Stepping off the school bus, I stood at the gates of the Chicago High School campus in the fall of 2016 for another school year 2016-2017 to begin my four year adventure as a high school student.
The campus looked huge, turning left and right could see students everywhere and it was not only exciting and busy but also quite overwhelming.
The campus itself was full on with lots of buildings, sporting facilities including a swimming pool and archery field; a completely different campus on its own and very different from elementary and middle school.
We walked right to the main door and inside was a table with a banner that said ‘Welcome Grade 9 Students,’ teachers and students were there to help us find our way around the campus.
Eventually, Chris, Jaime and I found our classroom and there were other students’ already in the classroom seated while others were chatting.
The three of us found three seats that were close to the back area of the classroom that were unoccupied; Chris sat in the middle, while Jaime and I sat at the back.
I also noticed that I wasn’t the only mixed colored race student in my class nor in the entire school, which was quite a relief, but from the looks of them, they didn’t seem to be interested in anyone or anything nor did they seem to be at all friendly.
We were already assigned our lockers which had combination locks where we could keep our stuff; the lockers were on the first floor as that is where we had most of the ninth grade classes.
It was good that our lockers were next to each other; at least we would be able to help each other out when we struggled to open our lockers.
The courses we had selected in eighth grade were the courses we got in ninth grade: chemistry, biology, advanced algebra, physical education and health, English 9, drama and dance, world history, French and Spanish.
The classes were sixty five minutes long, something I would have to get used to from the forty five minute classes we had in elementary and middle school.
Classes begun at sharp eight in the morning with roll call for attendance followed by announcements; tardiness was unacceptable.
We had different teachers for all of our classes; we were each given textbooks, workbooks, notebooks and a student diary which was also a school calendar.
We were then given a full introduction of the curriculum and what will be taught for the entire school year including assignments, information on projects and presentations, lab work that we would be doing in class or as homework and of course the class rules, and class expectations. The source of this chapter is novelping dot com.
However, the most important part of the introduction was about the quizzes, including surprise quizzes (this was the first time hearing of such a quiz), mid-term and final exams which the teachers emphasized were to be taken very seriously.
At the age of 14, I was beginning to understand that this was no longer going to be a care center where teachers would be looking after students or students looking out for each other.
You were in charge and responsible for your studies, uncompleted assignments or projects and presentations resulted in an automatic fail; an F grade.
High school grading system also changed going with grades A to F with GPAs (Grade Point Average) for each grade.
The good thing with high school classes was that we didn’t have the course class every day, instead was every other day which meant if one was organized and had good time management skills was able to complete and submit all the assignments and all the pre-readings prior to class or before the due date.
Even though this was clearly a good advantage, the work load was not going to be any lighter.
On the first day of school, homework was inevitable; break time was as usual ten minutes but it never felt like it as we had to get to our lockers to put and get books for our next classes as our bags were overloaded with all the textbooks and other materials from the already completed classes.
We had a longer break after the second period which was enough time to head to the restroom, get a snack and breathe before preparing for the next class.
For lunch, didn’t need to bring snacks from home anymore as we had the cafeteria which had great lunch and they also had snacks with drinks that we could buy during our break time, but was not cheap at all.
After school activities were not going to start until the following week giving us time to familiarize ourselves with the classes and the school campus.
In ninth grade, I signed up for badminton, archery, Model United Nations (MUN), dance and journalism.
Chris and Jaime also signed up for MUN, chess club, dance and journalism; they were not really into sports.
Although I have to say they both had a very good physique; taller than me, broad shoulders, muscular toned thighs and arms which I never understood how considering they were not into sports.
It wasn’t until later on I found out that they love exercising, running and swimming which was something they did during their summer holiday and at summer camps, this clearly explains their great body physique.
They were also naturally quite good looking; Chris tall and slim having blue eyes with fine black polished eyebrows with a round good looking face and brownish golden hair; Jaime same height and body structure as Chris had black eyes, black curly hair, a natural good looking face skin smooth as silk, one look at him and you would think he was a model.
In comparison, my brown eyes, smooth light chocolate skin color with a few pimples on my face, broad built shoulders, slim body with toned thighs and legs, well-proportional hips, and long mid-length black hair that reached my elbow.
When you saw the three of us walking together, you would think Chris and Jaime were brothers and I was like their little sister. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
On the contrary, Chris and Jaime are not brothers, but two buddies who have been best friends since elementary.
There were lots of girls back in middle school that liked Chris and Jaime, but their interest in girls was not a priority plus they never liked any of the middle school girls at all!
For the sports, drama, dance, and other performing arts activities students who wanted to be in the school team needed to audition and try out for the teams.
Here is where things got quite interesting in ninth grade; it turns out that priority went to tenth, eleventh and twelfth graders; for a ninth grade student to actually be selected for the sports team, one had to pass the try outs with a score that was as equally as good as the twelfth grade students.
Upon hearing this from Chris and Jaime and from the actual coaches of all the sport teams, I could only shake my head and smile.
I looked at Jaime and Chris saying “basically what they are saying is the school team doesn’t have space for newcomers and we should wait until tenth grade and then try out.” This really baffled me so much to the extent I talked to my parents about it.
I told my parents who were quite surprised as well.
I said “I don’t care what rules or what the coaches said about the passing criteria, I am still going to try out and make sure I make it for the badminton and archery school team.” I could see the look on my parents faces how worried they were but I assured them nothing was going to happen.
I told them “remember I was the champion back in middle school and in the entire Chicago?” my mum asked “I know but what if you don’t make it?” I replied “I doubt if I shall be the only ninth grade student signing up for the tryouts, will have to make sure I put my best performance and show them I mean business.” “We shall support you all the way Diana”, said my dad.
“Thanks mum and dad” I replied.
The first week as a ninth grade student went quite well even better than I expected but the amount of homework we got for each class was enough to keep one busy for a week especially for math, English 9, French, Spanish, chemistry and biology.
Thank goodness Chris, Jaime and I were in the same class, which made it so much easier because I knew with their help and working together was not going to struggle or have any difficulties at all.
Furthermore we were very fortunate to have great, patient, funny and friendly teachers which made our learning so much easier and fun in every class.