Once we had our 8th grade promotion, I knew what was next and I was not prepared.

You would think that a movie like Mean Girls would give you a view of how high school is supposed to be like, but it was the complete opposite.

In Mean Girls, if you weren’t popular, you would get bullied or made fun of. But once I came to Parkdale, everything wasn’t about the popular people in the school. You would see everyone together.

In Means Girls, everyone was stereotyped; when you entered the cafeteria, you would see nerds sitting at one table, band geeks sitting at the other, and populars sitting at another. But when I entered the cafeteria, I did not see specific stereotypes sitting at certain tables.  Instead, it was the complete opposite.

As a freshman I prepared myself for the worst, either by thinking I was going to get bullied or I wouldn’t make any friends. But it was actually the best and worst four years of my life.

During my freshman year, I was able to make new friends and I even joined the marching band which was really fun and a good experience for me. While I was able to do all this, in the back of my mind, I still thought about all the movies I watched and expected what happened in the movies to happen to me.

Once my sophomore year rolled around, all the thoughts of being stereotyped or being made fun of  disappeared and I was able to gain confidence and become more social. During my freshman year, I tried out for the cheer team but didn’t make it. Even though I didn’t make the team my freshman year, that didn’t stop me from trying out again.

Once I tried out the following year, I was able to make the team. Not only that but I was captain of Junior Varsity. Being captain made me come out of my shell even more because I had to step up and be a leader for my teammates so I could be someone they look up to in a positive way instead of  how people looked up to Regina Georgre just because she was popular.

Towards the end of my sophomore year, COVID-19 hit, and we had to go virtual. Entering my junior year of high school, we were still virtual and somehow I lost all motivation and confidence I had when we were in school. It was one of the most challenging years out of all the years I was in highs chool. But I was able to get through it.

Now that I’m a senior and we’re back in person, I’m slowly getting my confidence and social skills back. Overall the movies portrayed something totally different about how high school really is.