Celebration of a Disaster

Seventh grade may have been better than I originally thought. I knew many of my middle school classmates from late elementary, and I was comfortable with them as a result. I was part of a good friend group, and I sometimes joined another friend’s friend group (maybe I could consider myself part of that friend group at the time, too). I also played chess in the library with some peers and demonstrated some skills with that by winning games. Now that I think of it, there also wasn’t that much homework, and my teachers were great . . . not that my current teachers aren’t. In Early January, we watched CNN 10 episodes in English class, and there were mentions of a mysterious virus spreading in China. We didn’t think much of it then . . . Until a few months later, we were notified that we had two weeks off because of concerns about the virus’ presence in the U.S. Everyone was celebrating because of the two weeks’ break. . . Little did we know, that break would be extended for much longer . . . because the coronavirus decided that it was a great time to start infecting people and spread globally.

The Cliché on that Dim and Windy Day

I still remember the school event two days before the graduation day of middle school. The event’s purpose was to act as a get-together after the pandemic. For some people, like me, it was the first time being at the middle school since the pandemic shut down schools, as there was an option for virtual school. The day was dim due to the clouds. . . unlike my mood that day, for I was quite excited to see my peers after so long. It was also windy, causing some of the canopies that were set up to essentially go flying. For some reason, the students I knew from before looked almost. . . exactly the same as they did before the pandemic. Somehow. . . seeing them play with the energy they had before. . . made me realize how important being acquainted with (some/many of) them was to me. It was just like that one cliché. . . the one about the real treasure being the friends/acquaintances made along the way.

The End of an Era

For some reason, I still think of the friends and acquaintances I left behind on the day of that 8th-grade graduation. On that day, it was quite sunny and clear, like the perfect weather for a beach. The first person I saw and talked to there was one of my teachers from 6th grade, and then I also took a selfie with one of my 7th-grade teachers. I then went to the tennis courts with the other 8th graders, and I met up with some of my old friends there. Seeing everyone ready to graduate made me feel happy, a bittersweet kind of happy. The actual ceremony that followed was also pretty nice; they called out each student’s name and gave out certificates as if each one was a Nobel Prize. After the ceremony was done, I left promptly, thinking that I would see them against soon. I never saw most of them after. Do you guys still remember me, though? Or am I just a thing of the past? Have the friendships already ended . . .?

Reigniting Friendships

I seem to be good at remembering what acquaintances looked like and even things about them and what they did, since some of them don’t remember me from before. Either that, or I wasn’t significant enough, but I’m hoping that the former is true. Anyway, this was put to the test when I entered 9th grade. Likely due to proximity, I saw many former schoolmates that I hadn’t seen since early elementary school (“EES”), before I went to a different elementary school. Coincidentally, one of my friends from late elementary/middle school (“LE/MS”) became friends with a group of EES schoolmates (and others), including ones that I was especially close with during my EES time. When one of them recognized me, I thought He knows who I am. He knows who I am! So, I ended up slowly phasing into that group, with some success. I still feel more like an outsider, but I’m making progress . . .

The Heavens Up Above

I used to think that I wanted to be a doctor. Until I became fascinated by what I read about: space. A heaven of infinite stars and solar systems. Planets, different from our solar system’s, from the extremely hostile to the possibly habitable, at the perfect distance from their star(s), just how Goldilocks would like it. Stars, from the large and unstable, like a volcano, to the small and everlasting, like a plateau. Whole galaxies, spinning and moving, gigantic carousels of stars. Thus, I became interested in astronomy, continuing to read, research, and even write reports about the subject for school. And that is what I hope to study as a career later on.