12

Seventh grade was the start of Middle School. K-12 was all in the same building (graduating class of 54, yeah!), and Middle and High School were in the same area. The seniors would always call us "little kids" and it was so annoying! But we did enjoy admiring the freshman boys. I was friends with a girl named Margot and we dressed up in similar skirts for the first day of school. I was hot and cold with Jessa and another friend, Jackie. At this age I wanted to be a "writer of novels," and described myself as good at singing, reading, math, and spelling, creative, sometimes shy, and "not crazy about my looks." I got good grades and did not like sad movies or when friends made fun of people. I enjoyed writing to penpals, traveling, baby-sitting, reading horror books, swimming, funny people, and animals.

In 7^th grade I started playing organized sports, and did modified swimming, basketball, and softball. I did best at swimming. My Aunt Val was the PE teacher and my swimming coach and she worked just as well as any highly-effective drill sergeant. We swam our little tails off, lifted, scootered in the hallways, had “hell week” two weeks before Sectionals each year, then a “Carb Loading” night just before. I thinned out a bit at this point. To quote from my diary at the time "112. Truthfully, 114, but Abbey even said I look 100 lbs!". I would increase in weight, but not in height, as I reached my maximum height of 5’1” here, at age 12. At that point, I was still taller than most of the boys in my class.