It has been 5 years since I set foot in my middle school, and to be quite honest, I am not complaining. Most people credit the middle school years as the worst years of their life. Because my sister is still in middle school, I am frequently reminded of reasons I am glad those years are behind me.

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(yours truly, in 6th grade.)

1. Gossip and Cliques

As much as we would like to think that Mean Girls was extreme in terms of cliques, they really weren't too far off. Everyone had "their" lunch table; jocks, popular girls, nerds, and everyone in between. Said cliques also gossiped constantly. Everyone was nosy, and everyone knew the business of members in the grade they had never even talked to.

2. Overly expensive, ugly designer clothing

For whatever reason, the worst things were "in" when I was in middle school. Juicy Couture sweatshirts, Sugarlip tank tops, Aeropostale/Hollister/Abercrombie logo t-shirts, Ugg boots, the list goes on. Not only were they way overpriced, but 9x/10 they were ugly, too. Not only did I spend all my money on these pieces, but I begged my mom to buy them as well. Nowadays, I can happily wear my $15.00 sweatshirt from Target, but back in the day, that wouldn't have been socially appropriate.

3. 5 second relationships and public breakups

In middle school, I had a friend who was in an 18 hour relationship (and this wasn't uncommon). There is also the issue that middle schoolers are outrageously awkward in person, leading to misunderstandings and breakups (many of which happened in the hallways).

4. First girl/boy party

Middle school was when the amount of birthday parties decreased, and parties "just because" increased. Girls would put on their favorite lip gloss while boys doused themselves in Axe, and, because middle schoolers are awkward, proceeded to keep interaction between the genders to a minimum.

5. Taking the bus

These smiling faces are misleading. No one liked leaving their house before 7am to stand on the (often cold and dark) side of the street to hop on a dirty, gross bus. I repeat: no one liked this. It gets better, kids: soon enough, people will be driving!

6. ZAP

This might've been a thing that didn't happen everywhere, so I'll give you a brief description. Basically, a friend would grab a pen (chances are, it was a Sharpie and it lasted for days), grab your hand, and write ZAP with a time. On the other side of your hand, they would write the name of a person. If you looked at the name before the time, you "had to ask the person out". My hand was constantly covered in pen, and I had the additional daily worry that my friend had written someone "gross", and I would accidentally look.

7. Kool-Aid hair

This trend started at the end of middle school. Girls would dip dye their hair bright reds and purples using boiled Kool-Aid. Yes, you read correctly. People dyed their hair with a drink. Luckily, this dye job faded fast, letting us forget it ever happened.

8. Overly edited photos

In middle school, one of my favorite things to do was add obvious filters and brightly colored quotes to all my pictures that were perfectly fine without it. Nowadays, if you stalk anyone on Facebook, you are bound to find a handful of Picnik-edited photos.

(...might've been one of the worst days of my life...)

9. Forwarding emails

"Send this to 20 friends in 5 hours and your crush will ask you out!" "If you don't send this to 15 friends, you will have bad luck for 7 years."

10. Having to ask your parents for rides and permission to go out

"Can your parents drive there if mine drives back?" "Ask your mom if you're free this weekend!" "Are you sure your mom won't let you?"

11. Like My Status, Rates, Truth Is...

omggg <3 truth iz I barely know youuu, weree in math and ur cool<3 LMS for a quote on your wall!! :) <3

rate: 7, best feature: personality <3 youree so nice!

*gag*