Did you think who you were in high school was who you would be for Life? (toxic, people)

[Frihed89]

I never had any deep thoughts in high school.

[NickofDiamonds]

I was a jock in High school, became a Hippy, then a Yuppy and now I'm a nerd.
One thing for sure, life is dynamic and it's what happens to you when you are making other plans.

[nurider2002]

I hated school until I got to college. It was only then that I felt I was being exposed to new experiences and topics I was interested in and. High school always felt like prison time to me. I hooked school and did drugs just to get through it. College, everything changed. I could envision a future full of possibilities, I met people who I identified with and 35 years later, remember professors who inspired me.

[Sassybluesy]

I knew life would expand and be better once I was out of high school. Graduation was like breaking out of a cocoon.

[Marcyprojects]

I wish I could have had the benefit of better life information in high school but that's about it. Back then I was into everything I could get into, experienced a lot of life stuff both good and bad. Went to a big school, senior class alone was over 400 kids. There were some that we considered popular but with the exception of a few, many of them have done little outside high school. The odd kids are now some of the most successful and most normal now. I myself was somewhat part of the in crowd but more from the outside looking in really. I didnt have self esteem issues but I never thought that I was anyone who did anything truly legendary in high school. The thing that shocked me after graduating was how many people actually remembered me positively, many of whom I really didnt even know. College changed everything though. I cared little about who was in and who was out, I met hundreds of people who didnt know me at all and despite not getting to go out of state for school I made the most of it. Started going to parties on the regular, making friends with all kinds of people, many of them female as well, just happened organically. While my college years didnt do much for my professional career, I do have experiences that stayed with me for life and made me who I am today. Had I not gone, I couldnt imagine what I would be like.

[animalcrazy]

I don't think I thought much beyond just graduating, getting a job, and escaping my alcoholic parents. I was driven to get my own apartment as soon as I turned 18. I made it at 19. I'm still just as serious as I was in high school.

[Blondebaerde]

That's a good one. Wish I remembered 17 as well as I'd hoped, but that is the curse of both time and experience.

I have some pictures of when I was 17, on either graduation day or practise-for. I looked really pissed. I remember my father gave me a "my way, or the highway!" speech that day. I said, "pretty clearly, genius, I'm choosing the highway. I appreciate your help, but I'm out of here in a couple months!" I went to college, continued to accept DoD's generous help until about 20, and made it on my own from there. They did give me a couple grand as an undergrad present the month after I turned 22 and graduated (stayed an extra semester for a few more courses).

I was no nerd (not quite smart ...or more importantly... interested enough). I knew few, if-any, cool kids. Few, if-any, burnouts. Ditto the Band Mafia, sports, or other cliques. I knew very few of anyone, not being interested, and guess I could name 50 of the 220 or so in our class and was nodding acquaintances with maybe ten of those. Yep, I simply didn't participate, or care about any of it. I had no girlfriends, no dates, knew nothing of any of that, and had to go to undergrad to get laid

My assumptions were all on college, that it would be a place of higher learning (thankfully, it was), with courses I'd be thrilled to attended (ditto, like Optical Mineralogy, Igneous/Metamorphic Petrology, Russian and Soviet History, Calculus, and Advanced Physical Chemistry to name a few). There was immaturity there, too, and drama. Nothing I couldn't, and didn't, overcome. Undergrad was great, and I knew working would be different and interesting.

And, working as a professional geologist out of college, it was both better and worse. Another learning experience.

So, bottom line is that I suspected we'd move it forward, by the time I was a senior, that the artiface that was HS didn't mean a whole lot. I was right. Ditto college. Actually, ditto working world, finally being in a certain nirvana there after 25 years as well. We'll see how long that lasts, but accepting change is the only way to do things.

[Garthur]

High School was just another society thing that bored me to death. I worked all through HS and all I wanted to do was get the diploma and get on with my life. So I never paid any attention to any of the other students.

[Yeledaf]

Bring drafted and sent to Vietnam two years after graduating from high school changed me forever. The things I had valued seemed worthless; the people i had loved seemed remote and alien (only much later did I learn that they were puzzled and hurt by my lack of contact; that they still loved me; that they wondered what had become of me); the attempts I had made toward becoming a cultured and educated person were washed away by the brutality, coarseness, and sense of worthlessness with which the decade following my discharge affected my mind.

My fiftieth high school reunion brought these things to light for me. I encountered people I had not seen for many years. They expressed such warmth and affection for me that I was crushed both by their sincerity and by the sense of regret I felt -- for having had my youth dominated by war and its aftermath, and for not having reached out to people who had wanted to become my mature friends after high school, but whom I pushed away out of self-hatred and bitterness.

[crd08]

I liked high school.
But no, I didn't think that was who I'd be forever. However, I am also not who I imagined I'd be either