While high school is nothing mystical like the stories that come after the words “Once upon a time,” it is still a phase of a person’s life that most go through and should try to reflect on to learn. A school is a place of learning and high school is definitely a lesson in more than just English, Math, Science, and Social Studies.
Now, I could just go on about classes that I regret taking or absolutely look upon with disdain or how hard it was to be a homosexual male in high school, but I choose to talk about the lovely experiences. I choose to talk about success because this world we live in has enough negatives. I choose to be a light in the darkness.
In middle school, someone I talked to told me that they were jealous of me because I was so sure of myself and acted myself, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth about me. High school has definitely allowed me to learn more about myself and the psychology of others around me. I have grown, I have changed, I have more social grace than I had before and I know certain situations in which I don’t talk in certain ways.
My one recommendation is to attend at least one homecoming. It may not be the easiest thing for all because some are not socially or economically stable, but do it. Try to attend because even if it isn’t your “thing,” it may be the last. Even though not all of us believe in the “high school experience,” there are certain things that will only happen in high school, and you will regret not participating.
I lied because I may have one or two other things that I recommend. Try to take spirit weeks more seriously, or participate in spirit somehow. Even if it is some internet trend that you think is dumb, try to participate. Getting to know one’s peers is so important, and being familiar with them even more. It makes group projects and teamwork so much easier and way better.
On the idea of spirit, go to at least one home game and go to a Homecoming game if possible. You may not care about football, but it is fun to cheer on classmates or even your high school crush (yes, I had a crush on a football player, so original). It is fun to join other classmates cheering on our home team. As best said by Shia LaBeouf, “Just do it.”
I can recall my first homecoming, my first pep rally and my first football game I attended as a high school student. As a socially awkward young adult, these may have been few and far between, but no less impactful. I can recall my first Journalism banquet, my first time folding papers, my first article and my first time stepping into the computer lab in the library where my first period Journalism class was held. I can recall my clumsiness with my backpack knocking over the phone in the computer lab leading to me talking and becoming friends with 2018 graduate Rachel Casper.
I can remember singing “Soul Man” for my first spring concert in the high school choral department.
Now as a senior, I can still feel the rush of dancing the first dance that I had choreographed at the last live concert I will perform at Penn-Trafford High School. I can still recall that feeling of perfectly folded newspapers from all the times I folded and distributed those papers to teachers’ mailboxes.
I honestly miss certain aspects of high school already, and I haven’t even graduated yet. I miss confiding gossip and my personal opinions with teachers I had become good friends with. I miss those moments when fellow students would break out into song while studying or doing work. One of the most memorable being Julia Vislosky periodically practicing “I Need a Hero” during second period Forensics 1 class for her role in the spring musical, “Footloose.”
This may have ended up longer if I decided to add all the negative moments from high school, but I would rather sum up my entire high school experience as like Elphaba and Glinda’s developing relationship in the book and musical, “Wicked.”
With that, I say, “I can’t say that I have been changed for the better, but I can say that I have been changed for good.”
Erych Frankenfield, Managing Editor