HIGH SCHOOL This is how to runa stick of Chapstick down the black boxeson your scantron so the grading machineskips over wrong answers.This is how to honor roll. Hell,this is how to National Honor Society.This is being voted Most Likely to Marryfor Money or Talks the Most, Saysthe Least for senior superlatives.This is stepping around the kidshaving panic attacks in the hallway.This is being the kid having a panic attackin the hallway. This is making the Awith purple half-moons stampedunder both eyes. We had to try.This is telling the ACT supervisoryou have ADHD to get extra time.Today, the average high school studenthas the same anxiety levels as the average1950s psychiatric patient. We knowthe Pythagorean theorem by heart,but short-circuit when anyone asks us,How are you? We don't know. We don'tknow. That wasn't on the study guide. We usually know the answer,but rarely know ourselves. Excerpted from If My Body Could Speak by Blythe Baird All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
