Every year, a new class of freshmen join the East community expecting different things — the difficult classes, upperclassmen or even the school layout.
All freshmen come from different schooling backgrounds such as homeschooling, private school or public school and they all have different expectations of what they’re walking into when going into high school.
Three freshmen came into the school year with specific stigmas in their minds.
Freshman Zoey Allen came into high school expecting congested hallways unlike her previous school, Indian Hills Middle School. Looking forward to a change when going into high school, Allen was ready to learn how to adjust to the East environment.
Allen quickly realized that making friends with upperclassmen wasn’t as scary as she first imagined as they all came up and were extremely welcoming. On her first day, Allen was most excited for the freedom she would experience at East, unlike her previous school with no backpacks and strict bathroom break rules.
The people were way nicer than she had imagined. When she thought they were gonna be scary and judgey instead, when she walked in the Link Leaders smiled from ear-to-ear as they led her into the first pep assembly full of school spirit.
“I like it a lot more [ than Indian Hills,]” Allen said. “I can carry my stuff around and have everything I need right there. The classes are really fun and all my teachers are super nice and a lot less strict than Indian Hills.”
Unlike Allen, on the first day of school, Thomas Vanice coming first from St. Anns then switched to Indian Hills was excited for his classes with his friends, and a new change from Indian Hills. However he quickly changed his mind after the first two days of school, noticing not a lot of his friends were in his classes and how much more school work he had compared to Indian Hills.
Vanice has enjoyed everything outside of academics like Lancer Day and football games, but wishes he didn’t have to have to do an hour of homework after school. According to Vanice, he’s most excited to be an upperclassman, when he isn’t the youngest, and has more power at East.
“It’s not even the work is hard, theres just so much of it, football games are fun but freshman always get pushed to the very back or over to the side so last game we just left,” Vanice said.
Vanice had a different experience with upperclassmen compared to Allen, some upperclassmen even sacred Vanice by interrogating him and his friend in the bathroom. They started asking random questions about people he knew and what he was doing – making him rethink his decision to attend east.
Coming from the full private school background at St. Ann’s, Graham Delzer is used to a smaller school environment with intimate classes where everyone knows each other.
Delzer’s options for schools were either East or Pembroke High School. After shadowing East, he felt it was the best fit for him.
“Pembroke was just really different and not me at all.” Delzer said. ”To be honest East was my last resort but it was a good one and I’m glad I chose it.”
Knowing a lot of upperclassman such as Lulu Stadler, Coco Reiser and Ellie Burgess helped Delzer fit in.
So far, he has met a lot of new people and has had a lot more freedom compared to private school.
Allen, Venice, and Delzer have experienced new changes that come along with Freshman year and the importance of adapting to a new environment.