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Cliques: Divide and Conquer

When we were younger, keeping friends seemed so simple. We thought that they’d stay the same for the rest of our lives. But, we soon start to realize that blowing bubbles in our chocolate milk and sharing snacks isn’t going to keep us connected for much longer. Friends change all the time and so do people. They go hand in hand. As we grow up, we want different aspects of a friendship which causes us to lose those we thought we’d always be close to.

High school changes people. The friends that you had in your ‘cliques’ when you were younger, might not be the friends you have now. Just like with dating someone, the spark can go away. But, that spark can also become a raging fire. In an article titled High School Brings Changes in Friend Groups the author explains just this.

Friendships in high school drift and many splinter. That’s a fact. But splintering and shattering are different, and there lies the problem.”

Ensuring a good high school experience while your clique is slowly slipping away can be difficult to handle. Some may even call it a mid-life crisis. Although all of these accusations may be true, Woodland students have their own take on the high school experience. Their friendships have gone upside down and back around again, but it seems that when the coaster finally comes to a stop and more passengers get on it starts to feel a little more hopeful.

Freshman, Ashlee Alves, 15, came into high school with a close-knit group of friends that have slowly disconnected over time,

“I have lost contact with a few of my old friends, but it was only because I realized they weren’t good friends to have.”

Being wise and realizing that this clique wasn’t for her, she went out in search of new friends which she happened to stumble upon.

I’ve made friends with some upperclassmen which I really like and are much better friends for me than the old ones that I’ve lost touch with,” Alves explains, “but I’ve also reconnected with people I used to talk too and they’ve grown so they’re better people now.”

Friends are confusing. They mislead you and they can even use you for their ulterior motives. Senior, Justin Raymond, 17, started to abandon his clique in sophomore year and is much happier now.

“I fell into the wrong group of people when I first started going to school here at Woodland,” Raymond reveals, “but I transitioned to a more stable group of friends. My high school experience is much better with the friends in my life now.”

Sophomore Sara Strileckis was faced with the question of her changing clique. She felt the same way as the previous students and it seems that most students start to switch groups after already being in high school for a year.

“In my first year of Woodland, I had a friend group of only people in my grade and never connected with anyone else in the school, “Strileckis said, “but this year I found new friends and I have a better relationship with my school and the new people I am around.”

Being an upperclassmen doesn’t just mean that you’ve lost more friends because you’ve been in high school longer. It can also mean that they’ve seen visible cliques around the school as well, such as the jocks, the overachievers, the nerds, and so many more labels it’s hard to count them all.

Cliques are like earthquakes. Sometimes the ground shakes so horribly that people are split apart, but after it’s over the smoke clears and the birds chirp. There’s someone else waiting and greeting you. Maybe they’re better or maybe their worse, but that’s all part of the experience. The only thing that we high schooler’s have to do is sit back and enjoy it.