Personal Narrative: Joining NJROTC

I rarely spoke in middle school. When people tried to make conversation with me, I’d get scared that what I’d say would make me seem lower in their eyes, so every single possible response was excessively mulled over in my head. Usually, none of my possible responses would seem good enough, so I’d either quit and return to the safety of a book —which I always had on me— or awkwardly stand there until the person left me or the conversation. If there was a social or party, I’d skip it or read in the corner. I hated it, but was too scared to do anything else. By the end of 8th grade, I resolved that I didn’t want another year where fears and anxieties would control my life. I wanted to be able to socialize and make friends like everyone else.
I wasn’t able to just sit in the class and then leave and not worry about it until the next day. They actually give you a grade for participating in things outside the class like cleaning up a cemetery in fall or moving hundreds of pumpkins from a semi-truck to tables. They also gave a participation grade which required me to take part in one of the many teams and clubs they offered. So, that pretty much forced me to be around people. I’m really glad it was set up like that, though. Volunteer work turned out to be pretty rewarding on it’s own because of the awesome feeling that comes with helping others. It also, along with the various teams, forced me to be around other kids for hours on end which made me way more comfortable with them, and actually helped me make friends. It helped me realize that making conversation isn’t as complicated and scary as I thought it
It made me a kinder more considerate person who loves to brighten people’s day because happiness was a kind of hard for me to find in middle school. It helped me to value the friendships that I do have because I actually had none before. As a nice little bonus, it also had me read “To Kill A Mockingbird” twice along with plenty of Edgar Allen Poe before I needed to in high school. But, all-in-all, middle school and all of its glory made me who I