I’m thankful that it’s not as bad as grade school, at least you can get away from the attention on some days.

Yeah, I mean I was good at blending into the background in school too (I went to a huge secondary school with 2k students), but you couldn't always avoid attention particularly when you "achieved" a lot of stuff (like, just leave me be lol).

You couldn’t pay me to wake up 2 hours before a lecture just to do my hair.

Haha, madness... often I wake up 15 minutes before a lecture (and I still have to get the bus for 10 mins).

I never heard of parents putting emphasis on looking good with their sons.

It was more just my parents kindly asking me to shave now and again, actually wash my face, and use a couple of dermatological products here and there etc., which I had no qualms with doing. I think it's a pretty common and standard thing.

Luckily enough, my mom has finally accepted that I’m not a girly-girl. It only took 20 years of sweatpants.

Sweatpants for the win (I'm wearing black jeans right now, but often I wear sweatpants (or joggers as we call them here in the UK), they're so comfortable); also girly-girls are grossly overrated. :P