Appearance And The Pains

INFLUENCE

I definitely don’t miss my high school. It’s been only 3 months since I got out of high school, but to me, it isn’t long enough. It isn’t as if my days in school were horrible, it’s just that the people in my school were. Everyone around me was concerned with how they looked, buttering up teachers, their so called social media ‘appearance’, and basically everything that was ‘extravagant’.

My friend and I were not the type of people who would randomly speak out in class, we were the back benchers, who didn’t care about what was going around us. We didn’t care about the various groups in class, the back bitching, the buttering up of teachers and all that. But we did concern ourselves when people started taking advantage of their good name, for their own good use, benefitting only them, but a harm to the others.

To most of the people, high school period is something they cherish for the rest of their lives, and dream about reliving those glorious days, to feel like a teen again. High school is just another phase of life which eventually turns into a nostalgic memory.It molds us into how we turn out to be in the future, our personality, our ideas, our mindset, it all is a result of the influence of high school.

For Katie, her high school experience, was the best part of her life. Going to school every day was the best part of her day, week, month, and year. She would wake up, go to school, and hang out with her friends, attend classes, or bunk if she wants, make fun of teachers and the nerds and weirdos, and all kind of teenage stuff.

She would attend every party she could, get drunk, and live the best of it with the excuse to herself that this is the last time. Her parents warned her continuously about the consequences it would have on her life, her grades and future, but what did she care? Go with the flow, she replied.

It was that one party, when realization took over, that maybe her parents were right and school popularity isn’t everything in life. She’d just gotten back her final grades for the term, where she failed 5 out of 6 subjects. On top of that, her parents had just decided last week that if her grades weren’t up to the mark, they’d send her to live with her aunt. At first, she didn’t take him seriously, but seeing her grades, she might have to believe them to be true.

As her mind spun, the music around her got louder, with people cheering and laughing, gossiping about the latest, and whatnots. Katie walked in a daze towards the bathroom, going through the kitchen where various people called out for her. Entering the bathroom, she leaned against the door, and took deep breaths, thinking of ways to cover up her marks, to explain anything to her parents to get out of this mess.

In her anxiety mode, she didn’t notice that there was another person in the bathroom, behind the curtain, who peeked out to look at her, as she was mumbling to herself.

‘You okay?’

Startled, Katie jumped and saw the shabby looking boy leaning against the opposite wall. ‘No. not actually.’

‘Care to explain?’

As Katie explained her situation to him, he nodded and proceeded to sit down on the floor and motioned for her to do the same.

He opened his mouth and ‘ I know I can’t relate, but as I see it, your parents warned you with your best interest at heart. They ma send you away, they may not, but you have to see that whatever they decide, it will benefit you. You can try to convince them that you’ll stop with the ‘Cool Teen Delinquent’ behavior, because as much as you’d like to deny it, it is kind of your fault that you’re in this mess.’

When he finished his speech, she realized that he was right. It was her fault that got her into this mess. So she’ll have to face it head-on, probably console her parents by giving a retest and acing them all. Whatever the result, she’d have to take responsibility for her actions. Nobody was at fault there, other than her own self. Popularity and social media wouldn’t get her anywhere, they were shams for people to waste their time on. Her life wasn’t gonna build itself, she’d have to work on it and grow.