January 20, 2011-- Experiences in High School.

For the most part, I enjoyed high school. I kept myself surrounded by a close group of friends and kept busy in extracurricular activities. But thinking back to it, I never want to go back... The stress, pressure, and uncertainty that go along with high school make me value my freedom being away at college. In HS, grades mattered a lot more to me. I feared the repercussions of not handing in a paper on time, walking in late to class, talking back to a teacher, getting dress-coded, etc. Now, I can't imagine why I ever spent time trying to be a perfectionist in high school. None of the things I worried about then, matter to me anymore.. especially the girl drama that came along with almost every situation. I was a pretty good student in HS, which came naturally, so I spent a lot of time focusing on the social aspect of things.

I'm very nervous about working with high school students, because I think I'm a very different person than I was back then. I'm also really shy! I'd like to be some sort of authority figure to the students, but at the same time I want to be their friend and identify with what it is exactly that interests them. That's what I wish all my teachers would have done. I fear that HS students will see us as simply their peers, when in fact we have information and skills to share and teach to them. I think at the same time we are teaching them, they will teach as well as remind us, what it means to be in HS in 2011. Although I'm only 3 years post-graduation, it seems like a new world to me now. I hope I will learn more about how high school is changing, and if it's a good change... how art is being treated in the curriculum today. I also think the students will be able to teach us techniques and ideas they've developed outside of the classroom. I'm excited to learn these things the most, and am also excited to be someone that these HS students can look up to. I wish I would have been able to participate in a program like UAYSFA, and gain connections to older students like us to learn from.

There's No Eye in Team, 2010