Middle School/Jr. High backtrack

[Guest Smues]

Same thing as the elementary school thread, except now we're talking about the evil years. Well at least for me, maybe I was the only one who hated middle school with a passion. For me it was 7th and 8th grade, but I know for some people it's 6th through 8th or 7th through 9th. I personally am really glad mine was only two years, as they were probably the worst two years of my life thus far. I didn't get along with/like most of my teachers, I got picked on and harassed all the time, and we had the stupid "honor system" discipline bullshit.

 

The "Honor" system: I don't know why the discipline system was called the honor system, but the way it worked was if you did anything bad the teacher would pull out an infraction slip, mark off what you did, and then you got 'points' based on how bad the infraction was (1,3, or 5 points). Those then knocked you down from honor level 1 to honor level 2, 3, and 4. I think the scale was 0 points = Honor level 1, 1-10 = honor level 2, 11-20 honor level 3, >20 honor level 4. After two weeks of no infractions you got bumped back to level 1. Oh and the infraction that knocked you to level 2 resulted in 15 minute lunch detention, and every subsequent one resulted in 'lunch duty' which was cleaning tables during lunch.

 

What did the honor levels mean? Usually when we had convocations honor level 1 and 2 students got to go, and 3 and 4 would be 'punished' by missing out and getting stuck in a class room to watch movies or do school work or something. Once in a blue moon there would be a special reward for honor level 1 students only, like a candy bar or something.

 

The whole thing was incredibly stupid, and the best part was that each infraction slip could only get you a max of 5 points. So even if the teacher checked off 4 boxes worth 16 points (as happened to me a time or two) you still would just get 5 points.

I'll admit I earned most of the infractions I got, I did tend to talk alot, but there were a couple that were bullshit and really angered me. The one that comes to mind was when I walked into my 7th grade English class and saw on the agenda that we were watching "Freaky Friday." It's like 4 minutes before class starts, barely anyone is in the room yet, and all I say is "aww Freaky Friday I hate that movie." And it wasn't like I yelled it or anything, I said it to myself more than anything. BOOM teacher hears me and it's a quadruple infraction. Thou shalt not bitch about shitty movies I guess.

 

 

 

[Twisted Intestine 0]

My Jr. high was grade 7 and 8. Grade 8 I smoked pot and cigerettes for the first time. There was a safeways down the road, that I remember skipping school and hanging out in. I've always thought that I only smoked pot once in grade 8, but now that I'm thinking about it, I remember being high alot more than one time. I had a creepy Geography teacher who was always looking down the girl's shirts in class. One time me and my friends went there high, and he caught on and made me read like 5 pages out of the text book... I pulled through. My home room teacher always turned every project into something art related, and my friend would bitch about that, because he hated art.

 

Grade 7... Not much. I think I had a hot teacher for one class, but that's all I really remember about that year.

[Maztinho 0]

I got into a heated argument with a student teacher in 8th grade because his essay question on his Civil War test was worded like shit.

 

"How would the United States be different if the South had won?"

 

Or something similar to that effect.

 

I went off on how the South would have formed their own country successfully succeeding from the North (Confederate States of America) and would form an alliance with the Spanish and Mexico while the North would grow closer to France and England due to Canada. Prolonged skirmishes over westward expansion would occur and every little piece of land would be fought over.

 

An eventual truce would be forged to stop the blood shed, but we'd be bitter rivals in sports, technological advances, etc. Essentially the CSA would be along time Soviet Russia style rival to the USA.

 

A radical sect from either side would go IRA on the other and terrorism would be common even in these modern times.

 

That was the jist of my answer and I got a freakin 3 out 50 points on it. A THREE! I asked him why, and he said, "You didn't answer the question properly, I asked what would happen if the South had won."

 

"The South wanted out, they never once made an offensive move to the North. All the battles where fought below the Mason-Dixon, maybe if the South had won a few they'd have gone on the attack, but their whole goal was to leave."

 

"Well you didn't answer the question properly."

 

"You worded it so open ended that anything that follows logic and reason is right."

 

I finally told him he couldn't teach worth a damn and went to the regular teacher the next day (She was out of the class doing something when the war went down). She was from Georgia and instantly took up my cause, and I got an A on the test instead of the D- I was getting because he was a douche about the Essay question worth half the test result. (Let it be noted that on the multiple choice and matching area I missed one question so the Essay fucked my grade over big time)

 

Also in middle school my Amazonian councilor didn't want to let me into Pre-Algebra eventhough my math teacher said I was too advanced for the class I was defaulted into because I mismarked something on my sign up. She did this based purely off of one semesters grade in Math from the 4th grade, which was a C+.

 

Amazonian Whore: I don't think you can handle the work load of Pre-Algebra.

 

My Mom: The teacher says that's the class he should be in.

