Axis Mundi X discussion

What were you like in high school, and now that you can look back on high school with the benefit of hindsight how did the experience impact your adult personality?

(I'll leave that as one two-part question so Seizure doesn't get nervous:)

I started high school as a shy, nerdy, awkward bookish girl. Then I got involved in theatre. Within a short period of time I popped out of my shell and started raising hell all over the place.

I bet anyone here can guess how those affected me as an adult. : )

Well, I was big in science, so I was in with the nerd crowd. I kinda ended up being their knight in a lab coat. I was 6’4’’ 210 so the nerds in my class were “Under protection” of that big fucking nerd. I vary well may have attended the only high school in America where the nerds got laid, and had friends outside of the nerd click.

I don’t think I am the same person I was in high school; I think I was fun to be around then, now I am just disgruntled. I’m well on the way to becoming that old guy that sits on his porch and sprays the local kids with the water hose because they are “walking” on my grass.

I like my space and hate when people impose un-invited. Again this differs from high school where I had a rather large friend/acquaintance base. I don’t know. My mind isn’t functioning properly at the moment.

Nick, if you sprayed the local kids with a water hose I'd definitely think you were fun to be around.

I went to three different high schools. I started out at an all-male Catholic high school. After two years they politely requested I find another school. I lasted three months at a huge Chicago public magnet school before a lovely stop in rehab. I finished high school at my local Chicago public school, where I wanted to go in the first place. I win!

I had a core group of friends but I was quite shy and insecure through high school. I lived for music. I went to every punk/underground/new wave/alternative concert I could afford and became one of those people who defined myself by my musical tastes. I wasn't able to communicate effectively...I was raised in one of those "don't talk about it and it will go away" families so music became a shorthand for my lack of a voice. After lock-up and fear of a life working in the factories on Northwest Highway I started trying in school and discovered that it's not hard to pass classes in the Chicago public high schools. I also loved reading. I often hid in libraries or on the El and read when I wasn't in class.

I think I still have that pride, sometimes unreasonable, in being slightly on the outside of what seems to be going on around me. But I know how to communicate a little better now. In fact it's hard to shut me up.

I wanted so much to fit in, so I was involved in everything. I was a cheerleader, a drama geek, a choir kid, in French club, Key club, and I ran for student government but wasn't popular enough to get elected. I wanted to fit in, but I didn't. I didn't get along with most of people in my class. Most of my friends were a grade above me. If I'd run for that class' student government I might have had a chance. All the boys I dated were one or two grades ahead of me. This made my senior year, after they'd all graduated, rather lonely. I was still a cheerleader but didn't get along with any of the girls and outright hated half of them. My involvment in the clubs became purely business without any social benefit. My one "best" friend turned out not to be much of a friend at all, since she got her first boyfriend that year and told me if I wanted to hang out with them, I had to get a boyfriend too.

My unpopularity was actually worse than I am letting on here, but the shame and humiliation of some of the things that happened to me are too much for me to share with a bunch of relative strangers on the internet.

That was good for my grades, though. When I was busy being social, my grades suffered. But my senior year I had nothing else to do besides study so I got straight A's (it also helped that I didn't take math my senior year).

My experience of being lonely and unpopular in high school has, as the saying goes, scarred me for life. I have a lot of friends now, but I have trouble trusting people and believing they really want to be my friend.

So, yeah, that's my sad story.

I admit, I tend to keep things alive, but usually at the expense of someone else.

I fancy myself as a lame George Carlin, or Dennis Larry. The difference is they are paid to be an asshole, I really am one... Go figure, I could be rich.

One more poor life dereliction.

In high school I was just the same as I am now, only better. I was slimmer, smarter, quieter, and more patient. I may have even been taller. But I have more fun now. I'm often not smart enough to be quiet which makes for more interesting conversations. I'm less patient and so less likely to put up with crap.

