When I was in the lower grades of high school it drove me crazy that I had to take a whole slew of standardized, impersonal core classes that nobody really cared about. I couldn’t wait to be an upperclassmen and take engaging AP classes. I certainly don’t miss the pre-AP days, but recently I realized something I missed about them. I was talking to my friend Chrissy, who, to a much greater extent than me, is a heinous overachiever. We were talking about her classes, and she said, “I hate having all APs. It’s just the same people over and over in all my classes.”
That really awakened me to something I’ll miss about the lower grades of high school: you’re forced to interact with all kinds of people. It’s striking, when you think about it, how much elective classes dictate social groups. My closest friends this year are mostly on the same college-bound track as I am. Other subgroups of kids – those who take a more moderate class load and focus on a sport; those who aren’t looking to go to a selective college – are also vaguely defined by their academic tendencies. But in freshmen and sophomore year, we all had classes together.
With the end drawing near, I’ve started to single out random people and wonder about them. I think, “Such-and-such seems like a cool guy. I’d like to get to know him.” But I know I won’t. And it makes me melancholy, in a way. I almost wish that I was still being shaken around with the whole school population, so that I would have classes with a more diverse group of kids and make friends outside of the same batch who takes every AP class.
And then there’s the other part, where I realize that I had a two-year window to make friends with people from all social groups before the egotistical exclusiveness of upperclassmanship set in. The people I met during those years affected my high school experience hugely, all because of total, random chance. There are probably plenty of cool people who would have become my friends if, and only if, I was put in a room with them every day for a year. Who knows who those people are? I’ll never find out now whether or not I would have been friends with such-and-such or so-and-so. It’s a fascinating and mind-boggling thought. Like people are predispositioned to like or dislike each other, but they don’t find out that the pieces fit until they’re shaken around and they bump into place. Who knows how many students at Homestead are a perfect fit to be my friend, but just never ended up bumping into me?
It’s crazy to think about destiny in such a way. Ultimately, I can’t wait for college to give me a fresh start on making all types of friends. I’m a lot more open and extroverted than I was in freshman year, and in college I plan to join clubs, try sports and take electives that will allow me to meet all kinds of people. Because let’s face it – only being friends with like-minded people is boring. The ones that lead you to try new things and stretch your definition of who you are are the ones who are different from you, but who you still somehow get along with. The fact that I’ve probably passed all my chances to make identity-stretching friendships in high school both saddens me and makes me antsy to move on to greener pastures.
the whole benchilada 
I completely agree with you. It’s not only in AP classes though. I see the same people in all of my AP and honors classes too. However, I also think that it’s nice to be around people who are like-minded. It helps me not feel like I am the lone black sheep in the herd. You know what I mean? But then, it’s also nice to be around people that are completely different from you because it opens up different views and opinions on things.
I agree with you also and it’s something I’ve thought about as well. This is why I was so glad to join journalism my sophomore year because people like John were not people I would have known otherwise, if you know what I mean. I have always said that I think you could put most people on a team together and just by spending enough time together eventually some of the barriers of ‘groups’ come down and I do believe in it. The caveat though, of course, is that people who voluntarily join a team tend to be similar people. For example, there is a boy here who lives in the suite across from me that is in EVERY SINGLE ONE of my organizations and it’s just making me think more and more how there’s archetypes of people. Classes that aren’t voluntary create diversity so much more than ones that are and extracurriculars.
Since I’m now a freshman again and experiencing taking the same basic GEs with everyone else, I’m going to try to shake it up more than I used to and become friends with people before we become divided along the lines of elective, interest, and major.
Speaking of archetypes of people, everyone I meet here seems to remind me of someone I know at Homestead, mostly notably one person who I swear is a doppelganger of a friend of mine. It’s interesting to think about originality and how all of us are probably just variations on a certain blueprint of character.