Middle School

I grew up going to a Catholic middle school. This has its own list of pros and cons. Mass every Wednesday and Sunday, uniforms, being one of the few students of color. It was an interesting slice of people. I think it shaped me well with some of the more stringent values I have developed, but also had some things that felt more implanted that I would later on in life, want to tease out and wrestle with before pronouncing as truth.

In the grand scheme of things, a lot of my personality and being comes from my later years where I am more developed and have more autonomy over my decisions. However, I still feel like it was important enough to reflect/write about it here.

It was at St. Mary’s where I met a teacher who called me on my bullsh*t but also helped me grow the most.

It was my first introduction to “tough love.” 

(I can detail the Spanish anecdote more later)

Dances:

Jeez, dude. You are an adult now, why are you even writing about this?

Because I LOVED middle school dances…for the most part haha

It was, before I knew it, “the great unknown”

Who is going to dance with a girl? Who else from the other Catholic middle schools is going to be there?

What girls are you going to TALK to?

And most importantly…who’s parents were driving us to and fro…and what Gabriel Iglesias standup would we watch and cry laughing too on the way home.

I guess I put this here because I want to laugh. I want to remember the joy and weight I had put into middle school dances. 

I really did have a lot of fun.

9.2/10

Battle of the Books: 

Ahhh yes. Books.

At a young age, I was told over and over that books were important. “Readers are Leaders” “something else” “etc.. you get the gist.” I think that I knew that I needed to read…but I just was interested in other things. (Detail this).

To give some background, BotB was an organization that curated a large list of books that teams of students would then have to read compete against other teams of students by answering questions that a panel of judges would ask about each of the books…my fuzzy memory tells me that the book list was over 100 books long…my acute memory tells me that I read less than 5 of the books in my 2 year seasons. 

I feel like I don’t have too much to say here, other than I pretended to read a lot of books on middle school lol

On the bright side, I do think it helped my problem-solving/B.S. brain grow…I remember looking at the list of books, somehow figuring out what was the most popular // most likely to be asked about…and then memorizing a few key facts so that if they asked any question pertaining to my handful of facts I was knowledgeable on…I would be able to gain some points…

Ultimately, this strategy proved minimally viable.

8.1/10

The B-Team:

Growing up, I played all sports. Football, Basketball, Baseball, you name it. The sport that attracted me the most, however, was soccer. Honestly, it was because I was the best at it. My combination of speed and agility (and also lack of height and weight), made me the optimal candidate. After graduating from our DYAA Rec League, the opportunity of playing at the “club” level, became a possibility. The possibility that I could go to a multi-day “tryout” where my skills would be put to the test and judged in a way that would place me on a certain team. The A-team. Or the B Team.

That possibly turned into reality- most likely because we had enough players try-out so that we had two full teams.

It felt like a big deal back then. I remember taking tryouts and the care of my body so seriously. (Maybe even more seriously than I do now lol)

The TL;DR of this part of my life is that for 3 or so years I tried out…and 3 years I was placed on the B-team. 

Now don’t get me wrong, I loved the B-team. I made some great friends (some of which I am still friends with today), played some great games, and overall it was needed in my development. 

(Honestly, writing all this down shows me that even at a young age I put a lot of pressure on myself to keep trying to “Achieve” or get to “the next thing/level”...I think this is also where my -ardor- for competition and being the best began to flourish …Keep an eye on this trope throughout my timeline)

9.3/10

Student Office:  Class Pres or VP?

Ahhh yes. A position that I ran for as a meme before memes were birthed to existence.

Looking back…and during…I knew that I wasn’t a ~cool~ kid. Although I tried to be sometimes..a lot.

I tried my best to be nice to people (and yes, I definitely had my fair share of just being a jerk…in middle school and even now). But this all culminates into me Running for class president and then having to give a speech at graduation. 

In front of a full church!

Again, at the time, I remember this being the peak of my stress and anxiety. 

Luckily, though some procrastination and the deadline approached. I typed up some sort of speech and said some sort of amalgamation of words on a podium. 

I’ll try to find a screen grab or even the video…it was something else. 

Again, reflecting back, this was the beginning of my journey of searching for the uncomfortable- and also maybe a slight high that comes from titles and prestige.

7.9/10