The transition from middle school to high school is one of the biggest changes that a child/teen has to go through. For me, that experience was extremely difficult and stressful, even with having an older sibling in the school. Living in franklin lakes, I had the choice to go to two different high school. I never considered picking a different school, with my sister here and living very close, I never thought there would be another option. But when my friends were going to a different school I began to question if I should still pick.  I didn't want to lose any friends because most of my friends I have known since kindergarten. I always saw friendships ending, and I always thought that it was normal, until I had to leave my friends. I never understood why my sister was upset when she was starting high school at a different school from some of her friends, until I felt the same way. The summer after graduating eighth grade, my friends and I tried to stay close, but keeping in touch can be hard when you don't see someone often, and friendships begin to fade away.

Although I still have friends here, the change in school is also hard to adjust to a bigger school and harder material. In middle school, all of the teachers would say, “In high school your teachers won’t hold your hands”, they were right. Moving to a bigger school with older kids brought more challenges and responsibilities. Being a sophomore, I have gotten used to how everything works here, but I remember on the first day of school getting lost and asking my sisters friends that I saw around that halls for help to got to my next class. Being in a bigger  and a different school, has taught be to get out of my comfort zone more and to think about what society is and what the social norm is. I realized that everyone is different and there is no social norm. I didn't want my friends to go to a different school, but I knew that I couldn’t make them come with me.   I knew that I had to move on and to make new friends, because being in different schools has made it difficult

When I first started school I was one of the youngest in the grade and I remember having trouble keeping up with the other kids. Still to this day people are still confused when I say that I am still fourteen. Having my sister in the school made some things easier, she would give me tips and try to help me out a little whenever she could, even if she was telling me how to get around the school. Since starting school I have been able to keep up with the older kids. I always felt different being younger than the other kids and like I didn’t fit in, but I realized that it's okay to be a little different and to break the status quo. Because my school is so large, there is no standard of what is normal, everyone here is different and the school is very diverse. 

Along with a new school with new people, brings a new curriculum and a heavier workload. When first starting high school, I didn’t expect the change to be such a big adjustment, but from the first week I could tell that my school would be different. In middle school there were only a few teachers teaching a subject so it was easy for the students to get together and study for a test or quiz. Because there are a lot more students and different subjects to teach, there are more teachers and the students are more broken up. The work is also much more difficult and the topics moves at a faster pace. When I first started high school, I didn’t understand how everything worked, and where I was supposed to go for certain meetings, but over time I have learned how high school functions.