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EDITOR IN CHIEF
Ryan Frank
EDITORIAL EDITORS
Kaineron Cole
Stefanie Knowlton
High school is
more than just
teenage
wasteland
The four years preceding college
are relegated to the shadows but
cannot be overlooked
We share a deep, dark secret
as college students. It’s of
ten alluded to in conversa
tion but never fully ex
plored. It pops into our heads more often
than we'd like, and we wish we could dis
miss it. For most of us, it’s all-too-recent
history, but we pretend it never hap
Opinion
pened. No matter how hard
we try, it takes on an almost
mythic status in our lives.
We all went to high
school.
We all endured four years
of assemblies, pep rallies,
tedious assignments and a
cutthroat social ladder. We
all had lockers, morning an
nouncements, a principal,
dances, a student council
and hot and cold lunches.
So whv do we want to for
get it ever happened?
Well, at first glance, the answer seems
simple. High school wasn’t exactly a cake
walk for some of us. Besides the Darwin
ian race for status and the ever-mentioned
“popularity contest,” ninth through 12th
grade was frustratingly immature and
shortsighted.
But, to varying degrees, it was also fun
— in many ways more fun than college.
And more, it was an extremely important
time for our emotional development. I
may laugh at a lot of things from my high
school days, but I don’t discount them.
When 1 was making the graduation par
ty circuit the last week of my senior year,
adults I didn’t even know felt compelled
to tell me and my friends that we were
coming to the end of the “best time of our
lives,” and we better enjoy it. I always
thought this was depressing. If this was
the best time of my life, what more did I
have to look forward to?
The fact is, high school isn’t the climax
of our lives, but it ought to be recognized
for what it did provide. As we go about
our lives as fast-track college students and
pretend we’re intellectual and grown-up,
we tend to forget where we came from.
The funny thing is, high school and col
lege are more similar than we’d like to ad
mit.
Much is made of high school students’
preoccupation with good looks and ac
complishments. We’d like to think we're
above all that, that we now judge people
by their character and are tolerant of all
views. Yeah, right.
Talk to anybody who’s out there in the
real world, even, and they’ll tell you that
cliques and social division are just as
prevalent as they are in high school. Ado
lescence is a training ground for making
your way in the world; teenagers are just
more obvious with their cruelty.
High school and college also have a
strange love for good, old-fashioned
young-person fun— namely drinking and
other wacky hijinks. We party more now
than we did in high school, but the biggest
difference is Mom and Dad aren’t around
to avoid. Socially, we’re really just high
schoolers with legal ID.
The biggest difference is this: in Wv
high school, we could focus on having
fun — going to football games and out
with friends — with the security of our
parents’ money, housing and transporta
tion. Now, we have to worry about paying
bills and that dreaded black hole called
post-graduation. College is carefree when
compared to the real world, but it has
nothing on high school.
In the meantime, the closet obsession
will continue. Former football heroes will
dream about Friday nights and wish they
could return to the crowds. Old captains
of the cheerleading team will yearn to be
the most popular girl in school again. And
former dorks will wallow in bitterness.
We may be in a slightly bigger world now,
but it doesn’t stop us from looking back.
We probably couldn’t ignore it, even if
we wanted to. Films such as “There’s
Something About Mary” and “Romy &
Michelle’s High School Reunion” present
high school as a breeding ground for per
sonalities, strengths and insecurities. We
wish we could deny it, but the movies
ring true.
So what is there to do? Move on, break
out of past stereotypes, but without a
sense of denial. Feel free to remember.
And, along the way, await that five- or 10
year reunion with a combination of sheer
horror and unyielding pride.
Ashley Bach is a columnist for the Emerald.
His views do not necessarily represent those
of the newspaper.
..HE NEVER ACTUW.LV
ARRESTS HIM... HE
JUST READS HIM
HIS RIGHTS...
^ L\
-AU, HA! SO YOU
REALLY ARE
the FATHER '
Of your COUNTRY/
CORRECTION
Thestoiy
“Senate approves
new committee
member" (ODE,
Nov. 19) should
have read, "The
purpose of the
ASUO education
campaign is to
educate students
about the student
incidental fee.”
The Emerald
regrets the error.