The first quarter is over, students are celebrating. Halfway through the semester, three more quarters until school is out.
A big majority of schools in the United States, including Hastings Senior High School, operates under a semester system. The academic year tends to begin in late August and end in early May. A semester system is designed with two semesters a year that are 15 weeks each. The first semester happens in the fall and is followed by winter break, and the second semester is in spring. The two semesters split into quarters. It breaks the year into four pieces. These are sessions that occur in fall, winter, and spring.
Hastings High has officially completed the first quarter as of the middle of the week of October 10 where Hastings High School students had Thursday, October 13, off and Friday, October 14, off as well with an additional Tuesday off for the juniors and seniors the following week. As the end of the quarter is now over, students are conflicted. Is this a good thing or is it getting too close to mid-semester finals?
“I’m kind of worried about mid-semesters just because I have kind of fallen behind in school and I don’t know how to get caught up on everything I have missed already,” junior Charity Cowling said.
Some students are worried about mid-semester finals coming up and the study and preparation that it’s going to take, and some are not too worried about the finals coming up. Senior Onyx Whitten expresses his feelings on the end of the quarter and how he really isn’t all too worked up.
“I’m someone who worries when it gets closer. I’m not worried now because I still have time to study and sort myself out when it comes to the mid-semester finals,” Whitten said. “When it gets closer that’s when I start to worry and wonder if I studied enough or if I prepared myself enough in order to do well on this.”
The end of the quarter also means the end of warm weather. The 2022 year is coming to an end after a long year with only two months left of it. Temperatures are going from the 60’s F and 70’s F dropping down to the 30’s F and 40’s F. Students are complaining that the school is still too cold for the weather that it is.
“I strongly dislike how cold it is in the school,” Cowling said. “It makes it hard for me to concentrate on my work because I am always focused on how I can stay warm.”
The students of Hastings High have mixed feelings about the end of the quarter all together, especially seniors as it is their last year of high school and it is already almost halfway over, graduation on the tips of their fingers.
“I am excited but also scared because I am ready to get out of school,” senior Jacbobah Reiman said. “But I am also scared because I will be out on my own and I will miss all my friends that are younger than me.”
