how did YOU survive highschool?

[Vance Raehart]

i was pick on countless times in highschool. the friends that i thought i had where nice cause i was different, when i realized that i nearly broke down. then i realized "who cares about this school" the moment i start to care what rumors about, or people getting in my face is the day the the world ends. for me the world didn't end right there. i kinda isolated my self from people more often.

i remember a time in gym class a girl would say to me " HI JAKE!!!" in a very obnoxious and loud tone. i tended to ignore that but a part of me wanted to say "Fck off, its hard to not acknowledge your existence with your loud pie trap, now go away!". i would of love to said that if my gym teacher didn't hate domestic violence against women.

basically i just ignored everything what anyone said to me and graduated.

 

[mlogan]

I'm sorry you had a tough time in high school. Do you think you might be able to edit some of the language in your post though, as there are some pretty young members here. Not trying to mod, just trying to look out for some of our other members here.

 

[taarna23]

I didn't. I dropped out of grade 10, twice. Ultimately, I later wound up in an adult basic education program that was FAR better, socially and educationally. Granted, that was a number of years later, but still.

 

[Amysaurus]

I ended up moving to a different state the year before high school, so I was pretty determined to be grumpy from the start~

I basically got through the first few years by focusing on what I enjoyed most at the time, which was singing and drawing. After that I'd found a few friends with similar interests, and everything became much easier. I'm not a very social creature, so what helped me the most was going out of my comfort zone and trying to be more social than I'm used to. I started tutoring math and working as a teacher's assistant, became the official dictator of the art club for a year, and face-painted at sporting events. 

Not really school-related, but getting a job worked wonders for me. I'm much more comfortable dealing with people even when I'm in grump-mode, and I'm better at thinking on my feet.

 

[Ms Littlefish]

I was really focused on my academics and extra circulars. I was an honors student and in four different music ensembles. 

While I had a core group of friends I feel I was generally well liked. Even if I were the center of an odd rumor or two (I can't recall any), I genuinely loved being at school.

I am always really happy, energetic, and friendly. According to my sister that even scared the crap out of some people.

 

[supercow]

i slept through the whole things ( well not literally whole but most of it ), teacher mad at me for sleeping in class but they were kindda gave up on me and left me alone , now i kindda miss my school days .

 

[Bastrophian]

The truth is...i was a terrible student, so much that my teachers all just gave up on me. I was a depressed, paranoid, delusional....at one point, suicidal....mess of a human being. Firstly, all of that was "my fault" and no ones elses. But, i will submit that, growing up i had many things thrust upon me that a child simply had no responsibility to bare...things that i had difficulty coming to terms with, for even a few years after high school ended.

For so many years, i would project onto others how i believed they saw me, and so i would resent them unduly...although i did have my fare share of actual bullies. I "survived" by making myself as invisible as possible, doing just enough to keep the teachers off my back and away from my parents...

And...i guess thats pretty much the short version.

Anyway....im so glad that that time in my life has come to an end....not the high school part...i actually wish i could go back and do better. But every now and then, i look back at my past self...and i pitty him, for all the unnecessary, self imposed difficulty and anguish he carried for way to long. But im glad its over...im still not perfect, but im not the same person i was then.     

 

[Bloodmorphed]

I didn't. I dropped out, got my diploma online and now regretting every moment it.

I have to get my GED anyways, because it's not accredited. Which is waste of money, that diploma cost 200 bucks, GED costs around 150ish or so. 50 if I'm lucky.

I'm behind in my "schooling" which is quite frustating, but I really want to go to college (The Art Institute of Texas)Well the city name but it all good.

My suggestion?

Fight through it and don't give up. School isn't the hardest thing you will have to go through, even if you are bullied (which I was a lot), despite that I wish I would have stayed in school. I loved playing sports in school too, find hobbies, clubs, friends, anything to help you through it. My problem is I only had one good friend, and I followed in his footsteps (dropping out). It's just not worth the hassle. (Although, the GED is a lot harder now and Colleges/Universities/Private Colleges now consider it an actual accomplishment, at least in Texas). Even still, I don't recommend that route.

 

[Seacliff]

I wasn't picked on in High School, but I was a lot in Middle school.

I have a light case of autism, which was the prime targets in 6th and 7th grade. Most of the other Autistic kids my age didn't even know they were being picked on in the first place, thankfully the normal side of my brain told everyone to F*** off and not many of the 'cool' kids bothered talking to me in high school. To top it off, most of my friends were just outside of town so they went to a separate school system, that gave me a very lonely start in highschool, especially 9th, 10th, and half of 11th until one of my friends was able to change school systems into my study hall, and that helped a lot.

