The Freshmen Experience

Being a part of the youngest class in high school can be a scary experience. Freshmen have to contend with much harder classes than middle school, older students all around them everyday, and more responsibilities. This would be a daunting thought for anyone. 

One challenge that freshmen experience is the new workload they have to deal with. One student commented on this saying, “I didn’t expect to be pounded with this much work, I spend hours every night trying to catch up on work that I couldn’t finish in class.” Freshmen students have to get accustomed to the amount of work that students are given in high school.

Possibly one of the more frightening things for freshmen is the intimidation felt from the upperclassmen. One freshmen stated that, “They are all so grown up and tall it freaks us out.” Fresh out of middle school, freshmen are not used to being around older kids so it makes sense that they would feel a little overwhelmed by the upperclassmen presence. Freshmen often feel like they are not important in high school. On this topic, one student commented that, “I don’t know if any of us feel like we belong here, we feel like outcasts and that we don’t matter to anyone.”

And the academic stuff isn’t the only new thing for them, either. Starting high school comes with a lot of hard social and peer group choices that freshmen will encounter too. One explained that, “I’m only 2 months into school and I’ve had to turn down illegal stuff that friends have offered me, they always try to peer pressure me into trying stuff.”

Being a freshmen can be hard. Having to adjust to new things, new people, new work habits. At any rate, hopefully the freshmen can find solace in each other through the experiences they’ll share and that they know that they will get through it. After all, it’s all uphill form here, right freshies?