by Aidan Wang ‘25, Media Editor

Dear fellow eighth graders, I am immensely proud of our tremendous accomplishment of surviving our first of five years at Jesuit High School. We have had highs from the egg toss and athletic events with the W. We have had the lows of hybrid learning, failed assessments, and that whole stress the pandemic has caused. We have found resilience in ourselves and bounced back and we are continuing God’s journey toward greatness and glory.  

It was August 11, 2020. We were standing on chalk lines spaced six feet apart on a sweltering Louisiana day and sweating heavily in our coats and ties. We then went inside standing apart near room 230 and a man started yelling at us about the Bulletin and the recently opened pedestrian walkway. That was registration day.  

The very next day, we had our orientation and investiture. We got to know our teachers and get a first taste of sitting down in those newly renovated classrooms equipped with the most comfortable seats anywhere. After, we went into the Chapel of the North American Martyrs to receive our pins and hear from Harrison Bond ‘15. Then, we went back to our seventh slot class and were dismissed. We could now hear, taste, smell, and sense that the school year was really coming, your first day of High School.  

Depending on our surname, we either had the first day of school being a Thursday or a Friday. It was a bumpy start: The confusing maze of classrooms, offices, labs, and stairwells. The sea of hundreds of people not too close to each other. The hall monitors yelling at you to stay physically distant and to stay to right of the halls. And lastly, the confusing lunch schedule. Lastly, we went home knowing that school started, high school started, and we had one day of Jesuit underneath our belt.  

From then on for one quarter, we rotated in and out of school and home learning due to COVID restrictions. We learned the incredible story of self-management in an unprecedented public health situation at an unprecedented time. We continued on this rough journey until our first quarter exams where we finally got to see all faces of our Eighth Grade Class, a class over 250 strong. We also heard the news of every student being able to return to campus full time starting with the first day of the first week of the second quarter.  

When we finally got back to being on campus full time, we got that sense of community; being able to be together as an entire eighth grade class, taking classes together blossomed our class spirit. This continued for the next several months until one event changed eighth grade year forever.  

The retreat was the first time pretty much all of us were in one building, together as a class. That day, we got to hear about the story of Inigo de Loyola, cannonball moments in real life, and bringing us closer to God. Not only did it bring us closer to God, it brought us closer to each other was we were all together for the first, and as of the time of writing, the first time we were all together.  

The retreat gave us a little break before we head into the fourth and final quarter of our year of ups and downs. We went into the fourth quarter feeling refreshed and ready to finish strong our year. The fourth quarter set new highs of 8^th grade spirit when the egg toss came in. It got some sense of sprit in the morale-starved class of 2025.  

In conclusion, I recommend we all take a good, last look at where we started, what we encountered, and what we are at right now. We have gone so far since registration day and we shall continue to do so. We have only a few short weeks of school left and then exams. At last, we can finally enjoy summer break, one that we all are looking forward to. As Mr. Charlie McGannon’s father said, “Full Steam Ahead, Full Steam Ahead.”  

AMDG,  

Aidan Z . Wang ‘25  

Student Council Pre-Freshmen Class President  

Media Editor, The Blue Jay  

Student Council Pre-Freshmen Class Representative  

JV Quiz Bowler