For years, the rivalry between Klein High and Klein Oak has been alive. Of course it is mostly a major thing during football season, because many students like going to go watch the football games and support or just hang out with their friends. This rivalry is also a big thing for Band, more specifically, during Marching Band.

Honestly I’ve never really been one for rivals because to me, I feel like putting energy into the rivalry is pointless if you are trying to be serious about it. There will always be outsiders, judging each school/team without any bias toward either. Even after high school it won’t mean much because you’ll most likely go to college or have a business and be competing with other people. Personally, I don’t like being challenged or doubted, so I do get competitive and will take part in the rivalry; that doesn’t mean I dislike the other schools or my competition all the time.

In middle school I always thought I’d be attending Klein High because that is where I’ve been zoned to, but I decided to do a year of IB to try it out which meant that I had to attend Klein Oak. IB stands for International Baccalaureate; it’s a program that basically gives you a higher education sooner. With my studying habits and having more school work than I was used to, I couldn’t always keep up and that’s what made me dislike the program. I’m usually good with school and grades, but remembering everything was difficult for me especially during the second semester when I was going back and forth to the doctors’ office after having a procedure done and missing a week of school. The second semester of this past year was probably the most difficult between trying to catch up in my classes and building up the strength to play my instrument as well as before. Overall being at Klein Oak was okay. It’s another place to get education. I can’t exactly compare the classes because I’m not in the same classes I was last year.

Now that I’m at Klein High, I don’t automatically feel obligated to adhere to the rivalry, or just dislike them for no reason. Because I went to Oak and I have friends over there, it’s not as though I had a terrible experience. Don’t get me wrong, of course I’m very competitive, but I’m not serious about it all because in a few years none of it will matter. I get it, it’s high school, “the best four years of your life”, or whatever; but having people be serious about these rivalries sometimes isn’t the best. I get it if it’s all for fun and you still congratulate the other school, but when it comes down to saying that the other school didn’t deserve what they got compared to your own school, it gets annoying. It also feels terrible when you’ve worked hard at what you’re doing, and someone just doubts you, or says that what you presented wasn’t as good as theirs.

The structure of the building and getting around each school differs quite a bit because Klein Oak only has two floors. The places you have to walk to outside are the Band/Orchestra Halls, T-buildings and A-buildings, which are just T-buildings that are outside the athletic area. Their auditorium is across from the main building. Additionally, there is a “freshman wing.” Since the remodeling a few years ago, Klein High has buildings that are connected inside through Main Street, and the Cafeteria/Commons area. There are the athletic and fine arts buildings that have three floors each. The Academic building has four floors. Then there are the T-Buildings that are located outside the cafeteria and the music hall.

At Klein Oak, I didn’t like the fact that the freshmen had their own “wing,” and that they also had to walk in one direction, because it wastes time walking around the hallways when your class is right there by the stairs. For instance, my geometry class was two doors down from the stairs I would use to go up, and my teacher was one that always enforced the rule to follow the way the hallway is supposed to go, so eventually I started going a different route. The stairs in the freshman wing were also labeled “up” or “down,” with arrows. I liked the friends I made in band, and some of them I still talk to every once in a while. It was great to make new friends while the friends I had and were used to were here at Klein.

Now that I’m at Klein, I get to see the friends that I’ve known for years. I don’t like that I missed a year away from everyone, but it is not different than being surrounded by my new friends, freshman year, that already knew each other. Here at Klein, in the band, I like that the saxophones and bass clarinets do a “Sax Line” in the stands, during football games. I like that the school seems more lively, like it doesn’t feel dark and moody because there are windows almost everywhere.

The main question people ask me when they find out I went to Oak is, “Which school do you like better?” and my answer, is that I don’t have a favorite. It’s like asking someone what their all-time favorite song is, I just don’t think it’s that easy. Maybe one day I’ll be sure of my opinion, but for now I’m undecided because I like both schools for different reasons.