Now, when I say we are going to discuss the sophomores and the first day of school, I know what you’re thinking, “Why are we talking about them? They aren’t juniors starting the worst year of their lives, and they aren’t seniors starting their best year yet.”

Truth is, we all should feel bad for them. I mean they were thrown in with “the sharks” on their first day.

Most of the upperclassmen are probably thinking that that was a pretty good idea, but think back to your own first day of sophomore year.

We probably didn’t know that the P stairwell gets way too crowed or that the cafeteria is like a sauna. Some may have been so nervous that they just blocked out that memory completely. However, the difference between the new sophomores and us is this: we didn’t have to deal with the scary upperclassmen on the very first day. And they did.

The first day of any year is always a little exciting and a little nerve wracking, but throw in a new campus and 2,000 older kids. Now that’s just not nice.

“Being with upperclassmen on the first day was definitely overwhelming because there were just so many people compared to the freshman campus, and I wasn’t good at navigating my way around the school,” said sophomore Monica Diaz.

Junior Danielle Steinberg remembers her first day. She was overwhelmed by the size of the school, worried she would get lost—and she had it easy compared to Diaz.

Some would argue that it’s great to have all the classes together on the first day because the juniors and seniors could show the sophomores the around and they would get the true high school feel right from the start.

While true, the first part about showing the sophomores around has a catch (as do most great-sounding ideas).

The first piece of advice I ever got as a rising sophomore was from a rising senior. She was all excited because she couldn’t wait to show a new-comer the wrong way to their class. That’s when she added, “Don’t take directions from any upperclassmen, especially the seniors. They will point you in the wrong direction.”

As you can imagine, that put the fear of juniors and seniors into me. Seriously though, I was terrified of being pointed in the wrong direction and being late for class the first full day.

What most people don’t really think about is how having all the classes together changed the atmosphere of the first day of school. Traditionally, sophomores have a “laid back” first day with ten-minute class periods and with only their grade level peers in the school. It was still hectic and chaotic according to Junior Lauren Holly, but it was not as hectic as it seemed to be this year.

One sophomore adviser said of the first day that her advisees were overwhelmed and full of anxiety partially because they didn’t even know there would be upperclassmen at school that day.

She also added the hallways were so crowded that it made the anxiety worse for most of the new students, not to mention that their biggest fear were the juniors and seniors.

If the sophomores weren’t already anxious enough, Diaz  claimed, “The upperclassmen are definitely not fond of the sophomores—they make that very clear both at school and on Facebook.”

For the future, Senior Ella Brumitt said to keep the first day to the sophomores.

Diaz agreed with Brumitt, “I would change it so the upperclassmen wouldn’t be there on the first day.  It just puts a lot less stress on the sophomores and allows them to adapt to the new school without all the extra people.”

Also agreeing with Brumitt was Steinberg, who said it would make it easier for the sophomores and having the day with the upperclassmen is unnecessary because they already know their way around.

Sophomore adviser Melissa Raguseo said, “The first day should be just the sophomores with a short day or everyone with a full day.”

So now that we have sufficiently created an anxiety filled environment for the first day of school and we know it doesn’t work, I think it’s time to go back to the good old days where the sophomores have the day to figure out things before the “big, scary” juniors and seniors show up to cause mayhem in the halls.