Were all you're high school friends jackholes?

[the_abandoned_brane]

I'm not being critical, I just don't understand the fascination or maudlin affection of adults for their high school years. I guess high school was fine but it was just another group of steps in the road to adulthood, no more or less important than any other. I mean, I played 3 sports (very close to the only reason I continued to go to high school....combined with the very strong expectations of my parents), surfed a lot and kept my grades just good enough to stay eligible for those sports. The grades were kinda funny, you could track 1) my interest in the subject and 2) those classes taught by one of my coaches exactly perfectly according to the grades. No interest = C- & D's....those taught by one of my coaches or a subject of interest = A's. (The coaches would never tolerate subpar effort/performance from one of their athletes) The combination of all those grades was enough to graduate firmly ensconced in the lower 1/3 of my class.  :lol:  Spent the first summer after high school surfing....and then joined the military and never looked back.

It was simply a part of growing up and nothing to be "memorialized" or wax philosophically over. It wasn't bad....it was fine. I never went to a reunion or had any real interest in what any of my classmates did or didn't do........of course, I didn't go to proms or "dances" or school "activities" either. I did not maintain contact with anyone from kindergarten or 6th grade either.........

Like I said....I'm not critical of those who view it differently and with any degree of nostalgia......I just don't get it.

Good perspective. And it's been mine for the most part. Never went to a dance, never went to a prom, didnt even attend my gradjeeashun. Maybe I'm just butthurt. Still.... my high school kinds sucked. We had something like a 50% dropout rate. 

 

[Bus Driver]

I will say I am blessed with good genes for staying slim, and running and working out keeps me fit. Those girls who looked right through me and were so enamored with the QB who now weighs 250+ suddenly seem to want the chat when I see them. Some still look good 40+ years later. I’ll look, but don’t touch. 

 

[Paul-Romain]

I never had any high school friends - I went to school before everybody started using. 

 

[warbird]

The only two I kept in contact with have passed away. I went to my 40th high school reunion. It was one of the best days I have had in years. Really interesting finding out what everyone had done with there lives. Unlike my Adonis like good self, some had let themselves go...

You did notice that the Minister's daughter ,passing friendly xchanges years ago, was fucking HOT now, that some of your pals then are sitting on the same fucking barstools 40 years later, that when you mention aerospace, IT.AI, their eyes glaze over. I have avoided an exchange with a cuter than shit neighbor  40 years ago, who on social media bemoans the loss of her union $25/hr grocery checker job to a corporate takeover.

 

[warbird]

The ones I feel sorry for are the ones who peaked in high school - the hero jocks, the most popular girls and so forth. How pathetic would it be to go through life with your best days having been before you were even a real person?

.....a few cheerleaders in my class peaked as checker at the grocery. That was 45 pounds ago. Am I pathetic?

 

[Last Post]

Went reluctantly to a 30+ year high school reunion last year and confirmed my view of such things.

The dullards are still dullards, the fun dudes are still fun dudes and the skanks are still skanks.

The conversations are as boring as batshit and the desperate attempts to self aggrandise are truly vomit inducing.

Had a bit of a chuckle about the super-macho football hero who had become a tranny.... nttiawwt, much.

A bit like high school really.

 

[Wet Spreaders]

I have not been back to my high school since I left over 30 years ago. They just invited me to give a "careers in engineering" talk to the graduating class, so now I have to figure out how to pitch something accessible, useful, entertaining and relevant without looking like an opinionated and out of touch old guy. My suspicion is that it will end up being just one more 30 minutes of annoying yadda from a grown-up keeping them from their Instagram friends. Probably I'll keep it on the "up and coming technologies" info side and stay away from the "work hard at math and science" - which is frigging obvious. Perhaps a little advice on how to pick startups vs. big companies in tech as the trends blow through. What else do college-bound kids need to know?

 

[austin1972]

I was a nerd...Well, I still am. I didn't have too many friends but the ones I had are still my friends. My best friend goes back to when we were in kindergarten.

It was a weird upbringing though b/c my summers were spent in MI. While they were all bonding with Little League, Pop Warner and soccer, I was sailing, fishing, waterskiing and swimming in MI so I had little in common with most everyone else. It was a double life growing up.

I hated high school. I have never and will never go to a reunion. I still see everyone I'm interested in hanging out with.

Pretty much the same for college except I liked college. But my college was like The Land of Misfit Toys. Most everyone was weird and interesting.

 

[Marcjsmith]

graduated in 90.  never when to any HS Reunion.    Even when I moved back within a 2 hour drive of Lower slower DE....  I go back to the old town every now and again, maybe once a year.  but its just to see family friends, never any HS friends.

A few started a face book page, and I'm watching and reading posts, and barely commenting. 

reading some of the crap that people post on facebook makes be do a face palm.  As an employer its one of the first things I check. Folks talking about going out and getting drunk, bashing the left,  bashing the right,  posting stuff that is bordering on racist.  And they wonder why they still live in in a shitkick town.

I miss some aspect of small town life,  but I don't miss that particular small town..

 

[SloopJonB]

I miss some aspect of small town life,  but I don't miss that particular small town..

Actually, they're all pretty much the same.

"A glorious lack of sophistication".

