An 8th grader in Orlando named Sage kept a journal during the first week of school this year. He wanted us to share it with our readers.
Day 1 Monday
8th grade. All my friends are in high school now, including my girlfriend. I’m being handed all these colorful codes of conduct papers and school supply wish lists. During lunch, I read. I am reading “ Slapstick” by Kurt Vonnegut. A girl looks over at my empty table and yells sarcastically. “ How’s your first day, Sage?” and begins to laugh at me along with her follower friends. No one else talks to me. I remember very few people from last year. If I notice myself begin to feel a sad emotion I write poems or Haiku’s to help my thoughts move away from sadness. I don’t become lost in the hallways this year but I do get lost in the fact I’m alone. It feels like summer never happened. I feel the same way I did last year. Wish some luck.
Day 2 Tuesday
Writing this as my day goes along has helped me accept and cope with 8th grade reality. My uneasiness will probably not settle for quite a while. At lunch I sat next to a friend of a friend. But that’s it. Not much of a social life.
Day 3 Wednesday
This is short day and we get out an hour early. I’m beginning to feel slightly overwhelmed with my classes. What if I make bad grades? Or never find my right place in 8th grade? I just want to get this year out of the way. I’m counting the days. I think high school will feel the same but I just want to get away from the repetition of Middle School.
Day 4 Thursday
I would like to make this clear: This may or may not be the average kids’ thoughts in the first week of school.
My music becomes my best friend. No matter what I listen to. Music helps control my emotions, confidence, anger, depression, sadness etc. I’m very serious and very involved in my Literature. After I finish reading “Slapstick” I’m going to read “ Old Man and the Sea”, I’m planning to read all the books I’ve ever wanted to read this year. I feel overwhelmed with the Advanced and Honors classes on my schedule and I haven’t even started yet. I’m halfway through my fourth day and I just want it to be over. Two people just talked to me and seemed interested in what I was writing. It was none of their business. They are in 6th grade. This is my public journal, my memoir for a week. If only I could add something more interesting like an adventure where I run away, jump out of the 2nd floor window, land on a car and shatter my ankle. Like dropping a mirror.
Day 1 Monday
8th grade. All my friends are in high school now, including my girlfriend. I’m being handed all these colorful codes of conduct papers and school supply wish lists. During lunch, I read. I am reading “ Slapstick” by Kurt Vonnegut. A girl looks over at my empty table and yells sarcastically. “ How’s your first day, Sage?” and begins to laugh at me along with her follower friends. No one else talks to me. I remember very few people from last year. If I notice myself begin to feel a sad emotion I write poems or Haiku’s to help my thoughts move away from sadness. I don’t become lost in the hallways this year but I do get lost in the fact I’m alone. It feels like summer never happened. I feel the same way I did last year. Wish some luck.
Day 2 Tuesday
Writing this as my day goes along has helped me accept and cope with 8th grade reality. My uneasiness will probably not settle for quite a while. At lunch I sat next to a friend of a friend. But that’s it. Not much of a social life.
Day 3 Wednesday
This is short day and we get out an hour early. I’m beginning to feel slightly overwhelmed with my classes. What if I make bad grades? Or never find my right place in 8th grade? I just want to get this year out of the way. I’m counting the days. I think high school will feel the same but I just want to get away from the repetition of Middle School.
Day 4 Thursday
I would like to make this clear: This may or may not be the average kids’ thoughts in the first week of school.
My music becomes my best friend. No matter what I listen to. Music helps control my emotions, confidence, anger, depression, sadness etc. I’m very serious and very involved in my Literature. After I finish reading “Slapstick” I’m going to read “ Old Man and the Sea”, I’m planning to read all the books I’ve ever wanted to read this year. I feel overwhelmed with the Advanced and Honors classes on my schedule and I haven’t even started yet. I’m halfway through my fourth day and I just want it to be over. Two people just talked to me and seemed interested in what I was writing. It was none of their business. They are in 6th grade. This is my public journal, my memoir for a week. If only I could add something more interesting like an adventure where I run away, jump out of the 2nd floor window, land on a car and shatter my ankle. Like dropping a mirror.
Instead, I look up and see people I would never talk to. I don’t look at them in the sense that I’m better than them in any way. It’s more of the sense that I don’t feel like I can converse with them. It may have something to do with our maturity levels being different. Nothing against them. We are just different. And here I go again; I’m acting like all the John Hughes characters in his films. Screaming “I’m an outcast, no one understands me!” My life has never felt more like a movie than it does right now. (But less dramatic). I feel a lot older than 13 and I act like it, so I’m told. So let’s say I’m a normal person ages 13-18. I have insecurities, acne, I look at my hair, I care about what I wear. I feel like no one cares about what I have to say..blah.blah. You know the drill.
Day 5 Friday!!
It’s Friday and because it’s so close to the weekend, everyone seems a bit nicer and I’ve talked to a handful of people today. My favorite elective is Pre-Law and my favorite core class is Science. This week went by sooo slow and the best part is I get to do it again in 2 days. Though it gets easier. I tell myself that every day. I draw pictures of The Cure and all my favorite songs of theirs and color inside of it in art to make it look cool. On the back I write a letter to myself or on how my life relates to the songs.
I don’t know what to make of school… but life is life. I will survive and then become an adult, I’ll get married, and I’ll have children. “My future is my key" is the thought that helps me accept my sticky reality. I’ll help myself get through it because in the end, that’s all there is. You. Life is life. School is school, and I am me. I will pull through anything I set my mind to: commitment. I will be alright. As will everyone else. Nothing has really changed for the better or the worst this week. It’s one week I was grateful to experience. Everything we are put through makes us stronger. Just like my favorite author Chuck Palahniuk says: “Find joy in everything you choose to do, every job, every relationship, or home.. It is your responsibility to love it.. or change it.” Bye.
Day 5 Friday!!
It’s Friday and because it’s so close to the weekend, everyone seems a bit nicer and I’ve talked to a handful of people today. My favorite elective is Pre-Law and my favorite core class is Science. This week went by sooo slow and the best part is I get to do it again in 2 days. Though it gets easier. I tell myself that every day. I draw pictures of The Cure and all my favorite songs of theirs and color inside of it in art to make it look cool. On the back I write a letter to myself or on how my life relates to the songs.
I don’t know what to make of school… but life is life. I will survive and then become an adult, I’ll get married, and I’ll have children. “My future is my key" is the thought that helps me accept my sticky reality. I’ll help myself get through it because in the end, that’s all there is. You. Life is life. School is school, and I am me. I will pull through anything I set my mind to: commitment. I will be alright. As will everyone else. Nothing has really changed for the better or the worst this week. It’s one week I was grateful to experience. Everything we are put through makes us stronger. Just like my favorite author Chuck Palahniuk says: “Find joy in everything you choose to do, every job, every relationship, or home.. It is your responsibility to love it.. or change it.” Bye.