My Message to My Fellow Eighth Graders

One of my favorite parts of the school day is my homeroom period. It’s a calming 30 minutes where I get to talk about random stuff in the chat while my teacher plays music in the background. 

Sure, I’ve really enjoyed learning new topics in my advanced algebra class and talking about Brown Girl Dreaming with my small group in reading. But there is something about my homeroom period that puts me in the right mindset for the entire school day. 

I think what I love about it is that it gives me a space to keep building relationships with my friends. I would say myself and about 80 percent of my peers at Peirce have been there since kindergarten. And homeroom is the virtual place where we have the most fun. 

Advice that I would give to other eighth-graders is to find one part of your day that lets you be yourself. I’m a really social person, so, even though I can’t see my friends in person, I look to my homeroom as the place where I can be social. 

Sometimes, it even spills over into some of my other classes. Our reading teacher is new to our school and, since my classmates and I have known each other for so many years, we’re always joking with each other and she never knows if we’re being serious or not. My teachers are all really nice and will definitely be what I remember from this year. 

I’m also a really active person. Even though I can’t be outside as much, I am still doing dance—my main extracurricular—almost every evening. It’s something I look forward to, especially when we’re working on contemporary and jazz. 

Finding these parts of the day to be who you are, and taking small breaks throughout the day to help you refocus, has been key for me. My grades and attendance have been where I want them, and I hope that I can stay focused throughout the rest of the year to keep them up. 

Something that I was sad about at first was that my eighth-grade year probably wouldn’t feel like my eighth-grade year because we wouldn’t be at Peirce, but I love how my teachers have worked hard to make the year special for us. We still have our awesome “Paw Parties” (Go Peirce Panthers!) that give us opportunities to play games, draw, dance, and just do what we want. 

If any eighth-graders out there feel like they aren’t having a good year, I would definitely recommend reaching out to your teachers. They are super understanding and can help you catch up on your assignments if you are falling behind. 

For me, I was so stressed about high school next year because I thought there were so many choices and I didn’t even really know where to start. But then I met with my counselor and she made it so simple for me! I really appreciated how she took the time to walk me through the process and now I feel like I know which schools and programs I could see myself in next year. 

With 2020 drawing to a close—just a few days until winter break—I’m already starting to think about how 2021 will be such a big year for me, and all of us as eighth-graders! We will graduate elementary school and move on to high school. I will be going in a separate direction from many of my classmates that I have grown up alongside over the past nine years. 

That is a little scary to be moving on to a school that will probably be much bigger than Peirce, but if it’s anything like my time in elementary school, I know it will be awesome. If I played all the good experiences and memories from my nine years at Peirce like a movie in my head, it would probably still be going even when it’s time to graduate! 

There are so many great memories because of the people I’ve gotten to learn with since kindergarten. With each new experience, I feel that I’ve gained a different attribute that has helped me become a more well-rounded person. Being caring. Being balanced. Being a risk-taker. 

As we eighth-graders prepare to enjoy our last winter break as elementary school students, I think we should take some time to think about all the ways that our schools have helped us become who we are. We have about 100 days left, and I know I will be trying to make each one of those days great so that I can have even more great memories when I think about my time in elementary school.