Freshman year is never what students expect or wish it to be. People tend to grow out of a lot of their middle school friends, and homework ends up taking up 85% of their lives. So far, Clements High School has had a pep rally, two weeks of I-Lunch and six football games and scrimmages. Of course, this high school is pretty much always this busy, but this year’s freshmen are new to having so much going on, and are already quite opinionated on what’s been happening around here. 

How’s your freshman year going?

“It’s going mildly okay. Classes are easy so far, A.C.’s kinda broken, environment’s alright, people seem friendly enough; first day of I-Lunch is kind of excessive because there’s two thousand people everywhere around the school, and it seems like a bad idea to me,” Freshman Matthew Nguyen said. “Lots of upperclassmen to help around; it’s good.”

“It’s been really good so far, I like all my teachers…” Freshman Jaxon Vasquez said.

“It’s okay, it’s very different than in middle school,” Freshman Maya Trevino said.

 “Yeah, we’re definitely off to a stressful start, which is not fun,” Freshman Maddox Darnell said.

“It’s going good, I found my way around the school so far; at first I thought it was gonna be hard, I thought it was gonna take me like three weeks, but I found it on the first week,” Freshman Darielle Pippins said.

“It’s going mildly okay. Classes are easy so far… people seem friendly enough; first day of I-Lunch is kind of excessive because there’s two thousand people everywhere around the school, and it seems like a bad idea to me,” Freshman Matthew Nguyen said.

“It’s alright, it’s different than middle school, it’s a lot different. It’s just more freedom, you can do a lot more things; bigger school,” said Bryant Navarro, freshman.

Is there anything you would change?

“I-Lunch, and the A.C.; it’s really hot everywhere,” Nguyen said. 

“I wish all the teachers didn’t all choose the same day for all the major grades,” Darnell said.

”I wish it started later,” Trevino said.

“A.C. is kinda broken,” Nguyen said.

Is there anything you expected to be different?

“I mean, I didn’t really know what to expect coming in, so I didn’t really have any expectations; I expected it to be a lot but it’s really not that much,” Vasquez said.

“Not really,” Darnell said. “I expected it to be hard.”

“I mean, the work? But I’m getting used to it,” Pippins said.

The older Rangers chimed in with a few pieces of advice for the new freshmen.

“First of all don’t get involved in all the drama. Don’t try to change yourself for people that you think are cool,” Sophomore Ava Hosseini said. “Going to especially like clubs and stuff, you see all these people and you want to hang out with them, but sometimes they don’t care about you in the way that you think they do, so just be careful of that.” 

“Stay focused, because if you get behind, it’s not good. You can’t procrastinate, but make sure you keep a balanced life, don’t get too caught up in school,” Junior George Andrews said.

“Don’t procrastinate on schoolwork, also be involved with school organizations and go to football games,” Senior Andrea Fung said. “Take every moment that you get Freshman year because you only have 4 years of high school.”

“Be aware of what Pre-AP and AP classes you’re taking because it’s not like middle school where it’s pretty easy, in high school it gets pretty hard and you have to do a lot of work,” Senior Udit Lal said. 

“Stick with a program for all four years, because it looks really good on college applications, to see that you’re committed to something,” Senior Savannah Wallace said. “Don’t take high school too seriously.”

“Stay on the grind; keep your grades up, because they will catch up with you later on,” Junior Treyton Trusko said.