 

Amazonian Whore: Well, based off his grades from elementary school, I'm concerned.

 

Me: Oh, you mean when I never handed in my homework, but still got A's on all the tests?

 

Amazonian Whore: I find that hard to believe.

 

Me: I'll go get Ms. King to write you a letter. I never scored below a 89 on any math test.

 

Amazonian Whore: I'm really against this.

 

My Mom: Well, the person paid to evaluate my sons math knowledge thinks he can handle being in that class, so I want him in that class.

 

Amazonian Whore: What if he falls behind?

 

My Mom: Then move him back next semester.

 

The Whore finally relented, and I got into Pre-Algebra, but for the first two months she'd talk with me and my teacher every three days or so until Mr. Clemente just told her to leave me alone since I was in the top ten percent in the class and she was wasting his time.

[Smartly Pretty 0]

I wouldn't wear athletic shorts in middle school out of fear of a public erection.

[Damaramu 0]

I remember middle school. It was 7-9 for me. It's what started my descent into the "fat" years that I'm still trying to break out of.

 

I was fairly in shape, because I was a wirey kid that was always on the go.

 

Well I go to seventh grade and I was playing football and wrestling then I met my best friend for the next 3 years named Elijah. He was this fat little kid with long hair that played guitar. We started hanging and I quit playing sports and got into music and started learning to play guitar and all I really ever did was eat, hang out and watch TV. Never really did a whole lot.

 

Then he started getting me into smoking and what not. Nowadays I don't smoke pot, but I really don't see any problem with anyone doing it. Back then I thought it was like the devil's work or something, but after some convincing I started doing it. It just made me lazier and fatter really.

 

So we get to high school and he breaks into my moms drawer (looking for rolling papers, because he thought for some reason my parents may have them) and goes through her stuff when I'm asleep(and my parents aren't home) and my parents can tell someone was in there and everyone gets in trouble and we aren't allowed to hang anymore.

 

Since we can't really hang out outside of school we slowly fall apart and in 10th grade I begin to hang out with my group of friends that I'm with now. None of them smoked and all of them were just pretty big nerds. So I hung out with my nerdy friends and that didn't really inspire me to get into shape either. lol. So I still didn't play any high school sports and as a result I never had a date in Jr. High or HS and was made fun of a lot for being fat. But, that still didn't really inspire me to get in shape.

 

Funny thing, the reason I started working out and trying to get into shape (which has been a 5 year process for me b/c i eat shitty food and can't seem to stay dedicated) was because I got heavy back into watching sports and I was like "Well that guy's all in shape and I'm a big fat dumpy guy". That and wanting to meet chicks in college probably helped with that too. But, because I spent all of Jr. High getting stoned and all of high school playing video games I didn't really know how to talk to girls. So college was a fun learning experience filled with much trouble, but I guess it worked out.

 

Of course I think back to my eating habits in HS and the beginning of college and I realize that I sure did eat like a pig. I think at my heaviest I got to like 295. I never quite broke the 300 barrier. Now I'm at like 255 and I seem to be stuck here.

[strummer 0]

I'm with you Smues, 7th and 8th grade (which were two years in middle school) were the two worst years of my life, BY FAR. I don't want to even recall any memories as they bring back nothing but pain.

 

I will agree with what Jingus said in the elementary school thread, I cannot, under any circumstances, trust anyone who said they liked middle school.

[Guest Smues]

Our school, for whatever reason, must have been flush with cash because it seemed like every other week we paid some anti-drug group to come to the gym and tell us that drugs are bad. I'm not really exagerating here. A couple were not awful, like Powerteam USA, but most were awful. And even the Powerteam was annoying because they did their feat of strength shit for 30 minutes, and then talked for an hour about not doing drugs and safe sex and such. The smart way to do it would be strength shit for 25 minutes, talk for an hour, then end with one last awesome strength demonstration, so as to at least keep you awake waiting for that. But no, once they stopped it was just blah blah blah don't do drugs for an hour. And that was one of the ok groups.

 

Another DON'T DO DRUGS MMM-KAY performance was this laser light show where they used lasers to show some story of a kid being pressured to do drugs. I don't remember a lot about the story itself, but what I remember was there would be 2-3 minutes of plot, and then the lasers would just dance all over the place while a song played. The one I specifically remember was FREE YOUR MIND, THE REST WILL FOLLOW as the lasers did random trippy things. All I could think was "Damn this sucks, but I bet if you were on drugs it would look AWESOME."

 

One day they bussed everyone from our school and a couple of others to the Spokane Arena to listen to some (I'd assume) former Dallas Cowboys talk about their drug use and DON'T DO DRUGS. I thought it was stupid so I got my mom to take me home with the lie that I was going to the dentist. Oh, and I got in trouble for making some snide comment about listening to a bunch of millionaire crack heads tell us not to do drugs.

