From left to right: freshmen Cameron Ryan, Haoxi Wang, Brenda Freitas, Sean Lightbody, Olivia Santengelo, Schekina Pericles, Allison Mallet, Ezra Kruckenberg. Photo taken by Emraude Bonnet.
It’s June, which means soon enough, the Class of 2017 have left Malden High, the Class of 2018 will be moving up to the top of the school, and the class of 2020 will no longer be “the annoying freshmen”.
Being one of the “annoying freshmen” myself, I’m glad that my freshman year is over, and that I am soon going to be a sophomore. One step more in getting through high school, one step closer to graduating, and one step closer to college.
The 2016-2017 year, being my first year of high school, was interesting. In one view, it was everything I expected and more. Everything I didn’t expect came coming my way. I learned many things this year, that all freshmen probably learn their freshmen year.
You are more independent.
This year, I learned that you are way more independent than you ever could be in middle school. You’re responsible for yourself – you have to get yourself to class to your own class on time, you’re not travelling with the same group of people to every class anymore. I realized you’re not forced to stay in the lunchroom during lunch, you can go outside, you can walk around, you can stay with a teacher, there is way more independence than middle school, which I didn’t really think was going to be the case.
You have to use your time well.
All throughout middle school, I had the same rotation of teachers who planned out their assignments together, and assigned certain amount of homework in accordance to each other, and planned test days together. In high school, there are so many teachers and such a different arrangement and selection of classes that of course, you get the amount of homework each teacher feels like assigning, which I knew coming into high school, but didn’t really realize until I ended up getting loads of homework from each teacher in the middle of the year. I realized that when I started to wait for the day before it’s due to do an assignment, that I would have that assignment added on to many assignments I received that day. This first year of high school made me really realize how much I had to manage my time and assignments.
Your friend circle will definitely change.
High school is a time of new experiences and people, and the group of people you came from middle school with, definitely aren’t the ones you finish the year with. Personally, I used to think all those people saying that “your friends change, and won’t be your friends by the end of the year” were over-exaggerating. But they were right, and I didn’t realize that until it happened to me and my friends. A tip to incoming freshmen is: don’t think you’re going to finish the year with every single friend you came into high school with, because all people, your friends and even yourself, change when it gets to high school.
Trust yourself, and make good decisions
In one year of high school, I’ve heard and seen way more things than all my middle school years combined. There are a lot of things in high school that can drag you down in life that many people here try to encourage you to do and try. I would say stick to yourself and what you think is right for you. I thought about it as, would my parents be okay with me doing this? And if the answer was no, or I don’t know, I would just walk away from it.
There are many other things I’ve learned this freshman year of high school, but these are the most important that the incoming freshman should realize. Good luck to all incoming freshmen!
