Sunday, September 28, 2008

"Sinners" Response

Please post as a comment.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

DO YOU HAIKU?

The best of the best haikus from our first haiku tournament. Please post as a comment. (Pictures coming soon.) Congratulations to class champion Jennifer Lee and near-winner, Jane Danstrom!

Monday, September 15, 2008

Whatcha Readin'?

Take a moment to post the book you're reading for your first quarter. This should NOT be something you've already read; rather, choose a book you've either just started or would like to read. See me (or Ms. DiModica) for ideas. Check Novelist for options (on ebsco), too. Post title/author/why you chose the text as a comment. I'm currently reading The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, and when I finish that, I'd like to reread Night before I see Ellie Wiesel speak next week. I'm hoping to steal my next book choice from your suggestions!

If you don't have something specific in mind, I'd highly suggest something off of my "recommended reads" on your book list: When the World was Young, The Awakening, Ava's Man, Lesson Before Dying, Gang Leader for a Day... a big plus? These books are available at this week's book fair.


Saturday, September 13, 2008

Freshmen, One of a kind

The day seems like yesterday, when I just walked into this school, feeling nervous and intimidated by the vast body of students. The feeling was like none other I had ever felt before. I walked in and I encountered very eccentric sights that I still remember. For the first time, I had seen a school with almost all the boys that were huge and all the women that were very attractive. They all were speaking the same language that I spoke, except with words that I have never encountered in my youth. The atmosphere was like that of when I went into a library, or an office, or a measum except that there were a plethora of students. For the first time in my 14 year existance, I had witnessed in person the amazing wonder of high school.
Those were my feelings when I stepped into high school as a young, freshmen. I was just like all my other peers: afraid and clueless. I thought high school was like studying rocket science. I had no idea of what was going on and how I was going to survive. The only way I had to alleviate myself from this feeling of intimidation was to make friends. So I went on with that action, and apprehending the life of high school became a sitch. I understood the basics of the foundation and started doing well.
Usually, freshmen would feel the same way I did. Just this past week, I observed a group of freshmen in the cafeteria eating lunch. I observed their mannerisms and speculations. They seemed either very smart or stupid. One kid did not even know the name of the school principal. I just thought to myself: "Oh freshmen, when are you ever going to learn". Another kid was doing his math homework very studiously, hoping to strive for that A in his math test. And the last kid was just sitting their absorbing all the information conversed amongst his kind. They all seemed like they've never done this before, because they seem novice at everything they do. Whether it's their mannerisms or their humor, even when they communicate with a student that is at least one year older than them. Freshmen just don't know how to get with the program.
Eventually, everything will change for them once they finish their rookie year. But for now, they are the ones that will be smitted upon.
The hypocritical message is that we were also amongst their intelligence also. We were also that absent minded or humor less. What the freshmen teach us is that novices will eventually have to start somewhere, even if it is being low or stupid. We were once like that to. The one thing that I must appreciate is that they taught me that we are all still freshmen at heart no matter how smart we are.

Freshman - Our Future?

Although my secondary research of these creatures we call "freshmen" suggests that we are of the same species, observations* over the past few days have led this scientist to believe otherwise. Generally indistinguishable from us, they show several distinctive features. Perhaps these "people" we have always overlooked are in fact an entirely different species?
Although you may see sophomores, juniors, and seniors interacting with each other on occasion, "freshmen" seem to have their own completely separate social system. They can often be seen huddled in groups, performing strange rituals. You may be saying at this point, "Well, doesn't everybody else do that too?" Ask yourself this, "Is everybody else a freshman?" I think not.
Besides the obvious societal differences, a certain physical difference can be found as well. If they were the same species as us, why would they be so much smaller?* This relative decrease in physical height* and mental capacity* would seem to point to the only logical answer. Freshman are a new breed of human, and they have devolved.**
*Observations "may" have been completely selective and scientifically unsound
**May or may not follow common standards of "logic"

Dictionary.com's "freshman"

In my most reliable, trustable, and accesible wordbook, found at Dictionary.com, the definition of freshman is the same as most people know it-"freshman...fresh·man...–noun...1.a student in the first year of the course at a university, college, or high school"("dictionary.com"...).

Many people-"who aren't freshmans"-feel that people who are freshman tend to think and behave completely differently. Freshman seem to stick out wherever they go. In the halls of William Fremd High School, this was, is, and will be the case. Picking out and observing the "freshman" during the short five minute passing periods was easy-as expected.

They have something about them, an aura, that allows other to discern them and label them as what they are-freshman. It is possible to label them correctly by watching their specific actions. Their actions of how they go about certain situations show it all.

When somebody falls, drops their books, or does anything else embarrassing most freshman don't know how to go about the situation. During the first minute, they first look around, not sure on whether to help or to walk away. Contemplating whether to face possible judgement or to defy their morals and what they believe is the "right" thing to do, they just stand there. Their eyes go blank for a few seconds, and they drift off while weighing the possibilities and consequences. Their body goes rigid while thoughts of pity and uncertainty swirl around in their heads. If they are the ones experiencing this embarrassing moment, even then, they pause-whether it's in disbelief, embarrassment, or horror. The color on their face changes from a normal peachy color to one abnormally red. They look around franticly to see if anyone has seen the accident, and as their eyes scan the area, they come across another pair of eyes. Their face turning even more red than one would think it could be, the freshman picks up his or her books in a not-so-organized fashion and leaves the area not daring to look around again.


This is how most people see "freshman." People's definition of a freshman is limited and goes only up to that of being someone who is in the lowest class of the school. However, the label of freshman is the label for everyone. Dictionary.com also states that "2. a novice; beginner"("dictionary.com"...). It never fails to be my favorite dictionary. A freshman is anyone who learns new things, tries new things, and does new things. Everyone learns a new lesson each day whether it is at school, at home, or anywhere else. So in that sense, every single person, in every single country, in every single age, in every single second are all freshman.

