STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Metric · Gucci

high school?

Maddie · Coach

In high school I wouldn't say that I was popular, but all my friend were. If that makes sense. Basically I'm real lame and don't like most people so I had a close group of friends who were all pretty popular, but I never really got into their scene. It was weird cause when I would go out with them they would totally overshadow me, but when we were just hanging out I was more the leader.

Looking back on it, I loved high school. The popular group at my school was not a lame Abercrombie crowd. People were popular cause they were cool people. Everyone dressed really cool, liked good music, was funny and smart. For the most part. My high school also offered me a ton of great oppurtunities that I'm glad I got to do.

nunzi182 · Kate Spade

I. Hated. Highschool. It was the most horrible experience of my life. I wasn't popular, and didn't want to be popular. I realized the hard way that it's much easier to fit in with the "popular" crowd than it is to be different.

I could have been popular if I wanted to smoke pot, experiment with various "hard drugs", get drunk every weekend, have sex with random guys, and then get an abortion a month later. If you can believe it, that was the "in" crowd. I just didn't want that. Because of that, I was faced with oodles of peer pressure and stood out from the crowd. I was ridiculed and alienated by the few friends that I had made early on because I didn't like to have "fun".

I had a boyfriend in high school that is now my fiance and I would catch a lot of grief for hanging out with him on a daily basis rather than with my "friends" because they said I was ditching them. In reality, I was looking for any excuse not to be put in a sticky situation with them; which they almost always inevitable got themselves into it.

I have to say that high school graduation day was one of the happiest days of my life because I hated that place so much and it was a huge relief to finally be done with and become "me."

Elle · Hermes

Man, I hated highschool!

Fh and I went to a large (3000 people) HS in a very well-off neighborhood. The girls in the 'popular' group were ones that bleached their hair until it was ready to fall out and wore super-frosty pink lipgloss and had orange skin from too much fake tanning/bronzing powder and painted their nails every night to match the ensemble they were going to wear the next day . The guys also bleached their hair, wore too much jewelry, fake-tanned, and shaved their entire bodies . We had quite the goth population too.

I think I was maybe the least-involved person in the whole highschool 'scene' in my entire school. My objective was to get in and get out! I wore sweatshirts, jeans, and sneakers to school everyday and rarely did my hair or wore jewelry. I worked 6 days a week, so I never went to parties or anything like that. I escaped my high school experience having never gone to a single school dance or school-sponsored event, save the 4 football games my freshman year due to Danceteam. I actually graduated in January of my senior year, and never saw any of my classmates again until the official graduation ceremony in June .

I also felt total relief the last day I walked out of that building, and could start my 'real' life.

Sometimes, I wish I could do it over again and be more involved, but be the much cooler & more confident person I am now. I vote to take ages 14-17 off from school and go to highschool from 18-21, minus the homework !

-- Edited by LMonet at 14:00, 2005-10-26

NCshopper · Hermes

High school was kind of forgettable in my experience. My high school was weird though. It was kind of an alternative high school, still a public school, but you had to apply to get in, and a brand new high school opened up the year I started my sophomore year (which is when we started high school in So. Cal.) so all the "popular" type kids went to that school.

My school didn't really have a "popular" clique, but it did have your surfer, skater, drama, goth, etc. crowds. Oh, and we had no football team, and thus no cheerleading squad, so that limited competition for that kind of thing. The homecoming king my sophomore was this goth kid that wore a black trench coat everyday and had a nose ring (like the kind that goes through your nose like a bull) that had a skull on it. Our prom king and queen were picked by drawing names out of a hat and we didn't have grades in our senior year English class, and we had surf PE and skate PE--so it wasn't your average high school by any stretch of the imagination.

I'd describe myself as being kind of a "floater"--I hung out with the surfer girl crowd, the AP kids crowd, the kids that were in my Spanish class, kids from other high schools, and kids that I'd just known forever. I just kinda mixed it up by going to lunch with one group one day and another group the next. A lot of my friends partied and did drugs and had sex, but I decided that wasn't for me yet. I figured that was something I'd do in college where the chances of getting caught by my parents were a lot slimmer. I got good grades and was just a pretty good kid in general.

