Starting high school last year, and getting to finally be a high school student with my friends, has been an incredible experience. Freshman year was awesome! High school is a lot different than I imagined, considering I got all of my ideas of high school from High School Musical and Bring It On. It was not like those movies at all! Nevertheless, it was a fun year full of memories, ups and downs, and a lot of “first time” things.

After the first few days, my friends and I even found an “our spot” where we eat lunch every single day together!

All The Classes

First off, the classes I got to pick were a lot different! Instead of choosing one elective like middle school, Freshman got to pick 2. Plus we also had to take PE 1, our core classes, and health. I took advanced language arts, advanced math, biology, geography, health, PE, Spanish 2, and Dance 3. Surprisingly, I also barley had any homework unless we were doing a project or an end-of-unit assignment in language arts. Dance was probably my favorite class because I loved getting to do what I love every other day, but I did have to audition to get into the advanced class. One thing that was a little unexpected but I am glad it happened what that I only had 2 out of my 8 classes with my friends-and there’s a lot of us! But because of that, I also met a ton of new people and made new friends and being in the upper classes (math, Spanish, and dance) I met lots of older people too!

Having all of this classes which were longer meaning doing a lot more thins per class period means if you miss a day there’s a lot to makeup! I learned to never ever be sick in high school! I missed like eight days of school because I was sick and it took me FOREVER to get caught up.

Finals

Something new that we never did in middle school was Finals Week. Last year, at Spring View, towards the end of semester and year we did fun stuff and had celebrations…. not in high school! Our last 4 days of the first semester and of the whole school year were full of finals. I studied my butt off for those tests in all my classes because NO ONE wants to do summer school! Luckily, I did awesome on all my finals.

Showing Whitney Wildcat Spirit

From the first day to the last day, everyone showed their Whitney spirit with rallies, sports events, spirit weeks, and more fun stuff!

The first day of school we had a rally. Everyone entered through a blow up Wildcat tunnel after walking past the cheer leaders and dance team. They even handed out free donuts! The back to school rally was my first experience of high school life and showed me how fun the year was going to be!

Maroon Fridays

Every single Friday at Whitney-no matter what-is a Maroon Friday where EVERYONE, and I mean everyone, dresses up in full maroon and gold. On sunny days and no rain days, there are lunch time activities (LTAs) that feature different groups on campus and we play different games. It’s a perfect way to show school spirit every week!

Football Games

My friends and I didn’t go to a whole lot of football games this year, but we did go to the big ones! We went to the Quarry Bowl which is the huge Rocklin vs. Whitney game that everyone comes out to see and it was so fun to cheer on our school and see everyone decked out in maroon in gold. We also went to the Homecoming game because it’s fun, but also because a couple of my friends and I helped build the float during Hoco week and were on the float during the parade!

Rallies

Throughout the year we had three other rallies: Wizard of Oz Rally for homecoming, VAPA Rally, and Game of Life Rally to end the year. The homecoming rally was super fun because at that point of the week everyone was hyped up and excited! Two girls even sang a song from the Wizard of Oz movie to go along with the rally theme. The VAPA rally was Fire vs. Ice themed, but it was also my first time EVER dancing in front of my entire school! We worked on the routine for a while and got super cute costumes. The routine was awesome and everyone loved it. The Game of Life rally was super fun too and kind of sad when all the seniors walked out after showing a video of all their memories. The games for ALL the rallies were awesome though and it was super fun!

Spirit Weeks

To go along with all the rallies were various spirit weeks. The Homecoming spirit week, the Fire vs. Ice winter spirit week, and the Game of Life spirit week. The dress up days were super fun especially because high schoolers take it to a whole other level and get very competitive. ASB people came by each day to scan ID cards so each class could get points and at the end, a class would win. There was no price except bragging rights!

The New Field Day

Something that I liked that was band new this year was the Field Day in April! Leadership organized out on the black top and grass one day and got lots of fun things to do! There was archery tag, soccer darts, a bouncy slide, a bouncy obstacle course, a rock wall, and live music from the students! My friends and I had so much fun on that day and I hope they do it again!

The Many Dances

The middle school dances were fun, but high school takes it up a few notches!

So far, I have gone to every dance during my time at Whitney and I hope to go to every one in the next three years! We had four dances this year and they were all fun and different with unique themes.

The first welcome back dance of the year was a Light Up The Night neon themed dance. Everyone who went wore their best neon and danced the whole night. For this dance, only two of mt friends went with my because my other friends were all a little scared of high school dances! Nevertheless, we still had lots of fun.

The next dance was in October and was Homecoming. Our homecoming was Wizard of Oz themed and the dress up days and floats were made to match! Lots of my friends and I went to this dance and I had a blast dressing up all fancy for this!

Later in the year was our Winter Semi-Formal that was themed Fire and Ice to match the spirit week and rally. This dance, we also got to dress up fancy and we went to dinner before hand! This dance was probably one of my favorites because the outside DJ had a fog machine hose thing that he could spray the fog over the mass of dancing people!

To close the year, we had a “Peace Out to the School Year,” tie dye, dance. Before the dance, me and a few of my friends got together and made our own tie dye shirts! We were definitely the coolest people there. This one was also one my favorites because they had karaoke set up outside and my friends and I totally rocked out!

The Dance Program

I think my most favorite thing this year was getting to be a part of the Whitney Dance Program. I met so many people, my age plus a lot of older girls, that I wouldn’t have met any other way. I met so many new friends through being in dance.

The way the classes are divided is through levels one through four. One being beginner and have-never-done-dance and four being very advanced. In fact, in order to be in dance four, the audition is invite only. I started my dance career in high school in Dance III, or level three on the scale. To get to any advanced level, you have to audition every year you plan on dancing, so going through my first audition and making that high of level was AWESOME! This year, for sophomore year, I auditioned again and made Dance IV, or level four. I am so excited to meet even more people and make some more new friends.

Advanced Dance Show

Another thing about being in the dance program is all the performances. I got to perform in the VAPA Rally and in the annual Advanced Dance Show. The dance show was such an amazing experience to have because we finally got to show the students ad families what we’ve been working on all year long. I got to be in three routines and a short opener routine. I had an insane amount of fun being a part of the show.

Needless to say, my first year of high school was pretty awesome. This doesn’t even cover the all the fun stuff I did with my friends and family throughout the school year. Freshman Year was an incredible experience I won’t forget.