Memories of High School

[thrall]

I remember High School, ……How does the saying go…the best of times, the worst of times??

It’s funny, the things you remember about High School, the impressions you carry away with you. This is one of the things that has been running around in my head for the last week or so…LOL…..all of the High School “cliques.” Shall I name some of them…for there were many.

There were the:

The Brains
The Losers
The Shop people
The Stoners
The Drinkers
The Sports
The Goths
The Nerds/geeks
The Stair people
The First floor people
The ROTC
The Dance/theater people
The Library people
The Cutters
The Popular people
The Loners

I always thought that the individual groups were interesting to watch. The way they always ran around with each other, staying in the same places, never quitting their sphere of friends. That was what made them comfortable, group security. The unfortunate thing was that they always looked at other groups with suspicion, people that they never cared to talked to, or interacted with, seemed to be “the enemy.”

I talked with the brains, and hung out with the losers. I sat in cars while they were being worked on in shop, and ate lunch with the geeks. I drank with the drinkers and smoked with the stoners. I read with the library people and cut class with the cutters. I talked with the stair people as I walked though them to hang with the first floor people. I hung out in the gym with the sports and sat and talked to the losers in the parking lot. I chummed around with the Goths and watched the ROTC drill. I would nod to the loners as we passed each other, having entire conversations in a blink of an eye. The point is I talked to everyone, moving from one group to the next, friendly with everyone and belonging to nothing. I was a loner. Staying in a group never appealed to me. The approval and opinion of group security never much mattered to me because I had interest’s other then school yard politics.

It didnt matter to me what "group" I was with, It didn't matter to me if others saw me interacting with with everyone, I liked the people.

I defended everyone, one clique to another. Never allowing one group to bash another in my presence. Devils advocate for all sides. Most of the cliques never moved away from the small pack that they ran with. They never gave anyone outside their small sphere a chance. Most of them never got to know anyone but their own small group of friends. Even then I thought it was sad. Childish insecurities, low self esteem, and petty jealousies, was what I felt kept most of the groups together….and apart. Groups of friends disliked other “Cliques” on what seemed like principal alone.

The biggest impression I came away with was that each “Clique” never though of themselves as a “Clique.” It was external opinion alone that made each group a “Clique.” The perception of being on the “outside” was what made other groups of people “Cliques.”

I talk to some of the high school people every now and again. The impression they all seem to have of me was had I belong to one clique or another. They all say that they never bothered to become deeply friendly with me because the general impression was, that I already belonged………. The irony of it still amuses me.


Amazing the impressions we carry away with us.........

[Isabelle90]

Recently I read a book called I Love You, Beth Cooper. It was a true testament to the fact that the dynamics of high school (or any social group for that matter) have remained unchanged! Kids still go through the same things we did.

Hopefully, the things we carry away with us help mould us into better people

Thanks for the post! I hope others share their experiences!

[ElectricBadger]

High school is about developing identity...about deciding what type of person you're going to be. Identifying with others, and against others, is a logical and arguably healthy stage of that. It doesn't mean you should dismiss others as less than yourself, but there is value in deciding "I am not a stoner," or "I am not a ROTC."

[Slade]

High School was a place where many were nothing but sheep trying to be like each other, identity? Not much there, unless you were like everyone else you were an outcast. Such people were not worth my time.

[flying66]

herm... well, actually my highschool group were all goths/geeks/nerds... yes all at the same time. we'd talk to the other groups like the stoners but stayed away from certain groups... the 'in-crowd' of preps/twinks/jocks/shop-goers etc.

[ElectricBadger]

identity? Not much there

Then you'd be simply shocked by middle school...yes, high school was filled with cliques, but that was because people were aware of them, deciding between them. If people were sheep, at least they were discovering different herds.

Saying high schoolers aren't worth our time because they don't have fully formed senses of identity is like dismissing toddlers because they don't sprint well.

[Aussiegirl1]

Here in Australia we don't have the different types of schools the Americans have. We just have primary school and high school. However, we still have our cliques.

I always considered myself lucky in that I had a great group of friends, who somehow were a mixture of different types and yet we never put any pressure on the others to be what they weren't. I guess living in a small town may have helped with that too.

Thrall I am sure some of the reason why people from high school thought you were in a clique already, was that you seem to have to been very accepting of others. I am sure you learnt a lot from each group and they from you.

[TheVariableX]

I didn't really like my friends at highschool, which sounds a bit silly.

They were a fairly mean spirited pack of outcasts who enjoyed emotionally picking on the few people weaker than them. Very cannibalistic how they would find the weakest member of the group and really pick on them quite heavily. Two of them actually dropped out of highschool because of it. They also, weren't really my friends but it was wrong and ever since I have hoped it didn't fuck up their lives too much.

[Whippett]

Hmmmmm - I don't remember highschool like that at all, thrall. Perhaps it says more about me than about the place. I went to a moderately exclusive place - a private school. My parents made huge sacrifices to send me there (as I now recognize, though at the time I was likely oblivious to most of it).

