From sports to dances, senior year captivates so many memories. It is an experience with memories that will last a lifetime. Senior Jae Painter is able to capture these memories from a different point of view than many, considering it is a year of new for her at FHC.
Jae recently changed schools from Northpointe Christian. She made the decision to transfer for a fresh experience in new relationships, and an escape from past situations. It is without a doubt a hard transition, especially with a limited amount of time. There are a lot of things that are left behind and missed.
“I would say I miss the sports because playing varsity sports and transferring is hard… And [I miss] some of the people,” Jae said. “I definitely miss the community because it was really welcoming.”
The year is still young, but Jae is already fitting in and making the most of her year here.
With only a month into the year, Jae has clicked with a few people including senior Gia Monterusso. The friendships may have come to be in simple ways, like parent affiliation or lunch tables, but they have been some of the most welcoming people in the new school.
“We sit together at lunch and we talk a lot in lunch and in classes and it’s really nice to get to know her,” Jae explained. “It’s definitely a lot different than what my friends were like [at my old school].”
The atmospheres are dramatically different between the schools. Northpointe was much more cautious about rules. Some of these include no swearing to no dates for the annual dances. The less uptight, yet still organized, environment of FHC is something that Jae is finding is different but exciting.
“I guess [I’m excited about] dances because [they’re] different [here] so that is fun,” Jae discussed. “We had to do group dances and you can’t touch. A lot of the music that was fun, we couldn’t do.”
Although there are thrilling aspects of a new school, some things aren’t as easygoing. Jae mentioned that there are few people who have approached her and introduced themselves. She is also in the process of attempting to switch over her previous sports.
At Northpointe, Jae played three varsity sports: volleyball, bowling, and track and field. The sport she would most consider continuing with is volleyball, even though it is the one she has guaranteed to lose. The process is difficult since the reason for transferring has to be reviewed before being approved. Until then, she can only pick up new sports, but none has caught Jae’s attention as the other three have.
“My meeting with MHSAA is supposed to be sometime soon, so hopefully I can do bowling and track and field, but if not we’ll see what happens,” Jae explained about the transferring process. “They have to look at your reasoning for transferring and decide if that’s a good enough reason for you to do sports or not.”
Jae is attempting to make the best of her year here. She is taking her classes, attempting to participate in sports, enjoying second lunch, and all the other senior activities. She mentioned that she is hoping to venture into interior design during college, and possibly continuing with track and field as well. Jae is truly working through the ups and downs of transferring schools senior year.
“[The year has] been good,” said Jae. “There’s definitely been ups and downs to transferring to a new school, but they’ve mostly been good.”
