Middle school, circa 2005, was an embarrassing time where I indulged in some of the most cringe-worthy trends.

This is the age I said ‘bye’ to mom’s help on my daily dress routine. Now, I secretly admit this choice was probably a mistake.

Everybody dressed alike and had all of the same accessories, but I’ve learned, like most aspects in life, just because everyone else did it doesn’t make it right.

Sometimes I just groan at the thought of my previous fashion choices and wonder where in the world these ideas came from.

The first mistake I made had nothing to do with my clothes and everything to do with my hair. For some odd reason I had an obsession with the curling iron. Trust me, I was not achieving sexy beach waves with the big barrel iron. Instead, I made a fool of myself.

I used the curling iron to do “the flip.” I spent my mornings easing the barrel down sections of my hair and flipping the ends upwards. The style I achieved did not even come close to the cool, bouncy “Charlie’s Angels” hair of the ‘70s.

For close to a solid year, I ran around looking like I was auditioning for a part as an Oompa Loompa in “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” with flipped hair grazing the shoulder clearly without a care in the world.

The next middle school “uh-oh” involved rubber bands and bell-bottom jeans. I grew up in a time where bell-bottoms turned from cool to completely uncool in a matter of weeks.

For whatever reason, it was “the thing” to place rubber bands at the bottom of your jeans so it scrunched up a little, tucked just enough not to see it.

Thankfully, this trend was short lived, but I can still vividly remember everyone at school strutting around decked out in rubber banned pants and Converse. Don’t worry — the shoes those are still cool.

Looking back on the trends of my middle school days, I am overwhelmed at the thought that there is plenty of photo evidence to quickly damage my reputation.

The only excuse for those mishaps is at least I’m not the only one regretting them.

Anisca Miles can be reached at [email protected]