Introducing: Living as Laurel

Editor's Note: Laurel Dearborn is a student at and will be writing a weekly column. She feels so passionate about the incredible opportunities Sequoia High School offers her that she wanted to share her thoughts and experiences with Patch readers.

I go to Sequoia, a public high school. During any lunch, one can simply look around and spot the jocks, the nerds, and the fashion gurus. The ones that can’t wait to go to college and the ones that never will.

But there aren’t any cliques.

From the moment I walked onto campus freshman year, I knew something was different. Upperclassmen held the door for me. People I had never met before smiled and said hello. It was a little creepy; I’m not going to lie. It felt a little bit like an episode from The Twilight Zone, an alternate universe where everyone wanted to be your friend. I took a double take. Was I in the right place? There was no way this could be a public school.

But it is.

Sure, everyone has their good friends that they eat with every day, but that doesn’t limit whom one can talk too. Drama and other friendship dilemmas don’t impact the learning environment. It doesn’t matter if you’re wearing designer brand jeans or sporting the T-shirt from last weekend’s robot competition, everyone is welcome.

Okay, not every day is happy go lucky. That would be insane. Two out of three of us would much rather have hit the snooze alarm in the morning, but still, as long as we all are stuck at school on a Monday morning, at least we are stuck in it together.

I talk to my friends from middle school and we exchange high school stories. Very little of them are having a similar experience. True, our classrooms are a little crowded. Yes, . But money can’t shape a class or bring people together. It can’t force students to be nice to each other. That takes character.

But when incoming students shadow me one of the first things out of their mouths is not whether I love the people, it’s whether or not I feel safe. Yes. I feel safe. Sequoia got a bad rep a couple of years ago when it was .

I have never felt threatened, unsafe, or scared during my time at Sequoia. Ever. In fact, it is one of the places where I feel most secure. There may have been a couple fights, but I’ve never seen one or heard about them. Officer Gomez keeps everyone under control and our administration ensures that everyone is in a place where they can concentrate on learning, not security.

I walk through the halls and can’t imagine being in a better place. The beautiful California weather allows us to spend lunch outside every month of the year. We soak in the sunlight and I realize that I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful high school experience.

But it’s not over yet. I smile as I remember that I still have two more years of this public school bliss.

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