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Earlier today I had the chance to go to the Sulphur Springs Middle School.  A lot of the local church youth groups get together once a semester (twice a year) for a big night of combined worship in a service we call The Awakening.  For marketing purposes and showing a sign of unity all the youth ministers go out to the Middle School the day before the event to hand out fliers and personally invite all the students to the event.  We then go the day of the event to the high school and do the same thing.

We go to three different lunches in one day - first, the 6th grade lunch; second, the 7th grade lunch; and third, the 8th grade lunch.  It is amazing because we see a room full of students that are generally in the same stage of life (Jr High) but there is such drastic differences between the grades.

I wanted to share one small observation I have made over my years of going to middle school lunch that cracks me up every time.

And that is how the students enter the lunch room.  It is incredibly entertaining to watch the differences of how the different grades enter the lunch room at the start of their lunch break.  Like the caterpillar becoming a butterfly, it truly is a transformational event that takes place within the students. 

Let’s start with 6th graders: 6th graders are like starving cheetahs sprinting in for the kill.  The bell rings and it is like the Olympic gun going off on the 100 meter dash.  You better pray that you are not in their way in the hallway because like going head-on against a stampede of buffalo, you will get trampled.  The 6th graders full-out sprint as hard as they can to be the first ones in the lunch line so they can eat their salisbury steak of whatever mystery meat the hair-net ladies are serving that day.  No matter how many times teachers and lunchroom aids yell commands to walk, they cannot be slowed down.

Now compare that to 8th graders: In two short years, 8th graders have transformed to the exact opposite of the cheetah.  The bell rings and for a few minutes the silence and anticipation messes with your mind.  You begin to ask yourself, “Was that the last lunch?” or “Is there an 8th grade field trip?”  After the tumbleweed passes through the lunchroom, the Night of the Living Dead-zombie-sloth-like creatures begin to shuffle in the lunchroom.  These students act like they could care less about lunch as they lethargically and nonchalantly stroll into the cafeteria.  What happened to the salivating, sprinting cheetahs that were there two years previous?  The same students transform into zombie-sloth-like creatures in only two years time.

As for 7th graders: they are in pretty much in between the two extremes.  Some are still in the cheetah stage, while others are already entering into the sloth stage.  Basically you see all the guys sprinting in and all the girls nonchalantly stroll into the cafeteria.  

Just thought I would share one of my middle school observations.  Remember, I am a professional so do not try to recreate or attempt to reenact what you have just read about.  It is dangerous if you aren’t trained.  Cheetahs and sloths are not creatures to be taken lightly.

You have got to love those middle school years!