The High School Years
Jul. 7th, 2011 07:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
same_skyWhat were you like in high school? What extracurricular activities, if any, did you take part in during high school? Did you consider yourself a writer?
High school was not really my best time. My brother was killed in a car wreck halfway through (May of my sophomore year) and it sort of colors the whole experience in my memory. I was part of the honors/AP classes and while I wasn't a real nerd, I did do the smart-kid thing. I had a group of friends that I spent my time with, and we mostly just sort of skirted around outside of the big groups. In my school, that was front hall and back hall--or preps (popular kids) versus rednecks (less concerned with grades and college and more troublemakers.). I would sort of have identified more with the rednecks at the time, not so much in the way that I was all hot for guys on tractors and a card-carrying member of the FFA or anything, but because more than that, I didn't see myself as one of the golden kids in front hall. (In retrospect... I probably had more in common with them than I thoght, and less with the others.) It was kind of a big deal locally, my freshman year, with fights erupting and news crews showing up one week. It didn't last long, though. There were maybe a thousand students in the entire school, so it was pretty small time.
The main extracurricular activity that I had was the Academic Team. Oh, how geeky that makes me sound. We had fun. Monday, every week in the fall, we'd take the bus to another school, up to an hour or so away, where we'd take tests. FOR FUN. Well, that wasn't really the fun part. The fun part was that after it was over, we'd wander around these strange schools and look around, and hang out and talk. We would eat dinner at some fast-food restaraunt and we'd also have fun on the bus. I'm almost nostalgic for that part of it. Almost. I'm not easy, with friends. Hanging out with people doesn't come naturally to me, and for a while, I had several people I was really, really close to. That turned to crap after high school, and it really wasn't the kind of dynamic that could last... but it was good then. I kind of miss that, but I don't really miss THEM anymore. Anyway, thanks to Facebook, I have some contact with most of them again. It is so, so not the same as it was. I'm fine with that now, because my life is so much better than it would have been had that particular path been followed. People change. Or...they don't, and isn't that even worse sometimes?
My junior year, I was named president of the Interact club, which is a teen chapter of the Rotary club. We were all about service projects. I only showed up to begin with because my friends were, and then someone nominated me as president. I tried to back out before the vote, but the teacher--very dry, very funny man--told me that if I lost, then he thought I could live with the rejection. I'm not sure if there was anyone even running against me, but I won handily. I suspect he thought I'd do well with it, and that it'd be good for me. Anyway, we put in our required hours of service by doing things for teachers when we could get away with it, and we also showed up to serve breakfast for some race.. I'm not really sure what kind of race it was, but I distinctly remember being incredibly cold and hanging out with my friends while serving up rectangular slices of breakfast omelette casserole stuff. Hmm... actually, now that I think on it, the required hours of service were for Beta club, which I was also part of, and it just worked well with Interact.
I also joined the Art club for a while, 100% because they were planning a trip to Chicago and again, my friends were doing it. We had a great weekend. We went to a couple of art museums, but we also shopped, and went to restaurants and we were almost treated like adults. I remember more about that trip than I remember about most high school stuff. I also remember conning the Youth Services Center lady into paying for my portion of the trip... again, a tip I picked up from friends. :) Turns out, all you had to do was go tell them that you wanted to go but couldn't afford it--huh! ;) I probably should feel guilty about that, seeing as how my parents really could have afforded the trip, but I don't, really.
My junior year was sort of hellish, in courseload, so when it came to my senior year, I did as little as I could get away with. That's when I decided to sign up for the newspaper. We started off well, and we did publish a few issues. I wrote several hard-hitting pieces, one on the aforementioned Youth Services center, and the things they do, and an introspective horoscope feature, with complete BS horoscopes that were coincidentally very applicable towards specific people. (Well, I'm not sure if this was any more BS than traditional horoscopes, which are also sort of made-up, aren't they?) Then.. something happened, with the printer. The last issue that we wrote content for was never distributed, and we started putting more and more time into doing nothing. The teacher just let us coast. We spent the rest of the year chatting, working on homework, etc.) We all got As. Or.. well, I did. I assume everyone did. It was great. So, for a short while, I was a writer in high school. I did self-identify as a writer. I always have. I just rarely have the energy to make that a reality. I wrote some other stuff, but nothing much worth speaking of. Did I really just end a sentence about being a writer with a preposition? Unfortunate, that.
I completely reject the idea that high school is the best years of your life. In fact, I really think it's pretty sad when people feel that way. Yeah, it had its moments, but for the most part... oh, the angst! The pressure! The lack of control of your life! The drama! The people you're forced to spend time with every day!
On the other hand, when I was a teenager, I rarely just stopped doing a relaxing activity (in this case writing this post) because I could no longer procrastinate about vacuuming the living room. There is something to be said for that lack of responsibility that kids have. I still wouldn't trade it, though. :) And on that note.. vacuuming, here I come. Bleh.
