Junior High is Coming – are you ready?
In our podcast 2 weeks ago, we talked with a good friend of mine, Jessica who is going to be a senior this year and we asked her about her experiences as a sophomore, junior and now soon-to-be senior and getting ready for it and how it is different each year.
Because we didn’t hit too much on the junior high age, I wanted to address these years and getting ready for them. So below I wanted to list just a few ideas for each year:
7th grade: this grade is often the hardest for many people, especially girls. Here we have just left elementary school and maybe had a great group of friends and maybe was even popular and then we go into a new school with lots of new people and our identity or perception of ourself often changes and sometimes it isn’t just our perception of ourselves but it is sometimes also our friends perception that changes.
We often meet a lot of new people this year and this can be so fun but also really stressful. MY ADVICE: talk with everyone at first. Make yourself known by a lot of different groups of people. Don’t be so stressed that you get lumped into a group you may not really want to be a part of.
8th grade: This is probably for most junior high age girls the funnest. You aren’t the youngest and you aren’t the oldest either. So you can have friends in all different grades which makes it a lot of fun! By now, you pretty much know who you are for the moment and are sure of what you like and who you like to spend most of your time with. This is also a great year academically to get on the ball with practicing to NOT procrastinate. Next year’s grades count and it’s good to get into a good habit of studying and doing your homework on time.
9th grade: Socially, this is often a struggle for girls since a lot of the guys their age are not looking at the 8th and even 7th graders to hang out with. So, have so much fun with your girl-friends and maybe meet guys from different schools this year. This is a year that is full of decisions. You need to choose what you might want to be a part of in high school like a certain club or team. You’ll need to realize that not all your close friends will want to do the same things which often makes it tricky to decide. But, join something and get involved, no matter what your friends want to or don’t want to do! Study hard and keep working on your schoolwork – don’t get behind for even a day or two; it isn’t worth it!
Hope some of this info helps!
*Summer
