Freshmen Experience During COVID-19 and Starting High School

The transition from middle to high school is always presumed to be challenging. However, with COVID-19 preventing the class of 2024 to fully receive the true freshmen year experience, the transition was certainly altered quite a bit. School was solely online for the first few months of the year, fall sports postponed, homecoming dance and the halftime show cancelled, etc. While some may believe that freshmen were most bummed about missing out on these events, it turns out they were more upset about the bonding that these events bring.

Freshman Quinci Lott states that events such as football games and dances “were great opportunities to meet and socialize with new people, bond with your friends, and participate in Dana’s school spirit.” Another freshman, Naya Seligson, agrees and explains that the biggest thing she has missed out on so far “would really be meeting new people and not being able to participate in the activities that would normally be occurring.”Some of us who have experienced these events may simply look past them as quality memories, but these freshmen remind us that those are the places we may have met some of our closest friends.

Friends can be what make the transition from middle to high school somewhat smoother. However, this year, freshman Liza Charles thinks that “the transition was so much smoother than [she] expected, [she] felt really almost no difference from the switch until [she] got to the hybrid model, which felt different as [she] expected.” Lott further explains how online school has “eased [her] into meeting [her] new teachers, the workload each class entailed, and [her] new classmates all in the comfort of [her] bedroom. [She] didn’t have to worry about getting to school on time or getting lost trying to find a class.” Seligson also feels that “there was less of a culture shock” since not everyone is attending the hybrid model.