I’m sure you have big plans for winter break. Most likely you plan to visit a Ski Lodge Teen Night where you will sing “ The Start of Something New” and meet the cutie of your dreams? No? Are you not the star basketball player with his head in the game, but his heart in the song? Let’s face it, High School Musical is the lifeblood of this generation. But, could we have prepared for high school on  High School Musical alone?  Did the infectious tunes and jaw dropping plotlines ( Did Sharpay and Zeke actually end up together?)  leave us with a serious “expectation vs. reality” complex or a mere confusion as to why on the first day of school we didn’t stand on tables and sing about our passions?  I think we were all expecting to be swept off our feet the very first day back from summer break, that is realistic right?…. No.  To be perfectly honest, it’s a fairytale. Granted, I was only 7 when the first High School Musical came out. I burst into song at random times to narrate my life anyways ; the movie was not far off from my own life. Though unrealistic to us now, as a 7 year old, I fully expected High School Musical awaiting me in high school.

A prime example of unrealistic high school experiences is the idea of “Cliques.” “ I think there are a lot of people that think they’re popular… but they’re not, we’re all equal,” Ben Stump (11) says.  The Primary Focus of High School Musical is the assumption that cliques cannot mix and you can only have one passion. “I have never felt as though someone has made fun of me for being in theater or forensics,” said Austin Vanderwheele (10). Now that is a shocker; we were not expecting to be felt so accepted by those with different interests. If you think about it, every cliche high school movie has a stereotypical girl that bullies everyone and in the end they all become friends.

High School Musical left us with some very high expectations. “I was most excited to see Corbin Bleu,” said Sophia Dely(11). Needless to say, we were all pretty let down by that. “ I thought we would all get lockers that doubled as closets, like Sharpay,” said Isa Figueroa (11). But, none of us can compete with Sharpay’s outfits anyways, half the time, we just wear whatever is lying closest to us on the ground and does not  smell like the East High locker room.

As much as we were hoping to survive high school in the same way that Gabriella and Troy did, it is, unfortunately, illogical, and maybe, that is for the best. However, I am fully in support of spontaneously breaking into song, so let’s make a plan for that, before we start breaking free.