High School Memories

[mcfbridge]

Originally posted this in No Topic, but Destinie suggested making it a thread so here it is:



Well, in a few minutes I'm off to see my daughter's high school jazz band concert. They're actually very good.

This brought to mind a question. I'm in my late forties and I hear lots of people saying "Oh, if I could just be a teenager again."

Personally, I remember high school and it wasn't one of the high times of my life.

Does anyone really remember their late teens as being one of the happiest times of their lives. Personally, for me I might pick m early twenties in college, but not my teen years in high school.

My daughter, unlike either myself or my wife, is one of the more social people in high school, and even she has nights she is just miserable from school.

So, what was high school really like for you?

 

[Belegon]

One of the reasons I am not so keen on going to my upcoming 20th reunion is that the 10 yr one seemed to be so dominated by people who talked as though High School was the high point of their life.

How sad is that? The next 70 years are all downhill? That would flat out suck.

For me as well, high school was more endured than enjoyed. College was enjoyed. The following years have all been interesting and the best is yet to come.

 

[Guest]

So, what was high school really like for you?

my daughter is 16 and totally loves school.. i, on the other hand, was barely there to get by. i wasn't a druggie, i wasn't a geek, i just didn't fit in. the guys i wanted were much older. (theres just sumphin scrumptious about an older guy/chick)
i love my age now.. i love that im divorced and i love being a free adult.. glad i had my experiences in highschool, cuz it made me the person i am today.. but i say, let the young be young and ill just continue on having my fun!

my 2 pennies

 

[cantdog]

Garden of Eden

I met some key people in my life when I was a sophomore in high school, and together we built and ran a coffee house, for young people, called the Garden of Eden.

It was a very liberating and intensely interesting thing to be involved in. I did all the posters advertising all the people who played our stage, and by the time my senior year rolled around, I was the "president" of the corporation. I was still too young to actually run the place in the evening, though: they had rules that an adult had to be on the premises, responsible.

In college, I was already engaged to a woman who was still in high school and I was quite isolated because of my age. I had graduated high school at 16 and everyone on campus saw me, quite understandably, as a kid. I tutored fellow students in Statistics and in German, however. College was never so good as the coffee house years. But the high school was the same as the university had been: isolating, because of my age.

I had a good time in high school, but I began having a much better time once I'd gotten out of college than I'd ever had in any school. If you don't keep growing, it is kinda pathetic, as Belegon remarked.


cantdog

 

[MathGirl]

Personally, I remember high school and it wasn't one of the high times of my life. So, what was high school really like for you?

Dear McFB,
I'm a bit unclear on the concept. When, exactly, does high school happen to a person? I'm 21 years old, and I still haven't gotten around to it? Is it important?
Educationally challenged,
MG

 

[Guest]

Dear Maths,

You have a Ph.D., you are married to the love of your life, and you write good smut. You needn't worry about having missed high school.

Perdita

 

[MathGirl]

Dear Maths,

You have a Ph.D., you are married to the love of your life, and you write good smut. You needn't worry about having missed high school.

Perdita

Dear Perdita,
Thank you for that. I was afraid I may have missed out on something good.
MG
Ps. You forgot my superior bee emms.

 

[Guest]

mcf: It was me that suggested the thread, not Dest. Xarrumphotl.

As to my own experience I said it was like Dante's Inferno. In an interview the creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" said he set the story among high school students because "who wouldn't think their high school wasn't built over a hell mouth?"

I went to an all-girl Catholic h.s. run by nuns. I say no more.

Perdita

p.s. Maths, I did not "forget".

edit p.p.s. Amidst 1000 girls I and a black girl were the only non-whites, and I and a white girl were the only ones who lived in a housing project (we were on 'pity' scholarships and had to do pay-back chores like clean the windows after school and set the visiting priest's table for supper). That's all in the past, though and I am still grateful for a fine education.

 

[cantdog]

All girl school, by nuns.

How very sad. Whatever made people think that sort of thing a good idea?

No Pill, I suppose, had some thing to do with it.

 

[Guest]

I'm over it, Cant. Plus I learned how to read and write, and conjugate Latin verbs.

