Sophomore Year

Sophomore year was a blur. It went by so fast that I don’t remember most of it. This was the year of stronger relationships. Not only did we, the students, grow closer together, but we also started forming bonds with our teachers. This was true for all the AVPA teachers, except for the history teacher(s) because we went through six different ones that year.

One event, or rather series of events, that I remember most from sophomore year was a humanities assignment on the presidential election of 2004. My class was divided into two groups (Bush and Kerry) and we prepared for months for a final debate on the election issues. I was (happily) put on Team Bush. This was one of the posters I designed for our campaign:

I don’t remember which team won the debate, but I know which candidate won the election. This campaign solidified my political ideology as being a conservative Republican.

Freshman Year

Freshman year of high school was quite an interesting experience. It was really a fresh start for me (no pun intended). The thing I remember most about that year was the beginning of my relationship with my fellow classmates and the attempted assimilation into the mainstream of the school. You see, AVPA was directly attached to BHS, but it was separate school. We were known throughout the “normal” high school as being the “Academy kids.” Half of our day was devoted to BHS classes (like math, world language, and gym) and the other half was exclusively Academy classes (meaning media, theatre, and humanities). For obvious reasons, my classmates and I loved our Academy classes and loathed the others.

From the first day, there was an obvious division between the two schools. Being part of the minority in a large school, we were the ones ridiculed and antagonized. The offenses aimed at us were mostly due to that fact that we were seen as being “different.” Although I had to deal with catty remarks on almost a daily basis, I was never physically confronted by someone outside of the Academy (but I know students who were). Among other things, the harassment took its toll on my classmates and, as a result, many dropped out of the school. In spite of it all, the ones of us who remained were stronger and more unified than ever before.



QOD: “The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority.” – Ralph W. Sockman