It’s really hard to believe that the beginning of freshman year was nearly four years ago.

I remember walking through these hallways for the first time with my mask on, phone in hand, looking at my schedule while trying to navigate the labyrinth that was our school.

Now, we can navigate the campus with our eyes closed. No freshman struggle of walking around in circles, too scared to ask an upperclassman for help.

So as we prepare to trade our Chromebooks for caps and look back on our journey, let’s take a trip down memory lane to the chaos that was freshman year.

One of the biggest struggles was finding new people to hang out with since most of my friends from middle school went to different high school. I ended up finding some people to hang out with. In my senior year, I figured out that quality is better than quantity.

I’ve traded large friend groups for people I’m more comfortable with.

I’ve learned many lessons freshman year that have changed the person that I am today.

If I could go back in time, I’d tell my 14-year-old self, “It’s not that deep.”

That failed test and quiz? I recovered from that one really embarrassing moment, and no one remembers it but me. The fear of seniors? It turns out that they were just as tired as we are.

But the confusion didn’t end there. It was about the culture. We entered the school when it was changing right before we could notice it.

Mohammed Albender, Staff Writer

Sophomore year

Everyone seems to talk about the nerve-wracking moment of entering freshman year, the amount of coursework you have to tackle in junior year to impress colleges, and even senioritis.

But no one ever talks about the major leap from freshman year to sophomore year.

Maybe it’s a silent challenge we like to keep to ourselves as we stay up late at night, figuring out new ways to meticulously cram years and years of dedicated AP European history content into our worn down notebooks.

I like to think of sophomore year as the middle child in the family, often overlooked but vying for attention.

We’ve exited the mystical “freshman honeymoon” phase, where the curiosity and optimism of starting high school slowly wear off as soon as you enter sophomore year.

This is the year where we start enrolling in our first APs and honors classes (I’m looking at you, AP European History), and the race to college doesn’t seem too far.

Suddenly, grades matter and genius inventions like Bessy.io allow us to crunch numerous grade possibilities instead of actually studying for our finals.

Group chats switch from sending memes to sharing study guides at 2 a.m.

But there were some perks. You now have the opportunity to explore extracurricular activities and start passion projects. With a year of high school under your belt, you are in a prime position to dive deeper into clubs, sports, or volunteer groups.

You can also obtain your learner’s permit, and then drivers license, opening the door to a whole new world of freedom and autonomy to hang out with your friends and get out of town.

Cal High also experienced a lot of change this year, including the automated detention system (which we all despised).

And to wrap up this amazing year, we had our infamous annual safe and secure campus lock down because of bomb threats on campus. At one point, we weren’t allowed to go out and use the restrooms, with buckets in class being the last resort.

But as sophomores we now know that these “bomb threats” were really just another ridiculous attempt for students to get out of taking their finals.

We now continue to move forward with being upperclassmen.

Mishti Ramachandra, Staff Editor

Junior Year

Junior year was unforgettably busy. It was a whirlwind of AP classes, constant studying, running from one extracurricular to another, and losing loads of sleep on the daily.

But it was also one of the best years of high school.

Eye bags and a dead look were a clear indicator that you were a junior.

With any free time that we got, we’d just sleep, goof off with our friends or manage to get some extra work done.

Going into it, people aren’t really prepared for the jump in the amount of information they end up learning. There’s constant testing that happens with the wide variety of AP classes that most students take.

We assumed we could handle whatever junior year could throw at us.

We were wrong. Junior year gave us far more options for classes we could take. You could take an advanced version of all your core courses, which meant you had absolutely no free time.

With this rigor came a lot of fun as well. Projects, new groups and seeing familiar people in most of our classes let us make more friends, get closer with others and meet people for the first time. Some of these people could end up being your best friends.

Time moves extra fast as a junior, and the year’s over before we even realized it. There’s so many hours spent on reading and doing boring homework.

But looking back, there was so much time that we could’ve spent sleeping that we spent studying and fretting over the smallest of assignments. A lot of us got our drivers’ licenses as well, so the year marked the start of unemployed behavior and a new sense of independence for many.

There were a ton of lessons that junior year taught us all, but most importantly, it made us realize that it’s okay to take a break every once in a while. It doesn’t make or break our college apps.

Everything will work out, and the roller coaster that junior year is will be remembered as a year of hell, but also as a year that gave us new friends, experiences and record low test scores.

Vedant Desikamanim, Senior Editorial Board

Senior Year

And then before we knew it, it was senior year.

We trudged up the hill to the senior sunrise spot at 6 a.m. with our hopes high and our goosebumps higher. Although there was no sunrise in sight, we knew this last first day of school represented the dawning of something important.

These last 180-some days were the only thing standing in between us and our future.

I think we all have a love-hate relationship with the charming yet prison-like campus of Cal High. But at the beginning of the year, I told myself I should appreciate it while I can, because surely I’ll miss the dim hallways and suspicious-smelling bathrooms once I graduate… right?

Oh and we can’t forget the flowers that reek of fishy odor.

As tired as we might be of it, Cal graciously hosted us for years and maybe it was time to start showing a little gratitude. Not to my surprise, any sentimental feelings disappeared as quickly as they came when we were thrown head-first into the dreaded college application season.
PIQs, supplementals and application deadlines were all we could think about as we tried to condense everything we’ve learnt and accomplished into a couple short essays in hopes of winning over the admissions officers.

To make matters worse, administrators decided to really crack down on the “no phone policy,” so now each classroom had a phone holder that held our beloved devices hostage for the entire class.

Then college apps were finally submitted, the second-to-last round of finals conquered, and the glorified second semester was about to begin.

I don’t know who told me that “you don’t even have to try” during the second semester of senior year, but they were lying.

When picturing what the second semester would look like, I thought of sleeping in and skipping class to get food with my friends. I was ready to let my attendance go down the drain, but it became clear that our workload wasn’t lightening up anytime soon. It was like junior year all over again, but with double the burnout. Stress levels spiked once more when college decisions came out. Some students were elated, others were crestfallen.

In the end, everyone decided which path they would take. Graduation looms closer with each passing day. Now all we have to do is gather all our willpower and show up to class and make sure we don’t get rescinded.

Finally, our time at Cal is coming to an end after four years of good memories. Congratulations, Class of 2026.

Addison Jing, Senior Editorial Board