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Airports, restrooms, bus stops: Liminal spaces are deeply embedded into our lives and blend into the backgrounds of day-to-day routines. We see these settings so often, that most times, we don’t see them at all – let alone take them in or allow ourselves to mindfully exist within them. But when these spots of in-between are no longer places we can enter and leave as we choose, anticipation arises.
For young people in particular, the time between middle and high school, then high school and college, fuels excitement of looking toward an ever-approaching future. It offers teens the opportunity to both reflect on the past four years and endlessly question what the looming semesters may have in store for them.
“Today’s teens ask probing questions much more than ever before. They want to know why,” said Rebecca Williams, 56, who is a middle school principal from Atlanta. “They know that their voice matters.”
Since first working in the education space in 1991, Williams has increasingly observed this trend amongst teens. Whether it be reaching out to older siblings for seasoned advice or searching TikTok for anecdotes from other young people, teens use resourcefulness to question-answer and to navigate uncertainties.
However, Williams has simultaneously observed young people struggling to feel a sense of belonging as they transition to high school or higher education, and it’s no surprise that excessive social media use has contributed to this concern.
Amidst moving onto new life chapters, eras of great personal change don’t come without anxieties, regardless of how big or small they may be.
Below, five teens share their perspectives on leaving the familiarity of middle and high school behind and how they handle their current “in-betweenness.”
Clarke Greene, 14
Clarke Greene, 14, graduated from middle school in June and will be attending high school in the fall.
TV: What myths did you hear about middle school, and what made you realize they were false?
Clarke Greene: I watch too much Disney, and in shows, there’s always that stereotype of the popular group, the group that no one likes, the big bully. But it’s not as bad as [media] portrays it. People are not going to shove you against lockers [and] the drama and the gossip are not going to be at the forefront of your middle school experience. You have to realize that [bullies] are just insecure [and] aren’t focused on the right things, because they are too focused on making fun of others.
TV: How have you spent your summer so far?
Greene: I’ve gone on a couple of trips, to get all the fun out of summer that I can before school starts and I fully immerse myself in it. I started a three week program with Bard Early College. It was really nice to see people like me making it, people who looked like me, who acted like me, who were just like me, going out and succeeding.
TV: How is being a rising college student in 2023 different from past generations?
Greene: If you go on social media anytime, you’ll see kids my age talking about laws that are being passed against us. It’s really nice to see [us] speaking out. I think we’re definitely more educated on [these] topics and that means we can go into high school and feel that we know more.
TV: In one word, describe how being in between middle and high school feels to you.
Greene: Awkward. I can’t talk about the high school experience, but I also can’t reflect on the middle school experience yet because I just got out of it. That moment of my life is over and now I have to move on. I’m kind of in this mindset of, “I need to focus, but what do I focus on? What now?”
TV: What advice would you give to rising college students?
Greene: You have a lot of time to figure out what you want to do, even if you don’t figure it out by the time you graduate.
Leila Vericain, 14
Leila Vericain, 14, graduated from middle school in June and will be attending high school in the fall.
Teen Vogue: What do you wish you knew when you entered middle school?
Leila Vericain: Confidence is key. I switched schools a lot, and this made me uncomfortable, going to different places and learning my new surroundings.
TV: How do you think high school will impact your long-term goals?
Vericain: I want to be a lawyer [and] I’m a people person, so I’ll be able to help others and learn more about our justice system. In high school…you’re not going to be friends with everybody and you’re not going to get along with everybody, so there are going to be arguments and debates. I feel like trying to figure those arguments out will definitely help me in my law career in the future.
TV: What distinguishes rising high school students in 2023?
Vericain: Seeing all these high schoolers complain on social media kind of scares the up-and-coming ninth graders…I’m really nervous because I don’t want to fail. It’s my main concern. I’ve been speaking to all of my friends who are in high school, so I ask them for advice and am [learning] to combat my anxiety.
TV: Tell me about your summer.
Vericain: I did a summer camp about entrepreneurship…and I really enjoyed it. I feel like everyone needs that safe space in their life. But the summer slide is real for all students, [so now] my focus for this summer is to beat that.
TV: How do you think you’ll feel once you’re in between high school and college?
Vericain: I feel like once I finish high school, I’ll have my life kind of figured out. Hopefully. Fingers crossed.
JB Rodriguez, 18
JB Rodriguez, 18, graduated from high school in May and will be studying at Parsons School of Design in New York City in the fall.
Teen Vogue: What do you wish you knew when you entered high school?
JB Rodriguez: You know the phrase “you lose friends as high school goes on?” I wish I was just aware of that. You grow into a different person and the people around you grow into different people. Just the paths that people choose, whether that be like, “I want to be a heavy partier,” or “I want to be super focused on school or something extracurricular,” [lead to] who they become as people and how they interact with other people.
TV: Now that you’ve graduated from high school, how do you feel at this stage of your life?
