At the time, I took high school way too seriously. If I could visit my 16-year-old self in a time machine, I would promptly slap her and tell her to calm down. Now I wish I could reverse the clock and have a million times more fun. Needless to say, I miss quite a few things from high school.

1. Minimal homework. Remember back in the day when 10 algebra problems was the perfect way for your teacher to ruin your weekend? Now remember that ridiculous lab report you have due in two days and cry a little.

2. No bills. Okay, maybe your parents asked for you to pay the extra $15 for unlimited texting, or maybe even your car insurance… But with no rent, no utilities, and no groceries to buy every weekend, life was so easy.

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Ever have that moment where you’re out shopping somewhere, looking like a hot mess, and you randomly glance over and from out of the blue you see your ex walking toward you? If you’re awkward like me, you look away, pretend not to see them and high tail it the hell out of there.

For many of us who are going back to our hometowns for Thanksgiving break, the possibility of seeing your ex boyfriend or girlfriend is very likely. This can be especially awkward if you broke it off just because you two were going to different schools. While this may not be the highlight of your break, you can follow some Do’s and Don’ts to make it as painless as possible. Read More »

Unless you live in an internet-less cave, or are one of those “I don’t have a Facebook” weirdos, then you have to already know that Facebook is going to change A LOT in the next few weeks. The new Facebook Timeline profile is a stalkers dream. The Timeline highlights events in your life (because we all want to re-live that bad break-up), and Facebook is teaming up with other websites, like Hulu, so you can watch shows with your friends over Facebook. There wont be any need to get together for Girl’s Night and watch Glee, you can just sit at your own apartment and never have to be social again.

If this sounds good, there are ways for you to get the Timeline early. Are you a Facebook developer? Me neither, but you can still pretend to be one to get the new profile. If that sounds too tech-y for you. You can also go here and sign up for a beta notification. This option is way easier, but you won’t get the Timeline immediately. I hope after Timeline is released, Facebook will be done changing for a while. I need time to use the Timeline to see the really awkward high school pictures of all the people I’m jealous of.

Not even Carrie herself wants to go back!

Carrie Bradshaw is an icon. Her lifestyle is completely unattainable (you show me a columnist for a New York paper who has a closet full of Manolos, and I’ll shave my eyebrows). She’s the most fashionable woman in New York, and she’s not even real. Don’t tell me you have never looked at a wacky dress and thought, “That’s SO Carrie.”

She’s an aspiration. You know you’ll never have her closet or her men or her friends who always seem to always have time to grab lunch with her despite their real jobs. She’s pure fiction, but I still love her. And let me be clear, I know she’s self-centered. I know she only talks about herself when Miranda’s mom dies or when Charlotte learns that she can’t get pregnant, but her whole aura is still fabulous.

And now she’s going to be ruined.

The CW is as close to closing a deal to create The Carrie Diaries as Carrie was to marrying Aiden. The Carrie Diaries is Candace Bushnell’s prequel to Sex and the City and follows Carrie through her senior year of high school. Read More »

High school, that little local bubble of a world (unless you’re in an out of state school for one reason or another). A lot of couples are practically tied to the hip when graduation comes and then there’s the decision that has to be made: “Do I take the relationship to college with me?”

The answer to this question is no…I think? Usually? It depends, right? I mean if you’re…but on the hand if you’re…Damn you, game of life! How dare you be so on the fence?

There are some key questions to confront (separately and together) when deciding whether to “take a break” from each other to explore the college frontier. For instance, is he going to the same college as you? If the answer is yes, then, well, that makes things…yeah. On the other hand, if you’re going to be on different continents and there’s no possibility of seeing each other for months on end then, well, yeah! You see? Circumstances!

There are a million and a half variables to consider. How long have you been together? Have you dropped the L bomb yet? How far apart will you be? Are you only together because the dating pool at your high school was less ripe than after each year at Sunnydale High (you know, cause all the monsters and vampires would kill off so many students that there must have only been a few options…yeah…GILES!).

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In high school, my sex ed was what you would call minimal. Since Texas firmly believes in abstinence-only education (which so doesn’t work – my high school had a day care program for crying out loud!), I consider myself very lucky that I had a very open-minded mother who taught me about sex. And now that I’m in college, by far my favorite class this semester is my human sexuality class where my professor is not only incredibly funny, but very insightful. All of this along with some personal experience leads me to the conclusion that, well, sex ed of all kinds suck.

