For most young adolescents, middle school is seen as the worst three years of their lives. However, for me at age 11, I woke up excited for school every day with an hour more of sleep than I had gotten in elementary school. I was ready for my day with whatever combination of Uggs and Ivory Ellas I could come up with. I walked into PRO-Time with ease and excitement for my friends, each one of us eager to braid each other’s hair while we listened to the morning announcements. Then I went through my schedule full of accelerated classes, FACS, PE, Chorus and all the other classes I enjoyed so much. At the end of the day my mom picked me up as she was ready to receive a car ride full of all my stories from my exciting day. 

Maybe in some ways I just got lucky. I made friends at the start of middle school that stayed my friends all throughout. I never felt the need to worry about being left out. Outside of school my time was filled with going to the mall with my friends and Skymania every Saturday night. The majority of my teachers were patient and did whatever they could to help me out, resulting in minimal stress about school. My relationships with my middle school teachers have grown into high school and many still email me to check in. Middle school me was extremely confident and very few things could phase me; genuinely I was happy each day for what was to come. 

Although in high school I have grown into a stronger person through my experiences and learned to push through my bad days, nothing could quite compare to my effortlessly easy middle school experience. High school has had it’s highs, but it has also had a handful of more  lows than middle school me would have ever expected. I am lucky to say that whenever I look back on my middle school years, I have almost all happy memories from events such as sleepovers and sports. Now I can say that I wouldn’t change a single thing about my middle school years.