Freshman Expectations vs. Reality


Claire Beaman

The John F. Kennedy High School building from the outside.

Claire Beaman, Writer

It’s hard to anticipate what will happen in someone’s high school career, and even more so as a freshman. Freshmen earned their name because they are new to high school life. It may have been confusing for them at the start, but what do they think about high school now?

“I thought it (high school) was confusing and scary with people everywhere. Now, I don’t really think that anymore,”  Angelina Madlock, fr., said.

It seems that many freshmen were intimidated by the large size of high school and feared getting lost. Big crowds were also a concern as there are much more people in high school, and a small amount of time to travel from class to class.

“I thought just because of four-minute passing time I would get lost a lot and be tardy, but all my classes are kind of in the same area, so it was really easy, actually,” Denver Anderson, fr., said.

Another expectation was that high school was rigorous and required a lot of effort for schoolwork. However, Madlock and Anderson don’t think this to be true.

“I thought it would be a lot harder with actual homework,” Madlock said.

“I guess teachers just make it easy for the kids. I thought they would leave you to learn on your own, but they just teach you everything you need to know,” Anderson said.

Anderson also thinks that the teachers are guiding the freshmen more than the other grades, since they haven’t quite had the opportunity to be self-reliant in the classroom.

Since freshmen are the youngest group in high school, they are naturally treated differently than the other grades.

“Seniors are pretty mean. They’re always like ‘get out of the way freshman,’ or something like that,” Madlock said.

Anderson has been picked on by seniors, but was expecting it since they are in the youngest grade. Both Anderson and Madlock believe that it’s mostly seniors that like to pick on the freshman, but they’re not so sure about the other upperclassman.

It seems as though the freshmen are enjoying their first year of high school and are finishing the year strong as well.