The family joke is that my husband and I didn't meet in high school because we were never there on the same day. I cut classes constantly. I took myself and any friends I could talk into it on private field trips to the university library, museums, on nature hikes... High school was pretty good actually. I did what I wanted, wore what I liked. Unfortunately, this attitude doesn't translate well into adulthood. What felt like freedom then often looks inconsiderate and selfish on adults.

I would have taken you on a field trip and been your friend, Sarah.

Wow... you all have shared so much now I feel like I cheated by being glib and off the cuff. Maybe I should pony up a little more.

I was an absolute mess in high school. My mom had taken a job in another town where she worked with mentally ill adolescents, and her work hours were basically 2pm to 11pm. So beginning at age 12 my sisters and I were unsupervised after school. As a result my older sister wound up getting pregnant, then into crank, then dropping out and moving in with her boyfriend (who was a drug dealer). I was left to supervise my younger sister, who turned out to be hyper thyroid, causing her behavior to become ever increasingly more hyperactive and crazy.

I was already a mess from my parent's divorce and my father's abandonment of us (he was an alcoholic who progressively shirked his parenting responsibilities in favor of work and drink). I had a small group of girlfriends who were all misfits, geeks and weirdos. We held a lot of seances and listened to old records, watched Alfred Hitchcock films, read Stephen King, went to the roller skating rink, hung out at the cemetary.

My family was lower middle class, and I wore a lot of second hand clothes. I had no fashion sense, and wound up proudly sporting Salvation Army finds like an old army jacket which I covered in political buttons, and red high top tennis shoes which I eventually wore with everything. I hated the "popular" girls who had perfectly feathered hair, Ditto jeans, cowl neck angora sweaters and Cherokee wedge heels. They got pedicures and whispered things and giggled, making fun of us geeky girls.

Teachers loved me because I was smart and sweet. People asked to cheat off my homework. But I felt like an outcast. I was tired of being the smart, nerdy girl with no friends. So I started cutting class with the stoners, smoking pot, hanging around with the 'bad kids'. My nerdy friends didn't approve, and I wound up losing almost all my friends. I ran away from home. I got date raped. I got bad grades. Detention. I had one best friend and then she left high school our Junior Year to go to college.

I started doing theatre and that saved me. Even the popular kids had respect for me because I could act. I made friends in the community theatre scene... some of which were adults who gave me advice and support. I developed some self esteem. Finally I left high school at the end of Junior Year and moved in with my boyfriend in Santa Rosa, where we did theatre full time.

A few years ago I threw a high school drama reunion party at my house. All the drama geeks showed up... it was great. I found out that every one else was just as miserable as me in high school and that every one else felt like an outcast as well. I wish I had known that and not been so afraid of being friends with everyone. I probably would have had more fun. I was pretty crazy and paranoid though. I thought every one hated me. Turns out we were all busy hating ourselves.

I was cocky but shy. I started out pretty popular but became somewhat unpopular due to my combination personality of cocky/shy. I eventually had a slight rebound in popularity. I learned one thing through this - the more people that hate you will produce a group that likes you.

I had a small click of friends.

Now, I lost the cockiness for the most part and am a little less shy.

I wonder how many people actually believe that they were popular in high school? Nearly universally, when I speak with friends/colleagues about high school, all believe that they were not popular, tried to fit in, had outsider friends...

Maybe high school just really stinks, for the most part.

Nick, I'm well on my way to being one of those cranky folks with a hose spraying the kids. Just this week, I honked at some kids because they wouldn't get the hell out of my way when I was trying to pull in to my driveway. And then I proceeded to bitch to my husband because "those damn kids have no supervision!" And, I told some kids to shut up a couple of weeks ago in the movie theatre.

In high school I had lots of "friends" whom I changed my personality to fit in with and a lot of people knew me. I wanted to be popular, but I wasn't allowed to go to parties or hang out after school. I never played any sports or joined any teams. I went to work (Hollywood Video) right after school and my mom was super-strict so I rarely got to do anything. My mother was (is) the type that if a young girl goes out anywhere that guys might be at, she'll come back pregnant. Or hooked on drugs. Or arrested.

