On Monday, September 29, I entered Jackson-Reed High School for the first time. As I walked through the atrium, I couldn’t help but feel my stomach drop to the floor. It was nothing like Montgomery County.

I had never been the new kid before. For most of my academic life, excluding a brief stint at a Jewish day school in Pre-K, I had always been a part of Montgomery County. That was until I suddenly transferred to DCPS for my last two years of high school.

I scurried over to the counselor’s office, where I waited for forty minutes before I could finally speak to someone about obtaining my schedule (which, irritatingly, hadn’t been sent to me already). I was aptly greeted with a sigh of exasperation once I entered the office, quickly changing my status as a new student to a new burden. I’ve never transferred schools before, so I don’t know if the process is always this vexing, but it certainly worsened my already significant discomfort. 

I spent my first week at Jackson-Reed desperately trying to get my affairs straightened out with the administration. At the beginning of each school day (and during the following lunches) I would bounce around campus trying to find the next person who was supposed to help me—to no avail. I was sent on a wild goose chase, and despite all my efforts, after my first week my student ID had still not been entered into the school database.

It was also quite an exhilarating (and partially terrifying) experience witnessing multiple physical altercations in my first few weeks at Jackson-Reed. The fights in Montgomery County capped at about one per year at football games. They usually involved catty slaps and flimsy punches before being broken up by administrators. At Jackson-Reed, however, I had the educational experience of being a foot away from a full-on body pile, which left multiple people bloody and bruised in a matter of minutes.

I will admit though, in spite of my infuriating run-ins with administration and thrilling encounters with hallway fights, there was something surprisingly exhilarating about wandering around the school halls knowing virtually no one. I had been in the same environment for most of my life—same neighborhoods, same students, same schools, the exact same routine every year. I never really had to go out of my way to meet new people or make new friends. Here at Jackson-Reed, I’ve experienced a new side of school that I never got to experience before.