School choice

I'm currently a sophomore in high school. There's this new school I want to attend for the rest of my high school years. But this means leaving my friends. This new school has exactly the kind of classes that have to do with the career pathway I want to go down. And there are only about 500 students at this new school, rather than the 2000 students at my current school. Because of my anxiety, I feel that this decrease in students would be better for me. I talked to some of my friends about it already and they seemed disappointed that I wanted to leave them for this new school, even though I rarely see them in my current school because I only have one class with each of them. The hardest part is telling my best friend. Because she isn't just my best friend, she is like my sister because I have been friends with her since before we even started kindergarten. I have not told her about this new school yet. She and I ride the bus home together and go to each other's houses after school almost every other day. I'm afraid to tell her and I'm also afraid that we won't hang out as much anymore. It would be a big change since we have been hanging out so often for the past like 10 years of our lives. My parents are fine with whichever school I would like to attend. The new one not much farther than my current school so distance isn't a problem. How do you think I should make my decision?

So the advice I'm about to give you is just based off of my own personal experiences in life: - Adjusting to new things is difficult. Keeping things as is provides stability in your life, and you may quickly grow to miss your current arrangement if you tamper with it. - Being around 500 students vs. 2000 might not be an improvement in the way you're thinking it will, since it simply means you will interact more with fewer people rather than less with more people. Though I'm sure, at the end of the day, you will probably befriend about the same number of people in either school. - You can't always just pick right back up where you left off with every friendship. As the years pass, people just kind of get separated. Sometimes you'll get lucky, though, and be able to catch up with an old friend you haven't heard from in years. - While I don't know how well-informed you are about the quality of the classes that this other school offers, I would say just make sure that this is really the career path you want. The thing is, a lot of people end up changing direction during and after college, and you have to be really certain that this is what you want to do for a living and that if you attend this school you will be put in those classes. - Since both schools are roughly the same distance from your house, I suspect you won't lose touch with good friends like your besty, if you keep in touch and maybe try to see one another in person frequently. The changes are likely to have some impact on how much time you get to spend together, for sure. - Personally I think that high school should just be about general courses. Let college be about college. I know that a lot of high schools now let students earn credits towards college, which is something that wasn't really as common where I went to HS. If you really want to take advantage of that, if that's important to you, then I guess you should. But I saw high school more as just a continuation of elementary school, a firming of those basic courses I studied throughout, and something that you kind of have to do before you turn 18 and start becoming active in the work world. - Keep in mind that, since you are in the midst of your sophomore year, that means you will be entering this new school halfway through its 9-12 program and will be attending this school for your last 2 years. If adjusting doesn't come easy for you, then you may spend a lot of time getting used to this new school during that first year, which could impact your performance. You may get distracted by trying to fit in and make friends, or by other things that go along with your schooling. Your struggles in other departments could impact how much you like the new school overall. But if you think you're up to the challenge, then maybe you'll make the switch without much issue and dive right into focusing on your new career path. - Lastly I'd say, you could always try this new school out, and if you don't like it the first year? Maybe you could just switch back to the old one.