Special Report: Freshmen

Welcome to CBS News at 7, I’m Katie Couric. In today’s news, it’s that time again! School is starting and new freshmen are hitting the halls of high schools across the nation. The freshmen are famous for having annoying qualities that are problematic to upperclassmen, this year being no except. We now to go Matt for the latest. Matt?
Thank you Katie. I’m here at William Fremd High School in what the students refer to as the “anorexic hallway”. In just a few minutes the 4th period bell will ring and students wearing matching green lanyards will swarm the halls and head to their next class. Among these students are the freshmen. Every year as one class becomes sophomores, students from the junior high move up to fill in the title of “The Freshman Class”. This title is one that will stick with them the entire year and intentionally or not the freshman makes it blatantly obvious exactly why they cannot escape this title.
When students walk in seconds after the bell mumbling “it's not my fault I’m late…” really for the upperclassmen this is the truth. The clusters of freshmen polluting the schools hallways make traveling from one class to another a task impossible to be completed in 5 minutes. Girls wearing the same Hollister t-shirt in a spectrum of different colors giggle together in groups strategically placed in the most populated hallways, making passage through an awkward dance step around the rainbow of freshmen. The boys wear abnormally large backpacks on unusually small shoulders and knock down books every time they turn their body. The most dangerous of all freshmen in the hallway are the Rubics Cubers. These freshmen keep their head down and twist the cube puzzle furiously, never once looking up and making it the jobs of others to get out of their way. Upperclassmen don’t have the time to deal with these annoying freshmen because if they stop to reprimand then a tardy is inevitable.
The only person able to keep the freshmen out of others way is the long time hall monitor who students have named “Tank”. I’m here with uh…Tank (nobody really knows her real name), so Tank, tell us why the freshmen are such a problem year after year with the flow of traffic?
“Well Matt, all of the freshmen’s annoying qualities stem from their insecurities. Back in my day there wasn’t such a great importance placed on appearance and social status, but today these freshmen are in a new environment and are trying their hardest to fit in, and are oblivious to the fact that they are really just pests!”
While Tank deals with freshman clogging up the hallway, other monitors have to deal with them polluting the lunch room with brown bags and bottles of Gatorade. Freshmen seem to not have the ability to dispose of their garbage and force the responsibility onto others, a great responsibility because the freshmen cumulate the most garbage out of all the classes. The healthy sack lunches their mothers prepared go untouched and a single bag of Cheetos is purchased and consumed. The most traumatic experience a freshman can have is being left alone at a table while all of their friends stand in line together. Eating a sack lunch and not purchasing a 320 calorie bag of Cheetos is simply not an option.
The ability to have different options and make decisions for themselves is not a part of freshmen year. The freshmen believe that being an individual will strip them of ever being considered “cool” or “an adult”. This delusional idea is what causes such an obnoxious class, but is the pattern that all of those titled “freshmen” follow. Until next year, William Fremd will simply have to deal with the class of 2012. Matt Lowery reporting live, CBS news, back to you in the studio.

Scurry of the Meerkat

As we begin our tour through Fremd high school please do consider the following:

1) Enjoy your tour! Our goal is to inform and entertain you of our various animals. Sit, relax, and enjoy. We hope that you will take our teachings about our animals to heart and respect each and every one of them.
2) Any negativity towards our animals may be taken outside of the school.
3) Please keep all hands and feet in the train cars. Anyone leaving the car and taking their own tour of the school WILL BE LEFT BEHIND. We can not promise that there will be no sudden urge to attack within our animals.
4) Please do not bring any food on our tour. Most of our animals have a keen smell and will go after a person for the prize of having something to eat (it could be your food or you).
5) Our animals may be easily provoked by loud, obnoxious blabbering. If there is a question please raise your hand and ask the guide. He or she will be glad to answer, but please limit any other talking. Be like the wind, soft, but still within our presence. We don’t want to lose you during the tour. On that note, sleeping is NOT permitted.


Sadly, our more, shall we say, dangerous animals have been blocked off for today. There will be no information present about our lions, tigers, or bears or animals of that nature present in our tour. We apologize for we know they are the kings and queens of our school and have the most interesting information. However, they will be roaming around the halls so please don’t be discouraged. Today we will focus on one of our more unknown animals that you might find interesting towards the end of our tour, our meerkats.

The meerkats are practically one of the smallest animals we hold here at Fremd high school. As we drive along the halls please notice the height difference of a meerkat compared to one of our lions. They are merely unnoticeable when seeing the two side by side. Our bigger animals are able to step right on them or throw them to the side if the meerkat did not look out. Meerkats have a scrawnier, frail body structure and their weight averages a little over a pound making them the most defenseless animals here. You can see that our meerkats are almost always in packs and groups. We have come to the conclusion that this is their form of safety, their protection towards the more dangerous animals. They travel through the halls of Fremd high school together as a big group hoping that the bigger animals may overlook them. We have noticed the traveling in big packs screams “we are meerkats, please spare us,” and it just provokes the bigger animals in manipulating or humiliating them. Meerkats are antsy creatures as they try to move from hallway to hallway hoping to make it alive and to the right place. But these animals can get pretty obnoxious. Loud barks may be heard from across the hall as one meerkat group tries to communicate with another. It becomes so annoying you want to whack one on the head and oh, it’s happened. Other bigger animals have given glares of death to meerkats from time to time which shuts them up as fast as a light switch. When making contact with a lion or tiger a meerkat stick their neck out and widen their eyes in fear. In time, the meerkat will realize they have come upon a larger animal and scurry as fast they can as if nothing happened. As we move on in our tour we can see that basically all meerkats look the same. No you’re not seeing the same ones over and over again it’s their look. The same natural brown, dull, skin and fur, their long, sharp nails and not to mention the dark black circles under their eyes. It’s all natural people, believe me…
Their mating call seems to be the one common element that connects meerkats with other animals in our high school. A male meerkat may “groom” the female, playing with her until she accepts his offer. This relationship initiates a new group. The fresh group will either flourish or break down and cause mini wars creating even more chaos in our school. Yes, meerkats cause dramas. The male meerkats can be too egotistical fighting for the leader of the group with other males and the females, oh boy, catty little creatures. The females move from group to group trying to raise their status in the school. Within their group they try to show their dominance when in reality they do not rule the school compared to the lions. To the lions, they are just another species to deal with. Our meerkats are an interesting breed added to our high school and 50% of you probably didn’t even know meerkats existed. We must remember though that they are animals too and must receive the same respect as the other animals. As we conclude our tour and examine these interesting creatures it is clear that meerkats are simply trying to find their place in the animal kingdom.

