A true high school story is nothing like you were told as a kid. You were told, high school is the best years of your life! You were told, you are gonna make so many life long friends! You were told, you’re going to go to so many parties and do so many crazy things! You were told, you’re going to love high school and everything about it! What nobody told you was the truth. High school may be the best years of some people’s lives, but for others it’s the worst. Some students dread every morning going to the place the call hell, having to interact with a bunch of people they don’t like, and do a bunch of work they don’t care about!

A high school story may talk about the drama of students, the drama of the cheerleaders or the drama of the jocks. A high school story will say that everyone belongs in a certain clique. You belong with the music players. He belongs with the punk kids. She belongs with the dancers. Everyone belongs somewhere. In reality, in a true high school story, you don’t know where you belong. You barely know yourself. I don’t belong to any specific clique. I don’t belong to a friend group. In a true high school story, nobody belongs anywhere, but everyone belongs somewhere at the same time.

I am a lot of things. High school can classify me in a bunch of different categories. Some may say I belong with the athletes or the volleyball players or the softball players. Other say I belong with the nerds because I get good grades and take hard classes. People say I belong to a certain friend group or crowd. I say I belong to myself. A true high school story doesn’t have cliques and stereotypes, it just has people. It has students who are simply themselves. Students that are pursuing different passions, different people, different dreams.

In a high school story; teenagers are partying every week, getting drunk off their ass, high as can be, hooking up with as many people as they can. Teenagers are going wild, making trouble and making stories. They are doing irrational, idiotic things. In a true high school story, none of that partying s*** happens. Yes, teenagers party every once in awhile. They go to a concert every once in awhile. They drink every once in awhile. They do something crazy and irrational every once in awhile. Usually they are hanging out with the same three friends they have had since middle school, watching movies and eating.

A true high school story is nothing extraordinary. Nothing insane. Nothing crazy. It’s just average kids living an average life. They go to school, come home and do their work and go to bed. Some go to school, go to a sport, do homework, sleep. And it repeats on like that everyday of the week.

In a true high school story, school events are not as fun and hyped up as they were said to be. Football games, for example, are fun but they are also extremely boring. You get tired, cold, and simply just want to sit.

In a high school story, everyone is stress free and loves high school and life. They are perfectly healthy mentally and physically.  In a true high school story, everyone is as stressed as can be and can’t wait for high school to be over to get out of the s***ty little town we live in. Kids have a lot of stressors. School, homework, studying, sports teams, work, volunteer jobs, family, social life (friends/ boyfriends/ girlfriends), along with other responsibilities. Kids have troubles to face like family issues, health issues and others. Kids are racing to get out of high school and start the next chapter of their life in college. Kids don’t love high school and they definitely do not see it as the “best years” of their lives.

A high school story that is true is quite boring. It’s a sixteen year old girl, staying home on a saturday night doing homework, watching Disney movies, and eating ice cream. She gets invited out to different things with different friends. She’s “popular” but her life is average. She has many struggles in life and doesn’t care too much about being crazy and stupid. A true high school story is not about the what is going on tonight, what party is tomorrow; It’s about surviving the right now. And that sixteen year old popular girl stays home on a saturday night because she needs her time to rest and relax from her responsibilities. She stays home because she thinks she has no friends and is alone even though she has been told she’s popular and loved. She stays home because she simply doesn’t care. She stays home because she’s physically exhausted and mentally drained from dealing with school and all the fakes in it.

Fake smiles, fake friends, fake “hello’s,” fake people, fake reputations, just simply fake. High school is fake. People pretend to care and like one another when in reality no one gives a s*** that your grandma just died or that you were in the hospital for two weeks. In school everyone is nice and polite, but as soon as you walk away nothing but false rumors and accusations come out of that person’s mouth about. That’s why everyone wants to leave this hell hole.

A true high school story shows how all the people who claim to not care so much about what people think and their reputation, are the ones who care the most. People claim to not care about not being invited places of not being friends with a certain group… but they really do. They cry at night thinking of why they aren’t good enough to be popular, to be loved by him or her, to have friends. People care.

A true high school story, love is created and broken in a time where we are growing the most. New relationships start old, ones end. You meet new people and forget old ones, but you never fully forget. Heart break is hard and you cry and cry and cry, over and over, for the same guy or girl that f***ed you over. High school is all about being broken hearted, moving on, and growing up.

A true high school story is not typical. It is not happy. It is nothing special. It is just teenagers living, breathing, eating, and making their way through this horrifying thing we call life. A true high school story is surviving.