Personal Narrative: Middle Schooled: An Academic Transformation

Before the first grade, we moved around a few times before ending up here in Sylvania. As a child, both my parents worked full time jobs and I was always at after school day cares or at my grandparents houses, never really got to spend a lot of time with friends or was able to socialize with many people. So growing up most of my time was spent with my brother and I thought nothing of it. As I grew up I began to realize that I had become stuck in some bad habits. My brother and I weren't asked to help around the house much but when we were we never listened. But to my surprise there were no consequences for our disobedience. At the time I thought I had it good. Around the time I got too middle school I began to realize the problem. I began

I was never the type of kid to standout in school especially not in the hallway. I was never too tall, never too short, not too scrawny, but the one thing I like to do is make people laugh. Yet even though that was very fun and all I still leave my legacy behind, which as weird, as this sounds, I was the one kid teachers never took seriously, but for the most part I never got that bad of a grade, in middle school(except when it came to 7th grade language arts class).

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

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.

Harry Potter, Junie B. Jones, Narnia, Lemony Snicket, Hunger Games, Lord of the Rings, Goosebumps, Magic Tree House, and the Boxcar Children: Popular book series that most kids get into. I never did. Ever since school required mandatory reading, I perceived books as hassles. School effectively turned me off of reading for pleasure. Going into middle school, where students have regular book reports and summer reading, I faced a challenge. To make it by I had to learn to live with books, as they played an integral part to my career as a student. However, my current state of mind labeled reading a hassle and wanted nothing to do with it, necessitating change. Transitioning from elementary to middle school, I matured both physically and intellectually.

I worked at Fairview gardens in Sauk Rapids until they closed for the year and i will continue working there after school ends. Fairview Gardens is a floral nursery and at my time working there I learned allot about plants and enjoy gardening during some of my freetime. Something interesting about me is that i'm a vegetarian, i've been a vegetarian for half a year now. I also enjoy volunteering at the saint cloud hospital during summers. Working there taught me how to be mindful of others, good work ethic and many more.

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

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.

Up until high school I had been a straight A student. Elementary school was a breeze with coloring sheets and constant pats on the back. Middle school was more difficult, but still provided a similar environment filled with constant positive reinforcements. High school was a different world.

Middle school is kinda weird, especially if it's your first year. Your meeting new teachers, students so it will be awkward at first, but then you get to know everyone in your class. I was a different kid before I Entered middle school, I was really immature, quite short

For the most part, I have rarely experienced deindividuation, as I have never really done anything out of my character; however, there is one specific moment I can recall from middle school. If you had good grades at the time when your advisory teacher checked every monday, you were given a free pass to spend the rest of the weeks advisory periods playing games. I don’t think there was time when I didn’t have good grades, so I got to mess around every week during this time period. One day, my friends and I discovered one of the rooms wasn’t being watched by a teacher, so, of course, we started going to that room everyday. It didn’t take long for us to completely lose our normal morals around each other, due to the group anonymity and that we

It was the eve of middle school, I think; I sure wasn't really keeping track. The promised day had arrived, my grades were as sound as a tuned trumpet; and I was just done with a C- in music. However, I kept my behavior to the minimum of a 5th grader; something that was much more welcomed than the awkward and apathetic existence of middle schoolers. I’ve been keeping myself on the down low for a good month when my math teacher announced to us that we would be having a boat trip for the most well behaved student, and take a guess who was first of her list! It was Samuel. However, sure enough I was able to weasel and bribe my way in with compliments and good behavior into the list as seventh place! Even better news was that I could bring a parent

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.

I consider my Middle School career to be like climbing a mountain. You start the climb not knowing what to expect, not knowing what types of things you will run into. As the climb progresses, you become more accustomed to your terrain. Through experience, you learn which places to rely on, which rocks and ledges you know you can trust with your life. Throughout your climb, things can get a little rough. Sometimes, you may feel like giving up and climbing back downwards. Other times, you may feel like you have no ledges to help you climb the mountain. However, after the hard climb, the view is beautiful.