I couldn't think of any mind-boggling, overly intriguing first actual blog post, I'm sorry. So, I went with the most generic yet most familiar topic available: the perils and wonders of my first year of high school.
When I was younger, I always wanted to be older.
That was the biggest regret I ever had. Little Angel always wanted to try on make-up and see how she looked like. She wanted to start making more mature fashion choices by wearing dresses with slits and high heels, and she always looked with curiosity at former members of the high school community in her school, wandering the corridors with such recklessness, cursing the authority and bursting into inappropriate laughter, thinking, "How would it be like if I were one of them?" Little Angel thought being older equated to more freedom and more happiness. (Forgive her, she was in the third grade.)
Now, we all know that Little Angel was wrong in what she presumed. My first year of high school did not start as "free" and "happy" as I thought (I will eventually get to the good stuff in the end), and I wish that I had known that ever since I was still a grade schooler, who had such high hopes for the promising world of higher education. Which is why the remainder of this blog will be written in the form of a letter, a letter that I wish with every fiber in my body could be transported back in time to be able to land in Little Angel's hands the moment she walks in her third grade classroom:
Dear Little Angel,
High school is not as exciting as it may seem. Now, I don't want to give you all these negative adjectives that you will just keep on contradicting in your head over and over again, because we both know how you always love being right. Plus, you've already formed this certain paradigm in your head that high school = maturity, awesomeness, etc. Instead, I will feed you the truth: the things that I have been through this past year, and will continue to experience over the past five years. (Thank K-12; you'll find out about that in a few years. But, trust me, IT'S NOT A GOOD THING AT ALL.)
First, you will be met with more expectations and more schoolwork from stricter teachers. They all have this some sort of mindset that just because you're already in high school, you already comprehend and work twice as fast as you did when you were still in the lower levels. Of course, because I know everything about you, you will not really believe that your study skills will have changed so rapidly in a short span of months (I mean, how is that possible, right?), but you will still be dumped with quizzes, which level of difficulty ranged from hard to EXTRA MEGA SUPER BRAIN CRACKING HARD, seatwork and homework that would take you ages to answer. Everything that you thought was hard before look like grains of salt and pepper compared to how hard things are in high school. It's like all the lessons are designed to confuse you, and instead to make you feel fulfilled and educated, will make you feel stupid.
Second, you will have to face the cruel reality that some friends do change for the worse. That group of popular girls you're trying so hard to impress right now, and who actually seem to like you...will, without a doubt, end up betraying you in the worst way you could imagine. They will malign your reputation by spreading all the secrets you confided in them, told them never to tell (they did pinky-swear, though). They will influence the people around them to avoid you, by telling them messed-up versions of the truth, and you can do nothing but pretty much sob about it to your mother. (She helped a LOT.) They will throw away every single memory you've had together, and you'll pretty much be left broken into pieces. My advice for you is to avoid them as early as now. Don't be tempted by their tempting deal to let you in their "exclusive group", and don't allow them to pressure you (like I know they will). They'll just end up being the cause of the destruction of your whole first quarter of your high school life.
Third, you will need to set some high expectations for yourself at the very start of the freaking year. Now, I know how hard that is: you don't like being pressured, and you like to work at your own pace. Being rushed and hurried only makes you want to work slower, and just chill out and live the thug life with a bag of potato chips, but I'm warning you...your slacking off won't pay off. Your mediocre grades during the first quarter that you promise to avoid will come back during the second and the third, because you'll eventually give up and refuse to live up to your full potential. Let me tell you: it's not worth it. You've always wanted to be the best, to come out on top, to be the girl with the gleaming gold medal with pride beaming in her eyes. Well, guess what? It doesn't come easy, SO YOU HAVE TO FREAKING WORK.
The last one, and the most important, is that fortunately, all your troubles could be solved by the most unexpected things and in the most unexpected of ways. You are going to be stuck in quicksand for quite a few months: you'll find yourself with the wrong set of people at the wrong time, you're going to be influenced by new groups of mean girls who will ridicule you for what you are and you'll be completely unsure of what you want to be in life that it's going to hurt your head to just think of it. But, there is a solution. You are going to start 2014 with the hopes of becoming happier, devoting everyday to writing down your progress on both a notebook and chart to see if you end up smiling more each day or giving less annoying comments. You're going to meet a set of friends who are absolutely perfect for you: they're going to love you for who you are, and are going to be companions worthy of your time, attention and friendship. You're going to think about focusing your attention on your studies, risking a little bit of the fun stuff right now, but will benefit you in the future. You're going to enjoy the simple things in life and not allow peer pressure stuff you in a bag and tell you what to be in life. You're going to be yourself: that girl who's not ashamed to show up at the canteen and buy a poopload of food, that girl who's not scared to sing a song she likes out loud in public, that girl who's fine without the newest set of Ditzy Knots (they'll be all the rage) and who won't be envious just because her blog isn't as minimalist as she hoped it would be.
Your freshman year will end up awesome, for short.
There were a couple of downs at the start, but as you usually do, you'll pretty much redeem yourself in the end and skyrocket yourself to success... so, yeah.
