First Year Firsts

By: Paige McIntire '25

An athlete.  A perfectionist.  A princess.  A rebel.  Rising freshmen begin their first year of high school, thinking that they have to fit into one singular social norm of their choosing.  However, it’s only after the rude awakening called “reality” barges in, that you are completely submerged in opportunities to fill your high school experience with.  

Transitioning from grade school to high school is a big shift.  Along with the drowning amount of responsibilities, social challenges are a big obstacle for freshmen too.  It turns out, though, that these “social challenges” are absent at Delone, and freshman year actually pushes you to both express and learn about yourself on a more developed level.  

Sports teams have helped many freshmen at Delone make friendships they were originally unsettled by, like Addison Rohrbaugh. 

 “I went into freshman year very shy,” Rohrbaugh says, “but through the transition of making volleyball a bigger priority of mine, I created friendships with those who once intimidated me.”  

There are those who chose the arts to be the platform of their freshman year, like Elizabeth Smith.  Smith explains, “There are many things that allow me to get involved artistically, and the Delone community does a great job of supporting the artists of the school, in addition to the athletes.”

  Between the two, there are those who chose to expand their horizon significantly with the opportunities at Delone, like Josephine Schussler.  

“Both sports and the musical have let me focus on myself and my skills, and my experiences in both have exceeded the expectations of my grade-school self,” says Schussler. 

Disconcerting.  Mellowing.  Noteworthy.  Rising freshmen are given an artificial foreshadowing of how their first year of high school “should go.”  This artificial reality, however, is a part of what makes freshman year so inspiring.  New people, new experiences, new you!