8 x what we all can remember from group eight

I still remember it like it was yesterday: my old classmates and I crying and promising each other to stay friends forever. This sacred promise was made at the end party of group eight that was organized at my parents' barn. It was a very emotional evening that followed our final musical performance. After that evening, the summer vacation would start and our paths would part. The big high school adventure was lurking.

By the way, no one kept that promise, because I really never saw my old classmates again. Oh well, I can't say that I really lose sleep over it. I had a great time with them, that's for sure. What a thrilling year group eight was, huh? At least, I as Piet Panic found it quite a stressful affair. There was quite a bit of pressure involved, and I certainly didn't take that lightly. The following memories of group eight will always stay with me.

1. The final musical
The final musical was of course the absolute highlight. For months you lived towards this moment. Or better said: you lived your entire primary school time towards this. At least I did. As a little girl, I loved to admire the musical of the eighth-grade students every year. I really couldn't wait to be up there myself. When that moment finally arrived and we could start this big project, it was still quite exciting. Auditions had to be held for the roles, and of course, no one wanted to play the role of a tree. Thank goodness I managed to get the role I had my eye on: Nel Belspel, a presenter of a call-in show on television. To be honest, it wasn't very difficult, because I was the only one auditioning for this amazing role. Lucky me. On the night itself, all the parents were sobbing hard over what we had put together. Many tears were shed for children who sang as off-key as a crow, but still: it was a fantastic show.

2. The Cito test
From the highlight, we move on to the absolute low point: the Cito test. Man, oh man, what a lot of stress I had from this. I understood very little of all those practice tests. During the official Cito test, I didn't sleep a wink, so I was the most surprised by my final vwo score. My teacher also absolutely did not see this coming and didn't consider me a vwo student at all. Now I must say that he was generally a pessimistic figure, I just neatly completed vwo.

3. The high school advice
Actually, I don't think all those advices should just be handed out in class. In our group eight, it was really a kind of competition where everyone peeked at each other's advice sheets. Crying children who were disappointed and bullies who joked about it. We attached a lot of value to that advice back then. It's actually sad, because what can we really say about children of that age? Well, this was at least a stressful point from our time in group eight.

4. Visiting high schools
This was also quite a thing, you know. With your parents and friends, you scoured all the open days of high schools in the area. For some schools, you needed at least a havo advice, which brought its own tension. Besides, you were also busy with your friends' choices, because did you want to go to the same school or not? I knew right away that I wanted to go to the high school where my older brother and sister also went. In hindsight, I regret that a lot, but that's beside the point.

5. School camp
School camp was at least as amazing as the final musical. You looked forward to this for years. Group eight camp meant several days away with all the boys from the class, and that was naturally super exciting. During my school camp, we went to Texel, where we played live Stratego in the woods for hours, what a fantastic game. The journey there was already a big party, with full bags of candy from Jamin in the car with those lovely volunteer parents who drove back and forth. By the way, my parents were not allowed to sign up to drive; quite mean of eleven-year-old me.

5. A new bike
The end of group eight meant it was high time for a grown-up bike. After all, you had to prepare for that long future bike ride to your high school. I was still only one and a half meters tall, but I really needed an adult black grandma bike. You proudly paraded around the village with it, the saddle of course at the very lowest setting.

6. Mobile phone
Just like the adult bike, most kids in my time were allowed to buy a mobile phone in the period just before high school. This happened in group eight, which was already a bit earlier than with my older brother and sister. I must say that in group eight, hardly anyone called or texted, but mainly exchanged cool ringtones. Calling and texting only started in high school.

7. Buying supplies for high school
Cover paper, agendas, and pencil cases; all fun accessories that you bought at the end of group eight. You were just itching to go to high school, so you couldn't get these supplies home soon enough. I made a real outing out of this with my primary school friends. We took the tram to the Bijenkorf, where we all bought exactly the same Betty Boop supplies. We would really make a splash in high school with those.

8. Suddenly we found the opposite sex interesting
For years you hated the boys in your class. They were all bullies, and you wanted nothing to do with them. But in group eight, something suddenly changed: you became very giggly from all those jokes and actually saw the humor in it. They were actually quite nice, those boys. It's a shame it took eight years for you to see that. Conversely, the boys in group eight also suddenly stopped bullying and did everything to make you laugh. Sweet of them all.