Freshmen: The Infamous Year

Observing the Freshmen felt eerily like an out of body experience from my own Freshmen year of high school. A little bit lost looking, a little bit nervous, and a whole lot excited. Freshmen year is like the puberty of high school. Things are changing. Everything seems out of place. The best thing about all that is everyone has to go through it too.
Usually I go off campus for lunch. My friends and I might go out to eat, walk to my house, or if all else fails, just sit outside. Anything to separate ourselves from the chaos of the Fremd cafeteria. On this particular day, I sat myself down at a table of Sophomores I know. I asked one of them to point out any tables of students who were all Freshmen. She looked up, scanned the cafeteria, and pointed to a cluster of tables not far from where I was sitting. The way I see it, there are only a few ways she could have distinguished the Freshmen from the others. She either already knew the Freshmen she had pointed out to me. She might have recognized them from Junior High two years ago. Or, she had already observed, from three weeks of sitting in the cafeteria for 4th period lunch, the differences and abnormalities that sets Freshmen apart. I sat back and took notes on the strange ways of the Freshmen.
The group of Freshmen I observed fluttered around three lunch tables. Some were standing. One switched back and forth between seats at different tables, only to have both seats taken by someone else. Many had their backpacks and purses sitting on the ground. Apparently, none were bothered by the amount of germs and dirt their bags were collecting. Did they not know how filthy the ground under the lunch tables could be? I thought back to my Freshmen year, remembering how I used to set my bag on the ground, a habit I quit during Sophomore year. The tables, free of large purses and over stuffed backpacks, were covered in lunch trays and brown paper bags. During the first 20 or so minutes of 4th period, the Freshmen ate lunch. Of all the reasons why, I settled with one that most logically answered the question. They had no other time to eat. Freshmen can either take a study hall, or if they were allowed to do so, pick up another class in place of a study hall. That is also true for everyone else, except that Freshmen must stay in their assigned room for study hall for all of first semester. Unless they have a nice teacher who lets them eat in class, or they find ways to eat during passing periods, lunch is the only time they can eat during the day, without risking the chanced of being yelled at.
Of course, many Sophomores and upperclassmen do not have a study hall, or even a lunch. Still, the group of Freshmen I observed was in the cafeteria, and food is the primary reason for lunch. I noticed a second difference between the Freshmen and the other students in the cafeteria. Why I had not thought of it first I do not know. But this phenomenon is the sole reason for school: education. The Freshmen were not doing homework. Keep in mind, these are “fresh” Freshmen. Most likely their teachers wanted to let them adjust to high school before loading down their arms with homework and filling up their free time writing essays. After they finished eating, they talked. Loudly, I’m sure their laughter could be heard from the other side of the cafeteria. Socializing seemed to be the at the front of their minds, right after eating. All that makes sense, though. After Freshmen year, the number of new faces to see and new friends to make in the same grade as you slowly drops. The 2008 graduating classes of Junior Highs were merged and split between the nearby high schools. The first couple weeks are the best time to make new friends. School was, unfortunately, the last thing on their minds.
I looked down at what I was doing, homework. The other people at my table were also all doing homework. I wanted to walk over to the Freshmen and grab them by the shoulders and shake them. I wanted to tell them the one thing I wish I had done Freshmen year. Don’t leave homework for the last minute. Thinking back, I had done exactly what I was observing them doing. Wasting 50 precious minutes chatting away.
Clearly, these Freshmen were like all other Freshmen I have know, even been. Naïve, innocent, and just plain happy to finally be in high school. Eventually they will learn to not waste time. They will have a set group of friends to rely on and a nearly unbearable amount of school work to do. They will get through their first year of high school and come back as Sophomores. They will say the name “Freshmen” with a sneer, trying to forget that awkward year. As a Junior, I see Freshmen as the annoying little sibling who gets in your way and gets away with everything. Happy and care free. I wish I was still a Freshmen.