Most of my time in highschool was spent in front of a screen, I even brought several handhelds to school and played them in class. (So many people saw me do this and did the same ) I had a case of dysthymia, which is a mild, yet VERY long term case of depression, so I didn't even bother to even make new friends. Believe it or not, it's because of a theme I found while playing a game that got me out of the depression. (I won't say the name because a lot of people in the forums hate it, but it's one of my favorites because of this, just PM me if you want to know THAT bad) And I never expected to learn much of anything through a video game. This urged me to get back into RPG maker the next summer and a few months later I joined these forums.

Right now, I'm at the very end of my senior year and things are going pretty well right now. I still bring games to school, but it's more because the students in my cases won't even let the class progress and I don't want to feel like my time's wasted. In the end, I can't say Highschool was terrible (middle school was hell compared to this) but some choices I made could've made it much better. I can't complain really, being special ed has it's perks where I live especially in the special ed room, I get a free soda once a week, I can go there anytime I'm stressed out, and some of the people there are half-decent.

My highschool story, pretty boring as a whole, but thanks for reading anyways.

 

[Archeia]

I finished High School twice (it was complicated) and I did get picked on. But since school is about not giving a care aside from my grades and I was mostly RMing or playing games, it went by really fast. Group projects didn't give me any troubles but that's probably because I'm a determinator.

 

[Makio-Kuta]

I was extremely fortunate that my highschool peers were all pretty chill and we all got along reasonably well. There were a couple of bullying incidents towards friends of mine that I got hurt (hit into a locker) in the aftermath, but they apologized to me and then I ratted them out for my friends. (and they apologized again to us all?) Yeah, EXTREMELY LUCKY. (That school went to an utter disaster after our grade graduated, right down to a kid being set on fire. Yeahhhh I'm glad I wasn't still in that school that year)

I just hung out with my friends and we competitively compared marks and took up the computers in the library and stayed away from the "smoke pit"

I was picked on and bullied in junior high and lower though. But I was an oblivious child who didn't really get in until years later. I look back and think - poor little Maki should have punted those people. But little Maki just didn't get it. (I thought - hey these people are talking to me! they must like me. fool

 

[Seacliff]

I finished High School twice (it was complicated) and I did get picked on. But since school is about not giving a care aside from my grades and I was mostly RMing or playing games, it went by really fast. Group projects didn't give me any troubles but that's probably because I'm a determinator.

I forgot about group projects, I always avoided them because people always saw me as the smart one and made me do all the work.

 

[Archeia]

I forgot about group projects, I always avoided them because people always saw me as the smart one and made me do all the work.

I usually pick the most timid one that wouldn't ask anyone else and then do all the work. If I need something I ask them but very rarely. But yeah I generally tend to avoid 'friends' that just want to leech off your work.

 

[Uzuki]

Ugh, High school was a mess for me. Part of it was because of my "too angsty for you' attitude that I was sporting since grade school, but there was a lot of other things that was happening at the time that was just adding on. What little of my family that I actually liked dying, my living situation, deepening depression, the verbal bulling. My depression only got worse until I felt like I couldn't take it anymore and I just clocked out on life. I wasn't in a low income city school, but there was a lot of people living up to the stereotype of being an ethnic teenager that I didn't want to be a part of so that alienated me from a lot of social circles. So I was pretty much alone most of my high school years until I graduated.The only highlights of my life at the time was video games and that's were most of my time and energy went. My life changed when I picked up a copy of The World Ends With You. That's probably the only game where I felt any real emotions for a cast of fictional characters and saw a little of myself in all of them. That was a changing point in my life. By the end of the game I had a new lease on life. It's something I tell myself every time I get down on myself or I feel the depressing settling end:

"Do what you love and live life to the fullest."

I know it's cheesy and cliche, but it's what keeps me going. If an anti-social emo git like Neku could change, why couldn't I? So I changed my cynical anger fuel view of life to one that tries to see the endless potential and possibilities that life can offer. It wasn't easy and I still struggle to live with that motto to this day, but it made high school just a tiny bit better. This was my 2nd year so my social standings at that school were shot and there was no recovering from that . I stuck mostly to myself and focused on my writing. Technically I did horrible in my classes, but since all my tests (School and State) were almost 100%s I was allowed to graduate (Yeah for the crappy American school system!). 

