"In the midst of the pandemic, 8th graders are preparing for their transition into high school, but it doesn’t look quite the same as they imagined it. Their time in middle school has come to an unusual and abrupt end." --Grace Triantafyllos, 8th grade
In the midst of the pandemic, 8th graders are preparing for their transition into high school, but it doesn’t look quite the same as they imagined it. Their time in middle school has come to an unusual and abrupt end. 9th grade orientations, big performances, and 8th grade promotion have been canceled, many struggling with remote learning are having a rocky finish, and they didn’t get a chance to properly say goodbye to their peers.
“All I want is for us to have an 8th grade graduation and a last day of school,” said an anonymous 8th grader. “I want to go to school for the last time and say goodbye to my teachers and hug everybody and say goodbye to even people that I’m not friends with because it’s literally the last time I’m ever gonna see them...I’m never going to see people that I’m not friends with again, like, ever! Right? And that’s kind of terrifying and awful.”
Diego Maldonado, an 8th grade Visual Arts student, is most disappointed about the senior art exhibit. “I feel so bad for the seniors, though,” he said. “It’s not like I’m like, ‘Oh no, their graduation’--I was really excited for the next art show that was coming up...The senior art show is at the end of the year, and it’s like the culmination of a senior’s work, you know? It’s like the magnum opus. It’s what they’ve been working on for, like, the whole year, pretty much.”
Despite these troubling times, 8th graders still have something to look forward to. High school is right around the corner, full of new people and self discovery. “I’m excited,” said an OSA 8th grader who prefers to be referred to as M.C.. “I want to meet new people. And I really don’t want to deal with the extra stress of emphasis. I think that going to an art school was a really cool experience. Since I don’t really want to focus on my emphasis, I think it would be a little bit better to go to a normal high school.”
“I am optimistic [about high school],” said Maldonado. “I’m pretty happy right now...For the past six months or something, I’ve just been genuinely happy. I don’t know why...It’s not like I’m, like--nothing really changed. I think it’s just that I kind of learned to enjoy life. So I think that I’ll enjoy high school, not because of thinking that it’s going to be better than middle school--mostly because I’ve changed.”
The anonymous student seems to share Maldonado’s optimism. “I’m really excited because I’m really such a nerd, and I want to--I’m going to be with other nerds!“ they said gleefully.
The prospect of high school has many 8th graders feeling like they did at the end of elementary school, when they wondered if it was true that the next three years would be their worst, and the prospect of separated classes and two hours of emphasis seemed daunting--except now it’s all about earning credits and getting ready for college. So much has changed since that acceptance letter came in the mail.
“First of all, I don’t want to be an actress [anymore]. That’s a huge thing,” the anonymous student said when asked how they’ve changed over the last three years. “And I think I cared more [in 6th grade] what other people think of me.”
“Oh, I was conceded in 6th grade,” said Rhiannon Cogley, an 8th grader in Visual Arts. “Because all I knew about middle school was those little ‘teenie-bop’ Disney Channel movies, and I figured the only way I [would] be happy in middle school and high school was if I was popular...Looking back, I would not have liked the person that I was back then.”
Some 8th graders reflected on how their time in middle school compared to their expectations. “[Going into] middle school, I was prepared for the drama, but like, there’s a lot of drama,” said Cogley. “I was definitely not prepared for all the bullies and meanies and stuff, I guess. Here’s what I actually thought would happen: there was an imaginary line between elementary school and middle school, and as soon as I crossed that imaginary line, poof, I was a grown-up!...11-year-old Rhiannon was not a grown-up at all.”
“I feel like our whole lives we’ve been hearing that middle school is this awful, sucky place,” the anonymous student said, “and that every adult looks back at it and cringes at it, and I think that was partly true--like in 7th grade--but in 6th grade, and now 8th grade, it’s been fine, and maybe I’ll look back on it when I’m older and be like, ‘Oh, that sucked, and I just couldn’t see it at the time.’”
After going through the many trials, tribulations, and rites of passage that come with the territory, everyone has some regrets about middle school. When asked about what they wished they’d done differently, the anonymous student said, “I think maybe in 7th grade I kind of just wanted to [have friends], and so I kind of just sat with people that I thought would be [my] friends, but I didn’t actually like them, and that was really a problem. I wish I could’ve done what I did more this year, where I don’t have as many friends, but I have closer and better relationships.”
“I think if I could, I would just tell myself, ‘Diego, stop being a jerk...’ I just feel like I needed to stop being so self-centered,” said Maldonado. “I was a bit self-centered. I like to think that I’m better now.”