Perhaps because there was that initial selection for attendance, a lot of the groups that could have existed elsewhere just weren't an option. For starters - there was a school uniform - you wore it - no excuses allowed. You were placed in a class with people of roughly similar intellect and ability - again - that initial selection of actually going to the school meant there weren't huge differences in ability. There were jocks and non-jocks, I suppose, but even there the differences were slight - the jocks played on the school team - and if you were good enough at the game to be there - you played for the school team - end of story. If you weren't on the school team, you were on your house league team - no exceptions unless you were physically incapable of playing the particular sport.

Drama society? Yes - there was one - and you either took part in the major play (as an actor or as a stage-hand/prop/lighting person) or you didn't - but most people were involved in some way - mainly because in the autumn each class put on a dramatic presentation as a requirement - we had a thing called "speech class" drama was part of that.

If the place sounds rigid and regimented - it wasn't really - it was highly disciplined - mental discipline primarily - you were expected and encouraged to do the very best you could. Failure was failure to be your best. It was a small school too - the student body was under 400 when I attended - and that makes a huge difference too. Classes were under 20 students, and the teachers were all more highly educated than in the public school system - most of them had, or were working on doctorates in their chosen fields and taught highschool because they wanted to be there. That made a huge difference too - you might not like a particular teacher - but by golly, you couldn't help respecting him (all the teachers were male, as was the student body).

Sure, people hung around with people they knew best - but it tended to be on class lines - not social class - but class-room - you spent so much time with the people in your class you tended to hang with them - to 10B (for example) would be a clique I guess - because the only way to be a 10B'r was to be assigned to that classroom. We didn't move between periods either - the teachers did.

Oddly enough - the one thing that didn't follow me out of highschool were any lasting friendships - I haven't kept track of a single person from my time there - nor have I ever been back since I graduated - except for the fifth anniversary of my graduation year - and we were all strangers - we recognized each other - but I don't think any of us had much in common with each other by then. University was a different matter - I have friends from my first year who I still correspond with - not often - we've drifted apart a little over the decades, but we do still keep in touch.

Hmmmmm - reading back through this I guess had I been in a more traditional highschool setting - I'd likely have fallen in the brain/nerd/loner group.

[_ID_]

I hated High School.

I didn't hang out with any group. I had one friend, and even the two of us didn't do much together. Am I sorry for my experience. No, not even a little. I am glad I experienced what I did. It has made me who I am today, and I am proud of who I am.

To me, while I was in high school being a part of a group meant conforming to a particular groups way of behaving, places they hung out, people they associated with. Activities they participated in. I didn't want any of that. I didn't want to do the stuff they did. Peer pressure was revolting to me. Why smoke, it makes you smell bad, why drink it makes you act dumb, why do drugs, you loose a part of yourself when you do. Why be a jock, sports were just pointless. My hobbies and interests didn't match anyone I knew, and so I didn't hang out with anyone.

Even today I have only one really true friend, and the two of us are over a thousand miles apart. I rarely call my family, and I don't hang out with the people I work with. Do I enjoy socializing. Sure. Apart from my local BDSM group, I don't associate with any group of people on a regular basis.

[angelmasha]

I think that Slade hit it right on the nose. There isn't much "identity" or "individualism" Many people do belong to a certain "clique", you're an outcast. Everyone is a sheep. But where i went to school, nobody discovered or explored other cliques unless they wanted something. A "popular person" would leave their group if they wanted say, notes from a "brainy person", or would talk to a "loser" if there was someone they wanted a message passed along to, or if they didn't do their homework, etc. Looking back, high school was a joke when it cames to politics, because it was a game manipulation at it's finest to get what you want

[Chuckdom19]

There were few individuals in my high school; either you were an Athlete, or you were nobody. Coming at the beginnings of the Age of Aquarius, those of us who were intelligent, who were forward looking and rational (i.e., were 'brains'), were a small minority. And we reveled in our weirdness! We published an 'underground newspaper' openly, with permission of the principal, funded out of our own pockets and distributed to all. We promoted radical school changes, radical community changes, radical political candidates. And after graduation, we watched the jocks turn into factory workers with beer guts. Few of them amounted to anything, and those were the ones who associated with everyone and respected everyone.

[gemmy]

lol High School - I think about it more these days now that my daughter is gearing up to head there. Her and I have many long conversations about cliques in schools and how it only gets worse with High School.

I was like thrall in my HS, I hung out with everyone and no one; I was my own parent all through high school and could come and go as I pleased (and I did!) - I still graduated Honour Role & Dean's List but really didn't put much effort or investment in it. I was dating my first husband then who was 7 yrs older and rode a Harley lol I was the shit and got along with everyone.

My daughter is in a private fine arts school currently where the cliques are a little different than the public system - these guys split by talent lol - The drawers (my gurl); The writers (my gurl again); The band geeks; The theatre arts kids; The singers and The dancers. They have no jocks period.

