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Aug. 18--You know how it feels when it's "like there's a secret code and everyone knows it but you"? Welcome to middle school. For that matter, welcome to life. As host Linda Ellerbee explains in her latest "Nick News" report -- "The Worst Years of My Life? Surviving Middle School" -- those clumsy, uncomfortable feelings never really go away. You're always "too young for this and too old for that," says Ellerbee, now 62 years old/young, which puts her squarely at another midpoint age.
But middle school may be the first time the feeling hits us in the face with such fury -- literally, if you're suddenly suffering acne, braces, hair growth or other adolescent agonies. No longer do you get the free passes of childhood, from either your own body or the culture around you. "It's one of the first times the real world bucks up against the fact that you kept getting trophies for 'participation,'" as Jon Stewart puts it on this program, and now you've actually got to succeed to get such rewards. You're abruptly grown up. Except you're not.
That I-am-so-lost sweat is evoked all through this half-hour by a panoply of regular kids and celebs recounting their own dorkdom. Stewart and fellow comics Marlon and Shawn Wayans do it with humor. Jewel, Megan Mullally and Nelly Furtado do it with heart. Writers R.L. Stine and Judy Blume show how they've kept their finger on the pulse of that age of embarrassment for decades. Skateboarder Tony Hawk recalls honing his trademark talent at a time it couldn't have been less cool, while "American Idol" winner Taylor Hicks says his trademark gray hair was sprouting already way back then.
Strategies are suggested for dealing with school pressure, peer pressure, parental pressure and ultimately blood pressure. The sad fact about this fork in the road remains: You just gotta grit through it. Remember, consoles Nick News, you're not alone. "It might seem terrible, but don't worry," advises author Stine. "High school is going to be much, much worse."
NICK NEWS: THE WORST YEARS OF MY LIFE? SURVIVING MIDDLE SCHOOL. Teens of today and yesterday 'fess up on that awkward transition time. Sunday at 8:30 p.m. on Nickelodeon.
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Copyright (c) 2006, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.
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