It was average. I probably would've been picked on more than I was, if I hadn't had someone accompanying me through the school halls. I started off frail and vulnerable and was sprinting my way through the corridors well ahead of my helper by the end of it. I don't know exactly where and when it happened, but I do know high school is where I really started building on my self-confidence.
The context is pretty simple: being disabled and suffering from a mild case of Cerebral Palsy, I tend to be physically knocked around pretty easily. Crowded halls in-between classes were a living nightmare for me for most of my Junior High years, but things got better after I was operated and received Botox shots. I discovered the joy of running my ass off instead of walking like everyone else.
The positive aspects of High School are largely physical, in my case. Puberty means an increase in muscle tone and, finally, some sort of pretension towards intellectual maturity. I've been growing a beard on an on-off basis from as early on as I possibly could, seeing as keeping a nice ring of facial hair is the only thing that defines me as a mature individual, according to some.
I'm baby-faced, even at 28. If I don't have facial hair and if my hair's been freshly trimmed, most of the bank tellers, cashiers and sales reps of this world assume I'm an early teen. So naturally, finally coming into my own physically was a life saver.
The negative aspects involved my problems with Math. The standard teaching method as defined by Quebec's Ministry of Education just never worked for me - at least, not as far as Math is concerned. I owned everyone's ass in enriched French and English classes, but I needed extra help for even the most basic fractions and algebra-related problems.
That put a bit of a damper on my overall enjoyment of the experience. I knew what my friends were working on, but I couldn't swap stories about the teacher or this or that assignment or somesuch. The handful of idiots I knew liked to assume I was a "special case" because I sucked at Math, but I've always been pretty hard to successfully intimidate. I tend not to take a lot of guff, so even the most tenacious bullies cut me some slack after a while.
So... Yeah. I can't say I completely understand where the "Ohmigawd, High School is HELL!" mindset is coming from, but I also won't go so far as to say it was one of the best periods of my life. If I *had* to give an estimate as to what my best years were, I'd say my CEGEP (also known as College) years.
As for my Bachelor's? Hm. It *was* fun, but it wasn't so much of a breeze as College was. The BA's when I really started feeling that adults could be far, far more cruel than kids ever would be. 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.
