lalala

I am so going to miss 8th grade.

Adv. English especially--oh Lord I love everyone in that class.

Even history I'll miss, even though that class was abso-ton-lutely pointless... science, yeah, that was fun (I guess) FRENCH was pretty cool this year. :-/ Well I'll try to remember as much as I can.

Here was my promotion speech (excuse typos and there might be stuff missing):

"All right, so, as it is the end of one of the trademark milestones of our education—middle school, yippee—and we are moving onto bigger and better stuff (I hope), it is obvious that a somewhat good speech is needed. Now, I am not positively sure if I can give a speech that will inspire and add new perspective to everyone’s brains about life, but I do hope that I will be able to at least help you reflect on all the things that you have learned so that you can prepare for your next four years (and years beyond that) and inform you on what I personally have learned over the course of the past three years.
As we enter high school, we will be coerced by our peers to act a certain way and to be a certain way. I don’t want to sound as if I have “been there, done that” but as I attended the high school every morning for fifty-five minutes for geometry, I can definitely tell you that it is a whole new environment, and a whole new set of expectations to live up to that the world and peers will set upon you. But I am asking you to be above that. Be above drugs, alcohol, clothes, sex, popularity, greed and set yourself up for greatness. Not greatness in means of success that is measured in the eyes of others, but success that is measured in the eyes of yourself. When we pass, will it honestly matter what clothes we wore, how popular we were, how many girlfriends or boyfriends we had or how soon got to third base? Not really. What will matter is who we met and befriended and the type of affect that we had on them, good or bad, positive or negative. What will matter is how we succeeded in our own eyes.
I remember in 6th grade I was somewhat a loner in the beginning of the year as I was transitioning groups of friends. Currently, there are times when I think that I’d rather be a loner; there wouldn’t be anyone to get in fights with and cause pain. But then I think about it—the pain, if any, is all worth it. The laughter and love that emanates from friendship is so powerful that it can mask any pain that I could possibly feel. All good things in life come with a risk. Like Mark Twain said—“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” To experience life, high school including, you must be strong enough to take those risks, those chances that make an experience all the more better. You might say, “I don’t want to take that class, it looks too hard—I’m too dumb and I don’t have enough time.” Ok… don’t doubt yourself. Do it.
Seventh grade was my “coming out” year. Not coming out of the closet but it was definitely a year when I was totally hyper 100% of the time and, I don’t know, looking back on seventh grade, I was somewhat a rebel. It was fun, I guarantee that, but now that I’ve matured I kind of look back on myself with distaste. I enjoyed life, that’s for sure, but I wasn’t enjoying life morally—I was being slightly hedonistic and living a life without morals. But hey, that’s what these years are all about. We’re experiencing every end of the circuit of life so that we can make personal choices based on what has happened to us and based on what we need and want from ourselves. I encourage you to go out and experience, not only in high school, but for the rest of your lives—not only to experience, but to live, and be able to make personal choices that affect you for the better. Not better as in, “oh I’d have more fun this way so I’m just going to throw away my life and ditch school, forget about taking that advanced class, and go play video games.” Okay, yeah, that’ll probably be for the time being, but when you’re older I honestly don’t think that you’re going to be very proud of yourself for making that choice. Choices and experiences make all the difference in our lives and define us as us.
Eighth grade was pretty sweet. Could be because it’s the last year and YAY we’re finally moving on and progressing to yet another milestone in our life, but mostly it’s because I’ve found some friends that I can rely on and help me. I’ve always been kind of lost emotionally but I’ve finally got somewhat of a grip on what I’m feeling and how I can tone it down a notch. We’re teenagers. We’re supposed to be hormonal. It’s normal and it’s somewhat good, actually. Better to live life with a full scale of emotions rather than having the emotional means of a peanut.
I will always remember what fun I had in band in sixth grade—yes, I am a band geek--, meeting new people, and I will always remember Ms. Roshay’s love for the Renaissance in seventh grade and the experiences I had in both of those years. In eighth grade, oh gosh, I will remember so much—our super duper advanced English class, Mrs. Williams singing history songs and being stunned when we didn’t learn those songs in fifth grade, and I will always remember not having to study for a single test because they were either all open note, open packet, or open book. It’s fun to look back, but for me, it’s even more fun to look ahead.
It was no surprise to me when dozens of hands went up when Mrs. Jamison—ahem,-- bribed the class by saying that if we wrote a speech we would be exempt from the Tom Sawyer final essay. But honestly, I wanted to do this so that I’d have some randomly embarrassing yet enriching moment to remember when I look back on my 8th grade year. Yeah, it’ll be great to look back on all this stuff, but be sure make room for more memories—middle school only takes up a twenty-fifth of our whole life."