“I wish I would’ve come in and been more of myself,” said 8th grade Theatre student Lola Higgins, “and not been afraid to be who I am and...afraid of if people like me or not, because in the end it doesn’t really matter. There are going to be those couple people [who] don’t, and it’s okay.”
Current 8th graders have learned from (some of) their mistakes, and they have some advice for those whose middle school journey will continue (or begin!) next year.
“If you can, try to TA,” said Lily Birkholz, an 8th grade Visual Arts student. “And especially, if you can, TA for your grade. It’s a power move, y’all, and you’ll get a free period.” She also recommends joining clubs, listening to required reading on audiobook (when allowed), eating at Uptown Park instead of in the cafeteria, and trying to switch emphases if you aren’t happy with your current one.
“Don’t believe in the stereotypes that movies show or books show, and just try to be yourself,” M.C. advised. “Don’t try to change for anybody else.”
“Middle school might suck, and it might be great, but--I know this is what everyone says, but you will get through it. I don’t know if high school will be better, but people say it will be better, so I hope it’ll be better!” the anonymous student said, laughing.
All of these smooth transition sentences make middle school seem daunting but, rest assured, it isn’t all bad.
Birkholz easily supplied a plethora of favorite moments, from ice skating to donuts to group projects gone wrong. “I also really liked it when Mr. King curated a pop quiz question because someone threw slime on his ceiling the day before he did that, you know? It wasn’t for our class; it was for other classes. But he still made it and we got to see it.”
Maldonado had a more difficult time deciding on a favorite memory. “Not too many highlights of my life have happened at school...I guess, if I had to pick something, I’d probably pick my art shows, just in general, not one specifically. Those were always fun.” After some doubt and reminiscing about mediocre Intersessions and D&D club officialization, he again landed on his art shows. “You know, I’d probably say it’s actually still the art show. Just ‘cause their fun, because I get to put out my art and stuff, and show what I made.”
In four years, they’ll likely be wearing caps and gowns, wondering how they got from the person they are right now to the person standing on a stage, shaking someone’s hand and accepting a high school diploma.
“I put way too much energy into art, especially the homework,” Birkholz said, when asked how she would remember middle school. “And I’m not saying Visual Arts in general was too much for me--I’m saying I had the option to not do as much as I did and get an ‘A’, but I didn’t do that. Don’t be like me...Middle school kind of sucked. I’ve made some good friends, most of whom are staying at OSA for high school, as I am...Yeah, so, middle school, 60:40, bad:good.”
When asked how he thought he would remember middle school, Maldonado scoffed and made a curious, concentrated noise. “I think 8th grade’s the best, but I think I’ll remember the rest as just bad preteen decisions,” he said. “I do not think I’ll remember it fondly. Like, sure, I like my friends and stuff. But the rest of it? Not so much.”
“I think that I will look at middle school as the weirdest time in my life,” said 8th grade Theatre student Robert O’Grady. “There are a lot of things that happened at OSA that I will never be able to explain. It's just going to be a time that I look back on 20 years from now and say, ‘What was I thinking to do that?’”
Three years of chaos teaches a person more than academic things like the basics of probability, how to write a well-structured paragraph, and that mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cell (which is something Birkholz wants you to remember, by the way).
“My biggest takeaway from middle school,” said Maldonado, “would probably be to...treat others how you want to be treated. It sounds kind of cheesy and stupid, but it’s kind of true. Because I did a lot of things that--now that I think about it--that are just, like, bad things to do. I just made a lot of bad decisions that probably affected others worse than me, and I wasn’t really thinking about things from that other person’s point of view, because I was just so wrapped up in me. I didn’t think I was the best, but I was just so busy thinking about my own life [that] I didn’t think about other people.”
“Just experiencing a more diverse community [was my biggest takeaway], I guess,” said M.C.. “It makes you more aware of problems that happen, so it kind of made me more involved in what happens in our community.”
“This is what I’d like to say,” said the anonymous student. “It’s not actually what I learned: people are too preoccupied with themselves to worry about you that much, so you should worry less about what people think of you because they’re worrying more about what you think of them, but I haven’t actually learned that. I’ve learned that in my head, but I don’t actually think that. I still worry about what people think of me, so I don’t think that really counts.”
