Battle High School welcomed its students on Tuesday for the fifth time, allowing students to dive right into the first day of school. While the first day of school can provide varying amounts of stress for both the new and returning students, spirits were bright as students reunited in the commons in the morning before classes.

The day began with the gathering of students in the commons, followed by four brand new classes. While some are thrilled to learn and meet a new set of peers, the gathering of new students is often the root of anxiety for some.

Emma Hudson, freshman, describes how the first day makes peers anxious. Hudson says, “I think it’s the fact you’re going to see new people, and you have to meet your teachers, and if there’s a subject I don’t like.”

Every year brings a new set of rules along with a new set of students. Shauna Barkume, Chemistry Honors teacher, provides her input for the new year and the new rules. Barkume said, “There seems to be more organization amongst the staff, and the policies within the school.”

One of the new policies that shows the organization of the staff is the change to six minute passing periods (see story on page A1). Regardless of the mixed emotions about the extra minute for passing time, it gives students enough time to get to their classes and even have a minute to chat, get a drink of water, go to the bathroom, or to even find out they’re missing algebra.

In addition to learning new rules, students often stress about their new schedule. Schedule mishaps are one of the most common fears and one of the most common issues to occur on the first day of school.

Allison Bernt, junior, empathizes with the job the counselors face. Describing the process of schedule mishaps and changes, Bernt says, “The classes fill up quickly and to go through every single student must take forever so they can’t get every student exactly what they want and if that class is really extremely important to them they’ll request the change to their schedule.”

Olivia Childs, senior, voiced her frustrations about schedule changes on the first day of school. “It’s really challenging to change a class not on schedule pick up day because the counselors want you to wait for a full A and B day. Luckily I had enough conflict in my schedule that I could change it on the first day and get the classes I really wanted but other kids probably didn’t have that chance.”

From a mixed up class to the class you’ve been hoping to get since the second they handed you a request form, high school does call for some change from the middle school core classes. While eighth grade tech class may have been the time of your life, Battle offers a variety of classes to fill everyone’s needs.

Hudson describes her awe with the array of classes offered at Battle. Hudson says, “You don’t get to choose many classes in middle school, but you really get to find out what you want to be and what you’re interested in. I think that it gets you prepared, so you might try out an elective and if you don’t like it you can just choose something else, and then you’ll know maybe you don’t like this.”

Battle prides itself on having a wide variety of classes to choose from and also allowing students the opportunity to travel to the Columbia Area Career Center to enroll in more specialized classes.

Through the thick and thin moments of the first day, students seemed happy throughout all moments of the day.

Bernt shows her positive outlook for the upcoming year, “I think it’s going to be a challenging year for sure, but I think I’m going to learn a lot and have fun.”