1. Year 7 started with perfectly backing all your books.
2. Literally everyone seemed to have this pencil case then.
3. And this superb collection of gel pens.
4. Biro tattoos were a perfect solution to boredom.
5. These tiny ink cartridges in no way led to you flicking ink onto the shirt of the person sitting in front of you.
6. Well, unless you were using your pen to try to perfect this weird pen-spinning thing.
7. They were so much better than this junk.
8. These ink erasers didn't so much erase ink as dissolve the page.
9. No-one ever actually used a compass, but it was important to have something with some sort of spike on at all times. It was never clear why.
10. Aiming your watch-glare reflection at the teacher was a pastime for the rebels.
11. This "S" that everyone somehow knew how to draw.
12. Umbro backpacks were pretty important.
13. But if you wanted to be cool, you had to sling it over one shoulder.
14. And to be really cool, you attempted to sneak music into lessons.
15. Food never got better than this.
16. All information came from just two CDs.
17. And that weird Mindmaze game that came with it.
18. The Bunsen burner was the focal point of most science lessons.
19. Unless you truly were a troublemaker, in which case it was all about leaving the gas taps on, for some reason.
20. Lessons were on the OHP...until these weird interactive whiteboards started showing up.
21. The bleep test was a horrifying reality.
22. There was also the ancient ball that had all of the leather coming off, and yet you still played with it.
23. This intense sort of AstroTurf injury happened to everyone who ever played on it.
24. Of course, there was always this to try to complete.
25. These vouchers never actually seemed to do anything.
Where did they all go?
26. This was your social life most evenings.
27. And this excuse was used way too much.
28. At least every few months, this stupid game came back.
29. There was also the terrifyingly awkward period when you had school discos, with boys on one side and girls on the other.
30. Right up until the "Macarena" came on.
31. But you stopped having discos right around the time everyone discovered 2-litre bottles of Strongbow.
32. Or Frosty Jack's.
33. Unless you were very classy, and went with Lambrini, or Caribbean Twist.
34. Or when you wanted to be really hardcore, some Cactus Jack's and blue WKD.
Sidenote: Is the flavour of this actually "blue"? The flavour "blue"?
35. It was around this time you started going to house parties, and learnt hard lessons about passing out in the wrong places.
36. But you still had to revise, and that came from all of these.
37. Even if their "jokes" were so intensely cringeworthy.
38. This book ruined your life.
39. At some point, you'd end up doing DofE, mainly for tenuous reasons related to "personal statements".
Perhaps taking the tents down requires more practice #tenttortoise #DofEproblems
Sometimes, it didn't go great.
40. Finally, of course, there were the leaver's hoodies.
41. Which you could wear over your shirt signed by everyone you know.
Got my shirt signed by all my mates cuz tomorrow is last day of school omg 😩😢