By PEG BAER

"Boy, it's great to be back!" That was my first reaction upon returning to Maine West. I had participated in a Maine East and Maine West exchange.

There were five Maine West students who were chosen to become a Maine East student for a day. It's an experience that will not be forgotten.

We were greeted at the door by the Student Council sponsor from Maine East. She then directed us up some stairs, down some halls, and into the Student Council office. I then met my escort, Karen Penner, a junior.

First period was Student Council. That wasn't very interesting because I'm not a member of our Student Council, so I had nothing to compare it with.

During the course of the day, I visited many classes. A point that really stood out in my mind was that the teachers and the students didn't really care. Their attitudes were mostly negative, and the kids could sleep and the teacher wouldn't care. At our school their is a concern from the teachers about the students. If we fall asleep, the teacher at least notices. At Maine East they didn't.

The cafeteria at Maine East was a tragedy. It was actually worse than ours was last year. I was so proud of our cafeteria and didn't keep quiet as to how clean it was compared to theirs. The food was another story. If anyone thinks that our food at Maine West is bad, they don't know what bad is until they've been to Maine East.

Later in the day, I visited the Pioneer (Maine East paper) office. I met one of the editors and talked to him for a while. Even their newspaper is run different from ours. Again I was proud of our school and also of the Westerner.

I also had the opportunity to visit the Drama Department. This was especially interesting because I'm active in our Drama Department. They were in their final rehearsal of a Reader's Theater Production. It didn't seem like they had worked too hard on it. They kept losing the audience. I probably would have fallen asleep, but the bell rang.

It was time to go home. I had a terrible headache by that time and was glad to go home. We said good‑bye and left.

The Maine West V‑Show opened that night, and it felt good to be part of a well‑organized production. I never appreciated our school until that day. I realized how much we had to offer and was glad to be a part of it.

I hope that some day all of the students at Maine West will come to realize how lucky we really are. It could even prove to be better if more students would get involved.

I didn't write this to cut down Maine East, but to merely bring out the fact that we have great facilities, teachers, administrators, and that we have so much to offer. We should truly be proud of our school. "It's great to be back."