One Step for Man, One Step for Freshmen by Olivia

One Step for Man, One Step for Freshmen by Olivia - November 2014 Scholarship Essay

My palms are sweating, I’m breathing heavy, and I can’t stop the nervous thoughts running through my head. I catch a glimpse of my new institution. It may as well be on another planet. The bricks are unfamiliar and the windows are different sizes. I step out of the yellow spaceship that brought me to this place. The people around me seem to have the same reaction as I am having. A few people glance nervously at the group around them. There are some who have stepped forward with faux confidence. They stand with their chests poked out and seemingly steady breathing but when one of them turns, I can see the fear in his eyes. He twists his head away as if embarrassed by his revealed nervousness. I suddenly realized that this scared me even more. “I can’t believe we’re here,” a kid whispers and the rest of us give a silent nod and stare at the glass entryway. “Come on now,” the gruff voice of the driver says, and we all begin to shuffle in the doors but as I pass through I see a glimpse of the sign outside the building and it says something that sends a chill down my spine. ‘Welcome incoming freshmen to high school!’

Thousands of freshmen have come into high school with this exact reaction. After all, they are new and they have no clue as to what is going on. They would give anything for just one piece of advice. Luckily, I survived through ninth grade and I have now made it to senior year. I’ve learned a lot and it would be pretty easy to write a book of rules to go by for freshmen but I have one piece of advice that I would give to freshmen: be respectful to teachers.

That’s right, I said be respectful to teachers. That may not seem like the biggest worry when a student enters into high school but really, it is the best way to get through. There will always be those teachers who are just plain mean, but most of them are really there to help students. They do prefer, however, those students who are respectful to those who don’t do anything. Of course, respecting teachers encompasses a lot of things. It can mean doing your homework, or bringing in an excuse note, or just going the extra mile to be nice to them. This may seem like a lot of work but in the end, this does benefit the student too. A teacher would be more understanding and lenient towards an absent student who has turned in all their work on time, and made good grades than they would be to someone who shoots a spit ball during class. Therefore, I would say that the one piece of advice I would give to a freshman is to respect their teachers. Believe me people, it will be totally worth it.

I suck in a breath as I stare at the inside of this new building. The lights dimly reveal hallways lined with classroom and inspirational posters on the walls. The students around me have frozen again unbeknownst to me and I almost run into the kid in front of me. My face turns beet red and I look around to make sure no one has seen me. My heart drops as I seen an older boy smile at me. I weakly try to smile back and I see his letterman jacket that marks him as a senior. ‘Oh great,’ I think, ‘I’ve just made a fool of myself in front of a senior,’ He walks up to our group and asks if we’re ready for high school. A few muffled, fake confirmations are heard but suddenly one kid whose not afraid to tell the truth says clearly, “No,” The older boy laughs and he says “You’ll be okay, just make sure to not make the teachers mad,” That gets a laugh from the crowd and we all calm down. I think about this piece of advice and I smile. Maybe this new planet won’t be so bad after all.