Personal Narrative: Moving From Elementary School To Middle School

“Stop being such a child!” A regular phrase that I heard when growing up through middle school. Whether they were kidding around or not, it really attacked me psychologically. As such, I was bullied for not being as mature as the other children around me. I really didn’t understand what the harm was with what I was doing. All that I simply did was continue to watch cartoons, draw, read comics, and other things that were apparently too kiddish to continue doing in middle school. It seemed in that time, people our age were pressured to act their age plus more. This left me alone most of the time, as I choose to do the opposite. I continued almost everything I did while I was in elementary school. Though the social knockback was tough, as being

Starting middle school was a mixture of anxiety and excitement. There was a brand new campus to explore, but we were also nervously anticipating the academic program that was about to begin. Most of my grade had been together since the age of four and by this time there were clear social divides. There were the girls who were seen as popular, and then there was everybody else. You could say that I was part of the popular crowd, though at the time I didn’t notice myself standing apart from the others. As a group of friends we got on well, we’d hang out, go to the cinema, have sleepovers, all the usual things friends do. Then things gradually started to change.

From my experience, surviving middle school takes a mixture of luck, naive fearlessness, and an aggressive number of colorful plastic binders. I started my first day of fifth grade a jumbled mess of nerves, anxious about making friends and doing well in class, and inexplicably dressed head-to-toe in red, white, and blue swag my mom got when the Summer Olympics were in Atlanta. I mean, my backpack matched my shoelaces, which matched my pants and my shirt. I might have even had a hat. A hat. A precisely matching hat. That I wore all day. Needless to say, I was not a particularly cool child. I studied hard, had a core group of equally nerdy friends, and constantly worried about whether I was doing the right thing or, perhaps more accurately, becoming the right thing. Was I not studying hard enough to get into college? Or maybe studying too hard, missing out on my youth? Would I grow into my teeth one day? Would my skin eventually stop looking like greasy peanut brittle?

As I went through 1-9 grade school I finally found grit. Going to St. Mary’s during 1-6 grade school getting up at 6:30 every morning just wanting to hit the snooze button so I could get that extra hour of sleep in. After getting ready for school, I would get on the bus, three stops later we would pick up these annoying foster kids that gave me a headache every day because they would shut their mouths that I would have to push through school with. Then building up all the energy sitting in 1-2 classrooms the whole day waiting for recess so I could let it all out. Since I pushed through those challenges, I was able to move on to middle school. During my two years of middle school three out of the five days of school, I would get up at 5:30 and

Automotive industry pioneer Henry Ford once said,“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal”. Each and every day I live by this quote when thinking about my future and the obstacles that lay ahead. One hurdle that I can think to be the toughest is the transition from Elementary to Middle School. This was very terrifying for me as 11 year old juvenile. So what did I do? I made friends, did my best on my work, and looked toward the future. I wanted and still want my future to be finishing high school with honors, and working for United Airlines as a Captain. As a Sophomore in Park View High School, I have very much so passed the transition from Elementary to Middle, and feel good about how I overcame

I remember when it was time to go from being a 12 year old 6th grader, to a 12 year old middle schooler with a lot more responsibilities than I was used to having. I had to make sure all my homework was done on time (It took me awhile to get the idea of no late homework hammered into my head), asked for help when I needed it the teacher wasn’t going to help as much as the elementary teachers would do unless I asked, with asking for help was a lot harder than I thought it would be everyone was confused too, after awhile the teacher finally got tired of running around the room jumping from student to student, marched up to the front of the class and wrote on the board of how to do a certain assignment.

So the first thing I want to talk about is how middle school changed my life. When I was first coming into middle school, I was really scared and nervous about a lot of things like not being able to open your locker, bad people, swearing, and a lot of other stuff. Once I first came into middle school, things were, well a lot different than expected. I had no problem opening my locker, the “scary” people weren’t that scary, and swearing was just blocked out of my mind. I really wasn’t that nervous the next day and I just went on going to classes and learning like I usually did. Now about a few months into the school year, I kept on meeting people and making more friends. Little did I know that I would meet my best friend. Like BEST FRIEND.

Change scared me. Coming to HMS for the first time as a 7th grader terrified me. As the summer came to an end, I worried about getting around the school, meeting new people, and the change in my sleeping habits and schedule. Thoughts rushed through my head about going to the Middle School for the first time. The first day of seventh grade came quick and I was ready to start a new year. My dad drove me to the front of the school and I exited the car saying good bye. I was unsure where any of my classrooms were and I only recognized a few people in my homeroom. The Middle School was far larger then I remember from the tour that ARIS provided. I wasn’t use to no recess, and the formation of the lunch lines. Going into seventh grade, I was clueless

I walked into the loud building so scared and nervous. I couldn't believe today was the day. The day i'm finally in middle school. That day was the day that I could officially call myself a Vista Verde Middle School student. When I walked into the building the bell had rung for us to proceed to class. On my I spotted one of my very good friends, Esmeralda. After I said hi to her I walked to my first period class which is room 403 and my teacher is Ms. Blasnek.

One of the hardest and most influential days of my life was when I started middle school. It was my first time switching schools in six years and I wasn’t sure I was ready to. Some of my friends had known me for those six years and some even more. I had all sorts of questions running through my head on the day of the orientation. Like, what if I don’t fit in or what if I get lost on my first day? All of these questions disappeared when I stepped into what would soon be my new school.

There was a lot of change throughout my life as a seventh grader because I moved to a different city during my seventh grade year. This was hard for me because I had to leave all my friends that I knew from Kindergarten. Moving to Sauk Rapids was hard because I didn’t really fit in. My grades were good but I didn’t really enjoy school. But then I switched schools to Sartell and I made a lot of knew friends quickly.

When I was growing up, I never expected to be made fun of. I didn’t know that being overweight was going to be a problem. I lacked the courage to defend myself from bullies who often teased me. They laughed and even made jokes about me because I was out of shape and quiet. Being different was a tough experience for me in middle school and in elementary school since I didn’t know how to defend myself and even less, ask for help. Kids wouldn’t come up to me and ask me to play with them.Instead, I spent most of the time alone.

What I thought 7th grade was going to be like was that we wouldn’t have free time after lunch I thought we would go to lunch and then go back to class but I was wrong. I didn’t think I was going to like Marlette high school. I guess I did after a month or so I started likening it. I thought it was going to be hard because of all of the older kids in the grade. I know half of the upper grade people. But I was afraid of the people I didn’t know.

Growing up in a predominate white town served a huge challenge for me growing up. Yes, my mother has as much diversity as a blank sheet of paper and my dad is black, but even though I am biracial I have never felt too deeply connected with either side growing up.

Afraid of making new friends, I took on the challenges of high school on my own, with no help from any of my classmates. I felt that I could be independent, especially after my parents told me to put school before friends. As a result, I stayed up late at night trying to learn all the material