The jump between during 5th and 6th grade was humongous. I’m not saying that this is necessarily a bad thing, but it wasn’t the easiest thing either. In 5th grade, we had one teacher, a desk to put everything in, a closet to put backpacks and lunch boxes, lines to walk in, no lockers, one place to go, the same people in your class.

But now in 6th grade we have six-seven teachers, a locker that takes time to open, multiple lock combinations to memorize, different people in almost all of your classes, classes all over the building, and no time in between classes to take a moment for ourselves.

I’m not complaining. I’m just saying that we should have more preparation before our everyday cycle completely changes. I know that teachers give us time to adapt and stuff, and that’s helpful. But some kids take more time to get used to the brand new cycle and mostly end up being late to class.

Apparently, we have to have late passes if we’re late to class. What?!? What if our locker got jammed? Your locker can’t (and won’t) give you a late pass. Now, you have to go to class, explain why you were late, and now you’re already marked late. Five “lates” mean getting a Saturday detention. Some teachers don’t even believe their students when they give an explanation like this to their teacher. I mean like, what?

Another reason that you are late is because you sometimes have to run across the whole building to get to the next class; multiple times! You have to sprint across the building, get yelled at by some teachers for running, run when there aren’t any teachers in the area that you are in (which is like never. Do teachers stalk you to stop from running?), sprint up a set of stairs, fall on the stairs, and get to class in three minutes. Sometimes, students have too much stuff in their hands and have to get to their locker. When you get to class, your teacher is asking why you are all disheveled and panting for breath. Do you really have to explain everything? So you are late, again.

Why do kids think that middle school is stress time instead of opening new doors for us? This is because so many people just think of it of a place with a lot more homework and less time to do whatever they want to do. We should make middle school feel like a second home instead of grades, grades, and, did I mention, grades?