“I can’t wait to graduate and get out of here!” is an expression heard time and again throughout the halls of WJ. Whether it’s a freshman saying it or a senior, a lot of frustration towards high school itself can boil down to one of the most prevalent topics in a teenager’s life: maintaining a social life. From tumultuous friend groups to cliques, high school stress doesn’t always come from APs and college exams.
Many describe high school as “cliquey,” saying it can be difficult to insert yourself into groups of people who have been friends with each other since grade school.
“If you’re someone who’s trying to get comfortable with people who are already in an established friend group, it can be harder to break into that and actually get to know those people when they already know each other,” junior Reemey Ghermay said.
Some students struggle with finding peers in high school who they truly connect with, pointing to things like lack of intellectual stimulation and friendships created out of convenience rather than bonds. More often than not, people bond with those around them simply because of the time they’ve endured together. However, there are others who form genuine friendships and connections with those around them.
“I met my high school friends in elementary school…there are definitely friends that I’ve been in high school with who make me a better person,” senior Max Eckstein said. “I choose my friends based on who I think is a good person and who I can learn and grow from.”
Whether students truly connect and bond with their friends can be largely speculative and change from person to person, but more often than not students have their close-knit groups almost pre-established before high school.
So how different is the high school experience from college? It’s often said that college is a prime time to explore yourself and the world around you as well as branch out. Most college students have similar sentiments to share about their experiences: they try to keep in touch with some of their closest high school friends, but mainly expand their circle and attempt to separate themselves.
WJ class of 2023 graduate Sammie Cohen is currently in her second year at the University of Maryland. Cohen expressed how the fresh environment in college makes it easier to make friends and build new relationships since not everyone is tightly-knit.
“Something that I love about college is that you can have so many different friend groups. I feel like in high school, you’re kind of limited in that people think you can only have one friend group and stick with it,“ Cohen said. “In college, I found that I made a lot of friends freshman year. Like in my dorm and sorority, just meeting people in the elevator down the hall, going to lunch with them. I met a lot of friends through class as well.”
Similarly, Henry Saybolt, who is in his sophomore year of Dickinson College shares his thoughts on how he met his friends in college.
“We met through an acappella group on campus and became fast friends, even though we have a variety of interests and majors,” Saybolt said.
When asked about his friends in high school, Saybolt remarked on how he didn’t really try to expand his circle in high school, as he felt it wasn’t necessary at that point in his life. He had always surrounded himself with people he’d known for a long time.
“This was different when I came to college where I mostly knew nobody and had to find friends, none of whom I knew previously, as was the case in high school,” Saybolt said.
