Oakton freshman reflect on their first year in the great big world.

EXPECTATIONS

A majority of teen magazines ask their readers to describe high school in as many ways as possible. Readers would say that high school is a magical experience that really prepares you for life. Oakton students have different opinions.
Freshman Kamila Mehdi said “My sister advised me about high school, but it’s not how I imagined it.”
Freshman Meghan Pugh said, “I expected high school to be a jungle of people that didn’t really care. Last year, in middle school, I didn’t do anything that would actually help me in high school. ” Let’s be honest, Ned’s Declassified is probably the closest thing to real school.
Others say that high school is full of threatening upperclassmen, young love, delicious lunches, and the third floor pool.
Rising freshman are influenced by television shows such as “iCarly” and “Zoey 101” (Zoey’s “school,” PCA, is actually a tiny college in California, so there is still hope) that display high school in a totally different light. Freshmen are shocked at the reality. “Some of the TV shows really do display high school in an accurate way, but a majority of them show very unrealistic day to day high school lives,” said Pugh.
WARNING: third floor pool is closed due to installation of the new third floor hot tub. Starbucks will be served in the basement lobby, next to the experimental rats’ cage. Be careful, stairs are slippery when wet.

REALITY:

School is hard. Oakton is one of the top schools in Fairfax County, and we do not falter when it comes to trying to maintain high standards. Ask any sophomores or juniors, the workload becomes harder and harder as years pass. In those TV shows, they never feature students actually doing homework. “I usually spend around three hours doing homework a night,” said junior, Leila Hashemi.
Another thing is the high school dream look. “I thought Oakton was so much bigger than it looks,” said freshman, Tee Tee Nguyen, “it is actually pretty small compared to a lot of other schools, like Robinson.” Also, unlike many schools in this area, Oakton is much older and smells like damp air conditioning blowing either freezing air or sauna steam. The hallways do not fit 2,400 students in a five minute period, and definitely not up the stairs.
The relationship scene is a whole other level. There is no romantic scene where you and your affectionate run towards each other and kiss passionately in the center hall whilst everyone applauds. Number one, try running in the main hall way during any passing period. Two, how do you feel when you see couples kissing in the halls. And three, no one will applaud you.
Yes, Oakton is much different than anything you’ll see on the media, but it is school, and it will be here until you graduate. Then you get to college.