The other day I was scrolling through the People Page on Instagram and I began to casually stalk one girl's page at random (I was avoiding Accounting homework). She had some artsy selfies and I admired her stylish outfits and perfectly winged eyeliner. It was when I was about six weeks deep that I saw a post that read, "Can't wait to start high school with these girls!" I nearly dropped my phone on my face out of shock (I was also avoiding homework by laying in bed). How was this girl who looked my age or older in middle school? Where were her braces? Why did she not have black eyeliner embedded on her waterline? Why did she not resemble even a fraction of the amount of awkward that I was in middle school?
It seems the secret of skipping the awkward middle school days has been discovered and 13-year-olds everywhere are purchasing their Kylie Jenner lip kits and rocking high-waisted shorts and crop tops. While the middle schoolers of today's age may never have an awkward stage, I will never forget mine and I'm sure you won't either. So just to remind you of how "cool" you used to think you were, here are weird things you used to do in Middle School.
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1. Took Hundreds of Mac Photo Booth Photos
If you or your friend had a Macbook, a photo shoot using Photo Booth was a guarantee at every major sleepover. No matter how many effects you did to yourself, taking these photos never got old and you always felt it was necessary to upload every one to Facebook and MySpace.
2. Smiled With Tight Lips
My go to smile in middle school was to keep my lips as tight as possible. I was not a fan of smiling with my braces on, mainly because I had a big gap in between my two front teeth. Every photo from middle school during braces, mainly consisted of me looking like I was almost having a good time but I just wasn't ready to fully commit yet.
3. Took Photos On Your Env
I had a flip phone for much too long, but the kids who had an Env or Voyager were always the ones in charge of taking group photos. These were always done using mirrors, because these phones were not yet equipped with selfie capabilities.
4. Took Posed Photos That Made No Sense
What does this photo mean? Well the caption was "so the board says don't be scared to use your brain....... but what if we don't have those??!! :)". We were obviously hilarious.
5. Spoke Two Words To Your Boyfriend/Girlfriend
I had a boyfriend in sixth grade for six months and I am pretty sure we had two solid conversations with one another.
6. Put Your Significant Other In The Signature Of You Messages
If "<33333Ryan<33333" was in your signature you were letting every person you came in contact with know that you were taken. Once the relationship ended, the deleting of the signature was the first part of grieving.
7. Updated Your AIM Bio On The Reg
I would always update my AIM bio and make sure it was as colorful and inspirational as possible. I would also include a paragraph for each of my friends, expressing how much I loved our GTS and inside jokes lmao.
8. Spoke To Strangers On Chatroulette
While it was a given you would come across some creepy old men, Chat Roulette was always a go-to sleepover activity. You'd get together with your friends and search to find other people to speak to. Whether you acted like yourselves, pretended you were British, or dressed like boys, you did some weird stuff on Chat Roulette.
9. Had ooVoo Convos
Ahh before the time of FaceTime. Whenever I saw a screenshot of three of my friends on ooVoo, I was instantly jealous. My laptop did not have a webcam and I begged my parents to buy me a portable one I could prop on the top, just so I could ooVoo video chat with my friends.
10. Believed In Chain Messages
Whether the chain message was a cute friendship one or a "This is Molly. Send this to 15 people or she will kill you in your sleep," you always did exactly what they asked you to do. You were as gullible as those moms that post on Facebook verifying their account so it doesn't get deleted.
11. Wore Way Too Much Makeup
The day I was allowed to wear eyeliner, was the day I thought I became a woman. Here I was with a nice ring of black smudged under my eyes and some additional black goop in my inner corners.
12. Did Not Know How To Dress
Why did my mother not tell me I looked like a tacky birthday present? Why does my other friend look like a first place ribbon and the other a cupcake? Who knows, but your girl was feeling super confident rocking that side pony that day.
