This is Arshia Rampuria, coming to you live to talk about my IA experience. It’s been quite a ride. I think back to when I first made my decision to come here. I’d say it’s not very straightforward, like I would have wanted it to be. Originally, I used to be in close contact with my original home school, and it was a far thought that I’d ever be attending this school. 

But here we are. And it’s quite interesting to reflect on how in this short amount of time (4 weeks to be about exact), there’s so many things that have compelled me here, to remain here. From becoming friends with students I’d consider strangers, being able to ask questions in situations where I’d normally stay quiet, being able to roam the hallways with and without a racing question in my mind, to even this very second, as I take a moment to type down my thoughts on a word document on a Friday night: so far, it’s been quite a fun, freeing ride.  

And now, I’ll take this moment to tell you about today. 

We carpooled with our friends from the neighborhood, and reached our home school at around 7:55 AM, later than we usually do. The bus came right on time, and we exited the school bus after the ride at around 8:40 AM. Right off the bus, you can notice that there are less people in the school. However, the same atmosphere was maintained, and I did the usual, found the black piano in the engineering hall and played a few pieces to start out the day. 

It’s quite different, because the day doesn’t start out like it usually does. I’m not racing to my classroom on the third floor anymore, and I even ask a few freshmen to be certain. It’s quite literally time to just stay in the hangar. I’m signed up for Asynchronous Work for both periods in the morning, about 45 minutes long each, so I’ve got the entire time to finish up the work I’ve got for today. 

Now, it’s 9:29 AM, and I’m starting Friday off with around an hour of thirty minutes of said asynchronous work. I’m sitting in the engineering hall again, talking with a friend that I haven’t caught up with in some time. Both of us have our computers out to complete our work, and I’m certain that though I might not finish all of it, I’ll at least get some of it done.  

Most of the work ranges from three of my classes, in ELA, Social Studies, and Science. They’re all ranging from multiple choice, short response answers, to writing paragraphs to explain some scientific terminology or civic case. It’s very doable, but to say the least, I did not get anything close to all the work done. Let’s be generous and say that I attempted to finish an assignment.  

10:15am: Freshman Experience, my first event after Tutoring Hour, was insightful. At the beginning of the activity, we played a few rounds of UNO. I tried stacking the cards up into a card tower. After a bit, the student mentors all introduced themselves. The highlight of the experience was collaborating to argue for the most supreme superpower, which ranged from teleportation, mind control, flying, and time travel. Then we all made a bucket list about what we’d want to accomplish in high school. A lot of the mentors gave tips about their experiences, and it was honestly a great way to connect with the upperclassmen. Everyone there was so eager to answer the questions I asked about their experiences, and I got to learn quite a bit about the mentors as well as the people at my table. In the future Flex Fridays, I hope I get to learn more about them. 

11:50am: We went to the auditorium to listen to an IT Presentation. It talked about the various pathways, had a speech from the IT Student of the Year from last year, I believe, and had a short announcement from the TSA team about their club.  

12:30pm: Finally, a well-awaited lunch. I ate lunch. It was delicious. It was also pretty long, so it gave some more time to get work done, or just have fun. (I spent most doing the latter) 

1:40pm: Time for our Wellness Activity. Environmental Stewardship definitely seemed to be a nice way to cool down, but I forgot to mention that it was 2 PM in the afternoon and burning hot outside. I was wearing a sweater. We walked through the nature trail that IA has, and it took around 15 minutes to cover. There was a sign saying that bikes were also allowed, and I’m curious to know whether people do actually ride their bikes ever so often around the trail. 

2:30pm: I’m heading to the last event of the day. For this event, I picked Game Theory, which was in room 272 with Mr. McG. The session studied the art of simultaneous decision making, which we played through google forms and fun games. A big part of it is what’s called a Nash Equilibrium, a situation where no player can benefit by changing strategies if the others keep theirs unchanged. With the tempting offer of Hershey’s Kisses, and the betrayal and rivalry streaming through the air, I can definitely say it was a very fun experience.  

4:05pm: Here we are at the end of the day. I remember I passed by one of the Base Campers on my way to the bus, and I can’t help but feel nice that she remembered my name and said hi to me. I’ll ask her name the next time we meet. I’m on the bus, sitting again with one of my neighborhood friends and a watch with recordings of music that give me all the entertainment I need for this ride back home. To say the least, I’m beat.  

But I’m very inclined to ride the bus again on Thursday morning, and to come back home on Thursday afternoon wanting to come back on Friday morning. And I guess that’s what I’ll be thinking when I’m back on the next day.