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.........