I survived middle school orientation...

Thursday night we had middle school orientation for Michael.  Can I just say "Where did the time go???"  And really, haven't I been through enough this week with Nick moving out?  Why is my young son getting big, too??  It's madness, I tell you!

So we go to the school, sat through a 45 minute presentation and then had the um...pleasure (insert sarcastic tone and slight gagging noise) of going on a tour of the school with an 8th grade student representative.  Now for those of you who went to middle school and now have children of your own...let me just ask you to think back to that time in your life and to stretch your memory of the kid in the class who was nerdy as all get out, quiet to the point of painful, had no personality and basically spent most of their time being shoved in a locker.


This was our tour guide.  

I felt bad for him because CLEARLY he did NOT want any part of this whole thing but as a member of the honor society, he donned his gold sash and had to lead our group around the school.  Now, add to that that there were two moms in our group who just would NOT shut up and one of them brought her teenage daughter who felt the need to inform us all of all of her wonders and discoveries of her time in middle school.

Ten minutes in and I was searching for a locker to shove HER in to!

After 30 minutes of the tour guide's mumbling, the teenager girl's trip down memory lane and chatty Kathy never shutting up, we broke away from the group and looked around a bit and then got the heck out of Dodge!  Oh, my gosh it was painful!


The cool thing is that now 6th graders have a section of the school to themselves so that they don't have to worry about being overwhelmed or overpowered by the older upperclassmen.  I like that part a lot.  Plus, the changing of classes for different subjects is much easier because it is contained to one large hallway.  Michael doesn't do well with change and transition so I think he will be able to handle this one much better.

It seemed a bit early to be hosting this event, but he'll be starting the 6th grade in July and I guess that will be here soon enough.  He'll remember nothing of this tour so I'm hoping we'll get another chance to wander around.