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The Real Deal--Crunch Time for Sophomores

by Chris :: Monday November 14, 2005

This past week gave the sophomores a whole new experience at The Thacher School.

Freshman year offers its own challenges, with taking care of a horse seven days a week and adjusting to life away from home. Simply because freshmen are inexperienced, the academic load—even though most of the time we didn’t believe so—is exceptionally light compared to the academic requirements throughout the course of the average Thacher year for non-9th graders. Last week, though, the ninth week of the school year, was a different kind of challenge.

Sophomores take six classes: a continuation of European History, English, a foreign language, Honors or regular Chemistry, math, and an elective, typically art. This year I am taking European History, English, Chinese II, Math III Honors, Intermediate Studio Art, and regular Chemistry (I was not the brightest physics student last year!). Usually, I’m able to manage my schedule without a large amount of stress because homework comes at a steady pace.

Last week, for the first time, this was not the case. I had a math test on Wednesday, an English essay due at 6:00 Wednesday night, a history presentation worth as much as an essay due on Thursday, a Chinese test on Thursday, and our weekly Chemistry quiz on Friday (along with an additional Chemistry quiz on Thursday). This might seem like a lot for some of you reading this but it is only a taste of what is to come this year. But I made it through this surge better than I’d predicted on Monday night of that week, and out of that gained a lot of self-confidence.

Everything we do at Thacher is preparation. Freshman year we were preparing for this year, and this year we are preparing to become upperclassmen—a group of kids who would probably call me a sissy if I told them the week I experienced last week was hard. Having a test or an essay due in every class but art in the span of two days will become a normal occurrence in the upcoming years here. This is preparing us for the strenuous nature of college and perhaps even the adventures of studying abroad.

[And all this while my team-Varsity Football-is heading towards CIF tournament play later in the month!]

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