“Um, excuse me, but do you know where I would have swim class? On the schedule it said middle level gym, but…,” I stopped walking in the mob of people and asked the closest girl to me frantically, probably causing some sort of traffic jam in the hallway. This is one of my most vivid memories of my first day of school at NDP as a freshman. I honestly don’t remember a whole lot from the first day of school, whether that be because of nerves or excitement or my just focusing on making it to the right class on time. I was worried about making friends, about my classes being hard, and about being in a new school in general. Around the beginning of the school year, I did nearly walk into the wrong classroom a couple of times, but hey, I did that yesterday too, and I’m a sophomore this year.

Freshman year is the year you learn about all of the traditions throughout the school year. There was Freshman Retreat, Penny Queen, Tree Trim, and the Christmas liturgy, to name a few. Gym Meet takes place in March, but it really starts in September because that is when you have your first class Gym Meet meeting. Gym Meet makes you talk to and work with people you wouldn’t normally talk to in your class. Don’t worry if you haven’t met a lot of people in your class so far- by the end of the year, you will have had a conversation with almost every girl in your class.

Picking our class colors and walking into the dining room at Freshman Retreat were my favorite memories of freshman year. Freshman Retreat is fun because you do different trust exercises with your class, have a small class liturgy in the chapel, and then have a class lunch where you find out what your class colors are. Freshman Retreat is also a lot of fun because the sophomores and the juniors are taking the PSAT’s and the freshmen are playing games and having fun.

Overall, the best advice I think I can give to a new freshman this year is this: have fun and enjoy it! Freshman year is the year you sign up for new clubs, try new things, and make new friends. It’s the year where you learn about all of the school traditions, where you pick your class colors, and where you get around one hundred and fifty new sisters: your classmates. So, in your freshman year, just have fun and try hard in school. (The grades are important, too!) After all, you are only a freshman in high school once.

By the way, I did end up finding my swim class. They were in the middle level gym.