Experiencing a New Environment: Junior Lara Kislal shares how she’s adapted at East after moving to Kansas this summer

Junior Lara Kislal moved to Kansas in July after living in Massachusetts for seven years. There, Lara attended Wellelsey High School before starting at East. 

Lara’s father Berk received a job opportunity to reside in either Chicago or Kansas, and since Lara’s mother Ellen had family who lived in Kansas, they decided on Leawood. This required Kislal and her brother, sophomore John Kislal, to adapt to a new school and city.

Lara has noticed differences between her previous Boston high school and East already in her three months here.

Lara played field hockey which isn’t offered through East as a sport, and was involved in indoor and outdoor track. She adds that she also went out almost every weekend, and was used to living 20 minutes from such a big city. 

With all the change she has to adapt to, Lara says one difference of East she really enjoys is the schools’ pep.

“I think a big difference that I like at East is there’s much more school spirit,” Lara said. “At my other school, it was a very sporty environment but we didn’t have any night football games so no one went.”

She elaborates on how at her old school there was no cheer team, marching band or dance team, and while people played sports, the games lacked a crowd. 

“I’ve really been enjoying the pep at East, I really like the football and soccer games,” Lara said.

After moving to East, Ellen says her kids have mentioned how more of a real “American high school feel” East has to it. 

“They have mentioned to me that their highschool in Massachusetts didn’t feel like the highschools you see in TV shows and movies, and East feels more like that,” said Ellen. “It has the football games on Friday nights that the students all go to, cheerleaders and school dances.”

Outside of just the sports, Lara and her family have felt very welcomed into the East community.

“The people here are really nice, I felt really welcomed and it was really nice to get to know people,” said Lara. “Me and my brother made friends pretty quickly and I found that the people here were really willing to talk to us.”

John adds that he too felt very welcomed by the people in the East community. He says that people in the places he’s lived previously always seemed “defensive.”

“Honestly, I was surprised at how nice people are here,” said John. 

Ellen said the family plans to stay in Kansas at least until John graduates from highschool before they consider moving again.

As Lara continues her next year and a half at East, she looks forward to meeting even more new people and getting to experience the upcoming sports seasons after her great experiences so far.