Smack in the Middle
Middle School seems to be one of the most awkward time periods in a young person’s life.
I have a child right smack in the middle of middle school and it’s just drama, drama, drama on a regular basis.
I remember those horrible middle years (11 - 14). Needless to say, they were anxiety ridden even way back then in the 1980s.
Your peers hate you or like you depending on what day it is. Gossip flies unchecked through the halls. Everyone is busy establishing their identity — worried about the kind of clothes they wear, how they do their hair, whether or not they are accepted by the others around them.
I was a soft-hearted, creative (go figure), naive child who was a terrible nerd (and I still am). I was not at all popular. In fact, I was quite the contrary. I was not terribly well dressed due to the fact that my mother’s single parent salary couldn’t support the latest Izod and Members Only gear (remember those?). I wore many hand-me-downs and second hand store clothes (I remember this pair of red velvet bell bottoms I had in the sixth grade…oy!) Being a non-athletic, pudgy girl with glasses and long ponytails didn’t help things much either. I was teased mercilessly.
There were a handful of us girls, similar types who loved to draw and write, read graphic novels and watch anime and fantasize about being someone else other than ourselves. There’s safety in numbers, right? I can see all their faces and remember their names despite the fact that I haven’t seen them in a good 15-20 years. Susan, Tracey, Catherine, Jerri, — I wonder what happened to all of them. The best time of the day was our lunch break where we sat together, collaborating on some new horse-lover’s club, or drawing our favorite character or talking about the latest Star Blazers episode.
The funny thing is, my daughter is so much the same. She has her little lunch-bunch that she has melded with and they draw and talk and make up stories and characters. It is so amazing to me to see the parallels in our lives. The names and faces may have changed but at the heart of it, it’s the same story and song.
Life does go on. You survive all the adversity and realize that the things you were teased about make you wonderfully unique. If you are smart, you exploit that difference and make it part of that identity you sought out so long ago - in the surreal land called middle school.