www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/schools/2667656,6_5_NA03_MELANIECOL_S1-100903.article
Metea students getting in a groove
September 3, 2010
When you walk into the first day of a new year in high school, you can't help but hope everything will go perfectly. Despite the larger textbooks, greater responsibility and harder classes, students are always excited for a new year to begin. However, nothing ever goes as planned, and each year is filled with disappointments and satisfactions.
This year is a big deal for students at Metea, because we are finally growing as a school by receiving incoming freshmen, which makes three grades at the new school. Thus, many things changed because our class sizes grew, and so did the population at Metea.
"I've started realizing how different middle school is from high school because of the increase in students in every hallway this year," Metea Valley sophomore Natalie Bindler said.
This year, my friends and I had a good first few days in high school. With the incoming freshmen, everyone met new people, and grew familiar with their surroundings.
"It was scary because I've never seen so many new students, but I'm so excited for my first year in high school," Metea Valley freshman Amy Hennessy said.
Lunch is always hectic on the first day of school because everyone finds their friends and clusters together with them at a table, hurriedly trying to find the right table to sit at. However, as days pass, everyone eventually gets into the groove of things and each student finds their own spot to sit each day.
In addition, last year, freshmen and sophomores mostly had their classes in their own wings, but surprisingly, our classes are in all three wings this year, which is a good time to see our older and younger classmates.
Another exciting thing to see on the first day of school is if you have friends in your classes. Each student walks into their new class expecting to have no friends in it, but many find that there's several in the same class.
"On the first day of school, I'm always worried about how my classes will be. I hope my teachers are nice and that I'll have friends in each class," Metea Valley sophomore Jessica Yaeger said.
Unfortunately, I don't have many friends in my gym class, which is a disappointment, because gym and lunch are the two classes that everyone hopes to have their closest friends in. I'm not excited for swimming either, because every girl in high school hates to ruin her hair in the water. Thankfully, my lunch period is full of friends though, and having fifth period is just the right time to eat lunch.
Furthermore, something surprising I found was that I have a pretty small chemistry class. I found that unusual considering class sizes grew immensely because of the large number of teachers who were laid off this year.
All in all, the first days of school were successful, as we met new people, and got situated with our new classes. Although it's a new year, getting back into the swing of things makes me feel like I've never left school and never had summer. Summer was short lived, and now it's time for a fresh start on a new academic year that will be full of joy and frustration.
Melanie Betbadal, Metea student.