I walk down the steps leading to the cafeteria behind a short woman. My heart is beating in ears so loudly that I almost can’t hear the chattering below me. It has just come as a realization that I don’t know anyone at this school. How am I supposed to spend the next three years of my life here? A few months ago when I got the news that I would have to transfer schools, I was ecstatic. I was just glad I didn’t have to spend another day at Riverview High. This new school seemed like a really nice school. Laptops were provided, there weren’t many people, and on the school website they claimed to “love everyone”. I was excited during the summer, but when August finally came, it hit me that I would be the new kid. I’ve never been the new kid before, so it was kind of scary. There were a lot of different things I had to get used to, like having no uniforms, less people, and just going to a small school in general.

At Riverview, every grade had a specific uniform to wear, with IDs, so a DSO (District Security Officer) would know who a student was. At my new school, there are no uniforms. School shopping is always a long and tiring task because I have to buy about five different outfits. I used to be able to just get three sky blue polos and three pairs of khaki pants. Because this school has no uniforms, I never know what grade anybody is in unless I see them in almost every one of my classes. I didn’t even know that the people in my world history class were freshmen until after about a month at this school. Even now, I’m still finding out what grade everyone else is in.

Until I got to my new school, I was used to 20 students or more in a classroom. My “study hall” period (which was called R.A.M.S. Seminar for some reason) was full of students. I hated that period because most of the kids climbed up on the counters and acted like monkeys. I only did homework in there, at least when I got homework, which wasn’t very often. Most of time, I just listened to music and played games on my phone (which wasn’t a good idea because the period was 90 minutes and my battery usually died before the end of the day). At my new school, there are some classes with about 18 students and some with only nine, and most students act like they have some sense. These days, I’m kept busy in my study hall with homework from almost every class, and I never get bothered by anyone acting silly because no ever does.

I still can’t believe how small my new school is. This school has about 330-something students and about 80 students per grade. At Riverview, there were about four times as many students. I see so many of the same people every single day here, and if I tried, I’d be able to match a name with most of the faces I see. There were so many people at my old school, and I’m pretty sure that the only person I knew there was my sister, who I only saw in the morning, the afternoon, and every other day while I walked from American History. Now I don’t have to worry about things like how I’ll get from one class to another that’s all the way across campus in four minutes because all the classes are in the same building. Although I got lost a few times, I kind of like how compact my school is because I don’t have to rush too much.

Transferring schools was a big challenge for me. I had to transition from one world to a completely different one with a different set of rules. There weren’t a lot of restrictions, and I didn’t feel like I was going to prison every morning when I woke up. I have quite a few friends now to keep me company and I don’t feel like I have to seclude myself from anyone. I like it at this school and I feel welcomed.