We have just two Mondays to go before Graduation 2018, and that means we have just two more reflections from the members of this year's 8th grade class and our "Meet Us Monday" series! It has been fun spending time with our 8th grade students as they reminisce and reflect on their years at ILS, the friendships they have made, and the many experiences they have shared both in and out of the classroom along the way. From favorite House competitions, to highlights of their 8th grade year, to memorable experiences with their teachers, we hope you enjoy reading these features and enjoying the ILS experience along with our soon-to-be graduates!
Meet Us Monday: Gage H., ILS Class of 2018
1. How long have you attended ILS? This is my third year. I liked it.
2. To what house do you belong, and how have you developed as a person by being involved in it? I belong to the house of Irenaeus. I’ve developed as a leader by helping the captains quiet everyone down and helping them make decisions about what’s best for our house. One time in the old building, Matthew and Marie were trying to get everyone to be quiet but it wasn’t working. So I raised my voice and yelled at them and they got quiet. Over time they started to listen at least a little bit more. Being in the houses is a good experience for students because you have to build a good team. I don’t want to say the houses force you to be social, but they do help you find ways to contribute to your house even if you’re shy, and then you make more friends. It’s a fun thing we do, not super serious; there’s an element of competition that can be really serious, but mostly it’s about working with your house and just having fun. The competitions are more friendly and not angry.
3. What was your favorite House competition? I like Field Day the best, mainly because it’s a lot of stuff to do and it lasts all day. There’s a huge diversity to the events within the field of sports. I enjoy sports and athletics a lot so this is probably my favorite day of the year. Before Field Day, the teachers give you a list of all the competitions, but the house captains choose who does what, and each event is a competition between the houses. There’s an overall winner at the end of the day. That’s challenging because they want to win but at the same time, they also have to keep in mind where their house members want to be. They have to balance the abilities of the house members and what they want with the good of house and victory. Some events are the softball toss, then there’s a really long relay for fun with sack rages, dizzy bats, egg races. Toughest events are the races, most likely because you have to position yourself well. Well, maybe they’re not the toughest but you have to apply the most strategy, especially in long relay races. My best events are the softball throw and probably the soccer challenge we did last year.
4. What is your favorite ILS memory? (Or, which ILS tradition will you remember the most?) My favorite ILS memory happened recently. Like, truly recently. Mr. Barnett did an impersonation of Matthew (my classmate) as a five year old and it was so funny. His voices are hilarious. Matthew just sat there and laughed with us. It was pretty accurate. The tradition I’ll miss most is being in my house – it’s unique and I’ve never done anything like it before. It’s helped me be social with other people.
5. Which event did you most look forward to during your 8th grade year? Probably graduation, strictly because you get to move into high school, the next milestone of your life. High school seems like a very important part of your life, maybe not the most fun, but pretty important, because it prepares you for college. Graduation marks that you’re a young adult and people don’t really see you as a kid anymore; there’s a level of maturity with it. The graduation ceremony is basically a chapel service with some special speeches and it honors the graduates.
6. What was your favorite class at ILS, and why? My favorite class has been PE, and that’s because you get to goof around a bit and it’s just really social and fun. Mr. Schultz teaches PE by giving us a game or activity and then we do it! It’s pretty competitive. Right now we’re learning about baseball and we’re organized into three teams. I don’t want to say it’s a total rivalry but Matthew and I are always competing. It’s more or less a friendly competition of trying to nutmeg each other during every PE class. Nutmegging someone means you kick the ball through their legs. It’s a big deal if you can do that in soccer especially because you’re trying to get the ball past the other person and it’s hardest to do that through their legs. Lucas and Tyreke have the same competition going. When we were playing soccer, everyone would cheer if there was any nutmeggery. It was hilarious. I don’t know if nutmegging is a real term or not, so maybe I should search for the origins of this. Oh, and this is getting off track but Mr. Schultz means a lot to me because he was kind of my first friend here; I know teachers aren’t exactly friends but I didn’t have friends when I first came here and he was really kind to me and we talked a lot.
7. What was your favorite ILS field trip? My favorite field trip was probably the last one we did, the Natural Museum of History. I got to hold a big bug, a cockroach. Lucky me. Yes, it was an African Hissing Cockroach. We also did a forensic lab there, and I liked that a lot because I’m into crime stories, like murder mysteries and so on. I like to watch crime shows on tv and solve the mysteries before the characters solve them.
8. Where are you attending High School? I’m attending TC Williams. It’s a public school, but I’m not on the main campus just yet. I’m going to the Minnie Howard campus which is just for 9th grade. We get chrome books so we can use Blackboard to do our homework. I plan on joining the basketball or baseball team when I get there. My sister Leah is still at TC Williams and I know most of Leah’s friends, but not really anyone at Minnie Howard yet.
9. What will you miss the most about ILS? I think I should say that I’ll miss Drew (my classmate) and the 7th graders. Drew tells a ton of random dad jokes. I have an example: well, maybe not a dad joke, but it’s at least a joke. “What is Russia’s primary mode of winning a war? Rushin’ the other side!” He told that in the middle of history class. 7th grade is that kind of funny that’s both annoying and funny all at once. They’re definitely funny in their own way and always funny to each other but not always to other people. They’ll just start talking in accents or blurt things out.
10. What is something a teacher told you that you will never forget? Mr. Schultz said to me that kids really do respect me and that I had to just know that was true even when it was hard to believe. Basically, he just boosted by confidence and that helped me make the friends I have today.