Ah, high school. In elementary and middle school, kids cannot wait to be high school students. Their parents, grandparents, and elder siblings tell them how amazing high school was and how much they wish they could go back and stay forever.

Being a part of your average American household, I had these same things drilled into my brain. I was always eager to get to high school; I thought they would be my golden years. You watch movies such as "Sixteen Candles," "Pretty in Pink", "The Breakfast Club" and even "High School Musical," and you expect these stories to be reality. I know at least I did.

After elementary school was when things went downhill for me. Middle school was home to more work, the awkward stages of puberty, and friends leaving, but I still had that little tinge of hope that in high school I might meet the love of my life and make straight A's while being popular and beautiful just like Molly Ringwald. Unfortunately, I was met with the disappointment that my life was not a popular 80's film as soon as I stepped through the doors my freshman year. Everything I had perceived high school, crumbled around me and led to some of the worst years of my life. I never found a Troy Bolton or had a tight-knit group of friends in detention. Instead, I met hundreds of Sharpays that decided in order to have their "golden years," they had to destroy mine (and many others) and Mrs. Darbuses that gave overwhelming amounts of work and testing. I ended up going on homeschooling for the second semester of my sophomore year then went into a private program for my junior year and ended up graduating a day early. In fact, the day that I am writing this marks one year since I've received my diploma and bid goodbye to high school altogether.

However, I know I am not alone when I express my dissatisfaction with high school.

But if so many other students hate high school, why do people still idolize it? Sure, our family's stories, 80's movies, and Disney films are part of our perception, but what about the rest? After all, it is our experiences that decide how we feel about something. So, the fact is simply that - experiences. We have pressure from society on how we should look and act, pressure from teachers to excel in academics, pressure from coaches to be the star athlete, pressure from family to help around the household, and pressure from friends to have a healthy social life. High school is when most adolescents start getting more freedom and responsibilities, and it all comes crashing down at once. It's overwhelming, and not everybody can handle it.

Now, how are high school students today different than those from past generations? A lot of ways, actually, but the most prominent difference is schoolwork. Students today are expected to spend 3 hours of work outside of class per hour of class. So, if a student has six classes at an hour long each, that is 18 hours outside of class in which students are expected to be devoted to schoolwork. 18 hours plus the six spent in school adds up to 24 hours. Yes, that's right, an entire day just for one day of school. There is no social life, chores, work, sleep, or even eating factored into this amount. It is all school. Students are stressed at higher levels than ever, and they're developing depression, anxiety, and some have even attempted or committed suicide. Yet American School systems continue to pile on the work and standardized tests. You may believe standardized tests calculate everyone's intelligence equally, but you are sorely mistaken. Let's say you have a monkey, and elephant, and a fish. To test them equally, you tell them to climb a tree. Is that fair? No. Now, let's say you have a student that excels in mathematics, a student that prefers art, and an athlete. To test them equally, you tell them to solve a problem exactly the way you showed them. The art student may solve it correctly but use a different method, yet they are criticized for it. The athlete may not have solved it correctly at all, but that doesn't mean he's dumb. Now, have these same three students run a mile. This isn't a fair test. Have them draw a still life. Is this fair? No. So why is it fair in common core subjects like English, math, history and science. Every child is intelligent in their own way, and school systems make them believe otherwise. I was terrible at math, and I had teachers that put me down for it. They didn't acknowledge my performance in other classes. I understand that everyone should know basic mathematics and I agree. But trigonometry, geometry, and physics? You don't use those every day. I have been graduated for a year and have never once used anything more than addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. I have not once had to balance a chemical equation. I have not once had to read a passage and answer 30 questions in 15 minutes.

So why do we do it? Why do we put students under so much pressure? Why do we give everyone the same test when everyone is an individual? I don't know, and I'm certain you don't either. Let's do something about it. Let's write to school boards, express our concern, and look to other countries for tips on academics. Parents, teachers, guardians: help your student. You would never purposefully put a child through so much stress it could lead to suicide, so why let the schools do it? Take a stand, and help your student learn. Help them learn at their pace using methods they prefer. Change is possible, but only if we come together. Don't let your children or grandchildren struggle like I and so many others did.

Let's make high school the golden years again.