The transition into junior was a somewhat complex one for me. I had trouble adapting a newer environment where there were more students, classrooms, teachers, etc. I struggled the first 2 of the 3 years. The style of teaching I was used to in elementary compared to junior high was different, and the treatment from teachers was absolutely different, and not in a positive way. I tried hard to adapt, bring my marks to a level where I want them to be, and to have a balance between school and social life.


Part of what made it difficult is that I was keen on following the same way of doing things I was used to in elementary. I was also reluctant to change and the ability to see change as well. The most crucial part was that I was acting in a manner where I was telling myself to just be myself but, I did just that in the wrong way, which caused more harm rather than good. More so, I started doing things that were unacceptable, but not embarrassing. It resulted in me being down in the office speaking with the AP or Principal on a few occasions. With one of the incidents that frowned upon then, wouldn't be frowned upon now, in our digital age. There are times where I wish I could just go back and change things up, but at the same time: life moves on. What has happened, happened.

The other part which made it difficult was that I didn't have wonderful teachers in my opinion. Not all of them were bad, but a handful of them just didn't click for me. I could say, to a certain extent that they picked on me at times because I simply just did not like class discussions (I still don't). More so, that in grade 8, teachers would know every students' name in the class except mine; I'm not sure what the issue was, or what the deal with that was. It wasn't just one, but 2 teachers that did it all the time. They were corrected from time to time but it didn't click to them that it was the reason that other classmates were laughing out loud because of it, every time it happened.


What changed me, however, took place through the summer break I had before going into grade 9. At that point, I discovered the opportunity to volunteer/ contribute to Mozilla. I started off with live chat on SUMO which paved the way for me to improve my writing skills and grammar by contributing to the knowledge base.

As I started into my last year of junior high, the other thing that I was lucky to be part of was: leadership. I was lucky and fortunate enough to be enrolled in that class so, that I was able to find myself and be myself. In leadership, students are encouraged to help each other out, work in groups/ teams, work to boost your enthusiasm and self-esteem, and to help organize school events. I loved it! I was able to see my potential, and what potential others had. These 2 factors allowed me to become more successful in my studies, and day-to-day life along with my contributions to Mozilla. I started to have things dawn on me, and so I was able to figure out what I did wrong, and how I could take a different and better approach the next time if the similar situations arose again.


Unfortunately, even though there are positives, there will be negatives. Not everything worked out to be a miracle. There were 2 situations where I had issues with my teachers.

The first of which, was where a teacher wanted things done her way only. If you found a solution to a homework question, test question a different way but with the same answer, and you could do that for other questions as well, you were still wrong. You had to do it a certain and specific way in order for it to be right. Now, as always, there are 2 ways of thinking about this for sure, but as we've progressed, we find that there are multiple approaches to achieving or reaching something and it doesn't have to be done in the set in a stone way.

The second was where I know that I don't have the talent or ability to complete something and required help. I tried and tried through the whole semester to achieve what was being taught in the class. On the very last day, I didn't expect myself to take it any further but somehow one thing lead to another where I wasn't happy with the teacher and nor was he happy with me. In the end, I spoke with my favourite AP who was also a teacher of mine as well, and she agreed with what I said and we ended it there.


There are always 2 parts to a story, but I can only reveal so much that it doesn't hurt me in the long run. I'm being really vague as I don't want to hurt my reputation nor do I want an investigation to be launched. The sole purpose of this blog post is to share what I experienced in junior high and to share how I was able to progress and find myself simply through the power of leadership.

http://feer56.blogspot.com/2016/04/experience-learn-revitalize-and-share.html