For most, grade nine is hard. For me, it was downright traumatic.
Okay, okay… obviously I survived, and looking back, I didn’t have it nearly as bad as some. But there’s no denying that it was painful experience – emotionally, socially and mentally. In fact, I’ve blocked most of it out… except at night, when I have that dreaded dream (nightmare?) that it’s the first day of school all over again. Shudder.
I know you’re thinking, what made is so bad, Lena? Ahh… settle in friends, let me count the ways.
1. I arrived from a relatively small elementary school; all the other feeder schools were at least twice (and sometimes three times) the size. I actually went through most of high school without ever crossing paths with kids I had grown up with for ten years. This meant that I had to make a new set of friends – an almost impossible feat when most of the kids in my class had already formed cliques with their elementary school buddies. …