Surviving middle school and junior high often feel daunting for new students, especially when you are new to a city or simply nervous about meeting new potential classmates and peers for the remainder of your schooling. Preparing and knowing how to surviving middle school is a way for you to explore a new premise without feeling the fear of judgment and criticism at all times, allowing you to be yourself indeed.
Tips on How to Surviving Middle School for Anyone
- Avoid entering middle school with fear on your mind. As much as you refuse to believe it, peers have the same fears and anxieties when meshing with other students. Instead, allow yourself to feel anxious, as it is often a time to meet new people and make potential friends. A negative attitude is a quick way to prevent others from believing you are approachable, even if you seek out friends.
- Steer clear of individuals who are purely out to cause humiliation while abusing others physically and verbally. Making minimal conversation and contact with these individuals is less likely to make you an unnecessary target, even if you are not involved in the surrounding circumstances.
- Find like-minded groups of friends and join extracurricular activities and classes to find friends who share similar interests as you and have no intention of bullying or harassing you personally.
- Work on improving and building your self-esteem and confidence, as this is essential when forming your identity throughout middle and junior high school. Practice improving skills and knowledge, and even work on your physical fitness to feel better overall while moving forward into the unknown territory of middle school and junior high surroundings.
- Alert teachers, hall monitors, and many superiors in charge when a verbal or physical attack occurs, regardless of location. Having a formal written complaint is another way to put on record any time you or someone you know has been bullied, allowing for a more harsh punishment or expel possibilities in the future.
- Have other students write reports of attacks and bullying relevant to the school and its lack of discipline. When there are additional witness reports for any attack (verbal, cyber, or even physical), it is more likely the bully suspect in question will receive the proper punishments necessary.
- Parents often turn to news media outlets, blogs, and social media networks of their own to showcase the increase in bullying and the lack of discipline throughout the entire school.
Tips for Surviving Middle School for Girls
When you know how to surviving middle school for girls, you are less likely to find yourself in positions you are not comfortable with personality or due to circumstances. The more comfortable and confident you become in your skin, the less likely you are to allow others to negatively impact and affect your life, regardless of your age and age group.
- Find friends who have similar senses of humour as you and those who prefer taking part in humour aside from putting others down and making fun of individuals who are not the same as you.
- Finding good-quality friends can be challenging to come by. But remember, quality of quantity if you seek long-lasting relationships with loyalty and trust.
- Avoid joining the gossip group and train by spreading rumours and lies. Lying or creating rumours simply to fit in can quickly backfire and cause you to lose the trust and even your friendships of those who were previously loyal to you.
- Maintain loyalty to friends who have been there for you for years, regardless of the number of new students you have in your middle school. Standing by lifetime friends always comes in handy when struggling with transitions, new friends, dating, and relationships.
- Stay open and honest with friends you can trust to help with building a support group, especially if you have been bullied or if you know someone who is being harassed. The more support you can build, the less likely someone you know will become a target. When you have friends willing to stand up to abuse and bullying, you can begin doing so for others who are too frightened or unwilling to stand up for themselves.
Use School Counseling Services
Whether you’re feeling depressed due to at-home situations, you’re being bullied, or you have found yourself falling behind academically, reach out to a school counsellor if you have one available and appointed. Talking directly with a school counselor is a way to express any challenges you currently face, whether personal or school-related.
School counselors specialize in providing resources and assisting students with several available outlets to help them regain control while getting their life back on track. Talking with a school counselor regularly can relieve various forms of peer pressure and even bullying you may experience (verbal, physical or even cyber bullying related).
In some areas, there are also counseling services for those who have been bullied or severely traumatized due to stalking and other forms of harassment, both local and online. Inquiring about these groups can be done from home in addition to working with your current school counselor to find and locate all of the available resources that are likely to benefit you and your situation on a more personal level.
Always Report Harassment and Abuse
Whether in elementary, middle, high school, college, or even the workplace, harassment and bullying are always unacceptable. Whether you are a victim of a bully yourself or if you have witnessed any form of harassment, reporting the incident to those in charge is a responsibility. Verbal, physical and cyber stalking or harassment often come with harsh legal charges and should be acted upon according to so, regardless of the age of the offender and victim.
Finding How to Surviving Middle School Book
There is also a “How I survived Middle School” series book available to help relate to others who have struggled to cope socially and even with learning and progressing to move forward in school. Reading the how I survived middle school series is not only a way to feel more at ease with others you are who are struggling, but it is also an eye-opening book to help others see that it is not uncommon to face complex challenges and social issues while growing up and becoming the most comfortable in your skin.
Reading various stories, blogs, journals, and books on surviving middle school not only helps you to feel more comfortable in your skin but is an excellent way for you to rid of worrying too much and stressing out in the most trivial situations you may be facing during your junior high years. Reading books and utilizing online communities to gather support is a way to surviving middle school, being yourself without feeling as if you are a social outcast to others.