This article is the second part of a two-part series. You can read the first part here: https://wcenorsecode.wixsite.com/ehsnews/post/senior-and-teacher-advice-for-underclassmen-part-1

Stereotypes and Stereotype Avoidance When discussing freshmen stereotypes with seniors, one cliche reigned supreme: the freshman backpack. The concept of a “freshman backpack”, or the magnus peram homunculus as it is scientifically known, refers to the tendency of underclassmen to have significantly larger bags than their upperclassmen counterparts. A large part of this comes from the drastically different rules between Fugett and East. At Fugett, students are required to carry their possessions, whereas at East, students typically use backpacks. The switch from Fugett to East can confuse freshmen who might not be used to properly using backpacks, which leads them attempting to stuff all of their belongings into their school bags.

Thankfully however, the seniors I interviewed offered me some fantastic suggestions on how freshmen can reduce the size of their backpacks and ultimately avoid arthritis and spine issues later in life. Folders THERE IS NO NEED TO HAVE A HARDCOVER, THREE-RING BINDER FOR EVERY CLASS. You can get by with just one folder for every class, especially in the modern era where most of the paper handouts you would have previously received are now on Schoology. Folders are significantly smaller and lighter than binders so swapping your binders for folders will significantly ease the stress on your shoulders.

Nowadays however, the prevalence of misinformation and political propaganda in the media has produced a great deal of misinformation regarding folder color regulation. The proper color for each class as regulated by the government of the United States of America is as follows: (Editor’s note: we do not agree with these color selections :) )

• Math → red

• English → purple

• Science → yellow

• History → : orange

• Health → blue

• Computer Science → gray

• Art → pink / green

Locker Every student at West Chester East High School will be given a locker by their homeroom teacher at the start of the school year. Consider using it. There is no need to carry around all of your possessions for every single period. You don’t need your notebook for 1st period precalculus during 8th period English 9.You should have more than enough time to stop at your locker occasionally and take some of your stuff out of your bag. If you don’t know where your locker is, what the combination is, or how to use a lock, ask your homeroom teacher.

Lunches and coats can also be kept in your locker. The lunch ladies in the cafeteria will not care if you are late to lunch because you stopped to grab your lunch bag from your locker. Furthermore, you do not need to put your lunch box in your school bag. Either carry it, or put it in your locker. Notebook Consolidation Seniors STRESSED this point. You don’t need a notebook for every single class, and more so you don’t need to have every one of your notebooks on you at all times. You most likely will need three notebooks at most: one for math and two for all of your other classes; so please, don’t have eight notebooks in your bag because you will look mad goofy. Now that most school stuff is online as well, you most likely will rarely need a notebook outside of math.

Most upperclassmen can probably recall experiencing the next stereotype in the flesh- imagine this:

You are walking purposefully down a hallway. If your life were a movie, you would be walking along to the tunes of Man, I Feel Like a Woman by Shania Twain; you’re feeling good right now. Seeing a large group of people come around the corner towards you, you begin desperately trying to figure out where the best place to place your gaze would be in this situation when, all of a sudden, you hear a quick *clomp* *clomp* *clomp* coming from behind you. Curious, you turn your head to try and ascertain the source of such an unusual noise, when you see it. A small, humanoid shape shoots past you, legs flying, face desperately frozen in an expression of fear, arms flailing in a violently animalistic desperation to move faster. The person rounds the corner ahead of you and you are left in bewilderment. The hallway is eerily silent in the runner’s absence. The whole encounter is over in a matter of seconds, but the shock of it will sit with you for the rest of the day: what just happened?

What you have just experienced is an anomaly known as “hallway sprinting”, a phenomenon in which a person will resort to running as fast as they can through the hallway in order to avoid being late to class.

The senior class was morally divided on this issue. A good amount (around 40%) said that they had little to no problem with people running in the halls; in fact, around 15% reported that they themselves remained devout hallways sprinters in the 12th grade! But the majority of interviewees said that they perceived hallway sprinters in a negative manner. In fact, one student, who shall remain unnamed, even warned that they would trip any people who were spotted sprinting through the halls. More commonly though, most peoples’ thought process was exemplified in this statement by a particularly cute student: “Do not rush to be on time... it is not worth it and teachers need to be understanding of student's schedules.”

