The first week of September was a week that I had been anticipating all summer. I didn’t want summer to be over, but I was excited about going to high school for my first week. I was also a little bit nervous when I got to the bus stop because I didn’t know anyone. Up until then, my nervousness had been overpowered by excitement. I was nervous because I didn’t know what to expect. I got over it and settled in pretty quickly though.
When I got to Hamilton High School, I was told by some authoritative adult to go out to the quad and check what class I was in for combination first period and homeroom. I went out and saw a bulletin board surrounded by people and covered in papers with names. Of course the short person’s name (that would be me) was all the way at the top. Once I finished craning my neck, I went off to homeroom/geometry, Room 803. I was relieved to see that in a class of unfamiliar faces, the only open seat was next to my good friend, Casey. My geometry teacher seemed like a good teacher. She was exciting and fun.
One class down.
It only took until second period to see how different high school is compared to middle school. In second period, my history teacher cursed openly in class and told us that it was okay because she was already going to hell with her husband. The next day I got the same thing from my English teacher, except in a slightly different way. We had an entire class discussion about the F-word. (My teacher went off on what I now know are frequent digressions.) Like the rest of my class, I thought it was pretty funny to hear something that you never hear a teacher say, being said in class, but I also think that it’s good my teacher has an open attitude. My teacher said that we could even curse in the classroom as long as we really meant it, so as not to take away the power that the four-letter word has. So far I haven’t cursed in class, but I think it might change my view on curse words.
The academics in high school seem like they’re going to get much harder, but they haven’t yet. Even though my classes look hard (English, ancient civilization, geometry, advanced orchestra, baseball conditioning, inter-coordinated science and grammar) they look really exciting too.
Having a totally different experience than I had ever had was exciting, and my first day was made even better, when I found $20 on the ground. Although I had a great time during my first week of school, a lot of it was overwhelming: the size of the campus, the crowds and the seniors. Seeing people over a foot taller than me (I’m 4-foot-11 ½) with moustaches and beards, who weren’t teachers, was a little frightening, but as the week went on it became less and less scary, because I realized how the seniors wanted nothing to do with us lowly freshmen. Now, I’m really happy about high school. I have lots of friends in my classes, I really like my teachers and I’m meeting new people.