Does it remind you of anyone you know?

On Freshmen

Purpose: To understand the nature and behavior of the freshman
Hypothesis: All freshmen are the same. They all think they're cool, while they aren't. They all wear things they think are cool. They don't even try to be different from one another.
Observations/Data: All freshmen are easily identifiable by their physical appearance: small, young-looking, wearing the same clothes (mentioned below many times). Behaviorally, the freshmen are separated into two types, the respecting freshmen and the despicable freshmen. The respecting freshmen are the ones who display typical behavior: fearing the professionals (juniors+, sophomores meh), lacking confidence, lacking individuality, sticking together to ward off threats, and of course the utter inability to navigate a square even with maps and schedules telling them what to do, etc.
One interesting phenomenon is that the head level of the respecting freshman rises proportional to the number of other freshman in its close vicinity. In the rare case that the freshman head does rise, it is only to stare distantly at another (imaginary?) one of its kind.While the freshman superficially displays its high-schoolosity by chewing gum in classes, it does not understand the true meaning of high school: doing real stuff.
However, my previous studies of the freshman and my undercover work as a freshman two years ago indicated that respecting freshman will eventually reach a level of intellectual and emotional maturity.
The despicable freshman is that freshman which considers itself above the unwritten rules of freshmandom. This sort is despicable in that it needs attention, takes on alpha role in groups by using loud utterances, and exhibits an odd mimicry of the upperclassman. But it can easily be distinguished from the upperclassman in that the upperclassman does not mimic itself. Unlike the respecting freshmen, the despicable freshmen do not become respectable upperclassmen. They remain freshman for a longer time, perhaps all the way through their second year
Results: 80% of freshmen are respecting, 19.99% are despicable, and the very rare .01% (sometimes entirely absent from a whole freshman class) are respectable
c=ng, c: how cool the freshman thinks it is; n: noise freshman is making; g: number of freshmen in its group
Conclusion: Hypothesis is largely correct, except that the respecting freshman many times does not even think it is cool.

In other words, a freshman is a nub.

Sleuth Lauren

It is yet another first day of school at Fremd in my third year of collecting evidence for my precinct in Chicago, on our suspects, Freshmen, and their committed crimes of social akwardness. As I stride through the halls of the school I peer upon the subjects of my cases, waiting for a new lead. The 5th period bell blares and the misdemeanors begin to unravel.

The first perpetrator, a boy standing 4'9'', is set up as a herd of upperclassmen charge through the wires of hallway. The boy, with white fingertips dug deeply into the binding of his Biology book, lubberly leaps toward the lockers on the side of the hall to safety. With his back to the lockers, his eyes are deer's in fear of being trampled. With deep heaves of his chest, his lungs try to regain control of his breathing as the pack giggles and meanders by. The boy sighs in relief and then looks both ways before returning to his original path, making sure to hug the lockers this time.

The next executor of a social offense is a gangly girl who stands anxiously in the Ala Carte line biting her cerulean colored nails. As the line dwindles down and she becomes the second person in line to be served, her hands reluctantly pull away from her teeth and a smile slowly crawls to her face. This smile, however, abruptly scurries away when an older, mature and well dressed senior cuts her in line. Their eyes meet for a brief millisecond and then the girl's head collapses submissively toward the ground. Her head is glued there and the wait for her warm cookie is extended.

The last prosecution is committed by a boy walking trimphantly, or cockily through the frigid cafeteria with a group of his friends on the Freshman A football team. He is, or tries to be, a mirror of an upperclassman with his nose pointed in the air like a French Poodle. All of a sudden, a foreign foot tangles up with his own and is therefore sent soaring through the air of the cafeteria. Briefly suspended in the air, he becomes a Cardinal in flight, but it isn't his coat that is crimson red. He hits the ground flat with his face and an uproar of laughter and gasps crowd the air around him. Salty sweat rolls down his forehead and cools his smoltering cheeks. He stands up and walks out of the cafeteria, still a Poodle, but one with his tails beneath his legs.

It has been a long day at Fremd High School, as the charges and bookings to the Freshman Vikings have all been distributed. For the Freshman, social akwardness, still seems to be on the rise.

Step to Success #1: Identifying and Avoiding the Freshman

In separating the planet into distinct groups of life, four categories emerge. There are plants, animals, human beings, and freshmen. While freshmen themselves have long desired to be grouped in the more widely accepted group of humans, they have never quite received their wish for reasons that are quite clear.

Freshmen have a completely different demeanor than their human counterparts. Most of them have personalities completely lacking in confidence and direction. One will often see them dillydallying in the hallway, schedules in hand, reading each room number religiously. They often display a sheepish countenance accompanied by a self-doubting step.

Not all can be grouped as such, however. There is another subcategory of freshmen that lie on the opposite side of the spectrum. These are the freshmen who pretend to be upperclassmen. They often speak loudly, amble leisurely in the hallway, and chew their bubblegum with mouths open. Yet identifying them as freshmen is never a problem for a few simple reasons. Their voices are always a few octaves higher than normal and their height a few inches shorter than normal, especially in comparison to their human schoolmates.

Perhaps it is easiest to identify a freshman in the classroom. They will often stare into space, chew bubblegum obnoxiously(as previously stated), and never pay attention. Even though the freshmen curriculum is designed for unmotivated students, many will still end the year with unsatisfactory GPAs. If and when they do become sophomores, they will only then begin to realize the ramifications of their freshmen study habits.

Identifying freshmen is thus made easy. They come in several different forms, but they are all ultimately the same. They are categorized separately from all other organisms because of their unparalleled confidence (or lack there of), their low intelligence, and their simple everyday mannerisms that each and every one exhibits. Watching for these obvious traits will make avoiding freshmen easy and painless.

