Oh, middle school…. it was the time that when we look back on it, we cringe. The clothes, interactions, and overall decisions may have been a bit questionable but at least it is something you can laugh about in the future.
Olivia:
Equipped with a greasy side bang, an Aeropostale logo tee, and my Env3, I took on middle school, a fever dream I’m convinced that we all imagined as a collective whole, by storm. Seventh grade was when the whole world of the opposite sex opened up to me. There were boys that were cute that actually liked me? Walking into the puke green locker-lined hallways everyday was a wonderland of possibilities.
It was around the middle of seventh grade year when I started to master the art of flirting over text. Pre-emoji, a little semicolon, parenthesis seemed to articulate my thoughts perfectly. In my adventures, I found that the best way to start a conversation with someone I thought was just omg like sOoOo cute was to text them a blank message followed by something along the lines of “OMG My phone is being so weird I’m sorry!” This always evoked a response to which I could then begin a conversation.
Additionally, I would always “accidentally” text someone about how cute they were and then continued to pretend it was meant for someone who was definitely not them and was so embarrassed they got that text (In reality I was ecstatic). I was convinced I was the James Bond of texting and no one knew my tricks. In recent years I unsurprisingly have found out I was very wrong after a few people I pulled those moves on in middle school told me how obvious I was in my attempts. So weird how they knew the whole time it was a decoy to have a conversation! Pre-teen Olivia would have been MORTIFIED.
Megan:
Ah yes, middle school. The days where I rocked braces and Aeropostale daily. I was also the girl who was OBSESSED with One Direction. My binders were decked out with clipped pictures from magazines of each of the boys, the background of my phone and laptop were always one of them, I posted on Facebook about just how much I loved them, and my walls were covered in posters. I taped a picture of Niall onto my calculator and I even wrote a persuasive essay to them about why I should be on tour with them as a backup dancer (I’m not a good dancer, by the way) for my English class. But the epitome of my One Direction craze was me dabbling in the world of fanfiction.
Yes, that’s right. As a 7th grader, I read and wrote dirty fanfiction about none other than Niall Horan. All of my friends knew about it, we even had a shared document online where we could all read and edit it. Thankfully, a few of us had homeroom together so we were able to edit and conference about the story. I was, of course, the leading lady in the story, the plot was basically that I was chosen to be their backup dancer (keep in mind-One Direction never had backup dancers), so I had to leave my normal life behind with all my friends and my so-called boyfriend. The fake boyfriend in the story was, of course, my crush from school, I mean if I’m gonna write a fake story, I’m gonna write it to make all the boys want me. But basically, Niall and I fall in love, blah blah blah and then we get married-happily ever after for all.
The fanfiction consumed mine and my friends lives for months. It was honestly pure gold and should’ve been published. I especially like the “sex” scenes, I didn’t really understand sex so I ended up writing things like “and oh what a night they had…”, the three dots at the end were ESSENTIAL to writing sex scenes without actually being graphic. I was a master at avoiding actually writing in detail about it. Although re-telling the story of writing fanfiction usually leaves everyone shocked or laughing, I’m glad I did it. Writing about boys who will most likely never know who I am was incredibly rewarding seeing as I had no actual relationships to look forward to in real life (still the same now). My middle school years were rough and awkward but the fanfiction, and One Direction in general was kind of my escape.
My friends still joke about how bad my writing and the storyline was, and they will never let me live it down that I put my school crush into the story as well. Don’t tell them that I still have a copy of it in my closet of my childhood bedroom, or that I wrote a second one about Luke Hemmings from 5 Seconds of Summer in 9th grade, oops. Guess the cringe will never end.
Ramsey:
Everybody can look back at their middle school years and regret a few things they did. Unfortunately, I became fault to believing like many other girls that I would one day become THE Mrs. Justin Bieber. My obsession started growing when I heard “Somebody to Love” on the radio. After that, I was committed.
I would make my mom go to the store every month when the new magazines came in and buy any cheesy teen magazine that even mentioned Justin Bieber’s name. This lead to 100 + pictures on my walls that soon had to move to my bedroom and bathroom doors due to lack of room. This resulted in fights with my friends over who had more pictures on the walls which somehow represented who loved him more.
As my obsession grew, I came up with a full-on plan on how we would meet and spend the rest of our life together. My plan started with going to a concert and being called up on stage for “One Less Lonely Girl”. If you couldn’t have guessed it this was obviously where we were going to meet, fall in love, and get married. Even though I look back at this now and cringe thinking about it, this time in my life gives me something to laugh about now and I know other people out there can definitely relate.