Plus, I went through the whole thing in my junior year where my "Best Friend" gleefully stabbed me in the back and scarred me for life. I went through several years after that saying I'd never trust another woman because they are all evil. I've since moved on a bit and have a select few girlfriends. Do I trust them 100%? No, but maybe 75%.

Looking back on high school, I wish I had not tried to fit in so much. I wish I would have focused more on my grades than being "friends" with the cool kids. I wish that I had realized that I didn't need to work a 35-40 hour week (I didn't need the money as a high schooler) because I would have to do that enough after high school. I also wished that I hadn't doubted my sports playing ability and had joined a team or two. I'm very competitive - I probably would have been awesome, but never gave myself the chance.

Oddly enough, I married my complete opposite in regards to high school. Greg, my husband, was a football/baseball/basketball jock who partied all the time, had tons of friends and girlfriends, and was pretty much the definition of "popular".

In high school, at first I would have been too shy to talk to any of you, having gone through hell in junior high, where I was the new kid, I had zits, and my dad had just started dialysis for polycystic kidneys, which I found mortifying at the age of 13.

Thankfully, by high school, I had some friends, and didn't feel quite so pathetic. I was smart enough to be put into honors classes, but because I read what I felt like reading instead of doing homework, I didn't do so hot in them. I tested well, though, enough to get into the college I wanted. But the kids in those classes were really decent, and I'm still friends with some of them now, more than 20 years later.

I hung out with the drama kids, but I didn't try out for plays. I ushered and took drama class, though. I played the clarinet and was in and out of band, which didn't help my playing (sometimes it conflicted with French), and hung out with my best friend, Gretchen, who took German, and always got crushes on the exchange students from Germany.

Along with Gretchen and some friends from my church youth group (because I, too, am a preacher's kid), we entered a lip sync contest and performed to Weird Al's "I Love Rocky Road" and came in 4th. And we went to Rocky Horror with some exchange students, and totally mystified them, along with Gretchen's mom who came along to chaperone. Good times!

And in college, I blossomed. There's nothing like finding people who share your interests.

i started high school out terribly, painfully awkward. i was blind as a bat, i had braces, i had long, crazy hair i had no idea how to control, and i was very, very pale. i had been defending myself from being called a vampire for years, but i finally just gave up and accepted it. but my school was very, very small, so it took a couple couple of years before my group of friends started following in my goth footsteps. and then junior year, columbine happened, and the administration started cracking down with new dress codes and wardrobe bans. this however, only encouraged us (now with a my parents actually on my side) to get even more and more into it, as if to prove that not all kids who wear black and trench coats and listen to marilyn manson (yes, i did) were psychotic. i don't think it had much impact with the school officials, but to this day, the vast majority of my closet is black, the most important part of my makeup system is my black eyeline (which only a professional can wield with more skill), and i have a strange obsession with studded leather and metal hardware (now mostly on things like purses and shoes instead of dresses and pants though).

i started out as an art geek, which fed into the photography club, which led to the theatre arts group. i started out in theatre as a tech person (helped build the sets and stuff), eventually becoming the stage manager. i made a lot of friends through this group, and gained a sort of coolness by extension by being part of something so important to the school.

although i really can't say i was unpopular, i certainly wasn't one of the popular girls. i had all sorts of crushes on various guys, all of whom either had no idea i existed or saw me as something of a sister/one of the guys. i developed quite a complex that "boys don't like me" that it's taken me years (and, to be honest, two real, honest to god relationships) to overcome (mostly. i still have a few, lingering, occassionally paralyzing self doubts). one thing i find ironic and funny however; i've had more teenage boys hit on me since i graduated college nearly 2 years ago than i did in the entirety of my high school career.

a couple more highlights i really like about my highschool self: i worked in a costume shop, which didn't really pay me much of anything, but allowed me to wear wigs and costumes on the job. i was a grouple (albeit the geeky kind who just show up at every gig and not the kind that sleeps with the band) for a couple local bands. i volunteered at the zoo and wanted to be a vet until i figured out that i really really hated chemistry. i was happier sitting at home with a couple of friends watching millennium on a friday night than going to the lame parties others had. i drew comic books with badass female main characters. and as much as i changed in college, i've really started going back to a lot of the things about high school me that made me unique.

