FISH Camp

I spent the last few months worrying. Worrying, wondering, thinking, pondering about what High School is going to be like. It was agonizing. I hated the little butterflies that would flutter into my stomach whenever I thought of this big jump in my life. I realize that years later, maybe months, I'll look back and think that I had no reason to be scared or nervous. I'll look back and not be able to understand why I had those feelings at all. But then again, I don't know why I am having those feelings now. Of course, I want to go back to school, meet all my friends again, and see them everyday, and miss them if we don't have any classes together. I want to be able to complain about my schedule, about my homework load, about how boring my teachers are, about how I don't understand what the heck we're learning in class. But the feeling won't reside, it won't go away, it's this dull, swirly feeling that comes every time I think of going back to school.

A month, or so, ago, sometime in July, I received a package from my school with fliers and informational pamphlets about upcoming orientations. Of course, I jumped at the jam-packed envelope and tore it open as fast as I could, not waiting for my mom to get a letter opener. It had information about two orientations we were having in August. August?! That was too long of a wait. Oh well, there was nothing I could do about it.

August comes and I go to the second orientation: FISH Camp. If you are a freshman or if you ever were a freshman, you know that we are called 'Fish', and so we go to 'Fish Camp' to learn the ways of 'Fish' and get familiar to the 'Fish' School.

The minute I walk into the school, I see no face that I can recognize. I am horrified. I push through the crowd, I swerve through the crowd, and I see familiar faces but none lucky enough to get my first 'hello'. I finally find someone I know and grab her, hugging her tight and close. From then on, everything runs smoothly. Friends keep coming, I keep hugging. Then finally, we get to go into the cafeteria and get our ID's. Of course, all the pictures are terrible. And, of course, everyone tells everyone, "What are you saying? Your picture looks great!" Then we get to grab our new cool agendas. Cool = Dark brown cover with bright green block letters that say "do", and inside the letters are words like "Stand" "Plan" "Decide" etc. And inside of the front cover there is our bell schedule, then there's a monthly calendar planner, AND a weekly one. At the end there is a world map, a place to keep our schedule, a hall pass, and on the back cover there is a calendar or the whole school year.

After agendas, we get our shirts and turn in lunch money. Then we head to the north gym and I later find out that it is for a "Practice Pep Rally". Practice pep rally? I really don't think we need to practice yelling. After that we get into groups and go on a 'tour' our tour guides being 10th and 11th graders who have no idea where they are going. Result? We roam around the school until it's time to go to our first session, where we learn we shouldn't lose our phones because this place is full of phone thieves. Right after that session, my friend manages to lose her phone. Hahahaha... not a laughing matter after you realize you can't call her anymore. Then we have one more session before we head to the North Gym... again. Where they tell us, (long story short), "Okay, we're done. Go home now."