Middle School Angst

Working in a middle school is reminding me of certain things about my middle school experience. Like how the girls are taller than the boys, and how they're toying with the line of appropriateness...I had a kid call two of my students lovers and I had to stop and think if he meant that sexually or just innocently. Not to mention all the innuendo and discovery of swearing...it's just an interesting time for everyone involved.

But then, I saw this BuzzFeed article: 21 Traumatic Middle School Memories No One Will EVER Forget, and I really wanted to do a blog about if I remember those memories, if they're pertinent to where I am now, and how they've affected me.

So let's begin!

1. Seeing your ALWAYS EMBARRASSING yearbook photo for the first time.
I'm not sure if I'm actually embarrassed by any of my yearbook photos. In 6th grade it was the first year I wore jeans on picture day (I had previously worn dresses each year). But in 7th grade I was growing out my bangs so that was a little awkward. And while in 8th grade I did have braces, I actually really liked how the picture turned out!

2. When your body first showed signs it was plotting against you.
Yeah...there's no getting out of that one. Your first pimples,  your feet growing twice their size in one year. My 6th grade year I had four pairs of tennis shoes because I went from like a size 5 to 9 just like that.

3. The deadly combination of lunch period and braces.
Middle school is also the time where fasting was a thing. By the time I had braces I was rarely eating lunch anyway, so that one wasn't as bad for me. Though I distinctly remember being at Chik A Filet and getting like half my sandwich stuck in my braces...the struggle was indeed real.

4. Seeing your crush holding hands with someone who WASN'T YOU. Ahhhhhh about that...totally had a crush on the same guy as one of my best friends. Never ended up dating either of us (unless you count 45 minutes in 7th grade haha) and then got a TERRIBLE reputation for asking out like six girls a week in 8th grade. Totally hurt at first because it's like "YOU'RE GOING OUT WITH EVERYONE ELSE BUT ME" but then you see what a d-bag he is and it's not so bad lol

5. Trying to get the whole "slow dance" thing down. Yeah that one wasn't conquered until prom...usually whenever there was a slow dance song my group of friends would migrate towards the refreshments/bathrooms 

6. And grinding. That came into play in 7th-8th grade. Totally disgusting...even when I finally partook with someone junior year of high school it felt like he was trying to have sex with me on the dance floor. Totally not cool. 

7. The agony of getting dumped by THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE via their best friends. Thankfully never dated in middle school so never experienced this first hand. Totally witnessed it, though. Those poor naive middle schoolers

8. The stench of Axe mixed with body odor oozing from the boy's locker room. The guys and girls locker rooms weren't even close to each other! But coming out of the girls locker room and being able to smell it...like who really needs THAT much?

9. The abrupt sexual awakening that came out of NOWHERE. I once tried to flirt with my science partner by slipping internet lingo into a passed note. Obviously I was ahead of the trend of putting "haha" or "lol" without actually laughing because he gave my a funny look and was like...you put lol but you're not laughing...what is wrong with you...

10. ...And having NO IDEA what to do with all the urges. Also when I was in 7th grade one of my brother's friends tried flirting with me by buying my starbursts, giving them to me through my brother, and asking me to play yu-gi-oh with him. Oh the pubescent struggle...

11. Forgetting your locker combination AND YOU'RE ALREADY LATE. Forgetting my locker combination actually wasn't my issue...in 6th grade when school started I still had a cast on my right hand completely covering my index and middle finger. Trying to open that thing was an absolute nightmare. The week before school I was having panic attacks because I didn't know how I was going to get my stuff in and out of my locker. After the first week I figured things out, and for a while afterwards it was almost easier for me to open my locks with my left hand instead of my right!

12. The formation of cliques...Eh that happened in elementary school. Totally got an invitation to join the popular kids in 2nd/3rd grade (which consisted of playing with them at recess) turned them down to pretend to be girl dogs with my best friend chasing boy dogs. Can't say I regret the decision haha

13. ...And resorting to extremes to fit in to the "cool" clique. Along the same lines freshman year in gym class we had to learn certain dances and some of them required partner work and I was actually pretty decent at them so I did them with a good friend and things were good only for one of the popular boys to ask if he could do it with me because I knew what I was doing and I totally thought he was asking me to be a jerk...still one of the strangest things that has happened to me haha

14. Being the last to know about an embarrassing nickname you were given. Actually that was in high school too. Found out that there were some show choir girls that nicknamed me "beluga" and were mad that I not only wasn't in the back but I had a dance partner too. They weren't the smartest of girls and totally weren't hiding their conversations about me on MySpace so I ended up calling them out on it...and one apologized and the other was like "hey you can't use that nickname that's ours"...she's a few fries short of a happy meal if you know what I mean ;)

15. Learning about STDs in health class IN THE WORST POSSIBLE WAY. STDs weren't the weird stuff. We had to do skits for certain ailments and mine was alcoholism...totally went CSI/L&O style and got freaking extra credit for the effort we put in...giving me a higher grade than the valedictorian. 

16. Getting a note confiscated that was meant for your BFF's EYES ONLY. HAH! This happened to me once in 7th grade social studies. He didn't read it out loud but he gave it back to me after class and was like "yeah you're not the only one complaining about (whatever I was complaining about). The friend who I was passing it to was super embarrassed though because she thought I had written about her crush in it.

17. The exact moment you realized you needed to start wearing deodorant on the daily. There were some days where I'd forget and not notice a thing. There were also days where I realized I forgot and would ask to go to the bathroom in first period so I could put soap on my armpits in hopes for at least SOME relief. 

18. ANYTIME your parents would drop you off. Well you can't drive in middle school so I wouldn't call that one awkward. My dad took us to school everyday and my mom picked us up so it really wasn't that big of a deal. Really for me riding the bus was worse. 

19. Or chaperon a dance. THANKFULLY neither of my parents chaperoned a dance. My mom would join PTO so I could go to all the dances/rec nights for free and that was the end of her involvement. I did have my dad chaperon a field trip in 5th grade and 12th grade though...thank goodness for having a witty cool dad :)

20. That guy who always wrote something totally inappropriate in your yearbook. Apparently I did not hang out with the inappropriate guys! I did have one girl take my yearbook and mark out every person SHE didn't like...did I mention it was mine and not hers? Rude. 

21. And the desperation to not be the last of your friends to get a first kiss. Oh man isn't that the truth. I read the magazines, I kissed the back of my hand, I daydreamed about my science partner taking advantage of a dark classroom while watching a video...when in the end I think I was one of the first of my friends to be kissed. 



But hey, at least it wasn't as traumatic as high school :P