The summer before freshman year of high school, I was so excited to get my own locker, go to a bigger school, and gain some bigger responsibility. I went to a small middle school. There were only 50 people in my graduating class, so I was super excited to attend a high school with 10 times that per graduating class. What poor little Sarah Kate didn't know, however, was that kids suck.

The first day of school, I busted through the front doors with what I thought to be a cute outfit, but to my dismay, I was looked down upon by the other girls wearing designer sandals and handbags. That day continued to spiral downhill as I struggled to find my classes and the upperclassmen laughed at me when I hesitantly asked them where a classroom was. What I thought would be one of the most exciting days of my life turned out to be one of the worst.

This article isn't a call for sympathy. I am by no means a special case because literally millions of kids go through what I went through in high school. Most people sit by themselves at lunch or don't attend prom or homecoming like I did. But the question is: why does high school suck so freaking bad? The truth is kids in high school worry too much about what others think about them.

Everything is a competition. For instance, my first day of high school when everyone was wearing designer handbags and sandals. Why on earth do 14-year-olds need a $200 dollar pair of flip flops and a $400 purse? They don't. The kids like me and you that hated high school quite frankly do not care what others think. We didn't go to football games, didn't go to prom, and didn't go to homecoming because, honestly, those things weren't fun to us.

High school is just 4 short years of torture to show people how great the rest of life can be. Okay, okay I'm exaggerating a bit. High school isn't that bad. You are there to get a decent education and a diploma, not to find yourself and all that jazz, but it still isn't fun. By the end of those dreadful four years, you realize you survived, that you did it and you are done with the same people you've been around for nearly half a decade.

Now you've got college to look forward to, and let me tell you college is AMAZING! I guess what I am trying to say is if you are preparing to begin high school don't base your expectations off of High School Musical or Riverdale, but expect to be challenged. Even when it gets rough, and trust me, it will... keep on going because years will seem like minutes by the time you are standing on stage receiving your diploma.