By Brayden Haley ’25
We are already into a few weeks of the second semester, and time seems to have gone by very fast. I feel like it was just a few weeks ago when I walked into the large swinging doors of Beverly High School confident, and a little nervous, of the school year yet to come. As time passed, I got more and more used to navigating the crowded hallways and all of the events that came with the new year. Clubs were starting to open and I knew I wanted to get involved in the school community, more than just learning in it. I have to say that after-school activities and chilling in the library have helped me loosen up about school.
I’d like to reference the statement that one of the other freshman writers had mentioned at a few of our meetings. She said that the current freshman class has not been the youngest grade at any school since kindergarten, since we were the first sixth grade group in the new middle school—until now, that is. I had conducted a form that was sent out to the freshman advisory, asking everyone to reflect on their past semester to see if it was enjoyed or disliked by them. For me personally, high school has already been much better than middle school in many ways. There are more ways to get involved, we only have four classes per day, and there are competitive sports.
During the advisory a few Wednesdays ago, I had numerous responses coming in about their experience as a freshman. Although I only got 44 completed questionnaires, I figured that it was a good sample size of our ninth grade class. Most of the answers collected were similar to one another, but there were still those unique answers that had me wondering, “Is that really what they think of high school?” When asked about their past semester, the question was answered by an accumulation of “pretty good’s,” “fine’s,” and “ok’s.” However, some students feel that high school may be more intense and tiring. One individual even made a comparison by saying that the first part of the year made them feel like “a fish on land.”
When I gathered all of the information about how the high school was better than the middle school, I saw a common answer: freedom. The freedom factor has affected everyone in high school, whether they’ve realized it or not. In fact, 26 out of the 44 forms mentioned freedom—that’s 59%. Instead of getting classes chosen for you, you can choose them yourself. Instead of putting your phones away out of sight, you can leave them out and use them (sometimes). It’s all an act of free will. However, according to the data, high school has some downsides as well. Some causes of this are “the school lunch food,” “days starting earlier,” and “crowded hallways with more obnoxious people.” Like the question before, this one also had a popular answer. It was mentioned by many that the combined stress and schoolwork contributed to bad experiences.
There were a few events that outlined the first half of the school year. These were the freshman elections, pep rally, sports games, and even that medal of honor ceremony and helicopter landing. When asked their opinions on BHS events, fifteen students did not know what they liked, or didn’t like anything at all. On the contrary, others highlighted their favorite events of the previous two quarters. Freshman Maverick Genest said that he liked most of the sporting events, claiming that they “bring the school together and raise school spirit.” “I really liked the freshmen elections because the people who ran got to be really independent with their ideas and speeches,” commented Sophia Gallo.
The most liked event, though, was the pep rally. Some students responded with reasons they liked the rally. Emma Conlon said, “I liked the pep rally because it felt like a high school experience and we were more connected as a school community, which we haven’t had for a few years due to the pandemic.” Another student responded, “I liked the pep rally. It was engaging and endlessly fun, though it was awkward that they always put freshmen on the spot like that.”
Overall, it seems that the new ninth grade class enjoys the current school year. We have been introduced to new Panther traditions and events, new sports teams, and extra freedom. I have a great feeling that the upcoming years at this school are going to be ones that I will someday never forget.
