Freshman year- a year full of new experiences, different challenges, and a whole lot of fun. Unique in its own ways, it sets the tone for high school life and helps students find what they enjoy doing. As freshmen transition from middle school to high school and enter a whole new ball game, let’s see how their first semester of high school went.   

I talked to 4 freshmen at our school and asked them a series of questions about their freshman year so far: 

1. In two words, describe how your freshman year is going. 
2. Which class is your favorite, and why? 
3. Which class is your hardest class that you’ve taken, and why is it hard? 
4. Are you/were you involved in any sports or clubs? What is/was the most fun thing about them. 
5. Is there anything that you were nervous about before entering freshman year that you aren’t nervous about now? 
6. Do you have any study habits that have been useful to you, and what are they?
7. What has been your favorite part of freshman year so far? 

“In two words, my freshman year has been stressful, and also it has been very exciting,” said Liana Tosounian. “The class that has been my favorite so far has been Biology AAC, because although it may be challenging for some units, for others I find a lot of interest in it,” she said. “The class that has been the hardest is probably Geometry AAC, because of a lot of homework and just a lot of new concepts that we have not gone over before. Along with that, Biology AAC is also one of my harder classes because of the workload and the amount of time needed to prepare for tests and exams,” Tosounian said. 

“The hardest class I am taking this year is English 1 AAC because it’s a lot of writing essays that I haven’t been used to yet, such as writing CER’s, and I’m just starting to get used to them,” said Hirsh Chavan. Hirsh is also part of the freshmen tennis team, and he says that “something that is fun about it is that you get to go to different meets that tennis has and you’re going cheering on your friends for their victories and whatnot, and it’s just a very fun time.”  

“I did marching band during the football season. The most fun thing about it was performing and spending time with my friends, and playing in the stands at the football field,” said Eva Graebe. “And then I’m in Student Council,” she said. “I actually really liked the volunteering that we did for the Homecoming dance, and how it’s a bunch of little things that add up, and it’s a wonderful thing that gets created.” Despite the fun things that have been in her freshman year so far, she was also a bit nervous about some things. “Well when I came in, I was very nervous about the grades. I’m still nervous about them, but not as much as I was originally because now I’ve gotten the hang of it, I feel like,” Graebe said. 

Something that Karen Wei was nervous about before entering freshman year was “time management, being able to plan for things ahead of time. I feel like I have a better grasp on it now.” She also said that “a study habit that has worked for me is writing down all of my assignments in my planner.” Finally, Karen’s favorite part of freshman year has been “meeting all these new people and making a lot of friends.”

As we can see, even though there are things that are hard and stressful about freshman year, there have definitely been fun things that each of these students look forward to every day. Even though freshman year can be a bit difficult, it’s a fun and important year for most students to get to know their high school better, and try new things they may or may not have been interested in.