A Harrowing Tour Through the Margins of my 8th Grade History Notebook

I’ve been sorting through old notebooks this week, and the extra pages of this one were filled with such treasures that I just had to share them with all of you. So sit back, relax, and be extra grateful that you were not me in middle school.

Practicing how to sign my crush’s yearbook:

Practicing again, this time testing out a double exclamation point turned smiley face:

Practicing a third time, this time testing out the combo of the double exclamation smiley with aggressive underlining, so he’ll know I’m really serious about this:

Practicing a fourth and final time, now cleverly using the name “Bob” so that no one will figure out I like Justin:

I lied- that wasn’t the last one. A whole page full of Bobs:

A second page of Bobs also featuring a sketch of me and my nose, the way I saw it when I was thirteen:

A mega cringe-worthy poem about thwarted love, inexplicably preceded by an attempt to figure out how many Scrabble points I could get for the word ‘oxygen.’

Two pages of drawings with two people each:

Five more pages of drawings, each with two people and one floating ghost head:

The much-anticipated five pages of drawings with three fully-bodied people:

A second attempt at poetry, with just a subtle hint of drama artfully woven in at the end:

And on the very last page, a sketch of the trophy I should have earned for all of this:

There you have it, friends. 8th grade in a nutshell.