Not Really a Musical

The high school experience is not always as it seems.

BY MACIE BROWN

Movies about high school life have been popular for decades. The 1990’s and 2000’s were eras where dramas about high school like “Mean Girls,” “10 Things I Hate About You,” “High School Musical,” and “Clueless,” became classics. These movies have reached this status because of the way they dramatize people’s experience in high school and tell stories about people finding out who they truly want to be.

For many people, high school is one of the most fun parts of life. “A lot of teenage movies, mostly made in the 2000’s, show how eventful high school can be if you make the most of it,” junior Chloe Riedinger said. Some people say that high school is a stressful time and dislike it, but Riedinger thinks everything is what you make it. “Personally, I think that life in high school can be really similar to the movies, but you have to do what you can to make your experience better,” Riedinger said. Attending pep rallies, games and being involved in clubs is one way to get involved and meet new people.

A lot of movies that are made not only show the highlights of high school, but also the low times as well. “Everyone has bad times, especially as teenagers, and I think that more popularized movies could do a better job of showing that side too,” Riedinger said. A lot of movies glorify the fun parts of high school, and although there are some movies that show how people can struggle through that time, they are usually made as completely different movies. Riedinger thinks that there should be movies made that show the good and the bad for the same person to make it more realistic.

Another part of movies that can be unrealistic about high school is the cliques that are in them. “In a lot of movies, there are groups of friends that just isolate themselves from everyone else,” Riedinger said. A lot of friend groups in high school really aren’t like that. They may spend a lot of time with each other, but they still are nice to others and will include them and Riedinger thinks that’s not shown.

Junior Raelee Hawkins, agrees with Riedinger on this topic. “The older you get in high school the less of a big deal things like that become,” Hawkins said. As people mature, they usually grow out of behaving like that. People can almost get more inclusive as they get older because they have been through life and can be more understanding.

Junior Karley Dugas, thinks that because we are in a small town, cliques and groups in high school are real, but less prevalent at larger schools. “I have friends from other schools that say everyone talks to everyone and I don’t think it is like that here,” Dugas said. When you go to a school in a smaller town, there are students where everyone knows their name and their family has gone to the school for generations. Their friends are usually seen as very popular and a lot of people look up to them and want to be friends with them, but she doesn’t think that they push people around in real life. One side of high school that Dugas thinks is really important but is rarely shown is how people come into the person they want to be during their teenage years. “You get exposed to so many different people and they can really shape who you become, especially if you are close to them,” Dugas said. Seeing the things that other people do and how they think can make you realize things about yourself and your ideas and can change your view on what is right and wrong. It can also shape who you really want to be when you see the diversity in everyone your own age. “The later teenage years are also a time where I feel like you start to question people you have always looked up to, like parents, and start to form your own opinions,” Dugas said. She thinks that many movies don’t show this part of our lives that so many teenagers go through.

Hawkins also thinks that people can start to figure out who they truly want to be in high school. “I feel like you mature and grow a lot and find your people,” Hawkins said. Sometimes the way that you change as a person can influence the friends that you spend time around instead of the other way around. The more that you know what you want, the more you surround yourself around people with the same ideas that want to grow with you.

Hawkins said she thinks genuine friendships like this happen a lot but aren’t represented like they should be.

One thing that can make high school different today is how long it has been since so many of these movies were popularized. “Movies and TV shows can portray high school as a time where bullying happens face to face. That may have been true a while ago, but I think technology has made our experience different now,” Riedinger said. Anything that you want to say can be said so quickly over a screen and reach multiple people within minutes. No one is really coming up and confronting people in the hallways at school. This is a whole new challenge that people today are facing that you don’t see represented.