13, 16, 18, Now - what were you like as a teenager?

[Jamieson 90]

Age 13:

A very well behaved, studious, preppy child who got good grades and wanted to do well in school but had no real friends or very few since I was somewhat socially awkward; I liked gaming and painting figurines and those sort of odd hobbies that didn't fit with the cookie cuter mold of high school - simply put I wasn't cool.

Age 16:

I had more friends and had mellowed out a lot and was no longer so eager to learn which was no doubt as a result of the friends I was hanging out with, although I was now a lot 'cooler', but I kind of realized towards the end of year 11 that my friends were holding me back and I tried harder with my studies, resulting in me leaving high school getting decent grades and much more socially aware and confident; suffice to say while my friends had a bad influence on me it was certainly a valuable learning experience.

Age 18:

College was probably the best time in my educational career as I made a lot of new decent friends that I still hang out with to this day, whilst ditching every single one of my old ones. I also really got into my studies since I could delve into topics I really wanted to learn. I was happy and doing well with my A-levels and really felt like I was achieving so life was good.

 

[loc978]

13- Confused, horny, growing body hair everywhere, and suppressing myself for religious reasons. Most of my friends were from church. Extremely painful time.

16- Starting to realize my religion was bullshit through study of both it and the sciences. Still horny and confused, already hairy as a wookiee. Most of my friends were of the social outcast/geek/punk/metalhead variety. I found myself physically defending a lot of them.

18- Left high school behind, most of my friends moved away, I started full-time college and simultaneous full time (plus, really. 50 hour weeks at work were light) work. I barely slept and had no social life.

22- Market fell out from under me and I was out of work. Joined the military.

25- Bitter, hardened killer. My social life was that of a particularly honest promiscuous barfly. The language barrier was actually a boon to me, living in Europe.

32 (now)- A little less bitter, a little less hardened, a little bit crippled (I'm at a standing desk and my leg is asleep. Happens randomly), no longer a barfly... I've got local friends I can go to house parties with again.

 

[Beffudled Sheep_v1legacy]

Hmmmm memory lane

13 - I was always tired, always angry, and always willing to bang anything that would also bang me.
I had a few very close friends and a lot of people that thought they were my friend that I manipulated and used more or less as tools. I got into a lot of fights and was fairly violent. My emotions were also wild and uncontrollable and I suffered from frequent and severe mood swings. Thoughts were dominated by suicide, violence and sex when I was able to think coherently. Not trusted with any sort of project and never worked in groups. Paranoid to an extreme. Severe drinking problem. Hated white people, the middle class and richer, the government, the country. Was religious and despised God with all my might. Had a soft spot for the homeless and children and did help them whenever I could.
B average grades.

16 - Almost nothing like my 13 year old self. My sex drive was dead and I was much less violent. I was still plenty angry but mostly sadness and depression replaced the previous anger. I had a few close friends but only one remained from my orignal group I had at 13 and earlier. Others were in prison, dead or junkies. I was fairly nice but socially awkward and just remained quiet for the most part and tried my best to be invisible. Mood swings were still frequent but less severe than before. Quit drinking alcohol. Hated the middle class and richer, apathetic about the government. Atheist, hated religion.
C average grades.
17 - Diagnosed as Bipolar. Pretty much the same as 16 except happier and with one more friend.

18 - Total 180 from 13 year old self. Violence is a frequent first solution to problems that pops up in my brain but otherwise I abhorred it. Got much more interested in Human Rights and the meaning of life. Mild sex drive and a few close friends. Same as my 16 year old friends plus a couple more. Much nicer and friendlier than ever with a much deeper ability for empathy (something my 13 and even 16 year old self lacked). Emotions are still unstable but I've learned to deal with the swings and aftermath better. Became more of a presence in my High School, making lots of "school friends", becoming a confident and powerful public speaker and established myself as a leader of groups and projects.
Entered into a successful romantic relationship with genuine emotional attraction (first time it happened in my life).
Started to take my life and future seriously. Got a job, became a good and reliable worker and entered college. Agnostic but fully accepting of other people's beliefs.

