Something Jeremy said in another thread about high school really resonated with me, and inspired this thread.

So, a little bit of a research question and nosiness on my part...as always please ignore this if you don't want to put this personal info on the table...

Do you consider your high school experience on balance to be bad or good?

Here's my response:

Good: the girlfriend I had my senior year (still the best relationship I've ever had); being a top academic student; enjoying math and band in particular. Doing lots of things I liked (academics, band, cross country, science, chess, basketball, etc.); my brother coming home from college and law school; my dad.

Bad: hazing; not being challenged or challenging myself academically; worrying way too much about what other people think; listening too much to others and putting myself down too much; spending too much time thinking about girls and not enough time pursuing them (first three years); losing my brother; not taking enough advantage of my brilliant, artistic, businessman, master plumber dad, my dog.

Overall: negative, but if to do over, wouldn't give up the good to get rid of the bad.

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What a subject, Wade. This is really cool for me since I only have a few years to look back on but can still see how much my life has changed.

Good: Friends some of the best times in my life spent with guys I almost never talk to anymore, sports- basketball, tennis, golf, knowing all the teachers and kids at my school, playing music with my childhood friends and playing shows, not worrying about money at all, not caring abouot what I'll do after school, and being with my family so much.

Bad: I wasn't a Christian in high school, not noticing or caring what was going on in the world, some of the girls weren't so great, not caring about my family as much as I do now, and being complacent with my life.

Overall: I loved high school because of my friends. Without them I don't know what would have happened.

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I have to ask, Wade.. Which thread inspired you?

When someone asks what my high school experience was like, I tend to lump in my out of school experiences in with my high school experiences. Those years are typically the most influential and formidable years in our lives and EVERYTHING that happens to us during that time frame almost certainly helps shape who we are to become.

Good: Football. Some times with friends. Being at school was a way for me to get away from family issues. Not that my family issues were bad, but I was the oldest of 6 kids and my dad was a over the road trucker and my mother at the time was picking up 2nd and 3rd shift hours for extra money. Often nights I babysat my siblings and after they all went to bed I would clean the kitchen, dining and living rooms. School, along with football, was an escape from responsibilities for me I think. Good teachers. No seriously, I recall a handful of teachers that have done an amazing job with me and their teaching styles, while different, we VERY effective for me.

Bad: I was a clique-breaker. I didn't belong, perse, to any one group or clique, but was minorly involved in pretty much them all. But because of that, I didn't have a big group of friends I hung with a lot. I was too shy and afraid of girls. Waaaaay unsure of myself and my abilities. Bad teachers sucked.

Overall: Good. I didn't want to leave high school in many different ways when it came to graduation time.

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Good: had a lot of fun, the last two years had a low amount of classes (junior I had 5 out of 8 classes, senior I had 2 out of 😎, and free periods with the guys were fun. Met my lady there, a lot of memories, got to use the power tech. shop to work on my truck just about every day and the teacher liked me so much he would clean up for me 👍 , also met my best friend Kyle who is my motocross partner and best friend.

Bad: Sophomore year I moved and had basically no friends, nothing to do, and was miserable (started drinking then), I almost got arrested when I was accused of assaulting a teacher in a parking lot one night and I knew who really did it.

Overall: A lot of trucks, motorcycles, quads, beer, and especially fun. The parties we had were nuts, and I'm glad I spent my highschool career the way I wanted to.

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Your response to wpr on the "$100,000 for one day" thread.

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great thread wade!

good: my 77 chevy silverado pickup, maroon, glass packs, chromed out & THE hottest truck in town. (can ya tell i miss that ole truck?) cruisin around town every fri & sat nite waiting to hear where the DR's were. getting into bars at 16 cuz the owners always thought i was a 'good kid'. (fools!) i also was not part of any cliques - once a rebel always a rebel. did my own thing, didn't give a crap what you had or who you were - if you were cool, i'd hang with ya. band. and flags. wow the fun i had with those.

bad: didn't apply myself at ALL in academics. i learned but didn't really give a shite about grades. the pressure to excel with my music - pushed me into a college that i didn't want to go to & eventually failing miserably trying to be a music major. kind of killed my love of playing music.

