My high school experience varied from year to year. But it was a small Lutheran high school with 65 students in my class so we all pretty much knew each other at least by name.
I had outside stuff going on: I spent a ton of time on computer bulletin boards chatting with people from elsewhere in the Twin Cities and I eventually started going to SF cons, etc. I was into TV, music, movies,b ooks, (watching) sports, all things pop culture. So I always had stuff I could talk about with classmates, but mostly I was quiet and read a lot, but I had a few people I'd joke with during class or sit with during lunch sometimes.
It was funny at my 10 year reunion how I learned from a couple of friends that they just thought "I had other stuff going on" and was somewhat "above high school" or something. I found out in the years after high school that some guys were interested in me, that others thought I was just . . . apart. Not stuck up, but busy with something else. I was perceived as smart and my own person and that's cool, really (though while in school I had the lowest self-esteem imaginable a lot of the time). Being more social might've been nice, but I didn't drive and lived 20 miles from where I went to school. (It was weird, all my BBS friends thought I lived way in the sticks, all my school friends thought I lived in the big city. Actually it was just Mound, but it meant most people weren't willing to pick me up to go places, etc. kalikanzara is one of the few who would pick me up in Mound).
I never noticed the stuff about who was dating whom. Didn't care, didn't pay attention. I didn't notice much in the way of bad stuff either, but that doesn't mean some kids weren't picked on-- I just didn't notice.
Our class was one of overachievers so almost everyone was in AP classes and also involved with sports and/or band and/or choir and/or drama club. It was nutty. I didn't do the extracurricular stuff much (yearbook, school paper when we had one), but was in the AP classes. I learned later that some of the folks in my class who didn't get good grades and didn't go out for sports or other extracurriculars got really really sick of hearing from teachers and other adults how freaking awesome our class was. Wow, I can understand that!
But really. Mild-mannered Lutheran school in a small rural town in Minnesota. Was all pretty tame. A blast for some, okay for others (like me).
no subject
I had outside stuff going on: I spent a ton of time on computer bulletin boards chatting with people from elsewhere in the Twin Cities and I eventually started going to SF cons, etc. I was into TV, music, movies,b ooks, (watching) sports, all things pop culture. So I always had stuff I could talk about with classmates, but mostly I was quiet and read a lot, but I had a few people I'd joke with during class or sit with during lunch sometimes.
It was funny at my 10 year reunion how I learned from a couple of friends that they just thought "I had other stuff going on" and was somewhat "above high school" or something. I found out in the years after high school that some guys were interested in me, that others thought I was just . . . apart. Not stuck up, but busy with something else. I was perceived as smart and my own person and that's cool, really (though while in school I had the lowest self-esteem imaginable a lot of the time). Being more social might've been nice, but I didn't drive and lived 20 miles from where I went to school. (It was weird, all my BBS friends thought I lived way in the sticks, all my school friends thought I lived in the big city. Actually it was just Mound, but it meant most people weren't willing to pick me up to go places, etc.
I never noticed the stuff about who was dating whom. Didn't care, didn't pay attention. I didn't notice much in the way of bad stuff either, but that doesn't mean some kids weren't picked on-- I just didn't notice.
Our class was one of overachievers so almost everyone was in AP classes and also involved with sports and/or band and/or choir and/or drama club. It was nutty. I didn't do the extracurricular stuff much (yearbook, school paper when we had one), but was in the AP classes. I learned later that some of the folks in my class who didn't get good grades and didn't go out for sports or other extracurriculars got really really sick of hearing from teachers and other adults how freaking awesome our class was. Wow, I can understand that!
But really. Mild-mannered Lutheran school in a small rural town in Minnesota. Was all pretty tame. A blast for some, okay for others (like me).