 

And the worst, the ABSOLUTE WORST was the anti-drug interpretive dance. I am not making this shit up, and they came both years I was at school. I've done the best I can to block this shit out of my mind, but some of it remains. Basically it was this dance troupe that spent an hour or two using interpretive dance to show you why drugs are bad. The only dance I specifically remember was this one where all the male dancers put on T-shirts that have drug names on them. So you've got a guy with a shirt that says METH, one that says CRACK, and a few others I'm forgetting. The female dancer shows her decent into drug use as she dances closely with all the drugs. Eventually she overcomes her addiction and throws the drug dancers off of her one by one. It wasn't as stupid as it sounds, it was much, much worse.

[Nighthawk 0]

That's where it all started going downhill for me.

 

Central Florida goth... kinda like the movie Bully, except more Marilyn Manson and less Charlie Manson (still plenty of both, though). A bunch of kids trying to out-fucked up each other, things just snowballed at an alarming speed.

[strummer 0]

In 8th grade we had this ex Green Bay Packer from the 60s championship teams give a motivational speech and tell us to not drink or do drugs. He was so depressing that he just sucked the life right out of the auditorium. He was a recovering alcholic, his sister and father were both alcholics who committed suicide and his son was hooked on drugs. Do this day I question the point of it as he just basically told his life story with every grim detail and gave no advice or motivation whatsoever.

[BruteSquad_BRODY 0]

I masturbated in the bathroom constantly in middle school.

I skipped lunch every day to play basketball or catch (depending on a season) with a teacher who was suspected of being gay.

I went to several school dances, and my "friends" ignored me and my real friends understood they were losers and didn't bother going. I made up for my lack of people willing to talk to me by 1st bringing a treasure troll to dance with during the slow dance, during the 2nd dance I went to I brought a female doll. I also used the dark gym to rub aganist lots of girls and cop lots of feels. I guess this was the begining of my mental perversion stage I've never gotten out of.

 

In a high school study hall we were unsupervised so everyday became pick on Andrew day. Actually 2-3 kids got picked on but they wised up and transfered classes. So it was me vs a room full of jocks. They would take my shoes , and either toss them up on high shelves in the metal shop, or take saw dust and fill them up, or just generally berate me. One guy actually plucked his pubes and rubbed them on my face. I slowly tried getting revenge. One time as they tried to pry my shoes off I had a baggie full of pepper ready and tossed it into one of their eyes...another day I got fed up with it and sucker punched our school's starting RB in the back of the head. He vowed revenge and a day or 2 later sucker punched me back, but the fucking idiot did it in the middle of the main busy hallway about 10 feet from where our principal was standing. Then I had to tell the whole tale, he offered suspensions, I balked and I think he just dished out detentions, and we all went right back into study hall to resume status quo. The RB and I actually became friends after, and he even wanted me to come and party with the "cool" kids but I declined.

 

I had an ungoing feud with a large gay student who knew I was scared of his cock so he would whip it out in the hall way and play with it and try to touch me with it.

 

Another set of kids picked on me every morning before school as a freshmen. They would spit on me and every thing, I went back every day because I figured it was better to be seen with people than to sit alone somewhere. One day a young looking teacher saw what they were doing and told them to stop. They thought he was just a seinor so they told him to fuck off. Detentions abounded!

 

Lots more stories where that came from.....

[Guest]

Middle school was great. I got in a few fights, but nothing really notable. I pushed a guy into a ditch and broke his arm because he was throwing rocks at me.

 

Despite that incident, I was a nice guy. I didn't make fun of people, and nobody would make fun of me. Unfortunately, nice guys finish last. I don't talk to a single person from middle school, or high school, despite living down the street from both. That bothers me. Nobody else made the effort to keep in contact with me, despite me trying my best. I eventually stopped calling people.

 

I kinda went off topic there. Anyway, high school was much worse than middle school.

[spman 0]

I pretty much blame all my mental and emotional problems that I suffer from today back to the years comprising 6th thru 8th grade. It was that point in time before Columbine led to zero tolerance policies, and police officers patrolling the halls, but they were still at the tail end of that Politically Correct counseling not punishment bullshit where bullies just got a stern lecture from the principal, or in school suspension that was a glorified vacation rather than getting kicked out of school where they belonged. Dipshitted assholes went out of their way to make my life miserable, and I didn't do anything to stop it when I had the chance. The few times I did try and stick up for myself, everyone either plead the fifth, or tried to levy blame on me, and who would end up getting in trouble? Me of course, since you can't really argue against a handful of lying pricks claiming I instigated anything compared to one person attesting to be the victim.

