Visions of Junior High

I’m looking forward to the first day of junior high with both fear and anticipation. For six long years in grade school I have been slowly progressing toward the top of the ladder of seniority. Now, after just a few brief moments in that thin atmosphere on top, the first day of junior high will find me once again at the bottom looking up.

Probably one of the most difficult parts of junior high will be trying to remember all the necessary things to make it through a day. A list of the necessary information must include hall locker combination, teachers’ names, room numbers and locations, class schedule, names of new friends, assignments, and the location of the girls’ rest room.

Each of the three wings of the Logan Junior High holds its own hidden terrors and delights. The west wing houses, among other things, the homemaking department. The hidden pitfalls here are many. I picture myself on the day we begin to sew with my fingers securely fastened onto the edge of the needle after a case of faulty navigation. I suppose after I bring home my first sad excuse for a dress, my mother will make we wear it to school, thereby ending all my prospects of social life for the next three years. Cooking should be another interesting experience. In the future I picture some days of great stomach distress because I’ve had to eat my own cooking.

The gym is another area that I’m sure I’ll become well acquainted with. The stories I’ve heard about dancing in the gym are all but pleasant.

I hope my visits to the wing in which the main office is located are for the purpose of buying lunch tickets rather than for being disciplined. After the day I visited the junior high with my sixth grade classmates I pictured the office as a torture chamber in which innocent children had bamboo strips put under their fingernails. But after I get to know the administrators, I’m sure I’ll find that they are very nice people who will help me if I have a problem.

I’m excited about being able to learn more about the world around me. It’s a new experience to be able to choose some of the classes I will take. The junior high has many facilities that I will be able to use for learning—microscopes, easels, filmstrips.

As great as all these problems and dangers might sound, the simple fact that other people have made it through junior high gives me a little hope. Junior high will probably be one of the greatest combinations of new sights, sounds, and experiences that I will ever participate in. And I can’t wait.

Photos by A Stone and Michael Keogh