did you like High School?

[GH85Carrera]

I was an Air Force brat and changed schools all the time so I did not have any friends I had known for more than months. My parents had friends from birth to death, that part is alien to me.

8th grade was the worst. I was 50% of the Haole (Caucasian) population at the Wiapau, school in Hawaii. I had several mokes that loved to torment me. Not even Chuck Norris as an 8th grader can whip and entire school of kids and some of them were the BIG Samoan boys. Every Friday was "kill Haole" day and since there was only one other Haole in the school I had to run a lot. There was only one teacher on campus that would stop the abuse. That teacher had to beat up one Samoan kid when he saved me from a pounding. The principal just wanted to ignore the problem and she would not do anything.

I was thrilled that we got to move on base to Hickam AFB and we went to Radford High school the next year and the population was 50-50 with white kids so the local boys could not torment the white kids.

Then we moved to Montgomery, AL and the school I went to was 75% black. I became the photographer for the newspaper and the yearbook and every kid in school wanted me to take their picture and get them in the yearbook or the newspaper.

Of course once again I was the Glen the new kid as a Junior. That is the only school I got to go to for two years in a row since the first grade.

So to answer the original question, I hated Freshman class, Sophomore class was OK and as a Junior and Senior it was OK.

[Rickysa]

Hated it...couldn't get out of there soon enough (late '70s).

First day of college was one of the greatest days ever.

[RANDY P]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

I was thrilled that we got to move on base to Hickam AFB and we went to Radford High school the next year and the population was 50-50 with white kids so the local boys could not torment the white kids.

Ha, I spent a year at McKinley- almost went to Radford.

Beat a Haole Day is a real day there. I got ****ed with for sounding like a Haole - I was so good they wanted me for the debate team.

I hung with the brothers from LA, there were a few there.

rjp

[calimedeiros]

hate it just came from portugal didn't know much English and went straight to high school not many friends but I also didn't let anyone take advantage or pick on me
I always beleived even to this day that if I had to do things I didn't wanna do to be cool and get accepted by others I pick not to do them
friends come and go and even then it's really hard to figure out who's really your friend

[Oh Haha]

Not really. I was not popular although I had a steady girlfriend most of the time.

We were just a middle class family but the high school hosted most of the "rich" kids.

I enjoyed my life outside of school hours much more. My best friend was 4 years older and had a cool car(Bandit Trans Am and then a 68 GTO). We also started our band during my junior year.
In my senior year I only had to be there in the am for a few required classes and worked through the co-op program at Pizza Hut in the afternoon.

My 30 year reunion is this summer and my HS girlfriend contacted me about attending. I doubt we will go. Nothing against anyone, I just don't like those kind of events.

I couldn't wait to get out and not go back. I wish my parents had pushed me harder to get better grades. Self-motivation to learn was not for me.

I have my marching band shirt and jacket from 1982 when we were in competition in Daytona Beach. It's hard to believe I was actually that scrawny.

[look 171]

High school? its just a place to go and more hoops to jump through. Learned a few things, but I was your typical C student. I didn't hang out with any groups, belong to any clubs, or play sports but x country just to keep in shape during winter for bike racing in the summer. I did go to high school with Heidie Fleiss. She sat one seat in font and one roll over in Driver Ed but she never said one word to me or anyone for that matter. No reunions, no Face book for me. A really hot looking but very stuck up girl from way back now lives about a block down the hill from us. She never said anything to me in class, and she still doesn't when my wife and I waved and said hello to them as they hike by up the hill for a walk Saturday mornings.

One of my kid's classmate's mom happens to be an old friend from high school. Our families go to dinner sometimes so the kids can play. She keeps in touch with people so I get all the who's who. Funny thing is that, she seems to know how everyone's doing but really never talk to them but only read about them on a computer screen.

[BK911]

Only lasted through 10th grade.
But that was long enough to transfer schools twice.
Always the new guy.
Chicks loved the new guy.
Dudes not so much.
But overall it was fun while it lasted.
Much better than the navy!

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Nope. I appreciate the education (which was quite good) but I didn't really care for that whole experience. If I had to do it again I'd do a lot of things (just about everything actually) differently.

[masraum]

Never done the reunion thing and probably never will. Dad was in the Navy so we moved around every 3-ish years so no long term friends.

[sammyg2]

High school was cool, played football and baseball got good grades, too many different girlfriends. Easy to get harder to keep.

I had a job at a gas station working nights and weekends for car and gas $$$, that kinda ruined some of the fun.

[ledhedsymbols]

Being a kid in general was miserable for me. I won't elaborate, but I can say that my home life was a mess and my school life reflected that perfectly.

High school was marginally better at the beginning, we had moved to a bigger city and had some more options to fit in. This school had other misfits too. The last two years were a wreck. My family was disintegrating around me, and I had no idea what to do. I barely managed to graduate, and headed off to the Navy.

