First Day of 7th Grade (By Anika Kamath, 13 years old)

I couldn’t sleep the whole night. My anxiousness was killing me. I couldn’t bear it. If you hadn’t figured it out already, I was nervous. After several minutes of tossing and turning in bed, I decided that I needed to get some sleep. The last thing I wanted was to fall asleep on my first day. Let’s back up a little, the first day of what you may be asking? Right, silly me. I forgot to tell you what was going on. See, this is what happens to me when I get nervous. Let me get at least a couple of hours of sleep first. Then I’ll tell you what’s really going on. Hold tight, because it's going to be a roller coaster of emotions.

What I had to endure was my first day of 7th grade, something I’ve been dreading for a very long time. When I ended 6th grade, I was overjoyed. No more homework, no more sports, and no more loud kids. Can you relate? But to my disappointment, summer passed by very quickly, and I knew the days in 7th grade would drag by very slowly. I was very excited to see my friends, though even they wouldn’t be able to cheer me up, my nervousness would overtake my sadness in an hour when school started.

I got out of my bed and walked to the bathroom dreadfully. I did not feel like getting out of bed, but my Mom wanted me to get ready quickly. I brushed my teeth and took a quick shower. Then, I threw some clothes on. Some shorts and a t-shirt that matched with it, to be more specific. I walked out of the bathroom and woke up my brother. It took a lot of shoving and shouting and then he finally got out of bed. I walked downstairs and looked out of the window by the dining room. The sun shone brightly on the hardwood floor giving it a warm glow. I shifted my eyes to the food on the dining table. Breakfast. I don’t usually eat breakfast but my Mom told me that I shouldn’t go to school with an empty stomach. I sat down and ate my breakfast at a steady pace. Once I was done, I checked the items that my backpack contained and made sure that I had everything ready for my first day, mentally checking off everything on my supplies list. I put on my backpack and exited the house. I walked to the end of the street and took a left to reach my bus stop. Luckily, I didn’t have to wait long because the bus came up the street and picked us all up, continuing to its destination, Kennedy Junior High School.

For what felt like about an eternity on the bus, stuck with my thoughts, the ride finally ended. I got off the bus and saw many people crowding the front of the school. We were supposed to be in grade level lines but this just looked like a big mess. I saw that many people had smiles on their faces, and others had frowns. After taking in the groups of people and locating my friends, I carefully made my way to them.

“Hey guys! Long time no see,” I said while waving to them.

“I missed everyone. It's definitely been a while,” My other friend said while waving back.

We continued to talk about our classes and share our schedules. I pulled out my schedule and school map from my pocket and carefully mapped out where my classes were in my head. The steaming hot rays of the summer sun were falling on the concrete sidewalk. Minutes passed and the teachers walked out with a megaphone.

“We’ll be dismissing everyone inside by grade level so please be patient,” one of the teachers said.

6th grade was dismissed first and several minutes later, we were. I walked inside the school, many different emotions running through my body. This is it.

My first class was P.E. Not the best, I know. I didn’t have much of a choice though. I knew where the gym was so I walked there with a whole crowd in the hallway. This was definitely not good for social anxiety. When I reached, I was a little confused. There were two gyms, the main gym, and the tile gym. I walked into the tile gym and waited for some time. Some others came but no teachers. Five minutes later, a teacher walked in and so did some students. Not much happened. The teachers took attendance, I was nervous as always, and everyone got assigned lockers. Lucky for me, a lot of my friends were there.

The bell rang, and I was off to my next class. Language arts passed by pretty quickly and so did science and Spanish. Many of the teachers pronounced my name wrong, not surprising for me. Before I knew it, lunch came around. We got to eat outside. Not the brightest idea with the sun and bugs, but my friends and I didn’t care. I filled my stomach with my homemade lunch. Gosh, school was tiring, and it was only the first day! 6th grade was a lot more laid back since Covid-19 was around. Sure, we still had to wear masks and sanitize now. Though in 6th grade, there were a lot fewer students so the environment was calmer. I snapped out of my thoughts and headed to my next class.

Social studies was a lot more hectic than I thought it would be, but I pulled through. Supervised Study and Honors Math also passed by quickly. We had homework on our first day, can you believe it? What would this mean for the whole year? I finished it in Supervised Study so it wasn’t that bad. Before I knew it, school had ended. It wasn’t so terrible! Why was I stressing out? I’m not the only one, right? Can you relate? Then a thought hit me hard in the head, making me stop in my tracks. This was only my first day. I had a whole year ahead of me! Of course, not everything always has a happy ending. I think I’ve read too many stories with unfortunate endings. Anyways, I shouldn’t think of that now, what matters is that I made it. I was looking forward to the weekend. I exited the school and felt a light breeze pass by. I continued to walk to the bus lane where my friends and I shared our personal experiences of our first day. When my bus came, I got on and stared out the window with a slight smile on my face. I know that there is a lot more to come and I hope that I make many new memories this year. Coping with the good times and bad, I’ll get through it, no matter what.