It's a funny feeling, being in the eighth grade. Being the oldest at the Nakatsu campus, in the final year before high school. I remember being ten years old, looking up to the eighth graders back then thinking they’re so cool. They were so tall, and they read cool chapter books and wore cool clothes. But now that I’m their age, I still feel so young. I still am so young, I’m just thirteen. I don't feel any different to how I was four years ago.

I joined the school in the summer of 2019, starting third grade. Since then, things have changed. Teachers, classmates, friends… The eighth graders back then just graduated high school this past year. 

The thing about K-12 schools is that people don't just leave after completing an educational stage. There's people on campus that I’ve never even spoken to before, yet I still feel like I’m growing up alongside them. I watch them cut their hair, I watch them make new friends, I watch them find new hobbies... I watch as the sixth graders grow almost as tall as me, and I think of when I was in the third grade meeting them in the first. Only then does it dawn on me that to them, I’m the older kid now.

Next year I’m going to the Tosabori campus, and I haven't decided yet whether I’m ecstatic or terrified. On the one hand, I won't have to deal with the noise when PYP gets their recesses, but on the other hand the noise is almost routine to me. I’m gonna miss it.

Sure, it’s not like I’m completely unfamiliar with the Tosabori campus. We go every so often for events, and I’m there quite often because of my older brother. Still, it's such a huge change in the long term. I’ve practically grown up at Nakatsu. I’ve spent so much time in the library here that I’ve read just about every graphic novel there is to read. There are so many books here that I’ve personally requested.

Then I guess that's another thing I’m excited about in the Tosabori campus is the library. Don't get me wrong, I love the Nakatsu library, but I’ve probably read half the entire collection at this point. And most of it is primary fiction, which I never mind, but oftentimes I find myself asking Ms Caroll for books from Tosabori because the books over there appeal to my liking a lot more.

Tosabori as a whole seems less juvenile than Nakatsu, which is a given on its own, but it really demonstrates a new step to finishing school. Here, eighth grade is the oldest we can be, but next year we’ll be back on the bottom. For now, I’ll just treasure being the oldest for a little while longer.