Middle School. Yikes! I’m about to embark on middle school for the 3rd time. That is NOT a typo. And I did NOT repeat any grades.
My first round was technically 7th grade; we called it “junior high.” I’m 50 years old and middle school didn’t exist back in the 1900s (as my kids so aptly describe the era of my childhood). But, whether you say “to-may-to” or “to-mah-to,” middle school/ junior high was one big scary adventure. Multiple elementary schools all merging into a massive building, mastering the Master lock, the awkward moments changing for PE, and, of course, the Mean Girls. Yes, Regina George did exist back in 1980.
I learned new math formulas and how to write a bibliography, but I also discovered more about gossip and rumors and kindness and betrayal and loyalty. I survived because of my friends. The ones I had from elementary school and the new ones I made that first year.
Round two of middle school started when I was 22. I taught eighth-grade English. Many of my students were only 8 years younger, so I started wearing my glasses to work – hoping they would make me look older. I chaperoned the Halloween Dance that first year and dressed as a middle school student, sporting the school uniform. I saw a 7th grader point at me and tell a friend, “Look at that girl. She wore her uniform to the dance.” Oh, how they laughed. Nothing like being laughed at by a middle school kid whether you’re 12 or 22.
Lesson planning, classroom management, work-life balance. I made it through my first year teaching middle school because of friends. Both the new friends at work who mentored me and the ones I already had who let me talk their ears off, regaling them with tales of student antics.
And now, here comes Round Three. Sending my firstborn off to middle school. I’m excited and worried and eager and anxious. My daughter will learn American history and science. She’ll learn to travel from class to class and lock and unlock her locker. And kids will be kids. Some will be kind. Some will be cruel. And I’ll learn how to do middle school a whole new way: as the parent. I made it through middle school two times. Knowing there are amazing friends out there to support my daughter and me, I’m confident I can do it a third time.
Middle school is all about navigating new territory. Surviving middle school is all about the friends who create the safety net.
Whether you were the student or the parent, how did YOU survive middle school?
