Growing pains

Is there ever a group of kids more painful to observe then those going through the middle school years? I was attending an event at Corey's school today and had the opportunity to regard this stage with all its awkward complexities and painful simplicities.

This is the age where kids bodies betray them by growing too fast, growing too slow, by acme blemishes on their faces, by braces, by gangly limbs that careen unreconciled with the rest of their body, by cracking voices, by unfamiliar hormones in even more unfamiliar bodies, and all of it in front of their very observant peer group. This is a group where some still enjoy the pleasure their legos and action figures give them while others are looking to pot and alcohol for pleasure or escape. This is a group where their clothing, language, expressions, accessories, habits, recreation, etc, are scrutinized by their peer group to see what likely group or clique they belong. This is the group that yearns to assert their own independence but wants to do so while looking like everyone else. And for the ones who do not find their niche or who do find a place to belong, this can be a time of desperation and intense loneliness.

It is a time of very high highs and very low lows. Watching them enter the gym, a jumble of movement and energy, an exposition of unwieldy limbs and innocence grace, they took their seats, a sea of jostling adolescent humanity.


So much energy, joy, enthusiasm, and pain all contained in one place.
The middle school years.