At the end of the year.....

Authors note: This closure piece is a reflection over the past two years I have been in middle school with Mr. Johnson. As much as I look forward to high school, part of me wishes I could stay in middle school just for the sake of still having Mr. Johnson as my English teacher.

As cliché as it sounds, it is difficult to see how my two years of middle school have passed by so quickly. It is easy to remember the night before my first day of seventh grade -- nightmares about being late to class running through my mind. The teachers were welcoming and helpful to the nervous seventh graders, but I still went home crying and hating middle school. Yet being able to enjoy middle school is not the only way I have grown.

On the first day of classes fourth hour held a surprise. Gone were the teachers who expected you to do the assignment exactly step by step. No more was I in a classroom where teachers held my hand as I completed their self-created projects. I had Mr. Johnson now.

Two years have past and without a doubt I feel prepared for high school. When looking at the poster in this room above the Speak cabinet, those qualities seem to describe how I feel about my writing. I have gained the ability to read and understand novels more independently than when I walked in as a beginning seventh grader. Literature now seems to hold so much more depth than it did before for me. So now as I look forward to high school and the freedom to come, I am excited for the chance to learn more.