Middle School: A Short Story

“Go out and be yourself, try and make some friends too.” my mom said to me when I first stepped out of my car and into the crowd of incoming 6th graders. The first day of middle school was terrifying. Lots of new faces surrounded me and many unfamiliar teachers greeted me. I was forced to attend this school even though I told my parents multiple times that I wanted something bigger and different. I had been at the same school for the past seven years, and it was beginning to become very boring and turned into a bad environment for me to learn in. Many of my old friends has switched schools due to location, leaving me with no friends at all. I had to find a way to get outside my comfort zone and quickly make some friends.

When I first
went to go find my locker, lots of people would bump into me and not say anything. No “excuse me” or “sorry”, but “watch out” or “get out of my way”. The 7th and 8th graders had no respect for the incoming 6th graders. When I finally got to my locker I was next to two 7th graders, who both seemed very welcoming, but when I peered my head around the door of my locker one of them had already left. Once again I reiterated in my head that I need to get outside my comfort zone and make some new friends.

I then strolled to my first class, English. This was one of the more intimidating classes that I took because I would usually have to read outloud. Not only was I not the best at reading, but I am very slow. Whenever I would read to the class I would always think to myself, am I reading to slow or am I not pronouncing words correctly, but all I needed to do was to calm down. I needed to relax and stop shaking. And when I stood up to introduce myself I took three deep breaths and then began speaking. This method has helped me calm myself whatever I needed to. Not only do I use this method in the classroom but whenever I am having a bad shift in a hockey game or if I do the drill wrong in practice, instead of slamming my stick into the ice I stop and take three deep breaths. Then I sat back down and the kid next to me introduced himself to me and made it seem like he wanted to become friends with me. His name was Luke, not only were Luke and I in the same English class but we shared the same consultancy, and were in the same math class. We spent the whole time in class talking to each other about what we love to do, where we live, and what we thought about school.

The day then went by very quickly.
I was picked up by my mom, who then asked “how was your day?”
I then replied with a “pretty good”.
My Mom then said to me “Lachlan more than three words would be nice every once in awhile.” I then explained how I met Luke and how we have become very good friends already. My Mom was thrilled to see me explain all the stuff Luke and what we had talked about in all of our classes. Then my mom turned the conversation upside down.
“Any other friends?” she asked.
With a short stutter I replied “Well not really”. After I quietly revealed that I only made one friend that day I began to feel like an outsider. I needed to make more than just one
friend.

The next morning I headed back to school with a feeling that I would make more friends.
I walked in with a small smile and immediately tried to start conversations, however nothing was doing it. I thought of all my funniest jokes and recited them one after another, but no one would laugh. I felt more and more like an outsider as the day carried on until I reunited with my only friend. We talked the whole english class and both explained the problems that we were having. “What do we do to make friends?” we both thought to ourselves. We decided to abandon the question and just forget about. The end of the day seemed so far away even though we only had two classes left. I then thought to myself one last time what my mom had told me the first day, “Go out and be yourself. Also, try to make some friends.” I then continued to pursue making friends, and sure enough my luck began to change. I made multiple friends in a short duration of time just because of one thing, which was me being myself. After my last class I walked out with something that felt memorable or special, that something was pride. I had finally made some
friends.

Overall, if there is anything I've learned from these two days of 6th grade, it is to be yourself. Don’t try and be someone who you're not because then you can’t go back. My Mom played a big role in helping me make friends but a lot of it came from right here. The bottom of my heart, the three breaths, all the small details helped me make friends.