Anthony Durzo

The Summer of 2018 was three months of anxiety and knotted stomachs, when the thought of starting high-school and going to a new school would quickly maneuver into my crowded mind at most random parts of the day. I didn’t know what to expect. Was the work going to be more difficult? Is it going to be easier or harder with many new kids? Will I like the teachers and staff? All those questions would be answered on August 23rd, 2018. 

Walking into Tiger Hall, NAI’s main hallway, was like walking through Times Square on New Year’s Eve for me. I felt like I was the only one who didn’t know where I was in the building or where to go next. But then I realized I wasn’t the only one. There were over one thousand new freshmen who felt the same way as I did. It was the beginning of the four most important years of our youth, which was terrifying at first. 

The first destination, according to my paper that I was continuously looking down at trying to remember where I was supposed to be, was the gym. Seriously, the first day of high school and my very class is gym. While it may seem difficult to go through an entire year of advanced gym class which every single school day of the year, I was lucky to only have thirteen students in the class including me. I was also fortunate to have a very nice, fun, and understanding teacher. However, there were times that having gym from 7:15 am to 8:00 am was not always the best way to start your day. 

By the end of September, I could tell someone how the entire school worked. The do’s and don’t’s just came easy as time went on, especially with the layout of the building. I mean come on, the halls are named by letters going in alphabetical order with the number of the rooms equivalent to the letter of the hallway. For example, room number 100-108 are in A Hall, room number 200-208 are in B Hall, room number 300-308 are in C Hall, and so on and so forth. Eventually, we were able to know teachers we didn’t even have for classes. 

But, in the blink of my left eye, freshman year was over, and in the blink of my right eye, sophomore year was cut short because of some virus. But this isn’t a long story dwelling over the disease. 

The second year of high-school came rather quicker than I could have imagined. August of 2019, class of 2022 walked into North Allegheny Intermediate High School with our heads high like we owned the place. We watched the new freshman on their first day of high school and we were blown away because it was like yesterday we were in their shoes.