"The Last First Day" by Julia Lee was easily relatable to the audience. Julia talks about the first day of her last year in middle school. She beautifully describes events that happen at summer's end and how she knows that school is coming. She thinks about her friends and changes that occurred over the summer. She hopes eighth grade will be exciting.

I have just started eighth grade and I relate instantly to this memoir. Julia writes, "...finally my last year at the place I'd grown to love since sixth grade." Her word choice shows her mixed emotions about her final year. She describes her hometown and we are suddenly immersed in her descriptive language. We go to her street in Brooklyn. Julia begins and ends her memoir with the line: "The first day of school was always as bittersweet as the last." This is one of the lines that the audience was really able to connect with on a personal level. This memoir was my favorite part of the September issue of Teen Ink.