I remember between classes shuffling out to my locker, trying to see if I could find a familiar face, a familiar friend. My eyes would get wide-this was more people than I had ever been around in elementary school. How would I talk to people? I found that I wasn’t hanging out with the same people from elementary school and that felt weird. I grew apart from a few of my elementary school friends and started to make new friends in my electives. I played cello in the orchestra, took art with Mrs. Monk and I had P.E. with Mr. Peterson. Are those teachers still there?
In seventh grade, I began to be more self-conscious about how I looked. Does my hair look all right today? Should I wear this sweatshirt today? I remember my heart beating faster than usual when I thought people were looking at me, anxiously walking from class to class. I remember reading the Twilight series, but I always tried to keep the books hidden in my backpack. I thought that people would judge me since I was a boy reading them. But a few friends who were girls found out, and they were actually happy that we could have a conversation about the book series!
I always remember feeling at home in the library. Mr. Doughty is the coolest-you’re so lucky to have him as a librarian!
In eighth grade, I remember really enjoying orchestra class and woodshop. I came early in the morning to work on models of a wooden piano and cello that I was building. Since I had made friends in the orchestra in sixth grade, we had become much closer friends by eighth grade. We enjoyed being around each other and accepted each other for ourselves.
Then… ninth grade! The big transition to high school!
