is expected?
3. Who does what, when?
And it all has to be seamless, or else you look like the biggest jerk in the world