Senior year is a time to embrace high school friendships, prepare for college, and of course, reflect on the cringe-worthy moments that took place in years before. Most seniors will admit that it is impossible to avoid moments of embarrassment as underclassmen. Whether it is a moment of clumsiness in the hallway or lunchroom, junior high, freshman, and sophomore year will be remembered by seniors as a time accompanied by many awkward moments.

Of course, embarrassment can be traced all the way back to junior high. Seventh and eighth grade is an awkward time where students struggle to feel comfortable in their own skin. “Before I had a good system to manage all my handouts and papers for all my classes–when I was in seventh grade, I was walking out of the main lobby holding a bunch of papers and tripped (over myself I think so not even a legitimate trip). On that day it happened to be extremely windy so as I fell all of my papers flew out of my arms and into the air. Literally, I must have been holding like 50 papers because it looked like an explosion occurred and some peoples gasped and whispered to their friends while others just looked awkwardly at me as I struggled to get my sheets together. Some good Samaritans helped me pick up some papers but I pretty much looked like a helpless bumbling fool,” senior Maddie Schafer said.

There is a reason many older highschool students refer to freshmen as “fresh meat.” The self conscious and worried freshmen are perfect victims for senior students to pick on. “One of the first days of school freshman year I walked in wearing sweatpants with a huge Edina High School logo on them. A random senior who I had never seen before told me that I would be beat up if I wore those sweatpants again. I never wore the sweatpants again after that,” senior Katherine McCracken said.

Many freshmen are also unfamiliar with the high school schedule, and they are often in the wrong spot at the wrong time. “A couple weeks into the first semester of Freshman year, I didn’t really get a lot of sleep so I sat down in the library chair on a block day and somehow ended up taking a nap and ended up missing about 20-25 minutes of my freshman religion class,” senior Michael Pupel said.