Clueless, Mean Girls, The Duff, and High school Musical (1, 2, and 3) all have something in common. These are all movies outlining the unrealistic daily life of any high schooler. Even though I know that those movies are wildly inaccurate, freshmen do know that the coming year will be very different from years prior. Most eighth-graders are apprehensive about the transition to high school, especially with all the teachers using “you will be in high school soon” as a way to tell us that our behavior is unacceptable and our work is lacking.
I was not as nervous as some. I was lucky and already had friends and siblings in high school and had spent a great amount of time there due to outside activities. Even so, I was nervous about the social aspect and challenging courses, especially knowing that my grades actually matter now. Still, the summer eventually came and went and back to school season loomed upon us. That fateful morning of the 27th rolled around, and all the freshmen had to enter into unknown territory after seeing meme after meme about how terrible they are.
Personally my first day went fine. Not going to lie, the seniors screaming and yelling as we walked in almost made me cry, but after that, it was normal. I walked down all the hallways, my face firmly down on my schedule, and went to all my classes. It seemed like I had already gone to school there, and everything seemed normal. As the quarter progresses, I have begun to feel much more enthusiastic.
As a new student, everything is new and exciting, so even if my judgement is deluded, let me just say how much I love high school. The classes, the people, and the environment makes it so much better than middle school.
Before high school, many of my friends warned me to not take too many hard classes and gave me their condolences when I did not listen. Now that I am around two months into my classes, I am extremely grateful that I did not listen. I think that too many people do not trust their abilities and run away from the H in aspen. I know so many people that transferred down from honors classes and are now bored out of their minds. If there is one thing that I suggest for Vets, it’s making sure people are not scared of a class just because of its name. Anyway, I personally love my classes. The content is interesting and inspiring, and except for a few lazy days, I have genuinely wanted to go to some of my classes. This is in part because they are not as hard as I pictured. Now it is still very early in the year, but I have found that if you put in effort, you can usually keep up with the work and the assessments. That is except for Biology, as I am still not sure how to do well in that class.
The people in high school are also unlike what I imagined. In much of the media about high school, everyone is always in everyone else’s business and people are all-around mean. This is far from true in my experience. One of my favorite parts about my time so far is that everybody is in their own world. It’s a hard experience to describe, but that fact that you can do, wear, and say pretty much anything you want and no one really pays attention is very peaceful. Everyone is also very welcoming, especially school leaders and people in after-school clubs, which defies the stereotype that upperclassmen are flat-out rude to freshmen.
Obviously, I have liked the school so far and found the transition very easy, especially with orientation after orientation, but that is just my experience so far. I have a feeling I will be much more mellow as the months draw on.