By the time my senior year rolled around I was ready to get the hell out--I was over the high school thing. I had a boyfriend that was 29 and I just wanted to start college and get on with the rest of my life. I had a good time in high school, but it wasn't spectacular, and I'm actually glad about that. It allowed me to experience a little more in college and really live it up there.

sfcaligirl · Dooney & Bourke

i had a pretty good high school experience. i'd never, ever want to go back to it (mostly because i'm so glad that i'm not living in my tiny town anymore), but i was happy in high school.

i grew up an a really small town and my high school had barely 400 people. i graduated with a class of 99 people- and most of us had gone to school with each other since kindergarten. it was kinda nice, but it could be suffocating at times. you know how it is in a small town/school- everyone knows everything about everybody else. ugh...

i was super-involved in my school- i played field hockey and softball, sang in the chorus, performed in musicals, was a yearbook editor, mock trial club, class executive board, national honor society, etc. i was in all honors/AP classes and graduated in the top 10%. i really cared about getting into a good college, although i had a problem with...motivation during my junior year. i think i was really burnt out or something.

i had a great group of friends (same best friend since age 2!) and i guess we were considered the "popular" kids, although i never really thought of us like that. my three best girlfriends and i had a big group of male friends- they were the cute, smart, jock guys. and of course, we all took turns dating them! ewww, so incestuous. (hey, it was a small school. slim pickings!) we definitely partied, but never anything beyond drinking and pot. normal teenage stuff. i didn't have a long-term boyfriend in high school, so i wasn't having sex. i think most of us were pretty well-adjusted. we were all smart and involved and ended up getting into good schools, but we made sure to have plenty of fun too.

even though i ran with the "in crowd," i never felt like a stereotypical popular kid. i always tried to be friendly to everyone. but i think people expected me to be a snot because of my "social position" in our school. a bunch of people who i became friends with outside of the "popular crowd" actually told me that they were surprised that i was a nice person. ummm, thanks?

eta: a few years after i graduated, i found out that during my senior year all of the underclassmen girls (mostly the "popular" girls in each grade) referred to me and my three best girlfriends as "the four bitches." geez!!! we definitely weren't bitches. these girls were just jealous because they all wanted to date our guy friends and we hung out with them all the time. haha, high school was ridiculous!!!

-- Edited by sfcaligirl at 14:32, 2005-10-26

Dizzy · Marc Jacobs

I was homeschooled, so the closest thing I had to a peer group was the bunch of homsechoolers in our area who all hung out together and took classes together twice a week. My best friend and I ran the group and dated the only cute boys in it, or sometimes boys that went to high school (well, my parents were incredibly strict so we didn't really get to see them for long). We got in trouble all the time for wearing short skirts and things - and at our senior "prim" we were so bored we set the centerpiece on fire and the other parents freaked (it was an accident, I swear). By senior year, my best friend was dating a homeschooler out of town, who had a gorgeous best friend. I told my friend to tell him I'd go out with him and poof, first boyfriend. Why isn't dating that easy - and fun - anymore?

The downside was my parents - they're right wing fundamentalists and life at home was pretty awful. I ran away when I was 17 and lived with my friend for a while. The other thing that was hard was working full-time hours all the time. My family expected me to contribute and I wanted to save money for college, so I worked up to 80 hours a week (it's illegal, but they counted me as a dropout).

Then I went to college and now I'm in law school, which is just like high school. So I guess it's my chance to find out what I would have been like. Hmmm.... I have a bunch of friends and people basically know me, but a lot of people think I'm a flaky ditz. Whatever

ILoveChoo · Hermes

I kept to myself a lot. And I was ridiculously dorky- all the teachers loved me and I graduated at the top of my class. I was the kind of person who got along with everyone, but had very few real friends.

I was extremely shy and overly self-conscious, and that prevented me from getting close to a lot of people. Like, even though the "popular" people liked me and wanted to be friends I couldn't believe that they were serious. I was voted prom queen, and I was convinced that it was a mean joke (but it wasn't).

halleybird · Hermes

I hung out with the Mormon/Drama group. Almost all of my friends were in drama. I liked them because they were smart, and they didn't do drugs or drink. I was in a lot of nerdy/looks-good-on-a-college-app.-clubs, and of course I was the newspaper editor.

