Dona E. Bowens

Somebody give Ms. Queen Judy Blume her flowers while we still can. I just got done watching the film version of “Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret,” and I was teleported back, y’all. Right back to that weird tween age when everybody is so dang goofy. If you’ve read the book (at least 97 times or more like me) then there are no spoilers here or in the film. What’s amazeballs about the film is that you already know what’s going to happen and yet you’re still entertained.

Don’t worry folks, I’m not suddenly becoming a movie critic or anything of the like, I was more so wrestling with nostalgia? Is it nostalgia? Just a few posts ago, I was bemoaning the fact that at 52 flippin’ years old, my period showed up for an encore. “Margaret” took me back to the days of middle school and being anxious for the blood to start flowing. Attending all-girls school I think made it worse—this yearning to mature. “Margaret” was our bible and Blume was Goddess. Even by the mid-80’s, when we discovered “Margaret,” it was already dated but we took little notice and joyfully took part in rounds of, “We Must Increase Our Bust!” (I, for one, over did it and I have the back pain to prove it.)

Now that I think about it, I know we wouldn’t have been able to get away with doing exercises to “increase our bust” in the middle of the classroom had boys been around. Believe me, we wanted boys around, but now looking back from the vantage point of middle-age to middle-school, what a, for wont of a better term, blessing it was to go through that awkward phase with only girls around to witness. There, of course, were girls who developed way before others, but they didn’t suffer socially because of it, they were just our inspiration to work those busts a little harder.

People who have become my friends in college and beyond, think it’s strange that I still have many friends from the junior high days. The conversation usually goes, “So, how did you meet Jessie?” My answer is, “Mrs. Shoman’s class, 6th grade.” This is usually followed by a jaw hitting the table and then a look of befuddlement. What they don’t understand is that we grew up together in a very real way…and I can’t wait to watch the film again, but this time with my girls and a few gin & tonics.