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.

How to be different- just like everybody else

Freshman year is the year to discover the real you. You’ve finally escaped the social jungle known as junior high, and are now (almost) an adult. You’re growing up and it is time to discover who you are. It is time to be different- just like everybody else. Fortunately for you, everybody has decided to be different together. It’s important to understand, that it’s not about being different from the crowd, it’s about being different from the old you (because you’re discovering yourself, remember?) I’m sure this all sounds complicated and scary, but just do as I say and you’ll be fine.

Clothes
Ladies, you are now only allowed to shop at the following stores: Hollister, Abercrombie, American eagle, Aeropostale (though that is a stretch) and Victoria’s Secret. You’ll need a good supply of light colored flared jeans. Straight or skinny cuts are acceptable, but only if worn with Uggs. Speaking of Uggs, go buy some in the light sand color. Your jeans should fit tightly, to show off your girlish figure. Jeans should sit low on the waist to accent your lack of hips. Acceptable tops include baby cut tees, polos, v-neck long- tops with a cami underneath and anything else Hollister makes. Tops should also be fitted to your stick-like body. If you don’t look like a twig, you’re doing it wrong. Abercrombie and Hollister only make clothes in the same 10 colors so you won’t have any trouble coordinating. If it is a color not found in Hollister or Abercrombie, it’s wrong. Acceptable colors include pale pink, pale yellow, orange, sea foam green, navy, baby blue, oatmeal, light heather gray and white. You should never be seen wearing black, red or a bold color. Remember, the idea is to not stand out. Hair should be straightened with a slight side part, shapeless straight-cut “bangs” that hang limply on one side. Think thin, lifeless and mousy brown. A ponytail should never be without a ribbon, and remember to match your top. Shoes that are accepted are flip-flops, Birkenstocks and Uggs. You should buy a Coach or Dooney and Burke Bag. They’ll match your wardrobe because they come in pastel colors and have labels plastered across them. Always remember, there is no such thing as too much lip gloss, eyeliner or Hollister perfume.
Boys, the acceptable store rule is the same as for girls. Think Khaki cargo shorts or jeans. Gym shoes with ankle socks should be worn daily. You should wear a horizontally striped polo at least three days a week. A white undershirt should be worn to cover up the imaginary chest hair you’ve been working on growing since sixth grade. The other two days, you may wear a tee shirt. It should have the store you bought it at clearly labeled. A college tee is a mildly acceptable substitute. Hair should be worn in a crew-cut manner, gelled. Be sure to make the front part stick up like a ramp. It looks sweet. The ladies will swoon.

Behavior
This is an important issue, but easy to grasp. The cardinal rule is if you see someone else doing it, you probably should too. Girls, start drama and spread rumors. Just because this isn’t junior high anymore doesn’t mean you should act like an adult. You should be in everybody’s business, all the time. Boys, talk about girls, or sports, but mostly girls. Girls and boys can’t be friends. Boys need their “boy time” and girls; you should divide yourself into cliques. You may intermingle by going to movies in groups no smaller than 25, taking up an entire row and annoy all other people in the theater. After that you can go to cold stone. Decide to like starbucks & fake a caffeine addiction. Eventually, when you’re older, and you have real problems and stress in your life, you’ll be glad you’ve acquired a taste for lattes. You should text on your phone, especially in class. You have important things to gossip about and biology can wait, bc who da eff wants 2 dissect a pig neway?!?! Also keep in mind that you are super cool and own the world, because you’re in high school now. Even though your world could fit on a pin head, you own that world. This is your life & everyone else is just in it. Strut your stuff in the hallways. Walk slowly and in rows, so no one can pass you. It’s always a good idea to stop and talk in clumps in the middle of the hallways, not matter how busy they are. You are cholesterol, and all the red blood cells can just squeeze past.

Just cop the attitude that you are the best thing since sliced bread, and you will fit right in. Just keep acting, speaking, and dressing like everyone else and you’ll have yourself figured out in no time. TTYL LYL!!

Freshmen Observations

Observing the freshmen for the past few days has been quite an amusing experience. They certainly lived up to their name -- fresh, impressionable, and full of anticipation. In stark contrast to the upperclassmen, who often possess an air of the jaded, suffocating in the haze of SAT prep and college applications, the freshmen seemed to bring a refreshing breeze to high school.

Now that they are surrounded by much more people than in their middle school years, the freshmen girls seem to spend a majority of their time trying to look "perfect." For them, perhaps, the image they portray in high school is one of their top priorities. Trendy clothes, the latest gadgets, you name it, they probably have it. Gossip spread like wildfire among them; even the most trivial things, like who is mean and who is funny, can become a source of intrigue for them. They roam around the cafeteria in packs and always sit together during lunch. When they leave the cafeteria, they leave together without fail, as if it were some kind of unwritten law. Bright-eyed, eager, in class they often participate more than the upperclassmen, their spirits still unbroken by all-nighters and lengthy reports. Some imitate upperclassmen's behavior as if they were role models. (Freshmen boys just blend with the rest of the high school population; it was hard to point out who were freshmen among the boys unless the boy looked really young.) From an upperclassmen's view, the freshmen girls' actions may seem a bit over the top; however, perhaps even cursory viewing of Gossip Girl will show that this is hardly the case.

These youths, so hopeful and full of excitement in their new environment, surely bring a unique, lively energy largely extinguished from the veterans of high school. I give them 4 months, max.

