Writing contest with Bulgarian sister school: the runner-ups

Let it snow: A fountain on the campus of ACS

We held a writing contest with our sister school in Bulgaria, the American College of Sofia. These are the runner-ups; the winner will be published in the paper next week.

The gate of the American College of Sofia


   It is that thing you can love and hate with equal passion. Some days you wake up dreading what is upcoming, other times you wake up with delight at what the day will behold. It is the thing that will swamp you with assignments and tests, yet will reward you for the hard work (or lack thereof) you have put in. It is that place where you will see people you get along with and people you cannot stand. On the outside it may appear to be just the latest school, but in reality, it is so much more than that. Welcome to ACS.
   ACS is considered to be one of the best schools in Bulgaria. In order to get accepted into the school, ACS-ers had to take a special entrance exam that most students diligently prepared for. Take Emil Narev, an eighth grader for example. He started going to tutoring lessons in the sixth grade in order to prepare for the exam. Most students, however, start preparing for the exam in the seventh grade. And a lucky handful, such as Chrissy Petrova, a sophomore, did not require any preparation at all. “My parents told me they had signed me up to take the exam about a week before it was held. I didn’t do a thing to prepare. I merely went in order to test my skills.”
   Hearing this, a lot of students get the wrong impression. “When I first came to ACS, I thought that it would be filled with only a bunch of nerds who do nothing but study in their free time,” shares a junior, who wishes to remain anonymous. “I thought that everybody would be some genius that gets all A-s and understands everything”, a senior confides. Needless to say, both the junior and the senior were wrong. Very wrong.
   Wandering through the school, you definitely do not get the “nerd” impression. In typical student fashion, most homework and projects are done the day before they are due. In fact, in my English class, recently the teacher asked us when we start preparing for our vocabulary quizzes. Two thirds of the class raised their hand that they prepare the day before the quiz. And the other one third prepare on the actual day of the vocab quiz. As Kalin Stoyanov proudly shares, “I read my vocab words in the morning in the bus, on the way to school.” Multitasking at its best.
   While there are many students who copy their homework in the morning or do it during the lunch break, stupid is something these students are not. ACS-ers know when to study hard and when to take it down a notch. After all, the school sets high standards in education and demands them to be upheld: cue being put on academic probation for a GPA under 4.50. Furthermore, ACS wants more than just academic successes. It also requires that its students take part in various clubs and extracurricular activities.
   ACS-ers do have a lot on their plates with the multitude of assignments and projects they have day to day. As Boyan Georgiev shares, “I have a chemistry quiz, a math test, an English essay, and geography homework to do. And that’s just for tomorrow.” But don’t feel too bad for him. With a sheepish grin, Boyan admits that the fact that he has all this work to do now is because he procrastinated. “It happens to the best of us!” he jokes. And, after all, it is just the latest part of the ACS experience: study hard, but don’t miss out on the chance to have some fun while doing so.


-By Nadya Netcheva