By Kylie Alstrup, editor-in-chief of the WRHS newspaper

With all of the obstacles in high school, it's no wonder that we surround ourselves with an army of friends. But these people that we share our everlasting moments with, are they truly our friends? Or are they just more people we talk trash about behind their backs?

I often wonder if my friends are truly my friends, if they keep secret the secrets I tell them and if what they have to say about me is always good. Sometimes I question the character of my peers and ask myself if there are any true friends in high school.

On too many occasions, I've both participated and observed times when supposed friends tell tall tales and make crude comments about other supposed friends. After listening to it for three and a half years, I've come to ask a simple question that has yet to be answered ... Why?

Why do we do it? Why do we tell others that our supposed best friend is "sleazy" or "fake?" Why do we create rumors about people who haven't offended us in any way?

Are we all really that selfish as to push aside another person's feelings to have some kind of personal game? YES. In case you haven't figured, we are in high school; both a place of fun, friendship and memories, yet at the same time, a place of humiliation, destruction and ruin. In this place, there is no sincerity. Instead there is gossip and drama.

Everyone is fighting a constant battle to get ahead, and most of our peers aren't very subtle about it either. What everyone seems to fail to see though, myself included, is that when you get right down to it, what we do and the way we define ourselves in high school is wrong. But we do it, and we continue to do it despite the moral fiber attached to it.

For once though, it'd be nice to see through honest eyes and be spoken to in a truthful voice. We'd see that those people who spread so many rumors are just trying to cover up and hide their own secrets and scandals. We'd see that the ones who make stuff up and tell lies are doing so because they don't find their own true lives to be very exciting. We'd see that the drinkers and partiers drink and party to get attention, to escape stress and to fit in with a shameful crowd. We'd see all of the "best friends forevers" split up, plotting cruelly against one another to steal the spotlight. We'd see everyone's image of makeup, of colored contacts, of highlights, of brand-name jeans, of sparkly jewelry and of perfumed skin as a façade to help an insecure person hide their doubts and lack of confidence in themselves. A high school based off of reality? That's a dream that'll never come true.

What now, Farmers? Is this how high school is meant to be? Are these the memories we are going to remember for a lifetime to come? Is this what we're supposed to cherish; fake, unreal and desperate attempts at being happy?

We're all guilty, we're all a part of it and we're all reluctant to give it up.

Gossip and drama; it's how high school teenagers define themselves.