Skip to main content

Quality Bonding Time with the Freshies!

By

 By Min-Song Ko

The seniors were given the opportunity to share, listen, and serve the freshmen on Wednesday, the 9th of September. The lunch line was crowded with an unusual mix of students, hungry for food. The seniors walked into the overcrowded gym with an excited heart to meet their arranged freshman partners, sitting patiently at their table. With their innocent eyes, the freshmen seemed nervous to listen to what story awaited them. 

At first, it took a lot of courage to bring up a conversation, striving to cut the awkward silence filling the area. Students showed their habits of grinding their teeth, biting off their nails, or scratching their scalp repeatedly every time the conversation went silent. While the seniors were hesitant, looking down at their lunch and showed signs of helplessness. The thought of an idea popped up. Grasping the white activity paper in between their lunch trays, the seniors thought of playing several games with their partners.

A few minutes in, slowly but surely, the mood lightened without even noticing as the seniors became comfortable with the freshmen. Slamming his deck of cards on the table, Seung Hwan Kim (12) asked, “Do you guys want to play a round of poker?” He then began to shuffle the cards with his tedious hands. 

While some of the tables considered playing games to lighten the mood, the others mostly gave back and forth advice to each other, building up their relationship as the conversation progressed to another. As the freshmen were asked about their dreams, Rhys Hofer (9) said with a face of uncertainty, “I want to major in music.” 

Sitting next to Rhys, Noah Brooks (9) smiled in response to the complicated question and said, “I still have no clue!”

Encouraging the young teens who are clueless about their current interests, the seniors nodded to their noticeable reactions, telling them not to worry. After all the serious talk was over, the focus shifted back to playing hangman and tic-tac-toe, where laughter filled the table again. 

This senior and freshman bonding wasn’t merely there to learn and teach, but it provided the time to be comfortable and stress-free while creating new friendships. Overall, it was a unique environment for us, seniors, to demonstrate the willingness to show leadership and bravery to the freshmen. Once again, we must be thankful for the ability to communicate and build relationships as it helped us improve not only as a teacher but also as a friend. 




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DINGBAT DALAT STUDENT SPENDS PRECIOUS TIME CONJURING UP SELF-REFERENTIAL SENIOR SCRIBBLE RATHER THAN GATHERING LEGITIMATE WORK

By Anonymous
Yusoof Monawvil PENANG, MA - As the deadline drew near and the stars aligned in the night sky above the majestic waters of the Strait of Malacca, one particular Dalat student—Yusoof Monawvil (12), despite a plethora of school events to select and report on—opted instead to spend a remarkably well-wasted 24 minutes staring at a blank Google Docs page, fruitlessly drawing up and shooting down brainstormed ideas.  In a moment of sheer and undeniable epiphany, Monawvil deemed it only fitting to self-referentially satirize his own ingrained incompetence and dingbattery. Commenting on the flash of insight, Monawvil quoted himself, saying: “It all just kinda made sense. I went on DISCourse to look at the little rubric thing Ms. Grad and Mr. Hieber posted, and I checked if I was following all of the guidelines... And I technically am/was; [N]ot like there’s any specific direktive [sic] prohibiting self-quoting.”  In a turn of events, Monawvil did come to find his self-quoting en...
6 comments
Read more

"Spikeball, Swimming, and Sickness: The Remnants of Senior Sneak" by Ee Rynn Ong

By
“Guys, I think we’re here,” said Jonathan Ooi (12) as he peeked out of the lorry to catch the first glimpse of our Senior Sneak location. This year’s Senior Sneak was held in Nomad Adventure, Gopeng, and the organizers planned many activities for the Class of 2026, ranging from traditional games like congkak and batu seremban to adrenaline-pumping ropes courses and whitewater rafting. These scheduled activities proved to be some of the best highlights of the trip, but top of that, the seniors were also given some daily free time to chat, explore, and relax. Josh Stevens (12) had come prepared for this with two spikeball nets, which immediately attracted attention from people eager to spend time in the outdoor sun. The next five days saw spikeball veterans and newcomers alike, spending their precious one and a half hours daily around the unassuming circular net, smashing the yellow ball in hopes of a victory.  Caleb Evans (12) was one of the newbies to spikeball, learning how the g...
Post a Comment
Read more

“I Miss Her” by Nikhil Pillay

By
While most people had a fun week for mid-semester break, whether it was spent with family, or with friends on impact trips, no one had a more emotionally confusing week than Judson Kenneth Robert Nosker (12).  In the light of recent events, Judson, despite all odds, had gotten in a relationship with one of his classmates, and as the break started, he had started to spend a lot of time with her. While with her, he started to experience a new level of joy and completeness that he had never felt before. In the words of Judson Nosker, “The first half of the break was good, but the rest of it was horrible.”  The reason for such a quote and the roller coaster of emotion was because half way through the break, disaster had struck. Judson’s girlfriend had gone on a trip with her family to Thailand, leaving Judson all alone. For the rest of the week, Judson was in a state of longing for her presence.  His friends have reported numerous occasions when Judson would be sitting with t...
Post a Comment
Read more