In a way, you were right when you said that high school would be awfully exciting. I can't wait to tell you what happens next.
xxx
That was the biggest regret I ever had. Little Angel always wanted to try on make-up and see how she looked like. She wanted to start making more mature fashion choices by wearing dresses with slits and high heels, and she always looked with curiosity at former members of the high school community in her school, wandering the corridors with such recklessness, cursing the authority and bursting into inappropriate laughter, thinking, "How would it be like if I were one of them?" Little Angel thought being older equated to more freedom and more happiness. (Forgive her, she was in the third grade.)
Now, we all know that Little Angel was wrong in what she presumed. My first year of high school did not start as "free" and "happy" as I thought (I will eventually get to the good stuff in the end), and I wish that I had known that ever since I was still a grade schooler, who had such high hopes for the promising world of higher education. Which is why the remainder of this blog will be written in the form of a letter, a letter that I wish with every fiber in my body could be transported back in time to be able to land in Little Angel's hands the moment she walks in her third grade classroom:
Dear Little Angel,
High school is not as exciting as it may seem. Now, I don't want to give you all these negative adjectives that you will just keep on contradicting in your head over and over again, because we both know how you always love being right. Plus, you've already formed this certain paradigm in your head that high school = maturity, awesomeness, etc. Instead, I will feed you the truth: the things that I have been through this past year, and will continue to experience over the past five years. (Thank K-12; you'll find out about that in a few years. But, trust me, IT'S NOT A GOOD THING AT ALL.)
First, you will be met with more expectations and more schoolwork from stricter teachers. They all have this some sort of mindset that just because you're already in high school, you already comprehend and work twice as fast as you did when you were still in the lower levels. Of course, because I know everything about you, you will not really believe that your study skills will have changed so rapidly in a short span of months (I mean, how is that possible, right?), but you will still be dumped with quizzes, which level of difficulty ranged from hard to EXTRA MEGA SUPER BRAIN CRACKING HARD, seatwork and homework that would take you ages to answer. Everything that you thought was hard before look like grains of salt and pepper compared to how hard things are in high school. It's like all the lessons are designed to confuse you, and instead to make you feel fulfilled and educated, will make you feel stupid.
Second, you will have to face the cruel reality that some friends do change for the worse. That group of popular girls you're trying so hard to impress right now, and who actually seem to like you...will, without a doubt, end up betraying you in the worst way you could imagine. They will malign your reputation by spreading all the secrets you confided in them, told them never to tell (they did pinky-swear, though). They will influence the people around them to avoid you, by telling them messed-up versions of the truth, and you can do nothing but pretty much sob about it to your mother. (She helped a LOT.) They will throw away every single memory you've had together, and you'll pretty much be left broken into pieces. My advice for you is to avoid them as early as now. Don't be tempted by their tempting deal to let you in their "exclusive group", and don't allow them to pressure you (like I know they will). They'll just end up being the cause of the destruction of your whole first quarter of your high school life.
Third, you will need to set some high expectations for yourself at the very start of the freaking year. Now, I know how hard that is: you don't like being pressured, and you like to work at your own pace. Being rushed and hurried only makes you want to work slower, and just chill out and live the thug life with a bag of potato chips, but I'm warning you...your slacking off won't pay off. Your mediocre grades during the first quarter that you promise to avoid will come back during the second and the third, because you'll eventually give up and refuse to live up to your full potential. Let me tell you: it's not worth it. You've always wanted to be the best, to come out on top, to be the girl with the gleaming gold medal with pride beaming in her eyes. Well, guess what? It doesn't come easy, SO YOU HAVE TO FREAKING WORK.
The last one, and the most important, is that fortunately, all your troubles could be solved by the most unexpected things and in the most unexpected of ways. You are going to be stuck in quicksand for quite a few months: you'll find yourself with the wrong set of people at the wrong time, you're going to be influenced by new groups of mean girls who will ridicule you for what you are and you'll be completely unsure of what you want to be in life that it's going to hurt your head to just think of it. But, there is a solution. You are going to start 2014 with the hopes of becoming happier, devoting everyday to writing down your progress on both a notebook and chart to see if you end up smiling more each day or giving less annoying comments. You're going to meet a set of friends who are absolutely perfect for you: they're going to love you for who you are, and are going to be companions worthy of your time, attention and friendship. You're going to think about focusing your attention on your studies, risking a little bit of the fun stuff right now, but will benefit you in the future. You're going to enjoy the simple things in life and not allow peer pressure stuff you in a bag and tell you what to be in life. You're going to be yourself: that girl who's not ashamed to show up at the canteen and buy a poopload of food, that girl who's not scared to sing a song she likes out loud in public, that girl who's fine without the newest set of Ditzy Knots (they'll be all the rage) and who won't be envious just because her blog isn't as minimalist as she hoped it would be.
Your freshman year will end up awesome, for short.
There were a couple of downs at the start, but as you usually do, you'll pretty much redeem yourself in the end and skyrocket yourself to success... so, yeah.
In a way, you were right when you said that high school would be awfully exciting. I can't wait to tell you what happens next.
xxx