I guess what I wish that I had known in middle school was that it wasn’t forever. You know, these people in my classes, and these body changes I was going through, and these feelings of discomfort, they were temporary. And so I wish that middle school me could have met high school me, because I had so much fun in high school. I met my best friends there, and I got to try new things and experience new things. And honestly, middle school had some elements of that in it too. I discovered that I like to sing when I was in middle school, and then I ended up being in choir for four years when I was in high school.
So if little learning to sing me had known that, like I would have an even bigger voice by the end of it, I think it would have given me something just to kind of hope for, and just to aspire to, and to feel hopeful about. But you know, I mean, the term, it gets better, seems so clichéd, but it’s true, you know, you just gotta stick out these experiences sometimes. And I think one of the qualities of an optimist is just knowing like, this isn’t forever.
It’s gonna get better, and just hoping that it will change, and you know, hindsight is 20 20. Looking back, I think that middle school wasn’t so bad, but then when you’re a writer, you have to pull all the conflicts out of the box and examine them all. And so I have somewhat made a career out of focusing on the trials and tribulations of middle school, because if I wrote one about just the cool stuff it would be pretty boring.
