Where will they be in four years?

“Write down who your friends are,” Oceanside High School senior Alessio Rossario advised the freshmen. “See how much it changes by senior year.”

The incoming ninth-graders of the class of 2021 were assembled in groups of four and five, with an upperclassman assigned to each cluster. At their Aug. 25 high school orientation, they filled out “Notes to Self,” about their dreams and ambitions, which would be sealed away until senior year so they could see how much they had changed.

Rossario said he didn’t remember what he wrote down as an incoming freshman.

Freshman Aiden Rodriguez said that in second grade, he had done a similar exercise. “All my answers were about Minecraft,” he said, referring to the popular video game. “It was super cringy.”

This time, when the note-to-self prompted him to imagine what he would be doing in four years, he wrote, “Reading what I wrote four years ago.” What steps would he take to make that vision a reality? the worksheet prompted. “I’ll write this now and read it in four years.”

When the incoming high schoolers first entered the classroom, they caught up with friends they hadn’t seen over the summer. Then they played a quiz game called Kahoot on their iPads that asked them a series of questions, including “What superpower would you want to have?” “What’s the best pizza in Ocean Side?” and “Moe’s or Chipotle?” According to the results, the typical incoming student aspires to be a business owner who swims in the ocean, eats burritos from Moe’s and pizza from Pizzaiola and owns a private jet despite having the superpower of flight.

The final Kahoot question was, “What are you most excited to do at Oceanside High School?” One of the seniors shouted, “Leave!” which was not one of the multiple-choice options, while most of the freshmen chose, “sports.”

After the icebreaker exercise, the freshmen watched a video that explained what they could expect from high school. It had been written, directed, produced and edited by members of the class of 2015, and was full of jokes, including a “school library” segment featuring a bearded 18-year-old engrossed in an issue of “Good Housekeeping.”

After the video, the freshmen asked the older students about academics and high school logistics, such as the length of classes and the number of permitted absences.

A young man, the only one in the room wearing a hat, asked, “Can you wear a hat in school?” The senior leading his group replied that he could.

The majority of questions were about food. The newcomers were delighted to learn that the 20-minute middle school lunch period would be doubled in high school.

The presentation segment of the orientation lasted about an hour and a half. After that, the seniors led small groups on guided tours of the building. Some students, like Ash Goldenberg, explored the building unaccompanied. Goldenberg tooled around on Heelies — sneakers that double as skates thanks to a hidden wheel. “I’m bringing Heelies back,” Goldenberg said.

Freshman Dan Pfiel wasn’t new to the building. He plays a trumpet, and had been at the high school for marching band practice during the past two weeks. He was pulled out of practice to attend orientation, but he was glad he came.

“It was helpful,” he said, adding, “-ish.”