When a student walks past an old friend in the stairwell and feels uneasy, it shows how students transition from middle school to high school. Friendships can sometimes slowly fade due to schedule changes and new hobbies, creating new bonds.
As students move from middle school into high school, friendships often change in unpredictable ways. Seeing an old friend in the hallway can feel uneasy, but it reflects how people grow throughout school years, which forms new bonds. These changes show that friendships don’t typically end because of conflict, but sometimes they fade as students adjust to new changes and discover who they are becoming.
“I feel like probably everybody has a different idea about what that means, and some people might not have any desire to chase popularity, where other people might feel like that’s a large goal for themselves,” Guidance Counselor Laura Schnitzler said.
Students tend to change popularity or have the desire to change for other people and not what they want for themselves during the beginning of high school. Towards the end of high school, people just follow what they desire.
“Along with many of my peers, I can say now at the end of our high school journey that we should have listened. The number of ways friend groups change is endless. But in talking to my peers and reflecting on personal experience, relationships, arguments, and transferring schools are the most common and largest ways friend groups can shift,” according to “The Way Friend Groups Change in Highschool”
With personal experience and hobbies that can affect the differences in your friend group. More people tend to care a lot more about things their freshman year versus their senior year because they have had time to learn and grow.
“I feel like a lot of times people care about what they look like or who they’re friends with freshman year, senior year. I feel like it was their last year. Everybody kind of just comes together,” Ragan Moore (12) said.
Friendships over the years throughout high school can change differently. When students know roughly the same group of kids they go through four years with, everyone bonds accordingly.
“It was the transition into freshman year. I had a lot of close friends in eighth grade, and then everyone kind of branched off after they had the first high school electives that were mixed classes. They’ve started making friends with people of different grades, so some of us stay together, and some of us lose close touch,” Teacher Kelsey Sentney said.
Students frequently use social media instead of face-to-face contact to resolve problems. When students use social media, they tend to resolve problems better.
“I feel like social media has a big influence on that. I feel like, especially with your generation, a lot of people do use social media and avoid confrontation, like face-to-face confrontation,” Teacher Emily Haffey said.
Overall, friendships change throughout high school in many different ways. As students go through their four years of high school, they bond and form new friendships.
