Is it popular to say you were unpopular in high school? (reunion, adults)

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by Creature of the Wheel

...It's been 11 years since I've graduated from high school. It's amazing to see where many of those popular people .... living a miserable life, ....

The "half-life" of being cool is short. Karma comes Kwick.

Originally Posted by JetJockey

I was tall, and super thin/lanky with big poofy curly hair. For some reason once one targets you, the rest follow so once I was picked on by one popular girl, the rest just followed. It didn't help that I was smart and quiet either.... I 'ruined' the curve in many classes and got a lot of crap for it. Plus, I had scars from surgeries and medical problems where I was in and out of school often. Of course, kids can't just ask or assume the best, they had to assume I had some horrible comunicable disease and acted accordingly.

You don't have to do anything wrong, you just have to be different....tall, short, thin, fat, pale, dark, smart, slow witted, big boobs, small boobs, big pecker, small pecker, etc. It don't matter the reason, half the people out there are going to give you crap. Truth is, you're fine, they're the a-holes.

Originally Posted by Creature of the Wheel

...I've always been a loner. I don't find anything wrong with loners, either. ....

Ditto. I prefer to be a loner, most people are nothing but trouble, including probably half of everyone's family. True "best buds" are a very rare find. Young people, especially, let their "BFFs" get them in trouble, then leave them ALONE to face the music; happens almost every time. Be strong within your own identity, keep people at arms length.

[Randomdude]

Originally Posted by PhenomenalAJ

It's changed a lot, used to be an uncool thing to say but now its cool since nerds like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are looked up to and nerd culture is mainstream. Most people felt like outcasts in high school whether they were or not because they always perceived someone else being the popular kids. I thought I was an outcast in hs because I was an intellectual/honors student but I had a lot of good friends and I had an active social life and went to parties but I thought I was an outcast because I didn't get a ton of girls. People who were not in the most popular group in the school think of themselves as outcasts although they really weren't.

Being a "nerd" and in "nerd culture" is not equivalent to "outcast" at all. My sister and brother are both heavily involved in nerd culture, and have a great deal of friends.

Outcasts are the kids who not only the popular kids dont like or associate with, but the nerds dont want to be caught dead with either.

No matter how much someone feels like an outcast, you can always pick out someone who is more of an outcast, and if you are the guy who cant find anyone who has it worse, you are the actual outcast.

Outcasts talk to nobody, sit by themselves in class, on the bus, at the lunch table. They participate in nothing, nobody even knows their names unless its part of some rumor being spread.

Its much different than simply being a "nerd" or "smart". The valedvictorian of most classes is generally pretty smart, but they are also generally a member of a number of clubs and groups, and half the school probably knows their name just by sight, even if theyve never said a word to them.

I was the outcast. I can say from being in that boat, that probably 10% of the high school is popular, meaning, just about everyone knows who they are, but probably 85% of the rest are not outcasts at all. They are a hodge podge of small groups and cliques that sometimes interact with eachother.

Like you mention, people who were only known by 25-50% of their class, and had 5-10 friends like to say they are "outcasts", but really, they were just the average high school student

[PhenomenalAJ]

Originally Posted by Randomdude

Being a "nerd" and in "nerd culture" is not equivalent to "outcast" at all. My sister and brother are both heavily involved in nerd culture, and have a great deal of friends.

Outcasts are the kids who not only the popular kids dont like or associate with, but the nerds dont want to be caught dead with either.

No matter how much someone feels like an outcast, you can always pick out someone who is more of an outcast, and if you are the guy who cant find anyone who has it worse, you are the actual outcast.

Outcasts talk to nobody, sit by themselves in class, on the bus, at the lunch table. They participate in nothing, nobody even knows their names unless its part of some rumor being spread.

Its much different than simply being a "nerd" or "smart". The valedvictorian of most classes is generally pretty smart, but they are also generally a member of a number of clubs and groups, and half the school probably knows their name just by sight, even if theyve never said a word to them.

I was the outcast. I can say from being in that boat, that probably 10% of the high school is popular, meaning, just about everyone knows who they are, but probably 85% of the rest are not outcasts at all. They are a hodge podge of small groups and cliques that sometimes interact with eachother.

Like you mention, people who were only known by 25-50% of their class, and had 5-10 friends like to say they are "outcasts", but really, they were just the average high school student

If I really think about it, I guess I was on the popular side. I remember I hung out with all kinds of people after school every day and I went to most of the big parties and was getting drugged and drunk. I don't know that my school had a real popular crowd because it had 2000 people and it was very racially diverse, like hundreds of kids were Latin immigrants who barely spoke English. In a way it was a good atmosphere, I thought that kind of hs with the really popular kids and all these strict isolated cliques was a thing from teen movies until I talked to white people from white areas who actually went to schools like that.

If you ever watch old TV shows like Leave it to Beaver or Ozzie and Harriet, the most popular kid in school was the awesomest but since the 80s, the outcast is always the protagonist in movies with the popular kid being a bully or an idiot.

[JetJockey]

Originally Posted by Randomdude

Being a "nerd" and in "nerd culture" is not equivalent to "outcast" at all. My sister and brother are both heavily involved in nerd culture, and have a great deal of friends.

Outcasts are the kids who not only the popular kids dont like or associate with, but the nerds dont want to be caught dead with either.