I was semi-popular, but only because my now-husband/then bf was. His friends didn't really like me, but I still went to their parties, etc. sometimes, to be with him. We were even nominated for Prom King/Queen once, which my friends found hilarious!

I was pretty annoying though -- very closed-minded and pretentious, and I thought I was smarter than my teachers. I had a lot of growing up to do in college.

-- Edited by halleybird at 19:20, 2005-10-26

lynnie · Chanel

i think my situation was similar to Ilovechoo's. I was semi-dorky in the sense that i cared about school, was kind of shy, and kept to myself, but i think most people liked me. Of course, it was ME that didn't want to believe it. I had a lot of acquaintances and a few close friends, but that was about it. I still get nervous when I think of bumping into certain people from hs-like i STILL think they're better than me or they simply make me self-conscious. I wasn't a "partier" (though I def. had a rebellious side that would have gotten me in SO much trouble if I had ever been caught) because my parents were too strict. OY. I don't really look back on hs with fond memories, but I def. miss that whole outside-looking-in perspective to a class of 400 students. I grew up with most of these people, so even if I never said one word to someone in my life, I felt like I knew everyone. My hs was your typical Abercrombie preppy field-hockey/football/lacrosse school= popular. There are def. people I'm curious about, but don't want to ever talk to again.

-- Edited by lynnie at 19:39, 2005-10-26

Sandy · Kate Spade

I don't really know what I as in high school. I didn't hang out with many people from my school. I had friends there, and they probably were not considered popular, but I spent most of my free time with my best friend. She went to another school, and I was always with her and my friends from her school. I think I was more popular at my friend's school than my own. I always dated the popular boys, though. I started dating my now-boyfriend in January of my junior year. He was your average popular boy I guess... he was the captain of the football team. We were voted cutest couple by our class though, so I guess that means something . When we started going out, one of the girls in his group (a cheerleader) said "you're going out with HER... she's not even a cheerleader!" . A boy once broke up with me because the football season was starting and he didn't want to be dating a girl who wasn't a cheerleader. Most kids weren't like that, though... just those two. My school also had your typical popular group qualities: Abercrombie football players/cheerleaders/hockey players ruled. I think I would have had more friends if I made an effort to "belong"... I wasn't really involved in any clubs or organizations, and, like I said, I didn't hang out with them after school. I didn't drink or smoke pot, so I felt like an outsider. By senior year, everyone was cool with each other, and a lot of the cliques blended together, which I thought was kind of cool. I never really cared about the popularity... I wanted to get out of high school as soon as I got there, so I spent as little time there as possible.

honey · Gucci

my mom moved a lot, so i went to a lot of different schools. in 9th grade i lived in tx, and i hated every minute of it. the people were (imo) very closed minded and it really bothered me.

in 10th grade we moved back to the east coast. i went to a very typical suburban highschool, that one of my older brothers attended. i was kind of a floater. i've never been really group oriented, so i always had lots of friends that across the spectrum. the school brought in kids from the city, and i spent most of my time hanging out with either them or this other girl who lived close by. i didn't really go to like parties or anything like that, but i don't *think* i was unpopular.

after that we moved to the city and high school was very different. there were no "popular" kids. if anything it was divided b/t the kids who cared about school and those who didn't. my junior year i totally thought i was a badass and used to cut class to hang out. that was actually kind of fun. after i took the psat, the teachers realized i hat "potential" so everyone started caring about what i did, and i could no longer just do whatever. so then i started hanging out more with the kids who cared about school. that was kind of annoying b/c i didn't get along with one of the girls in that group, and she had this vendetta against me. (one of the reasons i don't own my highschool yearbook was b/c she decided i was conceited and made this special superlative for me). it was so strange b/c i saw her like 2 years after that at a bus station, and i tried to be nice to her, you know let bygones go, etc. anyway she was still totally stank to me, so i was like f*** it. sucked for her b/c she was stuck, and i was totally going to invite her to my house so she wouldn't have to wait for her ride in the car, but her overall rude attitude made me not regret driving off and leaving her in the cold.

tri_sarah_tops · Marc Jacobs

My high school was super small. There were 13 people in my graduating class and maybe 85-100 people in the whole school. Since the school was so small it was really easy to be involved and I was in volleyball, basketball, track, drama, mock trial, competitive speech, newspaper, yearbook, student counsel and band so I was always really busy. My parents were strict and expected a lot from me so I always had a full schedule and took all the advanced classes. I would get grounded for any grade less than an "A" so I did very well in school and graduated first in my class. Looking back I can see why they expected so much from me, but this had definitely contributed to some self-esteem/self-worth issues that I have today (if I don't do something perfectly I get very upset with myself. I am a perfectionist to the point of being self-destructive).

