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New: Snow, A Roommate, More Homework

by Chris :: Thursday September 22, 2005

Ah yes, another year at the Thacher School and already a whole week of classes under my belt. Even though school has been going for a week, it feels as though I’ve been in Ojai forever—which is not a bad thing.

For one, “hell week” began on the 27th of August: all the football guys and I were on campus, along with the girls’ volleyball team and boys’ cross-country a week before anyone else showed up. After our extensive training in the art of the game, we prepared ourselves for a week in the wilderness, it was time for our fall camping trips. I enjoyed mine; on it was one of my best friends, seven juniors and five seniors. Our 25 mile trip took us some amazing places high in the Sespe Wilderness, and for the first time, I found myself in falling snow!

During my first week of school after camping, differences from freshmen and sophomore year stood out like a sore thumb. My roommate, Griffin, and I were conversing frantically about the amount of homework we had on the first night. We had math homework, fourteen pages of English reading, twelve pages of history reading (though no chemistry homework, thank goodness), and I had a Chinese dictation (test) on new material on Tuesday. Our teachers had obviously wasted no time to get us back working again.

Having a roommate is also a very different concept (as a freshman, I had a single), but it is also something I am happy about. Griffin and I were each other’s first choices because we knew we would be perfect roommates. Out of my top five closest friends, I saw him as the easiest to live with and the person I could get the most homework done with. Hopefully, my decision will pan out. We have a sick room: it’s a lot bigger than our old ones, and we are in a much better dorm. Los Padres is the best dorm on the Thacher campus because it is the most recently built dorm. The ways that we have all decided to compare it to Lower School are A, we can’t break it and B, as my friend Tim so poetically put it, we all feel a lot better about ourselves and a lot more proud of living on this campus.

Sophomore year is no joke; we know that this year’s grades make up half of the GPA that will be sent to colleges. But even more importantly as the one and only Harrison (another friend) likes to point out on a regular basis: our reputations will be fought for and won this year. Laughter is an important part of this campus because when people laugh, they’re having fun. I’m looking forward to a lot of good times this year, I’m looking forward to making this year the best year yet.

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