It’s not that much of a stretch to say that moving to a new school can be a different experience for people who go through it. A lot of people go into the switch with different circumstances like moving from out of state or moving because you don’t like your current school and even moving even though you do like your current school, just to name a couple. Circumstances aside, it’s hard to deny that feeling of being out of your element can be really overwhelming. I’m currently going through the switch, this being my third month at Liberty, but I can safely say that it has been a lot better than I was expecting.

To give some background, I had been in the Wentzville School District for my entire elementary school career. I don’t remember a lot of things from that time, but what I do remember was mostly positive. I didn’t have a very good grasp on social behavior, but I got along fine. In the latter half of fifth grade, I shadowed at a Christian private middle school. I met the teachers, they asked some questions and I left. I assume nothing noteworthy happened considering I barely remember it, but at that point I was set to attend school there. The following years were strange to say the least. It was a period of self-discovery, failed relationships and a struggle to find my place within an environment I probably never needed to be in to begin with. That isn’t to say it was completely wasted. The majority of teachers I had were nothing but nice to me and all of them had interesting stories to tell no matter what they taught. But I left for a reason. It was small, had a limited amount of classes to choose and a student body that fed my desire to distance from other people.

I didn’t come into Liberty with a heavy heart, grieving over the people I had been going to school with for six years. In fact, it was the exact opposite. I was relieved that I was finally out of an environment that was holding me back for so long. Being at a school with twice as many students is a big step, but it opened up a lot of opportunity for me to try and find the kinds of people that can respond and resonate with me as a person. It’s pretty similar to the private school, where there are clearly established factions of people that prefer to hang out with each other. The difference is that those groups, at least in my experience, were much more exclusive than those at Liberty.

I’ve been finding myself talking to people I wouldn’t have normally talked to at my previous school. People that do track, people on the tennis team and theater kids are people I would have never expected to have things in common with. That’s another thing too; variety. At my old school it seemed like the people running it had a very strict expectation of how your life should play out. Finish high school, go to college, get married, have kids and die loving Jesus. It didn’t leave a lot of room for anyone fitting outside that model, especially for those who weren’t religious like myself. They weren’t hostile to people like that, they just didn’t pay any attention to it. That kind of strict mindset carried over to the teaching itself, with the classes being offered being really standard. At Liberty, however, there are a lot more things to take, which makes me feel like there isn’t a set path that the administrators want you to follow.

These are my thoughts of being here for three months. Hopefully, I can reach someone who needs it. Whether they are new here as well, or need a change too.