Back to School: Students Begin the New School Year

The first day of school for anyone is stressful, especially when entering a new building.

Whether it's elementary school, middle school, high school or college, those first few days in a new surrounding takes some time to get used to.

This past Wednesday, schools across Winchester started their school year. And while the first day of school is always a mix of nerves and excitement that may never be more true than at the high school level.

The number of students and size of the building is a little imposing for the first time. At Winchester High School, freshmen are the only ones in the building on that first day until about 11 a.m., when the upperclassmen began to show up.

"It's really big," said freshman Eliza Pedersen sitting in the cafeteria after her first day. "I think I'm going to like it. There are definitely more floors than I'm used to, and there's more blocks and wings."

To help alleviate some of the confusion that's bound to spring up, the school ran through an abbreviated first day with the students, showing them the location of all their classes. The PAL (Peer Alliance Link) program also helped in aiding the first-year students through their first day.

"The PALs were everywhere," said freshman Ashley Morrison. "They would always be in the hall; wherever I was there was always someone there to help. I saw some PALs that were on the soccer team. It's nice to see a familiar face."

The PAL program is set up so that one upperclassman is assigned to three freshmen students, as they become accustomed to the school.

Even with all the help, it's still tough to find your way around.

"It's definitely confusing," Morrison said. "I went to the wrong classes at times, but everyone's in the same boat, so you feel better about it."

At the end of the abbreviated day, students got a chance to check out some of the clubs offered. There was everything from anime to robotics, a math club, as well as a debate team or an environmental club.

Lauren Dellapa signed up for the newspaper, community service and creative writing.

But once the day was over, students could stop worrying about everything they feared might happen and can move on to learning about their new surroundings.

"I was definitely nervous," Dellapa said. "But now that it's over, it wasn't that bad. I'm excited to get going."