I'm not going to lie, high school was brutal.
Kids were mean, homework was tough (or so I thought)... I envy the kids that had an amazing high school experience; the people that are still friends with their best friend from 9th grade's global class. I wish that I could look back and wish to go back to those days. But, for me, high school was the worst years of my life. But, at least I learned enough from my experience to face what the world after high school threw (and continues to throw) at me.
I was bullied all throughout middle school and high school combined.
I would dread going to school for so many different reasons. I had to leave two schools because my experience got so bad. I didn't have that group of friends that lifted me up. For a while, I ran with the wrong crowd. After that, it was hard for me to make friends. There was no squad waiting for me at a cafeteria table and there weren't people itching to be my partner for in-class projects.
However, even though I didn't have a good high school experience, it prepared me for the real world after high school.
I would like to say that college is completely different than high school. I wish I could tell you that there won't be backstabbing and bad reputations. But I can't say that because those things aren't limited to an age group. Those things don't just happen in high school or college, they'll happen for the rest of your life. The only thing you can do to prepare you from that is to keep your guard up and learn from past pain.
I do envy the people who didn't have to deal with crappy experiences in high school.
I don't, however, envy the fact that they might not have gotten the learning experiences that I did.