Picture this, you’re in eighth grade in your third-period class watching the counselor-premade video on how to sign up for your new class schedule! You’re so excited that high school is just around the corner so you scan through course options and select, for the most part, on-level classes… that’s until you see it… English Honors I. “I love English!” is what I told myself, but during that time I thought to myself, “Am I sure that I wanted to embark on that dangerous journey?”, so, I didn’t sign up for the class. That was that, until…
On the first day of freshman year, I walked into my regular English one class and immediately thought this wasn’t for me; I knew that I wanted to accomplish more and knew I could push myself (and all my friends were in English Honors) so I went to student services after my first day and went straight into Emilio Francisco’s office to request a schedule change (which he so graciously granted me).
Little did I know that there was a required book reading that I needed to do before the year began so I was two steps behind everyone but that’s fine, I can just read another book. Nope! The work we would go on to complete was all based on the books we read; no big deal, I was just happy we didn’t have an essay to write. Wrong again! The first day I walked into my new English Honors class, we had our first-ever timed essay on the book we were supposed to read over summer break, Which I didn’t do! So what does any logical person do? Had a panic attack in fourth and fifth period (since I had English sixth period) and waited for my impending doom. Luckily, however, almost everyone in my grade was in the same predicament as me, unprepared, and not ready to write as essay on the second day of school.
But that’s fine (once again) next time I’ll be prepared and ready for whatever the class has to throw at me… However prepared I made myself out to be, it always seemed like I never had time to finish a thought, and/orI couldn’t seem to write enough As the year progressed, English Honors got more complicated, to say the least. Fahrenheit 451, To Kill a Mockingbird, Romeo and Juliet, Of Mice and Men; all of these novels tell drastically different stories yet have one thing in common, all of them are novels written by amazing authors who have freshmen in high school across the country write essays on them who can never seem to do the book justice.
Overall, If you are a freshman going into Honors English I, please consider the following:
- Am I mentally fit for this class, and do I know people who are taking English Honors in High School?
- Do I have free time to cry?
- Do I know HOW to write an essay?
- READ THE BOOK… please.
- Are you ready to study cram for hours?
- Are you sure you’re emotionally secure?