The 2019-2020 school year has begun for Reading Memorial High School which means new faces, changes, and adjustments for the student body, but specifically the newest members, freshmen. This year’s freshmen are the class of 2023 and are the first freshman class to experience the new 8:30 am start time for RMHS. Hunter Connelly is one of the many freshmen to attend their first year of high school at RMHS and attended Parker Middle School for grades six through seven.
I started off my questions for Hunter by asking him what sports he plays and what he plans to try out for. Currently, Hunter plays basketball and baseball and plans to try out for both this upcoming winter and spring. Both teams graduated multiple seniors last year and therefore will be looking for new players to add to their rosters such as freshmen like Hunter. He enjoys and is passionate about both basketball and baseball and is looking forward to his opportunity to play both for Reading Memorial High School.
As most people already know, RMHS saw a big alteration in the start time and the end time after studies proved that teens need more time in the morning due to different sleep cycles. Because of this, the Reading school committee unanimously voted to push the start time of 7:30 a.m. back an hour to 8:30 a.m. which moved end times from 2:11 pm to 3:02 pm. Students at RMHS have very mixed feelings regarding this change so I asked Hunter what his opinions on the matter are. He states, “I think the start time is great,” and goes on to say “I’m well adjusted and I feel awake in the morning and even though we get out later, getting more sleep is great.” The Reading middle schools’ start time is 7:40, which fifty minutes earlier to the start time of RMHS at 8:30. This was a big transition for Hunter but as he said, he has definitely adjusted and welcomes the change which enables him, like many, to get more sleep.
RMHS has many clubs to offer its students including the school’s very own newspaper, the Orbit, Habitat for Humanity, the dungeons and gargoyles club, Cru Extension, A World of Difference, and many more. When I asked Hunter if he was interested in any of the clubs RMHS has to offer, he told me he was potentially interested in our school newspaper, The Orbit. Hunter enjoys writing because it provides him with a creative outlet and opportunities to express himself.
Finally, I concluded my bombardment of questions by asking Hunter to give some tips to his classmates and even next year’s freshman class. Hunter’s number one tip of advice for freshman but also all students is to get good grades because they don’t go away and will affect your gpa and high school transcript for the next three years, up until graduation and when applying to college. Hunter notes that “it is important to try your hardest because it [your grades] matter from day one as a freshmen all the way to the day you graduate as a senior,”.
For Hunter, his freshman year at RMHS has gone well for him thus far and looks forward towards the winter and spring for both basketball tryouts and baseball tryouts.