The Pre-High School Dance

I am starting high school in a week.   Current feelings: excitement, nervousness, and anxiety.  I have been combing the internet for help to start high school.  Nothing really spells it out though.  I suppose no one really wants to tell you how to transition because this is your own experience.  You have to figure it out on your own.  Everyone has their own experience and their own situation.  Since everyone is unique, then every high school experience in unique.  To those of you worried about high school, I will write about the preparation for high school.  I am currently going through it and by writing this through, it will put me at ease and hopefully, you at ease.  

• I am going to a Catholic high school, so there is, of course, a uniform.  A friend of mine gave me advice about it and the uniform.  One: Don't get a blouse too loose or you will seem fatter than you really are. Two: Don't get a blouse too tight or you will look like a prostitute.  Three: If the skirt is below your knees, roll it up one or two times.  Four: Don't roll it up so much that it is much higher than your knees.  I really haven't run into many problems with the uniform.  I haven't grown much so my blouses from the 8th grade still fit.  They fit perfectly on me.  If you want to know if your blouse has outgrown you, then the cuffs will be above the wrist and the shirt will not fall naturally on your shoulders.  Also, if you are going to a Catholic high school, be sure to check the handbook for any rules and regulations about your uniform.  For example: my handbook says that the skirt cannot be any shorter than two inches above the knee.  

• I have been having a lot of trouble with the gym clothes.  They are basketball shorts that are blue and have the school logo on it.  I put them on and they were too tight.  The shirt for gym is the same.  So, I will have to try and make an exchange at the bookstore.  My mama's tips are: if the shirt is made of cotton it will shrink in the wash.  So, make sure that when you put the shirt up to yourself that the seam on the shoulder falls a little bit below your shoulder; the shirt should be a little wider than yourself, and the hem should fall just below your crotch.

• When thinking about your locker, you shouldn't buy any decorations or shelving until you know what your locker looks like and the height and width of your locker.  In elementary school and middle school, I was never allowed to use spiral notebooks.  Now that I am, I have bought one for each subject because I would get confused with a three subject notebook, and I tend to write notes a lot.  

• The school will require your health certificate and your immunization record.  I actually spent the past week with my doctor getting that done.  If you are scared of blood tests, I recommend that you close your eyes and look away.  It doesn't take any time and it really doesn't hurt.  You will have a little bruise afterwards, but it doesn't hurt.  If you are scared of shots as much as me, then have someone hold your head and don't watch!  I had to get four yesterday.  I got the flu vaccine, the Hepatitis A part 2 vaccine, the Meningitis vaccine, and the HPV vaccine part 3.  The flu vaccine and the Hepatitis vaccine don't hurt.  I promise you!!!  They are a very small pinch.  The Meningitis vaccine hurts a little, but nothing to cry over.  The HPV vaccine is the most painful.  It lasts for three seconds at most and it is a little surprising, but nothing to cry about.  A couple hours after the inoculations the flu shot is very sore and  the HPV vaccine is very sore as well.  It feels as if you have a bruise there, but there isn't.  Don't scratch at the shots!  My father told me that when he was a little kid, (this is when he was in Cuba) that when he got a shot they put plastic bubbles on the shot so that he couldn't scratch them.  Times have definitely changed.  

I will write more about high school during the next week and hopefully, the next four years.