The Blank Crossword Puzzle

I stole a quick glance at my watch. 2:55pm. Time to go. I shifted the bus into gear and lugged the doors shut. The rain fell softly on the windshield in front of me and as I waited for the line of buses before me to pull out, I heard a faint, hollow knock on the hard glass. I opened the doors, and as if an afterthought I turned to watch the student enter. I was surprised that I didn’t recognize the girl that stood below me on the pavement, as this was the fifth week of school, even if it was a freshman. As she climbed the tall steps into the bus her converse clad feet seemed to barely reach. Her face was pale and spattered with tan freckles, giving the impression that someone had kicked sand into her face. The acne that usually staked out a claim on most freshmen’s faces had not been interested in this pretty plot of skin. Her dirty blonde hair was pulled back into a high ponytail, but her bangs were wet and stringy, hanging over her face. Underneath this rope curtain of hair I tried to catch her eye, but she kept them permanently fixed to the ground, watching each step she took. Her mouth remained glued shut and I couldn’t even hear her wet feet squeak on the slippery floor like everyone else. As far as I knew, if I hadn’t turned to watch this girl enter the bus, I wouldn’t even know that she was there. Her tall rainbow colored socks pulled my eyes away from her face and made her skinny legs look like candy-canes. The bright splatter of color on her legs clashed with her brown skirt and purple checked sweatshirt, which together made a motley combination, but one that looked at home hugging her body. Slung over her shoulder and swinging back and forth, was a book bag with empty crossword puzzle print. Her small hands remained deep in the confines of her sweatshirt's front pocket. She walked with her head down through the middle aisle of the bus, moving like a drop of rain, passing through the groups of people, quick and clear. The laughter of the other freshman continued around her. I waited for someone to call out her name, so she could go sit with a friend. I waited for someone to wave to her, to beckon her, to call forth a smile. Nothing. About halfway back into the bus, she slid into a seat and disappeared. The bus in front of me finally pulled forward and as I eased my foot off of the break I looked into the rear view mirror. Half way back into the bus I saw an empty seat.

Freshmen: Annual Awkwardness

A massive assemblage of bodies parades down the hall, generating a clamor of cacophony with their jarring voices. There is no denying it; they’re freshmen. Every year, they scuttle off the buses and hesitantly make their way inside the building. Glancing at their maps and peering around nervously, these cattle-like beings saunter aimlessly until they locate the rest of the herd. At this point, they attach themselves to the flock and replace their tense attitude with one of overconfidence.
This phenomenon is a psychological tendency. Huddled in groups, the freshmen feign strength and self-assurance. In reality, this clump provides protection from the scornful eyes of the upper-classmen. When one follower breaks off the group, his demeanor is drastically altered. He is no longer the brazen individual who hollers his thoughts so everybody can hear them; instead, he silently scuffles towards his class, avoiding eye contact at all costs.
It’s understandable that the school’s new entrants would want to fit in. However, it is because their behavior is so blatantly dramatized that their objective is not fulfilled. Instead of joining the ranks of the experienced upper-classmen, the freshmen are categorized as an entirely separate group. Identifying students who belong to this group is a simple process, for no matter how hard they try to hide the fact that they are freshmen, their clustering technique and panicked mien gives it away.
They wear typical attire. Baggy dark blue jeans, stained and ripped. Hollister, Abercrombie, American Eagle t-shirts and button-ups, often striped. Scuffed shoes. Their height also follows a noticeable trend. The notion that every year the freshmen get shorter is seemingly accurate; this year’s newcomers outdid their predecessors and extend barely over five feet. Either the theory is true, or those already attending have grown in height, creating the illusion that freshmen are undersized.
Eventually, though, anxiety diminishes and revised attitudes and behaviors are adopted. By this time, the freshmen are the sophomores and the next wave of newbies arrives. The cyclical system will continue to repeat by nature; that is an unavoidable truth. The freshman disposition is not unreasonable, however. New experiences can be intimidating, and time is all that you need to adjust to your altered surroundings.

Strange Encounters

I stumbled across an odd species of students at Fremd High School this week. It was Thursday, and it had been just like every other day. I went to my six classes I had prior to lunch, and then made my way towards the cafeteria.I strolled into the cafeteria, and tried to find my friends at a lunch table. It was my first time eating in the cafeteria all year because I go off campus everyday. However, when I was scanning the crowd for some of my friends' familiar faces, I was confronted with many strange faces, who did even stranger actions. From further research on these bizarre species, I have learned that their name is "freshmen."

These freshman were strangely interesting to observe; I couldn't stop staring at them. I mean, these freshman would do the most bizarre things (note: I have recently confirmed that these bizarre actions are cries for attention and "attempts" to look cool). One freshman who I was particularly drawn to would break out into loud bursts of laughter after a joke when he realized everyone else was laughing. Another freshman boy tried to act cool and mature, and when he walked from the lunch line, he attempted to walk with a certain swagger, but it just came out awkward. At the lunch table next to mine, there was a strange blond freshman. She was a particularly short skirt and an especially low shirt. When she looked around the lunch room, she would try to mimic what she thought the other kids were doing (flipping her hair, crossing her legs, observing her nails, flirting with boys). Only when she tried to mimic other students' actions, they would come out different and totally wrong. When I looked around the lunch room again, I realized that most freshman were very similar to the three freshman I had previously observed and took note of, and more over, they were all trying to fit in and look "cool."

After I walked out of the cafeteria, I would always stumble across more freshman. They were everywhere! The halls, the media center, even the football games! These freshmen were just so easy to find. Freshman naturally stand out in a crowd of upperclassmen. So, next time you're in a crowd at school, look around, I'm sure you'll find some freshman dying to fit in.

Breaking New Observations!

For one week, I have taken time to observe and study the local 9th graders at William Fremd High School. More specifically, the freshmen on the mens cross country team. My observations are completely different than the ones of my colleagues also studying the freshman class. The members of the freshman class have been characterized by loud, immature, annoying, and obnoxious by my colleagues. Over the past week I have seen none of that. I would characterize the freshmen I studied as quiet and cautious, yet not afraid to make attempts at conforming with members of the other three classes. Most of the freshmen I have studied are hard-working, noble, and independent. If one would judge members of the freshmen class on not their small stature, high-pitched voice, or slightly immature conversations, but on their character, personality, and work-ethic, one would find little differences between the freshman and oneself.

As I said before, these observations were of the freshman members of the mens cross country team, and only the mens cross country team. I made no observations or studies outside of the team. But, I have witnessed freshman behavior (outside of the team), and I would characterize it as my colleagues did. It was considerably different than what I observed in the team. My hypotheses is that the freshmen in the cross country team behave different than the freshman outside of the team because of a different social structure.

