The Scariest First Ever (January Theme) by Holly Schindler

While many of the firsts in my own life carried with them a swirl of different emotions—excitement and joy and uncertainty and confusion and elation—one first has the power, even as I think back on it today, to bring back only one emotion: pure, 100% terror.

The first day of junior high.

Sure, it can sound a little goofy, now, to call it one of my all-time most frightening experiences. And, to be fair, I certainly faced firsts, as I grew older, during which I had more to risk, had more at stake, than I did facing my first day of junior high. But I’ve never been quite as frightened by anything. Never.

In some respects, I shouldn’t have been scared at all—my junior high was actually an extension of my elementary school. I was going to the same building where I’d been a student for seven years by the time I started junior high. But…my closest friend had moved away the summer before; we’d been friends since the second grade, and of course I felt a bit lost going into junior high without her. I was also just incredibly shy, and my heart would race at the mere idea of being in the midst of so many new faces, strangers, in such a new environment—sure, the building was the same, but lockers? Fighting hallway traffic every hour? Changing clothes for PE? It was all uncharted territory.


Gonna Party Like It's 1987:
Far right: me (in the penguin T-shirt) and my closest elementary-school friend (in the pink shorts) at my brother's birthday party.


Thinking back on it, I can still feel the nervous sweat breaking out and my legs going weak as I rounded the corner to East Hall that first morning, toward the science classes (my first class was biology). I remember what I was wearing (purple shirt, vest, shorts), and how I literally thought I would faint before I got to that classroom.

Long story short, I made it. No fainting. I even made it through lunch.

Surviving junior high is just one example of a first that makes me certain, as an adult, that I’ll figure my way out of tough or scary situations. Back when I was twelve, though, I didn’t have that certainty. I hadn’t maneuvered on my own enough to know that I could trust myself. And that’s what made that first day so frightening.

It takes serious guts to be the kids we write for. Because every single day, one of them is facing some first that terrifies them the same way the first day of junior high terrified me. And they don’t have enough triumphs in their lives yet to know for sure they’ll figure their way out. They’re just taking the plunge…

I so admire those kids we write for, as MG authors. And I feel so privileged to be writing for such an incredibly brave bunch.

Comments

  1. Love this! And it's easy to see why you write MG, if those memories are still so vivid for you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a scary age to be, and what an interesting and challenging age to write for!

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is so true! And I love that photo. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Holly, thanks for the middle school flashback - I think! On my first day, through a computer error, I got three periods of PE (guess what happens to the heroine in my next MG book?).

    ReplyDelete
  5. Trudi--I think I really WOULD have fainted if I'd gotten three PE classes. I'm glad you mentioned the photo, Lisa--I love it, too. The video games, the roller skates...doesn't get much more 80's than that! And Irene, I remember kinda loving that shirt, actually...Thanks for the great comments, guys!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment