High School Reflective Report

High school, that carefree time in life, where your biggest problem is worrying about what outfit you’ll wear on “dress down” day. Where every day is filled with laughter, and curiosity, and inspiration. Bright-eyed students fill each classroom, eager to soak in what the world has to teach. However, not every lesson learnt in high school is a pleasant one. In this reflective piece I revisit my final years in high school, when I learnt how one’s social status (or at least the perception of one’s social status) can practically change overnight, and just how deeply it can affect one’s life. Before jumping into my story, I think it would be of benefit to examine Belize’s social structure, as I have now come to understand it. The factors which

My grades were, admittedly, average, I sort of got by doing bare minimum. I was still at the top of my class (which is a bit sad now that I think back to it) but that didn’t mean much to me at the time. My friends were my life. Growing up I had one friend. Seriously, one, single friend until standard four, at which point I moved to Texas. There I made one more friend before I moved back to Belize for high school. I am not complaining, they were great friends, but I do believe this led to my captivation with my new-found group of friends. We were all inseparable. I never spent a weekend at home. We would go on trips together, plan our futures together, and of course get into trouble together. We even called each other’s parents mom and dad. It was pure bliss. Then, after a few too many mishaps, my parents decided to move me to a smaller, private institution for my final year. I was troubled that I wouldn’t be able to fully experience my senior year with all my friends, but I was also excited for a new experience. My friends were basically brothers and sisters at this point, nothing could break our bond. I was sure that I would still see them every weekend; that nothing would really change between us. I was