Tl;Dr: Do what you love and live life to the fullest. There will ALWAYS be people who will try to put you down. Whether your 14 or 69 there is no escaping people will try to bring you down to their level so they can rise up or have someone to be miserable with. Don't let that happen. Find your niche, stick with it, and show those that your not some play thing that can be toyed with. Be yourself and find a way to enjoy every second life so you can show that you are also a human and deserve as much respect as those that put you down. 

 

[Probotector 200X]

I was never really bullied in High School (aside from some strange incident on my first or second day of a group of girls teasing me) but I still felt so alone. Lots of people seemed to like me for some reason though. I almost never talked even when spoken too, there was some inner tormoil eating away at me the whole time, which I still haven't completely overcome. I got one of the loudest cheers at Graduation somehow, but on the other hand, no one wanted to hang out with me at the Senior Grad Night thing. That's probably the loneliest I've ever felt in my entire life.

I got through it being awkward and silent. But those problems still persist a little even today. I really should've tried to overcome this by now. Well, tomorrow's a new day, why not try then?

 

[Alexander Amnell]

   High school was interesting for me. I still didn't have the skills needed to socialize with people and at the time I believed that due to my mental state (asperger's syndrome) I was incapable of changing in that regard and didn't even try to improve myself because it was easier just to say "well I can't help it because I've got a social disorder, god must hate me etc...". So I basically just tunneled through those years without any friends, no dates, prom or any of that crap. I got bullied for a while as a freshman but quickly that shifted to me developing a bit of notoriety as someone who picked fights at the drop of a pin because at the time since I wasn't even trying to improve my rapport with people and used my mental disorder as an excuse not to try I'd escalate a mild situation like say, name calling into a 1 v 3 brawl without a second thought.

   After freshman year that stilled itself out a bit as people realized that it wasn't worth messing with me (or trying to be friends or anything beyond leaving me completely alone) so I didn't get suspended as much and my grades steadily improved from there; none of the work in high school really challenged me to be honest, of course the school I attended was statistically one of the worst schools in the State, either way when I wasn't getting suspended for fighting or inappropriate outbursts I was a strait A student who basically spent the entire school day coasting along and fleeing into the deepest recesses of my mind and using daydreams as a form of escapism to get me through the day.

   I made it through high school and with no direction what to do with my life I did what I was 'supposed to do' and went to college. Fast forward three years later and I've had a personal realization that I don't want to have anything to do with my field of study or any place that I can see it taking me; beyond that I hated who I was and how I lived so I just walked out of class one day, got in my car and left. Left the school, left the state and just kept driving because I knew that if I stayed in that place I'd end up taking my own life. I spent around a year just traveling the country, yet as a vagabond I learned more about life, people and found more direction and insight into what I personally wanted to get out of life and how to actually accomplish that than the rest of my life leading up to that point cumulatively.

   School focuses far to much on memorization and standardized progression testing I think, and because of this we cut kids loose to find their way in the world without bothering to give them any real guidance on how to actually lead a productive and happy life. I am not saying that there is no value to a standard education; but sadly people overstate it as the key to success when in all honestly not only is it not a key to anything by itself but pursuing it haphazardly can be nothing more than a waste of time. I did later go back to school and receive the diploma I walked out on but I haven't really utilized it since then other than a way to stand out from others while applying for completely unrelated job opportunities and a stepping stone to a management position within them.

   Sometimes a formal education isn't the most important key to a person's success; education is a tool but without the life experience that teaches you how to use it said tool can be rendered completely useless. Sadly that's the outlook of education at least in my Country today. Shelter the children from the hardships of life until they have the tools they need to face them, yet now we have frightened adult-children running around with no clue what they are supposed to do with the tools they were given once they are finally just 'cut loose' to face those hardships all of a sudden.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

Sleeping in class, playing computer games during lunch break, cutting classes sometimes, not taking down notes, and still acing the exams (not always). That's how. Anyway, I just really do what I do normally.

 

[Dr.Yami]

I did not really learn @ high school, and I still have no idea why I got the honorable scholarship.

 

[Ralph]

My village always got burned down whenever we finally been able to reconstruct our village. Since dark lords were such a huge problem, I was taken as a page and got education from there. I guess the closest I got to a bully was Oscar. But Bennet dawg was always around to help me out so it wasn't that big of a deal.

 

[xXTragic_AngelXx]

In high school I was anti social and didn't really talk much. The few friends i have now starting hanging out with me after we finished. Other then that the classes were easy.(then college came)