Florida Catholic | Student Diary

Student Journal - Part Two

High school senior enjoys homecoming, gets scared, excited about college.

CARLOS BRICENO | FLORIDA CATHOLIC ST. PETERSBURG BUREAU EDITOR

Published: 08.31.07

Chelsea DeLuca, 17, is a senior at Clearwater Central Catholic High School, where she is a student in the school’s new International Baccalaureate program. The school is the only private or Catholic high school in Pinellas County to be approved for this diploma program, which emphasizes critical thinking and offers exposure to a more global perspective in a variety of subjects to promote intercultural understanding between youths. She belongs to the school’s student council, academic team, Spanish Honor Society and the National Honor Society. She is a peer minister, helping to prepare retreats that students attend; president of the Math Honor Society; and manager of the boys’ basketball team. She is interested in a career in genetic engineering. With the cooperation of the administration, she agreed to keep a journal for the Florida Catholic.

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Student Journal Part One

Friday, Aug. 31

One of the greatest things the school year brings is fresh starts. Everything that happened last year almost seems to disappear, and you get to start over with at least some of the people with whom you had problems in the previous year. Additionally, the summer gives everyone time to be apart and mature. A lot of times, the people who come back after the summer aren’t nearly the same as those who left a mere three months prior. For me, in particular, there was one person I had a huge fight with, but now we have been given a fresh start at friendship. It’s so much easier to be friendly with people than to be mean. Also, it’s hard to lose someone with whom you were friends, in general. That is one of the best things about high school. We go to school with the same kids for four years, so if one year we mess it up, we have three others to fix it. High school is really a place where people grow up and change. We realize our mistakes. We grow apart from people whom we thought meant everything to us; we grow together with those whom we never expected. We truly find out who we are. We smile, cry, fight, laugh, love, hate, learn and many other things. Our high school years really shape who we are.

Wednesday, Sept. 12

School is finally going well. The first month is over. We have gotten to know our teachers, and our teachers have gotten to know us. All the problems I had with my teachers at first have resolved themselves. We still have so much work left to do, but it’s not as overwhelming as it used to be. I’ve gotten back into the daily routine and figured out exactly what is expected of me. It feels good to finally be a senior. We have all the privileges that we once wished we did. And all the younger students look up to us. However, it does seem to have flown by. School is going so well, though. It’s so good to finally have everything in order.

Monday, Oct. 1

Today starts homecoming week. It’s the week before the homecoming dance and it is the biggest week of the school year. Each school day is a themed dress-out day, so we don’t have to wear our uniforms for the whole week. Today is a pajama day, and we get to wear our pajamas and slippers around school. Additionally, it is one of the busiest weeks of the year, especially for student council. Today after school, we decorated our hallways. Every class picks a theme. This year, our senior class theme was “The Simpsons.” We had to decorate our hallway according to the theme. Some of my friends made each of the Simpsons’ characters out of papier-mâché, and we put a real couch in the hallway, just like the one in the show. The rest of the hall was decorated with the faces of the characters and different parts of the show. … Tomorrow, we will decorate a sidewalk using chalk and, again, it has to demonstrate our theme. Our sidewalks have always been really good, though, because we have quite a few really good artists in the class. On Thursday, there is skit night. Every class has to perform a skit. The skits are written by members of the class and are supposed to be funny, poking fun at the teachers and administration for the most part. It’s always fun to watch the other classes’ skits, and this year I’m performing in ours so that should be a fun night. Then on Friday, at the end of the day, we have a huge pep rally. Every class writes a chant to relate to its theme in some way and then they are recited at the pep rally. Each event is judged and at the end of homecoming, the class with the most points wins. It is always an exciting week leading up to an awesome dance.

Monday, Oct. 9

The first day back after homecoming week. Wow! The school really moved in slow motion today. Everyone is exhausted and it’s almost eerily quiet. It’s hard to get used to having to put on my uniform in the morning instead of some of the crazy outfits that I got to wear last week. Today is also the day we find out who won homecoming. The school day seems to drag on because no one, not even the teachers I don’t think, wants to be there after such a long week and weekend. … Finally the end of the day announcements come on and they announce that the freshmen won homecoming. We were literally in awe. Ever since I’ve been there, the freshmen basically don’t win anything, mainly because they’re new to everything and don’t really know what they’re doing yet. But somehow they pulled it off this year. As we tried to accept that the freshmen had really beaten us, we just decided that we had more fun at the dance, so it didn’t matter. And we’re the seniors and no one can take away from us that we get to graduate and go to college at the end of the year.

Monday, Nov. 26

The first day back to school from Thanksgiving break. School really seems to fly by but yet drag on. I can’t believe I’m almost halfway through my senior year, but then the days seem to drag on. At school, it seems like the day will never end, but when I sit and think about how long we’ve already been in school, it shocks me. It’s scary and exciting to think that in about six months, I’ll be headed off to college. For me it’s more of a scary thing than an exciting one. I know that it will be an awesome experience, but it’s the transition and the applying and the worrying about getting in that takes away from the excitement of it. Also, it is scary to think I will be on my own and not have my parents to come home to anymore. It’s a good thing on the level where I’ll get to dictate my own life, but it’s also bad because I don’t think that most people realize what it’s like to live on their own. There are no parents there to clean the house, no parents to cook dinner and no parents to lend you their support when you need it. The closer college gets, the more excited I get for it to come; however, it is still a scary thought. It has its definite positive sides, but it has some negatives as well.

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Student Journal - Part Two

High school senior enjoys homecoming, gets scared, excited about college.

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