Before every new high school year at Pennfield, Middle School students are always anxious about becoming freshmen. Because of this, Pennfield High School created the Link leaders to lift their spirits and show them it's going to be okay. Link leaders are individuals who help the freshmen during their first year entering high school. In this story, I will be at the high school with other link leaders for an orientation to get our freshmen ready into the year. 

I woke up at 4 o’clock in the morning. I felt my heart pumpin with excitement for what today had in store for me. As I get to high school, I see all the other link leaders wearing orange link shirts like the one I had on. While walking into the building, I noticed how most of us carried bags underneath our eyes. We each brought in our required items for the event. Each of us had tour hats for when we toured the freshmen around the perimeter, a link bag to help carry our items for group activities, and candy. I walked over to Millani(my link partner). She then ask,” did you bring the hats?” I then respond by showing her the fancy burger kings hats I had prepared for our group to wear. After showing her what I had brought, she then displayed the blow pops and air heads we also planned to give to our group later on. After some time, we then left the cafeteria and into the gymnasium.

The lights were as bright as the sun. To the left of us were set up bleachers for us and the freshmen, to the right big numbers posters for each link group, and in the back of the gym was a dull table covered with name tags for the freshmen when they arrived. Me and my link partner Millani were given group number ten from our link advisors. When setting up the hats and candy for our group, I looked around as I was thinking about the time we spent here prepare for new freshmen to join the high school. I smiled as I reminisced on how link advisors like Mr. Lessnau and Mr. Piotrowski had instructed us on the lessons we would try to teach them. Along with the activities we would be doing with them to help them during their time in high school. As time passes, the freshmen arrived to the school and waited to come into the gym. 

“Alright guys, said Mr. Lessnau. “Now before the freshmen come in, I need a few of yall to form up at the door to high five them as they come in, some people at the bleachers to dance around with the music, and I need a few people at the table in the back of the gym to help give out name tags to freshmen. After he finished giving instructions, I went over to the front of the door to give high fives with a few others for when they came in. I start to hear music playing in the background as Mr lessnau shouts to let in the freshmen. As they filled the gymnasium, me and my fellow link crew were ready to welcome them and be able to support them for the school year that's waiting for them.

 As they walked through the doors happy with receiving a high five,  other link crew members then guided and assisted them in finding their tag. Once they acquired their name tag, the freshmen were then instructed to go sit in the bleachers. It was nice to hear freshmen fill the room with screams of excitement; however, it did  bother me how many others stayed as silent as mice. As they walked over to take their seats and listen to Mr. lessnau’s speech, their were some faces who were displeased or unease to be here. I contemplated about how they must feel being somewhere different to what they were used to. Some were happy as they talked to friends about how their summers went. The emotion they had was the kind I wanted to give to the more shy freshmen sitting here. Because of this, many of us leaders decided to sit by them and try to show them things are fine and that they should feel excited to be here. As we were hyping up the crowd and acting goofy, many freshmen faces were glowing up like fireflies. It made me feel good to be there for them and seeing them actually focused on what’s going on around them. Mr. Lessnau had talked to them about how exciting it was to meet them and what fun they were going to have this year in high school. Once finished, he then instructed link leaders and freshmen to get in their groups as he pointed to the big numbers that were across from where we were sitting. 

Me, Millani, and our group of nine freshmen were placed into a group and headed out into a different area of the school. As we all go situated ourselves in a classroom, we began by introducing ourselves to each other and what makes us unique. Millani spoke first and seemed a little nervous while talking to them; It started making me tense. Before I knew it, It was my turn to introduce myself. “H-hi,” I said nervously. I then proceeded by telling my name and things about myself. I had slipped up a little on my words when introducing myself; however, they all still seemed interested in what I had been mentioning to them . We then had our group partake in a number of activities we were told to do with each other. 

The first one was name tag. In this game, one person would be in the middle while everyone else formed a circle around him. The people forming the circle had to say their name and then say someone else's name immediately after before the person in the middle smacks their hand. If the person hands gets smacked, they then became the new person in the middle. It was a delightful game to play. It was hard for many to  remember each others names; because of this, a lot of us were easily tagged. When moved and started playing, “Count to Twenty”. It’s exactly what it sounds like. It would again teach them the importance of teamwork. All we had to do was count to twenty; however, the players were not allowed to have any sort of strategic ideas to their advantage; as in, no one could say who would go or say a certain amount of numbers in one swoop; also, each person could only say up to three numbers. We always found it amusing  when each of us would say numbers at the same time. We manage to get up to 20; however, it was by no means a walk in the park. In the next activity, we would be juggling paper balls. Originally, I thought the group would find this game monotonous; instead, we found it to be very entertaining. Each person had a different number and scrambled around in a circle. Then, we would take the ball and pass it around by the number order. When it became easy with one ball, we put in two; then we eventually used three and four balls at a time. The significance of this activity was  to show teamwork by having us pass the balls around in a circle. It also helped explain to our freshmen that when coming high school, things would get complicated; you would at first have a hard time managing all the factors you’ll have to deal with; however, the more you deal with these challenges, the better you are handling them. Finally, our last activity would be playing, “ Sixty Four Squares”. In this last activity, all of us had to walk from one side to the other side of sixty four squares. The only problem was that underneath some of the spaces laid turtles. When someone stepped on someone, they had to go back to start and have the next person attempt the activity. My group found this insanely tough. Millani had to tell them back to start at least a hundred times. Eventually, they finally won. This activity feels like the one above all the others. Its significance is to show when facing the challenges of life, you’ll have setbacks; you won’t think it’s possible to keep going. However, If you keep going, you can overcome it all. After  giving them a few more tips for school, Milani and I toured our group through the school. We gave each group member a burger king crown and a handful of candy me and Millani as we left the classroom.

 Millani stayed in front while I guided walked behind everyone to make sure everyone stayed together. We started catching their eyes as we looked through the classes and at the freshmen lockers; it wasn’t easy, but everyone managed to get their lockers open. While doing so, we ended up seeing other groups of link leaders and freshmen with their special group hats. When other freshmen saw each other, some traded their hats with other hats. there were chef hats, flower hats, minion hats, and jellyfish hats. Some of the designs looked really simple while others like the jellyfish hats seemed to look more remarkable. As I looked at one of the clocks in the hallway. It was ten fifty five. “Oh boy, I thought to myself. It was time for all the groups to hurry back into the gym for one last chat with the freshmen. Once everyone got back, Mr. Lessnau chatted with us again for a bit and told everyone there was pizza for them to eat and that he hopes we all had fun today. Before going into the cafeteria, everyone decided to take pictures of their group as a way to remember the eventful day that we had.  

 After an exciting orientation, everyone jumping for joy as we began enjoying cheesy  pizzas we got for everyone. I looked and smiled as I saw how link leaders and freshmen were talking to each other about how great the day went. Seeing how they were before up until now, I can see they now are comfortable being here in school with many everyone else. As the freshmen leave the building with more confidence they had coming in we knew thanks to our help today, they were ready to be panthers of Pennfield High School.