Thursday, July 18, 2013

High School Advice #6 - Love it, Hate it, or something more! Guest post by Melissa Groeling author of Traffic Jam

My 6th High School Advice guest post is by Melissa Groeling who is the author of Traffic Jam.  Links to other High School Advice guest posts can be found at the end of this post.  Thank you to Melissa & all of the other fabulous authors who have supported my Guest post vision. 

Now onto Melissa’s post:
         
          High school.
          The best years of your life?
          Or the seventh circle of hell?
          Good memories?
          Or nothing more than days full of too much homework, people you don’t like and waking up way too early?
          High school has the capacity to be one or all of the above. It’s the only place outside of a warzone where you can rightfully deem yourself as nothing short of a freaking superhero for making it out alive every day. And I’m not just talking about the long hours, the school work, the detentions or even that one person who goes out of his or her way every single lunch period to make your life a living hell. I’m talking about the decisions you make. I’m talking about that decision-making ability that you will eventually hone in order to be the person that you’ll be comfortable being.
          Sounds corny, right?
          Okay, let me break it down for you.
I had the dubious honor of going to two high schools. The first was a small was in New Jersey and the second was a huge, regional school in Pennsylvania. The differences, as you can imagine, were staggering. I lost all my friends when we moved, the house I grew up in, the familiarity of everything that was mine. I always thought I knew myself, my limits, my boundaries until I was swept away in a school that had over 3,000 students.
          In a word, it was madness.
I lost who I was. I wasn’t sure of anything. I doubted myself because everything was so different—the classes, the faces, the accents (that was definitely something you couldn’t help but notice). My first year consisted of me being pissed off, snobby and completely disagreeable. I couldn’t wait to get home every day because my family, at least, was still familiar to me.
          It all comes back to my first point: making it out alive. And I’m not sure how I even managed it.
          I’m not going to wrap this up in a Hallmark movie moment and tell you I had some grand epiphany and suddenly everything fell in place. It took well into my junior year before I felt anything even remotely close to not-angry and not-awkward. By then, my temperament had cooled and I knew what I had to do in order to excel enough to get my diploma and get the hell away from there.
          And when I did, it was bittersweet.
Even though you don’t want it to be, high school becomes familiar to you like your favorite jeans. When you leave it, you’re leaving it to try new and better things.
          High school doesn’t last forever. Some people want it to but most people don’t. I was definitely one of those who didn’t want it to. It’s painful, awkward and frustrating but it’s also a place where you can start to unearth little bits of yourself. Eventually you’ll find your way out.
          When you do, don’t bother looking back. Because forward is where the rest of your life is.

          Without the homework.

About the Author:  Melissa Groeling graduated from Bloomsburg University with a degree in English. She lives, reads and writes in the Philadelphia region and wherever else life happens to send her. She is a hardcore New York Giants fan and loves chocolate. Traffic Jam is her first young adult novel.



Come find me at Facebook, Twitter, or my Blog !!


Traffic Jam Blurb:  When you’re caught in traffic, you’ve got nowhere to go…
Val Delton’s life is spiraling and there’s nothing she can do to stop it. Her dad lost his job, her mom works fourteen hour days to pay the bills and yet somehow there are high-end shopping bags and an iPod in her older sister’s room. Naturally, Val becomes suspicious but her sister’s lips are sealed. Then by accident, she uncovers a dark, dangerous secret hidden behind her sister’s bright smiles and cool indifference. Val has no idea how far and how deep the repercussions of her sister’s secret will reach but she’ll do whatever it takes to keep her family safe. Will she succeed before her sister’s secret destroys everyone she loves?

Interested in reading??

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