The conclusion? You don’t need to run to class. Although it might seem like your teacher will be super mad at you if you come in late, just try to explain to them why you were late, and, if they’re understanding and compassionate, they should understand your lateness. If you’re really, really concerned with them giving you trouble, just ask your last teacher for a pass and you should be a-OK to take your sweet time. It’s just a waste of your energy and a good way to catch funny looks from confused walkers.

“Fitting In” The concept of fitting in is one that harkens back to nature’s more primal side. Consider the zebra, the coordination of his black and white outfit with his friends creates a confusing, distracting pattern to the lion when the herd is on the move. The zebra who wears a yellow and red coat, although factually more drippy, will be more visible and more likely to be caught and eaten (unless this hypothetical takes place in the universe of Madagascar). This idea, that the more you look like other people, the safer you will be is pervasive in the world of high school and especially at East. Students tend to dress similarly, look the same, talk in a ubiquitous manner, even walk with the same slow, slow, slow gait (please don’t walk slowly in the hallway, it’s annoying).

An especially big part of “fitting in” is fashion sense- how you dress. At times, students might feel pressured to dress a certain way or even behave a certain way in order to be viewed by their peers in a positive manner. But how valid is this duress and how would other students actually perceive you if you were to dress in a bizarre manner? Well, with a lot of the seniors I interviewed, the message was pretty much universal: dress however you want... within reason. Seniors stressed that individuality and personality were important concepts to establish in your time at high school and also that it was important to dress in a way that makes you feel like yourself, but also there were some less admirable methods of self-expression.

For example, some hats were commonly considered to be unwearable: witch hats and berets. Other hats were almost unanimously agreed upon to be stylish: for example this hat (https://bit.ly/31Bv16R) which 72% of seniors agreed was fantastic, baseball caps, beanies, and propeller hats (see Pablo from the Backyardigans).

In terms of clothing, jorts were widely seen to be acceptable. School dress code dictates that shorts cannot be shorter than midway between the knee and the top of the leg, which shows an example of dress code differing from popular conventions. Speaking of the dress code, did you know that it’s technically against the rules to wear coats, hats, hoods, and scarves as well as tank tops, untied shoelaces, chain link belts, and pajamas? For footwear, seniors were wildly divided. Crocs were a particularly controversial subject. The class was split 49/50/1 with some saying that crocs were cool, some saying they weren’t, and one person asserting that they were the only person who would be able to pull off such a look (claim unverified). Socks with sandals was a similarly furcating topic. There was next to no consensus whatsoever between seniors, although they did manage to agree that socks with flip flops would be taking it a bit too far.

Clubs and Other Activities Playing sports and joining clubs are not only great ways of meeting new people, but also look great on college resumes and allow you to explore things that you’re interested in. Joining a club that you're interested in will guarantee that you are surrounded by people who share similar interests to you and also might be looking for “companionship” as well. As an added plus, there are a metric tonne of clubs to join at East, so there’s probably something for even the most niche of interests. But you might be wondering “wait but I have no interests! I don’t do anything besides sit on my bed and disassociate for twelve hours a day!” Well, never fear, here are some shameless self-promotions that people gave me for clubs that they were in (organized by subject). Academic Clubs:

• Academic Team

  • Led by Dr. Jones. In the academic team, students engage in fun trivia with like minded individuals. Questions can range from politics to historical dates (not in a romantic way though).

• East Programming Team

  • Led by the one, the only, it’s Mr. Scholl!!! I have no idea what they do in this club, but from what I hear, the people who are in it seem to be having a pretty good time.

• National Art Honor Society (NAHS)

• Modern Music Masters Honor Society (Tri-M)

  • Rigorous standards and the application process may seem daunting to the untrained eye, but Tri-M is an easy way to help your chances of getting into colleges.

