Inside Blair reader response question for September:

In high school, students mostly read depressing books like Macbeth, Metamorphosis, and The Great Gatsby. If you were to choose a "happier" book for students to read, what would it be? Please no romance novels or trashy mystery stories. To respond e-mail to insideblair@hotmail.com

Old Crowds and New Resolutions

As the school year begins, I think back to the previous year. Friends, classes, teachers and-oh yeah, that's right-sharing a locker. Starting this year, over 300 Blair students may be left without lockers, according to Silver Chips Online, with the addition of incoming freshmen.

Last year, a friend of mine allowed me to share a locker with her when Blair ran out of lockers. It seems that this new school year will have a touch of déjá vu. However, the problem of overcrowding is not only limited to lockers.

Next year the population of Blair will be increased to 3,241, which exceeds the county's expectation for Blair by over a hundred students, causing the school to build portable classrooms. Four portables have been placed in front of the stadium already. I myself will be subject to the horrors of a class in the portables at Blair.

It is funny to think that the largest school in the county does not have enough space. Many believe that the reason for the population overcrowding is because Northwood High School is under renovation and therefore is in a holding center. When Northwood is finished in 2004, students will have a choice whether to go there or to Blair. With this choice, officials believe it will reduce the size of the student body.

Silver Chips Online reports that no other schools in the county have stated that they have a problem with the amount of lockers. Though the school was built only 4 years ago, overcrowding has been an issue that Blair students and faculty have always had to deal with. The 2002-2003 school year will be no exception.

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For the rest of the country, the new year starts on January 1st at 12:01. Calendars switch, the ball drops, and a new year begins for most people.

This is not true for students such as myself this year. The new year begins with the first day of school in September (or this year at the outrageous day of the 28th of August) and the bell ringing for classes. It is funny how the calendar appears to be incorrect....

September is a time for new beginnings, starting with new classes all the way to new friends. I almost forgot what it is like to be at Blair in the fall. Football games, homecoming, and thin coatsÉit all seems so distant and far away, although it was only a year ago. By the spring, my classmates and I have already forgotten those days of slight chills in the air, and when we had a day off from school almost every week.

This year, though, I pledge to change that. First semester will no longer be a distant memory. I will preserve the innocence of the fall of my junior year. Though I will attend the traditional sporting and dance events, I will also savor the leaves dropping and the sight of confused freshmen down the halls. I will also grow to appreciate the slight cool breeze I will get while entering my portable classroom this fall.

All these changes, and yet it seems the same. The same people, the same building, the same holidays (though I do enjoy turkey as much as the next person), and the same standardized tests.

But wait, I am now a junior-what does this new addition bring to the always-comforting first semester? It means taking the PSAT (only once this year, guys), it means seeing the cheerleaders from the front at pep rallies, and it also means getting good grades for the "most important year in high school" in terms of college applications. It also means, to me at least, maturity. This fall marks the beginning of friends who drive, work, and take the SATs. It's scary.

Like many before me, I will join my classmates in the fall struggle. I will fight forgetfulness, the cold, work pressures, and bad driving. I have a feeling that, though first semester will seem the same, it will actually be different. Whether I remember or not.

September calendar

September 2 Labor day- schools out

September 4 Varsity boys soccer team v. Einstein; 5:00

September 5 Varsity football @BCC, 6:30; varsity field hockey v. Paint Branch, 7:00

September 10 NO SCHOOL: Primaries

September 16 NO SCHOOL: Yom Kippur

September 26 Back to school night