Throughout my highschool career I have always felt at least somewhat of a connection to my peers. I may have not been best friends with everyone, but at least I saw most of my classmates in the halls or in my classes. This year I feel like that connection is gone. I have always thought that my senior year would be my last year of all of my highschool experiences, but it isn’t. All of that happened last year. I mean sure there are still the big lasts left, like my last marching band performance, or my last prom, or even my last day of high school. But, really, my last year of the true essence of highschool was my junior year.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not entirely complaining. This is my own fault. When given options for my required classes, I opted to take dual credit college classes instead of classes at the highschool. This made sense to me in order to get ahead in my education. Honestly, I do find it much easier to focus in my college classes and prefer the environment a lot more; however, there are not really as many social aspects to college classes like there are with highschool ones. There really is not any down time to chat with your table-mate during a lecture. Combine this with only being at the high school for three periods a day, and you get pretty lonely. 

It is basically just a very weird feeling when you are still a high school student, but you barely even go to high school. It puts you in this weird in between spot where you just want to go to college as soon as possible because you are basically already there. But, you also want to enjoy your last year as a real kid. Personally, it has made me just feel odd about school in general. I mean, when I am only really attending classes for three periods after lunch, it feels like school is just a hobby. This of course is not the same for everyone, but I am just talking about my own experiences. 

Now, you are probably wondering why I am rambling on about how I feel about highschool right now, and trust me there is a reason. I did not know about all of these feelings that I would develop about high school when I was registering for my classes last year. I did not really have any idea about the pros and cons of being out of the high school for most of the day. I only really knew that I would be getting a little further ahead by taking these classes, and that my days would be easier if I had free periods. 

I do not necessarily regret my schedule and how things are going so far because I am honestly having a great year. My schedule works for me. But, if you cannot handle feeling disconnected from the crowd, I would not recommend that you to fill up your schedule up with college classes, work co-op, and free periods.

When you are never really at the highschool, to be honest, people forget about you. It is not to be mean, and it has no ill will, but you simply are not there. If people do not see you all the time at school, they eventually don’t necessarily forget about you, but they are not going to count you in as much as if you were there. Of course, if you have your own steady group of friends this is not a huge issue. But, if you plan on being involved in activities or being part of groups at the school, it makes it much harder.

Of course, it is not all negative though. As I said before, I actually find it much easier to focus in my college classes. The environment for me seems to be a much more even playing field and seems less constricted. The classes are often only two times a week, so you have a lot of time to do your homework. Of course, this by no means means that you will have less homework. It just means that you’ll have the same work-load as a daily class, but free time in between to complete assignments. If you use this time wisely it can be extremely helpful. So, if you are more focused on your education than those last sparks of high school, you would be just fine.

It really comes down to just knowing what you are in for, and being aware of what happens. If you are an underclassman I would highly recommend that you ask upperclassmen about your classes before you register for them. The best high school experience you can have is one where you are taking the classes that suit you and when you have a schedule that makes you feel comfortable. I just wish that I would have maybe known a bit more about what I was getting into. I hope that through this, you can maybe put a little more thought into what you really want. It really is your journey and you should choose your own route.