Return To My Junior High School

Talk about surreal. I returned to my old junior high school. Well, it's called a middle school now. When I went there, it was grade 7th through 9th - now it is 6th through 8th.

I went to the school through all of 7th grade and half of 8th grade. I had some great times at this school (awesome friends, some great teachers, made the pep squad, had a big crush, etc). And I had some pretty bad times at this school too (dealt with a mean bully in 7th grade [which originally had been one of my very close friends], had a couple of very nasty teachers, unintentionally broke a boy's heart, etc.) You know - kid stuff. But for the most part, I mostly have good memories of this school.

The way the school was set up when I was a kid was similar to a high school (I got the feeling on the tour that it is probably similar today). We, the students, were responsible for knowing where our classes were with no assistance (and they were spread all over the school on two different floors) and we had to be in those classes on time - whether or not we stopped at our lockers. We had 30 minutes for lunch. No hand holding whatsoever. And though it was super scary at first, I loved it. I loved the (semi) freedom and responsibility.

When I moved to Georgia midway through my 8th grade year, it was like I stepped back in time. I went from traipsing all over my junior high to being in one hallway at a middle school (6th-8th grades) with the four classrooms all located right next to each other. The 8th grade was split into three "teams." I was placed in Team 1 - and I was horrified by the thought. There were lockers, but other than that, it was a glorified elementary school. The students were told to walk in a line silently to lunch behind their teacher. We had a whole 15 minutes for lunch. I seriously felt like I was sent to juvie. I cannot tell you how many times I called home sick during those 5 months I went there. The only blessing was that I knew I was going to high school for 9th grade. I had to hold it together for just 5 months. But they were the longest dang 5 months of my life. I didn't fit in. I talked different and looked different and dressed different. I got bullied in one of my classes by some boys for being the new kid. I really was miserable.

And what was so frustrating for me at that time was that I was being looked down upon by kids on a "team," who walked in a single file line to lunch, and had never been given even half of the freedom or responsibility that I had been given. They didn't know me, but most just assumed that because I was new and different that I wasn't good enough. My mind was reeling. Everything seemed so dang backward to me.

I just wanted to go home. I longed for my friends and those hallways of (semi) freedom.

Finally, my time at juvie middle school ended and I was ecstatic (I ended up only attending two years of junior high/middle school. Kind of weird, right?) .

I did move on to high school for 9th grade and it was better. I got my freedom back thank goodness, but it still took a lot more time for me to fit in. I can think of a small handful of friends that I had the first two years of school and then my circle expanded in junior and senior year.

So going back to this building on my trip was really amazing - the school I yearned to go back to after I moved. I couldn't believe when Dawn offered to talk to her friend Ed (who is a history teacher there) and see if he could give me a tour - which he did and it was so surreal! It was even more surreal to have Doug and Briana with me!

Walking up to the building made me feel like I was in 7th grade again. The trees are much, much bigger than they were back then...

Below is the downstairs hallway next to the office. There was a (pretty grumpy) security officer at the entrance door checking IDs. No checking of IDs when I was a kid. We live in such a different world today.

I walked these halls so many times...

And the stairways too...

I brought my old 8th grade yearbook with me and showed Ed. He actually recognized a few of the teachers (though none of them work there now). Some of those teachers he recognized worked there for nearly 30 years!

The auditorium...

Ed took us straight out to the back of the school. A big shocker - another big building was located directly behind the main building! When I used to walk out of the building, I looked straight out to the field. This is so very different now...

We had to go around building number two to actually see the field...

Briana and Rosie running in the field...

Bri was feeling a bit warm that day...

Back inside and up one of the staircases. There are four staircases in the four corners of the building...

Second floor!!!

We stopped in Ed's classroom for a few minutes...

Then we went down the math hall. My 7th grade math teacher was also my homeroom teacher, and when I told Ed who she was, he directed me to her old classroom. He said she was in this classroom for many, many years until she retired a few years ago. When I saw it, I remembered it...

The desks were facing a different way, so I turned it the way I remembered it being...

I couldn't believe my daughter (and Lily and Rosie) were standing in my old classroom...

Here is amazing Ed who took me around the school. The girls wrote "Lisa Was Here" on the board...

Another big shocker - no lockers!!! Where there used to be lockers are now just sitting areas. Ed said they got rid of the lockers years ago. Too many bad things can be stored in lockers, so they are gone. The kids keeps their books at home and there are copies in the classrooms. Or they just go on the computer now. It was crazy to see empty hallways with no lockers...

Dawn is laughing as she is reading this because she couldn't believed how shocked I was that the lockers were gone. She asked me how I could be upset about no lockers when there are no windows in the school allowing students to look outside. Heh.

She's got me there.

Here is my old cafeteria...

The tables were arranged differently again from when I ate lunch there.

This is the view I had approximately from where I used to sit with my friends and eat my sack lunch (that my mom packed for me every day)...

In one of the cases in the hallway, there were pandas...

We headed out the front of the school and Rosie and Bri raced to the car...

I asked Doug to take a quick picture of me with my yearbook in front of the doors that I used to wait at in the morning, with all the other kids, before the bell rang and we were let in. He had Bri's headband on...

Me and my 8th grade yearbook...

What an amazing walk down memory lane.

Now, I have been back to my old high school a few times - and that feels a bit surreal too. It's not difficult to visit there though because the school hosts a craft fair each year and I live 30 minutes away.

But this visit...this was so unexpected. I never ever thought in a million years that I would ever walk those halls again. It was so crazy. Seriously crazy.

Another huge, huge, HUGE thank you to Dawn and Ed for making it happen.