When the final bell rang on August 21st, a maelstrom of emotions seemed to compete for minds of two particular groups of students: freshmen, who exited their sixth periods with a sort of nervous excitement as they greeted their new friends from West or Central or Academic Village, and their veteran counterparts, who were overcome with bitter nostalgia after seeing the first few Instagram stories captioned “last first day” pop up in their feed.
When August 25th rolled around, the same oxymoronic captions resurfaced—except ‘day’ was replaced with ‘week’—and they were juxtaposed with freshmen’s own “first week” posts and captions.
As the year progresses, these sentiments will go on to be twice as powerful and by the end of it, be considered a drawn-out motif of the 2023-2024 school year.
But first, the CHAT begins this story following the conclusion of week #1, without sounding like an English class.
Seniors:
“My first week felt different. The way everyone acted was what made it feel like, ‘Wow, that’s it—this really is the last time.’ I was in a happy mood. After freshman and sophomore year, everyone chilled out.” -Bryan Kandic, Senior
“[The first week] was pretty good. It feels a lot more mature; the teachers are a lot more chill than freshman year. As a senior you get so much more leeway.” –Johan Eldho, Senior
“My first day as a freshman I was very confused. I now feel like I’ve established myself; I feel way more confident than I ever have in any year of school ever. I’m grateful to have even gotten here and have the confidence that I have today.” –Alexio Hendfield, Senior
“At first, I had really high expectations for what senior year would look like. I was so excited to get to the part of the year where we have Grad Bash and prom and all the fun senior activities that everyone looks forward to. During the first week, though, my excitement became bittersweet because I realized that the faster those things got here, the sooner I’d be leaving my friends and family for college.” –Milagros Ortega, Senior
[My] first day was anticlimactic, but it was still fun. I don’t really like all my classes but some of them are chill because I have friends in them . We weren’t there on campus freshman year so it’s a different experience—and a better one now.” –Daniela Quiroz, Senior
“It was bittersweet to come back to my last first week. You know, after this I’m starting life; it’s kind of scary. But it was really good to come back and see all my friends again and continue the tradition of wearing kids’ backpacks; I was happy to see everyone do it as a class. I think this year will be a great year for class of ‘24. We will be more connected.” –Coralie Richardson, Senior
Freshmen:
“For my entire life I’ve been told that high school would be like crazy awesome and when I came there it was still good, but it was a little too overhyped. I didn’t even see most of my friends on the first day. I was hoping for more—I don’t really know how—but I was thinking like, ‘oh everything’s going to change when I enter high school. I saw my brother, though, and the teachers were good and I had good classes.” –Emily Kandic, Freshman
“My first week was fun. I like the teachers and I have classes with a lot of my friends so it was good.” –Zachary Samuels, Freshman
“It’s a whole bunch of walking and everything, and it’s kinda confusing to figure out what building you’re going to, but it was really fun –Jade Scott, Freshman
“My first week of freshman year was good because I made new friends and my classes are okay. The lunches are good too, but I couldn’t find many places to sit.” –Mia Moses-Cossio, Freshman
