What kind of high-school experience did you have? Were you in a clique? Were you popular, unpopular, the coolest kid in your Homeschool? Did you have a sweet jean jacket with patches, or maybe a leather vest? Were you an evil villain or a Mary Sue?
@RickiTarr High school started out kind-of meh.. then I met the punk kids at my school and had a pretty good time. No sweet gear, but I did have a lot of white t-shirts with home grown designs drawn on with sharpie.
I CONQUERED MY HIGH SCHOOL AND FORCED THE PRINCIPAL TO KISS MY FEET AT AN ASSEMBLY. I THEN LED THRONGS OF ADOLESCENT OMICRONIANS ON A TEAR ACROSS THE KNOWN SCHOOL DISTRICT, LIBERATING YOUNG MINDS FROM THE BUREAUCRATIC AND OPPRESSIVE PEDAGOGICAL HIERARCHY OF OUR CULTURE.
THEN MY DAD THREATENED TO VAPORIZE US ALL WITH HIS PHASE MATTER BLASTER UNLESS WE KNOCKED IT OFF. IT WAS A SHORT-LIVED BUT POPULAR REBELLION.
@stephanie@RickiTarr How the fuck do you eat lunch in the bathroom that is litterally the most unsanitary thing ive ever heard. what if someone knocks on your stall do you just hide your lunch and pretend your not eating. How are you not liked that bad bro Ive seen people litterally say some of the most vile things in the world and still are able to eat at the lunch table
@chriskrchr@stephanie@RickiTarr oh well like in american bathrooms theres a door that you can lock. I knew assholes that would purposefully slam on the door to share the shit out of the person that was trying to use the bathroom. it was fucked up but really funny
@DemocracySpot@stephanie@RickiTarr Im sorry its just like. what happens if someone really has to use the bathroom and your using the other stall do you grab your lunch and walk over to the next one. its just really funny im sorry
She wasn't eating in the bathroom because she thought it was the ideal place to eat her lunch. She ate in the bathroom because she was unpopular, which implies that eating in the bathroom was a better experience than eating with her peers. Which implies all kinds of unpleasant things about how her peers treated her.
So maybe try replying with some empathy rather than making fun of her?
@RickiTarr Contradictory. I was very well-known among adults: educators, intellectuals, local literature circles. Published poetry, wrote for local newspapers, participated and almost always won or was in top3 in math(and other school subjects) contests, up to the point of teachers arguing with each other to which one I should go if the two are at the same time or, on the contrary, asking me to not go to this subject this year so some other kid had a chance because they need it more. Also, all the poetry declamation contests, and was pretty often asked to be a host of school events, write semi-official epigrams, speaches, etc. Also, drawing school posters, writing and even leading the school newspaper for some time. Was quite busy with all of those activities.
At the same time, for other school kids I was a walking encyclopedia - and nothing more. They copied my works, asked me to retell them short summaries of all the literature we were supposed to read (was a lot, literature was compulsory subject in my country back than, and I’ve been the only one in my class who actually read full text of War and Peace and similar books) - but none of them was seeing me as a person or as love/sex interest. I’ve been catcalled at streets by men aged 35+, but none of the guys I’ve been studying with have ever seen me as a girl. I had zero accounts of being hit on, zero romance stories. I wasn’t actively bullied in the high school because other kids were smart enough to not mess with me because they may need my help with homework (and I never refused to help, sometimes going as far writing essays during a class for me and a couple of other people - but that didn’t make anyone my friend, of course)
About a year after finishing a school, when I was in university, I went back to my hometown for the spring break, and I was walking a street, and met two of my former classmates, and the guy were ‘wow, Olena, so glad to see you!’ - and each of them was asking me for a date and I was there totally frustrated, like ‘where had your attention been when we were classmates?’ - It was not an ugly duckling story or something, I looked exactly the same as I did a year before that, just maybe wearing jeans and a turtleneck instead of formal clothing (jeans were forbidden in my school)
@RickiTarr
This photo has been taken on my first morning in the capital, an hour after I arrived by a train, a day after my high school graduation ceremony. I went to apply to a university(you had to do that in person those days there). I’ve been full of dreams and unrealistic expectations after being kinda big fish in a tiiiiiiiny pond and honestly having no idea about so many aspects of real life
@RickiTarr
Wow, I have been thinking about what I would respond with and I'm like holy shit.
Poor kid moved all around up to the 10th grade. My high school's highest grade when I got there was 10th, new school. My class were the seniors at the school for 3 years. My father died when I was 17 so I was the adult from then. I was smart, at least in math. I had charisma but was a class clown of sorts to cover my awkward, I missed social cues. I was a kind of a pity case so people were nice to me
@RickiTarr Absolutely horrible. I’d been bullied for my almost entire compulsory school period, and my mom decided that I need to go to upper secondary, as it’s volitional in Finland. This basically meant three more years of bullying.