The cross country society is based on talent and training, not on grade. Members are seperated by training level, speed, and endurance, not by age. I believe that the freshmen not involved in cross country don't "know their place" in the society. Since they are seperated from all other grades most periods of the day, they don't grasp an understanding of how the other grades live and act. Since all grades on the cross country team run together , freshmen are able to be with members of their same training group, not grade. Because of this, the freshmen have more contact with members of the other grades, and are able to mature and learn their place in the society.

Get Over It

Freshmen will always act like freshmen, and no matter what anyone tells them, they will never cease to be amazed at the little details that the rest of us have long since forgotten. They are so amused by words like "the anorexic hallway" and that viking painting in the cafeteria, which upperclassmen rarely even talk about anymore. Sometimes, I just want to tell them to get over it, but I know they will, and I know that this confusion and amazement is just a part of being a freshman.
This year, my bus is swarming with freshmen, and I can't help but hear all of their conversations. In the hall, I remember hearing one of them ask his friend what class they had next. The friend simply responded with, "the anorexic hallway," saying this with self-content for knowing the hallway's special name. The other kid, clearly annoyed, replied with "No, what CLASS do you have?" One day my freshman brother even came home and said, "Did you know that there's this one hallway called the 'anorexic hallway'??" I guess being so fascinated by a hallway with a name is just something that gets old after a while, and I know that everything else about Fremd has lost my interest after two years. No matter how "cool" the freshmen think they are, they still get pushed around by everyone else. On my bus, the freshmen sit in the back of the bus because the "coolest" kids always sit in the back, or at least that's how it was in junior high, but when a sophomore stomped down the aisle, he threw two freshmen out of their seats and condemned them to sit in the front.
I don't blame them for feeling lost in a new school. I don't even blame them for asking a hall monitor for directions or checking their maps because Fremd is just so "enormous," because soon, they grow out of that, but they are still in the junior high stages of life. These are the stages where it's hilarious to say hi or wave to random strangers--the stages where everything is black and white--the stages where you know everyone and you either love him or you hate her. All of the freshmen on my bus have known each other since grade school, and I've even known them since grade school but to see them all as freshmen is actually kind of cool. Everyday, they get on the bus and reunite to share what happened that day. In a way, they're not really different from how they were when they were in grade school at all. Somehow, they are closer than ever.

Freshmen Study

7:10 A.M.: People still have sleepies in their eyes and faces as pale as ghosts. Everyone drags their feet through the halls, eyes glazed over, trying to just make it to their lockers and then to class. People are just starting to wake up and the noise level in the hall is not painful, yet. Down the hall a group of people don’t seem to care that it is still 7 o’clock in the morning and people just got out of bed a mere 30 minutes ago. They are all shrieking and laughing at something that no one else cares about and chattering at a louder level that is almost torture to the human ear at this time in the morning. All the 50 or so people in that hallway whip their heads around at the exact same moment to stare down the people who are making such a ruckus. The group seems to like the fact that they are getting noticed but they don't seem to care that these people are staring at them because right now they are completely annoyed at them. No one can stop glaring at this group because it is obvious to everyone that because they are all dressed similarly, act the same way, and are all minuscule, that this obnoxious group of people are freshmen. Just before we can't take anymore, we are all saved by the bell.

7:35 A.M.: Everyone waits patiently for the teacher to give instructions for the lesson that day. The teacher looks at us with a smirk on her face then she explains the lesson for today, “OK class, today we are going to be studying Solomon Asch’s experiment. Soon we are going to go down to get freshmen from their study halls to be our experimenters.” Everyone was whispering now and getting in heated conversations. We were going to have a fun class today, we were going to observe the actions of freshmen and see how much of an effect that upperclassmen have on them. I was one of the two students to pick three boys and three girls to be our experimenters. When we went downstairs to the classroom for volunteers, the student’s eyes widened and they nearly jumped out of their seats to be the first one’s to raise their hands and get picked. Then we led them upstairs to our class, all the while hearing whispers brush past our ears, “I’m nervous now.” “What are we supposed to do?” The person next to me cracks a smile at me and I grin back at our inside joke. When we arrive at our room, we send in the three girls to join us first and then the boys after them. Our experiment is to see if people will conform even if they know that the other people in the group are obviously wrong. The girls walked in the room with their heads slightly down, fixing their hair and the boys came strutting in, their heads held high like they were very confident. They sat down in one of our three groups. They would not make eye contact with anyone in the group and they wouldn't stop fidgeting. When we went around the group asking certain questions, my classmates said the wrong answers. We wanted to see if the freshmen would say the wrong answer too and give into peer pressure. When it was the freshmens turn, they mumbled and cleared their throats before answering. We could tell how nervous they were or intimidated by us by how they were playing with their hands or looking around the room.


8:10 A.M.: Everyone of the freshmen conformed during at least one of the questions. One boy even conformed 75% of the time. The freshmen were debriefed on the purpose of our experiment. Once they understood that they had all done the wrong thing (according to the experiment) their faces were priceless. A couple of the freshman's faces turned a bright cherry red, some hid their faces in their hands, and the one that conformed 75% of the time blamed his mistakes on the fact that he didn't understand the directions. After the freshmen were escorted back to their study hall, my classmates discussed the behavior of the freshmen. Their eagerness in the beginning had shifted to embarrassment by the end of the experiment.


After all the experiences I have had with freshmen, from being one to my brother becoming one and having to be in the same halls with them at school, this years experiences have changed my perspective on freshmen. I know we were all freshmen at some point in our lives (most of us will be freshmen twice), but I still can't help an annoyance toward them. In groups, they walk turtle speed in the halls, they strut like they own the school, and to get noticed they talk loud enough so that you can hear them on the other side of the school. The freshmen are infuriating in groups, but as individuals, most of them are well grounded and know their limits as high-school freshmen. Like we observed in our experiment, they are normally nervous and intimidated, which they should be because they are new to the school. After these freshmen move on to be sophomores, they will be more down to Earth and understand why upperclassmen find freshmen so annoying. The cycle of the freshmen continue when new freshmen join the school and the old freshmen make snide comments about them.

