Small fish in a big sea

Rant

September 12, 2006|by REBECCA HULL

As I walked through the school doors on my first day in school this year, I would have thought it was Bill Gates' mansion. I felt like a geek walking around school with a map in my hand and my classes highlighted, with the best route drawn to get to each class.

Needless to say, I was a freshman.

As I walked down the hall, I kept hearing upperclassmen say things like "Oh, look at the little freshman" and "They are getting smaller each year." I also heard the infamous "Get out of our way. We're seniors."

Oh, how I long to say those words.

There are five emotions that pretty much say everything a freshman feels the first day of school: anxious, excited, embarrassed, scared and clueless.

One of the reasons I think most people feel nervous is because you hear so many horror stories about a freshman's first days.

One of my friends had to kneel on the floor because there was no seat available at lunch.

On my sister's first day at high school, she sat between a pregnant 11th-grader and some guy with piercings all over his body. Thankfully, on my first day, I didn't sit next to anyone with piercings or have to kneel on the floor to eat lunch.

In my first-period class, I thought my teacher was the scariest person I had ever seen. All through class, I was taking notes on rules that were common sense and thinking this is going to be the hardest class ever. After my day was over, I realized he was not scary at all. I was just very nervous.

As my day went on, I went through ups and downs - a typical first day. I noticed, after my first week, that I am going to have more responsibility and more trust from teachers and, I am pretty sure, more respect. This makes it, in my opinion, a better school, and I will enjoy being there.

If you can't find something to do at your high school, you're not trying very hard. For me, this year is going to be busy but a lot of fun, especially with chorus. For you, it might be sports, drama, student government or any of the millions of things there are to do.

As I am sitting here trying to think about what to say about high school, I realize that everyone's experience is different. You can't compare different people's experiences.

High school is what you make of it, and I hope you just breathe, relax and make the best of every situation.

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