So now that one of my younger cousins (who am I kidding, I only have three) is turning 12 for real, I'm realizing that I really can say what the older old people say when young people walk into the room: "I remember you when you were this big..." and suddenly I feel decades older than I really am. And I can't even say she's "like 12," because she will actually be that age. So this weirds out my speaking patterns.
My mom and I were out shopping for birthday presents for this cousin, because that's what you do when you're family members and you're invited to a birthday party, typically you bring presents, and I was thinking.
What did I do for fun when I was 12?
And I realized that I have no idea.
I was in middle school at the time, leaving a handful of my friends behind at the local elementary school so I could go forth with my best friend to this special program through the local high school that would involve white collared shirts, and dark pants/skirts as a dress code and French class. I was particularly excited about learning French, let me tell you that. So presumably, I did a lot of homework.
I don't remember hanging out at friends houses very often, and I don't particularly remember what books I was reading at the time, only that I'm sure I was reading things.
And I have no idea if I was writing at that time. Because I'm fairly certain that there was a time in my life when I took a break from writing. I just didn't do it. Like ever. I don't know if it's because I didn't have the time or the ideas or the inclination to write short stories or what, but I'm pretty sure I hadn't figured out that I could scribble down ideas or whatever randomness I wanted in a notebook and call that "writing." Yeah, pretty sure I wasn't doing that.
I think I was doing Girl Scouts, because I had joined the local troop when I was 11, and continued on. And I don't think that this was the time when I called my Girl Scout leader every week to ask if there was a meeting, I think that was in high school. So 12, I probably remembered when the meetings were, and went to them as well as the camping trips and other fun things.
If I remember correctly, I did the drama club at middle school, but we didn't really do much that year. When I was 12, we did a lot of improv. And I wasn't very good at it. At least, I didn't think I was particularly good at it, but I had fun, so that's all that really mattered anyway, right?
I must have hung out with friends, but considering we were 12, I have no idea what we did. Pretty sure that would mean I went to their house and we hung out or had a slumber party. I must have painted my nails a lot.
I seem to remember a long black skirt that I really loved to wear with brightly colored argyle knee socks under it, because this was a way I could wear bright colors and still be in dress code, because no one was looking at anyone's socks. This is also when I started liking colored/patterned socks, because dress codes suppress pretty colors otherwise. Though I'm not sure how this paragraph is relevant to what I did as a 12-year old.
I'm going to guess that I spent a lot of time at home reading or watching movies with my family. I really love movies, and my grandpa has this really great collection that he lets us borrow from, as long as we swear on our lives that we'll bring them back. They used to be all VHS, but he's since upgraded to DVD. I wonder if he'll go as far as blu-ray, but I highly doubt it. This was also an age when Blockbuster was thriving, so I could have gone there as well.
Not really sure, but I've got a couple ideas, I suppose.
"The great thing about getting older is that you don't lose all the other ages you've been."
- Madeleine L'Engle
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