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Myth #7.  Karma exists here.

What goes around doesn't really come around in high school.  It's like this alternate dimension where the rules of the natural world get all warped and twisted.  Even in the real world, it's true that bad things happen to good people.  Life is unfair.  That is a harsh reality.  But for the most part, karma applies out here in Reality Land. 

Mean people suck.  From my experiences, I have come to the conclusion that people are their meanest in high school (middle school is also horrendous, but everyone knows this).  We hope these mean people grow out of their evil ways, like tormenting anyone who's even the slightest bit different because they think it's fun or something.  Mean people tend to be golden kids (the ones who are beautiful and rich and know how to either throw or kick a ball around) who feel entitled to treat everyone else like crap.*  They're getting away with a lot of evil stuff now, which totally sucks.  All of it will have consequences at some point.

*Note that while mean people are usually golden kids, not all golden kids are mean people.  If you are golden with an actual heart of gold, thank you.

Myth #8.  Teachers gossip about students.

Oh, wait.  That one is true.

Myth #9.  No one understands you.

False.  You are not alone.  There are people who get you.  They may not be your friends.  You may not even know who they are yet.  But they exist.

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Myth #4.  If you put yourself out there, you'll make new friends.

The problem with high school is that everyone already knows everyone else.  Unless you go to one of those huge schools with like four thousand students.  Even then, people will take about two seconds to decide who you are just by how you look.  In most cases, everyone has made judgments about everyone else a long time ago.  These judgments are pretty much carved in stone.  So you're locked into the image of what everyone else thinks you are.  Which seriously blows.

College is monumentally better.  When you first get there, no one knows who you are yet.  There are zero limitations to prevent you from connecting with potential new friends.  You know how sometimes you plan to reinvent yourself over the summer and come back all improved?  But it never seems to work out that way?  Think of college as the ultimate reinvention opportunity.  It's a chance to become the person you've always wanted to be, the person you know you could be if you could just get away from here.  Fresh starts are awesome.  Yours awaits.

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If I had the chance to experience my teenage years all over again, there's no way I would go back.  Surviving mortification has definitely made me a stronger person, but reliving those horrific times would require a superhuman amount of strength.  However, if I had to go back and do it all again, I would want to take what I know now with me.  There are some really important things I wish someone would have told me when I was in high school.  There are also a lot of things people always say are true about high school, but are such lies.  From these, I have compiled the Top Ten High School Myths.  Today I will share the first three with you.

Myth #1.  This is the best time of your life.

Uh, no it's not.  It's the worst time of your life.  I never get it when grownups say how being a teen was so fabulous.  Either they were super popular jock types back in the day (in which case, that's great and all, but most of us cannot relate) or they just forget what high school is really like.  It's amazing how much pain time erases.

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Susane Colasanti is our guest blogger during the week of May 11th. If you have any questions for Susane Colasanti, add a comment to any of her posts.  

Here is more information on Waiting for You:

At the beginning of her sophomore year, Marisa is ready for a fresh start and, more importantly, a boyfriend. So when the handsome and popular Derek asks her out, Marisa thinks her long wait for happiness is over. But several bumps in the road-including her parents' unexpected separation, a fight with her best friend, and a shocking disappointment in her relationship with Derek-test Marisa's ability to maintain her new outlook. Only the anonymous DJ, whose underground podcasts have the school's ear, seems to understand what Marisa is going through. But she has no idea who he is-or does she?

In this third romantic novel from Susane Colasanti, Marisa learns how to "be in the Now" and realizes that the love she's been waiting for has been right in front of her all along.

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