its tough to be an 8th grader

It’s Tough to be an Eighth Grader
(yes, very tough…)

It is tough to be an eighth grader. Am I not qualified to say so? After all, I am one myself at Redwood Middle School. Many factors contribute to the toughness of this age. I mean, come one, teenagers have the hardest jobs on the planet! Anybody can go to work, but only a teenager can manage to stay “cool” 24/7. The adults have it easy, no pressure, just do your work and you’ll be fine. Believe me, the teenagers are the hardest working and have the most stressful occupation of all time. Being an eighth grader… See, and you thought I was going off on a tangent… Anyway, did anyway ever tell you how hard it is to be an 8th grader? First, you got the piles, excuse me, mountains, of homework your teachers give you like Mr. Martin. Then you got the ones who yell at you the time, like Mr. Martin. There are also those teachers who are just weird, like Mr. Martin. Then again, you also come across some that seem to be just absorbed in there own little world, again like Mr. Martin.
But in spite of all that, a teenager still manages to get by in class. It’s out of class that the real challenge begins. Constantly in social situations, unlike teachers that stay in there rooms all day, like Mr. Martin, 8th graders stand at the top of the middle school hierarchy. Staying at the top is hard, even though you’re older. Many strive to keep the respect of their peers, and the people under them. However, it’s no always easy. The imminent conflict occurs when memories of being a 6th grader and looking at unfamiliar 8th graders surface and make them way to the front of your mind and obsess you with that thought until a teacher, like Mr. Martin, starts yelling at you.
On top of that, 8th graders are bombarded non-stop with media of all kinds, no matter where they are. The media begins to develop as a life-source for them, and soon they grow and parasitic relationship with it, causing them to not be able to pass the day without at least an hour of sitting in front of the TV. However, this life-source is a terrible misconception. The media actually becomes an oppression to them. You see, the media remains within the mind even after being processed unlike Mr. Martin’s lectures which go in one ear and out the other. It grows and feeds on the young mind until it has completely possessed it and begins talking saying things like: “You’re still not as hot as Nicole Kidman”, or “Your butt is huge”, or “Sag a little more!”
If you though the media was bad, wait until I tell the last factor. The final, and arguably the largest factor adding to the toughness of living the last year in middle school is… If you haven’t guessed yet, the factor that adds the most pressure to the life of any teenager is… The average American… Parent! Yup, that’s right folks! teenagers can’t stand having parents. Big surprise, but don’t start gasping yet. Parents, it seems, put enormous pressure and disappointment on their own children in the form of: “You must get a 4.0 this year or else!”, and “get off the computer and start doing your math homework!”, and “Next time I catch you doing that I’ll ground you for life!”, or “No you cannot go to Timmy’s house, you need to study more.”
With such examples, it’s no great surprise that teenagers cannot stand their parents. Additional comments such as: “No, you cannot! I am the parent and you will listen to me!” or “What did you just say!?” only serve to “piss” off 8th graders more. They provide more and more restrictions just when their minds begin to suggest that they need more. They start to become nosier just when their brains start to suggest they get a little more privacy. Any conflict is deeply inevitable. Though “deeply” isn’t needed since the inevitability of anything is always the same: inevitable.
But don’t stop reading yet, there’s more! With the coming onslaught of puberty and hormones, 8th graders only begin to harbor more and more dangerous stress. Hormones demand certain things, and some of those things just can’t be acquired in certain situations. The pressure from all 4 sides forms an enclosed room where the child is in constant fear of being flattened. Claustrophobia soon ensues.
Yeah, you adults have it too easy. I haven’t even started to begin to describe the beginning of teenage emotional difficulties… I hoped I have given you a very slight idea of how much teenagers suffer. Good luck to those who have begun this thousand mile journey filled with tiger traps, thorns, pits with spikes at the bottom, wild lions, hailstorms, random lightning, prairie fires, and carnivorous birds. Geez, and people ask why so many teenagers are depressed, suicidal, or on drugs…
Oh, and about the thousand mile journey thing (no it wasn’t a joke, your too optimistic!) I forgot just one thing… cannibals.

- by: who else but, an 8th grader!