Thirteen. It was my kind of break out year -- well, 14 was more like it. Nonetheless, 13 was the age when I started to gather things together and find myself. It was full of those infamous glory days, when I started to really like boys, and I starting wearing bras (I was a late bloomer). I had my best friend in the entire universe by my side, I hung out at places that were super cool back in the day -- Skate Express, anyone? I was in that awesome stage when I was growing up, but I was still a kid and lacked a lot of responsibility. It was like I could do anything. Little did I know, this was truly the beginning. Thanks to my gifted and very vivid memory, here are a few things I recall from my thirteenth year.

1. The music I listened to.

I remember it -- nothing but mid/late 2000s hip hop, pop, rap and, maybe, even just a little bit of country. When I was 13, I listened, pretty much, only to mainstream music. This was because I was in that awkward time when I wanted to fit in with the rest of the pre-teen, adolescent population. I wanted to be labeled cool or normal. Oddly, I wanted to fit in with everyone else and not stand out. I didn't want people looking at me, and music was part of my blending; I desperately wanted to be accepted.

I listened to artists like Rihanna, T-Pain, T.I., Soulja Boy. Oh, god, remember that dance -- especially the “Crank Dat, Souja Boy" dance during those middle school gym dances? I listened to All American Rejects, Lady Gaga when she was becoming insanely popular and just stepping out into the music scene. I also jammed out to Miley Cyrus, during her Hannah Montana days, Chris Brown, Lil Wayne, The Maine, Akon, Fergie, Timbaland, Kanye West, Justin Timberlake, Lil Mama, Natasha Bedingfield. I could go on and on and on.

I almost religiously listened to popular 2007 tunes like “Get Low," “Umbrella," and I had Kanye West's popular album Graduation memorized by heart, and always ready to go on my iPod Nano. Ha ha ha, I felt like such a badass. I also had my rare moments where I would listen to bands like Linkin Park (their album, Minutes To Midnight) and Avenge Sevenfold. I would say I was listening to My Chemical Romance, but that phase didn't start until I was fourteen. Strange how things change, and how music can highlight those moments in our lives. This time in my life, as dorky and odd as it was, is still very sentimental to me and I treasure my, then, crappy taste in music.

2. What I wore and how I did my make up.

Since we're going down memory lane, I might as well bring this one up -- no matter how embarrassingly horrifying it may be. But I mean, wasn't that almost everyone's middle school days? This one isn't hard to remember, and that's not just because I have pictures burred away to refresh my memory, but because I had such a specific style (and I'm totally not saying that it was a good one).

When I was thirteen and in seventh grade, I curled my hair – literally, like every single freaking day. I would wake up every morning at the crack of dawn and start curling my super straight hippie hair into Shirley Temple-like ringlets, and then douse it in layers of hair spray. Echhhh. And I honestly do not know how the hell I managed to find the motivation to wake up that early each day to do it. I wanted my hair cut like Hannah Montana, and I did so.

As for clothing, I had this one brown Aeropostle sweatshirt that I wore almost every single day. As a matter of fact, I pretty much wore a lot of the same things every day, even if they were dirty (talk about grody, man). Remember how popular Aeropostle was back in the day? Almost every girl had to own some article of clothing from that store, and I guess when I finally did, I felt worthy or something. Other than that, it was some form of brand name clothing, weird looking ensembles from Rue 21, jewelry from Claire's (mainly peace signs).

For shoes, they were always Converse. Now for makeup, that's the danger zone. I didn't know what the hell I was doing when it came to that department. I always looked at the pretty, popular girls in my grade, who had their makeup applied so perfectly, and I wondered how in the world they got it to look like they were straight out of a magazine. But when it came to me, I looked like a five-year-old did my make up, or worse. The raccoon eyeliner period was not flattering at all. Instead of doing the subtle and sweet winged liner look that I do today in my twenties, I traced my entire freaking eye ball with a crayon liner pencil thing. I looked so harsh, like an angst filled pre-teen girl who didn't know what she wanted -- which was what I was. Almost every girl can attest to going through this “I don't know how to put makeup on, or what I'm doing, but I wanna look hot" stage. We all did, girls.

3. When it came to the opposite gender.

Yeah, I'm just going to cut to the chase and say there was nothing remotely romantic in my thirteen-year-old life. Hold on, there was one guy. I met this guy through a group of acquaintances, and I fell head over heels for him. I am 100 percent certain that he was my first on fire, hardcore crush. Like any other girl, I daydreamed about him, I doodled his name in my notebooks, and when I saw him in the hallways, I got this fuzzy feeling in the pit of my stomach.

