Helen just moved from Connecticut to Boston, MA.
Just the consideration of starting a fresh school year in a new school can leave the body in abeyance and drown the mind in many hopes and doubts. Not knowing what to anticipate, the mind then constructs expectations and desires based frankly on imagination and previous experiences. These hopes and anticipations swim freely around in our heads until reality eventually proves them right or wrong. Once again I, who am about to enter my fifth school in the past seven years, have a pool-full of these expectations.
I cannot say that these hopes and doubts are different from my previous ones – to make new friends, fit in at school, understand in class, and to not get in trouble – however, they are no longer fears but rather things that are mandatory. Being a “new kid” many times before, adapting and accommodating in a new environment is not difficult, but not necessarily easy either. All schools are different and have their own special atmosphere that takes patience and skill to fit into. Also, each school has its own traditions and individuality so I look forward to discovering what they are.
Besides social life, which is what every new kid worries about the most, we come to school to learn. In eighth grade, I expect to learn more in algebra, World War I and II, biology and chemistry, more Latin vocabulary and roots, and further SAT vocabulary words. Also, getting to know the new teachers can be fun and uncovering their ways of teaching can be interesting to compare to my previous discoveries.
Finally, the most abhorrent part in starting a new school is finding my way around the actual building. Unlike my old school that had a California-styled campus (many separate buildings that are connected with small paths and are very open to the environment), my new school is all one big, enormous building. I doubt that I will be successful in making my way around in this structure in the first week so I’m going to need a map.
Commencing a new school is not an easy task, nor is it a hard task but a task that requires skill and careful thinking; this I already mastered through my seven years of practice. However, this doesn’t mean that I don’t have to struggle during the first few weeks because I still have the pool of hopes and doubts to deal with until reality catches up to them.