Welcome back to school, Bluebirds! It’s the start of a new school year which always comes with a mix of emotions as we leave summer and the previous school year behind and embark on many new changes with new teachers and classmates, for some a new school, and new courses to learn and navigate.
Change can be quite an adjustment sometimes but it can also be good! The new school year kicked off Thursday night out by our new Bluebird stadium with a new way of doing Back to School Night. If you were fortunate enough to attend last Thursday, August 22, you experienced the first KHS Back to School Block Party in which all of your KHS departments were set up like a neighborhood block, to greet their new students and reconnect with former ones. There were food trucks on site for dinner and dessert, as well as a DJ, and the weather ended up being perfect.
Kenwood’s new School Community Facilitator Mr. Goldbeck was the coordinator behind the new event. “We did back to school night this way to bring more joy. Our goal was to set a positive vibes only tone and enjoy being around one another as staff and students.” Many did find it an enjoyable way to kick off their new school year.
Ms. Scott-Cerezo adds, “Seeing my former students on back to school night made it such a motivator to start this new year.”
Kenwood welcomed not only Mr. Goldbeck this school but also a new administrator, Ms. Kate Smith, who is a Kenwood graduate herself and spent a few years of her teaching career at Kenwood. As she “comes back home” as she says, there will also be more changes like the Back to School Night that’ll be forthcoming.
Senior Sanai Bailey, reminds us all change may be hard and an adjustment at times but not to let our anxieties get in the way of all the good that come with something new. Freshmen are new to high school and all the new experiences that come with it while the senior classes has had to adjust to three different administrative teams in their four years. Change can be overwhelming.
Too often students tend to deal with trepidations with change, thinking about the negative things that will happen with a change. But more times than not by the end of their journey they realize that all those negative thoughts were a waste of their energy.
KHS student Kameron S. shares, “Before starting high school I always worried about the bad things that could happen like getting embarrassed on the first day because I don’t know where to go, not fitting in with other students , or getting picked on because I am not like everyone else and don’t have what everyone else has. But when I got used to the high school experience I realized it’s a way better experience than my fears made it seem.”
Sophomore Kayla D’s recommendation to all facing their own uncertainties on the changes of a new year are, “High school is the time to invest in building bonds with people. Whether classmates or teachers you can find people that are here for you. Those relationships make it nothing like how I pictured high school to be .”
It was also those relationships that made Back to School Night such a fun success as students and teachers reconnected on one of their last nights of summer.
The high school experience doesn’t have to be scary, but rather it can also be a valuable experience in building bonds and relationships that get them through some of the most memorable four years of their life.
Don’t let your scary thoughts of what all the changes might mean deter you from making this your best year yet. Whether facing a new school, new teachers or staff, new friends or classmates, new courses or programs of interest go in to it with hope that maybe you’ll meet your best friend, your best teacher mentor yet, or maybe you’ll meet your best you.
A Back to School Poem:
What IF
What if I walk through those doors and my confidence just ends
What if I walk through those doors and struggle to find friends
What if the work is hard and the teachers are mean
What if I get frustrated and don’t want to stay
What if they teach and I never learn
WAIT! WHAT IF I SUCCEED?!?
What if I walk through those doors and my confidence just soars
What if I walk through those doors and I meet my best friend
What if my teacher is the role model I’ve been looking for
What if it’s time to graduate and I never want to leave
What if they teach and I grow to my best me
WAIT! WHAT IF I’M HERE TO SUCCEED?!?
Have a fantastic school year, Bluebirds!
