High School Curriculum

High school can be a challenging period in the life of any teenager, but I suspect that I had one of the more rough transitions from middle school out of those in my class. As soon as I walked through the doors on my first day at Wahlert Catholic High School, I knew that I was not ready for it. I walked with my backpack slung over my shoulders, containing new notebooks waiting to be filled, pencils waiting to be sharpened, and a computer just waiting to spend several hours trying in vain to connect to the school Internet, but I still felt unprepared. As we were hauled into the gym for our, “You’re a high schooler now so you have to be mature and not cause problems,” talk, I began to feel queasy. As I was pushed around from class to class by
Mrs. Ressler seemed nice enough, but it sounded like the class might be a difficult one. Computer Science and AP World History seemed like challenges. Biology would be rough. Geometry would be one of the easier ones. Spanish, Choir, and Religion should be okay. Despite a fairly difficult schedule, my focus was elsewhere. I was looking at the extracurriculars available to students. Interact club seemed interesting, and I liked the idea of the ski/snowboard club. Mostly, I was intent on running for something on the Senate. After looking into the requirements of Senate I determined that I would run for Freshmen Class Vice President. I prepared a speech, and I took the final draft to Ms. Wagner for approval. I also brought two posters and a T-shirt reading, “Vote for Pedro,” in an obvious nod to the movie “Napoleon Dynamite.” The name Pedro was crossed out and I wrote my name over it. Ms. Wagner didn’t like it for some
We were supposed to find out the results of the election in seventh period. Finally, Ms. Wagner’s voice crackled over the loudspeaker. “These are the results of the Freshmen Class Senate Election. The president is Sophia Shubatt. The vice president is Eric Leigh...” After that I stopped listening. I was in a state of relative shock. Not until later that day would I find out that Kamryn Bounds and Annie Herman were the secretary and treasurer; I was too busy being patted on the back. That was when I felt like I had truly become a part of Wahlert Catholic. I had become a part of a great tradition, and I felt like I could take on the world. It was a great day, but, unfortunately, I had show choir practice