As a senior at IHS with all the typical worries and fantasies on my mind—college applications, Casino Night, graduation, etc.—I have realized that senior year has given me a chance to reflect on my time spent here. I have had four very different experiences during each of my years: as a scared freshman, a studious sophomore, a harried junior, and now a laid-back senior. When asked about the hardest year of high school, most people say junior year due to the scrutiny one comes under by college admissions officers and all the standardized tests one has to take. However, I disagree with this view, for I believe that my hardest year was definitely my freshman year. I believe this both because of how I acted and how the school, staff, and students around me acted.
Many people agree that meeting a new crowd of people at a new school can be either worrying or exciting depending on one’s temperament. For me, my freshman year was more worrying than exciting—I wondered, “Would people like me? Who would I hang out with?” Being a shy kid for most of my childhood, I had the normal concerns about how to find my classes, compounded with additional worries about making friends. Eventually, I stuck with a small group of close friends from middle school, and concentrated mostly on my schoolwork because the prospect of making new friends seemed too hard. This was part of the reason that my freshman year was my hardest—I thought I was happy only socializing with a few people at school, but I realized later that I needed something much more fulfilling to be truly happy. I became much less shy that year, and that summer I resolved to meet new people during my sophomore year. As I progressed in time, I totally changed the person I was because I realized that my classmates would like me if I allowed them to get to know me, and that there was nothing to be afraid of. Today, I consider myself to be socially awkward at times, but overall a very likeable person who’s funny and friendly. I have lots of friends, and I have been happier than I ever was as a freshman, despite the academic load getting harder.
However, it wasn’t just my own behavior that made my freshman year the hardest. The school was a different building, with more rigorous classes and more demanding teachers than I had been used to, and it took me all of that first year to fully adjust. Additionally, I believe upon reflection that my peers were more similar to me than I once thought: all of us were scared and trying to make friends while not being overbearing or overeager, making it an uncomfortable year for many. This quickly changed as we all became more familiar with one another during our later years of high school, and I think that many of my peers are different people today than they were as freshmen. They are more willing to make mistakes in front of others and laugh about their imperfections. Now, I look at my many acquaintances and friends, and I see different people than the freshmen they once were. I see people who have evolved over the years. I am now ashamed of how I sometimes comported myself as an unfriendly and cold freshman, and I believe that my friends regret how they acted, too—whether they were trying too hard, immature, or just didn’t dress well. But I think we all realized at one point or another that our freshman year was a natural part of growing up, and that we should focus on the proud people we are today instead of dwelling on the past.
To all freshmen new to this great school we call IHS, I want to say that high school gets easier as time goes on, not harder. Additionally, upon writing this article and realizing how nervous I was as a freshman, I would like to formally apologize to my freshman sister, Wynne, and all her friends, because I often scoff at them and tell them that I’m an elite senior. To you guys: it’s only my senioritis kicking in.