Middle School was where all the teenage hormones that would eventually create further problems for us later in life would start to develop. Subsequently, it was the location of a great deal of DRAMA.
In terms of what happened, I’m not going to go into great detail, But I went to a school called Alamitos Intermediate.
7th – 8th grade. Nothing happened. I had a few crushes. Made a few friends. Saw a huge rivalry between Jarom Olson & Minh Quoc Nguyen. I can pretty much say nothing happened, contrary to popular belief.
I think I was too afraid to talk to any girl back then as well.
I remember chilling with Vincent Le. I was also mightily fascinated with Neopets back then, (now, not so much). I made friends with Kevin, Juan, & Minh for the first time. YES, Minh & I were once friends until 9th grade when he suddenly ditched me for Jamal & Judy. He completely ignored me as if I didn’t exist. Some friend.
I have to go a little off course now to discuss the events that transpired in the summer of 2000. I could go off and on and tell a huge story about Joshua Jaramillo. But I’ll say this. This was a guy, that convinced me that you have to fight for what you believe in. There’s no running away from bullies (although, I try to avoid as much conflict as possible, by simply ignoring what they say). Josh was my friend, but everytime he bullied me, I let it get to me. I let his words alter my state of mind. At some point, I decided that I wasn’t going to let it no longer. I fought back (physically and verbally) at some point. I was not going to go down with a fight. Neither of us really ended up winning. He ending up moving, but I eventually learned the greatest lesson of all: I will stand up for what I believe in. I should not let the opinions of others alter the way I act or am.
All in all, I was still quite shy in Junior High but I tried my best to create friends. To be honest, I had more male friends than female friends (barely any), because I simply couldn’t speak to any. Sorry I’m such a loser :(. I didn’t actually have contact with the female race until really…. Junior year of high school, but we’ll get into more detail regarding that later :). I don’t have many pictures from Junior high but I have a few – here are some from Awards night of Alamitos as well as Commencement (where I wore a wedgie shirt! You know… the ones with 3 boxes !)