 

This pretty much shaped my personality into the loner I remain today. I neglected school work, got mostly D's and C's, and buried myself in television and video games. I was forced into guidance counseling because I was deemed anti-social, a label that pretty much followed me through high school. The anti-social thing eventually became a self fulfilling prophecy as even to this day I'm naturally skeptical of the intentions of everybody and always assume the worst, so I don't even bother to be the least bit outgoing as a result. I've been considering, as of late, seeing a psychologist to try and overcome this problem so that maybe I can perhaps meet more girls, have healthy relationships, and perhaps move on, but as it currently stands, middle school ruined my life.

[Timmy8271 0]

Yeah middle school was worthless. I'm pretty sure it was those years that this douche kid kept stealing my lunch money every day for about 6 months. I missed a lot of school but still got honor roll. These were the days when my Porn addiction started and I thought of all women as sexual objects. Eh who am I kidding, I still do but that's going off topic.

 

High School was the best years of my life so far. 9th grade was a little rough where I got made fun of but people realised that I would just laugh it off or hold it in and they stopped. I got pretty good grades and helped tons of people with homework and tests. If I did it for money, I would probably have made thousands of dollars. I did have some bad times like the time that I fell in the mud and had to go to class with my pants ruined. But I got to go home for the rest of the day so it was all good.

 

Another funny story that I really don't remember but my friend told me is junior year, We use to sit by a bunch of Senior Jocks. I guess they were playing and they threw a huge garbage pail and it landed on my head. I didn't feel a damn thing and kept eating my lunch.

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

I spent all of my days and nights fantasizing about sex and violence, experimenting with drugs, hating my father for absolutely no reason, and getting Cs in every class while being told all about my "potential." Got in fights after school constantly.

[Guest Desensitized]

I must be doing a bang-up job with repression, because I can't remember anything that was unbearably terrible about middle school. It just kinda sucked, the way a whole week of overcast skies and thunderstorms sucks. Most of the really bad school shit happened in the first two months + year at my new school, which was 4th and 5th.

 

I'll come back when I can remember September 1997-May 2000.

[sfaJack 0]

Junior high was 6-8 for us. It was not a horrible experience, though my extreme shyness made 6th grade tough because of the sheer size of my school was bascially tripled from 5th grade. My top stories from each year:

 

6th Grade:

Sex ed was part of science class, which was taught by the rather attractive Ms. Humphrey. Ms. Humphrey's then-boyfriend, Darryl, was in the Army; we knew this because she had him come visit us when he was on leave from Iraq during Desert Storm.

 

Anyway, during the lecture one day, the class clown, Daniel, raised his hand and asked, "Hey Ms. Humphrey, what does semen taste like?" After several awkward seconds of restrained giggling from the class and stunned silence from her, Ms. Humphrey said she didn't know.

 

Daniel replied, "Oh. Poor Darryl." I think he got suspended three days for it.

 

 

7th Grade:

I took wood shop as an elective. That was a big mistake because I don't have a single ounce of carpentry talent in my bones, though I was able to make my mom an easel to use in her classroom.

 

A fight broke out in class one day. One of the guys involved got kicked out of school for a month and was threatened with arrest because he used a dowel rod to break the other kid's nose before the teacher was able to break them up. It was a pretty shocking moment. The thud sound made when he hit the kid's nose was pretty impressive.

 

 

8th Grade:

The only really notable thing was that Ross Perot won our school's mock Election '92.

 

I do recall the excessive torture of one of the nerdy sixth graders by a semi-friend of mine in gym class--tossing his clothes in the shower, towel snapping; that sort of stupid shit.

 

Since I was a first period office aide, I got to escort former Houston Oilers' midget receiver Curtis Duncan to the gym for his anti-drug pep talk to the school. He signed a piece of copier paper for me, which I think I misplaced within a week. This was just days before their epic 32-point collapse against Buffalo.

[CBright7831 0]

Freshman year:

First Semester: Meh

Second Semester: Meh/Dont remember

 

Sophomore year:

First Semester: Did okay

Second Semester: Did great

 

Junior year:

First Semester: Did great

Second Semester: Struggled

 

Senior year:

First Semester: Did good

Second Semester: Did good

 

I think the two highlights of my HS career were from my senior year (last semester in 2004) when I won prom king and recieved a nice award for perfect attendance K-12. About 1/3 of my graduating class has kids and/or married now. I missed it for awhile (as seen in this thread from 2005) but now I've got new friends and while I havent graduated college yet and still have ways to go thnks to my break I took after high school, I can honestly say that I'm happy where I am at at the current moment.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Oh man, so much I could say. Really, though, the middle portion of my life's education really was not all that exciting. I went to a private elementary school (K-8), and it was pretty much as routine as it could get. Didn't do any drugs or anything like that...didn't really know anyone that did, other than a couple really loser kids that bragged about smoking a joint one time, or something. I was considered "smart", and a lot of times got ostracized a bit as a result, though I had enough friends, I guess.

