Poll: High School was...

[GirDraconis]

I went to a private high school and enjoyed it. It wasn't anything spectacular but I made my own name. I never went out drinking. I never did any drugs. I never smoked. I got a girlfriend my junior year. I was with her until I left for college. I joined several bands, one of which was very good. I was the first leader of our drum-line. I started the whole thing when I managed to get a performance together for my school's main fundraiser auction that raised $55,000 for the school's fine arts program (I guess the drum line impressed some seriously rich - and intoxicated - patrons of the school). I received the outstanding artist of the year award from the fine arts department for my drumming and contributions to the program. Then I graduated. Then everybody I knew in high school moved on, including my favorite professors. Four years...

 

[SulfuricDonut]

Well I attended a small (400 students, Gr. 9-12) rural high-school and the general population were really good people. I was considered a total nerd and there were obviously jock-type guys who I avoided, however there was never a lot of bullying and no outright violence towards anyone. Different social-groups simply didn't hang out with each other and never really bothered anyone. And when it came to times where we had to interact (group projects/gym class etc.) everyone got along really nicely.

As for the drugs, there were a couple people who were known drug-dealers but they never tried to influence people to start unless they wanted to. The majority of people in the school drank often, obviously, but they also never did too much stupid stuff. And I was never ridiculed or made fun of for not drinking/doing drugs.

That being said I didn't have a whole lot of fun in high-school and I never had a date/girlfriend, but it was still a pretty good time. My school was really awesome.

The only thing I disliked about my high-school was that it lacked any sort of decent music program, and most of the teachers/students had little to no respect for music. Being primarily a musician myself that made people never really notice that I had any talent.

 

[King Toasty]

Just finishing high school too. I was socially awkward at the beginning, now I have loads of really great friends, who are also socially awkward. Success!

It was pretty much the most important 5 years of my life. I changed a lot, learned a lot, and played Skyrim a lot. Good times.

 

[DarthFennec]

Ever sink three weeks, practically nonstop, into a twenty-page paper only to receive a middling grade for all your efforts? I have. That's Slap to the Face material, right there, and it freaking hurts.

Yep. That happened to me all the time in High School. Hasn't happened since ...

Shit, that happened to you in High School?! They expected you to write full-size papers in freaking High School?! Where the fuck did you go to school to? It might be because I'm from Bizarro America (e.g. Canada), but I wasn't asked for more than four or five pages a pop until I started college. Even then, it wasn't more than seven or eight pages!

So, twenty? My mind is blown.

Yeah well I was in the International Baccalaureate Programme, so that probably had something to do with it. But yeah, I'd work my ass off on a 15 or 20 page paper, usually they only gave us one or two weeks to do it in though, and I'd get ... not a middling grade, actually ... I think the highest grade I got on one of those was 15% ...

IB fucking sucks.
Although it did help me with my speed. I can get a ten page paper done in about three or four hours now, because of IB. And I've gotten 100% on all of them so far in college.

 

[Ace of Spades]

I liked high school. I had good friends, near the end, I met my awesome girlfriend whom I don't get to see very often since I'm in college, and teachers treated students fairly. I'd like to return to those days. College, by contrast involves a lot of people getting drunk and kicking holes in the walls, my roommate kicking me out of my room to have sex, and professors who announce quizzes a few hours before they take place.

 

[jonnosferatu]

It was pretty terrible - very little choice of courses, which when expanded to cover the entire student body meant that you never really got funneled into courses with similar people until very late in the process. I went public for most of MS and then private for HS so almost everyone already knew each other and had formed social groups, which left me out in the gutter because I was both new and (at the time) kinda fucked in the head. Got better after I spent a week living in a University-esque situation in Berkeley right before Junior year, and again over Senior year since I only had to take a few classes and they were all taught by people who had either already earned my respect from previous experience or approached us as friends rather than students.

I knew within a week of getting back to Berkeley for University that my parents had been absolutely right when they said that everything about my life would become wonderful as soon as I hit college.

 

[Iron Mal]

High School for me was pretty much like Vietnam (I was greased by ghosts in 'Nam) and I absolutely hated it.

Our school was locally notorious for being a shit-hole and you'd hear about stuff going on pretty much all the time such as:

- A guy who brought a knife in to stab someone, dropped it and then went up to the teacher who picked it up and asked for his knife back.

- A kid who had his eye ripped out by someone's big brother coming in from off-site and striking him across the face with his belt buckle.

- A guy who set his tie and hair on fire (we had a class pyromaniac).

- Students caught having sex in the sports field.

- Teachers caught having sex with the students.

- A girl who dropped out due to pregnancy at 15.

- The headteacher pinning a year 7 student against the wall by his throat.

And lots more.

The worst thing about it was that the teacher's seemed to be unable to do anything about the stuff that went on, I got bullied a lot but I'd always be told I'd get into troube for defending myself and that I should tell a teacher (who would often just give empty promises that they'd get put in detention or something else that ultimately did nothing.

I also had a serious problem with lateness and attendance, part of that is me being lazy and part of it is that I simply didn't want to go in and deal with the people who bullied and harassed me.

And all of that shaped me into the misanthroptic and cynical bastard here before you.