Awesome thread, everyone! Was anybody here actually popular in high school?

Anybody?

I was not popular, I'm sorry. But looking back, at least at my high school, I don't think there really was an "in" crowd. Just perhaps one or two crowds who were generally more attractive than the other crowds. If you want to focus on those groups and say you're an outsider because you weren't in them, fine then. But it wasn't really like that at my high school. It was just more... seperate groups, who, while you could probably categorize them into nerds, stoner-losers, cheerleader types, etc, it wasn't like certain groups got picked on or anything. They just stayed apart from each other.

Honestly, I think some of the stuff from groups that movies would have described as the "outsider," groups was self imposed. They /liked/ being perceived as outsiders, loners, etc. Gave them an opportunity to be emo and vent and feel like they were subversive. I was sort of on the edge of one of those crowds, so I know whereof I speak. :)

Anyway, as to my experience? I met a group of girls in eighth grade who changed my life. I didn't really know much of anybody who shared my itnerests before that, and my friends were the three boys I grew up with, and they all got super-hot and joined the "attractive," crowd and then I didn't have anything much in common with them anymore since their main topic of conversation seemed to be projects that involved drawing as much attention to themselves as possible and the various girls who worshipped them.

So anyways, it was a group of about 8 girls, who eventually became 10 or so by high school. I know we sort of put ourselves into self imposed isolation a little bit into being nerdy outsiders. Because we were so insecure we just assumed that nobody would like us. But yeah, I was very bookish and generally quiet outside that group of girlfriends. Except in class discussion. I could not shut up in class discussion. I was really really loud. We all were. Because we were all used to being the smart teacher's pet, too. There ended up being a few lesbian rumors about us because we were all so affectionate and huggy with each other and didn't fight much, like other girl groups. But we weren't... we were just too shy of boys at that age. The few who did get boyfriends chose boys who were just as awkward as they were. So those relationships went terribly. I was in one of them, turned out bad in the end.

However. Those boys made /fantastic/ friends. They were in general one or two years older than us. Were in newspaper and drama, which is how I met some, and the other girls met the rest, as our after school activities were equally divided between newspaper and drama. I was a drama girl, myself. That did make me much less quiet and much more social by the time I got to senior year. Since I got a lot of leading roles, I was expected to be something of a leader in that community. So that brought me out of my shell a little bit.

So yeah. I had those people for my best friends, and I knew people from drama. (Not that I got along with a lot of them- there was a lot of competition between us and a lot of drama over who got various roles, so.) And there was a really emo/goth group that some of those girls hung out with that I kind of knew. So I guess I was an "outsider," if we're talking in movie terms? In freshman year I thought that was great. By senior year, I didn't give a shit.

Everyone talks about how they blossomed in college... sure. I changed, I grew up, I'm not as crazy emotional as I was, etc, etc. But I think I already knew who I was in high school. We all of us must have had enough of an idea, because it wasn't like any of our priorities changed or we became different people in college. With the exception of only a few (who just got weird), those girls and guys I met then are still my best friends. I still love them like nobody else I've met since them. I dunno.. I don't think any of us stopped developing or anything. I just think we managed to develop in a way that still allowed us to be friends. I hated high school. I just loved these people. And I'm closer to different people among the group now than I was at the start of college, depending on where people now live/the time I spent with them over college summers/breaks, how good we are about keeping in touch, etc. Anyways, I just got lucky. I wouldn't trade these people for the world.

