Back in August, life at MSMS felt like a summer camp with all the awkward icebreakers, mentoring Emissaries, and long orientations. Friends formed as we played cards, slid down water slides, or trekked through Walmart. Day one homework was done begrudgingly, and schedules were a frequent complaint. Each day felt years long, filled with excitement and tension not knowing what to expect from the school year. The only things we knew were what the freshly-minted seniors, in our shoes just a year before, told us. They told us we would sell our souls during the Ceremony of Lights.

Thinking back to that event now, I recollect nervous energy as we struggled to rise from our seats in synchrony and shuffle down when our names were called. I remember the eagerness to dash down to dinner after it was all over. But I also remember the photos taken on the steps of Cromwell in dresses and suits to commemorate the beginning of our time here.

It seems like a bittersweet tradition in retrospect—taking a “piece of the puzzle” that will never be fully reunited or pledging myself to the ideals of “scholarship, service, creativity, and community” that slip my mind when I’m dawdling on the internet, avoiding that essay due way too soon.

MSMS’s motto is that it’s an “opportunity for excellence” and it just might have so many opportunities that it feels easy to get lost as others seize them from your tenuous grasp. Student government elections, for example, came far sooner than I realized. I didn’t run for any position, though I was impressed at how others jumped at the opportunity as soon as it arose. While I wonder “what could have been” on occasion, I realize now I probably wouldn’t have the time commitment for a student government role. As so many opportunities come at the beginning of the year, if they aren’t taken when offered, they are lost. At the same time, it’s difficult to estimate how much of a commitment can be made to each when the true challenge is yet to come.

The challenge of MSMS hit hard and fast, slapping us all in the face with homework, club meetings and tests and quizzes nearly every day, but not without an equal amount of fun and leisure. Balancing sleep, fun, and grades is an ongoing challenge, as I find constantly it tipping toward one side or another like a top wobbling on its axis.

I know seniors at this time of year are worrying about college applications, if they aren’t counting down the days until they’re out of this institution, that is. We juniors, on the other hand, are working to build our narratives for these applications in our day to day life. One quarter, one chapter is already sealed, which is a scary thought. Entering a new school in what is considered the “most difficult year of high school” feels like a hard reset. Reputations must be established, impressions must be made on teachers (AKA potential recommendation papers, to take a cynical view), and friends must be made all anew. It’s just slightly ameliorated as we are all new, all in a new environment, from all different backgrounds. As the first quarter comes to a close, I’ve personally made progress in ways I didn’t expect, encountered issues I never thought I’d encounter, made mistakes I wish I didn’t, and already learned more than I could imagine.