Fuck you high school and fuck you to everyone I went to high school with (exceptions of friends and family of course).

 

[Dr. wonderful]

Hmmm....apparently a lot of gamers on this site had crappy high school experiences with no friends and lots of bullying. Odd. I wonder if there is a causation there.

Not me.

I'm pretty much a popular guy in the senior and Junior portion of my school...for being nice.

That's right, I treated everyone good and I ended up being friends with outcasts, popular guys, geeks strange.

Dosen't matter, had fun.

That, and I'm attending an All boys school.

 

[DragonChi]

Horribly Victimized by kids all through High School. I try to forget High School ever existed.

 

[Iron Mal]

Hmmm....apparently a lot of gamers on this site had crappy high school experiences with no friends and lots of bullying. Odd. I wonder if there is a causation there.

Remember, correlation is not causation.

There's probably a higher number of people here who want to talk about their bad experiences because it's probably:

a) more significant to them: I remember the stuff I went through in school with a lot more clarity than my sister does and she had a comparitively nice time at school and was more of a socialite to boot, she probably just remembers school being boring or alright, I remember it for all the horrors that went on.

b) more interesting: just hearing about things were nice and alright doesn't make for as interesting a conversation as hearing about the time the class pyromaniac almost blew up the science lab.

 

[Gaiseric]

It was alright.

If I knew what I know now I think I could have had a much better time if I had actually applied myself and not been lazy with my school work and I would have tried for the football team. Basically I should have been more outgoing and disciplined. I spent my time not studying, procrastinating, not talking to people I didn't already know if it was at all avoidable(very shy), and being lazy at home.

edit: Didn't have loads of friends, but my little circle was solid and made High School much better.

 

[Ghost]

I thought it was dreadful and a waste of time while i went, in hindsight it was absolutely fucking dire. I passed my exams and got into university by working in my own time, I could barely stay awake when I went to school. I literally only collected booklets and sheets from school, and used the internet for what information i needed but didn't have. What a waste of time, in my final year I did no work at all in school aside from coursework and got A's and a B in my A levels, repeating trivial tasks from 9am to 3pm from Monday to Friday was not a good way for me to learn at all.

 

[I Stomp on Kittens]

Everything after my first two years was great. I found my personality right after my sophomore year and I've had some craaaazy experiences throughout my junior year and I'm hoping my senior year can come close to it or maybe even top it!

 

[thatgeekbronnie]

it was the the best time of my life geting the shit kicked out of me yelled at and no one cared to boot

great

Ditto. It was a pretty shit experience, just driving by my High School makes me shudder.

 

[ace_of_something]

Pretty fun. Very little responsibilities. Hard work actually paid off. Got to play Football, Baseball, Drama Club, and 'History Club'. Actually had time for hobbies. Sure there were some rough parts mostly involving girls/heartbreak/the struggle to find your identity/anything with math.

I'd say 9 out of 10 memories being positive.

College was sooo much better though for me. I fit in a lot easier in college. (My school had about 10-20 people in each grade)

 

[emeraldrafael]

The greatest preparation for the real world Ive ever had and I can honestly say Id be incomplete without if I had jus taken the classes at home or online.

 

[Vault101]

It was alright.

If I knew what I know now I think I could have had a much better time if I had actually applied myself and not been lazy with my school work and I would have tried for the football team. Basically I should have been more outgoing and disciplined. I spent my time not studying, procrastinating, not talking to people I didn't already know if it was at all avoidable(very shy), and being lazy at home.

edit: Didn't have loads of friends, but my little circle was solid and made High School much better.

ha, thats me pretty much me

but yeah, if only I had studyed the problem was in my first year there...I had one chance and one chance only to go for the "univeristy subjects" to get that score..here we call it the "TEE" at the time though..I think its all changed now

anyway through my own fault and some other factors (imganine going to a small school where you knew everyone..and have hardly ever had to deal with people you didnt know, to a school with 900+ students..all girls and they also took their shit seriously) I completley bombed

which put me in a downer for the rest of my highschool..I got the attitude "well thats it...nothing I do now matters so why bother? Im just a dumbass" I always did wonder if I really could have done well at school, if only I passed those exams or had a second chance

but I supose It doesnt matter now...if I did mabye I would be studying...but I wouldnt have money like I do now though

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

It had its high moments but in general I don't miss it at all. I didn't lack for friends or anything but High School is just so retarded. It was much better to enter the real world after it.

 

[Death God]

On a scale of 1 to 10; about a 5. My jounior high years were great, but it slowly started to progress into "meh" for the last 3. Hopefully by the end of this year I can change that 5 to at least a 7 or something.

 

[Aeonknight]

High school was a joke.

Classes were a cake walk (except physics...), your peers are generally complete idiots ("OMG so and so got SO smashed last night!"), and the staff instills the ever so lovely propaganda that if you aren't actively seeking college afterwards, you will fail at life.


The only good thing that came out of high school was a few buddies, and you get to see just how out of touch the college scene is with how education should be done by comparison.

For clarification on that last bit, let's just say I wasn't able to google the answers to my fucking math test in High School... at least they tried.

Edit: Okay... maybe I was too quick to judge. After thinking of a few things I did experience, High school wasn't that bad. Had a few good teachers that made it enjoyable.