What were your school years like?

[Prowler]

I take it most people here are 20+ by now. And if not most, then at least a considerable amount of active users are. Also, by "school", I'm personally referring to up until HS. I don't really include university in it. It didn't feel much like school to me. For one thing, I chose to go there. Second, I was an adult, not to mention I only went to uni at around the age of 21, so I was no longer a teenager anymore. Third, at uni everyone is too busy with their own stuff and the uni is so big that you don't really interact with anyone from outside of your degree or even get to know some of the people that also frequent your degree. I guess experiences might differ by country, like in USA where going to uni is considered an epic adventure, but here not so much. We don't even live in the campus. You catch the bus, metro or go by car to the uni just like you'd normally go to school or to work.

Anyway, school was fun from 1st to 4th grade, even though at the time I didn't like it. But looking back, those were fun times. I guess I just didn't like it at the time because I didn't know how good I had it at the time and I also was being forced to go to a place I didn't want to go where Id' rather just stay home and play video games or watch cartoons instead.

5th-6th grade felt like rather transitional years to me. Like a transitional period between my childhood and my teenage years. 6th grade, in particular, was rather unmemorable.

7th and 8th grade were terrible. I got into fights often, other kids tried to bully/mess with me and I was performing poorly. Some of my worst grades were in those years. This was also when I became a teenager and started to change. I was hating school more than ever at this time

In 9th grade, I changed schools. It was a bit better, but still felt like most of m classmates were assholes.

HS... you know, for all that's said about HS in the media, I don't think it was that bad. Yes, people are shallow and still immature and begin caring about smoking, alcohol, etc., but for one thing, I didn't get into many fights in HS or had much problems with bullying. People learn to filter themselves better from 10th grade onward and get less physically aggressive, form my experience. The closest thing to bullying I saw or experienced in HS was classmates teasing you or making jokes. Plus, I didn't care much about being popular and much less about alcohol, tobacco and drugs, so the whole peer pressure didn't affect me. I didn't drink or smoke at all in HS, not even once, and didn't find it hard to resist the peer pressure at all. Even though most people pretty much have their first taste of booze and/or tobacco before they're 18.

10th grade was still kinda lousy, but 11th and 12th grade were better. 11th grade, in particular, was fun. And it was the first time I felt that I didn't hate school.

So the way HS is portrayed in Anime and on American TV is a bit baffling to me. They make it seem like HS is a major place full of epic and crazy events and adventures, but in reality, it really isn't. Had its fun moments but that's it. 80% of it was sitting through classes and studying and doing homework. I've never even gone to anyone's house to work on a group assignment or vice-versa. There was never a need for that, really. Not so mention some of us lived quite far away from each other. Also, by the time I went to HS having internet at home was already quite common and you could chat with your classmates through MSN. I mean, I get it, fiction is fiction, and at the end of the day, HS dramas and anime are supposed to be escapism and the fictional characters in them are ultimately rather one-dimensional in the end.

Overall, I wasn't a big fan of school. So that's one aspect I don't miss from my childhood and teenage years at all. I felt like most people were shallow and judgemental. It wasn't until I got older that I began meeting better people. Perhaps some of the assholes from back then became better people since then, but then again, the few people I truly got along with back in my school days seem to have remained decent people afterwards. Plus, in the workforce you also meet a lot of assholes. Some people just never grow up, I guess.

I can't help but notice that people who miss school, HS in particular the most, are people who were quite popular and never experienced bullying or anything like that when they were kids. Often they're people who peaked in HS as well and miss going somewhere where they felt like they were actually someone and not just yet another person in the world. Granted a lot of people also miss those days due to the lower amount of responsibilities you have as an adult, but I think a lot of it is also looking back at things with rose-tinted glasses. Especially when adults would tell me that some of the best years of our lives were our school years and that school days were "good times". I get it, less responsibility and worries and all, but honestly, being an adult isn't particularly bad, imo.