It's a pretty cool school but for HS she has to go back into the mainstream and it worries me how the change of environment (from sheltered to full on chaos), will affect her as she spirals headlong into being a fully complete teenager.

[thrall]

I was like thrall in my HS, I hung out with everyone and no one; I was my own parent all through high school and could come and go as I pleased (and I did!) - I still graduated Honour Role & Dean's List but really didn't put much effort or investment in it. I was dating my first husband then who was 7 yrs older and rode a Harley lol I was the shit and got along with everyone.

OMG.....LMAO.....are you sure you didn't take a page out of my book??.....Were you there....are you me??....ssssshhhhh.......it spoils the image.....LOL

[sisterhoney61 {RW}]

I HATED high school. I was a loner, who spent all my Friday nights, weekends, Christmas and summer vacations in my room with my books and my music. My parents seemed to think that once I reached 16 (the age that I was allowed to start dating) that my life would suddenly and magickally change. Nothing doing! They put a phone in my room, but it was my brother who got all the calls and would kick me out of my own room when the phone rang. Finally my parents put the phone in his room. My mother made a prom dress for me, even though I told her over and over again that no one was going to ask me to the prom. So it hung up for years afterwards, never worn, until my mother finally got rid of it. I haven't seen any of my former classmates since I graduated almost 30 years ago. I doubt any of them remember me.

[thrall]

I HATED high school. I was a loner, who spent all my Friday nights, weekends, Christmas and summer vacations in my room with my books and my music. My parents seemed to think that once I reached 16 (the age that I was allowed to start dating) that my life would suddenly and magickally change. Nothing doing! They put a phone in my room, but it was my brother who got all the calls and would kick me out of my own room when the phone rang. Finally my parents put the phone in his room. My mother made a prom dress for me, even though I told her over and over again that no one was going to ask me to the prom. So it hung up for years afterwards, never worn, until my mother finally got rid of it. I haven't seen any of my former classmates since I graduated almost 30 years ago. I doubt any of them remember me.

May i ask what it was about high school........you hated??

[sisterhoney61 {RW}]

It would be easier to answer what I liked about high school: singing in the concert choir that I belonged to and Mr. Lewis's English class in 11th grade and being able to go home at noon during my senior year, because I'd gotten all my other credit hours. Other than that, nothing else.

[tired.of.vanilla{DJ}]

I was a theater chick...a fat lesbian theater chick...and i loved most of it. *dork*

[emmagirl18]

I just finished high school last May, and there are still all the cliques. I wasn't a member of any particular one, I was an everybody too. I was a cheerleader, a dance team member, class president, a theatre chick, our tv station producer, a choir girl, a nerd, a geek, a popular, and a library person would describe me best, I guess. I was very busy senior year. I made friends with the "cliques" and everyone who didn't fit into them. Or at least I tried too. Its hard to go from one to the other, but I was a very people person. Apparently, they must have liked me too. I loved high school.

[denuseri]

well i spent high school in three places, first i was the AF school on kadena, then home schooled then i went to the local school which was a lot diffferent from american schools a lot i and one other girl from australia were the only gaijin,,,, fortunately allmost all my friends knew english (most children in japan do) because it wasnt until like the last month i was there that i felt totally confident conversing in japanese

i played volley ball and did some cheerleading but spent most of my time with my best friend being naughty after school and cruising the club scene (when our parents wernt looking)

overall it wasnt a bad experience for me

[Xelebes]

My high school had these cliques:

The Stratford Geeks (the Geeks who took all the IB courses and were always on the Stratford campus - my highschool was so large, it had two campuses.)
The Stratford Jocks (A select few who chose to stay on the acadamic campus)
The Stratford Russians (An ethnic group that wasnot limited to being geeks and jocks, but had their own little niche.)
The Grade 9'ers (Stratford campus had a grade 9 class.)
The 3rd Floor Geeks (computer geeks who spent their lunches on the 3rd floor labs a lot.)
The 6th Floor Geeks (Music and art nerds hung up there.)
The Preps (the ones who tried looking homogeneous, always hung outside of the tower near the tennis courts.)
The Jocks (school was too big for this group to be a problem.)
The Russian Wing (A whole wing had all the Russian immigrants' lockers.)
The Chinese Wing (A whole wing had all the Chinese immigrants' lockers.)
The Hall Geeks (Hung up on the East portion of the 2nd floor main ring. These guys took the AP courses.)
The Stoners (Hung out in the Industrial Wings.)
The Stratford Hoppers (these were the unfortunate ones who had to hop on the shuttle busses between campuses between each class.)

[bthest]

Man high school...

I hated it. Waking up a 6-7 am, having to lug around heaps of crap all day room to room, bitching teachers, people telling me what to do, no freedom, detention, teen drama shows everywhere you looked, first heart breaks.

But damn, what I would give to go back and do it all again.