An Ode to Middle School

Recently, my young kids and I were shopping at Target, when I turned a corner and took in the scene in front of us: a group of preteen boys, dancing in the aisle and singing Miley Cyrus’s Party in the USA. They looped through the store, then skipped out through the sliding doors and burst into laughter.

The term “middle school” usually makes me cringe. The pimples. The body odor. The shifting friendships! But seeing these carefree boys reminded me that middle school also holds some of life’s most affirming moments. First crushes. Goofy dares. Experiencing independence for the first time. To celebrate the highs of adolescence, I asked friends to share their favorite preteen memories…

“In seventh grade, my best friend and I had massive crushes on two ninth-grade boys. Of course, they never talked to us. So, we channeled our pining into writing a romance novel about fictionalized versions of ourselves who fell in love with high-schoolers. We’d take turns writing chapters, trading a green notebook back and forth. Whenever one of us would finish a chapter, we’d say, ‘The writing is so bad! You can read it if you want, but it’s burnable!’ Obviously, the book ended with the two couples getting together. We titled it Burnable.” — Gabby Llewellyn

“In middle school, I had really thick eyebrows. One day, my friend came over and plucked them — ultra-thin, Y2K style. I knew my mom would be mad, but I didn’t care. As soon as she saw them, she grounded me. But honestly? I would do it again today.” — Jordan Sondler

“One afternoon, my seventh-grade English teacher pulled me aside, along with another girl. He told us that we were the best writers in the class but we were both guilty of overwriting. Before that moment, I hadn’t realized that critique and praise could (and often should) be intertwined. Realizing that he trusted us to handle that feedback was one of the first times I felt grown up. I still think of him when I’m writing. Thirty years later, my former classmate and I both have books coming out this fall.” — Miranda Featherstone

“In seventh grade, I had a boyfriend, and for my birthday, he gave me the VHS tape of my all-time favorite movie: Universal Soldier. After handing it to me at school, he gave me a peck, and everyone saw it. My friends started screaming, and I remember thinking, This is what life is all about.” — Ruth Chan

“Halfway through sixth grade, our teacher announced that she was going to reassign our seats. She passed out notecards so we could write down a friend we’d like to sit next to. Everyone else schemed excitedly, but I was really shy and couldn’t think of anyone I’d want to sit by — or who’d want to sit by me. I left my card blank. The following week, I walked in to class to find my teacher had put me at a table with the five coolest girls in our grade. I thought, This is terrible. I figured they’d ignore me, but as soon as I sat down, they all said, ‘Brooke!’ and made me feel like part of their group. One girl gave me a Christmas present, and another invited me to her birthday party. You hear stories about mean kids at school, but these girls were so kind. They made my whole year.” — Brooke Barker

“When Jurassic Park came out, my grandma took me to see it at the theater. I was obsessed with dinosaurs, so the next week, I needed to see it again. And the next week. And the next. Thus began our weekly routine of her dropping me off at Northtown Cinemas to watch it every Saturday, until Jurassic Park stopped playing in theaters. Spending time at the movies by myself, reciting every line, and seeing dinosaurs rampage for two hours taught me how to enjoy my own presence and kick-started my love for movies. To this day, there’s nothing I love more than watching a movie by myself in the middle of the afternoon.” — Ira Madison III

How about you? Do you have any favorite middle school memories?

P.S. How to talk to teenagers and 10 things Joanna loves about parenting preteens.