19 (current age, but I'm almost 20) - Finished my first year of College with a 3.6 GPA! Otherwise same as 18.

Wow, I fucking changed a lot. And for the better.

Information on myself at all ages was taken from personal recollection, journal entries, poetry writings, and from people that knew me at the time.

 

[N3squ1ck]

13 - (7th grade-ish, I think) Going to one of the biggest "Gymnasiums" (See it as the High School in Germany, I don't know how to explain it better), having a few, good friends partially still from Kindergarten. I hated school and didn't work much/ at all for it. Rather spent my time playing videogames (Empire Earth, Gothic, Age of Empires, a lot of Counter Strike (was a real CS kiddie with Clan and everything), also on LAN parties stuff like Quake 3 and Serious Sam)

16 - (11th grade-ish (skipped grade 8 due to a special program)) Still had a few friends, was quite happy, but still hated to go to school, didn't do anything for it, waited every year that they would not let me pass. The year before that I was bullied a lot. I went on a few parties but nothing really serious happened. I spent way more time playing videogames now, especially ones that weren't thought for my age, also got my PlayStation 2 a year before, but my dad took it for me for a reason I can't remember. Also I never had a GF to that point, although all my friends were in serious relationships around me. Also around that age I got into stuff like 4chan.

18 - Graduated from school that year, didn't know how I did that and didn't know what to do next. I was lost and confused and had no idea what kind of future I might have. So I started doing a voluntary social year program in Bavaria for which I moved away from home. I hated that job and I was no tpaid much. I lost most of my friends but 2 (I knew these guys for more than 15 years at that point), everybody from school pretty much left, during that year. Also I didn't like anyone in the town I was staying, so I had no IRL friend during that time.
Through chans and chats I met a nice Girl (20 y/old) from Ireland and fell in love with her. We visited each other as often as possible, but due to time and money limitations that was not all too often. I loved her quite a lot and she was my first real girlfriend.

20(now) - Started going to university in a new city 10 months ago, couldn't move there for almost a semester, so I had to drive 2 hours every day with the train to get there. During that time I was under a lot of stress and made some pretty huge mistakes due to which me and my gf broke up. When I finally was able to move to this town I now call home, I was very depressed, had just a few friends (my best friend from Kindergarden studies here too though), lost friend number two due to him becoming a holocaust denier and nazi (sympatizer? not quite sure what he is, and I don't care).
I spent my first months here being really often drunk and smoking a lot. I found some friends who turned out to be not friends at all, but then found some real ones.
Some weeks ago I stopped smoking, I found a job to finance my studies (till now I basically lived off my parents and what I saved up from the shitty job I had for a year), and I started going to parties with actually nice people.
Also I think I am in love again, and I fear that it will end in a big trainwreck, like my last relationship did. Or that I am just unluckily in love, or, or, or. Gna!

So yeah, I think I am starting to look a bit more optimistic in the future now (apart from social relationships, I am really not good at that)

 

[IshimaruHayato]

13-18 I've realized theres some weird alienation of kids who didnt like the same stuff they liked, so I kept to myself because I found that idealism stupid, I had my brother as a friend for a while so that was okay, we were ahead of our time trying to reason and talk to people like a normal human being, but kids acted like kids and bullies just acted like bullies as if they were playing the roles of characters in books. At least kids liked games, so I would relate to them on that. I had a hard time finding good games, though I did play alot of crash,spyro and sonic, game clerks couldnt give me a game that was suited to my taste until I played the tales series years later. I wanted to stop any evolutionary changes to my personality. But what that means is at the time I didnt want to ask out of character. Stuff like voice cracking,lashing out vocally, and believing I understand everything. While I was under the supervision of myself I spent my time trying to remember the the lyrics to City escape, watched and read alot of anime and manga and such. Somewhere along the lines there was an emo phase I wanted to avoid, my brother at the time just ran with it because he though it was cool to be depressed (phht yeah right). While I tried to keep myself happy I watched gurren lagann on the sci-fi channel and punched the emo out of me. So while I kicked out the emo at 15 my brother delt with it longer and embraced it any way he could until he was 17 or 18.(loser) What else I played alot of sonic adventure 2, watched alot of toonami. Then I found sites like roosterteeth and the escapist to share my thoughts on different subjects.

