Everybody always says middle schoolers are the worst.

My parents said it. Society says it. Science says it.

Everyone says it.

But I never got it.

Not until I became a sixth-grade small group leader. And boy, I finally agree with everyone.

This past weekend, I spent a week up-north with our youth group for what we call our annual Student Retreat. Going through the youth group as a student, I absolutely loved this particular weekend. The talks were fantastic, the music was inspiring, friendships grew stronger, and people always left feeling closer to Jesus than they ever had before. It's a beautiful weekend and one I've always looked forward to.

But this year is my first year not as a student. And I knew things would be different, but I definitely didn't expect it to be hard.

Outside of the church, I've been a camp counselor. So I went into this weekend thinking, "oh I've done this with 12 middle school girls and no co-leader, this will be a piece of cake."

Guess again.

I might have been a camp counselor, but that couldn't have prepared me for this weekend.

There's the middle school eye-roll.

At this age, most middle schoolers think they are the bees-knees. They think that people who aren't their parents (even if they are older than them) don't have any control over them. So when I or my co-leader (one being not even 20 and the other being in her early 20s) ask them to do something, we get the famous eye-roll. The sass is real.

And then as if the eye-roll wasn't enough, they created the deaf-ear.

"Hey so-and-so, can I get you to hand out pens to everyone in the group?"

*Ten minutes goes past*

"What's that? Are you talking to me? I thought you were talking to the other so-and-so."

Don't get me started on the overreacting.

Luckily, sixth-grade is still too young for drama, but they like to overshoot situations, because that's how their middle school brain works. My favorite situation from this weekend involved a couple of my girls running up to me in a panic saying, "the rooms are trashed, the rooms are trashed. We're on a sugar rush!" So thinking it was super serious and we had to pick up the rooms, we sprinted back, opened the doors and realized that the only thing out of place was a couple of pillows.

I learned that junk food makes them hyper.

Talk about running around like they have an endless supply of energy and laughing so hard and so uncontrollably, something actually seems wrong. Very hard to keep up with, let me tell you.

The fun part of being the boss lady is being able to tell them to do something, just because you said so.

I'm polite of course! But this definitely doesn't sit well with them.

I love my 6th-graders with my whole heart, but they can definitely be crazy. They take after their psuedo-mom that way (winky face).

Being able to grow with them, talk with them, and eventually lead them to Christ is more rewarding than anything I will ever do. And boy, are they funny! They are able to tell me jokes that will literally almost make me pee from laughing. This experience taught me so much, but they haven't tormented me to the point where I want to quit. They need to realize that they are stuck with me until they are graduated and in college.

No matter what happens, I will always be their leader and I will always be there for them no matter what. They may get on my nerves sometimes, but it's all worth it in the end. I couldn't imagine leading another group of kids.