High School Stereotypes

Words: 632
Pages: 3

For a lengthy period of time, I was, like most teenage girls, guilty of trying to be the person I was expected to be, rather than who I truly was. My freshman year I joined the cheerleading team, and exhausted myself trying to maintain good grades, while keeping up the expected social life of a high school cheerleader. I attended 2 years of lunch outings and sleepovers, where the topic of conversation generally ranged from cute boys to the latest tumbling pass we were trying to perfect. The only school related thing mentioned was the attractive assistant principal and the celebrated fall and winter homecomings. All I got was blank stares when I tried to discuss that day’s history lecture, or gush about the great novel I was currently reading. In class whenever I raised my hand, I could sense everyone around me thinking “she won’t know the answer”, but I did know. That made me different, I was no longer just a ditzy cheerleader, I didn’t fit the stereotype, and people didn’t know where to place me. …show more content…
Junior year is when everything changed. On the third day of school, my classmate Rebecca approached me after the final bell, and asked me if I would go to the first High School Bowl practice with her. There was no way. My friends would torment me to no end, and the cheer team would see me as even more of an outsider, but she wasn’t taking no for an answer. So I attended the first meeting on the promise of secrecy and if I hated it, I would never have to go back. I still remember that Thursday afternoon, because it was the most fun I’d had in a long time. For the first time, I could have the right answer and people admired me instead of resented me, I could click that buzzer, and nobody judged me for not fitting into the high school