 

[DanielBrown]

13 - Started listening to metal about a year before and had begun to grow out my hair. Had tons of friends in school and no major issues.

16 - "Proper" metalhead, hung out with a huge circle of simular people and spent most of my time skipping school and drinking stolen beer in parks(staircases of apartment buildings during the winter). Didn't give a fuck and was quite the dreg.
Was both the worst and best time of my life.

18 - Had broken off with all my friends about a year prior. Was assaulted by some drug addict around the same time and spent about a year without hardly ever going outside. Due to the assult and isolation I developed social phobia and became a major pussy. Went to a new school after a sabbathical and often came drunk just so I could stand it.
Had two friends in my class that helped me get through it. Spent a lot of time in the schools music studio recording songs with them.

23(now) - The social phobia still fucks heavily with my life, but I have gotten a lot of help for it. Got a very small group of friends and spend most of my days at home. Working hard on getting my drivers license so I can get a job. Hopefully my life will go in a better direction then.

 

[DanielBrown]

Double post... Got three captcha errors. -_-

 

[cikame]

I've always been wise beyond my years growing up, that leads to a sense of disliking children for being loud and stupid so i never had many friends, didn't go out to party, didn't ever have the peer pressure to drink or do drugs.

13 - 24 nothing has changed i just work now.

 

[Headsprouter]

13 - Socially awkward, few friends, low self-esteem, and frequently angry at my school staff and classmates. had a tendancy to say a lot of really stupid/unfunny things randomly for attention. didn't do many things outside, and i started to grow out my hair in what became what you could call my "greasy period".

^I'll just use this. It's perfect for me. The only things I'd add/correct are the addition of "angry at myself" rather than teachers and classmates and this would be for making my own life really difficult.

16 - For GCSE I had stupidly picked Art and Drama for GCSE. Making this the worst and most embarassing 2 years of my school life. I have so many regrets from this time, but thankfully it was made better by my form class being such a brilliant group of people. I got more friends, but they weren't in my form class.

18(now) - Stopped trying to be cool and reaching for attention throughout A-level, and cut my hair. Now I feel slightly more happy about myself, and despite my honest efforts, still am failing school. But school is over now. I hope my results are better than the previous times.

On a more general note, no girls to be seen, but they don't seem to hate me, I have never felt as distant from my friends as I have now, although we're still in regular contact (I sometimes consider just disappearing completely). As a whole, I am unhappy at the minute and am considering big changes. I don't think I will get into University. I lack the confidence to try and get a job. My mother is trying in vain to prevent something which has already happened. My dad, sick as ever.

 

[MrMixelPixel]

(I'm gonna do mine a bit differently, because I'm only 17.)

13- Continuing the theme of socially retarded young teenagers, I didn't talk much because it seemed like everyone hated me. When I did talk it was usually to people who looking back on it, probably pitied me. The worst part was that my dad forced me to take P.E. as an elective because at the time he was really trying to convince that sports were cool and stuff. That class was horrid. Fuck. Middle School.

15- High school was actually fantastic. I started off kind of afraid and bitter, but apparently being angsty, aggressive, and apathetic can get you a lot of friends. And so it did. This large new influx of friends did however, muck up my grades a bit causing problems at home. However, I eventually found a good balance. Enough to where I got my first job as an office assistant. High School was great.