So there. One positive note on high school. :)

I always liked the Salvation Army, Charrisa. One can find all kinds of cool bean vintage jeans in those places.

I find that I am totally disjointed from the friends I had in high school. The last time I was home (about 3 years ago) I met up with a few, and after a day or two of all out shenanigans (which I thought was just for old time sake) I was told that I had completely changed, in a bad way, and was too uptight.

Umm I thought one was suppose to grow up once out of school? Get a 401K buy a house, stop running naked through your hood because you are drunk, sleeping around with girls when you don't even know their names, trips to the local clinic because you have a strange rash and a yellow discharge. Yeah guys your right I am a terrible person for growing up.

I guess that is when I started to transform into the old guy with the water hose and the gigantic man eating mastiff, that is the scourge of north east Fairbanks.

That's right, you did say that, Donna. Yes, being tormented usually lacks in fun-ness.

Quite the social experiment you got to take part in! It's quite fascinating, really. Which countries were which schools? Were there differences in school size, urban location, average grade point of the student body?

Or was it just random herd instinct at play?

I desperately wanted to be popular and that's precisely why I wasn't.

Yikes. High school. I was one of the art-y kids, but I wasn't cool enough to actually really rebel against anything artistically at that point... I had more friends from my after-school job at the mall than I did from school (yes, in that sense I was a mall rat). I had confidence in myself within my circle of friends, but I didn't really reach outside that circle. The first high school I attended was ruled by jocks and cheerleaders who didn't hesitate to make fun of or make cutting remarks to those lower than them in the social hierarchy of the school (me). A mid-year transfer my sophomore year brought me to a high school where the cheerleaders and jocks were also the top students in the school, and were actually nice. I couldn't quite wrap my head around that concept.

I wanted to buy my clothes from the Limited, but I couldn't afford that so I had a few bargain items from there that I dressed up with leg warmers and ballet flats (yes, I'm laughing now, and there might also be a bit of a cringe in there). I was also obsessed with clothing from Esprit. For some reason, I spent a lot of my money on perfume, and remember being especially fond of one in particular called Paris, which was a place I wanted to travel to badly.

After my junior year, I got the chance to do an exchange to France for part of a summer and my dream came true. While there, I learned to speak french (better), started smoking Marlboros, and lost my virginity.

But back to the U.S.

I hung out with friends from my after-school job (none of whom went to the same school I did), and we did the things that outsider kids did. Or actually - that's not true. We did what we did... instead of going to football games, we'd drive out to a lighthouse in Maine in the middle of the night and sit out on the rocks and talk. Instead of going to parties, we'd drive to Boston and spend days walking around and buying clothes by the pound in the garment district. We hung out in basements playing Nintendo and finally figured out that we were supposed to put the hamster in the microwave.

I didn't have the best school experience in high school, but I wouldn't change one second of it. I think it made me more reflective, more empathetic to others, more thoughtful. I certainly wouldn't trade any of the friends I made there. And if I send my kids to France for the summer, I'm chaperoning. Just kidding. I'd let them go.

Hamster in microwave = invisibility

can't make this stuff up, folks...

What was I back in high school....

Undeveloped, I think. Confused on how things were supposed to work between people. Slightly more so than I am now, 20+ years after the fact.

I guess it's no surprise that I was an outsider, in a group of outsiders in high school. Our twist on the "outsider" status is that we were the "good" girls (whatever that means).

My sister and I (twins) entered a Catholic girl's high school after going to public schools all our lives. Still rather sheltered, even so.

So. What did that mean? Most students having gone to catholic grade schools together, knowing each other, most having money. The girls we hung out with were just as lost as we were; public school background for the most part, less sophisticated (yep, I think that's the word), not knowing all The Rules yet, or more importantly (and what everyone else seemed to learn) how to get around Them. We, the minority, were instinctive rule-followers, figuring they were there for a reason, and it must be a good one.

