Debbira just started high school, but she's pretty much got it all figured out already. Now, we bestow her wisdom unto you.—Sparkitors
I'm a freshman. In high school. Yep, a 9th grader! I know most of you are farther into high school/college/retirement or whatever, but I’m just a tiny little n00b. Fun, right? Since my brother is becoming more and more of an eminent (freshie vocab word!) Mankler (though I won’t reveal who he is—at least not in this post!), I thought I’d follow in his footsteps and do an article on the pros and cons of life as fresh meat!
Cons:
You’re dwarfed: Everyone else is taller than you and older than you. Even though you’re in classes with them and getting better grades than they are, you still get abused and ignored (Dobby, I now feel your pain!). Walking between classes you always get stepped on, and if anything exciting ever happens, you always miss it, because of the crowd of 6-foot-tall juniors standing in front of you.
You’re lonely: You know absolutely NO ONE (except maybe your older sibling). It’s like everyone formed a giant let’s-ignore-the-loners cult over the summer! Not that I’d want to be in that cult...but it’s better than being the loner sitting in a corner while everyone else has an in-depth debate over whether the anteater or the aardvark is superior. (Aardvark. Definitely.)
You get labeled really fast: Just because you were having a discussion with one of your few new friends about Legend of Zelda doesn’t mean you automatically belong with the nerds. At the same time, you really want to be labeled as “cool” for simply referencing a popular song in class, but the quick labels only work negatively. Figures, right?
People don’t recognize you for your abilities: You can recite the first 30 digits of pi off the top of your head? You know all of the names of the Pac-man ghosts? You know the word pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis and what it means? Great—nobody cares. Now, summarize Great Expectations in 600 words or less and solve for x and tell me when the Declaration of Independence was signed.
All of the attractive guys are upperclassmen: There’s a guy in your biology class, and he seems really cool! You start talking to him, and then he says something about how he hates English 3. “DARN,” you think to yourself. Then, you talk to a cute guy in your English class... only to find that he’s extremely shallow and immature, and that he doesn't know what a Patronus is. Hatred sets in immediately.
Pros:
You’re finally in high school! ‘Nuff said!
You get to start over: You can leave behind your old reputation and be whoever you want to be; you can start fresh. This is also a con, though, due to the second and third cons above.
As you can see, there are a few more cons than pros. So the next time you see a freshie, smile at them, wave, or give them a sock and tell them they’re free! You may have more work as an upperclassman, but a freshie’s social life is probably much tougher than yours. Always remember: freshmen may be little, but we are people too!
Freshmen aren't people. COME ON. That's absurd. What are some more pros and cons of being fresh meat?
Related post: How to Be a Freshman
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