Highschool

There are few things harder to deal with in life than high school, especially for young people with little self-esteem and a large amount of homework. Take me, for instance. I get along well with everyone but being in the International Baccalaureate—the “IB” program for short—does not have healthy effects on the social life.
Everyone knew when they entered the IB that they were going to have problems with certain things, but I do not think anyone could understand the toll taken when such a load of homework like the one I had three weeks ago just before school ended would be entrusted upon the students to be turned in carefully, neatly and without procrastination. Of course, no one used these standards anymore after we had entered our second year in Pre-IB. Many of us resorted to extreme procrastination, copying and even the occasional late work just to get what we all desperately clung on to when it came to high school—friends and a high social status.
It was believed that the more friends you had, the happier you would be. Of course I do not even know if that is a true statement, because I worked every night to finish the load of homework the teachers enough to only earn about 40 friends and 200 profile views on my myspace—a very low standard for high school students, I might add. And most of my friends are only bands or people associated with them. That is, those people simply do not count for anything.
Health is another problem when it comes to intermingling the IB and friends in life. The occasional cold is acceptable, but what of the flu or even the dreaded (and boasted) mono? And in class, does anyone notice the fact that you have used nearly all of the tissues and are making like a leaky faucet? Of course they notice, this is high school. Someone is always watching, are they not? And if someone should catch a rare glimpse of you adjusting your outfit in a most embarrassing way in order to fix the underwear malfunction you have? Your life is over, and for what is left you will be labeled a cruel name like “the malfunctionator” or...well, since these are exaggerations no new and unique titles can be thought of.
Which leads me to my next subject of choice when it comes to school. What of clothes? Or, in some cases, ‘costumes’—which goes for the now famous young girl who walks around the halls with a tail pinned to the seat of her pants. Some things the girls wear in our classes astound me when I am occasionally reprimanded for my “two finger straps” when it should be three. It is certainly not my fault my diet consists of vegetables and little meat and therefore my fingers are not the width of a sausage link.
There is also the case of the young male population of the IB program. Most of the wardrobes of these folks consist of ties and such, but every once in a while there is the dilemma of the very baggy pants. One wonders if there are ever problems with the pants falling down and tripping the occupant. Of course, this scenario brings to mind the image of a monkey with pants—wit the pants not necessarily on the monkey, mind you.
There you have it—the youth of today in a very tight nutshell. There are little documented facts of those who survived high school with both good grades and beautiful, popular friends. So the choice comes down to this: A Life, or Good Grades? For now, though, I think I will take a nap and think about it next week.