A few weeks ago, I paused to look back on some endearing moments from a time that holds real estate as a special place in my heart: middle school. Ahh, yes, middle school. A time of teal skinny jeans fit snugly to the epidermis and side swept bangs that used just enough hair spray to not be considered side swept (more like side-glued). For me, it was a time of belting Mayday Paradelyrics at concerts surrounded by people just as unsure of themselves as I was. It was a confusing time, sometimes a seemingly torturous time. Only recently has one particularly freeing truth come to my attention: middle school was an awkward time for everyone.

So naturally, I set out on a mission to find awkward tidbits from the past lives of my peers. I've listed them here, and they're sure to offer not only a giggle but also some borderline painful notes of familiarity. **

1. "When I was 14 I was in American Eagle and a guy asked me if I needed a size and I thought he was flirting with me so I told him the size and then ran out of the store.” -Nicole, 22

2. “I wanted to feel confident in every way possible, so whenever I’d get a zit I would sit down and rest my hand on my chin and put like one finger over it to cover it. I’d just sit there with my one finger covering my zit and act like I was constantly in a thinking pose. And if I had two I’d just use two fingers to cover both. I just really liked to feel confident, even if it was false. So in 8th grade I had a spelling bee, and I was really really excited about it and I was like, ‘I’m gonna kick everyone’s butt’. So I go up there, push my sleeves up, and by the way I made it to the finals. So it’s the last round and they go ‘pow- wow’. And I go, confidently, ‘p-o-w, p-o-w.’ And I hear the EHHHHH buzzer. And I’m like, ‘what? I got it right. p-o-w, p-o-w, that spells pow-wow.’ and they go, ‘no, that spells pow pow.’”-Sydney, 19

3. "I got in trouble with the police at age 12 for recording my favorite scene of Twilight in the movie theater. My mom and I ended up running from the theater because I told her I was scared I’d get arrested.” -Tricia, 20

4. “In middle school I didn’t play lacrosse or anything, but I had a ton of lacrosse shorts, like they said ‘lacrosse’ on the side. I had different colors: red, bright pink, neon green. So all the cool kids that played sports wore these colorful shirts from their meets and from tournaments. Since I didn’t actually play sports, I didn’t have any, so I just wore those crazy Delia’s shirts with the colorful shorts which didn’t match at all. But I was like, ‘Hey! I look cool!’ “ -Ellen, 21

5. "I used to use the word fetish wrong because I thought it meant you didn't like something so I used to tell people I had a foot fetish.” -Nick, 22

6. “In sixth grade, for my school picture I dressed intentionally to look like Gabrielle Montez from High School Musical. I had my hair in a side pony with little things coming out and I bought a shirt that looked like something she’d wear. No, I didn’t find my Troy.” -Elena, 21

7. “I used to have these jeans that you could unzip into Bermuda shorts. Enough said.” -Samantha, 20

8. “We were playing man hunt and me and this boy planned it out so our friends would leave us alone and he was supposed to come find me and we were going to kiss. So we planned this whole thing, met up, and then we didn’t even end up kissing. We got to the designated meeting spot, and we both shared an unspoken, ‘no, this isn’t happening.’ It was my first almost kiss.” -Alli, 21

9. “In 6th grade I auditioned for the school talent show, and I already thought I was a full-blown musician. So I asked the chorus director to do an acoustic version of Jo Jo’s ‘Too Little Too Late’. I didn’t even use the stage because I wanted more intimacy with the audience. I sang an extremely slow version of the song and closed my eyes. I was getting so into it. I even asked everyone to clap along. I didn’t get called back— I guess it was the high notes.” -Liza, 20

10. “It was 7th grade and I had my very first boyfriend— for a week. I successfully avoided him the whole week because I didn't want to be dating him. I thought he would want to hug me or something, which would obviously be gross. He ended up sending his friend to break up with me via a note passed in class.” -Katie, 20

11. "We had to all bring in cereal boxes for a project in class and I brought in Raisin Bran. I loved Raisin Bran! Everyone saw the box and said 'ew, who brought that?! Raisin Bran's for old people.' And I was like, 'yeah! Who brought that?!’ “ -Sam, 21

12. “In 8th grade I had frog underwear in my pants pocket for the whole day and I had no idea. It ended up falling out in the middle of lunch. The whole cafeteria saw my frog underwear." -Stephen, 22

13. "So one day during 6th grade gym, these two girls, Steph and Shanara, came up to me and started to make small talk with me. I was shy talking to girls because my game was not exactly strong, being a 6th grader and all. Steph asked me if I thought her friend Shanara was cute. At a stage in my life where my hormones were going crazy, I looked at Shanara and all I could see was her very developed body so I said “Sure, I think she's cute”. Then Steph asked Shanara if she thought I was cute and she said yes too. Then Steph was like, “You should be boyfriend and girlfriend. I looked at Shanara and she looked at me and we did that half shoulder shrug and so it was settled. We ‘dated’ for 2 weeks and I kissed her once during that time— I was terrified." -Danny, 22

14. "I got my period in class, I tripped during Mass as an altar server and the priest started laughing, I fell into a lake during a science class, my crush told me he liked me and then I said I liked him and he said "Not!" and ran away, I fell down the staircase and my binder exploded, a vat of paint decided it'd be good to slip out of my hands and I painted the room, I tripped into class, I slid across a hand-sanitized floor, my chair broke so I looked super chunky, I dodged a guy who was trying to tell me he liked me by walking into a locker and then getting a concussion. Need any more of my pain?" -Mia, 20

**Some names have been changed to protect confidentiality. Middle school was a really, really awkward time, people.