Our First Week at PTS
Monday, September 21, 2015 at 9:07AM By Madeleine Wagshul and Carolina Lopez
PTS Falconer Staff
Two of Palmer Trinity School’s newest 6th graders Madeleine Wagshul and Carolina Lopez recently reflected on their first week at PTS.
Madeleine Wagshul
Starting Middle School is not all sunshine and rainbows. Well, there’s a whole list of why it isn’t. First, you are in a school with everybody ranging from the smallest of the small to the biggest of the big. Unfortunately, you start out as one of the weaklings. But don’t worry, in seven years you will be one of the alphas.
Secondly, the locker situation. How come all the smaller kids get the top lockers, and all the bigger kids get the bottom lockers?! It should be illegal if you are over 4”11 to crouch down to get your books. Third, lunch. The food’s really good, but waiting in that line is equivalent to torture. But some days, it’s a fight to get to the last fork.
Oh, and don’t forget our fourth thing on the list, not being used to being one of the smaller kids. Last year, you were one of the leaders of the pack, but this year, you’re one of the smaller ones. And I think we all know how hard it is to get used to how incredibly large Palmer Trinity School is. Lovely campus, though, and it is super fun to follow a peacock around when you finish lunch early.
Awkward moments. The first awkward moment you may experience is waiting outside the locker rooms for 5 minutes thinking the door’s locked but it’s not. And don’t forget when you tap on a student thinking they’re a teacher. Thankfully that happened to me only once. Then there’s the uniforms. Gosh, I spent a week thinking my shirt had to be tucked in! But, really, it’s a great school… only it takes some getting used to.
Carolina Lopez
As I was walking into the entrance of Palmer Trinity, I was so nervous of what was to come. I had never been in a school this big. My elementary school was only about 400 students; here there were almost twice as many students. Once I got to my locker, I glanced around to see if I could find my friends from elementary school. I was a little disappointed I couldn’t find them.
I realized it was getting late so I headed to the gym. When I got inside I was surprised! It was a huge gym with bleachers and everything. In my elementary school we didn’t have a gym. We just had a field and a mini basketball court. I had found my friends and sat down. We then listened to a welcome from Mr. Tolmach, Head of Middle School.
Afterwards, I had not been sure what we were going to do, but it turned out we were meeting all of our teachers and going through our first day of “Boot Camp”. To be honest, I was a little nervous for what was to come with “Boot Camp”. It turns out it was actually kind of fun. After a long week of “Boot Camp”, it was time to actually start classes. I was so nervous that I would get to class late or walk into the wrong classroom.
I went through my first day of real classes! I felt like the schedule change was actually simple once I got the hang of it! It was also so different that we had to wait in a line to be able to get food. In my elementary school, we just went up and got a box with our name on it, plus you had to pay for hot lunch. I love the fact that once you finish lunch you can roam around the school or just sit and talk with your friends. That first week of Palmer Trinity was so much fun, I wonder what the rest of the school year will be like.
Concluding our article, as stressful as middle school can be, it just takes some time getting used to! All you need to remember is to hang in there.
