SCHOOL BOARD NOTES by Nicole DiLorenzo
It is amazing how big this school is! Am I going to get lost? Are the teachers
nice? How am I ever going to get to class when the rest of the students arrive?
More than 300 of my closest friends and I were getting thrown into a whole new
world, a new adventure, together. They call this adventure freshman year, the year when everyone
is bigger than you and they know it. You’re positive that all the upperclassmen think that
you’re lower than the wad of gum that’s stuck on the bottom of a desk.
Then something happens; it takes a little while, but it happens. You realize
this isn’t so bad after all; in fact, it’s kind of fun.
On my very first day of high school, I wandered the building like a lost
puppy, but so did everyone else. This was because the administration was kind enough to allow us
a day where only freshmen were in the building.
We appreciated having that day to acquaint ourselves with the building and the
teachers. Anthony Watson, the principal, had an assembly to welcome us all to the building. He
gave us a lot of valuable advice. But one thing that rang in my ears was that high school is
what you make of it, and one way to make it great is to get involved.
And get involved I did. I signed up for almost every club at the club fair. It
didn’t take me long to realize that there was no way I could handle all those activities.
However, I did stay involved. I participated in the musical (“Oklahoma“), joined student council
and took part in KIKS (Kids Intervention with Kids in School), among other things.
Before I knew it, I was out of the “freshman haze” (as my friends and I so
affectionately call it) and into “sophomore relief.” I stayed involved with all the same clubs
and added a new one to the list, LAMP (Leadership And Mentoring Program) in which I was elected
vice president. In May I ran for vice president of student council, and much to my surprise, I
won!
In my opinion, sophomore year is the most relaxing part of your high school
career. Freshman year is a time for adjusting, and junior year is where it all begins …
Ah yes, the madness that is junior year. That year consisted of one
standardized test after the other. When we weren’t taking a test, we were studying or preparing
for it. I took the PSAT, two SATs, the HSPT, and two SAT IIs that year. Among all these tests my
family and I started visiting colleges. This was even more confusing than the tests. I attended
the Auction Dance and the Junior Lock-in. The auction is when seniors go up for bid to be
servants to raise money for the junior class. I think the highest amount we brought in was
somewhere around $200. Once the bidding was closed and all the other classes left, the lock-in
began. We spent seven hours, from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m., watching movies, swimming, playing
volleyball and listening to a karaoke contest. Then we all went home exhausted. In May I was
elected student council president.
On Sept. 8, 1999 I walked into the high school thinking this was it, my last
year of high school. My sister was entering as a freshman facing the same anxieties I had three
years earlier. As much as I tried to console her, I knew it was something she would have to get
acquainted with herself.
The year started and so did the plans and preparation for Homecoming. We chose
“The Dance of Your Dreams” as our theme and began to pick out the decorations. On Oct. 16 we
were victorious in our Homecoming football game and enjoyed a great dance. I took another set of
SAT IIs that fall and was finally done with the standardized tests. How good it felt to be
finished!
I then entered the crunch of college applications. You’d think that by this
point, with all the visiting and research, that it would be easy. Well if you thought that, you
thought wrong! Choosing where to apply is a nerve-racking experience. This means you have decide
what you want from a college which, I should tell you, you will already have changed your mind
about 101 times from the beginning of the process. Oh, and then there are all of those essays.
Needless to say, my creative juices ran dry after that experience. Once the essays were done, I
thought the hard part was over. Nope, I was wrong again. The waiting part was far worse than the
application part. I spent the next couple of months waiting, and waiting and waiting …
Then in December I received my first acceptance to my top-choice college. What
a relief! It was comforting to know that whatever happened, I had a college to attend in the
fall. I was lucky enough to be accepted to all the colleges to which I applied, but it was hard
to watch some of my friends handle their disappointments.
This created a problem, though. Where do I go now? My parents gave me the
deadline of choosing a college by April 1. On April 2, at my 18th birthday party, I announced to
my family that I would be attending Clemson University.
Right now the entire class is starting to get a case of prom fever and a touch
of senioritis. On June 2, my classmates and I will be all dressed up for one of the most
unforgettable nights of our high school careers. As my friends and I start to finalize all of
our prom plans, we all start to get a little reminiscent.
In a few weeks we will graduate and leave the safety of Lawrence High School.
I feel that my teachers have prepared me well for college. They have taught me much more than
math and science and history. There have been many teachers that have gone above and beyond for
me. I would like them to know that I am grateful for everything they have done for me and they
will never be forgotten. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the administrators of
the Lawrence Township public schools. I would also like to thank my family for the support and
firm foundation they have given and continue to give to me.
Good luck in everything you do, Class of 2000, and thank you for the
memories.
I’d like to leave you with something that someone wise once said: “No more
rulers, no more books, no more teachers’ dirty looks!”
Nicole DiLorenzo is a senior at Lawrence High School. She is president of the Student Council and is the student representative to the Board of Education.