Most parents know exactly where their kids will be going to high school as soon as the child is born or when they move to a new area. My parents were examples of these people. Especially since my mom grew up a block away from where we live now, she thought I would end up at the high school she attended… And that’s what I thought, too, until the eighth grade that is. I was at a big public school with probably 600 students, and for a while, I was content in that environment. But I was never like most of the girls there. I didn’t wear skinny jeans and ballet flats (uggs in colder weather), I LOVED wearing sweatpants. This and other parts of me made me an easy target for bullies. It got to the point where a boy thought it would be funny to almost lick my desk! I hated being there so much that I would get stress headaches and on the days where that didn’t happen, I would fake sick so I could leave early.
One day, in November of 2008, I got a postcard in the mail from a parochial school a few miles away. I thought it looked interesting and it got me thinking that there were other schools I could go to besides Big Random Public High. About six weeks later, two things happened. First, I took the High School Placement Test which was required for admission to any area parochial school. The second thing that happened was my mom read in article in the newspaper about a VERY small school (<80 people) that sounded like a possible fit for me. A couple weeks later, I visited the school and it was amazing! I loved every minute of my shadow day. I applied and was soon accepted to my new dream school!
The first week of March I had decided that I had had enough of this big school and I wanted to transfer early since my high school was also a middle school. My parents contacted the school and they gave us the okay to enroll after spring break.
My first day was amazing. The middle school had only 9 other students, so I was able to fit in pretty easily. The decision to transfer early was the best decision I made because it finalized my decision to spend the next four years of my life there. I even got to have a couple of pieces of art shown in a school art show!
Freshman year was a breeze. My favorite class from that year would probably have to be a tie between Biology 1 & Spanish 2. I really enjoyed all of my classes. The small environment was perfect for me, and it felt like an actual community. We also got to know our teachers a little better due to calling them by their first names. And each subject was taught by only one or two people. That meant having the same math teacher all through high school.
Sophomore year rolled around, and to be honest, it was nothing special other than the fact that we started researching colleges… That was the year I was given the nickname Falafel. It wasn’t because I had some weird obsession with it, my history teacher just thought my last name looked like the word Falafel.
Junior year was interesting. The college search really started getting speed, we even had a field trip to visit a few area colleges. I also had the privilege of driving to school since I had finally turned 16. That was also the year where I got to write a play that my school put on in the spring.
Senior year, I had a pretty good schedule. I was part-time, so I got to take some college classes. I took those classes online, and I only had to be at school at 8:30 twice a week first semester, and I only had afternoon classes second semester (a teenager’s dream). Second semester was also when I started my first “real” job, which I still have as I am writing this. In May of 2013, I graduated as a member of a class of eight people, which was crazy, but it was nice having a ceremony that didn’t last three hours.
I still love my old high school, and I know that I would not have been happy at any other school, at least not AS happy. I really enjoyed my time there, and while I was sad when my time there came to an end, I knew that I could always come & visit.
Sorry for the lengthy post, but I thought it would possibly be interesting, and maybe helpful to someone who is considering attending a different kind of high school.