Middle School Flashbacks: Part One - Secretly Loving High School Musical

Dear Friends,

I have told you a little bit about what I was like as a middle schooler. I had a lot of curly, out-of-control hair and glasses. I was pretty quiet in school and had one best friend, Claire. Check out her fabulous blog here. I usually brought a book to school and read over our break times and recesses. Either that or I would draw in my commonplace book (see here for more on that). Sometimes I would argue about science fiction with a guy friend.

Then High School Musical came out. Claire saw it first and loved it. Somehow my family got ahold of a copy. I rolled my eyes at the peppy-looking cover with it's brightly coloured teens smiling their "American smiles". I thought: "This must be some kind of perky nonsense."

But late one night when no one could see me I watched it...and I loved it.

This was a problem. Back then I was reading Les Miserables and Fahrenheit 451. I could not read Victor Hugo and like High School Musical at the same time! The idea! Humph! I did not admit to Claire that I liked it. In fact, I think I told her it was bad or something terribly scathing. I was probably quite hurtful and rude. I am sorry for that, Claire.

But I still loved it. I really connected with one of the characters called Kelsi, who was a composer. She was a little nerdy, wore hats (I was big into hats) and glasses and was an artist. Just. Like. Me. She was my hero, even though I could not talk about it.

I have become aware that the bubble in this photo reads, "Wildats" instead of "Wildcats". Oops...

I held my secret deep inside for many months, if not years. Claire suspected that it was a facade the entire time. She is very smart. There eventually came a point when I was able to admit my love for HSM. I realised that a deep enjoyment of Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov could coexist with an appreciation for a show which, while being extremely cheesy, was also fun, bright, hopeful and featured genuinely talented young people, who sang their hearts out about not "sticking to the status quo".

Thanks to Claire and Zach Efron for teaching me that.

Love,
Lucy Rose

More middle school here.
Even more middle school here.
Blog post, written by middle schooler Lucy Rose, here.

(Photo of Kelsi here)