2026 FRESHIES ARE FRESH IN

2026 FRESHIES ARE 2026 FRESHIES ARE FRESH IN! FRESH IN!

It’s already been over thirteen weeks since school started—whoa! As for the freshies, we’ve been busy settling into high school life, meeting new people, discovering interesting clubs, finding our favorite lunch entrees, scouting the best lobby couches, and more.

Being a freshman can be tough. High school is notorious for its hectic lifestyle. Although we have finally escaped the Middle Years, we must now face so many choices. These choices may consist of how we organize our free time, what we do during study periods, or even what we decide to purchase at Crave’s cafe. In order to find out how the freshmen are adjusting, I have sought out students incoming from the middle school, the British School, and schools outside of SFS.

Minori Taylor (9) has attended the British School for eleven years. Minori mentions that she’s incredibly “excited to experience the high school lifestyle everyone talks about,” as well as develop more as a person. Despite the enthusiasm, however, she does admit that high school life seems a bit “nerve-wracking”, especially when balancing school work with social life.

Amelie Lewis (9), also from the British School, looks forward to the prestige that comes with being a high school. “Being a highschooler means that you’re cool and not having to wear a uniform

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makes it even cooler”, she says. But being free from our daily navy/grey or red/beige outfits is both a relief and a daily dilemma. One one hand, having the ability to wear your own clothes feels more mature. Having no uniform means going through the process of choosing an outfit that would be considered a ‘swag-fit’ from our friends.

High school is all about freedom, even with our schedules. “high school has given us more freedom during classes and breaks compared to my previous school,” says Sara Veise (9), who’s joined the SFS community this year. She does express a caveat, however. “Freedom is good, but too much freedom can be hard to manage,” she says. Regarding the new lifestyle, some of the ‘freshies’ have been able to integrate into the highschool community through the arts.

Both Minori and Amelie were excited about musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. The upcoming high school musical has provided a great opportunity for many of the freshmen to bond with upperclassmen in the cast and crew. “Getting involved so early on in the year definitely helped introduce me to a lot of older people. I felt they were really scary when I actually them but they’re actually really nice,” says Amelie.

The recent SFHS community events have also helped introduce freshmen to school spirit. Eugene Han (9) states, “I enjoyed the pep rally because we could come together as the whole highschool. It allowed me to experience the highschool spirit and vibe.” Sports have encouraged previous middle school and British School students to come together and finally bond as the class of 2026.

Honestly, we’re pretty stressed. There’s still a lot to figure out and I guess that’s part of living the high school life. Criteria A, B, C, D, MYP, DP, IB… we’re choking on the alphabet. But overall, the class of 2026 seems to agree that freedom is good and we need to learn to make our own choices. Welcome to high school life, class of 2026!