All students come into high school with certain expectations. Based on countless high school movies we watched, as incoming ninth graders at the time, we expected something more like High School Musical and less like unenthusiastic drones trying to get through the seemingly never ending day. Here are some common high school expectations and realities.

EXPECTATION: BEING POPULAR MATTERS. 

REALITY: Because of movies like Mean Girls, students coming into high school believe that popularity is an important part of the high school experience. In reality, popularity is not as important as these movies make it sound. However, there are kids who are more outgoing and hence more well-known than others, but that does not matter in high school. In the long run having a close group friends to make exciting, long lasting memories with matters way more than being popular.

EXPECTATION : YOU WILL HAVE A BOYFRIEND OR GIRLFRIEND AND YOU WILL MEET IN THE CUTEST MOST CLICHE WAY EVER. FOR EXAMPLE, YOU ACCIDENTALLY DROPPED YOUR BOOKS AND HE HELPED YOU PICK THEM UP, AND YOUR HANDS ACCIDENTALLY TOUCHED AND THERE WAS JUST A SPARK.

REALITY: In no way will your interaction with your first boyfriend match a Nicholas Sparks novel. Furthermore, having a boyfriend or girlfriend in high school doesn’t make you more popular (plus no one cares very much about your cute relationship but you). Sorry to break your young teen hearts and your hope for a fictional romance but this is not a movie.

EXPECTATION: PEOPLE CARE ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE WEARING.

REALITY: No one actually cares about what you wear to school, unless you really want to stand out. Wear what makes you feel most confident!

EXPECTATION: IT IS A BIG DEAL IF YOU MESS UP IN CLASS.

REALITY: This generation, to say the least, is a little bit narcissistic. Meaning we care way too much about ourselves and how we look to other people. When you mess up in class you may spend quite some time thinking about it and how dumb you must have appeared to everyone else. But in reality everyone has already moved on from that, or they weren’t even paying attention in the first place. Therefore, you made your mistake a lot bigger than it needed to be. Mistakes are an opportunity to learn, so don’t be upset about them.

EXPECTATION: YOUR HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS ARE NOT GOING TO “BABY YOU,” ACCORDING TO YOUR MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHERS.

REALITY : Our middle teachers set us up with fear in order for them to make us complete our work faster. They always told us that “in high school no one will baby you.”  Well, actually not that high school students are “babied,” but the teacher is understanding. For example, some teachers are more understanding about missing an assignment if you are a student who participates in extracurricular activities.  In some classes the teacher can even be nice and notice you have way too much homework and decide to decrease it. Therefore, middle school teachers made high school seem a lot scarier than it actually is.

 Now here are some additional opinions from students of Ridge:

FRESHMAN

KODY BRUNSON

“I expected to get straight A’s, but I’m low key already failing all my classes.”

SOPHOMORE

JARED BAKER

“How the seniors treat freshmen in sports . . .I thought they would be meaner but they are just an average amount of mean.”

JUNIOR

TIMOTHY JONES

“I thought they would haze freshmen, but there is like no hazing.”

SENIOR

BLAKE WOEHALF

“I honestly thought the teachers would be super scary, but they are so nice and chill.”