You’re in middle school now, just entering the most awkward stage of your life. You’re at a new school, taking new classes, making new friends. Mom’s pressuring you to shave your legs and for some reason, you feel like you just aren’t ready for that yet. I’m sure you’re experiencing your first crush despite how much you deny it. You’re there, going through all this newness while I’m here, away at college, missing all of it. Here’s all the advice I would give you if I was home, experiencing this with you.
Make new friends. Middle school invites you to meet plenty of new people, and be sure to take advantage of that. I didn’t even know my current best friend until eighth grade. You may not have even met your best friend yet, or maybe you have. You will carry all these new people with you for the rest of your life. Cherish that.
Puberty happens to everyone. All your friends are wearing deodorant, all of them are wearing bras, and all of them probably feel just as awkward about it as you do. All girls get their periods eventually. You may get it while some of your friends have not yet and that’s okay. Shaving may seem scary now but I promise you, its normal. You probably don’t want to talk about it with your friends but they feel the same as you do and sometimes, its comforting to know other people understand how you feel.
That boy will not matter in your future. Middle school is a time where people start to develop “feelings” for eachother. It’s a time for first crushes, maybe first kisses, and possibly even first “heartbreaks”, and by heartbreak, I mean your “boyfriend” of two weeks dumping you because you have brown hair and all of a sudden, he now likes girls with blonde hair. It may feel like the end of the world now, but in three years, it’ll be something really awesome to look back on and laugh.
Work hard in school. No, the grades you get in junior high don’t really matter to your future, but that doesn’t give you reason to slack off. It may seem like the cool thing right now to not care about school, but the only cool thing about that is that there isn’t any cool thing about that. If you develop good work ethic now, you will carry that with you as you get older and it’ll be nice to have when you really need it.
Enjoy life as much as you can. This is a time in your life when you’re starting to gain freedom all the while having pretty much zero responsibilities. You will make great memories that will make for great stories in your future. You will meet some lifelong friends and you will meet some people who give you lifelong lessons. I know it’s scary to be different because all you want to do is fit in but none of what you did in middle school will matter once you get to high school and especially once you get to college. Be daring, be bold, be different, and most importantly, be you.