 

In high school, I was still fairly shy, didn't even go on a date with a girl 'til I was about 16. Oh, that's actually kind of a funny story...

 

My friend's parents were out of town, and I went over to his place. We told my parents we were going golfing, and then I was going to stay over at his place. What we actually did was meet up with his girlfriend at the time, and a friend of hers, and we drove down to Six Flags, and had a blast. Drove back, dropped my "date" off, and then the three of us stayed over at his place that night. I made a call to her mom, claiming to be my friend's older cousin, and said I'd be supervising them. My parents never found out about this 'til a long time later. I don't know if his ever did.

 

Had my first beer around that same time, too. A lot of high school was just awkward and weird for me...I couldn't wait to get out by the end. I tended to get in a lot of fights, whether it was with jerks, friends, whoever. It basically got to the point where if someone bumped into me in a hallway or said something stupid, I'd decided that punching them in the stomach or tackling them and choking them 'til they were gasping for air was an easier response than bothering with a witty retort or something.

 

Yeah, college was definitely a lot better than that crap, though I don't miss being in school at all by this point.

[Guest Desensitized]

8th Grade:

The only really notable thing was that Ross Perot won our school's mock Election '92.

Dude, Ross Perot won everybody's mock election in 1992. I voted Perot in '92. Of course, I was in 1st grade. Shit, you're way older than I am.

 

I still can't come up with anything good from middle school. I know I was a shithead to my 8th grade social studies/math teacher, but I can't remember why, or what I said and did, just that I did something to earn the admiration of a cute half-Mexican girl once. And one time, a white trash girl lied to the teacher and said I was rude to a sub, which would've been two detentions, but it never happened and I said it couldn't be proven, she agreed, so I took the detention slip and ripped it up and threw it in the garbage really drama-queen-like.

 

Yeah, I'm pretty sure nothing interesting happened.

 

EDIT: Wait, I was rude to the sub. She kept saying "mayzhure" instead of "measure" and this other guy and I would go "we have to WHAT?" and play dumb.

[sfaJack 0]

It's true that Perot won everyone's mock elections in '92, so maybe it's not that noteworty. Remember though that I was going to school in the very heart of George H. W. Bush country--we've even named our big airport after him and his Presidential library is 90 minutes away--so from that perspective, it was surprising.

[the max 0]

5th grade: Had probably the worst assholish teacher I ever had. For whatever reason, he really didn't like me. I got horrible grades from him, which sucked because he was my english and history teacher. I don't know how other schools were, but we had a three teacher "team" based on where the homerooms were. The three teachers would trade classes within the team, each teacher being responsible for one or two subjects. Well, I had this guy for english and history, two subjects I was (and still am) good with. I remember we had to write stories, any kind of stories, they had to be two pages hand-written. There were no other guidelines except that they obviously had to be written properly as far as spelling, punctuation and grammar. Well this one time, I wrote this fantastic four page story about a superhero who got his powers from drinking soda from a special soda machine, his powers depended on what kind of soda he drank from it. It was awesome for a fifth-grader who was nine years old. He basically graded it like a fucking high school term paper, gave me a C- for being too wordy and "not following directions". I don't think I said a word for the rest of the day. My mom told me during the summer that he was probably being hard on me to "push me harder to do better" which makes sense NOW, but to a nine year old, I don't think that makes much sense.

 

6th grade: More of the same since I had the same three teacher team, now all even more cranky.

 

7th grade: Had a two teacher team, with a brand-new teacher, fresh out of college and a cranky old bitty stuck in her ways who I think talked to my fifth/sixth grade nemesis because she was just as hard on me. Her favorite thing to do was send me to the office. For anything. Talking out of turn? Office. No warning. Stay there for the period. Forgot homework? Office. And so on. It got to the point where the secretaries would just plan to use me as an office aid for most of the day, delivering notes, attendance reports and so on. Not surprisingly I failed most of her classes, still don't know how I passed to eighth grade.

 

8th grade: We moved from the school built in 1912 with walls and ceilings falling down to the brand new, state of the art school. We moved in March. We got out of school in June. So, for three months, we got to enjoy it all. Cruel. Very cruel. Highlight of eighth grade was writing a comedic pro-Confederate Civil War play for a history assignment that featured numerous prat falls and off-color jokes about Lincoln and the north. It ended when the Confederacy actually won the war handily, turning numerous Union soldiers, generals and even Lincoln's vice president into Confederate supporters. However, the Confederate's downfall was their love of moonshine which the Union used to get them all hammered and sign the Appomattox papers. We all (the group) ended up getting a B because our play was the best-written and most original, but we weren't allowed to perform it at the big recital that they had for us. I'm still surprised at the grade because there was very little historically accurate about it, outside of us throwing in a date or name every once in a while. It was a complete farce in a The Producers sort of way. We expected it to fail but it ended up being successful. I heard that the teacher kept it and showed it to some of her later classes, and a friend of mine from high school who went on to teach at that middle school after college said that it was shown to him during his first month there. I wish I still had a copy of it, because for a 12 year old eighth grader it was phenominally written.

