Flashback Friday: Middle School and Junior High

I was tempted to skip over these years in my Falshback Friday series but a 4-year gaping hole is hard to miss. Does anyone look back fondly on these years?

Here are a bunch of pictures from 1996-1999. I tried to explain some of them but it was a struggle.

It's about to get awkward up in here.

I don't really know how to explain this picture. I put my nephew's tube on my head and we all laughed and then I made a snack and sat down.

 This little hood trick was a akin to parlor trick for me. I'd show off this skill to anyone who came over.

Ah, the cheesy smile--here to stay for the foreseeable future.

This is a built-in booster seat in a rental car.

We took a family trip to Seattle. It was my first time on an airplane and a commuter train. I was really excited.

Aww, another picture of my Thomas and I. That same trip we drove and ferried to Victoria, BC.

This is at the zoo. Notice the socks with the sandals. I am not going nearly as fast as my face indicates.

My kids smile like this.

The thing is, these pictures are only awkward looking back. Life was great. These years weren't awkward for me. In fact, I had great friends and we had tons of fun.

 I'm not sure what I'm doing here and I know I didn't know then either.

 Ah man, I'm loving all the details in the background of these pictures. Check out the sweet computer.

Every year for the 4th of July we would gather on the lawn of the Marriott Center on BYU campus and wait for the fireworks. We would head over at lunch time and spend the whole day there which included walking down the hill to Wendy's to use the bathroom. It was so much fun. People wondered what the heck we were doing there 8 hours before the fireworks were to start. Making wreaths out of weeds, of course.

This is another year, same spot, same waiting. Please note that I am wearing pants that I made. And an apron. I also made that apron. I still have and use and love that backpack.

I don't have any pictures of middle school. I don't know why. I hated HATED sixth grade. I had a really hard time adjusting to the 7 class periods and meeting all these new people from other elementary schools. Friend groups changed and I lost some of my friends. I had major anxiety and missed class a lot. I also made new friends and got used to things over time. I remember being really proud of myself when I went a whole week without missing a class period. 

Seventh grade came and it was like night and day compared to sixth grade even though it was the same school. Well it kind of wasn't the same school. The new addition was finally completed and we seventh graders got it all to ourselves. New lockers, new classrooms, new computer lab, new girl's gym. I had so much fun and besides the jars in biology filled with dead animals, anxiety free.

Onto Junior High for 8th and 9th. This is during lunchtime in the hallway across from the lunch room. We were too cool to sit in the lunchroom.

Waiting for my sister outside the temple. Summer, 1998. Being a younger kid of a big family meant that it grew a lot during my teen years. I had like a dozen and nieces and nephews by the time I graduated high school.

 Those nieces and nephews are the reason behind this picture. I was always trying to make them laugh and earn the title of favorite aunt.

I'm on the phone. You can totally tell I'm on the phone even though you can't see the phone.

I turned a corner in 9th grade. I learned how to take a normal picture.

 This is up at my grandma's cabin for my birthday when I turned 15. I miss that place. The cabin was sold a few years later when she died.

 Here again, posing for a nephew who's taking the picture. I really was the favorite aunt. Being an aunt was a defining role for me.

Pretty sure these are all taken on the last days of junior high. Here are a few random memories about those years. 

The Columbine shooting happened. It was the first school shooting. Our school created a "no backpacks in the classroom" rule. We were so mad and it made no sense to us how that would keep us safer. I still don't understand that one.

 I learned I loved the home-ec classes, and social studies. Math and science, not so much.

I was the office TA and I loved it. I delivered notes from the office to kids in class and had a front row seat to all the happenings in the office. Plus I got to see the list of kids who had detention after school.

 The picture below is at a dance. I had a love/hate relationship with dances. I loved dancing and being funny with my friends but hated slow dancing. I usually snuck off to the bathroom with a few friends during the slow dances.

 This is my 9th grade English class with my teacher Mrs. Jensen, or Mrs. J as we called her. She was a great teacher.

Last day of junior high with my best friends. Fun fact: the kid photo-bombing is one of Justin's best friends.

I wish I could say that those awkward years were over for me but I'm pretty sure they continued for me through high school. I hope you laughed right along with me down this memory lane. And I hope I made you feel better about any awkward phase you may find yourself in.