Notes from the Counseling Department

A new school year is upon us!  Whether your summer seemed endless, with golden days and sparkling waves, or not remotely long enough, we are back to school and turning our thoughts towards fall.  A new school year always fills me with anticipation and hope- it is a new beginning, a chance to start fresh, a year that could be the best yet.  As humans, we are naturally excited by the idea of a new start with so many opportunities ahead of us.  But as with anything else, this excitement can also be accompanied by anxiety and worry about what lies ahead. We see it in the sixth grade students who enter the building for the first time, thrilled to be in middle school but concerned that what they've seen on television or in movies or read in books might be true.  Will they be stuffed into lockers?  Bullied?  Humiliated by older students or mean teachers? What if they get lost and are late to class?  What if they can't find their homework?  Who will they sit with at lunch?  What if t