Perdita

 

[Boxlicker101]

High school totally sucked, at least for me. I played football, strictly a bench warmer lineman, and that's the only good memories I have of the place. At that time and in that small high school, being a jock was no guarantee of any kind of social success or popularity.

To say my success with girls was limited would be an exaggeration because it was totally non-existent. I wasn't rich or handsome or charming or an athletic star or a good dancer or the owner of a car or anything else that might lead to social success. To exacerbate the lack of any positives, I was excrutiatingly shy around girls, almost to the point of being a phobia. If I ever managed to work up the courage to approach a girl, I was so tongue-tied and awkward as to be an object of derision.

I was probably the brainiest kid in my class but I hated the place so much that I fooled around in class and was disruptive and I never studied, even for final exams, or made any effort to have good grades. I was bright enough to manage a C average and had no problem with that. I had absolutely no interest in college, never really considered it as something I might do. If asked about future plans, I would have answered "I dunno" or words to that effect. The idea of any kind of career counselers or anything like that was also unknown.

If anybody had ever pinned me down as to what I would do, it would probably have been working at an auto manufacturing plant in a nearby city or at an office job in my home town or another nearby city or at a cannery in town. When I finished high school, I joined the US Air force, which was not really a bad idea, although it ended badly, but that is another story.

By the way, I learned to read and write long before I entered high school and I never learned to conjugate verbs. I was pretty good with English verbs, though.

 

[rgraham666]

I wouldn't go back to high school for all the tea in China.

I got to spend most of my time alone, when I wasn't getting my head bounced off a locker.

I was so far down the social ladder that I couldn't be pissed on as it would evaporate before it hit me.

I hated high school.

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

It seems sad that everyone responding before me hated high school. Maybe my going to a small, rural school was the difference but, truth be told, I enjoyed high school. I wasn't a star athlete, though I played the usual sports (football, basketball & track) and I was in band (percussion). And I wasn't class president or editor of the yearbook (photographer). My grades reflected my high-potential low-achiever status. As for my love-life, growing up in the pre-pill rural south meant that for me sex was purely speculative.

My senior year was my best. Probably because I went to college between my junior and senior year. After that exp. I realized h/s was an academic snap in comparison and tried to enjoy what would be, in effect, my last year as a kid.

It wasn't "Happy Days" or even Springstein's "Glory Days" (which IMHO sums up the fate of many who were super successful in h/s) but it wasn't terrible. Still, I've been there, done that and don't want a repeat. Besides, I agree with National Lampoon's observation that h/s is the greatest bastion of fascism in America.

I've got a hunch part of the "Happy Days" syndrom is due to the memories of most folks, especially non-writers, working like that famous line in the song, Memories, "...what's too painful to remember, we simply choose to forget. So it's the laughter, we will remember, whenever we remember, the way we were."

Rumple Foreskin

 

[Liar]

Let's see, High School, just so that we're on the same note here, that's 16 to 18-ish.

Ok then.

High School kicked ass. And I don't mean my ass.

rgraham's description of High School was pretty much what Junior High was all about for me, and the morepart of educational hell before that too. Then, for some reason or the other, the morepart of my tormentors decided to grow the fuck up and behave like normal decent people. Some even had the guts to apologize. I made good friends out of several of my former enemies.

What else? Fell in love and had my first normal relationship, came to terms with my sexual orientation, sparked an interrested in all kinds of creative work, did well in class, and was actually beginning to see where life might head with me.

So yeah, it was good days.

#L

 

[minsue]

I miss high school. Not high school itself, but I miss being a teenager. And, yes, I hated being a teenager.

I miss the emotional rollercoaster of those years, though. When your world was so small and your experience was so limited that the smallest things (small when looking back on them) were so monumental because they hadn't happened to you before.

Kissing. I miss kissing as a teenager, back when kissing was all we knew and we would do it for hours and hours. I miss high school crushes, though some of them nearly killed me. That rush when a certain person would smile at you or, better yet, brush up against you while walking. Falling in love as a teenager is like nothing else in the world.

I miss sneaking off campus to get high and then sitting in geometry class trying keep a straight face as my (sober) friend in the seat behind me played with my hair or traced patterns on my back with his finger or tapped me on the shoulder only to go back to his schoolwork when I turned around.

