High school is known for its bad reputation. My experience didn’t fall of the self-depreciation, the embarrassment, the insistent need to fit in.

Something I’ve always been embarrassed about, something I’m embarrassed to even be writing here now, is that I had panic attacks every day before I went to school. I never realized what anxiety was until I graduated. I wondered what was wrong with me that I cried every day before I headed out. I hated school with a burning passion. Most days, I made...