‘Pen15’ Gifs That Will Bring Back All Your Middle School Nightmares

High school has a bad rep as being a particularly tumultuous period in life to have to go through, and there’s been enough movies and TV shows written about that exact thing to prove it. Sure, high school is rough. The classes get tougher, friendships change, maybe relationships get more serious, you’re closer to being released into the real world and thrust into adulthood, you’re somehow supposed to figure out what you want to do with the rest of your life before you’re even old enough to drink, there’s no denying it’s a significant (and not always great) part of life. But that pales in comparison to the hellish nightmare that is middle school.

Do you remember middle school very well? No? Probably because you subconsciously supressed all those memories so that they would never again see the light of day. Middle school is by far and by all accounts literally the worst. They were the worst dressed, most awkward years of our lives, ruled by an invisible and unpredictable monster: PUBERTY.

You might think that because you’re well past middle school now, talking a walk down memory lane and revisiting your tween years would be a breeze. But Pen15 on Hulu is here to prove you so, so wrong. The show captures all the cringiest parts of middle school upsettingly well and watching it is weirdly masochistic — it’s so good but so bad but also SO GOOD.

I encourage everyone to watch it, mostly because it’s a great show, but partially so that you can all suffer through reliving middle school with me.

Remember making prank phone calls that you thought were so hilarious that were definitely not?

Or trying to figure out how to flirt and sound cool by passing notes in the middle of class?

Really, just trying to look cool at all.

Or discovering ~ grown up underwear ~ for the first time

Like, really discovering it

Having your mom still cut your hair and rocking the dreaded bowl cut

But then eventually being in charge of your own style, which was decidedly somehow worse

Three words: middle. school. dances.

Ugh, and that one teacher who played acoustic guitar and would assign group projects that involved some kind of performance

I would rather write a ten-page paper.

Feeling like every single thing your parents did was an attempt to ruin your life

And, of course, suddenly being flooded with an onslaught of hormones and having it manifest in the weirdest possible ways

Watch Pen15 on Hulu, and be thankful you never have to go through middle school again.

Published at Wed, 03 Jul 2019 16:00:00 +0000