Students Reflect on the First Day of School

The first day of school for students in the was this past week, and for the Redwood City youth, summer ended as abruptly as the back-to-school sales began to pop up. The first day of school is always eventful, be it the first day of high school or just another year, the beginning of school is a time for new classes, new teachers, and new opportunities.

The smell of freshly shaved pencils and printer cartridges welcomes you as you saunter into the office supply store. A calming scent, a reassuring scent, a “here we go again” scent. Crisp, clean, unused notebooks eager to be filled with ideas and math notes, taunt you with the unfilled space, the long white lined sheets; much left to the imagination.

“I love school supplies shopping,” said junior Helena Mercedes Larsen. “It gets me amped up for school, and excited about the new year.”

Other students have mutual feelings about the beginning of school.

“I’m excited to be back to school because I missed my friends and summer was getting kind of boring,” said sixth grader Landon Pierce. “So far, school is great.”

However, as summer comes to a close, and the long hot days become busy, students feel nostalgic for their vacation.

“I like my classes, but I definitely wish summer was longer,” said sixth grader Natali Petani.

“I wish summer could last a lifetime” said sixth grader Rio Popper.  

Besides anticipation and apathy, one student conveyed a completely different set of emotions. On his first day at Sequoia High School as a transfer student from Serra, junior Zane Gelphman had a terrible first experience.

To begin the day, Gelphman never received a schedule, resulting in tardiness to every class and attending the wrong English class all together. He waited after school for two hours to talk to his counselor about a schedule change, and after all of that, his car battery proceeded to die, requiring a jump start to make it back home.

“But aside from that day, I love Sequoia so far,” said Gelphman.

Besides the horror stories evoked from the first day of a new school, small accomplishments seem large when first impressions are at stake.

“Made it through the first day without falling over,” said sophomore Alex Meek. “I consider that a success.”

As far as successes go, the start of a new school year can be the key to new study habits, better work ethic, and an overall positive outlook on classes. Students should think of the beginning of school as a great opportunity to set goals in order to have a productive and fulfilling year. 

Don’t be left out of the Redwood City conversation! Sign up for Redwood City Patch’s daily newsletter, “like” us on Facebook and “follow” us on Twitter to get news, blogs, announcements and events.

Want to share your opinions with your community? Start your own blog here.