17/Now- Just recently having graduated, I had already received 17 college credits, and I'm currently re-taking PSC 210 over the summer. I'm either studying to get grades in my class, playing league with friends, or partying, with said friends. I'm currently working on trying to move out of my parent's house.

 

[TakeyB0y2]

At 13 - I was a socially awkward dork who only hung out with the uncool crowd, although I definitely was the least socially-awkward of the group and as such was the least picked on amongst the group and was even able to make plenty of acquaintances. I discovered Maplestory around this time and it kinda became my life for the next few years. Hey, not like I really had one outside the game anyways; I had no money, my friends had no money, I didn't really have hobbies or liked going to the movies or to the mall or whatever... So eh.

At 16 - My parents made me go to a different high school than my friends from middle school because that high school had a bad reputation. I made ZERO friends at this new high school, and dropped out of contact with many of the middle school friends I had and became pretty damn lonely. Eventually I got reconnected with some other people who went to middle school, a couple who I knew but weren't really friends with and their friends who I was just meeting for the first time. So basically during the week I was the loner kid with no friends, and then on the weekends I hung out with my friends who went to a different school. It made school life kinda sucky because I was always alone there, but at least I had people to hang out with on the weekend.

At 18 - I REALLY had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and yet my parents kept pressuring me to pick a college/university... RIGHT NOW! BEFORE GRADUATING! DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT NOW!!!!! Ended up being the biggest waste of a year every since I dropped out after my first year since the program I picked was really not what I wanted to do. On top of that, I was still a very socially awkward person, which didn't help in my college program as I was only able to pull myself to interact with the other socially awkward people in the class who also happened to be EXTREMELY lazy and unmotivated... Actually, I think if I took that program now as the MUCH less socially-awkward person I am today, I probably would've been able to actually socialize with the people in my class who WEREN'T the losers and maybe even finish it. Ah well...

At 20 - I worked a year at a store called Zellers, which is like Target but in Canada... Also it got bought out by Target last year and now we got Target in Canada... ANYWAYS, working at this bix-box retail store meant working with LOTS of different people who I had no choice but to interact with and get to know in order to work well. Working here REALLY brought me out of my social-awkwardness. At this time I still really had only the same friends I did back when I was 16. Every now and then I'd meet a couple people who I would hang out with or befriend for awhile, but would randomly stop hanging out with. When I stopped working at Zellers I pretty much dropped out of contact with EVERYONE I worked with, even those I considered friends back when I was working there. I think it was the lack of commonality. I also went back to college later this year, taking a 6-month course to become a Medical Office Assistant, just to get out of retail and into a job that pays decent.

Now at 21 - Sooo, I actually graduated from this program and I'm currently working at a medical clinic. My circle of friends hasn't changed much at all since when I was 16, but I can feel a change needed soon. The one friend in that group who I've considered my best friend for the last two years or so keeps giving me the feeling that deep down he's really dissatisfied with us or just isn't really enjoying being around us anymore. On top of that, many of us were planning on getting our own places together, but whether that's gonna happen or not just keeps getting thrown up in the air over and over again. Some of my friends are planning on moving to different cities or provinces, and one of them for a completely STUPID reason (oh, so some guy you went to school with and haven't seen in over a year just told you he liked you on Facebook and now you wanna move to another province and be with him, while also being willing to throw away your goal of going back to school... Yeah, that's rational). The girls in this group keep having pregnancy scares every now in then with guys who they've only been with for a very short time or were just having casual sex with... Blah... Yeah, my life is kinda centered on my friends maybe a bit too much, but outside my parents, who I'm stilling living with, I don't really have anyone else in my life.

Alright, I think that's enough venting.

 

[uzo]

Oy vey I feel old now.

