New school, new classes, new teachers—for freshmen, everything about the high school experience has been totally new since August. Now a few months and they are adjusting  just fine. In fact, many students are finding that the changes are positive and much more enjoyable.

  SHS offers many great things, especially the overall dynamic of the environment filled with supportive students. Freshman Cami Mathews said “The high school has a really positive and, like, encouraging look towards it, because everyone gets what everyone’s going through and everyone just wants to be there for you and help you.” 

    Freshman Maxwell Taylor said one of the nice changes was being able to see the sophomores once again. “There’s a bunch of different grades and so it’s, like, a bunch of people that I get to interact with everyday…It’s nice being able to see all these people.” 

   Not only do the fellow students make the high school experience enjoyable, but so do the teachers. Both Mathews and Taylor find the teachers to be very approachable and helpful with answering questions. Taylor said a difference from past schools is “that the teachers have a lot of trust in the students… It’s nice. They just kind of trust the students to be good.”

   Despite these positives, both Matthews and Taylor have noticed a change in the  workload from earlier grades.

   Mathews said that her accelerated and honors classes result in a good deal of homework, but it is still manageable. This increase in work just means that she has to place more focus on “time management and all that jazz.”

   Taylor has a different strategy for managing workload. Taylor is in the Synnovation Lab, so on days that he has after-school activities, he will plan on doing a lot of work at school so that he doesn’t have to do it at home. 

   Why do they both find it important to engage in time management skills? Mathews and Taylor have both taken advantage of the wide range of activities available at SHS. For example, Taylor is involved in theatre, which can be “time consuming,” and the Sycamore Christian Youth club.

   Mathews said, “I just finished cross country and it was super fun. It was like my introduction to the high school. And that’s where I met all my good upperclassmen friends. I’m also involved in OGB club…It’s really fun getting to give back.” She is also involved in Young Life and that’s “a little tricky” because she usually has a lot of homework on those nights. Even so, she makes it to most of the meetings. 

      Both Mathews and Taylor are adjusting well to the high school, which is similar to most of the freshmen. Turns out this new terrain may not be so hard to navigate after all.