[NoCalMike 0]

My Junior High years were relatively normal but I do have a few random observations from my memories;

 

- Why did teachers all the sudden start pronouncing the word "Mature" as "Matoor" I mean I know it is a acceptable alternative, but it was like all of the sudden teachers felt the students could handle this new different way to say words.

 

-A lot of girls were just starting to blossom in their chest region and it seemed they had the tendency to look down their own shirts even more then guys were looking, like they had to keep assuring themselves that their boobs were still growing or they were just so excited to finally be getting boobs......(maybe a chick could enlighten me on this one)

 

-There seemed to be even more bullshitting going on in junior high than highschool when it came to what so-and-so did with who, who did this, who did that etc etc etc.....

 

Ok more to come but I am work so I gotta go....

[PUT THAT DICK IN MY MOUTH! 0]

8th Grade:

The only really notable thing was that Ross Perot won our school's mock Election '92.

Dude, Ross Perot won everybody's mock election in 1992. I voted Perot in '92. Of course, I was in 1st grade. Shit, you're way older than I am.

 

I don't remember who won ours, but I do remember that I voted for Clinton/Gore because of Al Gore's youthful energy and boyish good looks. I was a weird five year old.

[AnnieEclectic 0]

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

 

Leave? I'M STILL FUCKING THERE! Only now I work there.

 

How did Annie's JHS experience go? Pfft -

 

Grade Six:

 

In grade six (back then) only kids from the town proper would go, in 7th you got the influx of the six surrounding towns. I remember very little about grade six other than a couple notes:

 

1) To prevent a bully from beating me up, I took the "I'mma gonna outscare you" approach and reapeatedly would headbutt my locker (still dented to this day) and scream at the kid "YOU REALLY WANNA GO AGAINST ME?" It worked. He ran.

 

I can accept this because we were both idiotic kids and therefore idiocy wins out.

 

2) I fantasized every day about being the redheaded girl next to me in homeroom. Nothing perverted really, the honest truth is the previous sentence just as stated. Thinking about how cool it would be to wake up, be able to wear girl's clothes and go to school as a girl. Somehow the concept of "becoming a woman" didn't ever click at the time, I just thought I was weird.

 

I know I'm weird, but now I have much better reasons.

 

 

 

Grade Seven:

 

This is when it allllll really started to suck. Thanks to the combined effects of:

 

a) illicit drugs

b) realizing WHY I was thinking about how living as a girl would work

c) losing lots of friends, and socially shacking up with the drugged out retards

 

I remember maybe 2 days of grade seven. However one of those days was too memorable for even drugs to knock out of the ol' beanbox.

 

We didn't know it, but the assistant principal who was subbing for our study hall had cancer treatment, causing some removal of flesh. Of course, how're you to know that unless said flesh was a finger, arm or leg, right?

 

So my friend who didn't like her to start with, gets up in the silent classroom and sharpens his pencil. And sharpens. And sharpens.

 

After a good 3 minutes of filing he sits back down next to me. She's reading a book at the front of the class, not really paying much attention. So my friend WHIPS the pencil at her and got lucky - straight on the nipple.

 

It sunk in. a good 3 inches too! We just stared except for the woman, who kept reading her book. She hadn't noticed because there was just styrofoam in there.

 

After five minutes of us silently gawking (of course we were just silently bored before) she glances down, realizes, calmly pulls it out and places it down without a sound. Creepiest fucking study hall of my life.

 

 

 

Grade Eight:

 

Minus the story, same verse as above. Around the end of grade 8 I realized "Hey, grades are going to count soon" and put down the pipe. I remember trying to pick a fight with a kid (for those who know me IRL, yeah... really, I did try to pick a physical fight. Blind squirrel and nut, I guess) who wimped out (he obv. didn't know me well enough). Another kid didn't get the invite. I walked out of school, heard this idiot kid pick on me for the 238957394875th time as he leaned against the entrance. Next thing I remember he's a foot in the air hanging by his throat... and my hand.

 

That was the scariest feeling ever. EVER. I've had times when I honestly thought I'd be shut out from transitioning, times when I thought I was going to die, and times when I thought I had lost my mind.

 

NEVER did I feel as scared for myself and others as after that incident. I don't even know how long he was up there but I'm hoping mere seconds. He never messed with me again, safe to say. Now you know why I'm a pacifist.

