Ugh. Here I am awake at 4 a.m. and doing my research paper. This is not what I thought my high school experience would be like. I remember watching Lemonade Mouth, Degrassi, and obviously High School Musical, thinking, “Wow, high school is going to be so cool!”

The movies always portrayed these talented kids who became friends and showed off their talents at school. They also had a lot of drama with the “popular” group of kids at school with different cliques. But honestly, the shows tend to dramatize all the various high school “experiences” like football games, high school parties, and dating life, but, sadly, most of those ideas aren’t even close to the reality of high school.

One of my favorite movies set in high school was “Mean Girls.” They showed the different cliques at lunch, where they all ignored people who weren’t in their own cliques. Especially the popular girls or, in this case, “the plastics.” But a high school cafeteria is like the total opposite of that, especially at Carnegie. Most people are friends with each other, so it makes it hard for there to be cliques. There are daily dramas with relationships and friendships, but those things change every day. The fights in the T.V. shows aren’t that common either. Most people tend not to talk to each other or ignore each other.

But there are more stereotypes you see in shows. For example, in any show, you never see the characters doing homework or projects. Instead, they show kids partying or going out all night. A recent show that has influenced this stereotype is Euphoria, a show talking about different modern-day subjects. Some of the things that the show talks about are sexualities, drug addictions, and trauma. It talks a lot about the various problems a high schooler might have to face in their high school. While this show is similar to some high school students, it is a rare occurrence to see someone relating at Carnegie. Our high school rarely has any parties; instead, most of us do homework and assignments. I mean, it might just be me who isn’t invited, but I haven’t heard of any.

As I said, most of us tend to do homework and focus on assignments, but that doesn’t mean we have no fun. Like the shows and movies, there are always friends with us. We do homework together and make jokes. We go out to eat and drink. We gossip about other people. We have the time of our lives. But that is mixed in with the daily stress, which isn’t presented in the movies or shows. High school is supposed to be where we learn and have the adventures of our lifetime, so instead of looking forward to made-up stereotypes, we should embrace our time here.