Four years of Miramonte traditions
If I didn’t know any better, I’d assume that the Disney Frozen backpack sitting at our entryway belonged to my Wagner Ranch Elementary sister. But it’s not Ellia’s, it’s mine. And I’m not alone.
From Minecraft to Dora, seniors’ youthful backpacks fill the Miramonte halls. It’s one of many of Miramonte’s beloved back-to-school traditions.
Let’s start with the ninth graders.
For those wide-eyed, fresh-out-of-OIS students, the school year started a day early. On Aug. 10, with Miramonte’s freshmen welcoming crew, the Link Leaders, unleashing an enthusiastic roar, hundreds of Miramonte freshmen filed into the Sabrina Ionescu Gym through a Link Leader high-five tunnel for Simon Says, Link Leader-led school tours, and school pictures.
Since Mats’ Day, they’ve been thrown into the Miramonte world like birds learning to fly. From first tests to advanced classes, they’ve experienced the academic standards and excellent teachers that enable Miramonte students to average a 1370 SAT (340 points above the national average), to showcase a 98% graduation rate, and – most importantly – to consistently crush Campo in CAASP (California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress) scores.
For sophomores, the start of the year is more of a welcome-home moment than a tradition-filled season. Many sophomores dove into their first AP classes, especially through AP World History, AP European History or AP Computer Science: Principles.
The theme for junior year, declared by the College and Career Center, is to dive deeper. For many, the lowered amount of requisite classes meant more APs or taking a free period.
Others took on leadership roles in familiar programs, like the many junior Mirador editors, the student newspaper I call home. Some returned to old favorite teachers as teaching assistants. Many advanced from junior varsity demon status to varsity (though shout out the juniors that put the junior in JV), or even became team captains.
No longer relegated to the side of the road and its accompanying 6 a.m. wakeups (or illegal parking jobs), juniors got their first parking passes. Now they can fight for a spot with the rest of us in the lots. Drive safe.
Lastly, the star of the tradition show: seniors.
Senior traditions started before the year even began. Over the summer, sporting the traditional black drape or suit and tie, we came in for our senior headshots. Additionally, the evening before school started, we arrived at the quad dressed in senior merch to eat barbecue and paint our cars.
On Aug. 14, rubbing sleep from our eyes, we arrived at the field at 6:15 a.m. sharp to watch the sunrise. Shivering in the misty cold, we ate breakfast burritos, donuts and fruit; took photos with friends and enjoyed the first of many school-year traditions to come. The accompanying tradition – senior sunset – fittingly takes place in late May, serving as a bittersweet goodbye.
While the school year has only just begun, it already feels like it’s flying by, and I speak for us all when I say that I’m excited for the year of traditions ahead of all of us.
