Why does eighth grade feel just the same as seventh grade?

A letter writer craves change at school; our elder encourages him to be the change.

Dear EWC

Hello! I just started eighth grade and it feels really weird. Summer felt really short, and when school started, it felt like a continuation of seventh grade, like at the end of seventh grade last June, school was just put on pause, and now, in September, it is resumed, just at the beginning of the school year. Almost everything feels the same, people look the same, act the same. Truthfully, if I didn’t know any better, I’d think it was seventh grade. Pretty much everyone even sits at the same tables during lunch. The only big difference so far is the new teachers. Seventh grade felt really complete to me, and if I could go back and change anything I did in it, I wouldn’t. But now, it feels like eighth grade is a repeat or a “redo” of seventh grade, which isn’t something I would want. The thought of a full year of school that is this similar to last year bores me so much. I may just be overreacting since school hasn’t been going on for very long. Thanks 🙂

Hedwig replies

Today is the first day of the rest of your life. It may resemble yesterday, but it is actually a new day with new possibilities. In most school systems, eighth grade is usually the top of the line—the last year before high school. You are the oldest students in the school—the top dogs. The little kids look up to you big kids.

Next year you will be at the bottom, a ninth grader, a freshman, starting in a new place with new fellow students. Then you will find the more of the excitement that comes with the educational adventure. College will be even better.
Right now, while much may seem the same as last year, what you learn will be more advanced, moving you up the educational ladder. You are building on what you learned in sixth and seventh and using this foundation for eighth and the great adventure that lies beyond.

You have the choice of being bored, or putting your curiosity to work to make discoveries. It is all a matter of attitude. New teachers will be different. Subject matter will be different. It is great that you feel seventh was so perfect you wouldn’t change anything. But if you want your current world to change—do it! Sit at different tables at lunch. Take up some new activities—take up a musical instrument and join the band. Work for the student newspaper if there is one. Join a new sport. Make new friends. This is the first day of the rest of your life. Make the most of it!

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