I was popular but I belonged to a small group of friends that were inseperable. Some kids called me a geek because I did so well in school and actually cared about my grades and I know that some girls didn't like me because they thought I was stuck up (really I'm just sort of shy and I have a hard time approaching people. I always assume they won't like me. I've always been that way). Also, I drank a lot. My jr and sr year I think I was drunk pretty much every weekend. I think that was mostly because we were in the middle of nowhere and there really wasn't anything else to keep us busy. I never really had a boyfriend because there wasn't anyone that I wanted to date. I had crushes all the time but nothing really came of them, probably mostly because I was so shy. My best friend was beautiful, outgoing, and confident and I always felt so inferior to her because all the guys loved her and I always felt over shadowed.

I didn't mind high school, but as an adult, it's weird to think about it. Problems and drama that seemed like the end of the world in high school were really nothing. When you're 30 it really doesn't matter that Judy hated you because Ralph asked you to prom. I just think it's funny because who you were in high school has absolutely no affect on your adult life but it all seems so serious at the time. Anyway, I really enjoyed reading this thread....it's interesting to see how different it was for each of us.

laken1 · Hermes

I supposed I was popular - I was captain of the cheerleading squad & was on Homecoming court one year, student council, Nation Honor society, Key club sweetheart, that kind of crap, but I was also a good student. i went to a small school - 153 in my graduating class, so it wasn't that hard to be all those things I guess. I graduated #11 in my class - UGH - it was such a big deal at the time that I didn't get in the top 10!

I remember being a cheerleading camp & hearing some girls say "Can you bellieve there is only one high school in their whole town?" and I clearly remember being surprised that there were towns with more than one high school! Totally foreign to me!

The other thing that bugged me was being called snobby because I didn't talk to EVERYONE - I always thought that was unfair since those same people never talked to me & maybe they were snobby, but because i was a cheerleader I was supposed to go out of my way to talk to everybody? Gosh I hate high school. I also was a proponent AGAINST my guy friends making fun of people - I always shamed them if they did - which I'm still really proud of.

I was kinda wild my Junior year, but the rest of the time I always had a boyfriend so was pretty tame. If there were drugs at my school I never knew about it. The worst we did was drink a lot. I never saw even pot until I went to college. I am still good friends with my BFF from high school although we went years without talking. She just sent me her new webpage yesterday - she is a Psychotherapist - I'm very proud of her. I have one other friend from high school I'm in touch with about monthly but she just lost her house in Katrina (lives in NO) so we haven't talked as much lately.

I previously told the story about my HORRID 10 year reunion, so other than those 2 people, i hope to never see any of those people ever ever again in my life.

kenzie · Chanel

Eh...high school was okay, but would have been better if I hadn't spent the last two years dating a complete freak. But it still wasn't that bad. I had a huge group of friends, mostly from music, drama, and dance. We were the artsy crowd, but not in that weird, we do drugs and don't bath kind of way.

We had parties almost every weekend and were constantly at each other's houses. I was the only one with a car until the summer we graduated, so we would just pile into the crappy little Chevy Spectrum and head to the mall and terrorize the employees by trying on tons of stuff.

High school was fun while it lasted, but I was ready to graduate and go to college. I wouldn't want to go back to high school now, either.

blink · Coach

This was the early 90's. I was one of the shy smokehole girls at my private Catholic school. I got bad grades because I had no self discipline and I hung out with kids who were a bad influence and drank early, like 8th and 9th grade. I dressed normally though, if not a little flowery and cutesy. I was never one of those black concert tee shirt girls.

When I transferred to public school where I didn't know anyone, I got popular at the end of my senior year, probably because I drove a new car and worked at Hooters as a hostess.

