Graduating grade sevens from Bowen Island face the leap into the world of high school alongside a commute across Howe Sound and suddenly being thrown in to a much wider social circle. Olivia Harding says she found this transition particularly challenging, given her first year at Rockridge High School started late, due to a teacher’s strike. After a year of experience though, she had a few tips to pass on to her younger cousin, Ryan. Now, those tips, compiled in a booklet she called “The Rockridge Survival Guide,” have been edited and re-compiled for the benefit of all the Bowen student’s heading to Rockridge for the first time.
The booklet contains dos (read at least one book from the library, do things because you like them not just because your friends are doing them) and don’ts (sit in the middle of the hallway during lunch, other students will find it annoying to step over you) as well as tips on how to open your locker, find your classes, organize your work, find the right buses, and how to navigate the first day of school.
There’s also an exclusive survival list, just for Bowen kids.
Highlights include the advice to not miss the bus (because you’ll miss the ferry too – and most of your teachers will have never taken the ferry so they won’t understand when you roll into class at 10am); bring stuff even if you’re not sure you’ll need it (because your parents won’t be able to run stuff to you that you forgot at home) and always have $20 in your pocket so that if you find yourself stuck, you can take a cab from Caulfield to Horseshoe Bay.
In an interview, Harding told The Undercurrent that her number one piece of advice for kids entering high school is to be optimistic.
“It’s not the end of the world, its just high school,” she says. “Everyone goes through it.”
Harding adds that kids from the city are used to meeting kids from other schools and having friends come in and out of their lives, whereas Bowen kids have known their whole class since kindergarten.
“Rockridge is a pretty welcoming space so it’s not too intimidating,” she says. “Bowen kids do tend to stick together. Relationships change in high school, I’ve seen a lot of friendships bend and twist but they don’t break. For the kids who grew up on Bowen, old friendships are like a backbone.”
