For most of their school careers, these students have been the oldest in the building.

They set the tone. They held the titles. They were the Warriors — the eighth graders that younger students looked up to as they made their way through the middle school years. And now, like every class before them, they stand at the edge of something new.

The members of the eighth-grade student council at Du Quoin Middle School have a year left of high school still ahead — but the reflection has already started.

"Like melancholy," said Emerson Benson, a student who has been quietly building toward speech competition since grade school. "It's both kind of happy and sad."

The sentiment echoed around the room.

For Zayla Pork, the transition means navigating social uncertainty in a new environment — "trying to fit in, but trying to be myself more." For Majewski, leaving a volleyball community built across grade levels is genuinely hard. She and her twin sister have been grinding toward the sport together, and the friendships formed through the team — "riding the bus home, it's such a vibe" — are real things to grieve.

Phoenix Mills landed on the cleanest framing of all: "It's kind of both an accomplishment and a loss. There are possibilities there we don't get here."

For others, the excitement is specific. Edie Pursell can't wait for competitive cheerleading — "we get to compete" — which the high school offers in a way the middle school doesn't. Emerson is counting the days to join the speech team, FBLA, and journalism.

But these students are not simply waiting for high school to hand them opportunities. Several are already reaching for them.

Phoenix — student council president — recently showed up at a school board meeting to advocate for a boys' soccer team. "We're trying really hard," he said. "It's working in our favor." He also spent part of this year championing a ping pong club that gathered teacher support and then stalled — a lesson, he said, in how governance actually works.

"More student legislature in high school," Emerson offered, with unmistakable anticipation. "Your ideas matter. You get listened to."

Asked what advice they'd give incoming seventh graders, the group turned thoughtful in a way that takes adults by surprise.

Edie: "Don't be afraid to be yourself. Don't try to hide." Naomi put it practically: treat middle school like the preparation it is, because popularity and fitting-in anxiety "isn't gonna matter" when high school begins — but your GPA will. Emerson's advice cut to the practical immediately: buy a notebook, clean out your binder weekly, and find a study method that actually works for you. Hers involves propping a stuffed animal across from her and teaching it the material — discovering as she explains it exactly what she hasn't mastered yet.

"I'll figure out by doing that what I'm missing," she said.

When the conversation turned to teachers and coaches, the gratitude was specific and earnest. Madelyn Smart, who moved back to Du Quoin after spending years in Missouri, found the school's size and spirit to be something she didn't expect.

"I can tell they really care about our future," she said, citing Mr. Hicks by name. "Not just getting paid or getting the job over with."

Naomi had her own shout-out: "Our coach Miller — he is one of the best coaches I know."

There are about 100 eighth graders in Du Quoin's class. It's a small school in a small town, and these students know it. But what they return to, again and again, is the quality of what's available here — programs, sports, clubs, and adults who invest in them — and the sense that high school is about to expand it further.

Edie carries a particular kind of weight into that future. Her sister just graduated and is now at a university. Aunts and uncles have walked the same hallways. "There's a lot of pressure," she said — not as a complaint, but as the acknowledgment of a legacy she's willing to carry.

Soon they'll walk through the doors of Du Quoin High School as freshmen. Warriors becoming Indians. The oldest students in the building are becoming the youngest again.

They've thought about it. They're ready.

"Be yourself," Edie said. "Don't try to hide who you are."

It's the advice they'd give the seventh graders. It's probably the advice they'll need to give themselves.