My Middle School

Not much happened in middle school since it was only three years but my mom had a boyfriend. He was really nice to me and my sister and he really liked kids because he has three of his own which was perfect for us. He introduced his daughter and two sons to my sister and I, he ended up moving in with us and his kids would come every second weekend. We matched up all of our weekends so that every time they came over we were here to play with them and the weekends they were with their moms, my sister and I would go to our dad's house. It was awesome having step siblings to hang out with, my step sister and I even shared a room and slept in a bunk bed and we'd stay up late and talked for hours .

I often played dolls or hairdresser with my step sister, the hairdressing part is important. At some point in their relationship, they started fighting constantly and it got to the point where he was never home, he would go to work early and stay late. That became a problem so they would fight even more, we would all hear the fights and we all got worried and made plans to stay in touch in case they broke up because we didn't want to lose each other. My step sister and I were playing hairdresser with our dolls and we made a plan to open up our own hair salon together when we grew up, this is also important for later. At some point in the 8th grade, they broke up, we all saw it coming but we were still sad since we knew we'd probably never see each other again since they all lived in different cities. We were right, we never really saw each other again, except for that one time I saw my step sister when I snuck into her school a couple years later and we hung out on her lunch break.

8th grade is when most things that have impacted my life happened, including the break up.

1. I almost lost my step mom after her appendix ruptured. She was in a lot of pain but she said she'd sleep it off and my dad kept telling her to go to the hospital but she kept saying she was fine and she'd just let it pass on it's own until the next day it was hurting so bad she could barely walk and she told my dad to take her to the hospital. She obviously had to get an appendectomy and while my dad was waiting for her to get out of surgery, he texted me telling me what happened and I got really scared. Thankfully she made it through surgery and fully recovered but the doctor said that if she would have waited any longer to get to the hospital she wouldn't have made it. Now I'm super paranoid about it and when I get odd stomach pains I always freak out and think I have appendicitis.

2. There was this exchange program with France and I really wanted to be a part of it because I had always dreamed of going to France. So I got a form and asked my mom if I could go and gave her the form to fill out. She told me she'd think about it because it's a big decision letting a 13 year old go to France without parents, we were going with teachers but no parents. Then came the last day to apply for a spot and my mom still didn't give me an answer, I came home from school crying telling my mom it was too late and she told me she was gonna say yes, I cried even more. A couple weeks go by and someone drops out of the program and they really needed someone to go because they had paired every student in the program with a student in France. I had a friend in the program and she told me there was a spot available so when I got home I told my mom and she signed the form and I got accepted, it was one of the best days of my life. My parents payed money every month to save up for the plane tickets and activities and we did fundraisers at least once a month to raise money for the trip. We had yard sales, we went door to door for hours asking people for bottles, we did 50/50, we did it all. It was mid October and all of the french students came to Canada, I met my partner at the airport and we took her home, she stayed with us for two weeks and we took her to every tourist attraction in our area, she tried a Pop-tart for the first time and fell in love. We all took a travel bus to Prince Edward Island, we had lunch on the beach even thought it was cold, went to a candy store and cow's ice cream, we went to visit Anne of Green Gables, we had pizza and went to a haunted house. We had the best time of our lives until her and her friends had to go back home, we all got very close so it was really hard to see them go. We all cried at the airport when they left, we never said goodbye, we said "I'll see you in a couple months" . We were able to talk every day and I'd stay up really late to Skype her after she got home from school. The months were rolling by and we were getting excited to see each other again and I was gonna bring her a bunch of Pop-tarts and more souvenirs, we had big plans for the trip. Then their was a a bombing in Paris and the country shut down for a couple months, this happened in February and the trip was at the end of June. The school board felt it was unsafe to let us go since we were staying pretty close to Paris and we had plans to spent a day shopping and visiting the Eiffel Tower, so they cancelled the trip. We were all devastated and a little frustrated, my parents told me we would find a way to go someday and visit her but so far it hasn't happened because we don't have the money for it. Since they cancelled the trip, my parents got all of their money back and since it was illegal to keep fundraiser money and use it on something that wasn't with the school they decided to use that money to pay for my end of the year Montreal trip, I wasn't going to Montreal at first since I was going to France but since it got cancelled, I settled.

3. Now it's time for the Montreal trip. The days leading up to the trip was spent packing my suitcase, I was excited. At school, my teacher kept reminding us we had to be at school by 5am since we were taking a travel bus and she said if we didn't get there on time they'd leave without us, so my mom set an alarm to wake up on time to get ready. Nothing could go wrong... until it did. My mom either slept through her alarm or the alarm didn't go off at all. At 5am sharp, my teacher called my mom and she finally woke up, she realized we were late and woke me up and we got ready super fast, I didn't even have  time to get dressed. We left the house and when we were pulling out of the driveway my mom was asking me if I was missing anything and I realized I didn't bring my wallet with me, we had to turn around and get it, wonderful when you're late by the way. We got to school and left for Montreal, the bus ride was super fun also very long because it was 9 hours but still fun. We finally got there and our first stop was the mall so we did some shopping, nothing too interesting about that but we did it. After the mall, it was getting a little late so we went to the first hotel and we had a blast, I was in the same room as three of my best friends. We went to lush when we were at the mall so all four of us put on face masks and put a bath bomb in the tub and we all sat in the tub together, really odd experience but it's definitely something to laugh at, especially since the bathroom floor was super wet and we all slipped and fell all over the place. The next day, we went to another mall and we were having fun in the escalators until my friend got his pants stuck, I also got super lost with one of my friends trying to find Starbucks right before we had to go. After all of that we went to an indoor maze which was super fun and we had a creepy tour of the "Vieux Québec". On the other days we went to La Ronde where I discovered my fear of heights and my fear of rollercoasters, we went to Zoo de Granby. That's pretty much the end of that trip

3. I went to Toronto with my family, which was another really fun experience. We drove there which took about 16 hours but the drive was totally worth it. We went to the pool every single day we were there, we drove around downtown Toronto, we went to a science museum and we went to the mall where I found out that Disney stores existed. After we went to the mall, we decided to go to Chuck E. Cheeze, I had never been to one before and I had a great experience there playing with all of the games. There's not much that I can say about my stay in Toronto other than it was a very good experience and I can't wait to go again.

That's the end of my somewhat relevant middle school experiences.