“I can’t wait to go to high school; I want summer to be over” I said. “You won’t even last a day,” my brother said. We were having another argument about me starting high school. I was super exited to finally get to start my high school career, while my brother continuously warned me saying it was super hard. “Why don’t you like high school” I asked? “Because it’s hard and complicated” he replied, “but you want to learn new stuff”. He said, “When you’re a 9th grader in a high school, on your first day of school, people beat you up and stuff you in trash cans and lockers.” I thought about it for a while and the more I thought about it the more I got worried and didn’t want to go to high school anymore. As the days passed, I got more and more worried about my first day of school. As the school year drew closer, I became a nervous wreck.

Like any other normal school year, I awoke by the screaming alarm clock which is always happy to wake me up. I leisurely got out of bed, took a shower, and got ready for the school day. But only this time it was different. As the school bus rounded the corner, and I got my first glimpse of this soon to be daily habit, a huge shock of silent hysteria came over me turning me as white as a ghost. As the sunlight reflected off my pale white skin, I felt myself go cold and clammy. The bus pulled to a stop and I knew right away that this was not a dream, but it was real and I was really going to have to go to high school. What was a dream was now a deep dark void that was looking at me and mocking me, making me feel like I was spiraling into a great depression. When the bus pulled up I hesitated and was thinking of running in the opposite direction, staying home. I knew I could sneak back into the house without my mom catching me. I could slide into my safe haven via my bedroom window, because the latch is broken from when I forced it on the first hot summer day. Somehow I knew that idea would just add to my troubles, so I faced my reality and made my legs move. If I skipped today, then tomorrow it would be worse and people would know one another a little and I would still be the new kid, so I reluctantly got on the bus. At the top of the stairs I found my legs frozen, unable to walk down the aisle. I sat right in front, in what used to be called the Kindergarten seats, just in case something happened. I reasoned I would be safer next to the bus driver. But to my surprise, I was left alone. Nobody bothered me.

As I got off the bus to go into the school I suddenly froze again. All of a sudden I felt like somebody had thrust me into a fast freezing block of ice. I had no choice left. I said to myself “come on you can do this, nobody will do anything. They will ignore you and leave you alone.” Then before I knew it, I was through the doors. It was a good feeling because I knew I had already taken the first step to becoming a high school student. As I walked further into the school, something surprised me. I unknowingly walked near a cluster of seniors and they glanced at me for a second and quickly returned to their conversation. I almost cried with relief. As the day progressed I gradually let down my guard down; high school was not nearly as bad as my brother had described it to me. I thought I was going to get dumped into a trash can or smashed in the face right when I got here. As my day went on, I started liking it better and better here at the high school where I was going to spend the next four years of my life. I was super glad I didn’t see my brother anywhere; because he would just give people a reason to beat me up. Just because high school wasn’t his thing, he was trying his best to make it not be mine either. I’m sure, like in elementary and middle school, I’ll be living in that guys shadow. Every teacher that had him expected the worst from me.

When the first school day was nearing its end and I was getting on the bus, I looked back and thought to myself “this is my school now and it’s not half bad; only one day down and I feel more grown up already”. When my brother and I got home from school, the first thing I did was confront him about the whole lying issue. “My first day of high school was great. Why would you tell me I’d get beat up?” I exclaimed. “I thought it would be funny to see your face” he answered back. “Wow, you’re a lying rat” I moaned. When I really thought about it, I realized I had learned one of life’s little lessons: don’t believe something is bad until you experience it for yourself.