Dear Freshman: We forgive you for being a Freshman

Dear Freshman,
I would first off like to let you know, that even if you think you get it, and we don’t notice you, you’re wrong. I don’t mean to sound rude; I am simply telling the truth. However, I would like to let you know that it is ok if you stand out, because eventually, you’ll figure it all out.
I’m sure you all know by now that Freshman are somewhat looked down upon at Fremd High School (actually all high schools for that matter). Why, you might ask? “We’re just the same as everyone else!” you might protest. But, unfortunately you’re not, and here’s why:

1.What you look like: Half of you are going to wear pretty much the exact same thing on your first day of school. Girls, you will wear a low-cut shirt from Hollister or Abercrombie, accompanied by a tight, short jean skirt, along with a pair of flip-flops that correspond perfectly with your top. You girls will also be sporting one of the five cloth Hollister bags that the store is selling right now. Your hair will be straightened and down. Finally, you will either load on what seems like pounds of makeup, or wear no makeup at all because you are not allowed to. Boys will most likely wear khaki shorts or jeans, along with a t-shirt from Hollister or Abercrombie. You will all be looking your best, but at the same time looking exactly the same. Also, we will notice your height. Even though I am a short junior, you are still shorter(Take a look at yourself right now, am i right?).

2.Your behavior: Even if you think we can’t hear you, we can, and we wish we couldn’t. We all hear your piercing, blaring, shrill screams that you make when you see a friend of yours in the hallway. We stop for fear that this noise is a fire alarm, we look around, and then realize this noise is actually coming from a human mouth. Quite frankly, we’d rather jump off the top of Fremd High School than hear that scream again, but unfortunately we’re going to hear it at least six more times during the day. Also, we notice that all of you travel in packs like wolves. When we see six short girls with short Hollister jean skirts and low cut Hollister tops walking to the lunch line together, we know that you are all Freshmen. Although traveling in packs is a good strategy for safety, we see the pack and we know who you are. We also notice your maps, panicked faces, fake gymnastics hugs, obnoxious laughs, and wide eyes. We notice your excitement, and since we aren’t excited anymore, we become annoyed. Eventually you will lose your excitement, and you’ll see where we’re coming from. The biggest thing we spot though is your egos. Your egos, like the sears tower, are so monumental and huge that they are hard to miss. Many of you think you are soooo incredibly cool because you are big highschoolers, and I hate to break it to you, but you’re not. You're not one of us until you’ve survived a year. Although you dress in all black for the football games, go to the dances, and are in some sophomore classes we still know you are not one of us big kids.

Right now, you might be protesting that you have only a few of the characteristics above, and therefore you don’t seem like a freshman. However, in psychology class, us big juniors and seniors are learning about social cognition, which is the mental process of categorizing people into groups on the basis of their shared characteristics. You all share most of the characteristics listed above. Even if all those behaviors or actions don’t apply to you, even having just a few of them puts you in the freshman group. In psychology we also learned the out-group homogeneity effect, which is when all people in the out group (in this case, the out group is freshman) appear to look and behave the same. I hate to break it to you, but you freshman are the out group, and you all seem the same to us.

This sounds rather depressing now, and right now you freshman reading this might think I hate you. Fortunately, I don’t hate you guys. Shockingly, I actually am jealous of, and admire some of you. The reason for this is because you are still so excited. I love how naïve you all are. To you homecoming is the best thing in the world, athletic meets are soo thrilling, football games are a blast, relationships aren’t complicated, passing periods are always social hour, gym is actually for exercising, and lunch is only for eating, gossiping, and flirting, NEVER studying. Fremd is a new, exciting world for you, as it should be. Some of you try to act or dress in certain ways because the new world is scary, and you just want to fit in. I want to let you know that that is perfectly ok because we were all there once too. Even though we might think we’re all different, and so much better, two or three years ago we were exactly the same as you.

So here’s what I’m trying to tell you: Don’t worry about being a freshman. Although we might seem annoyed with you 99% of the time, we all did it too. Believe it or not, we were all freshman once, and we all survived and turned out okay. The cycle of Frehsmanism repeats every year, and there’s nothing anyone can do to prevent it. So, although I could do without your screams and colossal egos, feel free to walk around in packs with your maps, get excited about school activities, wear your Hollister outfits, and act naïve. You should realize that its okay to act like a freshman now, because you only get to do it once, and you’ll miss it when it’s gone.

Inconvenient Memories

Memory is an elusive being in humans. Information is stored easily, but can be lost even easier, especially in the elderly. At the other end of the memory loss spectrum, there is the teenager. This mythical beast is fabled to be found on high school campuses everywhere, as well as malls and any place with a readily available supply of food. A recent study has show that these creatures have an incredible ability to retain information for academic purposes, but seem to be deficient in retaining the more elastic emotional memories of years past.

These creatures come in several varieties, but there is a significant divide between two specific classifications: the "upperclassman" and the "underclassman." The underclassmen often carries the burden of being lesser in years, maturity, intelligence, "coolness", and the ability to relate to others. The upperclassmen, however older and cooler than their younger counterparts, seem to easily forget that they were once an underclassmen.

The upperclassmen have conveniently forgotten that once, often less than two years in their past, they were underclassmen. They conveniently forget that they once were frightened of the large school filled with large people, and that they were once small and fairly insignificant. The upperclassmen conveniently forget that there was once a time before they got their driver's licenses when their mothers had to drop them off at football games and pick them before eleven. They refuse to recall memories of not knowing the cheers at the football game, and the pain of the jeers of "FRESHMAN, FRESHMAN" when they wore the wrong color shirt to the game. The upperclassmen of the female persuasion conveniently forget that they were once scrambling for a homecoming date and flirted shamelessly with every boy in the school. The memories of being awkward around the ladies is easily forgotten by the males, in the same fashion that memories of their equally awkward underformed bodies are conveniently left unremembered. The upperclassman fail to recall their awe at their pulper, real food in the cafeteria, and the sudden freedom to chew gum in class. The very things that upperclassmen often ridicule the underclassmen are the very things they were ridiculed for. They leave memories of talking loudly in the library, yelling in the cafeteria, and screaming in the halls unrecalled, replacing it with memories of being the coolest freshman class to ever enter their place of academia.

