I've always wanted to write a memoir. There are no better ways to record your life, the ups and downs, and what was worth remembering. But after eighth grade scarce was my time. So I procrastinated for a long time. This is the memoir of sixth grade. It may be childish and naive but it was how I really felt.

Prologue

After I returned to China with an excellent memory of my year and summer, I went to Shibei Middle School.

Things had been harder and different between middle school and elementary school. Life now isn't as good as my previous life. And I am going to tell you about my life here.

My New Busy Life

When I came back from America, I rested for two days. I came home at midnight and was not tired at all because I slept a lot on the plane. I turned on the lights and read a book by Ann M Martin. I didn't look up for three hours when reading and realized that it is morning by the time I finished.

I played for two days. On the third day, which is pretty hot, we moved. We lived far from my middle school, so my family and I decided to move to a nearer house. The new house is on the twenty-ninth floor. Then I went to the military training in our school. It's so boring that I didn't want to do it. The teacher makes us do things like calling numbers one by one and standing. It is so stupid and dumb. Later I read in a newspaper that Americans don't have to do military training. I kind of wished I was born in America so that I could skip military training. Then finally the last day arrived. We had a competition between classes to see which class does the best in the training. To my surprise, our class won out of nine classes and got a prize. Then the new semester started.

There are many differences. I used to finish my homework at five or six o'clock in the evening in primary school, I usually do some math problems late in the evening and often finish them and start playing at seven or eight o'clock. Now it had been so different. The first Monday, I went to a geometry class. It was already eight-thirty when I was home. Then I did all my homework until ten.

We have three math classes every day. The teachers don't use the original math textbook but give us tests, which were much harder. We have two math teachers. Mr. Chen taught the extra class Monday and Tuesday. Mr. Xu taught the extra class Wednesday and Thursday and the normal math class. He is very strict.

We had a math test every two days. And this was just the beginning. Our middle school is so good at math that every year we got the most prizes in math competitions in Shanghai.

I used to read an English book a day, which I now tried to do, but couldn't bear it with the homework. I had more and more and more homework than before and the English books I read are harder. So far, I couldn't read 366 books, the same amount of days this year, if the teachers keep the homework like that. I wanted the average amount to reach one book a day. And there was another solution to this problem, work until ten or eleven every day.

There was another serious problem. I wasted too much time on the computer. The teachers always put the details of homework online, and I have to find it using the computer. Pressure began to rise in my heart. And, as I found out, that if one day there was not much homework, I will never waste time on the computer, but if there was too much of them, I would waste a lot of time on screen. I hate to admit it, but I was sometimes a procrastinator and would postpone work. After that, I became angry at myself and was often not in a very good mood many days.

How I am jealous of the elementary school students! I also wanted to be in Smic Middle School. I thought I did the wrong choice for middle school. I got myself in here and will never get out, homework and pressure will only increase in the following years. Then look at Smic Middle School, they went home by four while we went home by six. They finish homework by six or seven while we do it by nine. They have an easy math test once a week or less. We have four hard math tests or more a week and the teacher said that we are going to have eight tests a week later on.

I had a hard time writing Chinese compositions, not English, of course. I am good at English, especially after reading so many books. But I had read little Chinese books, and our teacher let us write an essay every day in Chinese. I always waste time on it, so that's why I did the homework so late.

The Division

We have an English song every week. I like "what makes you beautiful" best. I also like "one direction".

We had a class song competition. Our class chose roar. We practiced hard but only got third prize.

I didn't pass the Intermediate Interpretation contest, which is of course hard. I didn't get a prize in either English or Chinese, and I felt bad. Luckily, I got a good score on the midterm examination.

One of our students got chickenpox, and our class gets separated. Our autumn outing was canceled. Most of my classmates are happy to hear it, but I am not. I still want to go to the autumn outing.

