Almost everyone has either watched or heard about movies and TV shows like “Mean Girls,” “High School Musical” and “Glee.” These forms of entertainment, though interesting, brought about huge misconceptions for what high school is truly like. While it may seem intimidating at first to be a freshman in high school, it is easy to see right away that there are extreme differences between the expectations for high school, and the reality of it.

First of all, some parts of these shows and films are just unrealistic. As fun as it might be to break into song in the middle of the school day and have school flash mob sort events, it just does not make sense. Also, in “Glee,” all of the cheerleaders, or Cheerios, are required to wear their cheer uniform all day, every day to school, and obviously this does not actually happen in real life because that would be extremely uncomfortable and weird. LHS sophomore Amy Dow was especially influenced by the depiction that these shows created of high school.

“I thought high school was going to be just like the movies, with the mean group of girls and your average ‘jocks,’” said Dow. “‘Mean Girls’ definitely influenced my ideas of what high school was going to be the most. ‘High School Musical’ of course gave me an idea also, but I knew having dance parties during the middle of the day wasn’t realistic, sadly.”

In high school, teenagers go into it thinking that it is going to be the cool and popular kids versus the rest of the school, but honestly, it really is not like that at all. Yes, there are students who are more well-known than others, but for the most part, students of all sorts of backgrounds get along. There is not any sort of bullying such as pushing kids into lockers and throwing paper airplanes at each other such as in movies like “Diary of a Wimpy Kid.” LHS senior Allison Kayl also had false ideas going into high school about the type of people that she would be attending school with based on the TV shows that she watched.

“I thought high school was going to be very cliquey with a lot of pressure to do things I wouldn’t necessarily want to do,” said Kayl. “Everyone is really accepting and it’s easy to find friends with similar interests. I haven’t found many people who believe they’re superior to others, which is nice.”

Although high school may not be as fun as it seems in “High School Musical,” that in no way means that it is not a good experience. At times, it is boring, but a similarity between expectations and reality are the levels of school spirit and pride, as well as the relationships that students form in their four years. Overall, students get to meet new people and develop long-lasting friendships all while participating in activities through their school.

“I enjoy high school,” said Kayl. “I get to spend time with a lot of friends who I don’t normally spend time with outside of class and get to learn interesting things that will actually be useful to me in the future.”

In the end, high school is a something that everyone should look forward to, despite their preconceptions of what it might be like. One fact that is for sure is that the expectations of high school are many times much more extreme than what they are in reality, but it is a great way for students to meet new people, learn new things and participate in new, exciting activities outside of their comfort zones.