Movies glorify the idea of high school, but in reality, the idea of high school that movies show only happens for a small number of people. For me, high school was nothing like the movies. For example, I was in and out of the hospital for two and half years because my knees would dislocate, and I have never seen a character from a movie about high school go in and out of a hospital because their knees dislocated. There are so many other reasons that I didn’t have a movie depiction of high school like having ACL surgeries and joining welding.
In the first part of freshman year, no one could do anything because of COVID and mask restrictions preventing a lot of clubs and sports. These restrictions stopped me from joining the wrestling team again. Another reason freshman year was one of the reasons I didn’t like high school was that it was the start of the worst few years of my life. Halfway through freshman year, my knees started to dislocate and it caused me to miss weeks of school at a time because as soon as one knee healed the other knee dislocated. With all that going on, I couldn’t do much in or out of school. The only reason I was somewhat happy that school year was because that year I got my dog and I got my first ACL replacement surgery, which led me to almost miss finals and have to repeat the grade.
My sophomore year of high school wasn’t much better than the year before. My knees were still dislocating but the only difference is I was getting surgery to try and fix the problem. But as soon as I got one knee fixed my other one started to give me problems so around Christmas I got my second ACL replacement surgery. During my sophomore year, I had a couple of classes with my older cousins which made the classes easier because they understood the concept better than I did. I also made new friends that year and they helped me find out who I am as a person. They helped me figure out that I don’t need to do everything others want just so they would be my friends. Even though the year was an ok year during the summer I was working at a small donut shop and one of the days I was working I slipped on some water and landed on my knee causing my kneecap to have small fractures in it, Causing me not to be able to do much over the summer.
My junior year was a lot better than the previous two years. I got my first actual job, my knees were better and not dislocating, and I was going to Cedar Point throughout the year. I also got my driver’s license at the start of the school year so I was able to do more things than I could before. I made new friends that were better people than the people I was around before, and I got out of my house a lot more. I also joined welding in my junior year and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. Welding helped me get out of my comfort zone and I learned a new skill that helped me decide what to do after high school.
My senior year of high school was ok. It started well with me having only one class that I had to pay attention to, but towards the middle of the year, it wasn’t all that good. At the beginning of the year, I had gotten a new teacher for welding and it was a weird adjustment from having to go from the way the teacher from last year to the new teacher. In the middle of the year, I had to put my dog down and it was hard because I had gotten her when I was in Kindergarten. And it was hard for a while but after a few months it got a little better, but it’s still hard. Another thing that happened was that the welding teacher was out for a few months so we couldn’t do anything in class, and it was a two-hour class so everyone got bored. The only good thing that happened in the middle of the year for me was when we got a substitute teacher for welding who could let us go into the shop and weld. Towards the end of the year, it got better because I got to work on projects in welding that I thought were cool. Another thing that made senior year cool was that I got to go on the Europe trip to Germany, France, and Spain. I made a lot of unforgettable memories on that trip and I had a lot of fun.
I don’t regret at all how high school went for me. I learned so many things from my experiences in high school and it helped me become who I am, and if I didn’t go through those things I would be a different person. The only thing that I wished was different was that I didn’t think that it was going to be like how movies depict it and how they glorify it. The reality is that high school is different for everyone and this is how it was for me.
