Senior Reflection: Samantha McDonald

The years here at Watertown High School have been okay, for the most part. Some parts were very awesome, some other parts stunk, and some other parts were okay. I can’t say that it was the greatest four years of my life, but they were pretty decent.

My freshman year was kind of tough, since I had physics first period every morning except on day 1’s. I have to say, the teacher was tough and physics was a tough class. The material was hard to understand and the homework was difficult to do. The labs were easy in the beginning, but as the year went on, they got harder. The hardest lab, for me, was the rocket project. The assignment was to form a group to build a rocket within the time limit (which I don’t remember) and we were going to fire them off at Victory Field.

My partner for the project was the only person that I could personally trust, Laura Peckar. She was absent on the first day, I think, leaving me to work alone.  There were quite a few rowdy kids in my class and their conversations were bugging me to the point where I just wanted to tell them to stop talking so I could focus on my work. On that particular day, my temper almost got the best of me. Laura came back the next day and we began to work on it together. It was a bit easier from that point on with the project with her there, but the rowdy kids’ conversations still bugged me.

Then it came time to launch off our rockets. All of the calculations and the assembling of the rockets were either going to pay off or sink into a deep abyss known as failure. We walked out to Victory Field first thing in the morning. Once we got there, we set up so we could launch the rockets. I saw people launch their rockets off of the mini-launch pad, and it was amazing.

Suddenly, it was our turn. Laura and I walked up to it and the rocket was set up. A few seconds after we had gotten away from it, the button was pushed and it launched straight into the air. I remember watching it go up and do an arc before coming back down to the earth. I chased after it, as did Laura, and found it near the other side of the tracks on the other side of the field. It was one of the most amazing things that had happened my freshman year.

The other good thing about my freshman year was when I joined I.D.S. My older brother John took me to the room, despite me not wanting to go there, and showed me how awesome it could be. All of my friends were there (minus Laura, but she came a few days later) and I’ve stuck with the group ever since. Even now, I’m still with them. When I leave the school for good, I.D.S. is one of the only things I will actually miss, besides my favorite teachers.

My sophomore year was probably the worst year for me, and that was because of U.S. History first period.  My teacher was nice to us for the first few days, but then one thing got me; a lot of group projects. I will admit now, I do not like doing group projects with anyone except my friends because I can actually work with them and I understand them, like they understand me. I was not thrilled about this part of the course.

The only good thing about sophomore year, in terms of classes, was biology. I liked biology and was fascinated with it. I had Mr. Hiltunen as my biology teacher, and he was an upbeat guy who liked the band Cuttlefish (I still have to personally thank him for introducing me to some more good music). When we did book work, I usually took a lot of notes (probably more than was actually necessary), which helped my group when we were filling out worksheets the next day.

My junior year wasn’t really that eventful. All that I remember from junior year was that Spanish IV Honors stunk.  All that I remember from that class is that it was hard. I had even considered dropping out, but I stuck it out (can’t really say I’m proud of it, though). We practiced new Spanish tenses with new verbs and did a few projects that I did not have fun it whatsoever. I didn’t like the class and was glad that, when I became a senior, that I could drop it and not take it again. Nothing else really happened during that year except the soda bottle launches. Mine blew up on the launch pad and just dropped onto the ground. I was disappointed with the result, but at least it was fun.

This year wasn’t that eventful either. The only thing that I can consider worthy of talking about was the two pep rallies that we had. I wasn’t a huge fan of pep rallies because of the obnoxious music that blasted through my ears and all the people around me. I get nervous with large crowds of people around me, and the pep rallies made me miserable every year. Having two pep rallies in one year made me dislike them a bit more. The college applications that I had to do were hard, but eventually, it paid off because I got accepted to a few colleges.

The goals that I have for after high school are sort of vague and unclear, but I do want to go to college, just like my brother did. I am not sure as to what I want to major in, but it’s probably going to be in creative writing or history. After that, I’m not sure as to what I want to do. The only thing that I’m clear on is continuing my education in college and possibly get a job as an author. I can’t say high school was the best four years of my life, but I’m glad that they happened. I’ve learned a lot in the past four years about myself, and I’m proud of it.