The Jabberwock

While school is a grand privilege the majority of teens today have and teaches valuable essential skills and lessons, there are some things schools simply can’t teach and lessons you can’t learn in a classroom. Subjects like math, history, science etc. are undeniably important to
learn from an early age to build knowledge that will push teens throughout the rest of their lives. However, school is objective. It doesn’t get personal. Most schools aren’t teaching students how to manage their stress in a healthy way; they don’t teach teenagers how to cope with their emotions beyond a twenty minute health class seminar. When my two best friends and I first started high school, we were ecstatic. We’d been talking about our freshman year since we met in the sixth grade. All summer, we couldn’t stop talking about how we’d finally reached the grade and ages we had been fantasizing about for over three years. We didn’t know what this new learning environment would mean for us, but we knew we’d have each other. We then found out
as the year went on the reality of high school. Granted, academics weren’t as difficult as we had worried they would be, but we faced new challenges and emotions we ultimately were not prepared for. No teacher had fully been able to teach us how to navigate these new problems and emotions. Luckily, we were not alone in facing them. When we could not rely on adults to help guide us through these new feelings and experiences, we leaned on each other. We learned from one another. This support system showed us things we could not have found in a classroom. We learned to deal with issues both by ourselves and with the support of each other when we needed it. We learned how to let go of things that no longer served us for our own benefit to become
stronger and healthier young women in an environment that did not always show us how to do so. We found new people to welcome into our lives. While this shift was overwhelming at first and was a new lesson within itself, the three of us knew when it came down to it, we would
always be able to rely on each other to show us the right direction. This is a bond that cannot be taught through textbooks or practiced through homework; a bond that has taught me valuable lessons I can never learn in school.