Back when I was Sue Heck (Part 1)

When I watch The Middle,  I am reminded of myself.   I love the character of Sue Heck.  She is happy and kind... but terribly awkward.

During my junior high & high school years I was her.  I was incredibly clumsy and awkward. 

I am planning to write a few different memories from my awkward years.  Here is one...

One weekend during my freshmen year, I decided to dye my hair blond.  I used my mom’s bottle of peroxide and a blue powdery substance (not sure what it was). She would buy them in bulk and keep them in the cabinet under the bathroom sink.  I mixed it up and applied it to my hair like shampoo.  (I didn’t have any idea how to  proper apply it)  I waited until my hair looked blondish, and rinsed it out.  My hair was yellow... although that is not the worst part.  The problems really came during the upkeep.  Every few weeks, I would once again try the method of smooshing the dyeing agent into my hair.  Each time the ends got brighter and brighter, much lighter than the roots.  After many months I decided that I needed to stop trying to make myself blond.  Since my mom only had blond dye, my only option was to let it grow out.  Months passed, I had about 3” of brown roots, and then every 2-3 inches was a different shade of blond right down to the bright yellow, very brittle ends.  

Now, as a freshmen I made the top choir at my high school.  Unfortunately, that was not saying much.   The music program was not good at all.  Everybody else in the choir was at least 2 years older than me.  They were all a bit odd too. So, even though everyone was a little weird in the choir, I still didn’t fit in cause I was so much younger than them.  Practices where after school on Thursday and this interfered with ... you guessed it, my cross country practice :)  

I ran, and I sang.  And I wasn’t very good at either of them.  

Towards the end of the school year.  My choir was asked to sing the national anthem at a school rally.  This was terrifying for me.  I didn’t mind singing with the choir at concerts, choir competitions (which we NEVER won) or at locations around the community.  Indeed, that was much better than singing in front of my classmates.  WHY, why, why?

So we sang.  It was actually pretty good.  Everybody cheered and as the crowd quieted down we walked back to our seats.  Once everybody was mostly quiet, someone yelled out “HEY, SKUNK HEAD!”  It didn’t take me long to realize that the yell was aimed at me.  I quickly made it back to the freshmen area and sunk into my seat.  I could feel my face turn a crimson color.  So embarrassed. 

Over the last few weeks of school  I tried to minimize the calico nature of my hair.  Pony tails looked bad, braids seemed worse, so I wore hats whenever possible.  As soon as school was out, I cut my hair at chin length. This got rid of a lot of the blond.  Before the end of the summer I was able to cut off the last bit of it.  I started the the next awkward year with chin length hair, no blonde :)