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7th grade, Middle School, Junior high.

I don’t think you can find anyone who says “I wish I could go back to middle school.” High school or college or even grade school but not middle school.

I went to public school from K-6 grades, but when 7th grade loomed on the horizon I wanted to go to the school my mom went to, Westlake School for Girls. In fact a number of my mom’s friends, including my god mother, went there. I took the test and got in. My brother chose to continue in public school and all was well.

I was excited shopping for uniforms and finding shoes and buying books for the first time.

We had to have a separate binder(we called them notebooks) for each class. 5 solids meant 5 notebooks, plus our textbooks which made for really heavy bags. You had an hour of homework per solid per night. 12 years old = 5 hours of homework. It was so hard. I had no life and no matter how smart I was, I struggled with math.

I had an English teacher who’s main objective seemed to be to make my life miserable except when it came to my creative writing. I frustrated her to no end with my solid writing and my complete lack of knowledge of parts of speech. She taught diagraming like it would save the world. She seemed to delight in tormenting me but every week when our piece of “free writing” was due I would find a check plus or even a check plus and a desired spot on the board in the classroom for all to see.

Along with finding my way to class, discovering who the mean girls were(There were a lot of them), and trying to keep my head down in English class, there were lights that appeared.

One was my Greek History and Mythology teacher who wrote her own book for the class and ignited a love for mythology and a deep desire to go to Greece.

The other was a lifelong lesson in organization.

There was a way to do it and a way not to do it. Each notebook was collected and graded. All your papers, tests and quizzes needed to be in their proper places in the binder and in proper order, and all your notes needed to cover the things you would be tested on.

Funny how you can forget things.

I struggled as an adult with organizing until I realized that everything I needed to know I had learned in 7th grade. All those notebooks I had handed in had been a great way to organize.

I began with trips. I would create a binder with all the confirmations in order of use, i.e. first the car or plane confirm followed by the rental car then hotel and so on.

I tried to teach my girls as best I could.

Then I added a house redo and so on.  Not everything is in a binder. I have files at my desk in magazine files, but my daughter’s move is in a binder. Her lease agreement and all the orders placed are in a folder with multiple pockets.

It is so simple but until the girls started school I hadn’t remembered that I know how to organize all of my life I just needed a trip to Staples!

if you want to see other posts on organization look at these: written agendas, organizing notes,