Most people have been through those stages in their lives that they just don’t talk about. Whether it was a band, clothes, or the way someone acted. What seemed cool at the time might make that person want to cringe or erase it from their mind. Middle school is a place of the past, something not to be dwelled on.

“I don’t even want to think about myself in middle school. It was a time that didn’t exist to me, I’ve blocked it out from my mind,” commented Maureen McDunnough, a sophomore. “Most people change, and usually for the better. Even in a year or so there can be a drastic change in someone. And then there’s those people that never change and are still stuck in 2011. I try to avoid those people.”

Another sophomore, Alexis Pawlusiak, definitely feels she’s different. “One Direction was my life,” she said, while also explaining how she used to listen to pop and country. “I never thought I’d get over them,” she added, before describing the more hardcore music she listens to now, including bands such as Of Mice and Men, Architects, Avenged Sevenfold, etc.

“My music taste is so much better than it was before,” McDunnough stated. In middle school, she said she used to listen to bands like Tool, My Chemical Romance, and other metal bands. “Now, I love One Direction. I’m not too cool to say I don’t like mainstream stuff, and pop is amazing.” Another artist she likes is Taylor Swift, who to most people is also too “mainstream.”

When looking up middle schoolers on Urban Dictionary, a website with questionable validity, entries explain that “these adolescents should be avoided or pitied, since they are experiencing the worst and most awkward period of their lives.” Another said that “middle schoolers are NOT to be confused with high schoolers. Middle schoolers are still in the ‘opening’ stage of adulthood, whereas high schoolers are rushing through the ‘blooming’ stage and ‘settling’ stage.”

Harvey Groom, a senior, disagreed with the last part. “I think high schoolers are more often than not far from ‘settling’ into their adulthood. But I know so much more about myself now than I did then. I’m not trying so hard to impress people; I’m doing things for me.”

“There are a lot of things I’d want to say to my middle school self,” Groom said. “‘You have permission to hurt and be angry at the world and yourself. But you have permission to find peace and to forgive yourself and others.’”

High school may not be real life, but some of the most important developments of a person happen during these four years. “I don’t know how I would describe myself,” McDunnough said. “Right now I’m me, by my senior year I might become a more grown version of me, but as long as I feel good about myself, that’s enough.”

McDunnough also added that “in middle school students feel like they have to belong to a group of people, but as they grow out of that, they realize there is no specific way to be. There’s too much that teens struggle with over those four years, there’s too much going on to not be who they are. If they give up on trying to be someone else and fit other people’s ideas of who you should be.”

“Just remember that sometimes you need to live for yourself,” she added. “Just do whatever you can to make it through those four years. Don’t be afraid to poop in school, avoid drama (not the class), and stay hydrated, kids.”