So many eras are ending and beginning--for us, middle school is over, and high school is beginning. So many high schoolers are moving on to college, and college students are moving on to whatever menacing thing comes next. And the world is moving on to an era that’s a little more fearful than the last. Change is the only constant, and sometimes (okay, most of the time) it’s scary. But we have our people, even if our people change or we haven’t met them quite yet, and we have our ever-evolving and improving selves. However big the change, we can get through it.
“All I want is for us to have an 8th grade graduation and a last day of school,” said an anonymous 8th grader. “I want to go to school for the last time and say goodbye to my teachers and hug everybody and say goodbye to even people that I’m not friends with because it’s literally the last time I’m ever gonna see them...I’m never going to see people that I’m not friends with again, like, ever! Right? And that’s kind of terrifying and awful.”
Diego Maldonado, an 8th grade Visual Arts student, is most disappointed about the senior art exhibit. “I feel so bad for the seniors, though,” he said. “It’s not like I’m like, ‘Oh no, their graduation’--I was really excited for the next art show that was coming up...The senior art show is at the end of the year, and it’s like the culmination of a senior’s work, you know? It’s like the magnum opus. It’s what they’ve been working on for, like, the whole year, pretty much.”
Despite these troubling times, 8th graders still have something to look forward to. High school is right around the corner, full of new people and self discovery. “I’m excited,” said an OSA 8th grader who prefers to be referred to as M.C.. “I want to meet new people. And I really don’t want to deal with the extra stress of emphasis. I think that going to an art school was a really cool experience. Since I don’t really want to focus on my emphasis, I think it would be a little bit better to go to a normal high school.”
“I am optimistic [about high school],” said Maldonado. “I’m pretty happy right now...For the past six months or something, I’ve just been genuinely happy. I don’t know why...It’s not like I’m, like--nothing really changed. I think it’s just that I kind of learned to enjoy life. So I think that I’ll enjoy high school, not because of thinking that it’s going to be better than middle school--mostly because I’ve changed.”
The anonymous student seems to share Maldonado’s optimism. “I’m really excited because I’m really such a nerd, and I want to--I’m going to be with other nerds!“ they said gleefully.
The prospect of high school has many 8th graders feeling like they did at the end of elementary school, when they wondered if it was true that the next three years would be their worst, and the prospect of separated classes and two hours of emphasis seemed daunting--except now it’s all about earning credits and getting ready for college. So much has changed since that acceptance letter came in the mail.
“First of all, I don’t want to be an actress [anymore]. That’s a huge thing,” the anonymous student said when asked how they’ve changed over the last three years. “And I think I cared more [in 6th grade] what other people think of me.”
“Oh, I was conceded in 6th grade,” said Rhiannon Cogley, an 8th grader in Visual Arts. “Because all I knew about middle school was those little ‘teenie-bop’ Disney Channel movies, and I figured the only way I [would] be happy in middle school and high school was if I was popular...Looking back, I would not have liked the person that I was back then.”
Some 8th graders reflected on how their time in middle school compared to their expectations. “[Going into] middle school, I was prepared for the drama, but like, there’s a lot of drama,” said Cogley. “I was definitely not prepared for all the bullies and meanies and stuff, I guess. Here’s what I actually thought would happen: there was an imaginary line between elementary school and middle school, and as soon as I crossed that imaginary line, poof, I was a grown-up!...11-year-old Rhiannon was not a grown-up at all.”
“I feel like our whole lives we’ve been hearing that middle school is this awful, sucky place,” the anonymous student said, “and that every adult looks back at it and cringes at it, and I think that was partly true--like in 7th grade--but in 6th grade, and now 8th grade, it’s been fine, and maybe I’ll look back on it when I’m older and be like, ‘Oh, that sucked, and I just couldn’t see it at the time.’”
After going through the many trials, tribulations, and rites of passage that come with the territory, everyone has some regrets about middle school. When asked about what they wished they’d done differently, the anonymous student said, “I think maybe in 7th grade I kind of just wanted to [have friends], and so I kind of just sat with people that I thought would be [my] friends, but I didn’t actually like them, and that was really a problem. I wish I could’ve done what I did more this year, where I don’t have as many friends, but I have closer and better relationships.”
“I think if I could, I would just tell myself, ‘Diego, stop being a jerk...’ I just feel like I needed to stop being so self-centered,” said Maldonado. “I was a bit self-centered. I like to think that I’m better now.”
“I wish I would’ve come in and been more of myself,” said 8th grade Theatre student Lola Higgins, “and not been afraid to be who I am and...afraid of if people like me or not, because in the end it doesn’t really matter. There are going to be those couple people [who] don’t, and it’s okay.”
