The Year of Choices

Author’s Note: This story is all about going into a new grade and meeting new people. When you enter that new grade, there is always a boy meets girl type of thing. Seventh Grade by Gary Soto is a clever story about entering a new grade and becoming a more mature adult. Seventh Grade is a year of wise choices and this year will help you with your future.

Seventh Grade is so far my favorite grade of all time. I have wonderful teachers, great friends and exciting classes. Then I read Seventh Grade by Gary Soto. This story is the opposite of what my life is in Seventh Grade. There is a teenage boy named Victor and he is starting off the new year in Seventh Grade. His first day did not start off so well. Some of his teachers are really strict. Lucky for me, I don’t have a lot of mean teachers. On the first day of school, Victor’s teachers weren’t so thrilled about having him in his class. He was acting very strange and gangster like to the adults. It is all because of this very special someone that he loves in his class. A beautiful girl named Teresa. Ever since he saw that one girls face, she’s all that he thinks about. Throughout the story, that’s all that Victor can think about. If you see a boy or a girl in your grade that is really cute, then don’t think about them 24/7.Your mind will only be on that one person and nothing else and then you then get sidetracked from school and your academics will suffer, trying to impress that one person.

Have you ever had the feeling where when you start Middle School that none of your friends will be in your classes, lunch or even at your school? I get that feeling all the time. I had one friend in the Elementary School that I looked up to so much. She moved to another city far away from the Pewaukee District and I have missed her so much. Victor is very lucky though because he has all of his friends still at his school to comfort you when tough times happen, need help with homework or whatever it may be. Friends are one thing that you have to have in Seventh Grade. Without friends, your year in Seventh Grade will be lonely, miserable and boring. Friends give you guidance throughout the year. Friends are honest, unique, caring and most important, trustworthy. Victor’s friends gave him advice when it came to the one girl that Victor fell in love with. You can not go through school without friends or good luck having a boring year without any friends.

Throughout the whole story, the author shows me that you can save yourself a lot of humility and trouble if you go and express your feelings to someone. The best way that Victor tried to tell Teresa that he liked her by impressing her in French class. All that Victor did to himself in French class was embarrassing himself by saying random words that weren’t French like “La me vave me con le grandma” and “Frenchie oh wewe gee in September”. Victor was not using common sense and he didn’t think before he spoke. Impressing someone that you don’t even know can be a dangerous liability during the course of your Seventh Grade year. If you try to impress someone during a class, then sometimes it can really push the teacher’s buttons just like Victor did during his French class. Mr. Bueller’s buttons were pushed by Victor’s love trilogy with Teresa and embarrassed himself for good.

Impressing someone that you like during the first day of school can be very risky. Having your mind on that special someone will not help you during school. Your academics will suffer if you can’t get your mind off of that one person. Don’t be like Victor and try to impress someone in school because you will be embarrassed, especially if other people find out. Rumors will spread and you Seventh Grade year will be humiliating. People will make fun of you and bully you. Never act like you are the best person in the class to show off a talent that you don’t have. That would be the worst case scenario. If you need to express your feelings to someone, go talk to them personally so you are not surrounded by other people and you won’t be humiliated by other people. Follow what your heart says and it will guide you.