“[My high school experience] started online, and I only had one friend.
Ninth grade didn’t really count as my first year. I didn’t find my friend group until sophomore year.
It was hard to go into 10th grade and not really know anything, [especially] because I’m in the IB program. [Often] during exam season, I’d have to take AP exams and IB exams. It is more work and you have [to write] all of these extra essays, but I do feel like it was helpful [to build] skills for the future and for college.
My favorite thing about high school is spending time with my friends, just eating lunch together [and] talking. It’s those things that [I] didn’t get [to do] in ninth grade because of COVID.
[The college application process] was challenging because I don’t have any older siblings [and] I’m first generation so my parents didn’t do the American college application process. I had to rely on my friends, and it was a really stressful time, especially with classes and IB requirements on top of it.
I’m going to UT Austin because it’s a good school, and I already have a community [of] friends and people I know going there.”
![Stacey Shih poses for a picture. Shih, age-wise, is a year ahead of her peers. "Even though it was only one year that I skipped, there was definitely a difference, not [only in] the curriculum, but also in how other students would see each other," Shih said.](https://threepennypress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/cxJgna59Jg90jYZf13DYPCs4wksuvS6ccik7sLd3-900x1200.jpg)
![Jan performs tricks at the Bellaire Chinese Club Welcome Party. According to Jan, when he was learning tricks, he would “play in his grandma’s room and [occasionally] destroy furniture.” (Provided by NICOLAS JAN)](https://threepennypress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/NicolasJanDiabolo-1200x900.jpg)