As the junior class spent the last weekend of the semester putting finishing touches on their Junior Research Papers, the senior class finally got the opportunity to celebrate the arrival of the second semester by doing, well, nothing. With the exception of a few rogue assignments here and there, there was no remaining work that counted for our first semester grades.

The first semester meant something different to each of the forms. For seniors, it often meant ceaselessly working on college apps and making the final push for the last set of grades that are sent to colleges with those apps. Juniors worked on their research papers, practiced for the SAT and had their initial meetings with their college counselors, while freshmen adjusted to high school life and sat in the driver’s seat of their parents’ cars for the first time. None of us are quite sure what the sophomores were doing, but we’re sure they were doing it well.

Memorable moments of the first semester included celebrating the Mavs victory with Mark Cuban, inducting Eugene McDermott Headmistress Kim Wargo and defeating Greenhill on carpool day.

First semester also brought the reinstatement of senior teas, at which seniors met with Wargo throughout the course of the year. These will continue into the second semester.

In the area of athletics, the cross-country team won their first Southwest Preparatory Conference  Championship since 1997.

Also, new signs were installed across campus to label the buildings for visitors. As far as students are concerned, they have been really great for those all-too-frequent moments when we forget where Metzger Plaza is.

The arrival of second semester will bring new academic changes as well: many sophomores are transitioning from HAM to government or vice versa, and upperclassmen have finished up semester courses. Semester courses that weren’t offered the first half of the year, such as AP Comparative Government and Biophysics will begin this week, while some semester courses won’t be taught again until the 2012-2013 school year.

And, characteristically, Hockaday students will find new stress-inducers with the coming of a new marking period—this one with the added burden of March exams.

But we should all take a moment to think about this: we’ve managed to make it through half of the school year, and that’s worthy of congratulations. So before thinking about exactly what grade you need to make this coming semester, how you need to get in shape for preseason or which of the five concluding sentences you’ve written is best to end your JRP, give yourself a pat on the back.

We’re halfway there, and we can work together to make the second semester just as good as the first.

– Mollie