Dear BIM Ninth Graders,

 For those coming from other schools BASIS Independent McLean can be an exciting yet confusing experience. This article will not clear up any of that confusion because I am a ninth grader from another school. I’ll be honest, I don’t know why I was assigned to write this article, I’m literally the only freshman in the Journalism class which makes me the least qualified person to answer these questions. However I must persist, and in the words of Journalism teacher Dr Pittman: “It might be funny.” 

The first message I have to give to my fellow ninth graders is ‘don’t go into the high school lounge’. I know it feels like you should be able to go in since you’re a high schooler now, but I guess BIM just wanted to be confusing for no particular reason.

I really don’t know how I ended up writing the one article that I would have the least experience on. Secondly, despite the daily announcements being marked as daily in the schedule you were given at the beginning of the year, they are not daily. The daily announcements are actually weekly. I know that not many of you reading this actually care about that but I’m in journalism so the announcements are one of the few things that I actually know about.

Third, there are vending machines in the school. I feel like you would know this four weeks into the school year, especially since they’re in the middle of the hall but I’m just trying to think of everything I know. 

Fourth, and this one is actually important, you can find your grades for every class, somewhere. I don’t actually know that one yet and I’m still trying to find out. I think some teachers put them on Schoology, but I can’t find anything that’s consistent. So I guess you can just guess your grade for now. Sorry about that one.

Fifth, and most importantly, don’t procrastinate. When you start as a freshman at BASIS Independent McLean, you’re going to get a lot of homework. That’s just a reality of the school. And for people who have never had that much before because they were going to different schools, it can be very stressful to adapt. But if you don’t adapt to the workload, things will end up much worse for your mental health.

While I may never truly know why I was chosen to write this article, there is one essential fact that will always remain true in my heart. If you are attending BASIS Independent McLean, you will probably end up being confused sooner or later.

Yours Truly,

The World’s Worst Reporter