Just a quick disclaimer, this is not about academic knowledge but rather life experience.
So middle school, the weird transition from elementary school to high school. It may seem like a total time waster, but for me it was a valuable learning experience that changed my life quite a lot frankly.
Lesson 1: Don't judge a book by its' cover.
I know, I know. Everyone knows this even before middle school, but this was the first time I saw the horrendous consequences of doing it. You see, I made some hefty assumptions and was told questionable things about people in my class. This made me think that they will be these posh teacher's pupil higher middle class kids. But in reality, they weren't. Yet, not knowing that, at the start of first year, I decided to separate myself from them since I've seen them as these undesirable people. Guess what, it backfired. I essentially excluded myself from the class, almost making myself "the weird kid" hopefully I managed to get some friends and I wasn't a total loser. Eventually I tried socializing with the class in the third year and it kinda worked, not to the extend I'd like though.
Lesson 2. Isolation hurts, a lot.
So my isolation from the class didn't affect me throughout the first year, but then came the 2nd year. That year, it had some horrible times in it. I felt lonely, very lonely. I can still vividly remember how unbelievably happy I was after I had some basic human interaction during one of my class-friend's birthday in May. The only friend I had contact with was one of my best friends, but I could only talk to him over the web. I didn't meet with my elementary school friends since I simply didn't have time and didn't want to bother them. And the friends I made in class, I was trying to keep distant because back then I was still thinking that with the end of middleschool I'd cut ties with everyone from that class.
Lesson 3. Love is patient, love is kind.
Of course there were some in-class crushes for everyone in the class during these 3 years. However they never seemed to work out, but during the 3rd year after the summer holidays, 2 of my 4 class friends had girlfriends. To be honest, I was quite surprised, but I wasn't jealous since I knew that I'd eventually find love too. And I found it, found a crush I was finally somewhat serious about. Did I start a relationship ? no, but I gained something far more important, because of that crush. You see, while I was strategizing and reading on how I could maximize my chances with her, I stumbled upon something called "Self-Improvement" and that one concept has managed to hugely change my life for the better within' just a couple of months.
So to summarize:
- Don't isolate yourself from the group of people you interact on the daily
- Loneliness is a serious problem and should not be left unchecked.
- Pursue love, even if you know you're not going to start a relationship, because the chase itself can teach you a lot.