Confused. Excited. Lost. These are all emotions that teenagers feel on their first day of high school. Being back on the bottom of the food chain all over again. High school is a whole new world compared to middle school. The kids are bigger, the teachers are not as involved with the personal needs of each student, and kids can sit anywhere they want on campus at lunch.

Here everyone tries to make the freshmen feel as welcome as possible. On the first day of school the Freshmen Focus club wore their brightly colored shirts and were ready for any question that a puzzled freshmen might have. Sagar Mittal (11), a Freshmen Focus board member, claimed, “a few [freshmen] came up to me and mostly asked me which building was which and where to go for their classes.”

When asked how she liked high school, Kylee Gauna (9) answered, “I like it. It’s different from middle school, but it’s fun.” Kaleb Davies (9) added, “It’s awesome. It’s pretty big, but not as scary as people say.” The overall picture here is that, to freshmen, West High exceeded their expectations. Some try to scare incoming freshmen by telling them how they will be picked on and misguided, all for a laugh. When in reality, that is not true. Davies mentioned, “Everyone was welcoming.”

Moving to a new bigger school can be challenging, but it allows for new memories to be made. When asked if anything in particular stood out from middle school, Sophie Baghdoyan (9) claimed “Things that stood at were the really cool and different cultures and the different way people dressed compared to my old school where a lot of us girls wore similar clothing.” There is no place like high school to show a student’s creative side.

Of course not everything about high school is glamorous and fun. Davies mentioned “how strange the silence [was] on the first few days of class” and Baghdoyan stated she did not like “the fact that there are so many people on the campus almost everywhere you walk.” In addition, Gauna says “all the homework” does not make the transition any easier.

It’s safe to say that moving from middle school to high school is a big step, but is worth it once one gets to know the campus and meet everyone around.