Jacquie of “Jacquie Here”

Jen here. Still on “maternity leave,” although I’m not sure why. I WILL BE PREGNANT FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE BECAUSE THIS BABY IS GOING TO KILL ME FROM THE INSIDE BY NOT JUST BEING BORN ALREADY. Kidding. Sort of. Regardless, I still have guest bloggers lined up for a little longer while we all tap our toes impatiently and wait for the kid to make her debut.

Jacquie is yet another new bloggy friend I’ve made via the AZ Blogger Meetup Group Thingy of Awesomeness. She’s so cute, so sweet, and I also think we might be cousins? (We still need to do some digging and figure that out, girl. Seriously.) Related to me or not, she blogs over at Jacquie Here and I really like her and I really like this post she’s written for you because it’s about being an awkward pre-teen, and you know I love me a good puberty-adjacent story. Thanks for sharing with us, Jacquie!

Hi fellow Nothing Can Come of Nothing followers! Jacquie Here.

I am so honored that Jen asked me to guest
post for her while she is on maternity leave! Ok, maybe I volunteered.
But still, I am honored! I have never done a guest post before, so I am
obviously a little giddy. Especially because I seriously love her blog
and feel like we should be best friends, even though we’ve never
“officially” met.

Anyway,
just to give a brief introduction of myself, I am a twenty-something
newlywed expecting my first baby (due October 3rd!), I am originally
from a suburb of Seattle, WA but have lived in AZ for about a decade
(read about that here),
and I love cooking (eating), crafting, writing, and all-things
creative. I also love the great outdoors. Oh, and one other thing you
should know about me…..

I went through a really awkward phase in 6th grade.

Ok,
fine. It lasted way longer than just 6th grade, but age 12 was it’s
prime. In my defense, however, I had just left everything and everyone I
knew to move across the country with my family, forced to start all
over. How could I NOT be awkward? I was now living in a state I had
never even been to before, going to school with kids I had never met
before. It was quite the culture shock after going to the same school
and being in the same class with the same 20 kids since I was 5, where I
was actually pretty “popular”. AND to top it all off, I was now going
to regular, all-American English school now. No more of that Spanish
Immersion school, which was all I had every known. I had to actually
learn how to say the Pledge of Allegiance in English. I had
only ever said it in Spanish (Ironic, the US Pledge in Spanish… I
know). I wasn’t sure how to handle it all at once, so naturally I was
quite awkward in a lot of areas, socially.

I was also short. Not much has changed, I’m 5′ 2″ on a good day….

This shortness, along with an unsettling
desire to fit in, drove me to begging my mom to purchase me a pair of
these babies. In every color.

Rocket Dogs – American pre-teens’ favorite platform flip-flops, complete with terry-cloth straps, circa 2002

Mom and I made a compromise. I was granted one pair. And they were the Target brand. Not as cool, but they would do. And
let me tell you, I LOVED those stupid flip-flops. I wore them every
day, until the straps were hanging by a thread, and then I used my life
savings to purchase a second pair.

 

One
particular day of wearing these sandals especially stands out in my
memory (mostly because my best friend never stops reminding me that this
happened). It was the day I was walking out of the girls’ restroom at
the start of recess to find three of the most popular girls in school
standing right outside, talking amongst each other. I was still “the new
girl”, but this was my chance to shine; to show them that I could be
cool too. I strutted my stuff right past them, hoping to hear a,
“Jacquie, you look so cool! Come hang out with us!”.
But instead, I heard the sound of my 4 inch platforms sandals coming out
from under me and my body hitting the concrete. It was probably the
most uncool moment of my life. The Rocket Dog knock-offs had forsaken me at the most inconvenient moment possible.

It
took a few weeks before I would get myself to wear the sandals again,
and even still I was extra careful whenever I did. I couldn’t trust them
anymore. I obviously never did become a part of that popular group, but
that ended up being ok because we moved again after that year. I
honestly can’t even remember those girls’ names or faces anymore. And
luckily those shoes went out of style very quickly, making it pretty
easy for me to move on after the whole tripping ordeal. I also was able
to learn a great life lesson: being part of the popular crowd is not
worth risking your ability to walk. I still went on to make many great
friends over the years and became a little more confident in my
shortness, so I’d say I’m doing alright.

And that is the story of how I was betrayed by a pair of cheap platform sandals.

Love,
Jacquie.