Secondary school: some thoughts (but by no means all of them or the most important)

Hello splodgies!

Today on my list of topics for this blog is "being a loner at school" which may, to some seem like a strange topic. Sitting at my window and watching the rain, casting my mind back to secondary school feel rather strange as its something I usually choose not to do. I did not enjoy secondary school. There were many reasons for this, but many of them may seem trivial.



I used have this theory (which I no longer believe to be correct, by the way) that had there been just one other girl from my primary school in my teaching group (it was a bizarrely organised system, one group for registration, another for lessons and then separate sets for english maths and science) that I would not have become/felt so isolated from my peers. People who know me will already know that as a child I was a chaotic, noisy, bouncy energetic person. However this was not the case in school because I could not find anyone else like myself.

So even though I had a twin sister and an older brother at the same school, I found the majority of my time there very lonely. I did have some friends, though the only times I got to see them were during breaks and lunchtime, and the group (who were all seeming to be fellow outcasts) were prone to falling out with each other which le to the rest of the group having to take sides which never ended well. These days I'm only in touch with 2 or 3 of them, as the others seem to have either forgotten I exist or decided I don't matter. People move on, I get that, but it would be nice to receive something as little as acknowledgement whenever I attempt to make contact.

Strangely, as I have come back this evening to finish writing this post, the sun has come out! and it makes me feel very cheerful. As does the rest of my story, education wise at least. After completeing my GCSEs I decided to move to a different school as soon as possible. What was the strangest thing for me was that when I waent to my new school, I had found not only did I enjoy learning, but I had to get used to having friends around me in every class- something which I relished after the five years of lonely boredom.

What I would say to anybody who is very young and has stumbled upon my blog and find themselves in the same situation here would be some tips for surviving it all:

1- work out which subjects you enjoy and/or excel in and look forward to them popping up in your timetable a couple of times a week. Having something to look forward to makes the prospect of going to school less daunting. Or at least it did for me.

2. Remember that lots of people are going through the same thing. I found this out by going to the library- this was where I met most of my friends, as this was a place where we were least likely to be harassed by other students.

3. If you are having a hard time at school, remember that it will end. School really isn't forever. You will look back on your days in school and think how little what happened there is affecting you now. I know that may be a little unhelpful, but in the grand scheme of things it does not matter. School doesn't have to follow you home, you can leave shit people at school. If you're having trouble with social media sites, close them down until you've left or block people who are making you upset for any reason. The only social media site I used whilst at secondary school was Bebo (I know, right?? Nobody remembers it really) and it wasn't until I went to my new school that I got myspace, facebook and youtube accounts. My myspace page is pretty defunct now though to be honest.


What about you? Did you ever have trouble in secondary/high school? Did you ever move schools? what did you think about it all? Let me know in the comments.

Today, this is me:

See you tomorrow, with a more cheerful topic I think :P

-Rosa
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