The upperclassmen conveniently forget the inconvenient memories of being the socially awkard banes of previous upperclassmen's existence and only allow themselves to recall the fact they aren't an underclassman any more, thus making it their duty to inform the current underclassmen of their incompetence at being alive.

Opposite Evolution

Years ago, Mr. Graba taught me the theory of evolution; which is Darwin's theory that all life began from one organism. They then changed over time to become many species. Since then, with much research, I have learned that humans are the only species that, during a short time period of their lives, experience a strange, opposite evolutionary period. On the eve of their fifteenth year, human youths split into three separate species before blending together again after a year. The three species that they split into is as follows:

Homo sapien aggrivatus: The most annoying of the three species, the common aggrivatus is usually seen vying for attention and speaking out of turn. One can usually distinguish the aggrivatus by their screatchingly loud call. The call can be heard in the back of school buses, across hallways, or during class discussions. Some more iconic characteristics of the aggrivatus are boisterous jostling, snide comments, and inappropriate swearing.

Homo sapien climbberus: The climbberus is a much milder form of the aggrivatus, but can usually be found rotating around the aggrivatus packs. However, it is easy to distinguish between the two. Usually, the aggrivatus begins with a bellowing call or rude joke, and the climbberus will follow with a low snickering.

Homo sapien normallis: While the other two species are most noticeable when surrounded by their own kind, the normallis remains the same at all times. While most prominent in the first month of the school year, the normallis has abnormally large eyes. These are usually cast at the floor when the walking though the halls, and grow in size when surrounded by upperclassmen. The normallis is the most subdued species, and thus are easy prey for the already devolved upperclassmen.


After a year or two, the three species begin to blend together once again. While they never discard their most prominent characteristics, they do subdue quite a lot. This opposite evolution can be found in most learning institutions and is unavoidable. Scientists are still experimenting to determine the root of the genetic mutation, and why it is isolated to the human species. If you would like to donate to help fund research, please contact Cori Lin at 847-347-1686. You can make the difference.

Fremd Biology Chapter 4: The Age of the Freshmen

Since the creation of public high school, there has been one class that has separated itself from the rest of the student body. Freshmen of every school year have been seen performing the same tasks and rituals. Everyday, they scurry through the halls displaying their color-coded maps and schedules. They wander aimlessly hoping to find their next class. Further investigation and research of the freshmen has given upperclassmen more information as to what they do and why.

Freshmen have a distinct appearance that is easy to recognize for any upperclassman. Their young and unfamiliar faces are blank and give signs of concern and confusion. The freshmen are slow moving through the hallways and blissfully unaware of their surroundings. They are even known to make a complete stop in the hallway because of two occurrences: They spy fellow freshmen and think they have the time to stop and talk, or they pull out their schedule and look for signs that indicate which room numbers are in which hallway.

During their P.E. hour, the freshmen are dwarfed by the bigger, more knowledgeable sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Because of this, they settle in a corner of the gym while waiting for their teachers to arrive to give attendance. Not allowing themselves to exceed their borders alone, they move in packs. Their strategy is to give the illusion that they dominate in terms of numbers in order ward off potential threats. After attendance, the freshmen migrate away from their original spot under the protection of their teacher.

The freshmen that start their high-school-experience in advanced classes like geometry or biology, start the year concerned about the fact that the will be in an environment filled with many sophomores. With a geometric or biological obstacle to overcome, the freshmen and sophomores will see beyond their differences and come together to survive. These connections help as friends of the sophomores in that class will come to befriend those freshmen.

Most aspects of nature change with the times. This is no exception with freshmen. After a year of enduring the social chaos, they will undergo a metamorphosis and become sophomores. The cycle repeats itself when new freshmen take place of the old. Performing the same tasks that the freshmen did before, the life cycle will continue to repeat itself.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Freshman Observations

Watching the freshman has brought back so many good memories to me from that year, but it has also proven to me that most freshman act very much alike. They all come from their junior highs which have a significantly smaller population than that of Fremd. Much like a small town, in junior high when you did something everyone knew about it. There was gossip everywhere from the scoop about who was going out with who to the little stuff like who got their cartilage pierced. When those junior highers first enter the high school environment as freshman they don't expect it to be any different, just bigger. Thankfully, it is different than that of a junior high environment, but most won't notice it until they become sophmores.

The girls. Their main focus is their image and what other people, especially upper classmen, percieve them as. For this reason you always see them in groups. They are not safe alone. They must have a partner to walk from class to class with them. This is especially noticable at lunch when have to go into the lunch lines. There are those who bring their lunch and who buy it. Those who bring it are often faced with the serious problem of having their support group decrease dramatically when their friends have to go wait in the lunch line. Rather than been seen as weak and unpopular the few that would be left at the table waste their time going with their friends in line to buy nothing. When in their group, the freshman are confident and want to show that they can handle high school. This often results in them being obnoxiously loud and overwhelmingly outgoing. This behavior is often ridiculously annoying to the upperclassmen which is why the freshman are most oftenly avoided. When freshman girls don't have their supporting friends with them, you see a totally new set of behaviors emitted. They are often quiet and in the halls are often seen with their head down and walking with a determined pace to get to their safe zone of colleagues.

Freshman boys are not as easy to pick out by their behavior, but their dramatically smaller bodies aren't easy to miss either. We've all gone through sex ed. and know that the maturation of boys comes later than that of girls so that's not the main point we are going to focus on now. The boys are often introduced to the upperclass boys earlier through sports, especially football, so they know how to handle themselves better in high school. Also the boys don't care as much about their image as girls do so you see that being popular is less of a priority amongst guys. The classic groups from junior high still stay pretty much disintegrated from each other and they do tend to poke fun at those that traditionally fall in the lower popularity levels to boost their egos every once in a while.

Whether it be the height of your popularity or the height of your person, freshman are definitely recognizable and can be sifted out from that of the rest of the high school population easily.