Remembering Middle School

As I entered the girls' bathroom today and smelled the overwhelming aroma of body spray, my middle school memories suddenly came back. When was the last time you remembered what it was like to be this age?

--"I love Nick" and "Judy is ugly" (and often worse things) written in the bathroom stalls.

--Forgotten homework assignments and gum wrappers in the hallway.

--The rush to lunch on an empty stomach; worse yet, the constant tapping of your toes or pencil as you watch the clock slowly tick towards lunch.

--The announcement of the upcoming school dance and the worry that someone might like you, or more likely, or possibly that nobody likes you.

--The hurried question to the teacher if you can go call your mom because you forgot your lunch (yes, everything revolves around food), your period just started and you have no idea what to do and are SO embarrassed, and/or you left your homework at lunch.

--The boredom that comes with finishing a test early that was SUPER easy, or, watching everyone around you finish the test and thinking that you must really be dumb because you're the last to finish.

--Seeing the popular kids with their (you realize now) very high maintenance hairstyles, makeup, clothing and trying to figure out HOW they could be so cool when they're so stupid OR being one of those popular kids and...well, I was never one of those so I have no idea what they feel. Any ideas?

In summary--middle school is all about being self-conscious of everything and of yourself. You can't remember a lot about it because you were often just thinking about you or you blocked it out because all anyone could talk about (it seemed at the time) was about you. Quite the dramatic time of life.