Junior Hannah Lewis approaches an unfamiliar building with big bold letters spelling out “Fort Osage High School.” Her mind racing, she steps out of her mom’s car and faces the school head on, preparing herself to take on what the day has to bring.

Moving schools is a difficult process, especially when you’re a high schooler.  Students already have a lot of responsibility and things to keep track of, so having to move schools is the cherry on top of the stress sundae. Lewis feels walking into a new school her junior year is like walking into a new world.

“I was scared,” Lewis said. “I’ve spent my whole school career in Independence (School District). It’s weird to come to a place where you know almost no one.”

She knew a few people at Fort Osage, but every aspect of the school system was new to her. As the school year progressed, Lewis notices the difference between Fort Osage and her old school. AP Lang was the biggest change in her opinion.

“It’s not so different in all of my regular classes, but AP Lang was totally different at my old school,” Lewis said. “Here we have to read one book, but my old school made us read three and write a lot of papers about them.”

AP Lang is already a super challenging class, but coming into one with no recognition of any assignments that were due during the summer is hard to adjust to.

The Independence School District has eight classes per day, while Fort Osage has seven. Counselor Melessa Demo recognizes the struggles new students face and the anxiety of coming to a new school.

“There’s always that nervousness when you’re in a place where you don’t know anybody,” Ms. Demo said. “We try to put those fears to rest by having someone show you where your classes are and such.”

She also believes the teachers here tend to lend a helping hand when a student is in need.

“I think people here, especially teachers, are helpful,” Ms. Demo said. “Students can step into a classroom and ask where something is and the teachers will gladly tell them.”

When coming into a new school, the one thing most kids struggle with is the layout of the building. Fort Osage gives out maps to all the new students, so they will not have such a hard time finding everything. Senior Ruth Zumwalt believed that the hardest thing to adjust to is the layout of the building.

“It wasn’t really hard adjusting to the classes and stuff, but it was hard to read the map the office gave me,” Zumwalt said. “I’m always all over the place and I was going longer distances than I needed to.”

Lewis enters the doors of the school and approaches the front desk. As she reaches to retrieve her schedule she smiles nervously and heads to the counselors office. She takes a deep breath and hopes she is up to the challenge of adjusting to her new school.