by Caleb Kim ’26
The first month at Bellarmine has always been a struggle. From nearly stepping on the sacred B in the middle of the quad to switching up classrooms, it has been a tough ride for freshmen, especially coming out of Bell’s covid years. After all, everyone has experienced their fair share of mistakes during their first year here. So, to avoid these mistakes, here are things that freshmen wished they knew before the school year started.
As his parents were dropping him off in the morning, Neil Alappatt ’26’s car cut the drop-off line. He and his family thought everything would be fine. Just then, however, disaster struck. Mr. Sigrist was there. According to the freshman himself, “Mr. Sigrist said, ‘No, you cannot do that.’” All Neil could do was to quickly hop off the car and go to class. So, what he told me is that the bottom line is to never cut the drop-off line in the morning.
Unlike Neil, Leo Chernyakhovskiy ’26 had a more typical blunder: schedule mix-ups. In his words, “I should have kn[own] just where the locations are and… where I’m going at all times.” In my interview with him, he also told me about his mistake on a Friday: “I thought it was… community time on Friday… I was just hanging out, and I see everyone’s gone, and I realize ‘Oh, it’s Cura.’” Fortunately, he is fine with his schedule now, and he said the experience allowed him to learn.
Finally, I nearly made the biggest mistake possible. I was walking to the ping pong tables by Sobrato. When I was passing the B, I was about to step on it until my friend warned me. He told me some crazy stories about why to not step on it. Thus, I wanted to find the true answer from someone. When I asked Ellek Garcia ’25, he replied, “Well, the reason here is simply because the B is our most valuable thing here at Bellarmine and stepping on it is a form of disrespect if you know what I mean.” Well, I thank you for enlightening me, Ellek.
In conclusion, we have certainly made our mistakes and will undoubtedly continue to. Freshmen life is going to be tough.