Current 8th graders have learned from (some of) their mistakes, and they have some advice for those whose middle school journey will continue (or begin!) next year.
“If you can, try to TA,” said Lily Birkholz, an 8th grade Visual Arts student. “And especially, if you can, TA for your grade. It’s a power move, y’all, and you’ll get a free period.” She also recommends joining clubs, listening to required reading on audiobook (when allowed), eating at Uptown Park instead of in the cafeteria, and trying to switch emphases if you aren’t happy with your current one.
“Don’t believe in the stereotypes that movies show or books show, and just try to be yourself,” M.C. advised. “Don’t try to change for anybody else.”
“Middle school might suck, and it might be great, but--I know this is what everyone says, but you will get through it. I don’t know if high school will be better, but people say it will be better, so I hope it’ll be better!” the anonymous student said, laughing.
All of these smooth transition sentences make middle school seem daunting but, rest assured, it isn’t all bad.
Birkholz easily supplied a plethora of favorite moments, from ice skating to donuts to group projects gone wrong. “I also really liked it when Mr. King curated a pop quiz question because someone threw slime on his ceiling the day before he did that, you know? It wasn’t for our class; it was for other classes. But he still made it and we got to see it.”
Maldonado had a more difficult time deciding on a favorite memory. “Not too many highlights of my life have happened at school...I guess, if I had to pick something, I’d probably pick my art shows, just in general, not one specifically. Those were always fun.” After some doubt and reminiscing about mediocre Intersessions and D&D club officialization, he again landed on his art shows. “You know, I’d probably say it’s actually still the art show. Just ‘cause their fun, because I get to put out my art and stuff, and show what I made.”
In four years, they’ll likely be wearing caps and gowns, wondering how they got from the person they are right now to the person standing on a stage, shaking someone’s hand and accepting a high school diploma.
“I put way too much energy into art, especially the homework,” Birkholz said, when asked how she would remember middle school. “And I’m not saying Visual Arts in general was too much for me--I’m saying I had the option to not do as much as I did and get an ‘A’, but I didn’t do that. Don’t be like me...Middle school kind of sucked. I’ve made some good friends, most of whom are staying at OSA for high school, as I am...Yeah, so, middle school, 60:40, bad:good.”
When asked how he thought he would remember middle school, Maldonado scoffed and made a curious, concentrated noise. “I think 8th grade’s the best, but I think I’ll remember the rest as just bad preteen decisions,” he said. “I do not think I’ll remember it fondly. Like, sure, I like my friends and stuff. But the rest of it? Not so much.”
“I think that I will look at middle school as the weirdest time in my life,” said 8th grade Theatre student Robert O’Grady. “There are a lot of things that happened at OSA that I will never be able to explain. It's just going to be a time that I look back on 20 years from now and say, ‘What was I thinking to do that?’”
Three years of chaos teaches a person more than academic things like the basics of probability, how to write a well-structured paragraph, and that mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cell (which is something Birkholz wants you to remember, by the way).
“My biggest takeaway from middle school,” said Maldonado, “would probably be to...treat others how you want to be treated. It sounds kind of cheesy and stupid, but it’s kind of true. Because I did a lot of things that--now that I think about it--that are just, like, bad things to do. I just made a lot of bad decisions that probably affected others worse than me, and I wasn’t really thinking about things from that other person’s point of view, because I was just so wrapped up in me. I didn’t think I was the best, but I was just so busy thinking about my own life [that] I didn’t think about other people.”
“Just experiencing a more diverse community [was my biggest takeaway], I guess,” said M.C.. “It makes you more aware of problems that happen, so it kind of made me more involved in what happens in our community.”
“This is what I’d like to say,” said the anonymous student. “It’s not actually what I learned: people are too preoccupied with themselves to worry about you that much, so you should worry less about what people think of you because they’re worrying more about what you think of them, but I haven’t actually learned that. I’ve learned that in my head, but I don’t actually think that. I still worry about what people think of me, so I don’t think that really counts.”
So many eras are ending and beginning--for us, middle school is over, and high school is beginning. So many high schoolers are moving on to college, and college students are moving on to whatever menacing thing comes next. And the world is moving on to an era that’s a little more fearful than the last. Change is the only constant, and sometimes (okay, most of the time) it’s scary. But we have our people, even if our people change or we haven’t met them quite yet, and we have our ever-evolving and improving selves. However big the change, we can get through it.