The transition from Sophomore year to Junior year was especially challenging compared to every other year. Teacher’s expectations are increased, classes are more rigorous, and thoughts about college become a reality. Preparing for college, us juniors are expected to take advanced courses, do our homework, study for tests, maintain good grades and be involved in numerous extracurricular activities. This year, it has been especially difficult to maintain the balance between “school life” including homework and tests, getting enough sleep, and our social life.
However, with such a strong support group of family, friends, and teachers, us juniors are comfortable in knowing we will survive our last two years of high school. Although junior year comes with stress, it also comes with many freedoms. This year we are upperclassmen. We get to sit farther back in the cafeteria, higher up on the bleachers during football games and we get our licenses. We also have the privilege of having Real World Problem Solving instead of midterms.
This year we have also had many new students from different countries staying with us for a year and new students who have moved here. If start of Junior year in RMHS was difficult for returning students, you can only imagine how tough it must have been for new students. Alannah Carr moved here from North Conway, Hampshire. She says the school and environment is very different from her old one. The school, she told us, is a lot bigger but offers a lot more. “When I first learned I was moving you could probably guess how upset I was. Moving your junior year of high school, is probably one of the most stressful things ever.” She told us that not only did she have to really focus on school and college, she also had to make new friends in the process which added even more stress on her.
Alannah also mentioned to us how joining a new sports team is also a lot to balance along with everything else. “I have been playing soccer for my whole life and I have never once not wanted to play the sport. That was true until the day of the tryouts. I wanted to quit because I was scared and nervous.” She told us how she had learned from her old Massachusetts friends that Reading was a very competitive school and was scared she wasn’t going to be good enough. In the end she told us that she was glad she joined the soccer team because it helped her make friends quickly and she got to play the sport she loved.