Sophomore Fears

Marandah Mangra-Dutcher, Staff Writer

Entering the high school on the first day, I was frightened out of my mind. I was intimidated by everything; the building, the teachers, driving in the parking lot and the football field. Mainly, however, I was frightened by the upperclassmen. I already had some interaction with them, as marching band had started a few weeks prior, but they scared the crap outta of me. I do not really know why either, I feel like it is just a common thing the majority of students feel like when entering high school. My friends and I started thinking we should be more social and try to talk to the upperclassmen more a little into the year, however it never really happened. If I could go back I would do just that. Talk more with the upperclassmen.

This has been floating around in my mind recently as all of my extra-curricular activities are ending and looking back at it all, the opportunities I had to met some really cool people, I missed. Only recently have I truly start interacting with juniors and seniors on like a friend level. I was too frightened all those months ago to ever try, to succumb by awkwardness to even attempt to try.

I am in Synergy and Innovation’s show band and at our last competition, we had a meeting for Innovation where we did senior speeches. When someone acknowledged myself and the five other sophomores in the band, there were people genuinely surprised that we were there. They had no idea we were even in Innovation. Now being one of the only sophomores in Innovation was scary, that group of people are intimidating and crazy yet extremely fun and loving. However, maybe if I stepped out of my comfort zone a bit, I could have made some really good friends.

In the Black & White, going up to the editors and asking for help or something was so scary. They are all older than me and for whatever reason I always thought they would not like anything I ever did. However, once I did step out of thinking they hated me, I have managed to improve my writing and other skills due to their input. Even if some of them are not the fondest of me. There are still some of my classmates who are afraid of talking to our editors and to be honest they have not improved as much as they could have, if they had only asked for help.

I managed to get to know more upperclassmen than other students due to all the activities I am in. And I wish I got to know more of them before they graduated and left this school. If you are one of those students that still is like “Ahhhhhh, upperclassmen! Run!” Do not be. Most of them are pretty chill people, they are just a little older than you.