By Shania Mejia, staff writer
My high school career has been quite a journey. While I knew that I wanted to attend Galileo, while I was in middle school, my high school path ended up having a number of twists and turns until I actually ended up here. It wasn’t until my senior year that I finally completed my first semester in person here at Galileo.
Living in the city all my life, Galileo had always been the high school I saw myself going to. My older brother had already experienced Galileo during his freshmen and sophomore year, & he would often tell me random stories of what it was like. On top of that, I knew a few people from my grade as well as my brother’s who I knew I would be comfortable with at the school.
However, after growing up in San Francisco, I ended up moving and starting my freshmen year at El Camino High School in South San Francisco. I was okay not going to okay to Galileo though because I loved my experience there during my freshmen year.
For my sophomore year though, I ended up moving back to the city, & I knew I wanted to go to Galileo. However I had to list at least two options on the application, so I selected Galileo and Burton. But because the district had to check for space at each of these schools, the SFUSD placed me at John O’Connell High School temporarily. Though the school wasn’t bad, and I was able to meet people even through the short time I was there, I was eager for the district to call my parents to let them know which school I’d be attending.
After about a week and a half of going to O’Connell, the district called. I remember receiving a call from my dad during my lunch letting me know I’d be going to Burton. Although I had friends at Burton and knew there was a chance I’d be going there since it was one of my options, a part of me was upset I wasn’t going to Galileo.
After only a week of going to Burton, I knew I hated it. The students were okay, however I had unreasonable teachers. Not liking anything about the school, I started to slack. My counselor would constantly have to check on me to make sure I was staying on top of it, but all I wanted to do was leave the school. Realizing there was nothing they could do to change my mind, my counselor and my dad talked about transferring me.
During my winter break of my sophomore year, my parents got a call saying I was able to transfer to Galileo the following January. Even though I didn’t enjoy adjusting to all these new schools, and I was afraid of having to start all over again, I ended up being okay with the decision to transfer AGAIN since I wanted to go to Galileo originally anyways..
Starting at Galileo in January 2020 it took a few months to start being content and liking my new school, but COVID-19 hit, forcing me to continue my Galileo experience through a screen. Because COVID was/is still a problem, my junior year then followed. Having to attend school online wasn’t too bad, however, having to meet teachers and see some of the students through a screen wasn’t my favorite. It wasn’t very interactive and was more-so just logging on then logging out.
However, when I found out I’d at least be able to finish my senior year in-person, I was happy because I wanted to experience what school was like at Galileo on top of just finishing my high school experience in-person.
Since my time at school was cut short during my sophomore year, I was still getting to know the campus when we returned. However, other than that, it’s been okay. With December coming around, I’m almost able to say I’ve finally finished my first full semester (in-person) here at Galileo. To be honest, the school’s not everything I thought it would be, given how much I’d gone through to finally get here, and overall, this semester has been fine. All in all though, I’m glad that after all those high schools, I ended up at the one I wanted to be at from the start.