13
Hospitalised a day before my 13th birthday because I broke damned near every bone in my body when my homemade rope-swing snapped mid-swing. The rope-swing wasn't that high really ... it was the cliff it was next to that was the problem. Socially no problems. I was the 'leader' of my little group of about a dozen, and the regular DM of my AD&D group as well. I had a few crushes but nothing serious (felt serious at the time though lol). Other kids at school considered me to be smart and funny, which made me popular. Not with the girls though - I was like Robin Williams. Everyone liked me but I was hardly a sex symbol. I was short, a little tubby, curly hair, and had thick glasses

16
Moved to London, UK, from Australia. Had a bit of trouble adjusting to a new school/new country - at my school in Australia I was an established 'power' in school politics, in London I was just that new kid from 'the Colonies'. Ultimately it turned out well - got my first, shall we say, 'intimate' gf (a French boarding student at my school who was Dux of the year - Christ knows what she was interested in with me); I was pretty good at soccer/football so I was accepted rapidly into the boys' cliques, and by virtue of being Aussie I was allowed a certain leeway in my rowdy convict-like behaviour. At this point I'd starting stretching/growing, so I was slimmer and taller. Still had glasses because my parents didn't want to pay for contacts. I'd consider myself ultimately very normal still at 16 - despite somewhat geeky interests (Blood Bowl and laser tag, for example) I dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and sneakers but paid no heed to music at all. Favourite shows were X-Files, favourite video game was Civ but I didn't really play that many games back then. Minor interest in the occult.

18
Back to Australia, finishing high school and onto uni. Became intensely arrogant and pretentious. Delved into the occult with a burning hunger to justify my elevated opinion of myself. I'd say I would tolerate myself at any point, except this point. I'd probably punch myself in the face if the now me met the then me.
There's a whole lot of shit happened between 16 and 18 for me. A big thing was that the shift to and from the UK meant I missed the changes in school dynamic in Australia. My core friends were still there and I rapidly assumed leadership of the group again, but we were down to a half-dozen. We'd become something 'different' as well, more of an out-cast group. Other groups wouldn't mess with us - we had school-yard cred that we were batshit crazy (fights within the group were frequent, and if any of the cool kids picked a fight they got hammered). Had zero success with the girls at my school in Aussie - my gf was from another school.

33 (Now)
I'm still arrogant, but not so pretentious (one of my nicknames is 'Pretentio the Magnificent' lol).
After uni I moved to Japan for 7 years, married a North Korean, and now have 2 kids (a 5yo son and a 3mo daughter). Don't really have a social life - once you've got kids you learn to do without. I'm writing a science-fiction novel in my downtime that I would love to see published one day, in a somewhat steampunk/cyberpunk setting (I know, they seem like opposites - imagine our world without gasoline, basically - tallships, airships, horse-drawn carriages, and nuclear steam trains and super fast internet). Cowboys with iPhones.

 

[WaysideMaze]

13 - Bit socially awkward, but I had my small group of friends. Was doing well at school, but I didn't really care, was just coasting by on my smarts.

16 - Just started college, not much has changed, still a bit awkward and nerdy, but I did start to find my own sense of self and style. Was finding college much harder, but still couldn't bring myself to care or try.

18 - Didn't know what to do with myself so went to uni. One of the worst years of my life. Ended up in dorms with a bunch of pricks I grew to hate, spent many nights just getting blackout drunk on my own. Kinda picked up towards the end of that year as I ended up meeting some people I could hang around with. In any case I didn't make it through the year and I left.

23(now) - The past few years have been strange for me. After I moved back home from uni I started to go out quite a lot that first year, and made some fantastic friends, but I still felt lost, like I had no direction. Was working a shitty paid job with shitty hours and my self esteem really took a pummelling. I started feeling really low and barely ever left the house (except for work). Getting in touch with me was just impossible, I just wasn't interested. Things picked up a little for me around October last year when I met this girl. It didn't work out, but it kick started my confidence boost, and about 6 months ago I decided I'd had enough of being a lazy layabout and decided to change. And right now I am perhaps the happiest I've been in a really long time. I honestly feel great!
I have a pretty well paid job (hours are terrible but I get my weekends free!), I have my own car, I've moved out of my mums house, and my social life is just awesome.
I've also gone from being around 19 stone at my biggest to around 13 now, which has also done wonders for my confidence.
Just hoping this year stays this incredible!

