Weave the Web

 began) we were all beginning kindergarten, some of us starting at Reed others in other places. We were all four or five years old, full of intimidation and fear. On the first day of school, we hung close to our parents barely able to say goodbye. 

 

Kindergarten was our first year together as a class, and the first time we were learning without our parents by our side for a whole day. I can still remember playing school and family, picking out my color square on the rainbow rug, and how proud I was that I never got a red card. It was our first year becoming independent and learning how to do things for ourselves, like how I would carry my tote to school everyday, and take the bus all alone with all the scary eighth graders. I guess now we are those scary eighth graders.  

In First Grade, the reading and writing basics we had learned in kindergarten were put to the test and we learned even more about them. We learned how to add small numbers, and we studied penguins each of us finding out which penguin we were most like.

 

Second grade came around the corner, and we were suddenly reading almost fluently, writing not only longer sentences but stories too, and exploring subtraction and addition in more difficult situations. Outside of school, we were beginning to form relationships with friends, gaining more patience and understanding for the topics that were puzzling for us. 

 

2nd grade was our last year at Reed; our next stop would be Bel Aire, where once again we would be the youngest at the school. For me, the Reed Union School District had been a part of my life since the beginning unlike the kids who came and went throughout our nine years I had been there when it all started so going to a new school felt like we would be starting all over. 

 

In third grade we were introduced to homework, we learned how to tell time, how to multiply, divide and how to play four square, tetherball and gaga. In class we each picked an animal to study and we made a diorama out of a shoebox, I remember I picked my favorite animal of the time, dolphins. We also took a field trip to slide ranch and had about a zillion bake sales.

 

When we started fourth grade it was 2009, the year president Barack Obama was inaugurated, (although we probably had no idea what that meant), the year Michael Jackson died and the same year that Flight 1549 landed in the Hudson River. At that time I did not know a lot about what was happening outside our fourth grade room but they may have been because I had lots of other exciting things to focus on. For instance, some of us took our first overnight trip to gold country (where I may have been the only one not to get any gold), we did the mission project and played countless games of capture the flag and dodge ball bowling with Mr. Rossi and Ms. Bowers.

 

A year later we were fifth graders, the oldest at Bel Aire and one year away from being middle schoolers. Fifth grade seems like it was yesterday, even though it was more than three years ago that we were entering the classes for the first time. During the year we had the artist project, seminars with different teachers. One of my most favorite memories was Outdoor Ed. Where we got closer as classmates and as friends. Fifth grade was a crazy year, but it was nothing compared to what the next year would be. 

 

At the six-grade orientation, I was exceptionally nervous for the year to come. Suddenly we had our own computers instead of the ones that just stayed at school, our own lockers instead of the cubbies and hooks we had had, and instead of just one teacher we now had seven and an advisor. Six grade was a year that we grew so much, we were forced to adapt quickly to the new middle school ways, but it ended up being in our favor, we shared so many great memories like India Day, Scandia, and the track meet. 

 

I asked a lot of older kids about seventh grade before it started, they all said it was the most difficult grade at Del Mar, because t he teachers no longer felt bad about the homework load since we weren’t the new kids anymore, and it wasn’t like we were eighth graders and about to leave. Seventh grade came with more work, but it also was a time that we were able to meet new people in our new classes and develop more relationships and friendships with other kids. At the end of the year we went to Paradise Park which most of us were not that enthusiastic about considering that the two other grades got to go to Scandia and Six flags. But the important part of that day was how we got to spend time as a seventh grade class the next time some of us would be seeing the others, we would be eighth graders. 

 

I think this year has been my favorite of all the three. I had been waiting for eighth grade from the moment we were six graders, and when we were finally here it was hard to believe we had come so far. My favorite memory was definitely New York and DC. I wish our whole grade could’ve been there because it’s hard to imagine that a bunch of kids in hotel rooms behaved as well as we did. From early 7AM Starbucks runs to slipping and sliding on the ice outside of memorials and museums that trip made me feel so much closer to every single person. I felt like we were a family on vacation. A very very big family. And that is what we are a dysfunctional family but a great family. 

 

Before I end this speech, I’m not going to say our Middle School Experience has been easy, I would be lying. I can’t say I have never made mistakes and that I have been perfect that there has been bumps along the road with friendships and school work. But a lot of what we have learned, is from those mistakes. Those mistakes are what are going to help us succeed through high school, and beyond. I am honored to say congratulations to the graduating class.