 

 

Grades... 19 and 20? (i.e. am I really eight years out of high school?)

 

Here I am, working IT for the exact same school I left 10 years prior. It's a trippy experience that has, oddly, allowed me to exorcise some of the trans-related demons in my head. How? Because 'normal' kids are getting the exact same shit I got, and now I get to be the one faculty member that listens and gives a bit of advice on how to deal. Or survive, as the case may be. If any of these kids are like me, at least my hope is they'll have a bit of a less fucked up experience here than I did.

 

That's all I can do. That, and fix broken computers.

 

Still - I'm amazed I haven't gotten fired. I haven't done anything to deserve it, but as a transsexual lesbian atheist in a public school I feel... out of place here. Then again I felt like that the first run through so I signed up for one more (last) year here before I know I move to greener pastures. Hopefully somewhere without kids. :/

 

 

[King Kamala 0]

8th Grade:

The only really notable thing was that Ross Perot won our school's mock Election '92.

Dude, Ross Perot won everybody's mock election in 1992. I voted Perot in '92. Of course, I was in 1st grade. Shit, you're way older than I am.

 

I don't remember who won ours, but I do remember that I voted for Clinton/Gore because of Al Gore's youthful energy and boyish good looks. I was a weird five year old.

 

 

I wasn't yet in '92 but Ross Perot came in a close 2nd place in my 2nd grade class' mock election in '96. I led the Perot contingent because he looked goofy. In our 6th grade mock election, Ralph Nader got in 2nd place over Bush. And in the '04 high school mock election, my younger brother's campaigning (and bribary) gave the Libertarian candidate 3rd place.

 

Much like Czech, I've kind of repressed a lot of my middle school memories. I know I have some mildly amusing anecdotes but I just can't think of them right now.

[Guest Smues]

For me 4th grade was Clinton/Bush/Ferangi and I remember clearly that Clinton won by 1 vote. I had voted for Clinton because ... I don't remember why, and i remember thinking that if I had voted for Bush he would have won, and had I voted for Perot it would have ended in a tie. 8th and 12th grades i don't thinkwe did a mock vote, and if we did I don't remember them. I do remember in Kindergarten our school overwhelming voted for Bush, but I really had no concept of the presidential election at that point in time.

 

 

[CanadianChris 0]

I didn't go to an actual middle school, but I've tried to block out the 7th and 8th grades, for the most part. I had the triple crown of taunting working against me -- I was the new kid, I wore glasses, and I was in enrichment classes.

[JHawk 0]

2) I fantasized every day about being the redheaded girl next to me in homeroom. Nothing perverted really, the honest truth is the previous sentence just as stated. Thinking about how cool it would be to wake up, be able to wear girl's clothes and go to school as a girl. Somehow the concept of "becoming a woman" didn't ever click at the time, I just thought I was weird.

See, I had those thoughts for about two minutes in middle school. Then I realized I'd end up playing with my breasts all day and moved on.

[MFer 0]

There weren't many memorable moments for me in middle school (which was a Catholic school, BTW). Every level of school I've been the quiet, loner guy, so nothing really changed. The most notable thing I did was hit some kid in 8th grade for making fun of me during a class overnight trip (and scared off others in the process). Also, 8th grade was when I started to slack off and become a major procrastinator in school.

 

Question for the forum...did you guys have dances in middle school/junior high? We had several each year (either at my school, or at one of the other Catholic schools). Of course we had just as much "freak dancing" (as we called it back then) and hip-hop music as any public school (although my school was kinda strict with the teacher supervision). Usually there was some bullshit drama going on, but I had no part of any of that.

[Danville_Wrestling 0]

8th Grade:

The only really notable thing was that Ross Perot won our school's mock Election '92.

Dude, Ross Perot won everybody's mock election in 1992.

 

Well, and this should probably have been linked up with the elementary thread but I'll quickly put it here, Perot finished dead last in our mock election in 1st grade. I think he got like 2 votes. I voted for Bush because my parents liked him so I got biased commentary during the debates. I remember watching that first debate between them in 1992 and being very engaged in it. I guess that's where my interest in politics began. Anyway, Clinton won by a LANDSLIDE (did the same in '96) but then again, my class was like 55-60% black and they all voted as a block for Clinton, just like the real world I guess. It astonishes me that an ethnic group votes like that en masse but hey, Clinton was cool for the kids with the saxophone bit.

 

As far as middle school goes....