 

[Miyenne]

Hm.

13 - Worst time of my life. Overweight, pimply, frizzy haired little girl who was bullied relentlessly. It was terrible. I was terrible. I remember trying to be optimistic, but other than that it was just a sea of depression.

16 - First year of high school. I started to make friends and came out of my shell. I started taking more advanced placement classes with higher grades and feeling good about myself. Hung out with the hockey team boys, as one of my friends was the second goalie and I was in classes with the guys who were 1-2 grades ahead of me, and they liked me to help them with their homework. Forced myself to join the school play, even it was just as the sound technician. Met some guys in the booth who were real, honest friends. I'd never had guys as real friends, nor had I ever had guys looking out for me and protecting me. I actually started feeling like a girl, despite still being overweight. The pimples had cleared up and I'd learned to tame my hair at least.

18 - First year of university. My mom was threatening to divorce my father, my blind and deaf feeble grandmother was living with us and my sister and I ended up taking care of her for the most part because our mother spent all her time at the country club my dad couldn't afford to pay for, but she just had to go because her parents had been members and she had all her friends there. I was working part time, but thankfully I had scholarships and not so thankfully my grandfather had died and left me enough money that I made it through four years of university without student loans, although by the end I was broke and working full time and going to school full time. I remember seeing 3 am a lot. Emotionally I wasn't in a great place, but again I'd found a core group of friends that I enjoyed being with. Still overweight, and still not believing I was deserving of romantic relationships, I realize I missed a lot of invitations some guys gave me because I was naive.
Got addicted to FFXI and that was bad. And then WoW came out and for the next 6 years or so completely took over and ruined my life.

Now - 29 (30 in a month) - Uh. Pretty self confident now. I quit my stressful management job back in January and haven't been looking too hard for a new one as relatives from Australia are visiting in August and booking time off work would be a pain, so I'll look for one afterwards. Luckily I've always been very smart with money and have more inheritance so I don't have to worry about rent or bills too much. Also wrote a fantasy novel and published it online, but it hasn't been selling much at all. I'm about halfway done a sequel and am hoping I can finish it before I have to find a job. Otherwise, still single and overweight but now I know I'm rather good looking other than the weight. I'm happy with where I am in life, I live with my twin in a nice house and we have everything we want. There are things I wish I'd done differently, but I can't go back and change them so I don't dwell.

Although 30's kinda intimidating. My friends and I are all a little scared of it, there's five of us who all turn(ed) 30 this year. But I'm sure 30 and beyond will be good. I'm happy with my life now.

 

[Zipzip the Penguin]

Welp, I seem to be part of a minority here, seeing as I'm 16 year old with nothing else better to do than finish my Eagle Scout project planning and studying for the SAT. I have seen myself change a lot just over the past 3 years now, so I think I'll join the party.

13: Angst, angst, angst. I was one of those kids who was embarrassed of his childhood for all the stupid stuff he did. I took virtually everything in life seriously and demanded others did the same. Got top grades in school though, and my parents were happy with that. I had no interest in making friends, and I didn't get any. Frequently embarrassed myself in gym, and showed everyone at my school a false personality (still hate myself for that). Found the old Mechwarrior series, had some good times with that. Life was pretty miserable, and I had no one to blame but myself because everything had to be dark, gritty, and serious. I hated everything. Except science. Science was good.

