Not like the movies??

By Jazmine H

When I was younger, I loved watching movies on Disney and Nickelodeon. Many of those movies would describe what high school was supposed to be: fun dances, events filled with school spirit, passing all your classes, making a bunch of friends and endless memories.

Like many other kids, I believed that's how it was gonna be. I would spend hours dreaming about how much fun and freedom I would have in high school.

Once my freshman year started, I quickly realized high school was not gonna be like the movies. They never showed kids having to learn online, isolated from the rest of the world. One of the main things keeping me going through distance learning was the phrase “there's always next year.” I would constantly say “next year, it will be just like the movies.”

But next year was not like the movies.

Instead of getting to high school with a ton of friends, I showed up with social anxiety and was too scared to even talk to my teachers. Instead of having perfect grades, all I had were F’s. To top it all off, I couldn't reach out to my family because I would be told to do better. I had to go through all of it alone.

Eventually things did start to get better. I managed to make friends, I attended the school events and actually started to have fun. Being in my 3rd and 6th period classes made me think, “Maybe high school is like the movies.”

I quickly got rid of that thought when finals week rolled around however, and I was physically crying myself to sleep every night due to stress. I couldn't wait for it to be over.

After finals week, things just kept going downhill. I gave up on multiple subjects and just did the bare minimum. I stopped going above and beyond to try to get the best grade possible. I was basically just burnt out.

I ended my sophomore year with a D- and an F in two subjects, making me take summer school, leading to even more stress. My body physically wasn't able to take it.

I stopped hoping next year would be like the movies. I just started to hope next year wouldn't be as bad as the previous year. My life was slowly becoming its own movie, but it wasn't one that would be shown on Disney or Nickelodeon.

Surprisingly,once junior year started things did get better, I loved my schedule, I liked most of my teachers. I was getting a lot better at talking to people and made a lot more friends. I even decided to take a position where I felt like I was in charge. I went to even more school events, and all around was a lot happier.

It wasn't all perfect though. I still had times where the stress got to me and I ended up breaking down, but I was confident enough to reach out to people and ask for help when I needed it.

Despite high school not being what I thought it would be, I wouldn’t change my experience for anything. The hardships made me cherish and enjoy the good times a lot more.

Something I used to hear that best describes what goes on in my mind after a bad day is “you can’t have a rainbow without a little bit of rain.”

For the Warrior Times, this is Jazmine Heredia.