My First Day of Public High School

This is Sparkler endlesslight44's first post, and we think it totally captures the chaos of the first day at a new school. Enjoy! —SparkNotes Editors

I’ve tried to think of clever ways to introduce my situation, Sparklers, but it’s a little too complicated for that. I’ll just have to come right out and say it: I haven’t been to public school since second grade. When I was eight, my family moved overseas, and my parents worked at a private international school. Naturally, I attended that school from third through tenth grade.

Now we are back in America for one year. And my first day was quite an experience. Since so many other people got to give their two cents about the first day of school, I thought I’d let you see it from my perspective: a new junior coming from a school with 180 high schoolers to a school with 2,500.

5:30 a.m. A ridiculous time to be up in the morning. No one should ever wake up this early.

6:35 a.m. My brother and I leave for the bus stop. I have never taken a bus to school before this morning. It is a very interesting experience. We leave my bus stop (the first one on the route, of course) at 6:40 and do not arrive at school until 7:15. I know I will never get to class on time. Ever.

7:16 a.m. I rush from the bus to my locker. It’s a miracle that I get it open on the first try because I’ve also never had those spinning lock things that apparently everyone knows how to do already. A slight panic comes over me when I take a wrong turn getting to my first class, but I make it.

7:20 The class is seated, the teacher closes the door and tells everyone to “Stand up, stand up, stand up quick.” I have no idea what’s going on, but I stand up! We’re supposed to be saying the pledge along with the intercom. I haven’t said the pledge in class since second grade, but luckily I remember the words. The actual class involves remembering math concepts, but I survive.

7:44 I push through more kids than I’ve seen in a long time to get to my class. It’s on the total opposite side of the building. I realize that I went the reeeeeeeeeally long way. But I get there (finally) and get to my next class as well.

8:17 Biology involves meeting lab partners. Fortunately, the guy next to me seems pretty nice and so does the teacher. Perhaps science won’t be as awful as it usually is. But then, who am I kidding? How could science ever be good?

8:45 (when a normal person should wake up) My teacher informs me that my lunch will usually be at 10:06. Hmmm. So really, they should be serving breakfast? Public high school in America is so weird.

9:13 (also an appropriate wake-up time) As it turns out, the health class I’m in is a sophomore health. Meaning it is all sophomores. Except me. Great. On the bright side, I still have been on time to every class. Woot woot for me!

9:41 My advanced English teacher uses a word that provokes discreetly confused looks from all in the class. What in the world did he just say?? Mental note: work on vocab. Public school may have a bad reputation, but this class is hard!

10:13 It’s the last class of the day and only 10 o’clock. I think I could go for half days every day. The teacher speaks exclusively in Spanish for the first bit of the class, and I wonder if it will always be like this. Thankfully, she says some things will be in English. Phew. Plus, she forgets to hand out the syllabus. Most of the class is too shy to say anything except for one kid, whom I now admire. And I have now succeeded in not being late once in this massive school.

After a gripping fear that I won’t be able to find my bus, I see that there is a list posted of bus positions. I silently thank whoever thought of that and board my bus. Evidently, far more people need to get home than needed to go to school, so the bus is much more crowded. But my stop is first, and I don’t have to spend very long in the loud, yellow heat trap.

As my brother and I walk home, we discuss the first day and wonder if we’ll be able to make it through the whole year.

I sure hope so.

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