I always started each year with good, nice, smart and popular kids paying attention to me, but I was such an insecure loner that I still gravitated to kids who were bad or different, because I felt like they weren't judging anyone. What a crock, right? They all judge in one way or another.

Luv2Shop · Kate Spade

High school was the funnest time in my life!! I was so carefree and had some of the best times I will ever have there, or while I was in HS, not actually at the school. I was a cheerleader for the football team and it was such a blast. My best friend was also on the squad and every weekend we (all the cheerleaders) hung out with all the football players. We are a really close community (I still live here, now with my hubby) and had the kind of parents that let us drink at thier houses if we were all staying overnight there (mine included). I hung out with people from all types of groups I guess. When It was football season I mostly hung out with my BFF and the rest of the squad and team, but on the off season and during the summer I hung with the group of girls that weren't into "school" stuff and we would, well, I don't really know what we would do but we had a ton of fun doing it! My other 2 best friends were in this group. One of them worked at Baskin Robbins where we would hang out on the weekends and cause trouble. Then we would find cute boys to hang out with. I am still friends with all 3 girls and they were all in my wedding. I actually still hang out with a lot of the girls I went to HS with, they were a great group of girls!

On the boy side, I was kind of a flirt. I always had a boyfriend, and I cheated on every one of them. I got bored after about 6 months, but never wanted to break up with anyone. But come on, I was in HS and kissing cute boys was fun!! I matured in College and never cheated after that, and I know I never will on my husband of corse, but HS reletionships weren't that serious to me.

I just remember laughing EVERY day and everything was so dramatic and fun, except when we had boy drama in which we would spill our tears together over uncooked brownie batter and Fiona Apple music.

I just had fun with whoever I was with at the time and I have so many great memories and once and a while I will get together with my friends and re-hash it all for old times sake!

Oh yea, I forgot, I got average grades, but that wasn't my concern then.

-- Edited by Luv2Shop at 14:51, 2005-10-28

Tara · Dooney & Bourke

I had to post in this thread b/c high school was literally THE low point of my entire existence. Looking back on myself, I can only laugh - I was a train wreck!

I WAS Tracy Flick from the movie Election! I had to be involved in everything - when I look back I cringe. I was a giant giant overachiever. I was president of virtually every organization in my school and was Valedictorian. I was a giant nerd. I was also very bitter and cynical - to the point where I rolled my eyes every 10 seconds.

Also, I was about 95 lbs (I am 5'7", (and it was entirely a metabolism thing)) and I had HUGE permed hair - I looked like a Q-tip!!!!!!!!

And I had this HUGE crush on the Mr.Popular Guy (who actually was in the "gifted" program with me, so he didn't completely fit the "Meathead" stereotype). And I used to give him my homework to copy EVERY single morning - I was SUCH a loser!

Also, as a total aside - Mr.Popular Guy had this sitcom-ish like name, the kind where the first and last name start with the same letter/sound. For example (not his real name): Craig Criglowski. How weird is that?

JoceyBaby23 · Gucci

My high school was super snobby and super cliquey. Luckily, I was friends will some pretty cool people. I really enjoyed high school, it was so fun. I had the same Boyfriend for 3 of the 4 years.

I played Number 2 on the Tennis team and was captain of the Cheerleading squad.

Our crowd wore like designer jeans back then with polos and sweaters tied around our necks and penny loafers.. Preppy is not even the word! It was horendous!

Seashells · Dooney & Bourke

I had the most stereotypical high school experience ever-

That's right , cheerleaders weren't cool in our school, so I was a starter on the Field Hockey team, I dated the captain of the football team, and that's right folks- I graduated with a 3.84!

As one might expect I was part of what was called the "cool" crowd, but I rebelled against it. (I have this theory that good looking people often don't develop their own personalities and dear god, I can't stand hanging out with a bunch of good looking idiots.) So I started hanging out with really fun and spontaneous guys that are still my best friends today! They made my high school experience so great! The "hot" guys talked a lot of bad things about me, and even the girls because I tended to ignore them (despite what they thought, I just wasn't interested in where we were going to go get drunk and high this weekend).

If I could tell a high schooler anything, being "cool" or "popular" is overrated. I would say hang out with the people that are fun, because that's what makes your experiences great! Those are the people that makes life colorful. Life is definately not about being "cool".