No matter how much someone feels like an outcast, you can always pick out someone who is more of an outcast, and if you are the guy who cant find anyone who has it worse, you are the actual outcast.

Outcasts talk to nobody, sit by themselves in class, on the bus, at the lunch table. They participate in nothing, nobody even knows their names unless its part of some rumor being spread.

Its much different than simply being a "nerd" or "smart". The valedvictorian of most classes is generally pretty smart, but they are also generally a member of a number of clubs and groups, and half the school probably knows their name just by sight, even if theyve never said a word to them.

I was the outcast. I can say from being in that boat, that probably 10% of the high school is popular, meaning, just about everyone knows who they are, but probably 85% of the rest are not outcasts at all. They are a hodge podge of small groups and cliques that sometimes interact with eachother.

Like you mention, people who were only known by 25-50% of their class, and had 5-10 friends like to say they are "outcasts", but really, they were just the average high school student

Absolutely. It's actually funny though, because while I was a genuine outcast in High School, I was one of the most popular and successful people in the county when it came to 4H. Everyone knew who I was up to the state level and I actually had a following of younger kids whose parents hounded me to teach their kids how to show livestock.

Even the 'popular' kids in my High School who showed livestock were relegated to outcast status and roles were reversed during fairs and shows. I was still nice to them and they were nice to me, but once high school started again, they pretended not to know me.

[Trimac20]

Originally Posted by Randomdude

Being a "nerd" and in "nerd culture" is not equivalent to "outcast" at all. My sister and brother are both heavily involved in nerd culture, and have a great deal of friends.

Outcasts are the kids who not only the popular kids dont like or associate with, but the nerds dont want to be caught dead with either.

No matter how much someone feels like an outcast, you can always pick out someone who is more of an outcast, and if you are the guy who cant find anyone who has it worse, you are the actual outcast.

Outcasts talk to nobody, sit by themselves in class, on the bus, at the lunch table. They participate in nothing, nobody even knows their names unless its part of some rumor being spread.

Its much different than simply being a "nerd" or "smart". The valedvictorian of most classes is generally pretty smart, but they are also generally a member of a number of clubs and groups, and half the school probably knows their name just by sight, even if theyve never said a word to them.

I was the outcast. I can say from being in that boat, that probably 10% of the high school is popular, meaning, just about everyone knows who they are, but probably 85% of the rest are not outcasts at all. They are a hodge podge of small groups and cliques that sometimes interact with eachother.

Like you mention, people who were only known by 25-50% of their class, and had 5-10 friends like to say they are "outcasts", but really, they were just the average high school student

The weird thing with me was although I was not an outcast, I was a loner because of my shyness but I was quite popular in a way. I mean everyone knew me, treated me like a little brother (in a good way, although there was a bit of teasing) and still remember me to this day. At graduation I got one of the loudest applause. I tend to stand out without trying, felt like some mascot or something.

[PanTerra]

Try carrying a French Horn all through school. Social suicide.

[iknowftbll]

I was neither popular nor an outcast. I was not quite a jock, not quite a preppie, not quite a nerd, and nowhere close to being a thug. I made solid grades, played sports, had friends in a wide range of groups (some jocks, some nerds, some outcasts). In fact, I nearly committed "social suicide" (thanks for the term, PanTerra) when as a senior I tried to date two different girls. One was a cross-town transfer who had a 28 year old boyfriend. The other was a freshmen who was best described as a sem-goth outcast. But she was an awesome person. Neither of these girls were well-liked by anyone. Except me, of course.

Anyway, by the time I reached high school, I lived in Southern Colorado. I would not change anything now because we all are the sum of our experiences. But from the day I got there I began counting down the days until I could leave. I joined the Marines in between my junior and senior year, so my ticket out was punched. All I had to do was keep my nose clean. I think knowing that the Marines was my only sure option for not having to go back served as a huge incentive for me to perform well.

My parents still live there in Trinidad, CO. I still hate visiting the town, but I do love my parents. To this day, every time I set foot there I am reminded of how far I've come. Very few people from my class or those right before and right after have really gone out and made something of themselves. I suppose if they are happy with status quo, good for them.

[CArizona]

Eons and eons ago when I was in high school one of the football players asked me out on a date! What a shock! I was a "sideline" kind of person and not part of any groups...All of a sudden I got pulled into the popular kids' "circle." It was strange because I didn't fit-in at all. I wasn't much of a "follower" and I had a tendency to question things...The guy I dated was different than the kids in the "popular circle" but he felt obligated to hang-out with them since he was on the football team...Eventually I just couldn't take it anymore and wanted to be "free" and on the "sidelines" again. I said goodbye to the guy because he wanted to stay part of the "group.".. It was an interesting experience. But just not my "cup of tea!"

[Koale]

Originally Posted by jzcrandall

Look at all the people that were outcasts in high school that are now rich, famous, ladies men, etc. No wonder it's popular to say.

One of my classmates went on to be a world class Cartoonists/illustrator and another to become Mayor of our hometown...I think the rest of us just moved on cuz noone is listed in our years class.

[nightcrawler]

I wasn't popular in HS, I didn't know that was supposed to be an important thing.
I had my handful of friends, and couldn't give a rats ass who was supposedly popular.

totally meaningless.




now what does being popular mean after you graduate?