This might be an interesting story all by itself. The story of a girl’s complete personality change from middle school into high school The quiet introverted, straight A, teacher’s pet, develops into the extroverted, talkative girl. She would call herself a crazy cat lady and was known around the school for her cat obsession. She spent schooldays and weekends with the same three friends. She never pictured herself to be a social butterfly who migrates between friend groups in highschool. Perhaps, it was because she began elementary school homeschooled and shifted from hours of alone time to rooms packed with kids. Highschool brought upon a great change because of new people. The new school was a way for me to become me because the new kids didn’t know me as the crazy cat lady or the weird quiet girl. And the people I’d known for years no longer saw me as a wallflower. 

To achieve good grades and be successful throughout highschool, parents and teachers emphasize that you cannot get distracted by friends. They say you have to prioritize your academic life over your social life or else you will fail. I was expected to be quiet, enjoy school, and find passion in learning over everything else. I was expected to go to school, then to return home and immediately hit the books, and go to bed at 9 pm. Instead, after school I would go to cross country practice, the sport in which you are constantly talking to your friends because what else is there to do while running? Then I would hang out with friends after practice, pushing my homework aside until the late hours of the night. When I wasn’t with friends after school, one could find me texting, Snapchatting or Facetiming. For being home alone without friends led to boredom. The one similarity I kept with my prior self, was that I never let my grades drop. 

Even my parents expected me to be more introverted, I remember freshman year before our first pep rally, my mom came to me with a suggestion. 

“How about tomorrow during the assembly you ask if you can go to the library to do homework? I’ve heard that kids who don’t like loud noise go there” 

Confused about my mom’s suggestion, I still went to the assembly. I didn’t mind the madhouse with echoes of yelling and laughter bouncing off the walls. Three years later, I’m now part of the upperclassmen standing on the floor of the assembly, holding posters, and chanting. I watch the freshman sitting down at the back of the bleachers and see who my mom pictures me to be. 

The summer before junior year, I got my first job. A job at my best friend’s family’s pizza restaurant where I work at a hostess. A job centered around talking. Answering phones, greeting customers, helping servers, being the buffer between the kitchen and everyone else, and handling angry customers. Most new hires at Buddyz Pizza are timid and barely speak to customers on their first days. By the beginning of my second day, I was comfortable and could take phone orders as well as speak to customers in person. If timid and shy middle school Reyna had taken this job, she would’ve quit on the first day. Luckily, my experience transitioning to highschool taught me how to communicate with both my peers and adults.

I needed to be surrounded by friends. I was driven by social gatherings. I relied on other people for energy and excitement. I hated being alone. I thrived in loud environments. I talked to people during school. I talked to my family. I talked on the phone constantly to my friends when I was home. I talked while studying.Yet,  I grew up an introvert. Highschool changed me into an extrovert, and taught me communication skills to help me in the real world.