 

[Donald Trump's Cat's Ass]

When i was a child i went to a school so small that during recess we had to play with ourselves

 

[Marcjsmith]

Actually, they're all pretty much the same.

"A glorious lack of sophistication".

Yes,  but,  as my real estate agents says.  “It’s all about the location”.  

Small town on an island in the tropics.   Yeah baby....

snall town in lower slower Delaware.....meh 18 years was more than enough...

 

[LB 15]

Went reluctantly to a 30+ year high school reunion last year and confirmed my view of such things.

The dullards are still dullards, the fun dudes are still fun dudes and the skanks are still skanks.

The conversations are as boring as batshit and the desperate attempts to self aggrandise are truly vomit inducing.

Had a bit of a chuckle about the super-macho football hero who had become a tranny.... nttiawwt, much.

A bit like high school really.

But they all spoke so highly of you...

 

[Last Post]

But they all spoke so highly of you...

I couldn't give a fat rats rectum what those tossers think of me and certainly wont be bothering with any more reunions. I would rather spend a night rearranging my sock drawer.

 

[FillYourBoots]

I'm personally grateful that it wasn't there to record many of my youthful indiscretions... 

Amen to that. My brother was the cop that did the transition from paper to computer files.

Losing my ill spent youth has made a big difference

 

[Ventucky Red]

Went to one reunion right after college where this girl  women walks in and the whole room goes silent...  I mean we're talking hot.. a Terri Hatcher...Kim Bassinger mix wearing a dress I am almost certain she had to be poured into.. The rumbling starts with "whose wife is that, to someone had a lot of work done... typical catty bitch shit"  Turns out it was one of our classmates, one that I have known since 4th grade and a neighbor that was a late bloomer.  What surprised me was how many of the guys were tripping over themselves with the "hey remember me line" with their wive's standing right there to the haggard has-been working on their second marriage cheerleader types we're looking to be friendly to which I know they didn't give her the time of day back then.. 

A year later I was back visiting my parents and we ran into each other.. literately.. I was out running as was she..    Over some lunch we came to the same conclusion... those of us that got the hell out of Dodge did well, those that stayed got stale.

 

[LB 15]

Now this thread needs music...

 

[Lex Teredo]

College was good as well.  But I still had little desire to hang out with classmates.  I did for a few years after when I still lived in the area or when I would come home.  But once I was in the military, I was always moving around and rarely go back to where I grew up.  My military friends are the ones I will have for life. 

High school was okay but mostly drudgery and I could never figure it out... was one of the more or less popular kids in theory, did three sports, got into a good college, didn't have a clue, shares sentimental space with trips to the doctor and doing chores, something I had to do.  Flunked out of engineering school, straight into the Army.  Figured shit out, did some wild things, made a lot of friends, some of whom I still have.  That service stripped you down to the bare elements and shitheads got hounded out of the unit pretty quick, after that you realize that you can get along with decent people, but that a lot of people aren't decent or interested in getting along.  Dudes and a few women I'd sail with anywhere or do anything with, even if maybe we don't have the same taste in books. Didn't make the same caliber of friends after that finishing up undergrad and law school.  As a 30 year old 1L, you're a fish out of water, and the military experience just gave me a totally different world view.  Made me really consider things, including social contacts and friendships, and I realize the people who voluntarily choose to do things together, are usually better friends that than those who are friends just by happenstance. Sure, I know a few people I went through high school with... but we're not really friends in any meaningful sense, and some of them are so profoundly different I don't even know what we'd talk about after the first cocktail.

We find our own level as time goes on.  I'm close to people who live near me that I ride bikes with, and some of the people I sail with - these are like little fraternities.  There has to be a sort of natural fit to friendships, you can't force it, things have to be aligned in some meaningful way or it doesn't happen, and these days you need to have some intentionality about it.  People are mobile enough that if you don't tend to friendships they'll wither in the daily maelstrom - that neighbor you said hello to and chatted with every day is gone from your mind the day after he moves.  Fb is weird because it telescopes your friendships, the guy who is chief of staff for a senator can chat with the kid who saw you shit your pants in kindergarten, an ex-girlfriend can find you and crap on you if your permissions are set wrong - and really, how many of the Fb 'friends' are actual friends?  Fb gives the illusion that you have a lot of friends but it's very shallow.  A lot of our friendship is fake any more. My old classmates or casual Fb friends will gladly give me "big ups" or "thoughts and prayers" if something goes sideways in my life, which are nice sentiments.  You fuckers, on the other hand, or the folks I compete against, would drive your boat off course in the fog on a stormy night to pull me out of the water, as I'd do for you.  Ponder that.
 

 

[Point Break]

High school was just high school, didn't go to college in the traditional setting, the military was....different.....so my lifelong friends are mostly firefighters.....but after 37 years of literally living 1/3 of my life with them and facing hard things together as a team, I think thats only natural. Other than one couple, any others that are not firefighters are connected in emergency services in some way doc's, ambulance folks etc. 

 

[austin1972]

Had a great aunt & uncle who lived in these beautiful log cabins on Lake Leelanau (sp?) near Traverse City. 

My cottage is an hour south of there. Onekama. We'd sail to Leland and stay the night before popping up to Beaver Island the next day.

I loved FishTown as a kid.