New Year: The Students’ Wishes

New Year celebration - one of the most important festivities of the year, coming up in just one month. New Year is the season of giving gifts, and most importantly, the season of wishes coming true. It’s interesting to look at what Junior High students would like for the New Year: what they expect from the school, or what they would want the school to do.

Photos by Mariam Gurchumelia

“I want the hallways and the school to be decorated. I want to see a big Christmas tree and also the 8th grade part of the school to be decorated as well. It would also be cool to see a Santa Claus walking around one day wishing us a good holiday and that stuff” - Keto Ediberidze, 8th Grade, C Block

“Just school full of decorations to create enjoyable Christmas/new years environment nothing else” - Demetre Tskhadadze, 8th Grade, C Block We’re kicking it off with the real celebration spirit for Christmas and New Year: decorated hallways and classrooms would be interesting, helping students, in a time of an almost gloomy environment due to the pandemic, develop some sort of Christmas/new years spirit.

“We need heating because I’m freezing.” - Dasha Vadachkoria, 8th Grade, D Block In many classrooms in the junior high area, it is mandatory to keep the exterior door open due to the covid regulations so the air can flow, so it’s often cold. This is an interesting wish…

Here comes one that almost every student would be willing to stand behind: “A party or something” - Luka Khonelia, 8th Grade, C Block

Parties - grand celebrations, people gathering together to say goodbye to the old year and to greet the new one with hope. Every student would probably be willing to do some kind of social event for New Year/Christmas, however, once more, the pandemic regulations prevent us from doing some of the most important things for the holiday spirit. “I would like the school to listen to the students better because a lot of people have problems or suggestions that need to be heard”

- Rati Ramishvili, 8th Grade, C Block The school is always trying to listen to the students and some online forums have been created for this purpose. New Year is all about the community, and so is this new year wish.

“Maybe secret Santa in classes?”

- Masho Keldishvili, 8th Grade, D Block

“In our last school on new years, we had secret Santa” - Elene Mosiashvili, 8th Grade, C Block

Secret Santa is a long-running tradition for Christmas and New Year and it has an interesting origin story. A philanthropist by the name of Larry Dean Stewart came up with the idea of giving random people anonymous gifts throughout the holiday season. Throughout 25 years, he gave gifts and donated large amounts of money to random people in the USA. Secret Santa is quite fun, especially in a friendly school environment, However, it may not be possible due to the pandemic regulations currently in place.

There is another, final wish on our list. A global new year's wish, inside every single one of us. It is for these regulations and the pandemic to finally end, and once this does happen, every wish we have made before it, staying warm in class, holding a party, secret Santa - may become a reality.

Edited by Mariam Begiashvili