By J1 Reporter Lily Mausbach

One common characteristic appears in “She’s All That,” “Clueless,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “Footloose,” and many more. That common characteristic would be that it takes place in high school. That happily ever after feeling and concluding scenes in a movie revolve around high school. Growing up, watching these movies makes it feel like you have to have your life together before the end of the movie, but in high school.

Watching movies like these make it feel like I must have my life together by the time I’m a senior. I’ve seen girls my age, high schoolers in general, younger and older than me, asking “Gosh, why am I still single? What’s wrong with me? Am I not putting myself out there?” I have heard these questions asked by the smartest and most confident girls I know putting themselves down because they don’t have a significant other, like they are less because they don’t.

Older people in my life make it seem like having a “high school sweetheart” is a requirement to graduate or to measure my life experiences on whether I’ve ever had a boyfriend. It’s infuriating going to family dinner and being asked, not about my grades, not about new extracurricular activities I’ve signed up for, not even about how my week went, the initial question is: so you got a boyfriend yet? This mindset can be very discouraging when every other aspect of your life is going well, if you don’t have a significant other to share it with, it’s not worth it, but again we are in high school.

We are only on chapter two of our life, why do I need to be concerned with this so soon? The pressure from society to be in a relationship has been translated into self stress to meet the norms of having a boyfriend in high school. Going to an all girls school has taught me to be my own person and be confident in the work I do. When I go out into the world I’m suddenly expected to not be my own person, but share it with someone else. I would be happy graduating with as much character development as Laney Boggs, in “She’s All That,” without the concluding scenes of her and Zack under the stars.