I learned who I was and what I was about in that time. It taught me a valuable skill-set that I still use to feed my family. I've never been back for a reunion or anything like that. I'd just as soon forget my entire childhood.

[MRM]

I did not enjoy high school while I was there but I grow more fond of it as the years pass. I don't live near any former schoolmates and I don't keep in touch with anyone by Facebook or anything like that. But I do very much enjoy our five year reunions. We had a small class in a very rural district and despite my discomfort with most everyone else in school, most of them were really good kids.

At our five year reunion most of the people were huddled in corners eyeing the other former cliques suspiciously, trying to decide whether to negotiate or renew old rivalries. One of our more well adjusted classmates, who happened to be well liked and well respected, went around to people telling us to let bygones be bygones and to mix with each other as adults. That set the tone for that reunion and the rest of them over the years.

From then on attending reunions has been like being in a time machine. Every time I see the class it's like I hit the five year fast forward button. We all remember each other as high schoolers and its fun to look at each other and see a spark of the kid we knew gleaming in the aging middle aged duffer in front of me. Wait, that's when I look in the mirror!

Anyway, the memory of high school is much better than the real thing and the adults are much more pleasant to be around than the kids. I'm glad I don't have to do it over again.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

9th grade, Catholic school in MN, was assistant to the football team trainer, that and Roseanne S. and my hot German teacher would run her fingers through my hair made it an amazing year.

10th grade was TX and I still hate my parents for it.

11th and 12th was western MA where I started off as a dishwasher at high end French restaurant and was cooking on the line as a senior. Worked 40 hour weeks as a junior and senior, loved it.

[tedg04]

When I was in it I didn't appreciate HS for what it was and wouldn't have said I enjoyed it at all. Now that I look back, I had a great time for four solid years. I was a band nerd, but a drummer so the coolest of the band nerds. My group of friends and I were not the most popular kids in school; however, we managed to get along with just about everyone and were welcome in pretty much any crowd. Were they my glory years and the best time of my life? Not quite. But, I still see some friends from HS periodically for poker night, camping, etc.

All that said, I'm not very far removed from HS (compared to the rest of the forum). My 10yr reunion was last summer, and I went only because I live less than 20mi from where the reunion was held. Ten years wasn't long enough for some of them to grow up, and some didn't show that I wish I could have caught up with.

[arcsine]

No and Yes.

I too was an air force kid and moved much. From 8-11 grade was in four different houses, four different schools, two states and two countries. Not a great way to set down roots or maintain friends. The first year of HS was in England at an RAF base and it was pretty good time. Moved to Tacoma for the Junior-Senior years. I cannot remember anything positive about the junior year but the senior year was OK. I stayed in contact with a couple of friends and forgot everything else. Never been back for a reunion which by now is 34 years ago.

College was MUCH better.

[Seahawk]

I enjoyed HS for what it was, but I had an easy passage. Playing sports certainly helped but I was smart and knew how to navigate HS shoals: I wanted to have fun and then get on with the rest of my life. HS was a necessity, not a destination.

Living in a rural area and going to a suburban school certainly insulated me from a lot of the bravo sierra that passes for social interaction in HS: After practice I had to get back to the ranchette and get stuff done. I also worked and was always busy.

I have some very specific memories from those days, mostly the capture of unique circumstances in my mind's eye; some foolish, some boorish, others simply the remembrance of having fun.

[Nostril Cheese]

It wasnt terrible, but It wasnt amazing either. I enjoyed woodshop and metalshop. I hated math until I took Calculus and realized I was taught math wrong. Graduated a year early at 17. I was the only kid who rode a motorcycle (CB750) to school and got voted Most Unique in my senior class.

[onlycafe]

we didn't get on well, the high school and i.
i got kicked out..... subsequently i was a prime suspect when it burned down.
no, i didn't do it.

[Cajundaddy]

HS was a formative experience for me. I had two dozen friends that had all grown up together so always had pals. I figured out very early that not much learning would take place in class so absorbing myself in music and sports kept me sane. The music and sports stuck with me for the rest of my life but I honestly couldn't tell you what other classes I took. I dated quite a bit but was still pretty clumsy with girls which is probably a good thing. There might be a lot more 40 yr olds around that look like me if I had developed those skills in HS.

I went to my HS 40th reunion last year and it was cool seeing faces I hadn't seen since we graduated. Everyone was very warm and friendly. I did wonder how all those former HS cheerleaders could possibly eat so much though. Whew!

Yes, college life ROCKED!

[legion]

As a tall, skinny guy who was reasonably smart and didn't fit in the with jocks, rich kids, over achievers, or stoners and got the crap beat out of me more times than I can count: