New Classes, New School, Same Routine Post Falls High Freshman Says She Is Ready For The Next Step

Ask Shannon Brown what it’s like to be starting high school and she’ll tell you it’s no big deal.

Ask her mom, Debbie, and you’ll get another story: “It’s her growing up,” Debbie said from the kitchen of the family’s Post Falls home.

“It’ll be hard.”

To which Shannon, 14, rolled her big blue eyes in true teenager fashion.

“I’ve talked to a lot of friends about it,” Shannon said. “Overall, what I’ve found out is it’s no big deal.”

Shannon and her family moved to Post Falls from Fresno, Calif., four years ago after her dad, Bill, got a job here.

She looks forward to having a new high school in a couple of years thanks to a recently approved school bond, but right now isn’t so excited about ending summer vacation and hitting the books this week.

“I guess it’s not bad,” she said, scrunching up her face. “The routine gets old.”

And her routine is a busy one.

She’s taken gymnastics lessons for eight years (her favorite event is the beam) and started piano lessons last year. She’s a candy striper at Kootenai Medical Center during the summers and will have logged 250 volunteer hours there by the time she goes back to school. Her cross-stitch designs won two first-place ribbons in this year’s North Idaho Fair.

Despite all that, she’s been on the honor roll for years. “I don’t know if it’s cool,” she says of the honor roll. “But it’s not, not cool.”

Her room brims with dolls and stuffed animals. One wall is lined with postcards from places she’s visited: Washington, D.C.; Chicago; Victoria, British Columbia.

Her prized possession, her great-grandmother’s sewing machine, sits in one corner.

Shannon dreams of being an elementary school teacher and hopes to get into a good university once she finishes at Post Falls High School.

“I definitely want to keep my grades up so I can get a scholarship to college,” she said. “But it’s also important to me to have fun.”

Unlike last year when she had to get up at 5:30 a.m. because of double-shifting, this year Shannon doesn’t have to catch the bus until 7:05 a.m. She’ll join about 340 other students in the freshman class and will be taking geometry, honors English, world history, physical science and band.

Although she enjoyed her summer of traveling and watching TV, she said she looks forward to being a ninth-grader.

“I’m excited about the change,” she said. “New school, new people.”