Metal mouth and platform flip-flops

I was fortunate to never really experience bullying when I was in middle school. Yes there was immense pressure to be “popular” and have new clothes and wear make-up and platform flip-flops but I don’t remember ever really caring about that kind of stuff too early. I guess I was a late bloomer in some senses and I’m really grateful for that. However, that doesn’t mean I enjoyed it when Bradley Greenwell called me four-eyes one day when I wore my glasses or that I didn’t feel self-conscious when my mom wouldn’t let me wear eye shadow or much mascara.

Overall though I had a pretty normal middle school experience. I experienced it, got through it, and moved on. I remember vaguely starting to have serious crushes on boys, of starting to round brush my hair more often, and being more aware of people’s feelings and circumstances.

Of course there was a lot of awkwardness that accompanied my three years at Lakeridge Junior High. I was slightly embarrassed that I had to get special permission from my geometry teacher to use the hall pass every day to go to the bathroom since my problems with Crohn’s were still being worked out. I remember arguing with my mom over the length of my shorts and the sleeves on my shirts. I also clearly remember all the school dances with the slightly dark gym floor, the 7^th graders playing tag, and the 9^th graders pretending to be cool and dance in the middle.

School dances in middle school and the word anxiety are synonymous.

I would get ready for every dance in the hope that sometime before nine when the dance ended I would hear the music of Enrique Iglesias’s “Hero” and Josh Bishop would stroll over to me, tap me on the shoulder, and ask me to slow dance with him.

(BTW, he always did and I thought I was on cloud 9)

But now those three years are very much a blur. It’s been almost ten years since I conquered junior high and boy, I’m glad to be done with those years. They were years of inner turmoil, years of figuring out the beginnings of adulthood, years of realizing who I was becoming and who I wanted to become, years of stylish ignorance and exploration, and years of come-and-go crushes and heartbreaks.

But I wouldn’t take back those years for anything. They were priceless years of learning and growth and although they were hard and difficult, they were character building.

So listen to this podcast from the NPR program This American Life. Listen and reminisce about your years in middle school and the awkwardness that it was. I couldn’t stop laughing as I listened to the stories of current middle-schoolers and their woes and travails. I promise that the hour you listen will not disappoint.