For the past week, SparkNotes authors have been weighing in with their take on high school. Read what Kathryn Williams and Rupinder Gill have to say.
I'm gonna be honest: I hated middle school. It was the height of my awkwardness: I was sporting unmanageable curly hair, I had Sally Jesse Raphael-esque reading glasses, and I was that dance geek who arrived at school directly from performances of the Nutcracker wearing full stage makeup. Yeah. It was bad.
So I was pretty psyched about making the jump to high school. New people, new classes, new boys. But despite my excitement, I was also scared out of my perm. At the time, I obsessively wrote in a journal, like, every day twice a day at least 3 times a day. And guess what? I'm going to bare it all for you guys now so that you can A) realize you're not a total freak for worrying so much and B) see that your energy is better spent being jazzed about this new phase of life. Because the bottom line is that things usually turn out all right.
So, here it is: memoirs from my first week of high school (excerpted, because I wouldn't want to make you read the novel I actually wrote):
Sunday night, 11:14 pm: Crap, crap, crap! I can't fall asleep. Why can't I fall asleep? Tomorrow is my first day of high school and I'm going to oversleep and not hear my alarm and have to come running into the school late and then...oh my god. I don't even know where my first class is! How am I going to find my first class? That school is like a maze of grey and every classroom looks the same. Balls! I wonder if my outfit is going to look like I tried too hard? I mean, it's just a simple dress, but jeans look so bad on me (Author's Note: I had a serious high-water pants problem due to long legs.) What if someone else is wearing the exact same thing?! Oh my god. Why can't I fall asleep? Please, please, let me fall asleep. I wonder what the kids from the other middle schools will be like? Will there be tons of cute boys? What if I'm in classes with no one I know? What if my teachers hate me? What if I have to go to the bathroom and can't find it? What if I slip on a piece of gross cafeteria food and fall into the trash can? What if....(Author's Note: This entry goes on and on and on. At some point, I fell asleep.)
Monday, 4:00 pm: Well, all right, not at all as bad as I thought. I was definitely a bit tired, but I was at school a few minutes early and found my friends and we all filed in together. They had teachers standing in all the hallways ready to help you with your schedule. I did get lost a little bit, but my English teacher, Mr. Harris, didn't mind. He understood when I explained that the "A" wing looks exactly like the "B" wing. Oh. My. God. Cutest boy ever sits next to me in Science! Seriously, he's like a cross between Jared Leto and Jake Ryan from Sixteen Candles. Heart melting. Uhh, some other girl did have the same flower dress as me, but in a different color, so no bigs. Phew! I feel soooo much better than I did last night!
Monday, 9:30 pm: Crap I have to write a short essay about my greatest accomplishment and I have, like, pages of math problems and I have absolutely no idea what my greatest accomplishment is and I can't start writing and I don't remember how to do percentages and I'm never going to get to bed. Ok, what's my greatest accomplishment? Hmmm. Was it the time I sang a solo in the elementary school choir and hit every note? No, that's super nerdy. OK, how about when I came in first place in the regional dressage competition? Man, I am so lame, how did I never realize this before? Well, I'm going with dressage. Oh no, what if my Mr. Harris makes us read these OUTLOUD, NOOOOOOO! Oh god. I just realized that I forgot my locker number. And my locker combo. Did I write it down? I must've written it down somewhere....(Author's Note: At this point I searched every notebook page frantically).
Tuesday, 4:00 pm: We DID have to read them out loud! But I didn't have to go first. The poor guy who did kept sneezing, like he was allergic to being forced to read it. And I did forget where my locker was, but my locker partner is in my first class, so I surreptitiously followed her from a safe distance and arrived a few seconds after she did—and she had the locker open already, bonus! (Author's Note: I later found the combo written on the back of my schedule, duh!) So, my secret crush looked at me today!!! OK, I think he was really looking at the clock that's just above my head, but he glanced in my general direction. Swoon!
Wednesday, 2:15 pm: So, I'm in the middle of my first Study Hall. I must say: These. Are. Awesome. I literally get to sit and "work" for a full 50 minutes—but clearly I'm not doing schoolwork, even though I should because I am freakin' exhausted! I have been up late doing homework each night and talking on the phone to Sarah and Matt about their classes since we don't have any together and we have different lunch periods. Ugh, lunch. It's so weird. Everyone has found their "table" and wherever you were that first day, is sort of like, your set place. It's almost like assigned seats in class. Luckily, I sat with friends from middle school, but we're right next to a table of drama geeks who are super loud and draw attention to themselves by acting out scenes from the fall play The Crucible. I just try to eat quick, enjoy my PB Max, and get outta the cafeteria.
Wednesday, 8:47 pm: Tired. Must sleep. Can't focus on learning the conjugations for the French irregular subjunctive verbs. Will get up early.
Thursday, 4:00 pm: Well, I did not get up early. In fact, I overslept. And then I had to walk into class 11 minutes late and Mr. Harris was NOT understanding this time, cause, you know, obviously I wasn't lost. I was just late. Not good. Anyway, here's today's dilemma: do I try out for The Crucible? I know I called those kids drama geeks, but it might be fun and I'd meet other people. Or do I try out for poms? Or do I come up with my own club? I was thinking about a Seinfeld Club. The only requirement would be that you have to watch one episode each week and come prepared to discuss/analyze it. Maybe my World Cultures teacher would be our supervisor, she's [sic] seems pretty cool and has a good sense of humor. Am I seriously writing about one of my teacher's [sic] like she's my friend?
Friday, 2:15 pm: Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod. All right, quick catch-up. Cute boy in Science class is Aaron and he told me there's a party tonight at, get this, the 18th hole of the golf course! But it doesn't start until after dark, and my curfew is 10 o'clock. Do I A) Go for only a short time and hope that it makes me more attractive because I'll be mysterious, B) Not go at all cause it won't be worth it, or C) Go and tell mom and dad that I'm staying at Sarah's house tonight? Ooooh, I don't know! I've never done something like that. Nope. I'm not gonna lie (Author's Note: Did I mention I was sort of a goody-goody?) I'll go for a little bit and see what happens. I can't wait!!!
Friday, 10:03 pm: Uh, that was weird. It was a bunch of kids I didn't know and Aaron was there, but he was like, "Hey, what's up," and that was it! But I found a girl from my French class and we laughed about how bad our teacher's breath smells. And you know what? I made it through the first week, yippee!
You get the gist, Sparklers. It's scary at first, and then you get swept up in the stress and the fun. So what's keeping YOU up at night? Have you planned out what you're going to wear? Are you ready for high school? Share your deepest secrets in the comments.
Topics: School
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