My First Day Experience

First Day — Online

At 7:30, I rolled out of bed, excited for my first day at a new school. I could have slept later, being that my first class was at 9:55, but wasn’t able to sleep. I brushed my teeth, walked downstairs and ate a healthy breakfast. Afterwards, I packed up my books, threw some shoes on, and hopped in the car -- except that’s not what happened.

I actually got up at about 8:45. I would have been anxious for the first day, had it been a normal first day. But unfortunately, it wasn’t normal. I sauntered down the stairs, in no rush whatsoever. I poured myself some Lucky Charms and orange juice. After eating, I reviewed some of my English notes. And at 9:55, I sat down at my desk, logged onto my computer, and virtually logged into journalism, my first class of the day.

After journalism, I had a break of an hour and a half, in which I filled my time with photo-taking and heading to my own little cafeteria, the kitchen, for lunch. History class was next, and -- unbeknownst to me -- the class was completely individual. I was suddenly, frantically scrambling to find any way to get onto the class. As the time since class had started became greater, I became increasingly anxious. After emailing my teacher and getting a response some minutes later, I was finally able to figure my attendance via zoom wasn’t necessary. And after conversing with other students, I found solace in the fact that I wasn’t alone in feeling stressed. Max Jansen, another first day zoom student at Rowland Hall, said, “Communication between teachers and students was difficult, and I had some stressful moments trying to find assignments on Canvas.” This helped me to realize that though we may feel extremely isolated working at home, we are all united in the fact that no one could know how this year, or even the next week, will go.

Following history was English. I wasn’t sure what to expect, coming from a school with a pretty rigorous English program. After logging on again and talking for a few minutes about some mandatory first day conversation items, we broke out into smaller groups of 3 or 4 people. I was assigned two other partners, and felt extremely comfortable and welcomed, not feeling at all like the new kid. It made a big difference to my outlook on how the day went. All the stress of being the new kid, not knowing anyone, and feeling isolated and stressed in the confines of my house melted away.

I know change. Change is moving states and schools in the middle of a pandemic, starting my first day of school online. Change is leaving your friends behind, in search of adventure and exploration. And there is no place I would rather change to than Rowland Hall. I felt like others understood me, they knew that it must be hard to do what I’ve done.

This year will obviously be a rather unconventional one; everyone is surely feeling a little alone right now. But it’s almost like the Rowland Hall community is connected through loneliness. As Max put it, it was, “lonely being ready to greet people on the first day, but having to sit on my computer, alone.” As unfortunate as the situation is, the safety of our community takes precedence. In the meantime, we just have to figure out how to make the best of this sub-par situation.

First Day — In-Person

My first day being in-school was a very different experience. This time, I woke up at around 6:45, eager to get off to school and start my day. I put on the clothes that I had set out the night before, ate some eggs and toast, grabbed my backpack and got in the car. As I arrived, I was shocked to see how few people were on the campus due to the split of the classes. Another sophomore, Boden, whose first day was an in-person day noticed this too, saying, “It was very different than usual being separated from half of the school.” Upon arriving, I met with the academic counselor outside just to ask her a few questions. She introduced me to a senior who helped me open my locker and get to my first class, after it was confirmed that I had filled out the COVID screening before school of course. Then I walked into my first class, English.

I was greeted by Dr. Taylor, who showed me to my assigned seat, which was there to prevent different students from touching the same desks as much as possible, while also maintaining social distancing. Then one of the students, who I recognized from my discussion group on my first virtual day, said hi to me, and asked me how I was doing. It really made the first day a lot less stressful, as I was pretty nervous going into it. We talked about how the year was going to go and then started a discussion about the book we had read over the summer. By the end of the class, I was feeling much better about how the day would go. I then walked to my next class, which was Europe and the Atlantic World.

As I entered the class, Dr. Jones said hi, and told me to remember the seat that I sit down at because, like English, our seats would become assigned. We also did a discussion during the period, this one about our perceptions of the Earth. I started to gather that this class would be very different from past history classes, it seemed to have a very philosophical approach. I welcomed this, as in the past history was a very difficult subject to find interest in. That class wrapped up, and then it was time for lunch.

This was the part of the day which I had been the most nervous about; I didn’t want to be the kid sitting by himself eating alone. Luckily, this didn’t happen at all, as I was invited out to lunch by my friend from English. We got some food from a cafe down the street and talked; I felt very included. Afterwards we made the short walk back to school and split towards our different classes, with journalism waiting for me.

I sat down at the seat marked with my name and opened my computer. During that class, we worked on accessing the yearbook software which would be used the rest of the year. It was very cool to see all the room for creative expression we have using it; the yearbook can be shaped how we want it to be. There were some difficulties in trying to log in, but eventually we figured it out. But hey, what’s one more unexpected event this year? We got to play around with all the different tools on the software, and eventually it was the end of the period, where I headed outside to do some work.

Work is to be done outside whenever possible in order to minimize students breathing in or out contaminated air. The tables have maximum seating limits with or without masks on, and I was impressed to see how students diligently followed these rules, even after having to deal with something like this for many months. Regarding this, Boden said, “everyone was keeping a six foot distance and they all had their masks on.” There was no need for teachers to come out and tell us to move apart, people were just doing it. It really demonstrated to me a level of maturity that people were able to adhere to the guidelines, even on the first day of school in which everyone is excited to see each other. After reflecting upon this for a little, I started doing some homework from english class. I was able to get a good amount of work done as there were few distractions. Afterwards, I headed back to my locker to grab my cross country clothes.

I had to change in the bathroom as the locker rooms were closed. This was an odd experience; a locker room is something that I’ve just become accustomed to. But nonetheless, I changed and left the school to go to Liberty Park. It took me a little bit to find our meeting location, but eventually I did and shortly thereafter we started practice, doing some easy laps around the park. I was surprised by how much the summer conditioning had helped me as I was rarely struggling for air. And finally, I headed back to school, where I grabbed my backpack and got in the car. As I thought about, this had shaped up to be a pretty good first day of school, regardless of the fact that I was the new kid or there was only half the class there. I arrived feeling anxious and nervous, and I left looking forward to more in-school days at Rowland Hall.