Story Time: My High School Experience

High school… OMG, where do I start. So I grew up in the Bay Area of California and did all of my schooling there. When it comes to every grade category except Preschool and High School, I went to schools that where outside of my district basically meaning they weren’t in the same area in which I lived. Since this started in first grade, I got pretty used to being around people I didn’t know or grew up with. I always had to make new friends and was pretty much the outsider all of the time. 

When it was time to go to high school I had a little bit of a picture of what the whole experience was going to be like, since my uncles attended the same high school many years back and the school had very strong traditions that made  it what it is tell this very day. But you can’t go by what people tell you fully. It was a different time and to be completely honest I feel like high school kids growing up back then where way more mature for there age. Now I don’t know what happened!

Anyways here are my four years of High School:

This year know one thought I was a freshmen and people thinking I was a senior never ended. I had somewhat of an advantage since my cousin went to this school and he was actually a senior and on top of that I was with people I grew up with from my neighborhood. But things were really weird at this school. Everyone was separated in a way I never experienced before. It wasn’t like the movies either.. You know geeks, jocks and preppy…. Nope! They were separated my ethnic groups. I completely didn’t want to be a part of that, so I made some friends a long with my best friend and we hung out at the tables. This is also the year I joined my first club. It was a beading club where we made basically fancy bracelets. I new the older girl who ran it since we used to catch the bus at the same bus stop even though we were going to different schools. The club really only lasted about a month… Basically the teacher didn’t want to be the host of it any more. Other than that it was really time to find my way around and being shy and also very tall and different really wasn’t helping.

This year I had to be at school by 7am… A whole hour early, only because I signed up for Drivers Ed. It was a couple of weeks long kind of course and I thought by the end they would have a car we could practise in… Nope! The teacher said they been stopped that due to someone crashing years back and the school didn’t want to deal with it. So when I passed that class he stapled my paper with a special stapler and I was able to take it to DMV at 15 to take there test and get my permeate. This was also the first year I took an Art class, that being 3D art and also my last year of having to take P.E. 

Some where in here I lost the people I thought where my friends, even my best friend. When you get to high school you really get to see peoples true colors with the situation they are in. But its all good and I really do think you meet you true friends in college anyways.

Thinking about college was huge this year and very serious. I even got the chance to take Advanced Art. This class wasn’t something you could pick by yourself the teacher had to be the one to recommend you and put you in her class if you wanted to be. I also need to take a performance type of class since my school was huge on that type of performance. So I took chorus and I do have to say I really loved it. It did take up a lot of time on the weekends with practicing and performances but being able to go down to Southern California and actually sing in a huge competition was really amazing and a huge highlight of my high school experience. I actually felt like I was apart of the school at this time. 

I was so ready to graduate at this point! Over the summer I took my senior portraits and that just made everything feel so real. But starting school and really thinking about how many months I have to go tell graduate felt like it was never going to come. This year I took all of the recommended 6 or 7 periods (I can’t remember how many there was) I only did this because I needed to take a  class to graduate since my councilor didn’t catch that and retake math since I didn’t get a C grade or higher the following year… Oh and of course Drawing since I was art obsessed and my dream school required many art classes. So I was still a normal student and senior year didn’t change me. My main focus this whole year was passing classes and not getting to detracted with the Senioritis… It’s a real thing! One main thing that really stands out this year was a month and a half or two before graduation. Some girls, a mixture of junior s and seniors decided it was a great idea to try and sabotage my chance of graduating. Basically they wanted me to fight them, so I could get in trouble and not walk the stage. One day I got called to the behavior councilor and she basically didn’t care about anything I had to say and took there side and I was told that if I was called back to her office  changes would be made. But it all worked out! I graduated in May 2008 over the recommended credits i needed, a beautiful diploma and a smile on my face.  

Yep! So that was basically my High School experience. I usually always get the question, “If you could go back and change anything about High School, what would you change?” And to be quite frank I wouldn’t want to go back. Everything happens for a reason and my experience helped me become the person I am today. I might still not have a lot or any at all of friends but I have people in my life that are 100 and a lot of people can’t say that. I know if I would start over with the mindset and confidence I have today things would be different. But I grew up and the people who were popular or cool then have grew up and things are different on there end too.

Here is a little Cortney Fact: 

I carried a Carebear tin lunch pale most of High School… I even inspiration others to do the same.