East has a rather peculiar student body. We love to be late to school. We love to be late to class. We love those early dismissals. We love those consecutive fire drills during near-negative temperatures that seem endless. We love that day before spring break when we can finally relax to good music and food after being so exhausted by that never-ending third marking period. We love those lockdowns…tiers one, two, and three. And we love it even more when they get confused for one another.

Ironically, what I think we East students love the most, though, is actual school. We may complain about homework and tests and projects and reports, but honestly, who isn’t excited to check his Progressbook account every other hour? We’re so peculiar that we even check it during the summer… Like that one time our schedules were posted almost a month too early, yet suddenly the Facebook notes page was filled with everyone’s classes for the next school year.

My favorite thing about East has been bonding with students in every grade and every activity from all over the school over the one thing we could all relate to the most: East’s uniquely difficult school work. We may pretend to dread every Monday morning, but nothing beats the anticipation of last-minute cramming in the cafeteria before school, breakfast from the latest Krispy Kreme fundraising endeavor and lunch with your best friends. The best is seeing a majority of your chemistry class still online at midnight in one huge discussion trying to figure out exactly what the Zumdahls are trying to get across.

I think this is what I’ll miss the most about East: the student body’s peculiar connection and shared excitement over most things academic. We scream. We stress. We cry. But we relish every moment of it.