I miss the possibilities that the world still held. The possibilities that I still held. Anything could happen. I could be anyone, go anywhere, do anything in the future.

I even miss the pain of high school, though only for its intensity. Now everything, even pain, is blunted by experience. I just don't feel as much as I did then. I miss that terribly. Since I've been on a lyric quoting binge in my siggy and elsewhere, I suppose one more won't hurt

Like a stone in a stream, life smoothes all our edges until we barely make a ripple anymore - Edwin McCain

 

[cloudy]

Nicely put, Gosling.

I don't miss high school, but I miss that time.

No heavy responsiblity, the future was wide-ass open, and full of possibilities.

I remember getting stoned at lunch and giggling through social studies, skipping class just because we could, and knowing that no matter what I did, my parents would still be waiting for me to get home.

Emotions were on a constant roller-coaster, but you're right, at least I wasn't as jaded and as cynical as I am now.

 

[mcfbridge]

mcf: It was me that suggested the thread, not Dest. Xarrumphotl.

As to my own experience I said it was like Dante's Inferno. In an interview the creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" said he set the story among high school students because "who wouldn't think their high school wasn't built over a hell mouth?"

I went to an all-girl Catholic h.s. run by nuns. I say no more.

Perdita

p.s. Maths, I did not "forget".

edit p.p.s. Amidst 1000 girls I and a black girl were the only non-whites, and I and a white girl were the only ones who lived in a housing project (we were on 'pity' scholarships and had to do pay-back chores like clean the windows after school and set the visiting priest's table for supper). That's all in the past, though and I am still grateful for a fine education.

My most humble apologies. It absolutely was your suggestion. I don't know how I got that mixed up, but I hope you can forgive a poor brain addled guy. (Having a teenager will do that to you.)


Oh, and Math Girl, to me High School is not as much a place as it is a time in life. Sorry, you can't miss it.

 

[sweetnpetite]

You are making me weepy!

I have to admit, that I have been watching reruns of dawson's creek everyday (never watched it the first time around, I was already too old for it- I'm a 90210/SBTB gereration) ONce you get past the way they talk (!!!!) it's pretty cool.

I even skipped my daily dose of darma and greg to watch SBTB the College Years today, just for the nastalia of it.

I read 17 magazine long after I was too old for it. One time I was reading the letters and a girl was stressing about her first kiss. Boy did that sweep me back. I *so* miss when kissing was a big deal- a monumental deal even.

I even kid of miss all the pining and yearning. (I did that *a lot*)


I **hated** high school. I had zero confidence and was so 'clueless' (I thought that word was invented for me, the first time I heard it I thought 'that's me'). I would love to go back and say "I'm not Josie Grossie anymore!!!!!!!" (Well you get the idea)

For some reason, we didn't have a 10 year reunion. I don't know what happened- i guess somebody dropped the ball.

I ran into an old schoolmate a couple of years ago and he told me that if he was mean to me in school he didn't mean it. Made my decade Thing is- I don't think he was ever mean to me. I was suprised in that he even knew who I was. That was kind of neat too!

I worry, just a little bit, that at a reunion all the confidence I have today will just disolve when I'm in a room with those same people (the way you regress to 17 or less when you visit mom's house sometimes) But to tell you the truth, I really can't wait to see them all again- even the worst of them. (maybe especially)

I miss high school. Not high school itself, but I miss being a teenager. And, yes, I hated being a teenager.

I miss the emotional rollercoaster of those years, though. When your world was so small and your experience was so limited that the smallest things (small when looking back on them) were so monumental because they hadn't happened to you before.

Kissing. I miss kissing as a teenager, back when kissing was all we knew and we would do it for hours and hours. I miss high school crushes, though some of them nearly killed me. That rush when a certain person would smile at you or, better yet, brush up against you while walking. Falling in love as a teenager is like nothing else in the world.

I miss sneaking off campus to get high and then sitting in geometry class trying keep a straight face as my (sober) friend in the seat behind me played with my hair or traced patterns on my back with his finger or tapped me on the shoulder only to go back to his schoolwork when I turned around.

I miss the possibilities that the world still held. The possibilities that I still held. Anything could happen. I could be anyone, go anywhere, do anything in the future.

