Finale for Freshman

Finale+for+Freshman

Lilah George, Staff Writer

Life passes by fast. When you’re five you go to kindergarten. At 12 you head to middle school and after two short years, you’re in high school. It’s the end of the beginning and down in the very beginning is freshman. First HOCO, first pep assemblies, first AP classes. It all comes quick and leaves quicker. The first year is for adjusting and now it’s almost their second. High school has a way of letting people become their own and not have to hide. There are more people and more fluidity with who you are and who you can meet, and now the experience only continues.

With this school year nearing to an end, most everyone is starting to look back. Freshman have only just started high school and are suddenly thrown into preparing for sophomore year. Time has gone by fast and now there’s only two weeks left. It’s a change for everyone, but for these new and young students it’s something else. “I’m super excited to be an upperclassman since I learned a lot from my freshman year and from those around me specifically from through theatre which it was really nice to have them kind of coach me through finding my personality. There were so many kinds of amazing people here and I’ve found a lot more of what I like from myself this year. I’m nervous going forward since COVID kind of threw me off and even this morning I had a thought like ‘oh I’m in high school this is really weird’ and that threw me off as well; but I know time will pass and it’ll be okay,” Emma Simpkins said.

There’s been ups and downs this year. Navigating through a new school, a new year, new friends and all new teachers- it’s an overwhelming start. By this point in the year they’ve learned how the dynamic is, whether with upperclassmen or teacher. A lot of that beginning stress is shaken off… Until finals. “I’m excited to get the year over with since I’m kind of done with this year and it’ll be nice to be hated on less once I’m not a freshman. This year went pretty well for me and especially swim. My grades went better than I thought they’d be, in fact as of right now I have straight A’s! High school honestly wasn’t as scary as I thought it was going to be since I thought it would be this big scary thing, but it was really just more school. It’s kind of the same as when I first went to Valley View since I didn’t know the teachers there but I’ve kind of gotten more comfortable with them and it was fine adjusting to the new people. The first year of high school experience with getting to know people and find my way around with the welcoming school was the best part,” Keelie Sullivan said.

High school is special since it has so many more chances. You can take harder classes, more experiential clubs and get practice with real world scenes. Going out for as much as you can is the best way to learn how you’re going to shape out. “The beginning of my freshman year was pretty rocky but once I started getting the swing of things, the upperclassman started being pretty nice to me and helped me out with helped me understand how the school worked. I figured out that a lot of school revolves around the environment and not just the classes so if you come to school with a positive attitude and help others around you you’ll get treated the same way; but If you come to school and push others around just to bring yourself up a bit, people won’t treat you nice and they’ll ignore you. For any incoming freshman I’d say it’s better if you can befriend some of the oncoming freshman since a lot of them are really nice and also, be yourself since if you’re trying to be someone you’re not then you’re missing out on so much. A lot of what I got involved in helped me so much and the environments like grizzly band helped me meet other before school started and I got into the spirit of GP,” Robert Cranwell said.

It feels like one day, but it’s already June. Remember September? A new one is coming soon, and then another.