8th Grade Friends Say Goodbye To HBRMS
Grace: My principal asked a few of my friends to write a blog post about our year. I thought I would start with the very beginning. In August, we had our first day of school. The halls were emptier, the energy was lower, and it just didn’t feel like a normal first day of school. But as time went on, I got used to half days. My “new normal” was very abnormal. I also really missed my friends who were in the morning classes. Eventually, I got used to not seeing them, and being in afternoon classes. Then, our whole school had to go remote. When our school went remote, I was even more upset that I wouldn’t even get to see people in person, I would only see them on screens. Time went by, and then we were on winter break. Finally, after what seemed like a very, very long time, we were back in school doing half days! I was so excited to see faces in person, instead of on my chromebook. We were even allowed to do sports! I was so excited to see my friends in morning classes and get to play sports with them too! While our basketball season was cut short, we were still very lucky that we got to play. After the season was over, we had spring break. Over spring break, we got the news that we would be going back full days. I was ecstatic. I missed seeing my friends and I couldn’t wait to have all of our classes in one day, instead of alternating days. Right now, we are doing full days and I’m having so much fun at school. I love being able to see everyone, have classes all day, and getting to have a normal end of the year. While this year has taught me so much, I really missed how old school used to be. Now I’m so happy at school and I’m having lots of fun. 
Courtlyn: This school year has been completely different from other years. Teachers and students have both been challenged with remote and in person classes. As my 8th grade year comes to a close, I am very grateful for what the teachers and school has done to help incorporate as much as possible. I thought we would never get to have our last year of middle school sports and was hoping we could fit in some kind of season, and we finally could. While sports may look a little different, having to wear a mask and sanitizing equipment, we are finding ways to better our skills and make the best of it. A big thing I have missed this year is PE and being in the gym for real gym, not just online workouts. Since PE is one of my favorite subjects, when we were told we would have some sort of in person gym I was so excited to have a somewhat normal PE experience. My class loves our small amount of time we get in the gym and I am so glad we could resume it. I look forward to my seventh hour time in PE all day. In addition to sports, I also enjoy my time in the classroom and engaging in learning new material. Online learning is not my favorite and I prefer to be in the classroom with my friends and other classmates. My teachers made my online learning experience when we went our adapted pause just like we were in the classroom and I really appreciate it. Our learning online was a little bit difficult at times, and we had a few technical difficulties, but we managed to get through it. Now that we are back in person, I wake up in the morning ready to go see my friends, teachers, and learn. I hope that eventually we can return to normal but until then I will continue to try my hardest and make the best of the situation we are in now. I would like to thank all my teachers this year for helping me through these difficult times and making sure we were learning. I look forward to high school, but will greatly miss the teachers, staff, and environment at the middle school.
Faith: This year has ultimately been a challenge for everyone. Many activities had to be cancelled, and many people missed out on some fun activities. For example, eighth graders had missed out on the Holocaust Field Trip, and everyone missed out on the Bingo Bowling Day, Career Day, and many more. However, the teachers and staff have tried their best to make the school year as enjoyable as possible. They make sure to help us when we are struggling and find a way to make us smile each day. Student council also helps renew parts of a normal school year. For instance, they have planned and are planning more spirit days to participate in.
Due to restrictions and social distancing, many sports were cancelled. Even though I wasn’t able to have a volleyball season, I am grateful that I am able to have intramurals for it. The volleyball intramurals have been a lot of fun and have refreshed my memory on the basic skills and drills. I am always looking forward to playing with my teammates because we communicate well on the court, and out of bounds, speaking words of encouragement. I am already looking forward to playing with this group in the future against other school teams.
Overall, I have found this year to be very enjoyable and exciting amidst the challenges and step backs. I will be sad to leave Hinckley Big Rock Middle School, but excited to start a new path of my life.
Raven: I really liked this year’s style and protection of covid and being safe. I think that we played it safe with sports and that everything was handled just how it should and I also thought that the school years learning was difficult for some but also easy for others. Personally it was difficult for me because of the learning online and not being able to see what they are teaching and to get a full understanding of how to do stuff. If maybe they spent more time with us when we were online I think I could have done better. But overall this year went great because I ended up seeing friends that I haven’t seen in a while and being able to get the learning ability that is easier for me. This year was also fun by being able to have gym in the end and that kinda gives us that yay of the day and also having a study hall so we can get home and have nothing to do from there. Just from doing school work and from going home and doing whatever we please.
As groups we may miss HBRMS but it is time to move on to our next adventure at HBRHS.