I even miss the pain of high school, though only for its intensity. Now everything, even pain, is blunted by experience. I just don't feel as much as I did then. I miss that terribly. Since I've been on a lyric quoting binge in my siggy and elsewhere, I suppose one more won't hurt

Like a stone in a stream, life smoothes all our edges until we barely make a ripple anymore - Edwin McCain

 

[sweetnpetite]

Nicely put, Gosling.

I don't miss high school, but I miss that time.

No heavy responsiblity, the future was wide-ass open, and full of possibilities.

I remember getting stoned at lunch and giggling through social studies, skipping class just because we could, and knowing that no matter what I did, my parents would still be waiting for me to get home.

.

...with dinner on the table!


now that's a fond memory. someone cooking dinner for you everynight. (how ungreatful we were to complain about doing the dishes!!!)

 

[Guest]

I honestly don't understand this "missing high school", or rather, being a teenager. Not because it sucked (which it often did), but because I still have that capacity for the new, I can still feel 16, still feel as if nothing exists but my desires and passions. It's what I like about being 'grown up', to experience all that without the fear of the unknown, and with the capacity to appreciate it more than I could when I was actually that young.

I like getting to the know the teenager in a grown man too, that's really hot .

Perdita

 

[cantdog]

brains again, perdita

In fact, you are a simpler and less developed animal at 17. A growth spurt, the last one for the members of our species, occurs between physical maturity and age 25. By 25, it has generally all occurred.

What happens is entirely in the brain. A whole raft of new connections, new axon-to-neuron cross-wirings, are laid down in the brain. I knew a woman who had given up on men altogether because of the intensity of the animals. Her last boyfriend had been eighteen, and he'd been frightening to her.

In your teens, you don't have the cross-channels installed yet. Everything is much less cerebral, much more limbic. The world affects you in the way the people posting here have referred to, because the emotions are the dominant factor at that age.

Things often seem so important!!

I advised this woman that all men of eighteen were screwed up, but that Justin was twenty-four. It makes a big difference, I told her. Give him a play, see for yourself.

I will be saying the words in the wedding ceremony uniting those two on August 8th (I'm a notary public, meaning (in Maine) that I can marry people.) of this year. They are absolutely sterling young people, and I'm honored to do it.

Another irrecoverable thing about seventeen is the skin tone. That seventeen skin tone never comes back...

Dewy, creamy, nurturing, soft, pliable, fine as frog hair!!

cantdog

 

[minsue]

Re: brains again, perdita

Things often seem so important!!

Exactly.

 

[dirtylover]

I loved school - I had it easy - I was popular, sporty, the teachers all liked me, girls in the years below fancied me, I used to party, drink, smoke, get high...no responsibilities(i'm sure that's not spelt right)...

Now, I've got a job - I pay rent, council tax, follow depressing politics; but I am about to go and muck about on beaches for 3 months, and girls still fancy me, and the teacher's in the school I work at like me....fantastic

I think that yes, school is very memorable because lots of new stuff happens, but as long as you keep transcending yourself, then you will avoid the stagnancy that oft sets in...keep moving, keep dynamic - the whole of life (well, my life) is a ball....I feel very lucky to be me and have had my experiences...

 

[Belegon]

I went to an all-girl Catholic h.s. run by nuns. I say no more.

Whereas I went to an all-boy Catholic H.S. run by Augustinian priests. But we had a sister school that shared a student newspaper. So junior and senior year I took my first morning class at an all-girl school and developed a life-long fascination with plaid skirts and high socks.

Not all of my high school time was bad. I meant to mean that the reunion was awful, although I stand by the statement that h.s. was more endured than enjoyed. There were many positives too.

 

[Belegon]

I miss the emotional rollercoaster of those years, though. When your world was so small and your experience was so limited that the smallest things (small when looking back on them) were so monumental because they hadn't happened to you before.

Kissing. I miss kissing as a teenager, back when kissing was all we knew and we would do it for hours and hours.

I even miss the pain of high school, though only for its intensity. Now everything, even pain, is blunted by experience. I just don't feel as much as I did then.

written in 1987

Once
When my heart
was still virgin
to emotional pain
a kiss
was so much more
instead of being a promise
it was a promise fulfilled
so much emotion
so much fire it held
now it is but a shadow
I long for innocence
I long for fire