This was all new for me because I had never had any real interaction with a boy. I was just some girl who only cared about her friends and riding her bike around town, and getting junk food from the gas station with quarters we found under the couch cushions. This was all brand new. I found out that he liked me, which amplified my crush on him. At one middle school dance, I awkwardly stood around with my group of girl friends in the corner of the gym floor and basically stalked him with my eyes. We were totally doing that stupid, indecisive, flaky, weird "I like you but I am too shy to talk to you" middle school thing.

Like the twelve and thirteen-year-olds that they were, my girl friends giggled and pushed me along towards his direction. And get ready for this. That night, during the middle school dance, in the gym and under the flashing lights and while the song "Low" was playing, said boy and I hugged for the first time ever. Yeah. You know what I did. I went home and wrote about it in my diary and gushed over the thought and replayed it over and over in my mind. Fast forward to eighth grade, and this guy and I ended up dating briefly before I found out he was a total player. This, however, was the start of my really liking guys, and my dating era.

P.S. No, I did not get my first kiss when I was thirteen. I was fourteen. And it happened to be said boy from above.

4. The movies I obsessed over amidst my teen angst.

I can tell you, right now, that I watched the Brat Pack movies almost religiously, and I wanted to be Molly Ringwald. Pretty In Pink, The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles -- you name it -- I was obsessed with Andie and her individuality. I had this strange as all get out crush on Duckie, and I could totally relate to Samantha's high school struggles. I just loved Bender, Claire, Allison, Bryan and Andrew because they were the definition of cool -- all five of them, and I wanted to be just like all of them mixed together when I got to high school. All of these movies gave me some kind of comfort in getting ready for the horrors of teenager-hood. Also, I'm surprised I didn't burn my DVDs from overplaying them.

5. What my dream career was.

I wanted to be so many things when I was thirteen, very similar to now. However, they were not very well thought out (Lord, I am sounding old). I wanted to be an author. That was number one, and that is still true to this day. Ever since I could remember, I wanted to be a writer. I also wanted to be a professional ballerina. At thirteen, I had been doing ballet, tap and jazz for years and I was continuously taking Saturday afternoon classes. During this time, I was becoming most passionate about my dancing and decided I wanted to pursue ballet. But that changed and I have fallen in love with tap dancing, leaving ballet more to the side. At that age, I was constantly changing what I wanted to be (with the exception of author), but what thirteen year old isn't like that?

6. Who my best friends were.

All I can say is this: partners in crime. When I was thirteen, I had my best friend in the world. We did everything together, told each other everything, and was basically everything a girl ever wanted in a best friend. We were neighbors and lived just park away from each other. I told myself all the time how lucky I was. I had known her since I was about six years old, but it was age 12 that we really started clicking and hanging out a lot.

There was the time in the beginning when she and I wanted to form an all girls band when we were about 12. A few of our other childhood friends and I came together and we would sit in her dimly lit basement with seventies styled couches and talk about our potential band we were going to perform around our neighborhood and get groupies -- just have cute guys talk to us. I remember making girly looking posters with our name, Cloud 9, on them, enhanced with glitter and highlighters. Unfortunately, Cloud 9 didn't take off.

We were in Girl Scouts together, went to the outdoor pool almost every day in the summer time, rode bikes, and I practically lived at her house. My best friend and I had millions of sleepovers in her basement, would have lots of movie marathons and had loaded inside jokes. Most of them stemmed from movies such as "Sleepover," "Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging" and a million other chick flicks. I recall watching "The Breakfast Club" for the first time with her and her dad and feeling like bad-asses because they swore so much in that movie.

When we entered high school, we made a tradition of going to the football games in the fall, (even though I hated sports) and then walked back to my house to sit out on the patio in lawn chairs, just talking. We started talking about deep stuff, and how we could tell each other anything.

Unfortunately, we grew up and became distant, and drifted off towards other groups, making new friends in high school and out of high school. But today, we are acquaintances and talk here and there. That, I am grateful for.

I can't believe all of this was going on practically nine years ago. I mean, I guess it is easy to believe, considering that's what happens (duh, Jules) but, I never really thought it would go by so quickly. It was just then that I was rocking out to Miley Cyrus' "See You Again" in my bedroom with a hairbrush, and eating whatever I wanted, and didn't have a care in the world about that ex-boyfriend who broke my heart because back then, I didn't even have an ex boyfriend, or a boyfriend. Life was so euphorically simple. Now, I'm starting to understand why adults say to savor the time when you're really young, because at almost 21 years old, life is getting insanely crazy. And I've been doing a lot of adulting lately.