As a freshman, going to high school for the first time could be intimidating and scary. COVID-19 has kept us isolated from a normal school ‘life’ for about 18 months. Emotions like social anxiety developed for a lot of people, and I’m not going to lie, that includes myself. 

Personally, the transition is really hard for me. This is my first year being in the RSU 21 district, or even living in the state. I am originally from N.Y.C. (more specifically the Bronx). Obviously, the difference between a place like the Bronx and Kennebunk is pretty big. To kick things off, I attended freshman orientation, a sequence of activities for new students to get to know the school better.  

 When I got to school at 7:30 A.M., I saw people conversing with all the friends they hadn’t seen in what felt like, or was, forever. I didn’t really have anyone to talk to, and my social anxiety from moving and COVID didn’t help. We started off the day with breakfast from the cafeteria and talking to the peer helpers, which, let me be honest, really helped because without them I would have stayed sitting at my table alone for the entirety of the 35 minutes.

After the principal made announcements and introduced some of the staff, we split into groups with peer helpers to do some activities. The activities included a scavenger hunt, which was when our peer helpers read a clue and we had to figure out what they meant (ex: the office, the nurse) then we had to find the room in the school. Other activities we participated in were a field day session and a session on how to manage our lives, and what we put out for people to view on social media. It was pretty cool how they organized the activities into groups where the number of people didn’t seem overwhelming.

Then came lunch. This big social event is where I felt like an outsider. Everyone knew the right place to sit and with whom. These were people they’ve known since middle school or maybe even earlier. And me? I didn’t know a single person. I had 30 minutes of people grabbing the rest of the chairs at my table. Of course, I didn’t care because after 10-15 minutes I had become less hopeful that someone would decide to sit with me. 

Once lunch had finished at 11:30 A.M., we all ran a mini version of our schedule. We started with advisory. Normally this is our shortest class of only about 20 minutes, but it became our longest class of the run-through. After advisory, the rest of our classes were only 10 minutes per block. Everyone ran all of their blocks including the ones we had on both blue and white days. In my opinion, I do think the orientation was a success and it was worth the bit of confusion there was (if any).

In the situation we are in and have been in, to be back in school (without it being online) is a great opportunity. Even though we might not like waking up really early to come here five days a week, I think social interaction with friends, teachers, and others is a bit better than not being able to wake up five minutes before class starts every day. I wish we didn’t have to wear masks for six hours a day, but it’s a price I am willing to pay, and hopefully that’s the case for others as well.