Pod Cast: Middle School

Middle School.... we all hated those most awkward, most embarrassing three years of our lives. We all started maturing (in ways we weren't exactly comfortable with). We started to notice the shy boy in the back of the classroom because his voice would crack every five words he said, leaving him completely mortified. Ladies, well this was the time for us to start on our very strict schedule about keeping up with personal hygiene. (Guys, us girls didn't mind the upkeep of personal hygiene, either.) And just when we thought entering a school full of a thousand students with unfamiliar faces was bad enough, we realized we had to worry about middle school dances. 

The audio clip starts out with Ira Glass interviews 14 year old Annie, asking why she to thought This American Life should do a segment over Middle School. When Ira Glass asks her why she signs the letter as "anonymous," she says it's so that she won't get made fun of at school in case anyone hears her on the radio. She later explains that middle school is an awkward time for everyone, and how it's not her favorite time in her life. Later on in the clip, Glass interviews a boy named Ethan, who is a shy boy who had no idea what to expect during the dance. He wanted a slow dance, but later talks about how he doesn't know how to dance and is afraid he won't do it "correctly." He just wanted to fit in with the other kids at the dance; he just wanted to be normal. Autumn, a seventh grader, talks about how she is too nice to tell the FIVE boys who asked her to the dance that she only wants to go to the dance to have fun with her girl friends. Lastly, my favorite part of the segment, a boy explains how he just recently started dating this girl. Unlike what we all would assume, the girl was one to ask him out, asking, "Chris, will you go out with me?" Just for your personal information, they've been dating for approximately twenty minutes. 

Junior High was really a silly time period for every adolescent, and we all assumed none of our peers were going through what we were going through... man, were we wrong. Like mentioned in the podcast, every little "event" that happened at school might as well have made the top news on AOL.com, because that's how fast and how exaggerated every bit of information turned into. The gossip-filled "maturing" three years of this time period will probably be one every person can look back to, and be thankful that s/he doesn't have to go through this alien stage again.