Starting school can always be a little anxiety-ridden for people, especially freshman. I caught up with five freshman students to discuss what their experience is like so far as a freshman in high school, and also to learn a little bit about them.

Freshman Isaac Valencia, has been playing the violin for the past five years, and he plans on joining the Sahuaro Soccer Team. So far, high school life for Issac has been treating him “pretty good”. He has most of his friends from middle school and has been making friends in his new classes. Walking into high school, he expected people to say “Oh you’re a freshman, you’re new to everything” but it wasn’t like that for him, everyone was welcoming. His favorite class so far is English class with Mr. Smith because he has his friends in there with him. One challenge Isaac has faced so far would be catching up in his algebra class. “I mean I can catch up, I just need to turn in all my work and give it on time,” stated Isaac.

As for freshman Ella Gough, she expressed that she hasn’t faced any challenges so far because “everything’s pretty easy, for me at least.” She attended Magee Middle School last year, she plays softball, and runs cross country. Her favorite class is Orchestra because she’s familiar with her classmates and the teacher (Mr. Marrs). For Ella, she expected high school to be like middle school, just bigger and have more people.  But “it’s been everything I’ve expected.”

Freshman Brandi Mobley, stated that she also hasn’t faced any big challenges so far, she’s just trying to find her classes.  But, she says she “doesn’t need to follow my schedule anymore.” Brandi goes to Sahuaro with her older sister, who is a junior. She takes art class and even plays in the school band.  She likes most of her teachers and the people have been pretty nice to her here at Sahuaro. “ I don’t know what I expected, I just know I didn’t expect it like this — I just didn’t have a main expectation.”

Student Alexis Bitnar, found that being able to find her classes was a challenge at first but finding them now is going okay for her. Alexis is a swimmer who started at the age of eight and is currently swimming for the Sahuaro Swim Team. Going into high school she expected it to be “fun” but for her it hasn’t been that exciting. What is exciting to her is Journalism (her favorite class).  There’s no particular reason, she just enjoys the class.

Last Freshman I sat down with is Alorah Leinenbach , who says  “I haven’t really faced any challenges so far” going into high school.

Alorah is a cheerleader who started at age ten who just wanted to be “active” and most of her friends were on the team with her. Spanish class is her favorite class because her friends are in there with her (seems to be the main reason for all freshmen!). She would say high school is treating her pretty good so far. “The work is easy and people are just mostly to themselves.” She expected it to be hard finding her classes and not being able to fit in as much or get around, but that’s not the case for her. It’s overall been “easy getting around (finding) my classes”.

Interviewing all five freshman, it was quite interesting to hear them talk about themselves and their thought process going into high school and now attending high school. Something I picked up on interviewing all five students was they all liked the classes that had their friends. As a former freshman, I could relate to them and understand that aspect because I was also a nervous new freshman walking into high school because I really didn’t know what to expect, so having classes with my friends helped me walk through it and not feel alone. So you could say, having your friends by your side can make any situation better.