I Don’t Regret Middle School, But Here’s What I’d Do Differently…

My middle school years were absolutely revolutionary as I would like to call them. I made mistakes but learnt from them, made and lost friends, had my ups and my downs, but more importantly, these three years brought out the real me, helped me understand my self worth and who I am. I believe we all should learn from each other’s experiences, that being the major reason behind me started this blog. Now that I’m moving into my freshmen year, the first step in high school, I reflected on my middle school experience, here are a list things I wish I could have done differently or had known earlier and maybe, who knows maybe it could help you out!

• Being Realistic

I think one area where I could have tremendously worked on would have been being more realistic. Setting up deadlines for myself that can actually be achieved rather than them being unworkable and impractical. Not just deadlines even when it comes to making decisions. I believe middle school is a great opportunity for you to start practising being practical, logical and feasible. Whatever you’re doing, whether its a project, homework, assignment or even a personal decision, be pragmatic. It took a while to understand how crucial it is to be practical, however, if I had learnt to be realistic earlier, it would have been proved to be very beneficial for me. Therefore, just be reasonable in whatever you do!

• Exploring Opportunities

Middle school serves as a platform for a plethora of bewildering possibilities, from little internships to competitions and even spelling bees. Make good use of these opportunities, trust me, they serve as excellent methods of building your personality. I initially wouldn’t indulge in many of these activities simply because I was scared, however, that is not a valid reason. So, go and explore these marvellous opportunities waiting for you, remember it doesn’t matter if you do well in the activity, all that matters is the experience you obtained.

• Being Organised

Being organised is something I miserably failed at during my middle school years, and something I continue to work on. I cannot quite express the importance of being organized in middle school. Being organized results in you being ever ready, prepared for any kind of undertaking. Being organised helps boost your productivity and helps you get done with more in less time. Be organized in whatever you do whether it may be something as simple as assembling your stationery box to organizing information on a leaflet. I will definitely do a post on being organized once I have myself mastered the skill.

• Speaking Your Mind

I cannot quite express how important it is to speak your mind. Middle school serves as the spark for peer pressure which is a phenomenon that you will experience for the rest of your life, therefore its good to learn how to deal with it earlier. I did a post on peer pressure that you can check out here: https://snaginthebag.com/get-rid-of-negative-peer-pressure-for-good/. I wouldn’t have experienced as much stress if I had simply learnt to speak my mind and explain what I want to do and what I don’t. You need to learn to speak up and not just for yourself but also for someone else or something that you feel is wrong. Honestly, speaking up is one of the most important skills I have learnt from my middle school years and I encourage you to do the same!

• Study Schedules

Study schedules were something I avoided for a long time but eventually got into the habit of making and following them, which made me realize how important it is to have one and how much easier it makes everything. The major purpose behind these is to remain organised which as I mentioned above is a very important quality in middle school. Study schedules help me remain on track on with my work and help me do more in less time and reduce stress. It is very important to make a study schedule and diligently follow it. I did a post on how to make an efficient study schedule, which you can find here: https://snaginthebag.com/jump-start-your-study-session-with-this/

• Getting Involved In Communities

As I mentioned above about the importance of making use of the opportunities, getting involved in communities is somewhat similar. Try out different things and maybe you might end up finding your niche, which gives you a better sense of your strengths and weaknesses. For example, you could get involved in a fandom, a book fandom or a TV series fandom, anything! You could even become a part of a band or a Fanclub, there are so many different opportunities. Make sure you make use your middle school years to develop yourself to the fullest. As for me, I believe, I was initially very shy to get involved with different communities simply because I was nervous, however, that shouldn’t stop you from engaging in activities, more on this topic in the next pointer.

• Nervousness

Being nervous has limited me from doing so many things in middle school, Its the simple fear of ‘What will people think? ‘What if I mess up?’. Over time I learn that if I focus less on the aftermath of the event and more on the present and doing the event, I’ll do it much better. I believe, if I hadn’t been nervous about most things, I would have performed better. Don’t think too much just do your job the best you can and it will all end well.

• Knowing What You Want

Middle school years help you discover who you are what exactly you want. You have a clear idea of your likes and dislikes. The earlier you figure them out, the better it is. Once you know what you want, you can start working on it and nothing will allow you to get sidelined. I think I spent quite a while trying to figure out what I was interested in and what I despised, again, if I had done this earlier it would have obviously been much better. Therefore, know what you want, what you need and what you don’t require!

• Everyone Is A Human

Something I realised much later in my middle school years was that everyone at the end of the day is a simple human like you. Even the ‘cool kids’ feel nervous and ‘the nerds’ don’t know the answer to everything. Every kid in your school feels the same things you do. Therefore, nothing makes anyone else superior or inferior to you. You should know, that what you feel, everyone feels the same and that you are not alone.

Those were some things I would have done differently in my middle school years but I am grateful for what I have learnt them and look forward to making use of them in my high school years, which I’m eagerly anticipating. I hope this helps you out! If there are some things that you wished you had done differently, feel free to share them in the comments!