Life as an 8th Grader

By Grace Litterer

     Everyone has been through those years, those middle school years. How would one even describe the middle school years, except to say that they aren’t fun? This is especially true for 8th-grade year. Eighth grade is a rough year. You have been in middle school for one or two years now and you are expected to know things, to be the leader, but no one really knows anything.
     Seventh graders are hard to deal with during your eighth-grade year. They are the newest members of the middle school-high school hallways, and often have a hard time making their way through the crowds of people. Now don’t get it wrong, it’s fun to have someone younger than you, someone who doesn’t know as much about the teachers, doesn’t know as much about high school students, and just doesn’t know as much in general. Of course, THAT'S fun, but seventh graders give the middle school a bad rap. It’s hard to be an 8th grader.
     Also, this is the first year that you have to care about things, like what classes are you going to take in high school, what do you want to do after that, how do you maintain good grades. You always get the same speeches from your teachers, too. The classic is “You guys are eighth-graders. You should know better by now. You set an example for the younger ones.” Although if you think about it, you hear that in every grade. It’s a classic teacher lecture. “You should know better. You set an example.” Apparently, I have been setting an example since the first grade, and, as a junior in high school, I still don’t know what I am supposed to know better.
     Of course, as an eighth-grader, it’s fun to be bigger, stronger, and smarter than the 7th-graders. That’s should be expected. However, almost every 8th grader I’ve talked to would trade it all in for some respect from the high schoolers. It’s a rough time as a middle schooler, especially if you’re in 8th grade. To all the high schoolers out there: Be lenient with the 8th graders. As only 13 and 14-year olds, they are already expected to get some responsibility. It’s hard enough being lectured about setting examples for the 7th graders, who admittedly, are as clueless as penguins in the desert. And if you feel yourself about ready to be mean to a middle schooler, remember how rough your middle school years were.