By: Victoria Mezera
Apopka High School has about 3,500 students. On the first day of school, August 14th, many of our students were returning, however, our 917 freshmen experienced their first day at Apopka. While it may not be quite as eventful for returning students, for freshmen it most certainly is. Transitioning from middle school to high school is a big event. It can be scary and exciting to go to a new, bigger school. I interviewed five freshmen to ask about their first week of high school.
For the most part, the first week seemed to go over pretty well. Dwayne Long described his first week as “Pretty nice, it was nice getting used to something different, instead of middle school.” Athaiya Mack also had a positive experience. She said Apopka High has been her “dream school for a while now”, and that she loves it a lot. Matthew Conner described his first week as “a whole other type of experience”, and stated that it was both fun and confusing at the same time.
When students go to high school, they all have different expectations. Some envision High School Musical, and some think more along the lines of Ned’s Declassified. Apopka High School, however, seems to be pretty good at meeting student’s expectations. Student Kadrayah Jones claims that at first, it didn’t exactly amount to what she expected, but, “as the week went on it did.” Matthew said the school met his expectation “with flying colors, yes, it was exactly how I thought high school should be like.” Though our students seemed satisfied with their first week, I was curious how their very first day went, and if they were at all nervous. Alexander Cardello said, “I mean, I was nervous at first, but now it’s easy.” Our other freshmen seemed to share a similar experience. Kadrayah was nervous because she “didn’t know anybody.” Dwayne, when asked if he was scared on the first day, responded with a very enthusiastic “Yes!” He then, however, explained he was only scared because he didn’t know how to get to all of his classes. Athaiyah had a similar story, saying “I didn’t know how to get to any of my classes, or all the people, but I wasn’t nervous exactly.”
Although our freshmen’s first week seemed overall positive, there are many negative stereotypes that are associated with being freshmen. A few examples of these stereotypes are that freshmen are annoying, overenthusiastic, or just too small for high school in general. When asked about them though, the students mostly all seemed unaware, or unbothered by them. Athaiyah said that some of her older friends will walk up to her and say “Freshie freshie!”, but that it doesn’t bother her. Both Alexander and Kadrayah said that they hadn’t heard anything bad about freshman, but if they had, that it wouldn’t bother them. Matthew said that the only thing he had heard is that “freshmen are too young for high school, but I don’t necessarily think of it as a stereotype.” He claims that it’s more stupidity than anything else, as age can vary between the grade levels. If anything, he says it’s a little irritating.
Overall, the five students said that high school was very different from middle school, but they all seemed to prefer high school. When asked why, Alexander and Kadrayah both agreed it was because they had more freedom. Athaiyah and Matthew both seemed to agree, with Matthew saying “The amount of freedom we have as students is quite refreshing.” Dwayne said he thinks “The lunches are better, you don’t have to sit in the cafeteria. You can be outside in the courtyard, and be with your friends.” Altogether the first week of school went over pretty smoothly for our freshmen. Though they may have had difficulty navigating or knowing people at first, they seem to all have settled into place.