The day was here.
The new bus ride. The new people. The new school. Equal parts excitement and dread.
This was the first day of sixth grade — middle school.
Once settled into our homerooms, our first official task as middle schoolers? The locker.
Where would my locker be? Who would be next to me? Would I have time to stop at my locker between classes? Would I remember the combination?
As children in a semi-rural community, each of us converged on the middle school from outlier elementary schools, many with a single classroom per grade. We had never seen most of our classmates before. We knew nothing of changing classrooms mid-day.
Lockers in the hall? Uh, no. A cubby in the classroom and a wall hook for your jacket.
A cubby was for children. Lockers were for teenagers.
The locker was the talisman of the middle schooler. We were no longer shackled to a particular room, teacher, or even the same group of kids. It represented endless possibilities.
The locker was also the center of middle school social life. It was our own little piece of real estate in the community.
“Meet me at my locker.”
Entire soap operas, playoff recaps, movie reviews, and music performances came to life in those 4 minutes between classes, 60-90 seconds of which were spent at the locker.
This was the moment.