In my class, it is so hard to be the highest score on quizzes. After every test, the teacher writes our rank in a corner of the test paper. It is a real keen competition in my class. There was a stark contrast in primary school, but there's isn't much difference between the best and the worst one now. There are thirty-two students in my class. In the math test, I went from the first one (except that many students are also my score) to the twentieth-first.

But I liked one thing, which is there is little math homework. Mr. Xu thinks that our class and class six---the best two classes in sixth grade in our school---should be divided into two classes to separate the good ones and the not-too-good ones.

This good thing turned upside down when we started to divide into two classes, which is definitely the worst idea ever invented. We started to have much math homework since then.

I was divided into the fast class, and Mr. Xu said that the worst one in the last class will go to the slow class. I am likely the worst in geometry, while the fast classes teaching about lines and angels and all that. Later, Mr. Xu said that we would be learning about congruent triangles and similar triangles. I was about to be kicked out.

There's a sick feeling in my stomach every time Mr. Xu walked in. I felt nervous talking to him because he talks with a blaming tone. He hates two things, cram class and feeling too well. That's right in some ways, but he kind of goes too far. That's math class becomes my worst class ever since.

When someone laughed Mr.Xu would say, 'What's funny?' He would then let that person stand up and ask them questions, even if that person didn't do anything.

He thought that when any of us smiling, we didn't focus. But how would a person focus so long under great pressure?

We had a test. It is about parallel lines and equivalent angles. Mr. Xu threatened us that whoever gets too low in the test will go to the slow class. I think I did really badly on the test. I hope the score will never be announced.

Mr. Chen never goes too far. I don't know why. Maybe he just don't like dealing with people.

The score was finally announced and it looks like a nightmare. I kind of shivered all through it. Finally, my score was announced and I got the lowest score--the teacher announces the worst score at last. I got '25+'. That was the worst test I took since I went to Shibei Middle School. I am lucky. The teacher didn't write my real rank.

Final Exams

It's time to leave the division and the math classes to come back to final exams.

In primary school, there are just three subjects (Chinese, Math, and English). But now, there are also Geography, Computer, and Science. I am also finishing my 366 books.

I was not just busy, I was restless and frustrated. Though I kind of adjusted my life here, I couldn't bear it. I needed to prepare for the expository and narrative writings; review the ordinary math, ('cause we are too fast and I got less than eighty on the mock test and I was not satisfied with the result); do the computer homework; go over geography, and science. Moreover, I need to spend another half hour every day reading a book.

In the last, I got a bad score in Chinese and the minor subjects. I just wasn't accustomed to so many subjects. Many of my classmates studied physics early and they knew all about science.

Time is really slow when you want it to be fast, and really fast when you want it to be slow.

The first semester of sixth grade ended just like that, marking the end of one-eighth of my middle school life.

The Next Summer

The next summer I went to US for the camp again in Irvine. But I didn't write any journals. Here is the outline.

1. I went to America to study AMC 10 and 12, I went to Hollywood to experience Harry Potter and was scared and happy, got myself fully into the eighth book and didn't go out, I went to the beach, I read lots of books and went to bookstores

2. I went to the Camp A Star, we had two teachers and some Chinese American Students and other older American students, I was bad in geometry and good in Number Theory and the teacher recommended Geometry Revisited to me

3. The room was very hot and muggy at night, I drank mist twist and have bacon for breakfast, at noon we walk to a park and have sandwiches for lunch

4. I had a roommate who is interested in Rick Riordan’s books and Brawl Stars, I played Brawl Stars, Jermaine recommended Barnes and Noble to me

5. I failed in the chess tournament, I played late and didn't drink enough water, I got a fever and missed a trip to Universal Studio

6. I got hurt while playing soccer, I missed going to see the sunset and another trip

7. I bought chocolate at a shop on the last day when my feet recovered

8. Camp ended so fast, it is so unlikely we will ever see each other again

9. Rest of the summer and the year ahead, finished reading Harry Potter series