After almost three months studying in the United States as exchange students, a few peers and I have learned that American high schools are not exactly like the one we saw in movies. We came here expecting the typical yellow buses, football games, lockers, and dances, just like in movies or social media. With Alva from Sweden and Daniel from Spain, we compared what we imagined with what we actually found.
Before coming, we all had similar ideas. Alva said she imagined “lockers in the hallways where everyone had their own one and yellow buses,” and Daniel said he expected “big football games, lockers, and everyone having a car.” We also thought there would be a lot of school spirit, different food, and students divided into groups like in American movies.
We were very excited about the “typical things.” Daniel said he looked forward to “Homecoming, Prom, and meeting people from another country.” Alva said she “really wanted to make friends with people from another country,” even though she was nervous about the first day of school.
When we arrived, we realized that some things were true and others were different. The football games are real, and the atmosphere is amazing.
“It’s even better to experience it than to imagine it,” Alva said. However, lockers are not used, and the yellow buses are less comfortable than we thought. Daniel said that “almost everyone has a car, and without it, it would be hard to do half of what people do here.”
We also noticed that students are very friendly. “I thought there would be more groups of people, but many students are friends with everybody,” Alva said. Some other surprises were that people sometimes come to school in pajamas, eat in class, and start every morning with the Pledge of Allegiance.
There are also big differences with our home countries. In Spain and Sweden, students stay with the same classmates all day, while here we meet new people in every class. “That’s something I really like,” Alva said. The grading system is different too. Daniel said that “in Spain we only get a final grade at the end of the semester, but here we can check our grades all the time.”
American high school is not exactly like the movies, but maybe that is the best part: getting to discover what it is really like for ourselves. Beyond the yellow buses and football games, we found a friendly and open community that made us feel welcome from the first day.
