A Day in the Life of…

Danielle Ryan

(3/2010) Some may wonder what a typical day is like in the life of a teenage girl. For those who are wondering, I am here to tell you all about a typical day in my life as a teenage student.

Every day begins in the same way. I wake up to the bright light in my room and the voice of my mom who, for certain, has been trying to wake me for at least fifteen minutes. My mom has become so accustomed to this delay that she wakes me ten minutes earlier so that I don't have to explain to my homeroom teacher the reason I was late that day. What a caring mom, right?

After I roll out of bed in the typical teenage fashion, I slowly slump to my closet to grab my uniform. I suppose I should consider myself lucky that I don't have to pick out an outfit each day. I have it easy being in a Catholic school. The hardest clothing decision that I have to make is whether or not my red sweater goes with my navy blue skirt.

After changing, I usually go to the mirror and stare at myself for a couple of minutes, wondering what I should do to my hair for the day. Most of the time I think of many different options, most of them being very time consuming, but usually end up putting my hair back in a braid or a loose bun and then straightening my curly bangs and calling it a day.

Once my hair is done, I eat a quick breakfast, brush my teeth and then apply some make-up to my face just in time for my friend's arrival at my house.

As soon as we get to school, my friend and I go to our lockers and prepare for the day ahead of us. When walking into school, the first thing you notice is the noise. High school is very loud in the morning; well, high school is very loud all the time, but I suppose I notice it more in the morning. Everyone likes to gossip about who is going out with whom, or about last night's party. I, however, am not a morning person and prefer getting my books out of my locker and going straight to homeroom without being interrupted a million times with the same story.

When I'm at my locker, I have to figure out my schedule for the day. The schedule at Delone Catholic is a rotating schedule, meaning that there are eight classes that everybody takes but there are only seven periods in a day. The schedule rotates, so each day is started with a different class, and one class does not meet that day or is "dropped."

After realizing which class if have first that day, I organize my locker and then head to homeroom to either study for a test later that day or talk to my friends.

Once the first bell rings, we all exit homeroom and go to our first period class. Most kids usually prefer starting the day with a class where there isn't a lot of thinking required, because as teenagers, we are never really awake first period.

The classes that I take as a junior are Pre-calculus, Biology 2, Anatomy and Physiology, English, Religion, Latin, Instrumental Music, and Psychology. Luckily, as a junior, I was able to choose almost all of these classes; most of them were electives, so the interest factor is there for the most part. I will say, though, that the time the class falls in the day is crucial. For instance, if my math class falls first period on a Monday morning, I probably won't be too excited or entertained by the thought of enduring a math class for an hour first thing in the morning.

When the bell after fifth period rings, everybody rushes to lunch. On a good lunch day, walking down the halls could spell danger for someone who is in the way of the football players. One thing that has not changed, I'm sure, from high school now and high school forty years ago: never get in the way of a hungry football player.

At lunch, I find my friends at our typical table and I sit down as I wait for the lunch line to go down. Lunch time is the perfect time for teens to tell the stories that they didn't get to tell their friends in the morning, or tell new stories that may have happened in the first half of the day. Either way, the lunch period in the cafeteria seems to be the most looked forward to time of the day for most teens.

Once lunch is over and I have heard a few new stories to hold me for the rest of the day, I proceed to my last two classes to complete my school day. The last two or three classes after lunch seem to go by quickly because I can see the end of the day coming.

Ahh, the final bell at last. The last bell rings to let everyone know that the day is over, and we can all go home.

I usually hurry to my locker in excitement, knowing that the rest of the day is mine, or sort of. I still have after school activities and clubs, the occasional appointment, music lessons, as well as the dreaded homework, which I can honestly say is never in short supply at Delone Catholic.

When my activities are over and I have attended all after school meetings, I ride home with my friend and think of all the possibilities of things that I can do at home. Then I realize that I have several hours worth of homework to do and know that the homework will take me most of the evening; so I sit down, do my homework, and think about the rest of the week, and the other terribly monotonous days ahead of me.