I do miss being younger and having more free time and less responsibilities but I don't miss school and all the ******** that you have to deal with when you're a kid. When you're an adult you have more independence and can have your hobbies and do your stuff in peace without having to worry about what others think of it. It's kinda strange how today, supposedly, openly being a "nerd" is considered the cool thing to be, while back when I was a teen(and I'm not that old, I'm only 28!) if you liked anything "nerdy" after the age of 14 beyond DBZ or videogames like FIFA, PES, GTA; you were considered a huge dork. Just like you were if you spent a lot of time online. While nowadays everyone seems to be online 24/7.

So yeah, I can't say I liked school much. It wasn't that great. 111th and 12th grade were a bit better, however. What about you?

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

I always liked going to school.

[Andrew NDB]

1st - 5th grade were awesome. That was some grade-A fun kid stuff. Building forts, playing games on the playground, sleepovers, birthday parties, all that stuff. I was the kid with the big backyard and big pool with a diving board, so a lot of people at school and the neighborhood wanted to be my buddy.

6th - 8th grade was not so great. It felt so different. Multiple teachers and no recess? I remember being pissed. I adapted. Nothing too memorable. Some friends stayed friends, some grew apart from. First couple of fights around 7th or 8th.

At the start of 9th grade, my parents moved cities, citing that the neighborhood was "too dangerous" where we lived (ironically, I'd never even seen anyone doing drugs in the old city, but as soon as we moved to the new one, I saw it everywhere). In the old city, elementary is 1-5, middle school is 6-8, and high school is 9-12... so after 8, I was looking forward to attending Foster High School, with all of my friends. Not so! And in the new city, there was no middle school... there was only junior high, and it went into 9! So a whole other year before I could get into high school... wasn't happy about that. But anyway, this was all different. I didn't know anybody so I had to make new friends. Which I did. Got my first couple of girlfriends. Homework started becoming crazy. I wasn't super popular but I wasn't any sort of outcast, either. I hung with people from each of the cliques back then, which seem easily compartmentable as the Preps, Rappers, Goths, Skaters, and Geeks. There really was no other category back then.

And that's it, really. I won a couple of district level creative writing contests through 9-12 and that's about my only notable achievement. I didn't really enjoy any of the classes but I didn't, like, loathe going either.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

1st - 5th grade were awesome. That was some grade-A fun kid stuff. Building forts, playing games on the playground, sleepovers, birthday parties, all that stuff. I was the kid with the big backyard and big pool with a diving board, so a lot of people at school and the neighborhood wanted to be my buddy.

6th - 8th grade was not so great. It felt so different. Multiple teachers and no recess? I remember being pissed. I adapted. Nothing too memorable. Some friends stayed friends, some grew apart from. First couple of fights around 7th or 8th.

At the start of 9th grade, my parents moved cities, citing that the neighborhood was "too dangerous" where we lived (ironically, I'd never even seen anyone doing drugs in the old city, but as soon as we moved to the new one, I saw it everywhere). In the old city, elementary is 1-5, middle school is 6-8, and high school is 9-12... so after 8, I was looking forward to attending Foster High School, with all of my friends. Not so! And in the new city, there was no middle school... there was only junior high, and it went into 9! So a whole other year before I could get into high school... wasn't happy about that. But anyway, this was all different. I didn't know anybody so I had to make new friends. Which I did. Got my first couple of girlfriends. Homework started becoming crazy. I wasn't super popular but I wasn't any sort of outcast, either. I hung with people from each of the clicks back then, which seem easily compartmentable as the Preps, Rappers, Goths, Skaters, and Geeks. There really was no other category back then.

And that's it, really. I won a couple of district level creative writing contests through 9-12 and that's about my only notable achievement. I didn't really enjoy any of the classes but I didn't, like, loathe going either.

The school I went to from 10th to 12th grade wasn't really that big, so everyone sorta knew each other at least by name or face alone. Even if you weren't "popular", people would still know who you more or less were.

