Oh how I Adore the Middle/Jr. High Age

Today was a crazy day at school. I think teachers should get paid extra for teaching on days like today. With the Valegrams of flowers, cookies, love letters, suckers, and teddy bears my classroom looked more like a floral shop than a classroom, and when I thought of teaching? YEAH RIGHT!!! Anyway, that is not the point of my post, THE POINT IS the fact that I love the age I teach. There is something so sweet and dare I say "pure" about 13-year olds. Now don't get me wrong, there are some students that I could definitely live without, but for the most part I love them. Today just reminded me how much I loved, back in the day, being in middle school and junior high.

Reason 1: Girls try SOOOO hard to be cool in jr. high. Once they are in high school they are content with their cool or not-so-cool lives. Like I said before, we had Valegrams passed out today. Well during FIRST PERIOD a lot of girls got carnations or teddy bears, and they carried them around like beauty queens. During FOURTH PERIOD I still had girls holding their flowers while they wrote, in the same hand, or they would pass around their teddy bears like show-and-tell. I thought it was strange for a second. I didn't understand while they didn't just put the stuff in their lockers. Then it dawned on me as I observed a girl smelling her flower and telling a boy that she "doesn't know who gave her the flower". I realized that it was a cool thing to get a Valegram and they needed to show the world that they were cool. I couldn't help but laugh, but I couldn't help but think that I probably did the exact same thing back in the day. Isn't it funny how insecure you are when you are that age?

Reason 2: I have been collecting a pretty good collection of notes passed in my classes. These are the highlight of my day. Especially notes between boys and girls. The typical note goes like this: girl=why are you mad at me? boy= you know why. girl=I really don't know, jessica just told me that she talked to Mike and he said that you were mad at me. What did I do?" boy="You broke my heart. I loved you more than Brittney and you didn't believe me and I don't want to go out anymore" BLAH BLAH BLAH it's so fun. I should photocopy some and post them on here.

Reason 3: The beloved Valentine's dance today after school. It was in the lunchroom in the middle of my school and as I was leaving work I thought I would walk over and observe, from above, my students socializing. Again, there is nothing more pure about this age. As I sat there watching the kids at the dance I had so many flashbacks. I observed girls checking out boys and/or slowly maneuvering their ways close to them, I observed during a slow song the girls getting insecure because they hadn't gotten asked to dance yet so they do the typical "dance with each other instead to be funny" dance. I remember doing that. It made you feel like you were too occupied to even think to dance with a boy. I also saw THE best: A girl and a boy dancing, and the girl's friends behind the boy with their hands over their mouths freaking out and jumping up and down because they were dancing. I remember doing that EXACT thing. I remember my friend Whitney Hill getting asked to dance by JEFF SHOCKLEY and me standing behind him making freakish faces and jumping up and down.

I walked away from observing smiling EAR to EAR! I just love it. They are in their own world, junior high. It made me realize that this critical age in their lives is so precious and I am grateful that I get to be a part of it with them. I would like to thank people like Crystal, Sharly, Melissa, the "6 pack" and all the boys I crushed on like Alex Thorson, Scott Stewart and Miller, Jesse Riggs, and more for making my young adolescent years so memorable!