Describe yourself in junior high....

I've read some fun threads at other boards and thought this would be kind of neat.......kind of a unique glimpse into our past lives....





So..in junior high school, I had braces, long hair with a wild, frizzy perm...and played cornet in the band.....My favorite past-times included sleepovers with friends where we did things like wet and freeze all of the moms bras (it turned out the poor mum didn't even have any spares and had to wear a wet bra to work...she wan't happy) and performed expert seances (spelling?)...



I was into drama ,music and dance and even tried out cheerleading if you can believe that





Kris
Time is a Dressmaker, Specializing in Alterations!

[mommax3]

Oh, gosh.....total geek would be an accurate description! I had glasses with a little butterfly etched at the bottom of one lens -- does anyone remember those -- and straight blonde hair with bangs I *tried* to feather back. I played the viola and thus was always carrying what looked like a violin case -- I got a lot of gangster comments. I ate twinkies and fritos for lunch almost every day (and still think it is a pretty good combo!) and was in advanced english and math. My worst moment was writing a note to my friend in which I described the assistant principal as a "dick" because he had a habit of getting mad at the three hundred or so students eating lunch (at one time -- one of three shifts -- can you imagine) and slamming his hand down on lunch tables and having tirades and demanding total silence, all because of a few kids that kept throwing food. Anyway, my friend dropped the note, someone who didn't like us found it and turned us in, so we were called to his office (terrifying!) and reamed. It scared us so bad that we laughed hysterically all the way back to class to keep from crying. It sure did put a crimp in my note writing for a while!



Wow -- what memories!



Sally

[houseelf]

-very insecure, shy, and small for my age

-curious about boys but way too shy to talk to them

-definitely a girl's girl

-athletic

-on occasion I begged my mom to let me stay home because I had a pimple on my face!

-wore "mall bangs", big earrings, and socks color coordinated to my coca cola shirts



In sum, I guess that I was normal for my age!



Kelly

Sally, when I was in the 8th grade, I wrote a letter to my friend telling her how much I "loved" my science teacher "he's so cute" blah, blah, blah...well, we were writing these notes back in forth and he caught us and took the note from my friend I of course left class crying, vowing to NEVER go back to school. The next day, he asked me to stay after school to talk and then introduced me to his fiancee and I was crushed!!!



Another junior high school trauma was that we had to take showers in gym class and we had to be UNDRESSED to do it...so there we all were going into puberty, feeling ghastly about our bodies, trying to hide these embarassing changes and then we had to shower together? And we had to walk in a single-file line into the shower..If you were dealing with a monthly issue, then you got to take a "half shower" but everyone KNEW.....





Kelly...isn't it funny how abnormal we felt. My mom used to tell me that everyone felt that way....and she was right!



Kris




Time is a Dressmaker, Specializing in Alterations!

Me in junior high?



- shy - talking was painful

- braces

- big, goofy glasses

- horrible hair - and the worst part was the frizz wasn't a perm - it was natural!!! (I'll even admit that during seventh grade I had a mullet - I am trying hard to burn all those pictures I can find of that time period)

- pale (I've always had pale skin but with the combined above it was pretty bad)

- awkward and clumsy - the volleyball coach actually told me that she didn't want me to even try playing volleyball (the first day of class before we even touched a ball!)

- orchestra nerd

- most of my friends were boys - the girls were getting into stuff that I didn't understand at that point (make-up, clothes, "boys", tanning, dieting, cheerleading etc)

- unpopular (I remember that one girl - a cheerleader of course - threw a pool party at her house and invited everyone in our "honors" math class except for me - she even invited the other nerds. I found out about it because she asked everyone individually to come to the party DURING class while the teacher was out of the room. I was the only one not asked and it took everything I had not to cry. I didn't have any female friends that I can remember during those years)



I count those among the worst years of my existence....



Jennifer

Jennifer,



I was pretty unpopular too..my cheerleading days were definately numbered....I was the black sheep of the squad and everyone made fun of me...that would have to be my worst junior high memory...being teased :/ I also had few female friends and that has continued really, until only recently....



Kris
Time is a Dressmaker, Specializing in Alterations!

I don't know why I insist on reliving this, but here is another junior high school memory...We were in 7th grade science and were talking about the planets....so...the teacher was asking each student what planet is this? and I sat there in my seat thinking "please God don't let it be uranus" and of course...the teacher pointed to uranus and said Ms. Baird(my maiden name)...what planet is this. I wasn't about to say anything that sounded like your anus in 7th grade science class, so I kind of slurred the words together to make it sound like urinus...even the teacher burst out laughing..and I was teased about it mercilessly for a long time to come.



They should really think about changing the name of that planet!
Time is a Dressmaker, Specializing in Alterations!Edited by: kmmath  at: 4/23/02 11:31:30 am

What made my junior high years worse was my younger sister was the EXACT opposite of me - VERY popular, very athletic, lots of girlfriends, lots of boyfriends!, pretty, perpetually tan, beautiful hair, no glasses, she did have braces but they actually looked good on her. Luckily she and I have always been very close. Since she was younger than me she really couldn't do much to help my situation unfortunately. If I came away with one positive experience from junior high it was the knowledge that I could trust my sister no matter what the rest of the crowd did or said! I really love her!



Jennifer

[DCJenn]

Hmmm-



I was short and skinny- had to wear boys slims and at no point could you tell that I was a girl! I wasn't really athletic, I wasn't really popular or really unpopular, I had friends, I thought boys were a waste of time. (and still do!!) I 'went with' a boy named Jason who had the gall to try to touch my butt during the slow dance at the 8th grade dance. Yuck- I hit him. Then I broke up with him by tossing him the UGLY necklace that he'd given me and saying "Jason, you irk me". What a heart breaker! I was absolutely average. Average grades, stayed out of trouble, etc.



I did have a friend who decided that she wasn't going to invite me to her birthday party because I lived across the street from the boy she liked. (who I also liked) (she was also later diagnosed as bi-polar!) But it backfired on her because he couldn't stand her and he refused to go to her party and we ended up hanging out with all of the other neighborhood kids instead. HA!



I had a Dorothy Hamill haircut and big round glasses, too!



Jenn

I am laughing at all the posts because I can relate SOOO well. It is amazing how powerful those junior high feelings can be. Jenn, I too had the Dorothy Hamill haircut but I also wore glasses. I was REALLY small for my age at that time. (Grew six inches later between 8th grade and 9th!) I was very shy and absolutely was terrified of being embarrassed in any way. I was totally boy crazy and had friends but was definitely not in the popular crowd.



Kris, your story about showering after PE was one of my worst experiences. I HATED gym and I was very athletic. Our teacher graded everything on whether you took a shower or not. I took a "sponge" bath most of the time even though you were only supposed to do that when you were on your period. I was so embarrassed about the fact that I hit puberty VERY late that I ended up getting a B in p.e. because of the shower thing! How dumb to be graded on whether I took a shower or a sponge bath!



One time I walked up to the front of the class and a boy said very loudly, "you stink!" It is one of those ... time stops memories and then I took a shower nightly just in case he was right!



I do have fond memories of lip gloss fights and gossiping with friends. I laugh at how boy crazy I was. We were ALWAYS talking about boys even though I never went to a dance and would never "GO" with anyone.



Sports was my thing and advanced reading and math classes. I was one of those kids who sat on the second row (never the first because then they would think I was a total geek!) and I studied hard. I had a lot more fun once I got to 8th grade. 7th grade was very humbling!



What an insecure time. But there are good memories too.



Robin