I didn't really have a "clique" per se. I mostly talked and hung out with 2 other guys from my class. Looking back, we didn't really have much in common and I haven'r seen either of them ever since nor do I care tbh. I just hung out with them at the time because they were the only other guys in class asides from me, I guess. And they were both rather popular as well, so I guess I just didn't want to be alone during lunch breaks and such. Neither was much into the stuff I was into and 90% of their convos were about girls, booze, partying, weed, etc. I wasn't really interested or partaking in any of those activities at the time.

[Karai]

I had the good fortune to go to school when the '87 TMNT series cartoons was humongous with kids. So I guess you could say elementary school was pretty amazing. All these kids running around during recess chasing each other with sticks shouting "TURTLE POWER!", the teachers loved it.

I've always been pretty awkward and shy, so I never had a lot of close friends. The ones I did have were great though. That never really changed during school.

College was rough. I never really found my place there, and never really latched onto anything I thought was important or engaging enough to devote my energy to.

Now I'm just back to being a shy, awkward adult with a day job who can buy her own TMNT toys and YES MOM I'M PUTTING THEM ON THE SHELF FOR ALL MY FRIENDS TO SEE.

[Wesley]

I had mixed feelings of achool as a kid, but I enjoyed it most of the time. I never really related to the ‘school is hell’ metaphor in the tv show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I thought the UK tv series The Inbetweeners gave a more realistic depiction of school.

In Ireland, I went to preschool, primary school and secondary school. I liked secondary the most, as I had real friendships there and had more of an interest in getting to know people. There were a lot more funny moments as well. I liked a few people in preschool and primary, but didn’t care much for most of them and never really considered them to be friends at the time (I only talked to them just for the sake of talking, even it meant contradicting myself).

I wasn’t really bullied. Just pushed around occasionally for about a year in secondary (4th Year), though I was well able to stand up for myself and push him back. My bully was odd, though, as there were many times that he talked to me as if were good friends. He seemed to have a split personality. Got tired of him in the last 2-3 weeks of 4th Year. He never beat me up.

Fav primary years: Junior Enfants, 1st Class, 3rd Class, 6th Class
Fav secondary years: 2nd Year, 5th Year

Only school year I didn’t care much for was 4th Year, but I still learnt a lot from it. I got what I wanted from it anyway. I had loads of time for playing video games or watching television in that year, as we didn’t get much homework. It was only towards the end of the year that I started to get tired of it, as a lot of classmates stopped coming in and my bully was starting to really annoy me. Looking back, it was a decent enough year up until then.

I liked most of the teachers. Only one I really hated was the nun who taught me in 1st Year. She was terrifying. Unbelievably petty about everything and a wolf in sheep’s clothing, she acted like a 90s cartoon villain whenever she got angry which was most of the time unfortunately. Oddly enough, she was my substitute teacher for 1 class in 4th Year and she seemed to have turned into Mary Poppins! Maybe she woke up one morning and understood the mysteries of the universe?

Peer pressure never affected me. If I didn’t want to do something, I was able to say no. I wasn’t the type that followed the crowd. I tended to keep my nerdy interests to myself anyway.

I never cared about being “popular” tbh, but I think I was well liked by a lot of people. Didn’t really have any enemies. I felt people in secondary school were more understanding and mature than most of the ones in primary, maybe because they were older.

[Krutch]

Highschool was certainly an interesting time for me. I was a white, blue-haired Juggalo that went to a Christian highschool made up of 95% Italians. So you can imagine how that went.


Aw yeah. Randy River flame-shirt, Manic Panic hair dye, JNCO jeans, and some embarassing facial hair. Them were the days!

I see Highschool as the time I began developing alot of the same anxieties that plagued most of my adulthood as well. When people meet me they tend to really like me - I’m charismatic and pretty witty while being self-depreciating. It can be pretty disarming in my experience. Unfortunately, that means alot of people think they’ve found a friend for life and are constantly inviting me out places and filling my calendar - which in turns makes everyone upset with me for never hanging out with them enough. I’ve gotten better at managing it - and more importantly, taking time for myself. But I have a hard time saying no to good people who just want to hang out. It stretches me thin sometimes and thats a big source of my depression, but i’m working on it.

