Personal Narrative: I Am In Middle School

It was a normal school day at Brookhurst Jr. High in 7th Period were my friends and I were talking and waiting for the bell to ring so we could all go home and the school day would be over. Before I left I needed to go to the bike racks to get my skateboard so I could ride it home.

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

After three long activity filled years, eighth grade is finally drawing to a close. My middle school years are soon to be over and high school is just around the corner. It will be an exciting time and full of new adventures. When I look back at my middle school years one of the most memorable things has been the F.A.P trips. The Field Activity Program has enabled me to participate in many opportunities I would have not had otherwise. In sixth grade we went to swim with the manatees. It was an amazing trip since we were permitted to get into the water and touch them if they approached us. This was an amazing experience because manatees are a protected species, and this is something you can not go out and do

Middle school was just the beginning for me. When I came into the middle school, I thought I wasn’t going to survive but later on I realized it wasn’t terrible at all. I've made some great memories and the best one’s were here. Fifth grade was the start for me, sixth and seventh grade shaped my personality, and eighth grade made me come into contact with myself.

In November, the air is cool and burns my face. The wind passes through my nose and it feels as if I am breathing in a thousand miniature razors. My finger tips and ears are numb. My right side aches where I had been elbowed in the ribs and my ankle from where I tripped just up the field. I hear my mom in the crowd, “Go, baby, go!” Even though, every muscle in my body screams for me to stop, I go. The pain does not bother me, neither does the cold. I am just happy to be here.

The first name was called and it turned out to be 1 of my friends.

Middle school years were my least favorite years of school. The kids that I thought were my friends had become my biggest enemies. I will admit that in middle school I wasn’t the skinniest girl at the school. I had gained weight over the summer and was too oblivious to see it. Now that I am in high school I really wish that I wouldn’t have let those kids bother me so much.

I remember when I was going to the middle school becoming a seventh grader and on the second day of school, I spotted my first love. Little did I know that he had a girlfriend. I didn’t pay her any attention because of the fact that I liked him so badly. By the way, they were on and off so I wasn’t stun nothing about her. Days were passing and I was watching him like a hawk. I didn’t know his name until one day, his homeboy came to me that morning and said, “my boy poke said wassupp?” I was blushing so hard but I played it off so I wouldn’t just throw myself out there to him. However, I said, “okay” meaning yes. He then walked away going back telling him what I said and that’s when I went to my 1st period class. While I walking there, I was thinking to myself “his nickname is poke.”

Last week, I began my first initial year of middle school. I thought that my first day would be anything but challenging and stressful, But, it turns out that I was entirely wrong.

It was a crisp fall day in Colorado at my middle school, Lincoln Elementary. The leaves were beginning to change and fall from the trees as it was finally September. I felt them crush under my feet while I traveled up and down the pavement. The school’s recent addition of a new basketball court was a dream come true. I could smell the perfectly marked lines that were freshly painted on the court. My best friend Ryan and I often practiced shooting hoops at recess as we were both starters on our school’s basketball team. On this particular day, we were preparing for our first home game which was the next day. We had such an intense game of one on one that I completely lost track of time and did not hear our teacher blow her whistle to call our class inside.

When I was young and in sixth grade, I thought that I could do my homework the night before it was due and finish it in five minutes, so I could spend time the previous day doing fun activities.

In his book, ‘The Rhythm of Life’, Matthew Kelly teaches the reader to become “the best version of ourselves.” He offers reasonable tips and advice on how to do this. Though his ideas on how to better your life are sound and make sense, it can be very difficult and challenging to do what he requests at some parts. It can seem almost impossible to become the best version of yourself in the way that Matthew Kelly suggests. This unusual goal to better myself may be difficult to reach, but I know that with motivation, encouragement, and hard work, that it can be met.

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment” according to Ralph Waldo Emerson. For me to define myself can be a tedious, because every day I learn something new about myself. What can I say, I’m constantly trying to be a better person than I was yesterday.

It was many years ago, when I first read about a man named Abraham Maslow. Maslow was an American psychologist who developed a pyramidal hierarchy of needs. At the base of his pyramid, Abraham Maslow placed the basic “physiological needs” such as: food, water, and sleep. The next layer of his pyramid was “safety”, which was followed by “love/belonging”, and then “esteem”. Although, my interest truly began when I reached the very top of the pyramid which was labeled “self-actualization”. Self-actualization was the term Maslow used to describe individuals who had fulfilled their full potential. My eyes twinkled with curiosity as I read. Could I really do it? I wondered. Could I reach a state of self-actualization? It was in that very moment that self-actualization became my ultimate goal. I would reach my full potential. I would become the best possible version of myself.

Girls always seem to need someone to go to the bathroom with them. It’s as if they fear when they go by themselves, they’ll be attacked by a troll like Hermione in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. They just can’t seem to do it by themselves.