Andover Surprises

Andover Swimming

The first time I came to Andover in January, I was a student from another country and not a student of Phillips Academy Andover. Although I knew the person who toured me really well (as he is also from Hong Kong), I felt forlorn and out of place as I walked around campus simply because…I was not a student.  Here I am…eight months later. I am now a student of Andover. I simply cannot believe I am here now.

As my dad drove to Rockwell House, I saw students wearing the Andover logo shirts and jackets. Suddenly, I started to feel the “Andover Spirit”. Although I was not officially part of the community yet I could somehow visualize and foresee my future at Andover. While I was starting to unload my belongings and bringing them to the lift, I passed by a lot of smiling students and parents. I smiled back. Later, a prefect of the dorm approached me. On first sight, I thought he looked like a very amicable person. I was correct. I later found out that the prefect, Adam, was living opposite my room on the 3^rd floor of Rockwell South. He offered to help out but my dad and I kindly rejected his offer as he was still busy with his unpacking too.

When I reached my room, I was totally startled at the fact that I had such a spacious room. Rooms in Rockwell were much bigger than what I remembered and I was overjoyed. While my parents and I were busy with unpacking, many people approached us and introduced themselves. I gradually met all the kids who were also moving in and became good friends with them all. Not only were they all very friendly, I realized that we have a lot in common.

When school starts. The pressure is on. Friends are there to help. The night before school started. We all sat down in the common room, talking about what we expect on the first day. It was not only a fun topic but also very consoling because I realized that I was not the only one with concerns. Andover has widened my view about friendship. The meaning of friendship used to be only people I hang out with but after only four days of school, I realized the word friendship has deeper meanings and is plausible to understand it fully.

One thing I predicted before I came to Andover was that a lot of people would be still in holiday gear. They would still be bored out of their minds, and in desperate need of some kind of entertainment, other than their computer screen or their television screen. Homework would obviously not be a good solution. I was wrong. On the first night, everyone was in their rooms working on their homework and not playing video games or watching television in the common room. Their brains quickly come intact while my transition is still very slow.

As for classes, I have now realized how smart the people at Andover are. I am not saying it surprised me a lot but the intelligence of all the students exceeded my furthest expectations.  As a swimmer, I love competing, so I will look forward to competing with the class of 2012.

On the other hand, the feel of community here is very strong. In Hong Kong, I thought my school spirit was very strong, but now, I think otherwise. The spirit here is so high that sometimes, I cannot help myself but to spurt out the school slogans, especially when the blue keys held up the “Honk If You Over Andover” signs. I am from West Quad South and the people in my cluster are surprisingly very passionate about their cluster. They yell out cluster slogans and wave flags in the air.

So far, Andover has been a wonderful home for me and I hope this is going to be a very memorable year and I cannot wait to be surprised once again.