[Andrew NDB]

I'll play...





Remember when this hairdo was in style?

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Krutch

Highschool was certainly an interesting time for me. I was a white, blue-haired Juggalo that went to a Christian highschool made up of 95% Italians. So you can imagine how that went.
.

I dunno what this is supposed to mean lol. I guess because you're not Italian you had a harder time fitting in or something?

[Krutch]

haha yeah, kinda. In my highschool at least, the Italians were all very close knit and pretty exclusionary of anyone else. They were nice people - they just kind of kept to themselves and pretty exclusionary of others. They'd be playing Briscola while I was playing Magic the Gathering. They'd be blasting Jay-Z and Ja Rule on their tiny portable speakers in every hall while I was listening to Drowning Pool or ICP on my headphones. They were constantly throwing "open" house parties but would only be for their cliques.

Just different personality types that kept to their own. We'd have a great time in class cracking each other up but whenever I'd invite someone out they'd pass and whenever they'd throw a party, my invite never came.

It wasn't Hell by any means, but it definitely left me with the mark of an outcast.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Krutch

haha yeah, kinda. In my highschool at least, the Italians were all very close knit and pretty exclusionary of anyone else. They were nice people - they just kind of kept to themselves and pretty exclusionary of others. They'd be playing Briscola while I was playing Magic the Gathering. They'd be blasting Jay-Z and Ja Rule on their tiny portable speakers in every hall while I was listening to Drowning Pool or ICP on my headphones. They were constantly throwing "open" house parties but would only be for their cliques.

Just different personality types that kept to their own. We'd have a great time in class cracking each other up but whenever I'd invite someone out they'd pass and whenever they'd throw a party, my invite never came.

It wasn't Hell by any means, but it definitely left me with the mark of an outcast.

Interesting. I don't think listening to Jay-Z and Ja Rule is an Italian thing. Maybe just a thing among the type of Italians you went to school with. When I think of music Italians might typically be into I mostly think of pop music, opera, classical music and such. There's also a few somewhat well-known Italian metal bands. I'm not really into rap music, but when I think of European countries notorious for rap music I think of the UK or France. Or perhaps even a couple of Eastern European countries before Italy even crossing my mind. So I don't think listening to Jay-Z and Ja Rule had anything to do with those guys being Italian.

As for Briscola, I had to google that first, but then I realised that I knew what it was all along. Here we call it "Bisca" instead. According to wiki the game is played in countries like Portugal, Italy, Spain, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, etc. Apparently our own version is slightly different from the Italian one:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brisco...ese_variations

This card game is quite popular among people here during school breaks and such. But many kids here also enjoy Magic the Gathering. Me and my brother were two of them and there definitely were a lot of people in our schools that played them.

I've personally never been a big fan of traditional card games or card games in general. Could partly be because I've never been particularly good at any of them, not even at MTG,

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by Prowler

I've personally never been a big fan of traditional card games or card games in general. Could partly be because I've never been particularly good at any of them, not even at MTG,

Certainly I've never been into non-regular card games. Though even regular card cards... it was only a few months back that I learned how to play poker for the first time ever. And I'm still a little fuzzy on it.

My thing to do in high school was buy a bunch of roleplaying game stuff (all the RIFT stuff, Battletech, Mechwarrior, Aerotech, I guess even the TMNT & Other Strangeness stuff counts), read the manuals, look at the materials, and then never play them, ever. I wouldn't even ask any of my friends to play them with me.

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by Krutch

Highschool was certainly an interesting time for me. I was a white, blue-haired Juggalo that went to a Christian highschool made up of 95% Italians. So you can imagine how that went.

http://i68.tinypic.com/10zz9yg.jpg
Aw yeah. Randy River flame-shirt, Manic Panic hair dye, JNCO jeans, and some embarassing facial hair. Them were the days!

Were they quite lenient? Some schools forbid students growing their facial hair or dying their hair unnatural colours.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Certainly I've never been into non-regular card games. Though even regular card cards... it was only a few months back that I learned how to play poker for the first time ever. And I'm still a little fuzzy on it.

