A larger school, heavier workload, bullies and no sleep is the average depiction of high school to any middle school student, which can lead to fear and anxiety coming into high school as a freshman. Shows and movies often depict high school as a crazy place with bullies and stress, but it’s often far from the truth. Although high school is a huge shift from middle school, people often exaggerate the average high school experience.
Coming into South this fall, Khloe Mills ’29 had her concerns as she didn’t fully know what to expect, except for the fact that South is much larger than Pierce and that she would have much more homework. However, Mills has been surprised by the reality of her freshman year experience.
“I was expecting a lot more mean people, I think a lot of people make high school seem like there’s going to be a lot of rude people,” Mills said. “But I feel like even if you don’t know a lot of people, no one’s really going out of their way to be rude.”
For Ford Deneault ’29, the transition into South was made out to be much worse than it actually was for him. Deneault’s year was much easier than he expected and he was able to connect with others easily through football.
“It wasn’t mostly difficult, there were some times, like midterms, where it was a bit challenging,” Deneault said. “But older people were telling me our hell week for football was going to be horrible and I was going to die, and vomit my insides out. But it was actually not as awful as everyone made it out to be.”
Entering South can be nerve wracking for most, especially for those who are coming in from schools not in the district. Jenna Hess ’29 had gone to Grosse Pointe Academy (GPA) from fourth grade all the way to eighth grade, creating a bit of nervousness coming into South last fall, as she hadn’t talked to any of her old friends in the district since she switched to GPA.
“I’ve reconnected with a lot of my friends that I went to school with in the past, that kind of fell off during middle school,” Hess said. “I also got to volleyball with all of my friends this year, so that was pretty fun, since I had never been able to play with them before.”
Expectations vary by person when entering South; the build up to high school can be exciting for some and scary for others, but oftentimes they have nothing to worry about. And as the school year wraps up, the excitement for summer and sophomore year is beginning to build amongst the freshmen class.
“I’m really excited for summer, and it feels like this year went by super fast, so I’m excited to see everything that I’ve already done and get back test scores from finals,” Mills said.
