Sixth grade going on first form!

By last Wednesday sixth graders all over the country would have found out whether or not they achieved their dream school or dream ‘space’ in the country–unfortunately we sixth formers have to sweat it out worrying for a few more months before we find out how we did at CAPE. Reading about the results made me more than a little nostalgic about when my results had come out back in 2006.
And thinking back on everything has also made me quite a bit envious of the sixth graders because they are now just about to begin high school and I just have one year left! I remember my Registration Day and Orientation Day at Queen’s.
Now, my perception of Queen’s and the way I think about it is different. Walking into Queen’s now would be completely different from that first time. Now, what seemed alien six years ago is a familiar place that I can find my way around blindfolded.
It’s a place full of memories, some good, and some bad. It’s practically the place where I grew up – seeing as the school year takes up an entire three quarters of the year! So now the sixth graders are poised to become first formers at whichever school they earned a place to attend.
And it’s always a transition, moving up from one school to another because the sixth graders would’ve been the oldest kids in primary school, looked upon with awe by the first graders and basically feeling like they own the school. Now, in secondary school, they’re literally back at square one, being the babies of the school.
First formers are always famed for being extremely gung-ho about any and every school activity, they join all the clubs and they make the most money at market day.
Unfortunately, they seem to lose some of their school spirit by second form. But by sixth form, you sort of get a bit reflective and wish that you had made the most of your time and that you had made your way down to all of the club meetings of the clubs you had joined in first form.
And I would like to encourage all first formers to take a little bit of time to appreciate that you’re just beginning high school. I can remember in fifth form I nearly had a panic attack thinking that I would have to move on to college and grow up and start being a responsible adult but then I remembered that I still had two more years of sixth form to still be a kid.
It made me appreciate my parents and other adults a bit more, I think. So to all the sixth graders out there, congratulations on a job well done!