[Crazy_Achava_lovesmusic]

There are many things we’ll take away from middle school, including memories, experiences, and life lessons.
One aspect of middle school we all remember is our first day here at STMS. I remember thinking, like many other 6th graders probably did and do “When will it be lunch time? It is almost 1 o’clock!” But, one thing we all had in common was we were nervous. The crowded hallways, the gigantic 8th graders, and, everyone’s hatred of bad or mean teachers. Luckily, as we discovered, the teachers here are amazing. From Mrs. Keough-Lite in 6th grade, to Mrs. Langford in 8th, we all had our favorite teachers. From Mrs. Keough-Lite teaching us reading and making it fun, to Mrs. Langford making history interesting with fun group projects, we took away many memories from all of the classes we have taken here.
As we also learned on that first day, is that, unlike we all assumed from watching TV about middle school, is we don’t get to sit where ever we want. We have to sit with our class inside the cafeteria. I remember being in Band, waiting anxiously to be able to go to lunch, but to be able to sit with my friends from 5th grade. That hope, was shattered by Mr. Rubio, who, about 5 minutes before the bell rang, told us which tables we were to sit at by our 5th period teachers. I had Ms. Keough, and found myself at table 5, knowing only 4 people at the table. I saw Michael, Kevin, Melanie, and this blonde kid I had sat next to in 1st hour in Language Arts and in 3rd period Science.
Of course, I probably sat by myself that first day or with Kevin, I can’t remember for sure now. But, as the days passed, I sat with them. We became our own little lunch group, and we had fun. Annabelle, Michael, Kevin, Juan, Josh, Melanie and I all ended up doing some sort of homework at some point during lunch, but for the most part, we talked and they would make a huge mess… or just put pretzels in their water bottles and drink it and eat the soggy, puffed up stick. We would get yelled at, but, we all just wanted to have fun with our friends, and we are pretty sure no one else had as much fun as we did… or so we like to think.
One other thing we all have come to love is Free Fridays. We might not get many, but when we do, we all sit with our friends. For some of us, it just means sitting where you normally do. For others, it turns our stomachs into knots, and the fear of sitting alone takes us, but we always find a group we like to sit with.
One lesson we all learned was to be responsible. We all went from one teacher, to six, with tests, projects, and assignments all due on the same days or in the same week. We all stressed when we had 6 projects from 5 teachers in 6th grade, to having the newspaper project and learning contract in 8th. But, our amazing teachers taught us to balance the work, and even though some of us are still working on that, we all managed.
The experience we probably all remember is our first human sexuality/HIV AIDS lesson in 6th grade. In elementary school, we were separated into one class with boys and the other with the girls, never in the same room together. What a new experience it was when we were all in the same room learning about STDs and AIDS. Mrs. Buttler, and Mrs. Smith certainly taught us what we needed to know, and the information will be forever stuck in our heads.
One thing is for sure though- middle school has been an amazing experience, with many new lessons and friends along the way. We made new friends from people who used to annoy us the first week, like that blonde kid, but we also drifted away from some friends from 5th grade. But, all in all, we all learned something. We now have our friends and memories to help us accomplish what we need to get things done in high school. Good luck middle school class of 2009!