I can’t express how annoying it is to get up at 5:30 and leave the house for a half-mile walk when you’re half-asleep and still looking like a gargoyle. But, in all, my mornings are usually calm. I like seeing the sky melting into different colors as I stand in the brisk wind, waiting for the bus. I feel like my friends help wake me up since I have one who lives in my neighborhood. Yes, I’ll complain about how tired I am, but then again, I’m excited and ready for the day and what it brings me. 

After I get on the bus and get to school, the yellow vehicles open their doors to the world for kids to swarm out in a chaotic mass of children, all pushing and squeezing to go through the same doors as everyone else and hang out with their friends before the bell rings. 

I walk up to my friends near the stone outdoor steps for commotion and people to hang out. Usually, I’m with 8 or 9 friends at a time, jumping between topics and discussing the day before after school. Talking about how our limbs ache from practice for various sports, hobbies, or practice, or commenting about homework or funny things. The mornings are crowded but peaceful once you slip into the right space with your friends. I remember the first week of school, when I hadn’t found my spot, I kind of just stood there idly, trying to catch my other friends. 

But now that I have sunk into my place, I’m more relaxed, and I can focus on doing what I do. 

When the first bell rings, the people scramble off to their first period, mine, is English. Generally, I don’t like my first class because it can be boring at times and when you start off with a silent, calm class, you begin to feel tired, so I have to force myself to stay focused and awake. There is not much there besides the fact I made a few friends in that class.

Then, generally, I’ll walk to my second class, which is PE (physical education). I’m always very excited about this class because at the end, we get to do whatever physical activity we want, and I play volleyball with a few new and old friends I’ve made. 

From my love of volleyball, thanks to a specific book, I’ve grown my active level and serotonin. I even started a volleyball club. We are trying to get people together and practice after school. I know what you’re thinking. Why not just join the volleyball team? Well, sometimes other kids are annoying and rude, and I’d rather interact and play with people I know who I can easily communicate with who are my friends. It makes me feel like we are actually on the same team. Don’t get me wrong, if somebody wants to join the club, they sure can! I have nothing against that. My standards are I want to get to know them and be cool and friendly with them. That’s all. It’s just a bunch of friends hanging out and playing a game we all love and participate in.

Anyway, after my daily match of volleyball practice with my buddies, I’ll move on to homeroom, which later will change to our flex block. We usually chill in one room, talking and maybe working on some work. Right now, it’s basically just our relaxing time, I guess you could say. The school is still setting up and shifting into the actual activity that is supposed to be hosted during that time.

After flex block/homeroom, I move on to JROTC! JROTC is generally one of my favorite classes because I was given the role of guide-on, which means I get to lead the class. During formations and parades and those things, I have the guide-on flag, which is where I’ll stand at the front of the company with the commander and lead everyone to places and guide certain actions at times. I’m technically representing my company (Bravo). Some days, we wear out OCP uniforms; other days, we wear out Class A/Class B uniforms. At the end of the week, we wear our PT uniforms.

After JROTC, we move to our 30-minute lunch period. I hang out with my friends, and we talk and do whatever. I made a few good friends that way and met a few new people. 

From lunch is my favorite period: math! Not because it’s math, but also kind of because it’s math. I like math; math is cool. I also love my teacher; shout out to my math teacher for being so patient and wonderful! And I have a lot of good friends in that class too! It’s a good way to end my day. 

Sometimes I’ll take the bus home, and sometimes I’ll stay after school for rifle practice, one of many team events they offer in JROTC. There is a rifle team., drill team, drone team, robotics, raiders team, color guard team, cyber patriot, etc..

I like rifle team because what we do is, when we walk into the rifle range (its indoors), we all group up after changing into jeans and a hoodie and do some stretching exercises. We then get our rifles ready at our assigned slot, and there are 3 positions: Prone, kneeling, and standing. I feel like I’m best at prone, but that also means I need heavy practice in kneeling, because it’s quite difficult for me to get used to it. I’m all alright with standing. It’s not that bad. I actually like it. 

So, usually practice until 5 or 7, and the rifle team is especially cool because they are very competitive. We also travel to places, out of state, in-state, and tons of cool things.

I feel like my first month of high school has been pretty good. It’s not nearly as scary as people seem to make it out to be. 

With fun comes struggles, but so far, I think I’ve done pretty well handling those struggles. I can’t wait for what becomes of me in the near future.