Edgar

          I was born in Washington D.C. but I was raised by my mom who is from El Salvador. When I was twelve, I had already graduated from elementary school and I was going to attend middle school. When I arrived there for 7^th grade it was very different. When I got to middle school, I had some friends from my elementary school. I only got to see them at lunch because we had no classes together but lunch periods were pretty long so I still had a good time. I didn’t like the school very much. It took a very long time to get lunch since the staff put all of   6^th, 7^th, and 8^th grade together in one lunch period. We had seven classes but only took four classes a day which were seventy minutes long. I had a lot of unfair teachers that were too mean with small issues.

          The change from elementary school to middle school really did not affect me in any way except for becoming mature. The relationship with my family did not change much. At the parent teacher conferences, the communication from my teachers with my parents were good. I was always sat with my friends at lunch so we would always talk about things that happened earlier. I always felt happy with my friends because that school was filled with gang members. At the end of the year when the 8^th grade was graduating, they would try and gang up on and beat every single 7^th and 6^th grader.

          Some of the difficulties I had with the new school were trying to do all of the big projects and assignments. I did a science project that I got an A+ on. I had to do a lot of research in order to do my three-page essay. It was on the respiratory system. I had to find information for two weeks to do my poster. I find that the project really made me apply myself. Another problem I faced was I had been trying to avoid all the gangs and when they fought. I always tried to avoid the bad influences in the school by taking other ways to school and getting to class other ways. What I learned from these experiences was seeing who my friends were. Now that I think back, I know I made the right decisions.