We’ve all found ourselves asking Big questions; Is Pizzagate real? How do you get rich quick? How do you find your life’s purpose? What is astrology?  and so on. Most times our answers are found from the wise minds of those much older than us. Here, my mission is answering YOUR important questions from our peers perspectives; rather than people 40 years older than us.

Hey squad my name’s Sophia. You can read my staff profile here , but if you don’t feel like it you’ll get the vibe from reading some of my stories. I’m going to be writing a weekly article that answers all sorts of questions. For the first week I’m doing things a little differently while getting started, but going forward I ask that any questions you need answered you send to either 

Remind— Text @magnetq to the number 8101 and then text any questions you have.

(Don’t worry nobody but me will receive your messages.)

                              OR

Email— anonymousraptors2@gmail.com

Now here’s the thing, the questions answered will remain anonymous and you can even send your questions from an anonymous email address. Questions will be answered by me and people who I feel would provide good insight on the topic, so that we can get multiple perspectives. Any type of question is welcome! I know if I don’t have the answers I can find plenty of people here at Magnet who do. Here are some examples of topics you can base your questions on: improving relationships, conspiracy theories, school, dealing with parents, how to make money, astrology, book recommendations, God stuff… literally anything.

For this week I asked a Junior and some Seniors to answer an important question for the Freshman to kick off the new school year;

“What are some things to cherish as a freshman?”

For this I asked a Junior, Ms. Taryn Crowley, who has a better recollection of freshman year than I. Here’s what she had to say…

1) Embrace the uncomfiness: Taryn began, stating simply that during freshman year she “literally thought [she] was gonna die.” She paused then, considering her next words carefully, “It prepares you for the rest though. It gets better.” I’m not too surprised to hear Taryn say this. During Freshman year I had felt the same ways she continued to describe; overwhelmed, inadequate, too young… and by asking any group of upperclassmen you can find that many share similar experiences. Throughout freshman year I had told myself “it gets better” because I heard others say it, and it’s true, it really does. Suddenly, Taryn gasped and broke into a huge grin “Mr. Mccormick! I wish I had cherished him more. If I didn’t have him I wouldn’t do as well in school because he taught me how to study.” And she’s right, Mccormick will definitely make you study, and so will many other teachers. It’s part of why things get better. The schoolwork Freshman year is overwhelming. However, as you get older the workload continues to increase even still. Learning to study is paramount to overcoming the burdens of school work. Teachers like Mccormick are what gives Magnet students an edge. They force us to either figure out how to study effectively or fail. And in the long run having these skills turns the rest of your highschool career into a much more manageable mess.

2)Your first wall day: “I also really loved walking into wall day and not knowing what to expect. It showed me how cool this school was.” Taryn said.  Another common sentiment among Magnet students; the litness of Wall day. Freshman year Wall day is strange. I personally hated it because I was the class president Freshman year and, so it goes, our wall sucked, but most like Taryn deeply enjoyed their first Wall day. Having never experienced it before it’s almost impossible to conceptualize that a public high school would do something so extravagant, let alone expect freshman to have the ability to execute something on par with the creations of the upperclassman. But once a proper Wall day is experienced, it is never forgotten. That first Wall day, while chaotic and slightly uncomfortable, sets the strange stage for your next four years at Magnet; completely unpredictable, exciting, earth shattering, and mind altering. The bright lights, loud music, festivities, competition, community, trivia… It’s almost a microcosm of our whole high school experience. It’s all about embracing the new, adapting, and leaning into it.

The takeaway; While freshman year seems impossible for most it’s really just preparing us for the rest of high school. All of our experiences, good, bad, and ugly, help us grow and ultimately better equip us in the long run. The 4 years of high school are absolutely absurd. Almost everyone experiences events bordering memoir worthy. The biggest piece of advice I can give is to cherish where you’re at in the present because everything is working out exactly as it should.

We’re so lucky to go to a school filled with such amazing people. At Magnet, for the most part, people want to help you when you ask for it, whether you need advice in your daily life or need more information about a topic. My goal with this column is to provide you guys with, if not anything else, interesting perspectives about topics that interest you and questions you need answered.