No hash in the school bathrooms for us; no weekend partying, peeing in the halls of the most expensive homes in town because the parents were away for the weekend; no cute little convertables to haul our little uniformed asses to school. We tried to do what we thought we were supposed to do, trying to get along with everyone; conversely, we were the undesirables of all.

*shrug* It wasn't agony, I guess. It WAS enough to put me off of EVER attending a high school reunion.

Are you guys talking about Maniac Mansion? Does anyone know if that's available for downloading to the Wii?

Yes Sarah, it was Maniac Mansion. I've never tried to find it again for newer platforms, although I have considered trying to buy the old Nintendo on eBay just to play it again. I don't know, though - somehow I just don't think it would be the same if I wasn't playing it in Kim's basement.

Yes, it had that certain charm...

the key! it's in the chandelier! right there!


geeks R Us

If I got it on eBay, would you come over and play it with me? I'd be happy to hook it up in the basement and pick up a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken... or do you just want the mashed potatoes and gravy?

I'm so there... in like 9 hours and 20 minutes...

Well, I've downloaded a lot of old Nintendo stuff on my Wii, like the original Mario and Zelda games and stuff. But I don't remember seeing Maniac Mansion.

LOL Highschool.

Ye gods. I never shut up, I was (still kinda am) all over the place, now I've no reason to doubt why people thought I was on crack. I didnt have to do drugs. I was just high on life.

I had moved from New Jersey, to Vermont, so highschool started off a bit....hermit like? xD I was the looser in the corner, looking around like a frightened deer. Ah well. Good times.

Hey, that's me now!

hah, of course, it'll never be QUITE the same, but there is the ol' ScummVM (http://www.scummvm.org/) built specifically FOR the engine that Maniac Mansion runs on... ;) A couple (or few) other LucasArts titles used it too so it's not limited ONLY to MM.

Of course, you'd have to locate the ROM for it. ;)

Uh, oh... this response might tell more about what I was like in high school than I intended to let on.

Maybe I'll properly answer the question later.

I was a trial. The token innocent of a bad crowd. Went to a few schools and was asked to leave every one. This continued into college and uni. Used to have 20% attendance but would somehow fluke coming top in exams.

And I only had one detention but it culminated in jumping out of the window, being chased by the headmaster in his cap 'n' tails (twas run like a 50s grammar school) and forcibly dragged back inside to my cries of 'unhand me this instant'.

Oh! Oh! That last paragraph! I want to make that into a movie.

I was fortunate, in my high school the smart people were the cool people. It was also so big that I'm sure there were many "in" crowds, but the crowd I hung out with were in the honors program, taking advanced placement classes, in charge of the newspaper, played in the orchestra or the band, wrote, directed and were featured in "Sing" (a theatrical production contest, each grade writes, choreographs it themselves - we won as Juniors! a first!), so it was cool to be smart and get good grades. We all smoked pot, but this was the early 70s when everyone else was doing quaaludes and god knows what else, looking back on it we were good kids. Not much drinking. I'm still surprised at how much drinking others consider normal. We all listened to folk and rock. Crosby Stills and Nash were It. Jefferson Airplane, and Hendrix were our Rock. James Taylor had already come and gone. I lived for Joni Mitchell. And Hell No We Won't Go to Vietnam. We were political. We wore patched jeans, peasant blouses, flannel and work shirts with Olaf Daughters clogs. We thought we were so original but what a uniform!

My freshman and sophomore years all the girls would talk on the phone all the time. This made me nervous. I had nothing to say. What was wrong with me? They all had their princess phones in their own rooms. Not me. I went to school out of my district - the year I started a brand new high school opened right near me, but there was alot of busing with ensuing riots. My parents yanked me out, used their friends' address to get me into another. So already I didn't truly belong there. Most of the kids were middle or upper middle class, while I was definitely lower, or upper working class. They all had beautiful houses, and I was ashamed to invite anyone to mine.

Junior year I hung out with the Seniors because I was in the same activities they were. So my Senior year was harsh, my boyfriend was gone, the people that I had (tried to) hang out with were gone. I was stuck with my own class which I had rejected before they could reject me and discover I was a sham filled with nothingness. I still did the newspaper, and played with the orchestra but I was a loner.

The funny thing is that it seemed that all was well, I was pretty, in extra-school activites, but was an outsider. I knew any moment I would be exposed for the sham I was. I was in actuality a quiet and shy girl, altho I put on a loud front. I had 2 girlfriends, but I was also deeply depressed. My insomnia had started a couple of years before. I locked myself in my room, listened to music, and read. And occasionally practiced the viola. When nobody was home I would put on Swan Lake and do ballet (which I had studied for 13 years) in the living room. I was on hold, waiting to move out.

Hmmm....I hit this odd period in rich-suburban life (I went to the 2nd most moneyed high school in the suburbs around Minneapolis, and we started out middle-class, which was pretty low on the totem pole) when the typical "popular" folks in the elementary and junior-high years (vapid cheerleaders and guys with more hockey-hair than brains) fell out of favor by the time I hit high school. This benefited me indirectly. The people who actually influenced everyone else were intelligent, cool (late '80s college rock and the early days of "alternative", back when knowing who the Pixies were was the absolute height of indiecool), and incredibly socially skilled. I had the brains, came late to the party on indiecool, and was, at best, squirrely and awkward when it came to social graces.

I hung out with the theatre crowd, both acting and tech side, was also in the choir and the orchestra. These things were adequate to buy me a huge social circle and a few close friends. And these people were damn fun, a little rebellious (stealing street signs) and never dangerous (like hard drugs). I have some great stories from those days, sneaking out to run all over town until dawn, late night coffee and scrabble at Perkins, supermarket theatre (the best example was the time, at a fast food restaurant, we created a scenario in which I found out my "boyfriend" was sleeping with the other guy at the table...all fictional, of course...after much yelling, I stormed out, followed by the supposed boyfriend, but he got a little too into character and managed to break the glass in the door; as we sped off, we saw police lights).

I had some freedom, my mom was willing to negotiate and trusted my older guy friends (why?), so I was allowed to go into The City (from The Suburbs) with them and come home late late late even before I was able to drive.

In retrospect, high school was kinda fun. And I was at my most extroverted, even though I was still pretty anxious and sure I was fucking things up. After a couple of years, my dad lost his job, our financial status hit the skids for a couple of years, and I was therefore too busy with after school jobs to keep that shit up. Social life took kind of a downturn. But I still have some good memories.

And I miss my 1975 Volkswagen Beetle. All my friends drove crappy-ass hand-me-down or bought-super-cheap cars (if you go to a public school in a rich area, everyone has their own car but it's most often an Oldsmobile station wagon that's 17 years old). We were goofy, mobile, and pretty unlikely to get ourselves into trouble.

Wow, that's quite a story, Rebecca. Like Lori, I would have liked to see the headmaster chase you. It has a decidedly filmic ring to it.

I was a bit of a rebel at secondary school myself. I was never actually asked to leave school (although the headmaster certainly made a few threats to that effect), but I drove my teachers mad by showing up late for lessons in the morning, skipping lessons in the afternoon and never doing my homework. I also happened to be a freelance journalist during my final two years at school, so I frequently missed entire Fridays (and occasionally a Thursday afternoon) to go on weekend assignments abroad. My teachers didn't really like that, either. While some of them were amused by my extracurricular activities, many felt I should focus on my school work instead. I'm glad I didn't. I was never actually unhappy at school, but I found it a fairly dull place, and was glad to have an excuse to skive off for a few days every now and then.

