Sandy set up triggers nostalgic emotions

While having time off from school might seem like every student’s dream, having free time with no power, television, Internet, or cell service because of a destructive hurricane named Sandy two years ago would probably be considered on the more nightmare-ish side of things.
When I finally returned back to the high school after a long two weeks off, a sense of normalcy was restored. However, this would only last a few days. One day, our superintendent made an announcement: only a few hours prior, an inspection revealed that the salt water that had gotten into the basement and had corroded the electrical wires, leaving Lawrence High School unsafe because of a chance that the wires could catch fire.
We were told that we would be sent to Lawrence Middle School in two days and would remain there until the problem was solved. Immediately after we heard this, everyone sat in silent disbelief for only a few seconds before we were instructed to grab our things and leave.
I had always wanted to go back and visit the middle school, but this was definitely not the way I imagined doing it. Though I had only been out of the middle school for a little more than a year at the time, it felt like I had been there decades ago. I was used to the freedom that high school offered and the way that things worked there; I had no desire to be tossed into a different environment.
The fifth- and sixth-graders would be moved out to make room for the high school students. The middle school schedule would be adapted to ours, but we would start the day a period later and end a period after their day ended.

The middle school was also to be sectioned off to try to keep the two schools separate; different grades were assigned different staircases which made it somewhat difficult to navigate around a building that most of us hadn’t stepped into for years. As a matter of fact, I had completely forgotten the layout of the middle school, and was late to most of my classes the first day.
After being in a school equipped for larger-sized students, the middle school felt much smaller even though I hadn’t grown an inch since I’d left there. The desks were a tight squeeze and the locker situation wasn’t much better, especially when you shared with a friend, like I did to save space.
For nostalgic purposes, my time at the middle school was great. I loved seeing my old teachers and sitting in my old classrooms but adapting to this unique situation was a little rough. Even though I had felt like I was “stuck” in the middle school at the beginning, I had fallen back in love with the building and was sad to leave it when it was time to go.