Here’s what they should be teaching high schoolers in order to better prepare them.

1. Sex should be between two people, not two egos
The best piece of advice from my human sexuality professor so far this semester has been, “sex isn’t a show. You shouldn’t be getting performance anxiety because it’s not a performance, so stop making it one.” This is so true. Sex should be about enjoying yourself, not about how you look or how you’re doing or anything else that you’re anxious about. No one looks good during sex, and if you’re doing something your partner doesn’t like, chances are they’ll tell you in a non-offensive way. Sex is supposed to be fun, so relax!

2. It’s a sign of maturity to ask what your partner likes
No two people are exactly the same, so why should their sexual tastes be? It shouldn’t be embarrassing to talk about what you like in bed. No one knows what you like or what you don’t like better than you. We shouldn’t be turning to Cosmo or our friends for sex advice, we should be asking our partners.

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High school photos are terrible. It didn’t matter how I parted my hair or which neutral color shirt I chose, I always ended up with an awkward head pretty much twisted off body, toothy grin—photo. Far from my best glamour shots. But let’s take a look at some our Hollywood girl crushes in their high school days and to see who made the grades… Read More »

Yesterday was significant for two reasons: first, because it marked the end of an era in my life, and second, because it marked the beginning of the last two months of life as I’ve known it. Condensed, decoded version of that statement: I am now a high school grad, precisely two months away from move-in day…and I have so much to prepare for. For us, the incoming freshman of the Class of 2015, we’ve got less than a season to primp ourselves, prep our minds, and broaden our horizons enough to give a great first impression on that first day of classes. (And if we plan on rushing a sorority fall semester, that pressure is basically quadrupled.)

Now, as excited as I am to immerse myself in a completely new part of the country and whore my friendship out to anyone who seems halfway genuine, I’m also (understandably) somewhat apprehensive. While I embrace the fact that my classmates will be in the same awkward, n00bish and painfully freshman situation that I will be drowning in, to no degree does knowing this dull my nerves. It’s common knowledge that first impressions carry weight in relationships of any sort. Read More »

There are a lot of inconsistencies between real high school and the way high school is portrayed on TV shows. For example, the fact that TV high schools let students chill aimlessly in the hall every 10 minutes or how they obviously never have any homework since their fictional lives are way too action-packed to have time for anything like that.

But, regardless of the unrealistic differences, we watch and try to relate to these shows… although, it’s pretty hard to relate to a certain class of fictional high school students when none of them ever seem to graduate.

When Ryan Murphy, the producer of Glee, announced that he would be graduating the cast of the show and bringing in new people, I was a bit surprised, but definitely relieved. Yes, the characters we’ve all come to know and love will be missed, but would you really want them to be 3-year super-seniors?

Check out some of the other shows that decided to make their students stay back over and over again for the sake of high ratings.

Do you think it’s okay for shows to “graduate” and replace their original cast, or would you rather see the cast of your favorite show stay in high school forever? Do you remember any other shows whose cast members never seemed to grow up?

Questioninski?! Answerskaya. Ask TuffyLuv@collegecandy.com

Dear Tuffy Luv,
I moved for my senior year of high school and at the beginning had a little trouble making friends because it’s a small town, everyone knows everyone, etc. Finally, I did start making some, and one of the first ones was this girl, Peggy. Peggy is one of those people who is overly nice to everyone, so it really wasn’t surprising she was one of the first people to approach me.

So now it’s halfway through the year and I’m still friends with Peggy, except I’ve realized I don’t like her. At all. I found out the reason she’s so nice to everyone is because it’s one of her “Christian Values,” along with being extremely judgmental. She thinks she is a step above everyone else, and it is really getting to me. And now prom is coming up and she’s laid out this whole plan expecting me and whoever I go with to go along with it, and I don’t want to. But at the same time, I don’t want to be completely rude to one of the first friends I had. She isn’t the kind of person I really want in my life, but I put in a lot of time in the friendship earlier on because as a new senior I really wasn’t in a position to turn down friends and she seemed perfectly nice at the time!

So Tuffy, what should I do? Should I confront her or stick it out for the school year? We’re going to different colleges so there wouldn’t be any need to see her again. But if I do stick it out for the year I probably won’t be able to help sending her bad vibes so she might think I’m a jerk either way.

HELP!
Sincerely,
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