Rodriguez: It's definitely weird, because I've gathered a lot more experiences throughout this time in the past four years, and now I'm able to work with those experiences [in] moreso a real world aspect as opposed to just transitioning from a freshman to sophomore, sophomore to junior.
TV: How have you spent your summer so far?
Rodriguez: I've spent my summer not really doing anything, kind of just what I'm doing right here, which is skating. But I just started a job. I'm a midnight paperboy… It’s perfect for me because I don't get a ton of sleep. So I just drive around literally all night long, delivering papers in upstate New York and it's kind of fire. I really enjoy it [and] I get to be my own boss.
TV: Where do you see yourself upon graduating college?
Rodriguez: To be honest, I don't really know. I've been thinking about professions, and I've been thinking about either creative direction or owning an art gallery. I'm not really sure how I'm going to make it happen, but it will happen.
TV: Describe how being in between high school and college feels to you.
Rodriguez: Freeing. I don't have to answer to anybody or follow any specific person. I can kind of just do what I want. So that's like a nice change in my life. I definitely enjoy that.
Jordan Gay, 17
Jordan Gay, 17, graduated from high school in June and will be studying international business at Howard University in Washington, D.C., in the fall.
Teen Vogue: If you could give one piece of advice to incoming high school students, what would it be?
Jordan Gay: Take advantage of every opportunity that presents itself inside and outside of school, because I think something that I really struggled with was being scared, in a way, of doing certain things, whether it was trying a new club or opportunity. Fear held me back a lot in high school, but I’m slowly learning to overcome that.
TV: What would you tell students looking to overcome those feelings?
Gay: Sometimes I literally have to force myself not to just stick with my friends. Even now, wherever I am, just removing myself from a situation I'm comfortable with and [sitting] next to someone new or partnering up with someone I don't know.
TV: Tell me about what you’ve been up to this summer. What do you hope to have accomplished by the end of it?
Gay: A lot of my goals for the summer [are] really about preparing myself for college. I'm trying to wake up between eight to nine and just actually do stuff even if it’s in the house all day, [and] I think for now that’s the only way I can really try to improve my productivity and procrastination, by staying away from the habits I had during high school that lessened my ability to do as much as I can. I'm just trying to put down the phone and go outside and do stuff by myself, just trying to get used to not having my parents around, so even if it’s like running errands and stuff, which is weird because I’m 17. What errands am I running?
TV: What sets your generation apart from past ones?
Gay: In college, where you have a lot more freedom with your work and how you do your work, you’re not being monitored like you are in high school. So I think it’s just important that we know how to use technology wisely and we’re not just using it to plagiarize an entire essay. Our generation and future generations definitely have it easier when it comes to researching and getting information, and it’s just how we use technology that’s really important.
TV: When you think of your first semester in college, what feelings come to mind?
Gay: Exciting. Now, I can really say that I’m excited because I feel ready, and I feel that high school really prepared me for college, both in terms of academics and social life. But I also am definitely ready for a different – really different – environment. I mean, my school is a very predominately white school, all girls, and I’ve gone there for eight years, and now I’m going to an HBCU in D.C.
Devin Wu, 18
Devin Wu, 18, graduated from high school in June and will be studying political science, economics, or sociology at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, in the fall.
Teen Vogue: Upon starting high school, what do you wish you knew?
Devin Wu: Just how short those four years would be. It's hitting me in the face now that I'm starting to get ready for college, planning to buy dorm stuff, saying goodbye to my parents, my grandparents, my little sister. I wish I took more time to just sit back and reflect and appreciate this in the moment.
TV: What piece of advice would you give to incoming high schoolers?
Wu: Find things that you gravitate towards and really enjoy, because sometimes you put yourself in a box, especially when you're growing up. 14 to 18 should be really the age where you find what you want to do, but also [keep] an open mind and don't be afraid to get out of your comfort zone.
TV: What hobbies and activities have you taken up this summer?
Wu: I'm working at this pizzeria near my house. I'm making some money before college [and] I've been trying to read a lot more. I've also been trying to pick up new skills. I got this Rubik's Cube for Christmas and it's been sitting on my desk for half the year, [so] I started picking it up after school ended and I've been trying to learn it.
TV: Where do you see yourself in four years?
Wu: This is a pretty big question, because I was thinking about it, and honestly, I'm a bit all over the place right now. There are some people who are focused on going to med school right after or going to business school right after [college]. For me, I think I'm really open to a lot of different things. I've always loved to travel, so after I graduate, I would love to take a gap year.
TV: What word would you use to describe the space between high school and college?
Wu: Prologue. The week of the last day of school was kind of like the epilogue for the four chapters of high school. It was almost like a book, flipping through each one of them and then getting to the end of it. It was this big conclusion. Now that we're in the summer before college, it's almost like the second book in the series. It feels like a prologue because you're not sure [of] what's going to happen in the next four chapters. But in the beginning, it's like you're learning a bit about yourself, you're learning about what you're doing, before you [get] into chapter one.
