To many, Junior High is considered a black hole of three years. We were awkward, we thought we were cool, we thought we knew what was up, and we thought we knew better than our parents. Here are 12 things we miss and maybe don’t miss about being in Junior High in 2006.
1. THE FASHION TRENDS
Overall, I’ll admit that things could have been worse as far as fashion statements going on between the years 2004 – 2007. Clothes were pretty basic, heavily branded, or covered in cliche sayings. Everyone owned multiple polos in an array of colors and patterns. You couldn’t wear one without “poppin’ the colla” and if you were feeling really cool you wore your polos double layered with a puka shell necklace.
If you weren’t sporting a polo you were most likely wearing an article of clothing from Aeropostle, Hollister, or Abercrombie. In 2006, girls liked wearing their jean skirts, their leggings, and their jean skirts with leggings.
2. THE SCHOOL DANCES
The majority of students who attended the school dances in Junior high found the closest empty bleacher to sit on or vacant spot along the gym wall. Boys and girls would segregate themselves and stand around in their Junior High cliques. Songs like Yeah by Usher, Smack That by Akon, and Dirty Little Secret by All-American Rejects were played throughout the night. At the end of the dance, girls hoped their crush would ask them to a slow dance to the song You’re Beautiful by James Blunt.
Most guys chickened out about asking a girl to slow dance, but sometimes their friends would push a girl and boy together to get the job done in typical Junior High fashion. To alleviate the awkardness of the slow dances, boys and girls would dance together or sometimes form slow dancing clumps.
The greatest slow dance memory was during your last Junior High dance when the DJ played Graduation (Friends Forever) by Vitamin C. Everyone cried and swayed together in a huge circle. It really shouldn’t have been that sad since we were all were going to high school together anyway.
3. THE RELATIONSHIPS
In Junior High you could have a boyfriend and not even know about it until a week later. Having a boyfriend was just a title and it just existed only in school. It was with someone you never went on real dates with. You just middle school flirted with them at your locker every day.
If things were starting to get serious you would hold hands in the hallway. In Junior High, boys were recovering from their “girls have cooties” stage. Most had no idea how to talk to girls yet and would go through their friends to ask a girl out and to break up with them.
4. AIM
AIM was the glue to your social life in middle school. It was the beginning of our social media use as we know it today. It was where you talked to all of your girls about the latest drama, about the boys you like, about your annoying teachers, and complained about your parents grounding you. You sat at your parent’s desktop computer for hours IMing all of your BFFs.
The first and most crucial step of using aim was making up the perfect screen name, something that really defined you. Screennames commonly revolved around your favorite hobbies, passions, and interests at the time like dancexislove, baseballboy93, redsoxlova5, or soccerchicxo92.
The Away Messages:
Brb mom needs comp
Gym, class, class, lunch, class, class, soccer, then soooo much hw
So mad, don’t IM me.
Bbl, shower.
Say something funny for my away message
Wtf. Grounded.
Out all day, leave it.
You got to deck out your AIM with a sweet avatar, background, and profile. Your AIM profile, was a crucial presentation of your identity as a middle schooler, a place where you could truly express yourself through personal biography that may have consistied of inspirational quotes or lyrics from popular music of the time like Fall Out Boy or Kelly Clarkson. In your profile there was also always a spot for your middle school relationship status.
If you weren’t in a relationship you wrote in your profile something like this:
Single VM LC JM RF KD DB KB TS KS MP HH AC KL BB SR …
If you were in a relationship you wrote in your profile something like this:
Taken 10/14/05 Jack, U r my everything, always & forever. I love u babe <3
5. GETTING PICKED UP AND DROPPED OFF EVERYWHERE
This is one of the worst aspects of Junior High. During this point in your life, the idea of getting your license any time soon was nowhere in sight, so you had to rely on parents to get you to and from every destination.
Not only did you have to carefully plan and communicate your rides, sometimes you had to annoy your parents even further to pick up and bring home a carload of your friends. Things were even more terrible if your parents drove an embarrasing car.
The classic teenybopper hotspots to hang and go with friends were the local movie theater, chain restaurant, and of course the mall.
6. WE WATCHED TRL AFTER SCHOOL
The days when MTV actually played music. We miss you Carson.
7. MYSPACE
In Junior High, crafting your myspace page was addicting. You had your profile picture, your song, your background, and your top friends. The more friends you had, the better, and it didn’t matter if they were complete strangers.
You typically lied about your age, so most of your friend’s ages on Myspace ranged from 18 to a whopping 99 years old.Your top friends changed on a weekly basis based on what petty drama happened that week. People tried really hard to win as many #1 friend spots as they could.
8. THE SELFIES
Then there were the Myspace pictures, to be specific: the Myspace selfie pictures. Junior High was when kids were in selfie prime time. During the Myspace era there was no shame in posting all selfies your heart desired. If you couldn’t decide which selfie you liked best, not to worry, you could post 3 slighty different versions of the same selfie and it was still acceptable.
The most looked down upon selfie was and still is, the notorious bathroom mirror pic selfie. We all just wanted pictures comments, as many as we could get, from whoever we could get them from. Our narcassistic Junior High selves wanted to be told we were pretty and cool.
The kissy faces, the duck faces, the peace signs, the thumbs up, the weird contorted face, the seductive expression, the failed seductive expression that looks like you are just sad, the overjoyed smile, and the posed laughing at nothing pic were notorious of Myspace photos. These are the Myspace photos we can all shake our heads about now and ask ourselves the common question “Why did we think that was ok?”
9. THE CELL PHONES
Everyone loved their Motorola Razrs and bedazzeld flip phones, but they weren’t “smart phones” by any means. There was no internet access to compulsively check your Myspace or fancy touch screens, but regardless our cellphones were loved and treasured.
10. THE BRACES
You were forbidden to eat popcorn, hard candy, or chew gum. The joys of eating were stripped from you and you were forced to wear pallet expanders, elastic bands, and retainers. You dealt with the struggles of flossing and the dreaded trips to the orthodontist.
They were always cool at first when you go to color coordinate them for the upcoming holiday seasons, then after a while you realized how much you hated them. Every time you thought you were getting your braces off, they’d add on another two months.
The orthodontists were such a tease, granted you never wore your elastics like you were supposed to. In Junior High almost everyone was a metal mouth, it was just a part of life we all accepted.
11. THE TERRIBLE YEARBOOK PHOTOS
Someone show me a good Junior High yearbook picture and I’ll believe it when I see it.
12. PUBERTY
I’d find it hard to believe if someone ever told me they liked going through puberty. Hands down, it’s one of the most wost and most awkward times of your life. Do you remember how many people smelled in middle school? These kids did not get the memo about deodorant yet.
We had to deal with all kinds of awkard “your body is going through changes” talks, bra shopping, trips to the dermatologist, and the list goes on. The acne, raging hormones, disproportional bodies… I think I speak for all of us when I say I’m glad I’m past that part of my life.
How do you remember your Junior High years, Collegiettes?