i think the only reason why i always feel like middle school was the best years of my life is because i was a preteen transitioning to my teen years, it all felt so light and right.
i absolutely HATED middle school the first few months, im not one to adapt, its really hard for me. But it slowly started to catch me, ive always looked up to my brother and his friends (cause they were so fun and so in sync with the jakarta selatan culture i was learning), we would all listen to the same bands, talk about the same pop culture trends, did actual teen stuff, and it was the first time we were all introduced to dating. I was definitely on the side line for that one, my friends was crushing and dating people, but there i was, have always been a hopeless romantic.
I loved the routine, every morning me and my brother would listen to our top local radio, my 2nd and final year i would always stay in the parking lot waiting for the bell to ring cause i didnt wanna go in too fast, and i wud always invite some friends to the car, the teachers would greet us, and sometimes i wud do my fingerprints (for attendance), we then wud play around the lobby, catching up with my circle and just talk, in my 2nd year we wud connect our laptop to play musics before the class starts and take photobooth pics, and so the class begins.. i remember vividly where i would sit, the windows overlooking the trees and just those afternoons where we wud be in class sitting talking around abt the projects.. every recess break we all wud go to the cafeteria and my order was either bakso or kebab, i always brought extra money but my mum would just give me 20k.. that wud last me the whole day. But i wud bring in extra money just incase we wanted to go out after school. The cafeteria was bright orange with a mini badminton arena, we wud sit on top of the table laughing our ass off, or maybe the seniors wud bring their guitars and sang around, or at times we wud go to the football field and sit there with our food. 2nd recess was the best cause its longer, we prayed, we ate, we played. when i was a senior there was a number of time where we wud just lock ourselves in the music room, it was damn cozy, cold, filled with instruments, soundproof walls, red carpets.. and then schools over. We wud all sit around in selasar, no matter what grade youre in, you would just vibe with everyone. Also since we had moving class system, everytime the bell rings, the switch to the other classes was FUN, i would see my friends from the other classes, i would see the seniors (and they were all mischievous in a fun way) lol, we wud open our lockers and grab our textbooks..
there was a period where me and my bestfriend at the time would just hangout on pa joko’s room, literally a storage where they had computers and appliances but it was not that great, i went there a lot cz i lost my locker key a billion times.. me and my bestfriend wud just sit for HOURS playing bad ice cream on friv.com, we would listen to musics.. also there was a ping pong table infront, we love to hang there. I remember having to walk a distance since my classroom was the farthest from the locker area, i wud take it all in and was just so happy to be there. theres also times where we wud hang out in the front office with miss rika or rita, she was young, a bit bitchy* to my liking but she was nice and a great person. Honorable mention to pak ipung, the best math teacher i have ever had in my entire life. He was and still is an OG, his number is perfectly saved on my whatsApp.
I wud go home listening to fun musics with my brother, and we wud get churros from this little shop on our way home.
So yeah. It was really fun.. i miss it hahahahah and i would LOVE to go back. i would actually do it all over again despite the many downside (theres many) but still, i felt happiest the most there i think.
https://open.spotify.com/track/7MXlTgQeo3IVlMpLnZuhxc?si=zsAPwThwTgGmVTy5cAsbdg
