Clarissa Branson, Leyla Ülkü, Lucy Goldberg, 10th Grade
January 3, 2019
What would you change if you had to go back to middle school?
Leyla: “I’d try to make more friends. I didn’t have a lot of friends in that period, and that helped fuel my depression. It was like a spiral, and I clinged to some people. I’d try to be more chill, less clingy and try to open my mind to new people.”
Lucy: “I’d try to be more involved in things, whether it’s reading more of the news or doing debate. That’s a thing that I wish I did in middle school, because I remember a big part of seventh grade was being like, ‘Oh, my life doesn’t really have any purpose. What am I doing? What do I want to do?’”
Clarissa: “I guess I haven’t really changed that much since seventh grade. In sixth and seventh grade I was kind of ignorant and naive, despite the fact that I listened to the news everyday on the radio. I was living in a bubble. What was actually happening in our government and outside in the world, I didn’t know about that stuff. I wish that I would’ve been more open-minded and seen what was happening.”
An earlier version of this article incorrectly spelled Leyla’s name. The story has been updated with the correct spelling.