it was in grade school & he was a wimp.

now? he's 6'4", 280lbs or so.

he can take care of himself.

I hated high school. We were poor. Poor, poor. But my mother, somehow, came up with the tuition to send me to a Catholic high school because I'd get a better education there. Which I wasted. I was smart enough, but I didn't care - I didn't see the point. My classes were boring, and I had no idea what I wanted to do in college (or how we were going to pay for it).

I was an outcast pretty much the entire four years. I was already an atheist, for one thing. I was chubby and unathletic. I wasn't outgoing at all. I didn't have enough money to dress like the "rich" kids did (this was back in the early 80's, when "preppie" was in - poor kids have an easier time blending in these days...). My high school class was made up of ivy-league snobs, spoiled preppie princesses and jocks. And if you weren't "in", you were out.

I made two kinda-sorta friends in four years, and I've seen one of them once since graduation. They still live in town, and they didn't even go to the 10 year reunion. I went, but only because my wife wanted to go. I had no desire to see any of them again and I still don't.

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that brings up another good question...

have any of you attended your class reunions?

me: NO WAY IN HELL!!!

the people i wanna see/talk to/correspond with, i do...the rest can kiss my ass.

just one. see my earlier post for details.

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I'd only go if I could show up with a supermodel wife arriving on a solid gold hoverboard wearing a monocle, blowing cuban cigar smoke in people's faces. If I can't be that obnoxious it's not worth it.

Didn't really like high school. I had a lot of fun, but I wasn't challenged or stimiluted in any way. I had to quit sports to have a job to have the things the rich kids got for free. See I have always hated rich people. Was pretty much an alcoholic by the time I graduated because that is our culture.

Showed up at my 10 year reunion with the very fine future Mrs. Dakota and the jocks who got all the undeserved pussy in high school were eating their hearts out. That was very satisfying to me.

My regrets from high school was not tagging all the girls that wondered why I never asked them out. The song Glory Days by Springsteen doesnt' mean dick to me. My glory days were my 20's; high school was a joke.

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I went to my 25th. And I enjoyed myself.

Though, come to think of it, I mostly talked with people I also went to grade school with.

The odd thing is that since then, I have semi-regularly regretted not keeping in touch with those few people I talked with at the reunion. I've never been good at keeping in touch, nor have the people who I've hung out with been good at keeping in touch. Unlike most people, I don't have any of those "lifelong" constant friends. I've had a few friends at each stage of school/work, but each time I move on, that group fades away. Lots of people over the years that I'd "recognize" if I happened to run into them, and they me, but keeping in touch? A couple from college (I've been to three of those reunions, since I teach at the school, I can't avoid some of them), couple more from grad school...that's about it. But there are a few at each stage who I yearn to have kept in touch with.

When I get psychoanalytic and whiny about it (as opposed to taking personal responsibility for being a fuck up), I blame high school for this, too. With the exception of my high school girlfriend, I was pretty much past ready to get out of high school and on to college. And even that ended badly -- I haven't seen or talked to her since my freshman year in college. Literally, I don't even know if she's still alive.

I know no social institution, save perhaps political parties, that more demands conformity of its participants more than high school. That's why cliques are so damn prevalent -- cliques are all about conformity to some pseudo-shared vision of "how everyone ought to be if they are going to be worth anything". Even the parts of high school thought of as being most nonconformist typically expect their own version of conformity: artists wear black and must be misunderstood; geeks suck up to teachers and need to take advanced college placement classes; etc.

I wonder if anyone has ever done a study correlating "success in conforming in high school" with "going into party politics"?

This country will completely implode before we recognize the evils that compulsory public education has wrought (declining literacy, unrecognized conformity and incivility to the different), but if I could wreak one major change to prevent the implosion, I'd reduce the mandatory schooling age from 16 to 14 (or perhaps 12). This would put the responsibility for adolescents back where it belongs -- on parents and older siblings -- and would put the responsibility for "training" back on masters of skills and trades.

Won't happen, of course. Despite ourselves, we've all been too molded by those damned high schools.

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Good stuff here.

I don't have that much to contribute. Liked my experiences but liked Junior High more, and liked college more than HS but not as much as JH.

As for reunions, didn't go. I went to two high schools and still have close friends from both, and keep in touch with the people I want to be in touch with.

I got horrible grades in HS but I didn't care back then and don't care now. I don't think grades translate to success after schooling. They also don't contribute to whether or not you're happy.

These kids nowadays, all they do is study and play videogames and they're miserable. Glad I was born when I was.

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"Glory Days".......i'm still waiting for mine! lol

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Wow....just read your post. I wish you would have been there for me! I would have loved to have a "protector".
It is true that i learned how to handle being bullied. But that didn't make it any easier.
I often wonder where the guy is today. Is he still a creep, or did he straighten out? Tom Safford was his name. Milwaukee Pulaski High class of 1975. So long ago, yet still makes me mad! LOL! I know....gotta get over it some day....right? LOL!
The one good memory i had of hgih school was getting laughs. I was the "class clown" even back then.

When i finally went to college in 1989 i was treated VERY well. By the guys AND the ladies! It was alot more fullfilling then high school. And i finally applied myself and had over a 3.0 average.
(Plus i was STILL the "class clown!!!)[grin1]

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