Josh is having a great time in junior high. This is a relief. I did not enjoy junior high. It was a very tumultuous time for me. Wasn't it for you?
"The seventh and eight grades were for me, and for every single good and interesting person I've ever known, what the writers of the Bible meant when the used the words hell and the pit." Anne Lamott said that in Operating Instructions. I laughed very hard the first time I read it. (Don't feel bad if you liked junior high. I'm sure you're still good and interesting.)
But man, kids are just plain mean, aren't they? I was mean. I remember being mean, even to one of my closest friends, when I decided I needed to be cooler. And I was raised in a nice family, with great parents who tried to teach me about kindness and right and wrong, and I still wanted to be cool rather than be nice.
Maybe boys are just different. Josh is enjoying his hard classes and his easy classes. He apparently has no angst about changing in front of other junior high boys for PE (don't even get me started on locker room drama. Seventh grade was Horrible.) and has many friends. He doesn't mind that he's probably one of the two or three smallest kids in the whole building, and although he doesn't like that loud, rowdy, obnoxious bus, he's not throwing a fit about taking it. So is it a boy thing? Or is he especially resilient? I don't know, but I am truly grateful.
I know that junior high (I mean, the pit) helped create the person I am now...both good and bad. I have empathy for the underdog formed over all those times I was pushed to the ground during the mile run in PE. I have an ability to forgive based on how I learned that I needed to BE forgiven, when I was the one creating the pain for someone else. But I still hope Josh comes through these next two years and doesn't even begin to understand Anne Lamott's quote. Maybe he'll say, "I loved junior high. I learned so much and made fantastic friends." Ya think?
3 comments:
maybe? I was SO nervous for Sienna to start Middle School this year for the same reasons you talked about. But, unbeknownst to me, she loves it!! She is in choir and she made the volleyball team and she is just being herself. Has school changed? Or have the kids? I'm not sure which it is, but I hope it continues and our children enjoy everything their public education can bring them.
Here's my take: junior high is hard because for the first time you realize that you're growing up. I remember girls crying in the halls, boys fighting at lunch outside, and teachers lecturing us about why we can and can't do certain things. It's hard because really, for the first time you aren't a kid anymore and will never be again.....
Josh is a good kid. He'll do great.
AND, you look FABULOUS with those pearly whites, my dear! I'm tempted to send you up a pack of gum and a fresh crisp apple to bite into!!!
No, Eric was mean, too. I have vivid memories of him and Mike tying me up and throwing things at me or putting food on my face and watching the dogs eat. So basically actual torture.
Funny, I don't remember you being mean at all, just Eric.
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