Boo Radley

     When I was little, high school scared me.  I had watched those cheerleading movies that show school as an extremely exclusive environment: If you don't fit the criteria for our group, well then you better find another because there's no way we would be caught dead sitting with you.  I also saw one of my best friends enter high school, and she was always doing homework, even in the summer.  I was scared that I would have so much homework that I wouldn't be able to have a life.  This is, metaphorically, relating to Scout's fear of Boo Radley.  Scout is afraid of the unknown; she has never seen, met, or heard from Boo Radley; she has only heard stories.  I had never been a high school student; I had only heard rumors.
     At the end of To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout realizes that Boo Radley was nothing to be scared of.  He was kind, and he watched out for her and Jem when they were growing up.  She finally understood that she never thought about the fact that what she had been told may have been false. 
     I realized that high school is so much different than what I had been told by Hollywood.  I understand that there are cliques, but they aren't super exclusive.  I also know you want to find a core group of friends to hang out with, but it's O.K. to step outside of your comfort zone, and hang out with someone new.  Homework in high school really isn't all that bad.  I have a fair amount of homework, but when I was younger, I thought I would never be able to do that much.  Now that I am a freshman, I can see that high school is nothing to be scared about.  Is it a big change from middle school or elementary?  Yes, but when you get to a highschool age, you are ready to take on that kind of challenge.
    Scout and I both had something in our life that we were scared of.  We both realized, in the end, that there was nothing to be afraid of.  I think that this proves Atticus' point: you never really understand a person (or thing) until you walk around in their shoes (or halls).