When I was a kid I really looked forward to going to junior high. By the time I got there, though, the name had been abandoned for middle school, which took all of the mystique and wonder out of the whole affair. I arrived there with a 2.1 mile commute on a bicycle vaguely too large for me, off the heels of winning the seemingly prestigious Kiwanis award for my fifth grade class. I was never gifted or even felt particularly bright, but I did coast along with due effort for some time. I feel this all changed during the year represented in this picture. I was in sixth grade, headed toward seventh, crushing on my first year Reading teacher and in my debut semester playing alto saxophone in the school band.
Seventh grade would be the year my grades, social life, and happiness would take a nosedive. Coincidentally it was also the year I got braces and stopped following in my big brother's footsteps and found a passion for filmmaking and writing. In my spare time I was listening to classic rock, writing science fiction short stories, devouring American Movie Classics and head over heels for a girl named Kelly, who my good friend stole out from under my hormonal gaze.
7th grade is the year i got braces too. I guess I should be thankful I was socially retarded and terrified of boys, or else i might have been completely aware of how terrible they looked on me. :) although the thought of you with braces makes me want to slow dance to "crazy for you" by madonna and maybe try to push my curfew from 8 to 9 that night.
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