by Mahalia Hudson (Posted on Dec. 24, 2025 @

One of the biggest things you remember about each grade is the first day of school that year. 

The first day of school in sixth grade is pretty weird- but also exhilarating. You’re in a completely new building- well, set of buildings. Sure, they gave you a tour at orientation, but unless you had photographic memory, you forgot most of it. So you’ve got to figure it out all over again. Then seventh grade- seventh is weird. You’re walking around a familiar campus now, and you’re one of the ‘big kids’ now (at least in your eyes), but you’re too caught up with the overwhelming sense of how unbelievably short all the sixth graders are. You can’t have been that tiny, right? 

Right!?

Eighth grade is… kind of underwhelming. I mean, it’s still awesome to see all your friends again, to see which teachers you got this year. But the idea of being super satisfied at finally being an eighth grader and being the oldest grade on campus? Well, unless you have some long-held grudge against the eighth graders that were around when you were in sixth… you (probably) don’t even notice that. And you don’t even really care how short the sixth graders are anymore. It’s just kind of the way things are.

Even so, there’s something special about it. It’s kind of hard to put a finger on it, but it’s there. I think some of my peers put it better than I can. “It’s really fun because you’re the oldest, and you get to do everything. All the extracurriculars, all the sports, and you’re looking forward to high school,” said Elsa Robelo. 

You know, I think there’s a reason they call it ‘moving up.’ It’s almost like an elevator, the kind with windows facing out towards the city- or in this case, the school. Every time you move up, everything below begins to look and feel a little smaller. And then eventually you start to really look around and see the big picture, the weirdly wonderful experience of being in middle school (except maybe the smell), and you begin to figure things out.

I don’t know that we’re quite there yet, but maybe we’re getting closer.