Going through 13 years of school has built up lots of memories for this year’s graduating seniors. If there’s one thing they’ll never forget, it’s the trends that took up hours of their time every school year. Whether it was mindlessly spinning a fidget spinner or spending days perfecting their slime recipe, each year brought on a new trend. Here’s a list of the past year’s biggest trends, from kindergarten to now.

Better Than Barbies

A time of transition. Kindergarten was full of exciting new changes including going to school every morning. Every day when I came home from school, I would run upstairs to play with my American Girl Doll. I had both a gymnast doll and a look-alike doll and loved doing their hair and dressing them up. Many girls in our grade had an American Girl Doll and would bring them in for show and tell!

Silly Kids Wear Silly Bandz

How many shapes are there? Days were filled with seeing what new shape people had hidden on their wrist. Silly Bandz were the highlight of 1st grade. With so many shapes to be bought and traded, there was never a dull day!

Second Grade: Where Creativity Flowed 

Finally we could write and color inside the lines. This year eraser toppers were a huge deal as well as scented markers.  Finding the cutest animal eraser to complement your pencil was a must-have. When it came time to create artwork everyone pulled out their Mr. Sketch markers. Ranging from lemon to mint, these markers let us smell the rainbow.

  Running is Fun! 

Running: the sport most adults dread, but kids love. In 3rd grade, the opportunity to join a running club became available. Girls were able to join Girls on the Run and boys could join Total Trek Quest. Practices were often ended with chocolate milk and graham crackers with frosting, a “perfect” recovery snack. The season concluded with a fun 5k run at Grand Valley State University which was the highlight of the season.

Fashionistas in Fourth Grade 

Hair up or down? Athletic or casual? We were able to start making our own choices about the clothes we wore and how we looked. Neon fits with a braided sports necklace were a staple outfit for many of us. We, quite literally, wanted to stand out. 

Tokens of Success

Toe tokens were a serious matter in 5th grade. In order to earn them, you had to complete a hiking club card which required you to run 10 laps around the soccer field and baseball diamond during recess. The more toe tokens we had, the better. Everyone showed off their athletic ability by wearing their toe tokens, stranded on a shoelace, around their neck every day. 

Case-it Chaos

Zip, zip. There goes another person digging through their Case-it to pull out their homework. Middle school was a time of transition for us and required us to start to decide how we wanted to organize our school work. We were given chromebooks this year and told to be responsible with them and protect them from precipitation and heat. Taking care of our new technology was tricky, but Case-its made it easier to focus on our chromebooks while keeping our homework together and in one place. 

Sticky Creations For Sale

Sticky, moist, elastic, stretchy. It’s easy to guess the item being described. Slime. Every day at school in 7th grade, I’d see tons of kids playing with their slime in tiny containers. “Look at the new recipe I tried! You can buy it for only $5!” Slime became a real business. 100’s of newly uploaded Youtube videos of slime-making tutorials every week. The sticky mess that us kids called creations were our parents’ worst nightmare.

Just Keep Spinning

“Whizzzzzzzzz” I don’t even need to turn and look to know what that sound is. Another fidget spinner. In 8th grade, they started out for kids with ADHD but then pretty much every kid got one. It got to the point where teachers would ask everyone to put them away because they became such a distraction. I must admit, they were pretty addicting to play with.

So Basic

 A few very popular trends grouped together freshman year and became known as being a “VSCO girl.” White converse or white Nike air forces, scrunchies, oversized t-shirts, shell necklaces, Fjällräven Kånken backpacks, and pura vida bracelets. “And I oop sksksksksksk,” phrases used by said VSCO girls. Thankfully, this trend has died down and I haven’t had to cringe at being called a VSCO girl or roll my eyes when I hear “and I oop” after someone drops their hydro flask.

Mask Up

Sophomore year was pretty normal until Friday, March 13, when our school year abruptly ended. The Coronavirus had found its way to the United States and was spreading fast. The country went into lock down, and everyone was in quarantine. It was a time of fear and isolation, but we all leaned on our loved ones and are in the process of getting back to “normal.”

Can You Even Vote?

Eleventh grade was never ending politics. The 2021 Presidential election occurred that November. The main two candidates were Incumbent Donald Trump(R), and former Vice President Joe Biden(D). During the months leading up to the election, politics were all that was talked about in school. Lots of tension and arguments occurred, and became quite exhausting. Thankfully, after the election, the buzz began to slow down.

Look What I Tagged You In

Senior year. Throughout our childhood, social media platforms became pretty popular, but arguably the one used most this past year was Tik Tok, an app where you can post all sorts of videos. A few memorable trends from the past year are “berries and cream,” “couch guy,” and “renegade.” There was even a “most likely to be Tik Tok famous” senior superlative this year. Hopefully, as our generation gets older we won’t spend hours scrolling through Tik Tok because let’s face it, that is a waste of time.