The second week of school has nearly come and gone, and for the class of 2014, it’s been interesting to say the least. A few courageous members of the Junior class reflect on the new, the scary, the different and the familiar things that made up their first taste of life on the hill. What will the future bring for our eager young scholars? Will the taste of Paresky Commons cuisine lose its succulence? Or will their blood continue to run as blue as the Sam Phil clock? Only time will tell. After a week of name games, orientation, meeting new people, different classes and more name games, I’m finally ready to begin my life at Andover. Just as everyone expects a lot out of an Andover student I expect a lot out of Andover. I arrived at Andover ready to work and determined to succeed. From the beginning of orientation I saw all different types of people from all over the world, and every single person had the same mindset. Everyone expected the workload, but I don’t think we freshman anticipated how much fun Andover would be. Maybe this is because it’s freshmen fall, and we haven’t experienced the real Andover workload, but I think I speak for all the freshmen when I say we’re having fun, working hard, and excited about the future. -Clark Perkins ‘14 It’s already the second week of school, and I’m slowly adjusting to a completely new environment. The first week of school was one of the craziest and most exciting experiences that I have gone through. I thinke freshmen orientation helped most people, or at leas some, become partially adjusted to Phillips Academy. My blue key helped me out throughout the course of the orientation and took care of me, as well as the other kids in my blue key group. Everyone was very excited and optimistic, which helped me feel excited and optimistic about the coming year. I didn’t know ant of my dorm mates, even my roomate own roommate, but we’re all becoming friends. Normally, I tihnk of myself as shy, but I am surprised at how quickly I have made friends in the dorm and elswhere, which was one of my fears before I came to the school. With all the activities and orientations, I gradually got closer to everyone, and I now feel comfrtable thinking of this place as home. -Alex Kwon ‘14 It was an ordinary day. I was just casually walking down to Dunkin’ Donuts in my brand-new Andover sweatshirt, when someone yelled, “Cat boner!” I froze. Though I kept calm, my insides danced with excitement, because I was now an official Andover student. The Andover experience so far has been amazing for me in every aspect. From food to facilities to friends to faculty members, I am surrounded by the best of the best. I can’t help but get excited every morning to start the day, because every day at Andover is full of thrilling opportunities that only Andover offers. -Anika Kim ‘14 As I watched my parents make their way over to the car, I experienced a bit of an emotional nosedive. A moment ago I was feeling excited and reassured among the encouraging blue keys, and now it finally registered that I would be leaving home for a long, long time. Coming to terms with the fact of going away wasn’t easy. Since the night before I had watched Toy Story 3 in the hotel room with my family, I wasn’t exactly over childhood nostalgia. But I knew the only way I would be able to move on from my old home in New York would be to accept Andover as my home, and Andover has the best home I could dream of, so far. My Blue Key was more helpful than I could imagine, the pep rallies made me tingle with school spirit, and the teachers are at once challenging but understanding. I’m more excited than ever for these next four years. -Auguste Horner ‘14
