Have you ever found yourself confused, invisible and surrounded by giants? I did, on August 29, 2016 when I first walked through the doors of Oakland Mills High School.

    On that Monday, thousands of kids all around the country entered high school for the very first time.If they were anything like me, they didn’t know that what was behind those heavy metal doors of high school was not what they expected. I was excited to see who was in my classes and what we  would be learning about, but I was still nervous about how I would find my classes. It might have been the haze of getting lost in the maze of hallways or the stress of jotting down everything the teacher said, but the first week as a freshman was awesome and terrifying at the same time. If you listened closely during the first few days you may have heard freshmen ay how lonely they felt or how they thought they were invisible. On the first Tuesday, my first period class got their lockers. About five other students and I,  were sent out by our teacher to find our metal book holders. We soon discovered that none of us knew where to start looking. We were shy and scared as we stepped into the untamed wild of the high school hallway. Our mission: to go on an adventure to find them.

     As we aimlessly roamed the hallways of the high school, we talked about how lost we all felt and how much we got bumped into on our way to class, because we were so small compared to the other students–we felt like we couldn’t be seen. When we  finally found our lockers, we had managed to meet a few new faces who were all going through the same thing. Those new faces helped to chase away our fears that felt like scary beasts in the wild halls. Luckily, by the end of the week you could see student excitedly hurried to class.

    Since that event, I have felt better about getting lost in the hallways and have become more confident traveling through them. Other freshmen are also settling into their home for the next four years, and instead of fearing the unknown, now I can feel the buzz that students gave as they hurriedly and  excitedly head to their classes or meet up with friends in the hallway.Friends have been made, assignments have been handed out, and as the dust settles on the first quarter, and I become more comfortable in the hallways, I find myself wondering what kind of giant I want to be.