All year eighth graders have been looking forward to high school. It’s exciting to go to a new school with new people and new opportunities, however some are nervous about the workload and new people.
New freshmen are surrounded with new classmates and teachers and having to find their new classes can be a very challenging, stressful experience for freshmen.
“Coming into high school was very intimidating,” freshman Bianca Pearson said. “I had to adapt to a new school and find my way around the school and find my classes, all with new groups of people around me.”
The difficulty in high school is something freshmen aren’t used to which causes some to struggle with their grades and keeping up with school.
“The change from middle school to high school was scary,” freshman Kiera Mellet said, “because of all the new people, the new teachers, and the difficulty of some of the classes I took. It was challenging to adapt to.”
Students pick their classes based on their strengths but they also want to take easier classes because they don’t think they need to challenge themselves
“This year I took a mix of on level and advanced classes,” freshman Layla Gonzales said, “but I suggest taking advanced math and advanced english, but also rely on your strong suits and what you’re good at and not so good at.”
A good way of meeting people is joining extracurriculars or sports because you’re surrounded with new people giving students a perfect opportunity to make new friends without it being scary.
“I joined basketball this year because I enjoyed playing the sport,” said Gonzales, “and it was a good way to make new friends with people I wasn’t familiar with and I really liked playing with my friends.”
Having to pick what electives to take can be difficult because of the amount of electives available to students. Some students may also struggle with fitting multiple electives into an already busy school schedule.
“I took easier electives because I was already taking harder classes so it made it easier to balance my time,” said Pearson, ”so I took photojournalism, spanish 2, dance, and marketing, but I also picked them based on what I think I want to do for my future.”
Students coming in from middle school are not used to having to balance a social life outside of school, their homework from class, and their new, time-consuming extracurricular activities.
“I had a hard time in the beginning balancing everything I had on my plate,” said Mellet, “but I really had to focus on my time management and build up that skill or else I wouldn’t be able to get anything done on time.”
New freshmen heard so many things about coming into highschool, not knowing how highschool would be and how differently they would be treated.
“Something I wish I knew coming into high school is how independent the teachers let you be,” freshman Shahana Akula said. “The teachers let you work by yourself and allow you to have time inside of class to work on homework, it’s all on you to get everything done.”
Being a freshman can be scary and stressful but it can also be a fun experience and something they do not need to worry too much about.
“Some advice I would give to incoming freshmen is to focus on your grades,” said Pearson, ”but also remember to have fun in high school because it can be very stressful.”