My thing to do in high school was buy a bunch of roleplaying game stuff (all the RIFT stuff, Battletech, Mechwarrior, Aerotech, I guess even the TMNT & Other Strangeness stuff counts), read the manuals, look at the materials, and then never play them, ever. I wouldn't even ask any of my friends to play them with me.

Damn, so you basically just wasted allowance money on that? How did you entertain yourself with them if you never even played them?

Never got a chance to experience tabletop RPGs and such. I've never played D&D, Warhammer or anything like that, but I did have about 6-7 books of this series:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fighting_Fantasy

Basically it was "go to page 56. Now pick a side: left(page 24) or right(page 268." And you'd battle by rolling the dice which decided the outcome of a battle against a monster/enemy. And it also determined your energy, luck and such.

I knew a few other people who grew up with this series, but tbh... after a couple of minutes we'd just do away with the dice, the pencil and paper and say "ah **** this" and then would just follow the pages, pretend we beat every monster and just follow the pages until the end. No one liked dying un the middle of their adventure and then go back right to the beginning of the book . That being said, I did beat a few. It wasn't hard usually. But it required some trial and error. You'd just know in your second playthrough that you're supposed to turn left instead of right on page 154 or that you're supposed to visit the red planet on page 303 instead of the yellow one on page 102. Not to mention the outcome of battles, as I said, was determined by PURE LUCK. The rolling of the dice. At least in video games things are fairer. So yeah...

[Krutch]

Originally Posted by Prowler

So I don't think listening to Jay-Z and Ja Rule had anything to do with those guys being Italian.

Oh no, not saying it has to do with them being Italian - just to show the juxtaposition of them blasting one kind of music to everyone and anyone within radius while I kept to myself not trying to impose on others. Just different types of personalities is all I'm saying.

Originally Posted by Stephen

Were they quite lenient? Some schools forbid students growing their facial hair or dying their hair unnatural colours.

Yeah, I was lucky enough to be allowed that. There was one semester where they were gonna ban it but nothing came to pass. The only thing that was really closely monitored was how short the girls skirts were allowed to be.

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

My thing to do in high school was buy a bunch of roleplaying game stuff (all the RIFT stuff, Battletech, Mechwarrior, Aerotech, I guess even the TMNT & Other Strangeness stuff counts), read the manuals, look at the materials, and then never play them, ever. I wouldn't even ask any of my friends to play them with me.

Man, same here! I collected RPG books like crazy but never got around to actually trying one until my mid-20s.

...nnnnot for me haha

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Stephen

Were they quite lenient? Some schools forbid students growing their facial hair or dying their hair unnatural colours.

Really? Like what, some private schools? Catholic schools and such? Because I've never attended a public school that had a problem with students growing facial hair or dying their hair in different colours. The only rule as far as dress code was, was not being allowed to wear clothes that had curse words on them or something worse. When I was in 5th grade, this classmate of mine had this sweater that depicted a male alien having anal sex with a female alien while he was giving the finger to the audience. One of my teachers told him to take it off and never wear it to school again.

Now that I think about it, what kind of parent would buy their 10 year old son a sweater like that ?

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by Prowler

Damn, so you basically just wasted allowance money on that? How did you entertain yourself with them if you never even played them?

I think I had it in my head that one day when I got older I would be around people that would play those games... and I'd be way ahead of the curve. I think.

Originally Posted by Krutch

Man, same here! I collected RPG books like crazy but never got around to actually trying one until my mid-20s.

...nnnnot for me haha

Definitely not for me, either.

Originally Posted by Prowler

Really? Like what, some private schools? Catholic schools and such? Because I've never attended a public school that had a problem with students growing facial hair or dying their hair in different colours.

Yeah, my school was rife with kids dying their hair all sorts of colors. I even dyed mine platinum blond for a while. I doubt it's changed, though I doubt it's as much the rage as it was 97-99.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

I think I had it in my head that one day when I got older I would be around people that would play those games... and I'd be way ahead of the curve. I think.



