We are in the home stretch of the 2013-14, Semester 1 Race here at AHS. It’s often a time of reflecting on how quickly the past 5 months went, stressing for finals, and looking forward to a new start on grades, and of course, the beginning of the countdown to summer.  Several students at Arlington explained what good and bad came out of this semester.
Julia Dahlquist, 11, decided to try something different this year and began taking a Chinese language class at Skagit Valley Community College through Running Start. “I saw that they offered Chinese and it was something I was really interested in partly because I am Chinese and partly because the high school doesn’t offer many languages,” Dahlquist explains. Having this schedule allows her to only take 3 classes at the high school and therefore, Dahlquist takes a class online, as well. But, overall, it went very well with good grades and a great learning experience hinting at how college works.
Bre Morren, a junior, enjoyed the many activities this semester included. Morren says, “It went by fast. It was a lot of fun with the lipdub and the One Mic Stand and then Spirit Week. Also, the guest speaker, Houston Kraft, was a great way to end it.” Although she admits her grades were slipping in the first few weeks, she decided to work hard and it paid off in the end.
Senior, Jordan Mindt, also found some challenges in her second to last semester here at AHS. With lots of difficult classes and two jobs on top of that, the work load was very heavy. “Next semester, I plan on slowing down and reducing the stress I’ve been having,” Mindt says.