Traumatic In Middle School

"A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying." B. F. Skinner. Everyone fails at one thing or another in one point of his or her life; it's a characteristic of being a human. But, it's not about how we fail; it's about how we're able to cultivate our past failures to elaborate on to future success.

In the book Middle School Worst Years of my Life by James Patterson a boy named Rafe Khatchadorian has enough problems at home without throwing his first year of middle school into the mix. Luckily he's got a great plan for the best year ever if only he can pull it off. With his best friend Leonardo the Silent awarding him points Rafe tries to break every rule in his school's Code of Conduct. Chewing gum in class is 5,000 points. Running in the hallway is 10,000 points. Pulling the fire alarm is 50,000 points. But when Rafe's game starts to catch up with him, he'll have to decide if winning is all that matters, or if he's finally ready to face the rules, bullies, and truths he's been avoiding.

The first reason how I’ve changed since I have came to Middle School is I have become more focused on work. When I was at Elementary School I did not want to do work at all, but when I have came to Middle School I actually do my work now. I get my worked turned in on time, and I don’t get in trouble if I don’t get my worked in on time.

book after book. All titled Middle school, the worst years of my life, how I survived middle school, middle school get me out of here,and the list goes on . As I was nearing the end of fifth grade, I started seriously thinking about how middle school would be and got worried after hearing of so many stories of people's terrible middle school years. However, I have to admit it really hasn’t been all that bad these last three years and in fact, middle school may have been my favorite, compared to elementary school. With more freedom, more people, more homework, more activities, more teachers, more fun classes, more excitement, more everything quite frankly, I have been able to have . I am sure a lot of us have fun throughout these middle school while learning more about yourselves and the people around us each year. I am sure many of us have been able to say for sure that we have had many experiences that can prepare us for the future.

In middle school, 5th to 8th grade, I endure multiple adjective to describe my experience in middle school. While in Middle School, I struggle with my appearance which has stayed as an adult. For I always look at myself and all the flaws in my features, as my family members and/or friends state my beauty features, I will brushed them off by stating the negative feature I visually observe. Until recently, I’ve overcome my inability of reading in public and/or to my peers. As my cousin passed away tragically, his mother (my Aunt) asked if I will read his poem to her and a group of 50 strangers. She knew my fear of public speaking, she also knew my dream of becoming a teacher and starting to a career as a substitute teacher. Therefore, she knew I needed to overcome the fear of speaking. I am extremely pleased with myself to speak clearly and to have the strength and encouragement of my family to overcome my greatest fear with a poem in dedication to my beloved cousin.

Once again I found myself at the bottom of the food chain entering 5th grade. I had just moved back to Eureka as my mom realized she wanted to be closer to family, and I remember how scared I was. I came in the middle of the school year yet again, so there I sat in the library as I waited for my teacher to come grab me. I remember seeing familiar faces from the prior year pass by me on their way to first hour. I waited patiently, still no teacher had come to claim me for their homeroom. I realized I had been forgotten. What a great way to start off the new year... not. Finally a teacher came and got me and laughed about the fact that I was forgotten, which I failed to find as funny as she did but oh well. Looking around my homeroom I anticipated seeing all the same faces, quickly I noticed that there were A LOT of new faces,

Communicating with my peers has been a hefty struggle with me for years. For me to speak with one partner let alone a whole class was challenging enough. Through elementary, I used to speak in quiet stutters that required an ear full to get a word.

Time, like always, blew by. Middle school brought its own challenges, as it does for all kids. You struggled with the person you wanted to be, made hard choices about what you valued. Dad and I tried to guide you, but you made decisions on your own, and they were always the right ones. We could clearly see that you were a natural leader and persistent worker. High school only cemented those traits about you, and then, amazingly, you were again ready to move to a different world.

When comparing my life and personality as a freshman to my current life, there are many differences. As a freshman, I was unmotivated and immature. Going into highschool, I wasn’t prepared or used to doing a lot of homework. In elementary and middle school I had been one of the smartest kids in my class, and school was easy. Then when I started 9th grade, I realized I actually had to put effort in my work, so I didn’t. Freshman year I was mean and rude to those around me, including my friends and teachers. I remember myself as loud and obnoxious, and I didn’t really care about other people’s feelings or how my actions would affect others. When I reflect on what I was like, I see myself as the few kids in my PGC group who don’t pay attention

Traumatic events are defined as those in which an individual experiences, witnesses, or confronted with actual or threatened death, serious injury, or threatened physical integrity of self or others (DSM-V). Children are exposed to various experiences that can be traumatic for them. Childhood traumatic experiences may stem from experiences that were of a violent nature, physical, psychological or sexual. Children are often witnesses to physical violence in the homes, domestic violence against the parent. They are exposed to gun violence, drugs/substance abuse, and homelessness. Some children live in households where family members are incarcerated, mentally ill or have experienced a tragic loss as a result of death.

When examining at a broad scope, traumatic events are often linked to PTSD (Cepeda, Saint Onge, Kaplan & Valdez, 2010), but this is generally examined at the adult level. Hurricane Katrina took its psychological toll on adolescents as well. Just as adults turn to substance use in stressful situations, adolescents follow this same pattern (Beaudoin, 2011). Adolescents are particularly vulnerable in the wake of a disaster (Wagner, Brief, Vielhauer, Sussman, Keane & Malow, 2009). The exposures of this disaster on adolescents lead to the development of destructive health behaviors. After disaster adolescents, namely female adolescents, suffer interpersonal victimization (Wagner, Brief, Vielhauer, Sussman, Keane & Malow, 2009). Young females are

Coming to middle school, I expected it to be really hard and scary. It was a big, new school, and so many new people and teachers in it. There was so many fears. Different types of activities. Also, so many teachers. In the end, I faced my fears, joined different activities, and accomplish some achievements.

As the last quarter of my high school career nears its end, I can’t help but think about the last three years of high school and how much I have evolved. Freshman year I was far from the quiet person I am now. I was very talkative and much more outgoing. I used to play basketball for the school and that was my only worry at the time. There weren’t any SATs like junior year or college applications like this year. The last three years flew by so fast that I never got a chance to actually see how much I grew until now.

I was never the one to go out of my way to speak to someone but throughout the years I have been more open with others. Like a lot of people in the beginning of high school I had so many friends, people who I thought I can trust but my sister was right and you learn not to trust everyone. I learned how to pick out what I can say and who I can say it to. I’ve made progress with speaking to others without being shy, being able to just be myself. I also got into sports during my sophomore year. I played soccer in the fall (field hockey senior year for my fall sport), managed wrestling in the winter, and played lacrosse in the spring. It kept me occupied and help me expand my horizons and let me escape all the drama. This is how I learned to talk

Getting out of bed used to be the worst part of my day. I know I sound so relatable and quirky but I’m serious. I dreaded falling asleep and having to wake up to the same bleak day with the same schedule as the days and weeks before. The same thoughts the same cloths the same lessons, what was the point. In my last year of middle school these were my thoughts.i know what you're thinking, ‘only being in middle school you’re too young to be thinking like this, you haven't seen any part of the world yet.’ At the time i didn't know anything more than the four walls of my room and the lyrics to some punk band i found on the internet.