At the age of nine I watched the movie “High School Musical” for the first time. From that day forward the “HSM” trilogy has been comforting to me. Freshman year, I expected high school to be just like the movies; however it was far from it. As senior year approaches, it seems I have finally figured out the message of the movie I have loved for so many years — individuality. 

The high school experience is unique for everyone, and expectations change as the years go on. Freshman year I expected to play volleyball and basketball all four years, and I had every intention of maintaining the friendships I made in kindergarten; however, this didn’t happen. By the beginning of junior year, I had quit all school sports and hadn’t talked to those people in months. 

As my life changed and I strayed further and further away from the person I used to be, I realized that I was better off as the person I was becoming. When entering high school, I tried to fit myself into the cookie cutter of the teens I had watched on television; however, as I grew I realized that these characters who I tried to base parts of my life off of were not wanting me to fit myself into a cookie cutter. The movies were made to highlight individuality and straying away from the path we have always known. It’s about finding who you are and what you want in your life, not forming into the person other people think you should be or have always been. 

In future stories, I plan to highlight people or groups who endorse the individuality that high school is all about — ranging from being different kinds of smart to the fact that reading isn’t lame.