• National Honor Society (NHS)

  • Similar to Tri-M, but with a non-musical twist. Hard to get into, but colleges will eat you up (yum). If you have really good grades and a generally good ensemble of extracurricular activities, NHS should definitely be in your repertoire of clubs. Also, NHS members are school-certified master tutors, so if you want to help other students with their school problems, this club delivers in that wheelhouse.

Book-ish Clubs:

• Norse Code

  • The school’s one and only newspaper club. If you enjoy writing, want to talk about things going on in the world, or have the absolutely idiotic desire to write a twelve page article where you spend 40 hours of your life gathering advice from seniors to try and help freshmen, this club’s for you.

  • Norse Code Website: https://wcenorsecode.wixsite.com/ehsnews

• WCE Book Club

  • Do you like reading? Are you free on Wednesdays? Book club meets every Wednesday and talks about various book-related subjects. Join if you like BOOKS!

Musically-Oriented Clubs:

• Marching Band

  • Marching Band is incredibly fun. If you play a musical instrument, dance, or own a trumpet, this is a fantastic club for you.

• East Theatre Company

  • Led by Mrs. Werner, ETC puts on a play every fall (doesn’t have singing) and a musical every winter/spring (has singing). If performing in front of large groups of people isn’t your jam, you might not be jelling with this club, as it does take a lot of courage to be toasty with performing your heart out in front of a huge audience; although, if you need some help, might I suggest you take Public Speaking with Mr. Lewis? Also, as an added benefit, theatre people are always super friendly and accepting of your abnormalities.

• House of Hope

  • An annual charity concert that raises money for impoverished women in the Philadelphia area. An absolutely fantastic way to both practice the skills you learn in Public Speaking with Mr. Lewis and show off your musical prowess in front of your peers.

Social Issues Clubs

• Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA)

  • Gay people are cool. I know that because I am cool and I am also very- wait what was I talking about? Oh yeah, the Gay-Straight Alliance is a fantastic and welcoming community for LGBTQIA+ students and people who are just interested in learning more about queer issues. Students will come together to fix problems and raise awareness about issues in East High School and the world beyond. So don’t delay, come on down and join today!

• March For Our Lives

• Hands to Hearts

  • A club where you can write creative letters or make drawings that will be given to hospitals and various groups of people in the area. Good if you want to help others or make a difference in your community.

• Girl Up!

• Medical Research and Fundraising (MRAF)

  • “We basically just research different medical disorders or diseases and we’ll publish everything on our website and then fundraise for it.” (Dominique Dillard)

Other Random Clubs:

• Anime Club

• Debate Club

• Mock Trial

• Model UN

  • Talk about a variety of social topics and roleplay being an efficient successful government body (this is considered roleplaying because the government is actually able to pass laws and help people). Also, members of this club get to go to Washington D.C. in February.

• Film Club

  • In an anonymous survey of seniors, when asked about whether or not they would recommend freshmen to join film club, 16% said “Definitely”, whereas 83% said “Yes” (it is important to note here that these were the only two options). Film Club, led currently by the wonderful Dominique Dillard, allows students to watch a large selection of movies and engage in insightful and entertaining discussions about them.

If none of these options interest you, at the beginning of every school year, the various club leaders hold a Club Fair where people from pretty much every club in the school set up booths and can give you more information. Other General Advices Here are some other words of advice I received:

• Don’t, as a non-senior, park in the senior lot.
  

• Don’t act like a middle schooler or like an adult. You’re not either and you’ll look like a goofball.
  

• Walk on the right side of the hallway. Remember, the right side is the RIGHT side.
  

• If you are being bullied, suffering from discrimination or mental health issues, or otherwise struggling, talk to your guidance counselor about it.

Conclusion I’ve tried to put a lot of ideas for conclusions here, but they never seem to sound right. So I’m just going to include a quote that I feel applies well here:

“The weird thing is now I'm exactly where I want to be. I've got my dream job at Cornell, and I'm still just thinking about my old pals. Only now they're the ones I made here. I wish there was a way to know you're in "the good old days", before you've actually left them. Someone should write a song about that.”

- Andy Bernard (The Office)