It's virtually impossible to say the words “middle school" and not immediately cringe at the painfully vivid memories that come flooding back to one's consciousness. Although it serves as a critical period for growth and learning, it is also a time filled with atrocious style choices, awkward body transformations, and uncomfortable boy-girl encounters. Here's a short list of a few things that actually managed to get us through these seriously trying times.

1. Playing that super high-pitched sound that only young people can hear during class.

I hope I'm not the only one who took part in this practical joke during their middle school glory days. I'm talking about the times when some mischievous youngster would discreetly play the obnoxious noise in class, the class would then start freaking out about said noise, and finally, when the teacher would just stand there looking perplexed about what we were all fussing over, we'd all start freaking out over how cool it was that we were all hearing something our old teacher couldn't. Apparently, there are sound frequencies that some people just can't pick up on because their ear cells are simply too old. The actual scientific name for this natural phenomenon is presbycusis, and you can learn more about it and test your hearing by following this link:

https://www.yahoo.com/health/try-it-can-you-hear-these-sounds-only-young-112627654778.html

2. Girls double (maybe even triple) rolling their Soffe shorts during P.E.

This is such a middle school girl thing. I get the single rolling. Soffe shorts are meant to be single rolled. A double roll probably meant that your secret crush was in your P.E. class and that you also happened to feel pretty confident about your disproportionately-long pubescent legs. But a triple roll… everyone knew what a triple roll meant. Let's just say it was not something in which the classier middle school girls partook.

3. Riding the bus.

This one can definitely vary depending on which middle school you attended. For a lot of kids, however, riding the bus to and from school (especially if it was a public bus) was something only the cool kids did. I remember walking onto the bus after school, plugging in my iPod nano headphones, and jammin' all the way home to My Chemical Romance's “Welcome to the Black Parade." So chill.

4. Prank calls.

*69. The answer to all middle schoolers' prayers.

5. RAZRs, Chocolates, Sidekicks, Blackberrys (Blackberry Pearls), Voyagers, etc.

These were the phones to have as a Hollister-fitted, Abercrombie perfume-wearing middle school brat. If you had a Motorola RAZR with a T-Mobile myFaves plan, lots of drama probably ensued amongst you and your "top 5 friends."

6. Myspace

SO off-limits for most middle schoolers, but if you had parents that were cool enough to let you have an account, or if you were just sneaky/brave enough to make one without your parents finding out about it, Myspace was a cool new way for us to feel totally mature and even more awesome than we already felt. Plus, you were guaranteed to have at least one friend upon joining! S/O Myspace Tom.

7. Switching your name with someone else's whenever there was a substitute teacher.

As soon as you enter the classroom and realize there's a substitute teacher, you make eyes with your best friend. They know what to do. The sub calls your name. Your friend says, “Here!" A few people in the classroom snicker. But they don't snicker too much because they kind of want to see if you'll be able to successfully pull this off. Obviously, all goes according to plan and you and your bff end up getting away with the sneaky identity-switch. You both spend the rest of the day feeling like such rebels. What a thrill.

8. Multi-colored braces

Finally. The true epitome of middle school. You could be festive by getting “seasonal" colored bands for your braces. You could be trendy by getting complimentary colors. You could even be flirty by getting colored bands that match your crush's favorite winter coat. Or you could be a total weirdo and get the gross clear/white bands that really just make it look like you constantly have food in your teeth.

I know that there were so many other enjoyable aspects about middle school, but that's all I've come up with for now. I truly hope that this walk down memory lane didn't bring up as many embarrassing memories as it did for me. Let's pour one out for our old middle school selves.