Impressions of a freshman as school begins

Spencer Massicot

Spencer Massicot

Once again the time has come to start another 180 days of learning, homework and fun. Going back to school is always hard for me because I have become accustomed to the summer lifestyle of sleeping in, being lazy, and not having to worry about homework and the constant pressure that school puts on students.

This year I am a freshman at Elsinore High School and, so far, it is a huge change from middle school. A lot of my friends from elementary school were split up and went to different middle schools, so it has been really cool to see some of them passing by between periods or at lunch.

There are so many people it seems almost impossible to find someone you are looking for, the teachers expect more of us coming in to the year, and the school lets students become a lot more independent. For example, they make it our responsibility to get to class instead of having several campus security guards roaming the campus with the goal to find someone without a bathroom pass.

Spencer gets ready for his first day as a freshman at Elsinore High School.

Spencer gets ready for his first day as a freshman at Elsinore High School. Photo provided by Spencer Massicot

Also, when picking classes, the counselors leave it up to us to pick the right classes instead of going through old transcripts to make the decision. When picking the classes, I found it very difficult because the school offers so many awesome electives and it was hard to only pick one or two. I ended up taking Spanish 1 and I got into ASB.

Other classes I would like to have taken are Graphic Design, where you can create T-shirts and sell them, or Sports Medicine, where they teach people to become athletic trainers and you sometimes get to help wrap up and tape injuries on athletes at the school.

Being a freshman, a lot of things may seem very scary and weird. Most of the classes are blended, so there are seniors and juniors in the same geometry class as the freshman. On the first few days, other people were scared of the older kids but they have turned out to be very respectful of us and seem like they are trying to make us feel welcome.

Right off the bat when the school year started there were activities all around the school, posters everywhere for tryouts of different teams, and even a station selling freshman survival kits. This past week was “Hello Week,” with dress-up days every day and events for students like lunch time activities and a dance at the end of the week. The themes of the dress-up days are so different from middle school. They are more mature and tie in to things that most teenagers relate to while they also try to carry on traditions of the past, such as ’80s Day. Other days included ghost busters and superstars vs super fans.   Everyone’s costumes were great and you could tell that a lot of people really tried hard to have the best costume; which is also very different from middle school where most people didn’t even try.

For all of the people on the athletic teams they have something called 6th period PE, which is just a study hall where you can do your homework because the teams have practice after school. I’m in cross country. During the first week of school, when we were having the heat wave, our first few practices were canceled because of the heat.

But the coaches have told us that they are really going to start getting us ready for meets and big competitions. One of the coaches even said that we should be pushing ourselves so hard that we throw up afterwards and some people have. All of the distances we run have been bumped up and the expectations are higher. We have started lifting weights every day and most practices don’t end until two and a half hours after school gets out.

All of the upperclassmen have said that cross country really helps people get focused on what they need to accomplish and helps them set goals for themselves. Being involved in a group early in school has really helped me with my expectations for high school.

This year, the biggest thing I want to accomplish is to break outside of my comfort zone and see every part of the school and the students for what they really are. I will admit that I am sometimes guilty of judging people based on how they compare to me or my first impression of them. But I really want to get to know people and make connections with them no matter what I may think of them at first glance. I am very excited for the year to come and I cannot wait to see what other surprises high school will bring.




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