Evi Christopherson

When I first got into middle school, I thought I knew exactly who I was, but that would shortly be proven wrong. I would then proceed to find myself throughout middle school, and even now, I am still trying to figure out who I am.

The first day of middle school, I woke up to butterflies swirling in my stomach and a grin on my face. I was so excited to do so many things for the first time, and meet new people who I shared interests with. I was lucky enough to already have met some people from activities before school started, such as Oleatta from band lessons, MC from dance, Alice from elementary school, and Ben, since he was a family friend of sorts. When I got to school, I saw so many new people and I knew that middle school was going to be the best time of my life. That would also be proven very wrong shortly. That day went by very quickly, with the assembly, games, and going to all of my classes. I thought that the people here seemed so cool, and I would get along with all of them, or at least most of them. My classes in sixth grade were good, however I had a hard time adjusting to the teaching styles of a couple of my teachers. That just taught me to learn on my own without anyone’s help though, which is a useful skill. My favorite classes were band and art, since I loved anything that involves creativity. Those are also the classes that I excelled in the most, along with math. Starting in the middle of sixth grade and ending in the middle of seventh grade, there was a lot of drama within my friend group. It was the first time anything like it had happened to me, so I didn’t know what to do or say. Luckily, I started to realize that if I focus on myself and not worry about other people’s lives as much, it wouldn’t start anything. That drama helped me figure out the right kind of people to be friends with, and what to do if something were to ever happen.

Then came seventh grade. I was so excited, I still thought I knew who I was, since I had changed so much since the year before. I thought I was so cool (I wasn’t) and I couldn’t wait to actually be myself. I fear this is more wrong than it was in sixth grade. In seventh grade, I loved my classes. All the people in them got along well together, and I actually could learn with them instead of having to do it on my own. Most of the year went by smoothly, and I got new opportunities, like Solo and Ensemble. I did my first solo, and it gave me way more confidence, even though I already was good at performing in front of people, thanks to dance. In April of seventh grade, we started our argumentative unit in English class. I was pretty excited, since I liked to have friendly debates with people sometimes. Little did I know, that unit would be my favorite unit I’ve done for English class, ever. We got to choose two topics as a class, and I ended up with “The Hidden Dangers of Vaping.” We had to come up with evidence to support our claim, and have a class debate using that evidence. I was chosen to be the judge for the debate, but I still had to put my evidence together. After that, we needed to write an argumentative essay supporting our claim we had for the debate. We could change sides or choose the other topic, which was about designer babies, but I chose to stay with my original topic. My essay then got written, and I was so proud of it. Now looking back and rereading it, it’s not the greatest, but I still got an extending grade for it. With our essay, we had to give it as a speech to the class. I did well, since I’m used to performing and speaking publicly. That whole unit inspired me for my dream job at the time, a lawyer. It’s not my dream job now, but it’s still on my list of careers I could be in the future.

Then comes eighth grade. I am now aware of myself and how to not annoy people, and I know how to make smarter decisions. I helped the sixth graders get introduced to the middle school, and that same day, my seventh grade social studies teacher, Mrs. Williams, along with my eighth grade math teacher, Mrs. Killerlain, introduced me to WRen crew. It’s pretty much a leadership club, helping to make the school a happier place to be. I started helping out with that, and it has been really fun. I am very thankful that I was able to be a part of it. I also got to be the student editor for The Portage Current, along with my classmate, David. My eighth grade year is probably one of my best years in all of my school years. My classes were super fun, I got lots of opportunities, and I made some new friends, too! Then comes Solo & Ensemble time. I did it the previous year, but this year, I wanted to do way more performances. I did a solo, duet, trio, vocal ensemble, and jazz band, which I also had a solo in. I was so excited and was working super hard to make sure I would get good scores on everything and perform it well. Then came the day. My trio went well, we just went a little too slow and weren’t quite in tune. Jazz band went great, and my improvised solo was the best one yet. My duet, which was the one I hadn’t been practicing as much as everything else, went surprisingly well. My solo was amazing, but my accompanist messed up a couple of times. The woman judging me said I did well catching up to the pianist and adapting to her mistakes, which I was proud of. Finally was vocal ensemble, which went really well, like the rest of my performances. The scores came out, and I ended up getting a first on everything, which is the best score besides going to state, which I couldn’t since none of my performances were a class A. That day has given me a lot of more self confidence, and I am happy I took part in Solo & Ensemble. Overall, eighth grade was really fun and I am super grateful for the opportunities I got during it. I did find myself more, but not fully.

My middle school years were probably not the best years of my life, and I hope they won’t be, but the things I learned about life were very important and I will continue to use them, most likely until the day I die. All of the friends and memories I made are super important to me, and I am happy that I am continuing to learn more about them and myself as I go on in school. I can’t wait to see what high school holds for me!