16: I realized that taking life seriously at all was no fun and would only lead to misery and possible insanity. Got out of public school and into a homeschool group, loved the schedule flexibility. I got a brand spanking new computer for my birthday, my dad was always out of town and my mom was always working somewhere so I ended up spending the entire first half of my freshman year playing TF2 and Tribes. Mom finds out around February and eats me alive, spits me out and eats me again, tells me to bust my ass in school and my computer was hers until June. I try and haul ass on my school, end up stressing myself out to the point of seriously considering suicide before I realized I was being completely ridiculous and petty and decide to haul ass some more. School lightens up a bit after a while and I find some friends in the homeschool group's movie club and actually have a good time. I'm close friends with all 4 of it's members now, and we do Pathfinder (a version of D&D) on Saturdays. I go to a lot of parties with them (more often than not it's just us 5 guys), share a lot of stories, make some new ones, talk about video games and tabletops, eat a lot, hang out at Barnes & Noble, and look for funny glitches in Skyrim. I'm pretty sure this is the most fun I'm going to have in my entire life, and I'm loving every minute of it.

 

[sagitel]

so im very different from many of you!

age 13- i was very studious and well behaved. my teachers loved me. actually everyone in the school liked me.(those who knew me anyway. which were a good amount of people) but i distanced myself from the real world by creating an imaginary world and started living there more and more. it ended when i started hanging out with some new friends and in order to find something in common with them (which i rarely find with anyone) i had to come out of that world.

age 15- i learned that you can curse! yeah i know it was a little late but my family is super polite. and i went in a period which nothing actually mattered for me except if that thing had benefits for me. people still loved me and i was finding new friends everywhere. i didn't let any of them get close to me and i still enjoyed being alone but i can say everyone in my grade was a friend. nothing was exciting or special at this point. about this time i fell in love with myself. which i still am. and something else happened. any feelings i had is gone. i can only feel anger and sadness now other feelings are all so diluted to the point of not existing

age 16- lets say i became a little evil. not caring for anything but myself. i was still studios anyway but i crushed many people i manipulated many others. many of the fights happened because of me. (and still many liked me. why could it be?)i had the habit to start something then get out of there and watch the people get detention for it. no one of my friends knew anything about my life at this point and i liked to tease them about it. i started to create theories about an ideal world i liked to live in(which i still do) but no one actually agreed with any of them. i like to think it was because of the never agree never like attitude in my school. i was naturally the leader in situations. i was genuinely funny (but i was that from an early stage). but you know some days i woke up feeling the world is shitty and no one care about me and become depressed for the day but next day came and the feeling was gone.

17/now - im still a lot like age 16 now. still in high school. not sure what the hell am i going to do with my life. im still manipulating others and i still dont care about anything but myself.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

13 - 8th grade, hated my school. Depressed somewhat due to lack of real friends and boredom in a shitty public education system.
16 - After 2.5 years of Private school, I was shunted back to the public system due to some disagreements between myself and the private school's administration. So I was pissed off and bored as hell because the High School I ended up at was about 2 years behind the private school. On a different note, I had a lot more friends and was more comfortable in my own skin.
18 - Graduated high school, barely due to issues with transferring credits and a general dislike of the public system. I did not get accepted into college due to all my scholarship work being destroyed in a hard drive failure one week before they were due (not enough time to redo it all) so I got a job at the local Blockbuster video (shitty pay but a fun job) and was playing a lot of TTRPGs and going to monthly LAN parties... Ahhh the joy of hearing 30 odd computers playing a mixture of Starcraft, Quake 2, ROTT and other games. And the cries of fear or outrage when external speakers spout multiple "Nuclear Launch Detected" soundfiles in various racial voices, and the one guy laughing maniacally. More confident, trusting (too trusting though) and starting to really grow as an adult.

Now (33) - Been around the US, learned a helluva lot about myself, settled down back in my home state of Florida, worked a lot of different job-types, learning to be a massage therapist and enjoying being a laid back well rounded individual. Living with my wife and daughter, taking care of them both and still managing to find the time to play games. I am far from depressed, more zen-like attitude than ever before and happier than I've ever been.