By ABBI CLOUSER & CARTER BRAZZELL
Sheridan High School Students
Editor’s Note: The Sheridan Student Column is brought to readers by Sheridan High School’s 10th grade English class, taught by Abby Williams.
Abbi Clouser
I have gotten good grades my entire life, so high school hasn’t been very hard academically for me. Emotionally, though, high school has been a wreck. I have had many bad experiences with people in my school. I am not one that likes to be around drama, so it’s amazing how much drama enters my life.
Now, this isn’t to say that students at Sheridan High School are mean, because they aren’t. Sometimes though, people and teachers don’t realize how much their decisions are affecting you. I stress myself out by constantly caring what people think, even though in reality, nobody really cares.
Sometimes I feel alone because I hang out around such diverse people that I think nobody can truly be just like me. During my life I have always heard people say, “Your friends in high school won’t be the friends that you have in the future.” Now, this may be true, but often people forget the effect that our friends in high school have on us. Your friends help to shape you as a person, so when you are in high school, that is the most crucial time for having friends. I think that a lot of adults don’t realize that sometimes, high school just sucks.
That isn’t even in the sense of having to get up early and go learn for seven hours. It’s being around people who aren’t like you and people who don’t care as much as you do. Sometimes it can be very hard to learn in a class because there are some students who get it instantly and some who take a little longer to understand. This can be challenging for all students because none of us learn the same and a lot of us want to learn about different things.
The struggle in high school is wanting to fit in, but knowing that you won’t fit in completely because everybody is different. High school is great for learning about diversity and discovering who you really are, but it can be challenging to learn who you are when those around you want you to act a certain way.
I think that everybody should have the experience of going to high school because it helps you to learn who you truly are and it helps you to experience the adult reality: Not everybody is going to be your friend, but you have to learn how to get along with those who aren’t the same as you.
Carter Brazzell
So far in high school, it hasn’t required a whole lot of effort on my part. This can be really helpful in some ways, by giving me more free time, but it has also hurt me by lowering my motivation to do things that I don’t find enjoyable. If I’m required to do something I’m not interested in, I usually avoid it until the last possible moment. If there’s a class I’m not fond of, which is rare, I find myself not putting forth my maximum effort to do well in that class. This has caused a lot of unnecessary stress in my life.
In the past six months or so, I’ve found out that my friends often care about what I do more than I do myself. They always remind me to do my work, they offer help if I’m struggling, and they just generally support me with everything I do.
Recently, I’ve become more open with my friends, which has made me a happier person. In this last semester of school, I’ve made more friends than I ever have in high school. I’ve become closer with some of my friends from childhood, and I’ve made some completely new and unlikely friends.
However, becoming more involved with people at my school has also made it easier for there to be drama in my life. The more people I’m around, the more complicated things can often become.
Sometimes I feel as though every time I talk to someone, there’s new drama. Even if drama eventually gets resolved or fades away, there’s always new drama to replace it. With everything constantly changing, it’s hard to keep track of everything going on, and it can make friendships difficult. With so much drama, it feels like I sometimes have to pick sides among my friends. It feels like every minor decision that I make can greatly affect other people’s lives, and that can be terrifying. I can create and destroy friendships just by doing something that I might not even think about. That fact is a really important part of growing as a person and progressing through life.