And 2 decades ago, I was starting high school.
A lot of young adult novels start off with the 1st day of high school being very scary!
For me, I was just glad to be out of middle school. High school was just much better!
My middle school was Kawananakoa Middle School, which was seen as the "safe option" for Honolulu middle schools, but really, it wasn't immune from having wannabee gangstas (and a few real ones, who had nothing more to prove so didn't cause as much trouble as the wannabes), nor was it immune to really corrupt teachers (Anjo, Komae, I'm talking about you on this blog post)
Kawananakoa Middle
School was split between 2 high school
districts - McKinley (who had the more immigrant, ghetto
population) and Roosevelt (with a more
upper class population mixed mostly with local Japanese and Native Hawaiians)!
Me, I went to McKinley High School!
Entering high
school, we were mixed with those from Central Middle
School (with a reputation of having an
immigrant, low-income housing population) and Washington Middle School (which split between McKinley and Kaimuki High
School, mixed income but mostly urbanized middle
class)
Being that Central Middle School had a "scary" reputation, one of my Kawananakoa friends who was supposed to go to Central was just so scared to have to go to the same high school with the Central kids!
Turns out he didn't have much to worry about! He was scared in the 1st day (he said he had gang members in his class), but it turned out most of them just left him alone! Most of the real gang members are too busy beefing with their rivals that they don't even bother bullying the so-called "nerds/geeks/emos/whatevers". They might make a few minor jokes at their expense but it's not like they slam them into lockers and flush them into toilets! They got bigger fish to fry!
The same was true for most of the jocks at my school! Most of them are really chill dudes. Unlike the "jocks" portrayed on TV or YA novels, the ones in my school don't even bother bullying the so-called "nerds/geeks/emos/whatevers". They might make a few minor jokes at their expense but it's not like they slam them into lockers and flush them into toilets! They got bigger fish to fry!
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AS for me, during my freshman year, I tried to play it "low key" my first year, try not to bring too much attention to myself! If I didn't have close friends in a certain class, I would be the more "quiet one", but that don't let that fool you. I could still crack an inappropriate joke, still mock a few girls when they were being whiny, and wasn't the best friend I should have been! A few friends turned against each other and instead of me being the diplomat, I just told them what they said each other behind their backs. Some of their jokes they said about each other were funny as hell, but over time, the whole thing just got exhausting! It was hard to juggle time between friends who don't like each other! By the middle of the sophomore year, everyone just burned out from dissing each other!
Another thing that burned me out was that same year I went from middle to high school, my family got a house in a different part of the island! So I was commuting and using my grandma's address just to continue going to the school where at least I had a few friends! But covering up that I'm using my grandma's address became too exhausting and caused a major rift between me and my parents! I hated (yes, hated) my parents for buying that house and hated (yes, hated) my parents for not moving back to the old community! It got to the point where towards the end of my high school career, eff it, I just lived with my grandma full-time already!
(note: me and my parents discussed this issue
with a trained professional, and we made peace on this issue recently)
However, the main thing that keep me going strong was that McKinley High School had an exciting environment! It was the most immigrant high school in Hawaii, but it still had some local people! It was interesting to see Pacific Islanders and Asian immigrants embracing the West Coast gangsta rap trend that was popular when I entered high school! While most students embraced hip-hop (especially gangsta rap), other genres like ska, reggae, rave, punk rock and heavy metal had fans amongst our peers! Some of our peers weren't afraid to be an individual, having funky hairstyles and wearing thrift shop styles.
McKinley High School also had the coolest traditions, from the Tiger Pride, the Bonfires, pep rallies and more! Just beware that we don't really worship that statue, being that is a relic of colonial times. People just worship the Tiger Stripes instead!
I also had one of my favorite teachers in 9th grade -- Mr Newkirk. He was the English teacher and he made classic literature entertaining, with emphasis on performances.
I also liked my freshman PE, because it was much better than middle school PE. Back then, middle school PE was "you only play the popular team sports and if you suck, too bad". Whereas high school PE is "we got 3 teachers, so you get to chose from 3 sports for the next 2 weeks. " It wasn't just the popular team sports, but we also had archery, billiards (walking to "Hawaiian Brian's" was the exercise), fishing (walking to so-called Magic "Island' was the exercise), lawn bowling, badminton, and more.
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High school life took a dip in sophomore year, but it got much more exciting in junior and senior years.
Learn more at
http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2009/06/10-years-ago-today.html
http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2013/10/my-double-3-years.html
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Also, I wrote another "myself, 2 decades ago" blog post 3 years ago, that one about my transition from elementary to middle school. Read it at
http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2012/09/myself-2-decades-ago.html