Definitely not for me, either.



Yeah, my school was rife with kids dying their hair all sorts of colors. I even dyed mine platinum blond for a while. I doubt it's changed, though I doubt it's as much the rage as it was 97-99.

That I don't know. I was born in 1990, so i was in 5th-6th grade ath around the time artists like Limp Bizkit, Korn, Slipknot, Marilyn Manson, etc. were at the height of their respective popularity. It was mostly teenagers at the time that were those chained wallets, baggy pants and such, but a few kids from my class and my age group at the time also tried to dress like that in order to look cool and tough. Many of the kids around my age at the time found Limp Bizkit to be super cool. Strange era.

[Storm Eagle]

Originally Posted by Prowler

Interesting. I don't think listening to Jay-Z and Ja Rule is an Italian thing. Maybe just a thing among the type of Italians you went to school with. When I think of music Italians might typically be into I mostly think of pop music, opera, classical music and such. There's also a few somewhat well-known Italian metal bands. I'm not really into rap music, but when I think of European countries notorious for rap music I think of the UK or France. Or perhaps even a couple of Eastern European countries before Italy even crossing my mind. So I don't think listening to Jay-Z and Ja Rule had anything to do with those guys being Italian.

I get the feeling that you're thinking Italians who are actually from the country. Krutch is Canadian, but I can see Italian-Americans being like the ones he described. Take Jersey Shore for example.

Originally Posted by Prowler

Really? Like what, some private schools? Catholic schools and such? Because I've never attended a public school that had a problem with students growing facial hair or dying their hair in different colours. The only rule as far as dress code was, was not being allowed to wear clothes that had curse words on them or something worse. When I was in 5th grade, this classmate of mine had this sweater that depicted a male alien having anal sex with a female alien while he was giving the finger to the audience. One of my teachers told him to take it off and never wear it to school again.

I attended a Catholic high school, and boys were required to be clean shaven. I've always thought I looked better that way anyway, but to have to shave was a pain in the neck. However, when the prom was drawing near, the principal that I had allowed boys to grow their facial hair out for the prom if they wanted to. I didn't even want to go to the prom anyway. So I didn't care either way. As for the girls in my school, they couldn't wear earrings that dangle.

My supervisor at work attended a Catholic high school. She told me about the time when she was a freshman and dyed her hair green for St. Patrick's Day. She didn't know that would get her in trouble.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Storm Eagle

I get the feeling that you're thinking Italians who are actually from the country. Krutch is Canadian, but I can see Italian-Americans being like the ones he described. Take Jersey Shore for example.



I attended a Catholic high school, and boys were required to be clean shaven. I've always thought I looked better that way anyway, but to have to shave was a pain in the neck. However, when the prom was drawing near, the principal that I had allowed boys to grow their facial hair out for the prom if they wanted to. I didn't even want to go to the prom anyway. So I didn't care either way. As for the girls in my school, they couldn't wear earrings that dangle.

My supervisor at work attended a Catholic high school. She told me about the time when she was a freshman and dyed her hair green for St. Patrick's Day. She didn't know that would get her in trouble.

I had a feeling he was referring to Italians born in Canada, but still l dunno. If their parents were born and bred Italians surely some of their culture passed on to their kids. I do notice that rap music seems more popular in North America as a whole than in Europe. I mean, ofc in Europe we listen to rap music and everyone knows the more "pop sounding" rappers such as Drake, Kanye West, etc, but I don't see many people around these parts knowing about underground rap or American rappers from the past that aren't Tupac. Plus, some European countries have their own decent sized hip-hop scene and young people will just listen to/relate to their lyrics and experiences better instead, I guess. Europe in general is more into club music such as Techno, EDM, etc. although I think EDM is getting bigger in USA nowadays?

Ah I figured that in Catholic schools rules would be stricter. I've never attended one or know anyone who did, so I wasn't too sure about it, and thought this could perhaps be a regional thing or a different country type of thing.