High school was not really my best time. My brother was killed in a car wreck halfway through (May of my sophomore year) and it sort of colors the whole experience in my memory. I was part of the honors/AP classes and while I wasn't a real nerd, I did do the smart-kid thing. I had a group of friends that I spent my time with, and we mostly just sort of skirted around outside of the big groups. In my school, that was front hall and back hall--or preps (popular kids) versus rednecks (less concerned with grades and college and more troublemakers.). I would sort of have identified more with the rednecks at the time, not so much in the way that I was all hot for guys on tractors and a card-carrying member of the FFA or anything, but because more than that, I didn't see myself as one of the golden kids in front hall. (In retrospect... I probably had more in common with them than I thoght, and less with the others.) It was kind of a big deal locally, my freshman year, with fights erupting and news crews showing up one week. It didn't last long, though. There were maybe a thousand students in the entire school, so it was pretty small time.
The main extracurricular activity that I had was the Academic Team. Oh, how geeky that makes me sound. We had fun. Monday, every week in the fall, we'd take the bus to another school, up to an hour or so away, where we'd take tests. FOR FUN. Well, that wasn't really the fun part. The fun part was that after it was over, we'd wander around these strange schools and look around, and hang out and talk. We would eat dinner at some fast-food restaraunt and we'd also have fun on the bus. I'm almost nostalgic for that part of it. Almost. I'm not easy, with friends. Hanging out with people doesn't come naturally to me, and for a while, I had several people I was really, really close to. That turned to crap after high school, and it really wasn't the kind of dynamic that could last... but it was good then. I kind of miss that, but I don't really miss THEM anymore. Anyway, thanks to Facebook, I have some contact with most of them again. It is so, so not the same as it was. I'm fine with that now, because my life is so much better than it would have been had that particular path been followed. People change. Or...they don't, and isn't that even worse sometimes?
My junior year, I was named president of the Interact club, which is a teen chapter of the Rotary club. We were all about service projects. I only showed up to begin with because my friends were, and then someone nominated me as president. I tried to back out before the vote, but the teacher--very dry, very funny man--told me that if I lost, then he thought I could live with the rejection. I'm not sure if there was anyone even running against me, but I won handily. I suspect he thought I'd do well with it, and that it'd be good for me. Anyway, we put in our required hours of service by doing things for teachers when we could get away with it, and we also showed up to serve breakfast for some race.. I'm not really sure what kind of race it was, but I distinctly remember being incredibly cold and hanging out with my friends while serving up rectangular slices of breakfast omelette casserole stuff. Hmm... actually, now that I think on it, the required hours of service were for Beta club, which I was also part of, and it just worked well with Interact.
I also joined the Art club for a while, 100% because they were planning a trip to Chicago and again, my friends were doing it. We had a great weekend. We went to a couple of art museums, but we also shopped, and went to restaurants and we were almost treated like adults. I remember more about that trip than I remember about most high school stuff. I also remember conning the Youth Services Center lady into paying for my portion of the trip... again, a tip I picked up from friends. :) Turns out, all you had to do was go tell them that you wanted to go but couldn't afford it--huh! ;) I probably should feel guilty about that, seeing as how my parents really could have afforded the trip, but I don't, really.
My junior year was sort of hellish, in courseload, so when it came to my senior year, I did as little as I could get away with. That's when I decided to sign up for the newspaper. We started off well, and we did publish a few issues. I wrote several hard-hitting pieces, one on the aforementioned Youth Services center, and the things they do, and an introspective horoscope feature, with complete BS horoscopes that were coincidentally very applicable towards specific people. (Well, I'm not sure if this was any more BS than traditional horoscopes, which are also sort of made-up, aren't they?) Then.. something happened, with the printer. The last issue that we wrote content for was never distributed, and we started putting more and more time into doing nothing. The teacher just let us coast. We spent the rest of the year chatting, working on homework, etc.) We all got As. Or.. well, I did. I assume everyone did. It was great. So, for a short while, I was a writer in high school. I did self-identify as a writer. I always have. I just rarely have the energy to make that a reality. I wrote some other stuff, but nothing much worth speaking of. Did I really just end a sentence about being a writer with a preposition? Unfortunate, that.
I completely reject the idea that high school is the best years of your life. In fact, I really think it's pretty sad when people feel that way. Yeah, it had its moments, but for the most part... oh, the angst! The pressure! The lack of control of your life! The drama! The people you're forced to spend time with every day!
On the other hand, when I was a teenager, I rarely just stopped doing a relaxing activity (in this case writing this post) because I could no longer procrastinate about vacuuming the living room. There is something to be said for that lack of responsibility that kids have. I still wouldn't trade it, though. :) And on that note.. vacuuming, here I come. Bleh.
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no subject
Date: 2011-07-08 12:16 am (UTC)I am so glad I never have to go back to HS.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-08 02:07 pm (UTC)I've always thought that whole best years of our lives thing mostly was dated to a time when the majority of kids didn't go on to college and just started working, started families, or joined the army or something. Nowadays I can't imagine anyone preferring high school to college, or if you have a job that pays you enough to have a little fun, those first years out of college.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-10 10:37 am (UTC)