Junior High
After middle school, 7th and 8th grade was pretty…boring. I kept to myself and didn’t have too many friends. I was known as a “good kid” and got good grades. I remember playing outside a lot. At some point, I box-dyed my hair blonde and tried crimping it. Hilary Duff became my idol and I joined the middle school choir.
It was around this age where I was obsessively on AOL and AIM, I remember one girl getting mad that I “copied her username” by making mine jerseygirl01. How original. I was obsessed with Limewire and Napster, recording radio songs on cassette tapes, doing dance scenes with my neighborhood friends, and listening to Radio Disney. They played The Middle by Jimmy Eat World WAY too much.
High School
As you can see here, my teen angst is showing. I remember being super quiet from elementary school to middle school, and high school was a game changer. First off, we are now entering the Myspace era. These are the nights of obsessively updating your AIM status, designing your Myspace profile, and refreshing Purevolume for new bands. I started wearing fishnets on my arms and shirts that said fo shizzle on them in an attempt to have a style or something. Wavy hair was in, gel was my best friend, and Strawberry Wine was my go-to karaoke song.
I started actively talking and stopped being super emo in 10th grade when I became better friends with the choir/theatre kids. And yeah, I sorta became one, too. I started opening up in general, and around 2005 I became pretty obsessed with going to shows. Technically my first show was Hilary Duff in Tampa in 2003, but in August 2005 I saw my first “rock” show, with bands like Acceptance and Panic! At The Disco.
Overall, I had a pretty good high school experience. I got good grades and got into AP classes and on honor roll. I kept up with choir/drama club and those friends. I continued to obsessively read, blogged on Livejournal and wrote poetry in my B&N journal, and picked up photography as a hobby. I was always planning a concert to go to in Philly with my friends. I started thinking about majoring in literature or photography for college (and ended up doing both).