I usually either hung out with two girls who also were sort of outcasts from secondary school, or by myself listening to music through earpods so I wouldn’t have to listen to the name calling. Just barely passed, and wanted to get away from there.
@RickiTarr I went to a public HS, with 400/grade. My life was science and music. Most of my friends were same, plus debate. Loved HS, hated jr. high, where I was bullied every day for 3yrs, as was my older sister. She still has emotional scars.
@RickiTarr I attended public school in grades 1-12 (age approx 6-18). As an unpopular social misfit, I did well academically but didn’t make lasting friendships easily. Most of the bullying stopped by the end of ninth grade when my buily’s brother forced one bully to leave me alone. It was better to walk two miles home every day than endure being kicked, pushed to the ground, or spit on. It’s been about 30 years since I graduated. I left town and plan to never return.
@RickiTarr Mine was a big city school and my experience was pretty much drama free. Everyone seemed to have gotten over teasing and bullying. Each group had their own hang out spot and didn't clash. I was with the geeky kids behind the cafeteria.
I don't think it was that easy for everyone, but I'd been mercilessly teased up until then so I was pretty content.
@RickiTarr When I was in high school, Styx and Queen were charting. I don’t remember a lot about those years, except I didn’t like most of my classes. I had friends, some I knew since kindergarten, but I wasn’t in any clique. We had them, but I just didn’t care. I was too busy working or tinkering with electronics. I did go to prom, if that means anything. And, oh, I had a school jacket, but I lost it a year after graduation. And we called McDonald’s “Mickey D’s.” I remember that.
@RickiTarr was the outsider that got blamed for everything. I specifically asked to be removed from my class registry, so I never had to deal with those bastards again.
@RickiTarr one of the only regrets I have from high school is not getting my senior year yearbook. I had a friend who worked on the yearbook who made a page dedicated to me in it. I have never gotten a chance to look closely at it, but I do know they only did that type of page for a few people who the yearbook class considered “notable.”
@RickiTarr I was part of the handball and basketball groups, and I was also part of the nerd group. We played QIII and CounterStrike. So I'd say I was neither popular nor unpopular. Everyone knew my name. No one would notice if I was missing.
High school was also when fibromyalgia hit me, and when I had my first secret gay romance.
@RickiTarr
My frosh year I was lonely with zero friends in a 2000 student school. Straight D's. Was sent against my wishes the next year to a very small private "academy", was again alone until one Friday when I was befriended by one person, then another and another, got drunk, high, went to a school dance, and was pulled on the dance floor by the tomboy I had a huge crush on, we made out, and my life was changed permanently.
Almost 50 years later and all still friends. We have a texting group.
@RickiTarr not popular or unpopular, I played a few sports and was in clubs like chess club , German club so my friends were a very diverse group to say the least.. wore a tshirt and jeans every single day and was one of biggest people in the school so even though I leaned nerdy my friends and I were left alone by the many jackasses at my HS..
@RickiTarr I was 5'2" tall when I started, and 6'2" when I graduated; growing 1/4"/month meant my clothes never fit. That, braces on my teeth and zero sportsball skills pretty much sealed my fate as a geek.
Had a good bunch of geek buddies, though. It was okay.
@RickiTarr You know how people say, “I hated high school!”
I LOVED IT. I’d go back in a heartbeat. :)
I was Big Man on Campus. Captain of the basketball team, captain of the volleyball team, captain of the “Reach for the Top” team (a version of Jeopardy for high school teams of four), popular with both the jocks and the nerds, liked by teachers, and a real shit disturber to the rule makers in the administration/Principal’s office.
@RickiTarr Bridged multiple groups: Offensive Line in Football, AP/College Classes, Violin in Orchestra. Generally had a good time, but did not really understand social situations. Later I found out someone liked me because my name showed up in graffiti in the girl's bathroom. Never found out who that was though!
@RickiTarr Well this is the part where I got violently sick...
But!
Everyone feared/respected/liked me because I am very smart (street and book) and the teachers were pretty sure I was "one bad day away from becoming a super villain" 😜
This normal guy (they are always normal) lives with his 2 cats and kinda bummed out, no bank load for a perfect middle aged new career, bar owner
But his distant rich uncle (they are always rich) with world reaching connections to crime, dies and gives him the global spy business that uses 🐈🐈⬛high tech and never gets caught, he becomes a Super Villian CEO https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Scalzi
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