High School Living

Published 4 years ago -


I am going to tell y’all a story about my high school. As the semester comes to a close, I am reminded just how far off high school is from where we, seniors, are now. It’s crazy to think that graduation is right around the corner, so how about some throwback high school talk. Catch me reminiscing, how bout’ that.

My high school really wasn’t normal to be honest with you. My high school is called Norfolk County Agricultural High School in Walpole, MA. It was quite the experience. The school’s name speaks for itself, indicating that it wasn’t your average high school right off the bat, being an agricultural high school. We had majors as they called them, which were floriculture, horticulture, landscape, general plant science, agricultural mechanics, canine science, equine science, research animal technology (R.A.T.), and veterinary science. For the first year, you were put in a variety of classes just to give you the chance to explore other areas before getting into the in-depth classes for the major you originally applied for. To be at this school you had to apply, even though it was a public school. This is because they served over 20 districts on the south shore, so space is limited.

The major I decided I wanted to do was veterinary science. I technically majored in canine science as well because I completed all the required courses for that major as well through my elective selection. I always thought I would be a veterinarian because I love all animals and wanted to be in the medical field with the involvement of animals. I was glad I went to my high. school because it gave me the opportunity to realize before college that perhaps I wanted to go on a different career path. Instead of perusing a dream I once had all the way to the college level, I was lucky enough to be able to live that dream for four years and discover that I was meant to take a different path in college.

I don’t regret going to my school, it was quite a unique experience in itself. My school was vocational and didn’t run on the common schedule of a week of academics and then a week of vocational classes. Instead, my school split the days and would make some of our labs and field work double periods of time on certain days. So as a freshman, I had my academics in the morning and my vocational classes in the afternoons. My sophomore year and senior year were switched, with vocational classes in the morning and academic classes in the afternoon. Sometimes there was a challenge having seven to eight different sets of home work to do and then get up at 5:30 a.m. to catch your hour and 15-minute bus ride to school by 6:15 a.m. If you missed that bus, you now had a lonely commute for the same length of time fighting early morning traffic to try and get to school by 7:30 a.m. The long commutes to and from school and hours of homework were well worth the experience the school provided me.

People can’t also look back on high school and say that they got to hold and handle animals while taking their notes in their animal science classes. The experience of haltering a sheep properly and cleaning horse stalls was also a unique experience aside from most high schools. The school also had acres of land which was breath taking to take nature walks on for plant science class or utilize for scare scenes for the school’s annual Haunted Hayride run by students, parents, and teachers. I’ll have to expand further on my interesting high school experience for y’all next semester. Until then, stay well cherubs and happy holidays.

Kristina, a senior, studies English and Psychology. She is the Campus Life Editor of Le Provocateur.

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