Musing on the sophomore jitters and the electric spark of learning.
Editor’s note: Devin White, 15, is our resident youth blogger.
School is just around the corner for me. I’m ready to head back and hit the books after a nice summer vacation.
Devin White
I’m going to be a sophomore this year. Scary. It seems like it was only yesterday I was in 8th grade. I have no idea what to expect from most of my classes. I don’t even know who the teachers are yet.
Seven of my eight classes are honors courses, so I know it’s going to be a busy year,adding on soccer and tennis. But I’m sure it’ll be fun.
I am excited, perhaps a little frightened though. In my school the two biggest heavy hitters for classes are in 10th grade – honors American cultural studies and honors chemistry. I’m taking both.
With a new school year comes new challenges, new teachers, new classes, and new ideas. So we can always learn and practice things in school that can be incorporated into innovation.
I know last year in one of my favorite classes of all time, honors global cultural studies with Mrs. Cozz and Mrs. Norcross, we would write responses to topics we covered in homework and then get into these deep discussions/debates, which could go on for over an hour.
It was totally informal. I can remember many times where it would be me and only a handful of kids against the whole class (of course, I was on the other end of the stick as well). These discussions and debates helped me in inventing. It’s the skill to sell someone, to talk to them, and try to persuade them to change sides and agree with you.
BTW, any of my GCS classmates can attest to these discussions, teachers included. Getting in front of adults and telling them your idea is a nerve-racking experience. I’ve been there, but something you practice countless times in school. That GCS class will probably be my favorite class of high school because of the discussion, the organized chaos that a classroom becomes when everyone in the room feels just as strongly as the two sitting next to them. It’s electricity.
I hope for more of that electricity. For me, it’s this electricity that inspires me to make the world a better place, to go to school with my classmates, so that when we graduate we can do great things. We can be who we want to be. Who knows, maybe invent something great.
Stonington High School is the home of the Bears. So, in good spirit, Go Bears! Let’s Show the World…Don’t Stop Thinking.
Devin White
