Editor's note: 14-year-old Marlee Kellman, who goes to Magee Middle School and lives in the Foothills, has written a series of columns this year about things middle-schoolers face. She'll be going to high school in the fall.
Wow. I can remember like it was yesterday. My first day of sixth grade. The nerves, the excitement — all mixed together, they gave me a feeling I could not explain. It's like not-knowing-what-to-expect nerves. The butterflies that tickle your stomach when the slightest thought runs through your brain. Just like when your first crush is around you. Your nerves take over, and you are locked, trapped. Now that I am leaving eighth grade really soon, I feel ready for high school.
One of my best experiences in middle school was making new friends and still having the old friends. Sound cheesy? Well, it's not. You meet so many kids from all different kinds of schools, and they really do make you who you are today.
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I can only imagine how many more people I will meet in high school. I didn't always know what group I was going to hang out with, and I still really don't know. The only thing I do know is your friends really put you to the test. You really do have to know what you want to do and what you don't want to do.
One of the worst experiences of middle school is finding out who your friends really are. Finding out that your friends do bad things. Back-stabbing really hurts you, too.
Another thing I hated to experience, and most other kids hate, is the homework. The projects and the deadlines are so not fun! Both things I disliked about middle school have one thing in common. It's that they put you to the test.
No one said middle school was going to be easy.
My opinions changed through middle school. When I first saw the school, I thought it was huge! I thought I would never remember getting around. One other thing I worried about was, of course, my locker combination.
I was very happy that my school kept all of my classes near each other. I was also very excited going to a new school. Then in seventh grade I was happy that I was not the youngest anymore. Then eighth grade I was even more happy that we were the oldest.
I hope in high school that some of my friends and I will stay friends, but with school and people come drama. If a friend and I have a good friendship, then I do think we will be OK.
Though I am not as nervous as I was going into middle school, I am not saying either middle or high school is easy. But I know I can get through it. Middle or high school both include drama. And both will make me, and test me for, who I really am.
Middle Ground
By Marlee Kellman
