Nina Beals
Art by Nina Beals
William Mitchell was sitting in his room when his parents called him to come see them. The day had been going the opposite way for Mitchell. He was just sitting in his room, not feeling very well. That was until his parents called him down. He went over to them when his parents broke the news: he had gotten into Community high school. Mitchell was excited—His day had suddenly gotten a whole lot better.
Mitchell had first heard about Community when he was young. He didn’t know that much about it back then, only driving by once. His parents briefly mentioned it, simply telling him that it was a high school. Mitchell then learned more about it during the presentations in 8th grade. Community was interesting to Mitchell, especially the jazz band.
“I wasn’t really sure about if I wanted to go,” Mitchell said. “But I entered because I thought they had a really cool programs and classes, and of course, they have good jazz bands.” During the slideshow in middle school, he had seen the jazz and had gotten interested in it. Being a double bass player, it was new to him
Mitchell played both the double bass and electric bass. He played the double bass in the Clague orchestra. Even so, he did not do jazz. Even so, he did it at the summer camp Blue Lake and thought it was fun. It was one of his main interests about Community and why he wanted to go.
Mitchell was also interested in the Earth Science and Math programs at Community. Not being particularly fond of Biology, he was glad he got to take earth science his first year instead of having to wait, like he may have to do at other schools. He had plans to go to both Community and Huron to see which one he preferred, especially with science. He did want to go to both Community and Huron.
“I’ll go [to Community] my first year,” Mitchell said. “Then I’ll go back to Huron, and then I’ll do some classes there but if I really like Community, I’ll probably stay all four years.”
Despite playing double bass in middle school, Mitchell wasn’t sure if he wanted to split enroll to Huron to continue orchestra.
“I’m kind of waiting on my orchestra auditions for that,” Mitchell said. “If I get into a higher level orchestra, then I might do that.”
Mitchell also has a lot of worries, with one thing being AP classes. Unlike the other AAPS schools, Community does not offer AP, DP or IB classes. Mitchell had heard about this from the presentations. Luckily, he also heard that people could take AP tests at Community.
Despite what most students struggle with, Mitchell is not worried about making friends. He has friends from middle school attending Community. He also heard about forum, which he believes will be very helpful with making friends.
In the months leading up to attending Community, Mitchell has been looking forward to many things. Due to Forum and his current friends, he isn’t worried about making friends. Between the jazz program, in which he can play bass, and the science and math programs, he is excited to go. With support from parents and friends, Mitchell is ready to go to Community.