By Christian Knapp ’14

Living all my life in Westfield, Massachusetts, Williston was something I had known existed, but I never really knew much about. When I decided I wanted a greater academic challenge in high school, Williston seemed like it was worth checking out. I took a tour and sent in my application. Less than four months later I was on campus again. I was excited, motivated, and, admittedly, a bit nervous.

I had phenomenal tours both before I applied to Williston and in September when I registered on the first day of preseason. Registration was full of friendly, welcoming faculty and proctors who were quick to answer my questions. I became a little less nervous.

I arrived at cross-country practice early that day, something that would become a habit over the next few weeks. Pre-practice chatter was light and full of humor. It was evident that these would be the people I spent most of my time with. Practice was not difficult that day, but that first day of cross-country was an exception to the regimented, vigorous, and effective practices that followed it.

There was a purpose to the way we practiced at pre-season, something that contrasted greatly to the practices at my old school. I was used to practices where I would run anywhere from three to five miles, stretch, and go home. When pre-season began I quickly realized how different Williston’s practices are from my old team’s practices. We begin each practice with barefoot drills, like walking on our heels and the outside of our feet, in order to prevent injury.

Then we put our shoes on for a warm up run. What we do next depends on the day of the week and what races we are preparing for. Sometimes we do hills, other times we do long distance runs. After running we do push-ups, abdominal exercises, and other cool down drills. I could tell I would like cross-country.

As pre-season came to a close, I became excited about the reason I decided to enroll at Williston: the classes. I had been placed in the classes I had wanted, so on my first day I had a lot to look forward to. I anticipated a hectic first day of classes. When I checked my schedule to see which class I had first, I realized that I had a free period. Maybe my first day would not be so hectic after all.

I spent the period reviewing my summer reading books for English class and figuring out my schedule. Several students I had talked to said that they would need to get used to the new schedule. This was reassuring idea for me, that I would not be the only one who had to learn how the class period rotations worked.

The period after my free block was Spanish. I walked into the class and was greeted with an enthusiastic “¡Hola!” I cannot remember much about that Spanish class, but I do remember that Mrs. Grant said that starting with our next meeting, our class would be conducted almost exclusively in Spanish. That scared me, because my previous Spanish classes had been taught in English.

I thought I might have to drop down a level in Spanish, so I asked Mrs. Grant after our class’ second meeting what I should do. She told me to wait a week. After I received a good grade on my first quiz, I knew I was in the right Spanish class. I really never enjoyed Spanish before I came to Williston, but now it is one of the classes the look forward to.

After my first Spanish class, it was off to English. If I could only find where it was. I knew it was in the Schoolhouse. I had a pretty good idea of where that was because I had asked Matt Cavanaugh and Eric Tallman during preseason. So, when I walked past the library, as they had instructed me, I saw a few dozen students walking in and out of a brick building.

I concluded that it had to be the building where my English class would be held. So, I walked down the first floor hallway and asked a student where the room I was looking for was located. When the student said he did not know, Ms. Noble came over to me and told me that my class was on the top floor on the far end.

I enjoyed my English class and my math class, which was held that afternoon. After classes, I had my first advisory group meeting. My advisor, Mr. KaneLong, is also my physics teacher. That is the reason why he is my advisor. Mr. KaneLong is also the wrestling coach. I do not wrestle. I do not think my mom would let me wrestle even if I wanted to.

So when I arrived at my first advisory meeting and I learned that all but two of us are members of the wrestling team I had mixed feelings. Would this be a good group of guys to be in an advisory with? Of course they were. They were welcoming and friendly just like the faculty and proctors on the day I registered with one difference: these were some of the best comedians on campus.

My second day at school brought Physics, which thanks to being in Mr. KaneLong’s advisory I knew where the class met, and AP U.S. History, which I had been told is one of the harder classes at Williston. Physics seemed like it would be a good class. Mr. KaneLong showed us how to use Schoology, something that, again, I would not be the only one using for the first time.

I have used an online learning resource called Khan Academy for the past year whenever I needed help with math or I was curious about a topic. When Mr. KaneLong told us we would watch instructional videos on Khan Academy some nights as a homework assignment, I knew physics was going to be a good class.

History started like almost every history class would begin. We were to write a paragraph about the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election as if we were writing a history book. After we wrote the paragraph, we exchanged different ideas about what to include in each of our paragraphs. Our teacher, Mr. Gunn, guided our discussion and told us about historiography, a word whose meaning was obvious to me as soon as I heard it, but had never been discussed in my old history class.

Later in class, Mr. Gunn talked briefly about SPA paragraphs and DBQs, probably just to confuse me. The meaning of the first I was able to figure out rather quickly because of a poster in the room that explained the how-to’s of a good Statement Proof Analysis paragraph.

The latter I Googled when I could not figure out its meaning from context after a week of class. At registration, I was told not to be afraid to ask a question. I was not afraid to ask a question; I was just afraid to ask a question that everyone else knew the answer to. Despite my initial confusion, this became my favorite class.

At the end of the first week of school, I liked my classes, I loved cross-country, and I could not wait for the clubs I had signed up for to begin. Transferring to Williston was a good move for me. It is an environment where the faculty is helpful, the student body is very involved in extracurriculars, and, above all, the students are interested in learning.

Now that I have the next two years of my education figured out, I just need to figure out where I want to go to college. That is no big deal. Actually, I have no idea about where I want to attend college. Luckily for me, I have heard great things about Williston’s College Counseling office.