Rookie Magazine collects advice from famous people about making it through high school. Joss Whedon gives four rules. Among them:
High school is, among other things, school. If you have teachers worth a damn, stop worrying about where you fit in and work for them. Knowledge will serve you long after you’ve forgotten the names of everyone you feared or admired. And will prove subtly invaluable the next time you find yourself in a new situation, trying to fit in. You know the old saying: Knowledge is power. And it’s always, always about power.
Along the same lines, changing schools greatly changed Dan Savage's grades:
Sometimes the problem isn’t who you are, despite what you’re being told by everyone around you, but where you are. And sometimes the solution can be as simple as finding a new place, a better place, the kind of place where a kid like you can thrive.
The Dish 