Junior High

What is it about junior high that makes me hear the theme song from Jaws?  I feel like every morning I pull up in front of the school and expect my daughter to walk the plank.  And every morning she does.  Right into a huge tank of adolescent great whites.  Mean ones.  As adults we know that having a pimple is not the end of the world, but it is in junior high.  If you don't wear the right clothes or eat lunch with the right kids your doomed to a life of always feeling like you don't fit in, like you don't have the right friends, like you are unworthy of walking the earth with the popular kids.  I remember junior high and I hated it.  I wanted to be the cheerleader, the popular one that all the boys followed around like hungry, mindless zombies, but I wasn't. I was just a normal teenager trying to find my place in the tank.  Looking back on it, junior high made me a better person.  I learned how not to treat people.  I learned that kindness is a good quality to have. Junior high taught me that a person can be pretty on the outside and ugly on the inside. I found the strenghth to stand up for a kid that had emotional problems when the popular boys were picking on him.  I learned that even teachers can be jerks who still want to be popular with the in crowd. That was a hard lesson because I realized that some adults are immature and mean.  As a young teen you expect more from the adults around you.  You need adults that will teach you that everyone is different and we all have infinite worth because of that.  It just doen't happen in junior high. Maybe it happens at home when you are surrounded by people that love you pimples and all. Maybe it happens when you find real friends who will go the distance with you.  Maybe it has to come from our own maturity when we come to like who we are. Maybe its all of that and more.  All I can say is I am so glad junior high is over for me and as for my daughter who swims with the sharks everyday I say "that which does not kill us makes us stronger."