With every school comes the new kid — but with every school, how many of them are new to the state as well as the school? Not many, in an area like Pittsburgh where population growth is not exactly explosive.

This year NASH is welcoming students from California, Indiana, Florida, even India, to name a few far-off places. We are the new students who don’t know exactly how to get around our school and our new home.

I moved to Pennsylvania only about three months ago and have only been a student at NASH for two weeks now. Note that this isn’t a new thing for me. In fact, I have done so five times, having lived in six states in my 16-year-old life.

What is it actually like being new to a school and state? For starters, it’s a bit scary because you don’t know anyone and your surroundings are all unfamiliar. You don’t know what to do since the rhythm of the people is different from those you once knew.

While I was living in Minnesota for several years, I learned the rhythm of the people. You walk fast and get everything done as fast as possible while doing your best, along with trying to take on as many things as you can. Everything in Minnesota was needed to be done in an instant. Here in Pittsburgh, the city is mostly about quality. Pittsburgh takes it’s time to perfect everything — the city understands what the world is and chooses to face everything intellectually instead of diving into the water head first.

Being a new student at NASH is also something that takes some getting used to. The school is considered to be one of the best in the region. According niche.com, NASH is the top public high school in Pittsburgh. The same website lists our school as 175th out of the country’s 18, 841 high schools.

But NASH isn’t a great place just because of its academics. It’s a great place because of the students, teachers, and faculty. The teachers are amazing, and their love for the school and students show. Even in the first few weeks of school, they have already shown kindness by interacting with new students such as myself.

This kindness is hard to come by.  The previous schools I have attended are nothing like NASH. Students here act like a family, and everyone supports each other. When the students interact, there seems to be no hint of judgment;  in particular, the students don’t judge you based on appearances. Rather, they judge you by what you have to deliver to the school.

To put it simply, I like where I am now.