As for popularity, I made a half-arsed attempt to fit in when I was twelve/thirteen, but by the time I was fourteen, I'd grown out of that. I realised I didn't have what it took to be popular with the in crowd (to the extent that we had an in crowd -- my school was pretty good in that regard), and I was fine with that, so I went the other way. By the time I was fifteen, I was a full-blown Goth. There was a bit of a Goth scene at my school, but I wasn't really part of it; most of the time I just hung out with a classmate who was just as rebellious as myself, although she always did her homework and didn't dress quite as outrageously as myself. I was quite lonely when she left school one year before I did. Thankfully, though, I got on reasonably well with my other classmates. They certainly thought I was weird, but most of them were friendly enough -- until I started copying their notes (because I never did my own homework) and then outscored them on exams, which some of them resented. Can't blame them, I guess. :-)

I graduated in '88 in Ohio, so as long as you had some tight stonewashed jeans and a can of Aqua Net it was all good. I did that, but I was also into punk rock and the look at the time was off the shoulder tops, black rubber bracelets up the arm, granny heels, old brooches and things that I was more into. Unfortunately for me seeing bands like The Smiths, New Order/Joy Division were unreachable (I said I lived in Ohio!), but Def Leppard, Poison, Metallica and Faster Pussycat were regulars at the local arena. Anyhow...this led to me being somewhat popular but I didn't really have one crowd of people I hung out with. I had my best friends from grade school that I spoke to daily, but I was in the advanced classes and they weren't. All in all I loved high school and would go back and relive it at any point. I would date one guy for the year and then when Summer hit would date other people, I didn't have one group of friends that I felt I needed to be with and instead hung out with all of the groups, and I was involved in sports, student government, a lot of clubs, and cheering so I always had something to do. This year is my 20th reunion, and yes I am going.

Why is that women on the left trying to show off her cleavage, in you are present... Hasn't she herd, you're "stacked"?

Were you a cheerleader?

I'm the one furthest (farthest?) left. In my own picture. Not Montambo's. Because in high school I didn't have any cleavage to show.

Oop's I ment the one on in the "RIGHT" picture.

Sarah, I know the whole fight song routine, parts of other routines we did, and many, many sideline cheers. I also remember the choreography to the "Bushel and a Peck" number from Guys and Dolls twelve years ago (remember the avatar I had with the red and black chorus girl outfits?).

But I cheered for 6 years so it'd be crazy if I remembered all of the routines. It's odd why I can still remember Bushel & a Peck but not other choreography from much more recent shows.

Oh I do sign language at Christmas parties all the time. And also the choreography to "Joy to the World" from my 3rd grade Christmas pageant.

I have, on a couple of occasions, performed a routine at a party. But only around theatre people who have done even more obnoxious things than get up and dance while humming a fight song.

A double toe touch? Like, two in a row?

Oh, yeah. That's just called a toe-touch. one leg at a time is a high side kick. Yeah, I don't think you'd make it on the squad if you couldn't do that.

I can't do it anymore.

I get the feeling I'm being mocked and I don't know it, and I'm taking it all so seriously.

I'm thinking people reading this are totally mocking me in their heads.

Oh and if you're in good muscular shape you could easily learn to do a toe touch. It's all in the technique and has very little to do with flexibility.

Make sure you stretch first.

http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-d...

I think you are to commended for your school spirit - both Sarahs! No mocking from me. I daren't, because I had to wear the school band uniform. Polyester pants and dickies. Yippie.

I'd mock you, but I'd just be mocking myself. I was a cheerleader in sixth grade and I loved it. I secretly loved cheerleading, and would have loved to have been a cheerleader... but I was too busy being an outcast and becoming deeply cynical and gloomy. Instead I mocked them. But it was only because I was bitter, and concealing a heart too easily shredded.

Well, for a while there I was the only person in my school to be in both the cheer squad and the drama club. Then my senior year there was another girl who crossed cliquey lines. I never understood why the two didn't cross more often. Both are about performing.