Spoiler Alert: High school ruins everything. But, students at Taylorsville High (THS) seem to already know that. In the words of Sophomore Bailee Ogletree, “It stinks. All high school kids are immature.”
Harvard Magazine found adolescents’ brains are about 80% developed. Of course, as Ogletree said, they can still be very immature as the brain isn’t at full capacity yet. Because of this simple fact, should they have the privilege to interact romantically? A relationship can be very time consuming and mentally draining. Therefore, they can’t focus on multiple things at once.
“(Relationships are) very stressful and can cause a lot of drama. Like you have a whole other person’s emotions that you have to deal with.” Sophomore Cloee Spjute said.
Of course, for students who have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), it’s even worse. Understood Assistant explained that people with ADHD experience emotions very intensely, making them hyperfocus on the emotions/infatuation and getting stuck there. Because they experience this, infatuation is more intense and they can get distracted and won’t focus on important things like school work. Even without ADHD, students at Taylorsville say they tend to focus on their relationships more than they should.
Sophomore Ayden Savas said, “(Relationships) can be helpful or hurtful.”
With students focusing on relationships and maybe other interests such as sports, they have no time to focus on school work. They have no time to focus on the things that will impact their future the most.
Spjute said that she had the choice to stay at this school or to move to one that may have been better for her education. She made the decision to stay at Taylorsville and that would be because of her current partner. Unfortunately, her current partner ended up leaving the school and she’s now stuck with what she views as the lower education.
On the other side of things, when it comes to life post high school, Spjute and Ogletree both say that they would choose college over their partner.
“I’m so sorry, but when it comes to college, I will leave that person for college,” Spjute said.
That’s a smart decision, which shows that even though relationships can have a hold on students, it’s not as strong as we might think.
Ogletree said the same thing, “…I would still go (to college). I’m not going to let a relationship stop me from doing something I love.”
Students say that having a relationship in high school is allowing them to be more knowledgeable about how they want their long-term relationship to go when they’re older. Almost like showing them what flags to look for and what certain things they want to have for the rest of their life. It’s like they’re educating themselves and learning how to be a good partner.
“(It’s) like a practice. They can show you what you want in a relationship/partner.” Spjute said.
Overall, whether students think so or not, a high school relationship can really impact students current and post-highschool life. For good and/bad. It can cause drama, hurt mental health, and ruin friendships, show students what they want in a partner, cause trust issues, etc. Students should definitely consider these things thoroughly, as well as what their priorities are right now. It all comes down to this, high school ruins everything. Choose wisely what to do with high school years, they are short but make ‘em sweet.
