by Kamryn Washington
High School is stressful, no doubt. But when you’re a freshman, you’ve got added challenges, like finding your way around and making a name for yourself (and having people remember it). As a freshman myself, I’ve had to sweat out dealing with the seniors, finding a seat at lunch, and having absolutely zero friends in my classes or advisory.
Needless to say, a lot has changed for us ninth graders since leaving middle school just a few months ago. Now we’re back to being the babies of the school and all the other grades seem like the adults with higher power than we have.
I wanted to know how my classmates were feeling about this transition, so I ventured out into the wilds of the upper school, trying to identify freshmen by the mixture of excitement and nervousness in their faces.
I first interviewed Parker Schneidau, a freshman boy. I found Parker doing homework after school in the library, and like most, he was worried about the workload. “I also want to make sure I have a good GPA for college,” Parker says. Meanwhile, Sloane Santos, a freshman girl says, “I was worried about where to sit at lunch,” then she said, “Oh yeah, I was also worried about the alcoves.”
Lunch seating is a big concern for many new 9th graders. They don’t want to have any encounters with the seniors or any other upperclassmen, so a majority of the freshman girls tend to sit outside. And although the PALS claim that they don’t have to worry about having confrontations with seniors, no new freshmen want to take any chances!
Freshmen seem to be finding their way to their classes, with an occasional stop at their lockers. While many struggle with remembering the combination, this isn’t a problem for Parker, who has solved this problem by never going to his locker. “In fact, I don’t even know where it is!” he says. “I think it’s on the first floor, but I’m not sure.”
A significant focus, and anxiety, at the start of the year is bonding with advisory. People wonder: What if I have no friends in my advisory? This is our advisory for FOUR years! Some people feel awkward while in advisory. But some are surprisingly relieved. When I asked Parker about how he feels, he said, “Advisory is pretty chill.” But for other students like Sloane and me, advisory is the most awkward fifteen minutes of the day. Especially because for advisories like mine, we can’t use our phones or do homework. This leaves us with a fifteen-minute staring contest and the sound of invisible crickets chirping.
While freshman kids have their own opinions on the year so far, so does Mrs. Anderson, the 9th-grade dean. I interviewed dean Andersonean in her office after school. “For the most part the freshmen have adjusted pretty well,” she says. “They still have a little bit of trouble in areas outside of class like at lunch and during breaks.”
The transition from middle school to high school is crucial for how confident the new 9th graders feel by the start of the year. To help with the transition there was an opportunity for the then 8th graders to “shadow” the now 10th graders. But according to Mrs. Anderson, the teachers are still somewhat holding hands for the freshman. “The 9th graders need to get used to checking MyLion for homework assignments,” she says. “Because in middle school, it was always written on the board.”
One major change is the fact that in the upper school, there is more responsibility and work to manage. I talked to Noah Claxton, a new Lovett student, at lunch when he was in the middle of eating waffles. Noah says that when he was a middle schooler he thought high school was going to be “fun, fun, fun.” But Parker thought that high school would mean more freedom, but more work, and “no homework hall crap.” And I’m sure the rest of his grade would agree.
According to Mrs. Anderson, the freshman have transitioned pretty smoothly and are pretty laid back. I’m sure many people in 9th grade would disagree considering how wild and rowdy we are. “When they get back from SING” is when Mrs. Anderson thinks the freshmen will feel accustomed to the high school.
High school is clearly a time of transition, no matter what grade we are in. Some people like the new change, but others like Noah have decided it’s not “fun, fun, fun.” No matter how you feel about high school, friends will come and go, grades will rise and fall, identities will grow and evolve. High school is four years to discover who you are. For freshmen, it’s all those things, but also a maze where one turn leads you to the seniors and the other turn leads to locker trouble. Of course, you can always go with Parker’s solution.
