Purple Haze
All Figured Out
By Elizabeth Thomas

September 2, 2010

Hello there, my name is Elizabeth Thomas. I’m a senior at Northern High School. I enjoy participating in various activities (especially music related) and I will be writing the Purple Haze column for the Dillsburg Banner this year.

Being a senior at Northern, you go through a lot of “last” moments. There is the last first day of high school, the last day as an official teenager and the last opportunity to earn good grades for college. I never realized how much those opportunities are worth over my years at high school.

I entered as a freshman with the same mindset as most of my other classmates. “Just get through this year alive, and you’ll be fine.” What was it about being a freshman that made high school so terrifying? It could be that every other kid was a head taller than me, or that the workload was much bigger compared to middle school. I think it was the fact that everyone was expecting us to know our careers before we even knew how to drive.

Now as I watch the new freshmen pour into school, some of them more adjusted to the bustling hallways and grueling work than others, I wonder if any of them have it “all figured out?” Those with a good head on their shoulders will stay on top of their homework, some will try out a few classes before they find something of real interest, and others might still be wandering in search of their calling up to senior year.

The thing some freshmen do not know is that this is okay. It is fine to change your mind a few, twenty, or even fifty times because it is the only way you will find what works for you. Everyone starts out somewhere in life, even out there in the real world, and when you’ve reached an end it will feel great to look back on all your achievements. All freshmen, however, must remember one important thing in this journey of self-discovery, and this is their grades. Every test and quiz counts at Northern High School, so stick to your studies, keep your nose clean and you will do fine.