Lynch 1 Chernal Lynch Mrs.

Babcock English 9 Honors 10/3/12

The Nightmares of Being a Little Fish in a Big Pond

All people are afraid of something. These fears differ from person to person as their perspective of phobias stem from horrible experiences and sometimes what lurks in their subconscious. Due to this, individuals attempt to avoid any situation that may cause them to fall victim to their fears; however, certain fear cannot be avoided; they must be conquered in order to be successful in life. The night before the first day of classes, every rising ninth grader dreads the horrors of the stereotypical freshmen experience. Before they enter the formidable edifice of high school, the entire freshmen class is petrified of their environment. Within the new surroundings of the building, getting lost is not that hard to accomplish. Students often become disoriented from the size of high school compared to the middle school they attended as their previous school is smaller. Because of how large the new school is, students become confused; they cannot find their class due to how the classrooms and hallways do not go in order. This causes lower classmen to sometimes enter the wrong class. In the same way that the new students easily get confused about where they are, they also panic about being late to class. The primary cause of tardies occurs when the hallways are overly crowded, slowing everyone down: this ensures that they do not have enough time to make it to their next class. The time between bells feels shorter when freshmen attempt to find their locker. After locating their locker, they struggle with using the combination, resulting in possible locker jams and more time lost. Although lockers provide a place to store supplies, they

Lynch 2

are actually inconvenience as the locker normally is out of the way. This causes students to take multiple detours to get the materials for the next class possibly located on the other side of the school, resulting in these students being late to class. In addition to the new atmosphere of high school, these newcomers are also terrified of the varieties of stress awaiting them. The new classroom environment causes aggravations for these students who are unfamiliar with the procedures. These freshmen meet their new teachers and become nervous because their teachers are possibly strict, embarrassing, or mean. These educators may be considered unpleasant because they demand more, overall of their students. When ninth graders encounter their new instructors, these teachers expect the students to reach the high standards in performance and behavior set. Along with these expectations, the teachers set rules they wish to be followed which overwhelms and petrifies the newcomers on the first day of school. Aside from the stress from their teachers expectations, the greater responsibilities that are involved in high school further frustrate the ninth graders. Time management requires freshmen to be responsible by balancing their school work and other extra activities. Some of these newcomers make the wrong decisions about the activities they select; they may choose to involve themselves in too many different activities, so they become overwhelmed. When they have extra circulars that spread them thin, they tend to put their social work off until the last minute which makes them ill prepared for what matters most- schoolwork. The effect of being more independent causes freshmen to fear the possibilities of fallig behind. The difficulty of work in each class is immense as is the workload; this ultimately stresses students out. Because of the increase in tasks necessary for success, ninth graders become overwhelmed and panic, so they procrastinate because they do not know what to complete work.

Lynch 3

If a student who has put off assignments becomes absent, they fall further behind, ultimately increasing the realities of failing the course. Following the pressures of academic in high school, these lower classmen have nightmares about their social lives as well. Peer intimidation troubles freshmen when they interact with their classmates. When ninth graders enter high school , they are forced to start over and be at the bottom again because of their age. As they enter high school, freshmen want to make a good first impression to avoid social labels from bullies or higher classmen. Some of these students are faced with the hardship of being different than others attending the school. Due to the difference of traits possessed by students in high school, newcomers tend to have low self esteem making it difficult it difficult to fit in. Following the fear of inferiority, ninth graders often feel anxiety about rejection when excluded by other students who they dont know. Because of the varieties of classes some students are forced to separate from their friends bringing along the task of meeting new people and making new friends, which seems easy for some, but hard for others. At lunch, people gather together in groups of mutual friends to conversate, but if ninth graders cannot make new friends and are unfamiliar with the people around them then they have to find a place to sit away from everyone else. When everyone is together associating with their friends and a student doesnt know anyone, they are forced to unwillingly be alone and isolated from the rest of the student body. Every freshmen wish to avoid the first day of high school because of their opinion on how it will happen based on what they have been exposed to about the first day classes. Because of their unfamiliar surroundings ninth graders find themselves misplaced and unable to find their way to their classes resulting in an unacceptable lateness. Besides new surroundings, lower classmen are faced with a bigger variety of responsibilities; hence, more frustration is brought

Lynch 4

upon them. After such a build up, freshmen begin to fall behind in their classes. Not only do these newcomers have to worry about the increase of stress in high school, but these students are also concerned about their social lives and the way people see them fearing rejection from anyone. No rising freshmen are completely prepared of their possible fears for entering high school because high school is different than middle school.