Sounds like a good ol' time, wish there were more of those kinds of people around here!

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My High School years really were like two completely different segments.. before and after thy wreck.

Before:

Good: Being biggest and stronger than most kids in high school, let alone my grade I excelled at two of the three big sports.. Football and Basketball. Baseball was coming with the addition of contact lenses in place of glasses, my strikeout rate was dropping and I was becoming a better overall pitcher.. starting really to locate my pitches in place of just trying to throw it by the hitters. Excelling at sports got me in most of the happenings.. dating wasn't an issue and overall felt invincible.

Bad: Allowed my ego to blind me from reality for the most part.. was immature, cocky and not the person I wanted to be when I looked in the mirror.


After:

Good: I was forced to mature and starting to learn to adapt and accept the realities of life (albeit during those years I did not see this benefit.), started to be the person I was prior to becoming a "jock" and layered a inner strength and calmness I use yet today.

Bad: I was a lost soul, drank way to much ( drinking from a liter of vodka was a common before school, during breaks, etc) depressed and angry. Oh so angry at myself and the world.


Overall: I had no choice but to either swim in the river of life or drown myself in self pity and rage.. and I gave it a hell of a run at the later. Yet, through it all.. again.. it forged a hardness, a calmness, an understanding of the challenges of life that has powered me daily from there. Overall it was positive.. even through I lost my life long dreams, it taught me more than that dream probably ever would have.

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I am too tired to read all of your posts tonight. Looks interesting.

My comments off the top of my head

I loved being a wrestler. I had a very few close friends. I had a decent job working at the local Hardees. I got a lot of hours and food and made a few bucks. My parents took care of nearly all my expenses so the money I made I could spend any way I wanted. I enjoyed most of my classes and instructors. While I did have some responsibility at home it was not overwhelming.
bad part would be I was not one of the most gifted kids in school with looks, brains or athletic talent. So naturally I was not very popular. I did under achieve in all aspects. I rarely went on a date. More of them my Sr year than the prior years. My freshman year was spent at a Catholic Seminary. That ended up being pretty miserable.

One of the things that helped was I was able to have some friendships with the athletic guy groups though not extremely close friendships. One of the things that hurt was my younger brother (2 years) was one of the kings of the school. Homecoming Rep Fr Soph & Jr year. King his Sr year. All State in football. Should have been All State in wrestling but he pissed it away. Many people live in the shadow of an older sibling. I lived in the shadow of my younger brother. Don't get me wrong. i love my brother and it was not his fault that he over shadowed me. I went to my 10 year HS reunion. A large number of people that I was my younger brother. They were certain HE was in THEIR class not me. When they found out I wasn't they asked about him. Other knew he was younger than we were. They still asked about him. I have never gone back to another reunion. We just had our 35th last summer. They were all busy on facebook making plans. I didn't go. I just don't care.

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Good: Can't think of anything. Looking back on high school if given the chance I would go back and do literally everything differently.

Bad: Slept through most of it. Had no confidence to go after girls that I really would have gotten had i tried. Quit sports because I was way too small to compete and would have spent all the time on the bench.

The more I think about those years the more I see how my parents divorced completely changed who I was and completely changed how my high school years went.

Given the chance I would not have decided to abandon my group of friends for another. I would not quit sports because of the size disadvantage, I would have used it as motivation to hit the gym hard. I would have chased all those girls I could have gotten. I would not have gotten sucked into pro-gaming. I would not have said no to all those opportunities I had to make bad decisions, just to stay home and do nothing. Bad decisions are what your teenage years are for. I would have not slept through every class. I would have worked my ass off to get into the best schools/programs I could. I would have cut my fucking hair.