Ah yes, my junior year in high school. The year that things get really shitty for some, and really great for others. Well, maybe not great. Compare to Sophomore Year, and Freshman Year. Freshman are young and stupid. I wasn't especially happy my freshman year, living the lonely life of the lone geek in a rural high school. The key to success there depended on how well you played football and the size of your penis. People who had these qualities managed to get a 4.0 and become outstanding memebers of the NHS (admittedly, at my school at least, NHS is a load of crap), and yet struggled to get an 18+ on the ACT. Of course, we all know that usually nothing comes of such fools in the end, but does that matter right now?

So freshman year was bad, but then I met people. They seemed to want to know me, and they asked me to go places with them. Finally, like everybody said they would, things were getting better. Sophomore year was a huge improvement. This was, of course, leading up to the summer of your Junior year. Even then it was good, me and my buddies went to the movies every week and we had a good time, and they didn't mind that I was a geek.

Young people, if your situation sounds like what I described above, I warn you now, buckle down for the ultra-shitty ride of your life. Even if it doesn't, you may go through it too. Sure, everybody is depressed in high school, don't get me wrong, but some take it harder than others. Nobody leaves high school unscathed.

The terror for me began when one by one, my movie buddies couldn't go to movies anymore, because they all got serious girlfriends around at this time, and they had to go to the movies with them. So, no more movies for you, unless you go by yourself. "Invite some women" you say? Ha. At this time, all your mistakes and the worst aspects in people take this time to surface, and there are three terrible things I can think of that hit you at the same time, and leave you for dead.

1: Just Friends Syndrome . Now you will see what you earned by being the caring, gentle, intelligent person that you were. You made a lot of "just friends". Congradulations. Fool. True, it would be bad for you to just be nice to somebody in the hopes of getting laid. However, this is high school, and Just Friends Syndrome is going to cause you a lot of pain. It wouldn't be so bad, but this is high school, and all your problems are increased by an order of magnitude or so. Really, friends are nice, but they will prove to not be a source for relationships, and you need all that you can get. Think for a moment that you are a farmer, who has just woken up one spring and noticed that his crops are not growing, and he needs to eat. That is what happens, you realize that you need a girlfriend, but everything you have won't work. When combined with the other things, something crappy gets crappier. Even as friends, they lose their value, for reasons which will become clear.

2: Everybody Else has a Girlfriend . Be afraid. Be very afriad. Once, when my best female friend had a party, I was mysteriously not invited. When I asked why, I got an answer that was to chill my heart for a long time, "I couldn't invite you, because you are single". Apart from being the dumbest thing I've ever heard, I heard it a lot. I would rather have been kicked in the balls till I pissed blood than to have heard that. All your friends get gf's, and they all do things in these damned "couples", which you are not a part of. For a time, you may have other geek-like friends, but you realize that it is only a matter of time. You create a list in your head of friends who will still do things with you, but one by one, they fall. You could be standing at a party one day, talking to a guy, and then a female approaches the guy you are talking to, and disrupts your converstaion by talking to said guy. They eventually take a trip to the gas station a few blocks away to resupply the party. They don't come back for 2 hours. Cross another one off your list. You make a list in your mind, and bet with yourself how long the remaining few have left, and assign a general timeline of who is going to go when. The sad thing is, you usually end up being right.

3: There are no women left . Between the other two things said above, this leaves you with a big problem, there are no women left. All the ones that would give you the time of day are infected with Just Friends Syndrome and/or are dating other guys, and there is no chance for you to jump in. My mother once remarked to me that she heard a girl say I was cute once, so things couldn't be that bad (she was nagging me about the prom). The signifignace of the fact that said girl was in the 5th grade didn't seem to phase her. As time go by, you will get more and more cut off. All the friends who had just friends syndrome, suddenly no longer have time for you, so they are worthless now.

Once you're a junior, the full signifigance of these things makes itself clear to you, now that you are just a little bit smarter (hopefully). If you are older, and high school wasn't that bad, pat yourself on the back. If you are younger, and have yet to go through it all, get ready for a tour of hell. There will be tough times, like Valentine's day, New Years Eve ("oh, we forgot to call and tell you about our party"), and being rejected for the 4th time in asking somebody out to the junior prom is going to sting as well (you eventually won't go). Do things get better? I'm sorry to say, the answer is only "maybe". I still haven't recovered myself, but I have a lot of years left, I'm still young. I'm sure some people recover as quickly as their senior year. Really, it just depends on how much the people around you (and probably yourself) grow up.