 

Sixth Grade:

 

I absolutley hated sixth grade, I mean I absolutley hated it. We had six periods but only 3-4 teachers because they did some dumb schedule idea where a math or science teacher would teach BOTH math/science or a social studies or English teacher would be both social studies/english. This was horrible because the science teachers didn't want to teach math and vice versa. Coming in as a straight A student from elementary school I thought I was something and didn't do as much work/put as much effort into things as I could so I still got lots of A's but then also started to get B's in science until 4th nine weeks when I just quit paying attention and landed a C in science (the only C I got on a report card grades 4-college). My parents about killed me over that.

 

I also remember in Home Economics class I had to do lots of sewing and I hated that too. Some of these kids (boys and girls alike) just flew through it but I'm so dexterically challenged that I didn't even know where to begin. How I ended up with an A on that unit that lasted about 2 months I'll never know. I also remember having a TERRIBLE Drama teacher because the Shop teacher got fired in the middle of that year. She had no classroom management at all and was very afraid of students who caused trouble so she'd do nothing to them as they ran around the class, cursed and screamed, etc. but god forbid a good student like myself would whisper in class because we got the book thrown at us. I still remember being sent to the office because ANOTHER STUDENT pushed me into a set of desks and I almost broke my neck. Never made sense to me then and will never make sense to me. Only time I ever got sent to the office for something bad.

 

The only highlight of the year was this Christian band from South Africa came and played in the gym. Looking back, I have NO idea how the school got away with having these guys come in and preach the gospel but it was my favorite assembly in middle school. They had some catchy songs and good rhythms and I still remember a lot of them to this day. Too bad I don't remember their names or anything.

 

Seventh Grade:

 

As much as I hated sixth grade, I LOVED seventh grade. Before the school year started I came to the conclusion that it was time to put my nose to the grindstone in classes. Not sure what really led me to this decision but the work ethic I decided to put into schoolwork beginning on the first day of seventh grade has carried over for the rest of my life.

 

The only class that gave me lots of trouble was Pre-Algebra. We had a older teacher who was a very nice lady but the tests were very high stress. You had homework each night but all of it was only worth 4-5 points. However, the tests were worth like 50. So do the math and you can understand that if you don't do well on the tests then you bomb the class. I struggled early on because it was like I had to learn math all over again after I kinda took a year off in sixth grade. I got B's for the first 3 nine weeks in there, with my average steadily climbing from an 82 to a 86 to an 88 and then the last nine weeks I got an 89.5 and she rounded it to an A. To this day I think she gave me the extra .5 just because she saw I was doing everything I could to get an A so she just gave it to me. However, getting an A in there for that 4th nine weeks made me feel like I won the lottery. The B that I got in there in the third nine weeks was the very LAST B I ever got in school. Straight A's in 8th, straight A's in high school, and then straight A's in college. So I'll always remember that class for giving me a good work ethic/study habits and because it was my last B. Unfortunately, the teacher that I had (who I didn't like at first but she grew on me to the point that now I think she was one of the best teachers I ever had) battled cancer off and on and passed away several years ago. Very sad, especially because no one at the district has done anything to honor her since.

 

Academics aside, I loved 7th grade because I got to work in the library the last 9 weeks of school which was party time. I love organizing things so I was in my element in the library. Also, we had an Accelerated Reader program that you got points for reading and taking tests on books and at the very end of the year we got a trip to Lexington and got to go to the mall and went to the University of Kentucky for a tour. Great way to spend the day with a lot of my friends, we spent most of our time in the mall playing the Smackdown! 2 game for Playstation and then checking out wrestling magazines (I think I got one of the WOW magazines, loved those things). Also, our academic team qualified to state for the first time ever and we made a run to the quarter-finals before we lost to a team from Paducah so that was a good memory. Finally, I fell head over heels for this girl that was in my honors classes and still have feelings for her to this day but she never would go out with me due to what happened in eighth grade...

 

Eighth Grade:

 

Eighth grade was so easy it was a joke. Our school was going through a lot of construction so it was a weird year but none of my classes ever stressed me out on the level my seventh grade ones did. I remember my Honors English teacher had no control over the classroom and I got the English award at the end of the year I think because I was the only person who didn't give her grief. That class was also the site of where people kept clowning on me for liking the girl I liked in 7th grade and she eventually got pissed @ hearing it and I think that convinced her never to go out with me. To this day I don't know why she didn't because we had a lot of stuff in common and had the same interests but I think she just got a bad impression of me based on those jackasses. Plus, not having a lot of experience with women I was socially awkward so I can see why she never wanted to go out with me.

 

The big thing I remember from eighth grade was that my social studies teacher, who was a great guy, had me enter a Daughters of the American Revolution essay contest. We had to do an obituary of George Washington and believe me, I researched the hell out of that thing and made a very good obituary. I won the local contest and went to read it and the other 2 people in the top 3 read theirs and it was BORING. They didn't write obituaries as much as whole biographical profiles. I was like "where's the competition?" However, didn't do anything @ the state level which made me mad but whatever.