Freshmen, you have officially taken the leap into high school. Although it’s only been a couple weeks, it’s likely that the majority of  you have already made at least one memory or formed at least one opinion about freshman year. 

     “My first day of freshman year was nothing special, I was just getting used to a big school,” junior Austin Amaral said. “I was a little nervous, but I was looking forward for the tryouts for the baseball team.”

     Despite the  mean reputation upperclassmen are given on TV, like in Saved by the Bell or Freaks and Geeks, or the rumors you’ve heard about them shoving underclassmen in trash cans, Amaral had no problems with them his freshman year.

     “I knew a lot of the upperclassmen, so I got along with them good,” Amaral said. “They weren’t all that scary.”

     Freshman year does have its bumps in the road, though. Some people go through serious struggles and have trouble adjusting to the people or the work load, while some may just have a hard time finding their way around campus.

     “My first day of freshmen year was confusing because the buildings are not numbered logically,” senior Erin McGahan said.

     In the years following McGahan’s freshman year, the first day of school became designated for freshmen only. While the senior class did not get this experience, all of the classes following them did.

     “My first day was very good and lots of fun,” sophomore Rachel Kenis said. “I felt overwhelmed at first, but I felt it was helpful having a day just for freshmen.”

     Those who did not get to experience “freshman day” also tend to agree that the day is useful and was a very good idea.

     “Freshman day is beneficial at our school at least, because there’s so many people,” McGahan said. “It’s hard to get around and it’s super chaotic. Not to mention, upperclassmen get an extra day of summer.”

     Kenis became involved in after school activities and made the most of her freshman year. She also became more focused and began to procrastinate less.

     “Freshman year was a good year for development in many places,” Kenis said “It was an amazing way to start over and create new opportunities for myself as a whole.”

     Keeping this in mind, it’s your turn to go make the most of your freshman year. The class of 2022’s story may be very different than the classes that came before you, or it may fall right along the line of others.