High School

High School was the best and worst parts of my life. A wild fever dream. It became a time of definition and discovery for me moving forward.

To begin with, I was a slightly above average student. As a carry over from my middle school education I mostly enjoyed the processes of learning which school provided me. Math kicked my butt. Science was carried by its great staff. History was a mixed card. Gym was gym. But English caught my attention. I became someone who loved to read and write during this time, and it's been something that I've carried with me into adulthood.

My friend group formed during Freshmen year, and it was the greatest thing to ever happen to me. It was also the worst. In an ironic twist from my middle school days, I stopped caring about what my teachers thought of me and started to care about how my friends and wider peers thought about me instead. I lost the presidency my Sophomore year and became determined to make myself 'likeable'. I started to act out more, make jokes and interrupt classes if I thought I could get a laugh out of my peers- and I was actually very good at it too.

But no matter how many people I got to laugh, I cared most about how my friends thought about me. And that would eventually come back to haunt me my Senior year (after another failed presidential run) when I arrived to my lunch table one day and was told I couldn't sit there anymore. That's it. No more friends, no more video games, no more active communication with the outside world. It was the last day I knew who I was. Why was I kicked out? No idea.

And I spent the remainder of my high school life without friends and a social outcast. But I did learn something from the experience: no matter how hard you try and impress others, the way in which you think about yourself is most important.