Who Were You?

[CrazyAce86]

Well, after watching The Breakfast Club for the umpteen thousandth time, I got to wondering about the stereotypes and cliques of high school and college.

Who were you in high school? Did you look like one subculture but really were another? How did you "fit in" and how were treated?

In reference to the movie, I was an amalgam of John, Allison, and Brian. I was smart like Brian, got in trouble like John, and didn't really care about things like Allison. In a way, I was my own subculture, because I could go and talk to the richies and sportos, then turn around and talk to the shop boys and stoners. I was kind of transient. I was the weird outsider. I had two nicknames in high school-- "Crazy Lacey" and "Trip". Kind of says it all, doesn't it?

I was like that fashion-wise as well. One day I would like a "dirty" hippie, the next day I was dressed in all black with my Metallica band shirt, and the day after that I had ripped jeans, boots, and wearing a NASCAR t-shirt.

As for how I was treated, it was with distance. I had very few close friends in high school, and after one of them died, I became distant to most people. Oh, sure, I'd talk to anyone and everyone, but I never really said anything. Most folks didn't know how to take or label me, I think. On one hand, for example, I was the teacher's pet and allowed to sleep through class because I would ace the test anyway; on the other hand, I was the one down in the principal's office calling him an asshole and getting suspended. I'd help you with your homework or beat the shit out of you for messing with my friends. In a very small high school (less than 500 kids in grades 7 - 12 all in one building), you more or less had to be part of one or two groups. The few like me, though, who could talk to anyone from any group but never belonged to any of them were ostracized mostly.

What were your experiences?

[Shuft]

Well, I ran into a guy I went to highschool with at a bar about a month ago, and he said he remembers me as a huge stoner. I was a little confused. I went 2.5 years without even trying pot, then .5 as a casual user (never came to school high or anything).

Then a girl I ran into from high school said I was the most musically talented person she knew besides my brother. This conversation took place while I was kicking her ass at Guitar Hero though.

I always thought of myself as a big nerd. Chess club, speech and debate, band, drama, etc. My friends and I threw a big LAN party instead of going to senior prom. Looking back, the biggest difference between me then and now would be that I am not nervous and twitchy 24/7. If I could go back and give proto-shuft one piece of advice it would be, "Just chillax. None of this really matters."

[MeneerDijk]

There were 'groups' at my highschool, but they weren't very limiting. I used to just hang out with several friends who'd belong to a different group really. Come to think of it, there were only two major groups. being: Alto (alternative music and a grunge look) and the Gabbers (a dutch form of hardcore house, the guys and girls both wearing track suits) These two groups would mingle though.

I'd belong more to the Alto group

[sushi]

I suppose i belonged to the rock/geek croud, it was a mix of heavy rockers and geek. Although i could talk to other groups aswell i mostly hung around with same group all the way through high school.

And i must watch breakfast club seen as i have never seen it.

[Nebosuke]

My high school was medium sized, I guess, with a bit over 200 kids in each graduating class. I was one of the guys who got along with everyone. I never really had anyone hate me in HS, and I was pretty much always nominated (and elected, where applicable) to some leadership position in any activity I participated in (I even got elected vp for a club I had quit the year before!:duh:). I don't drink or smoke at all, but I went to lots of parties just the same and had fun.

During my senior a couple of my underclassmen friends told me I was the 'big man' on campus[1], but it didn't really feel that way. I never bossed people around or told people what to do. I thought I was just having fun doing crap with my friends.

[1] There were some crazy kids during my senior year who would literally bow to me when I walked past, lol. I bowed back :P.

[Kwiz]

My friends and I threw a big LAN party instead of going to senior prom. Looking back, the biggest difference between me then and now would be that I am not nervous and twitchy 24/7. If I could go back and give proto-shuft one piece of advice it would be, "Just chillax. None of this really matters."

Having a LAN party instead of going to prom? That qualifies as all kinds of awesome - really. And perhaps I'll be wishing to give my past self that same advice a few years from now.. but I have gotten somewhat better since last year.

As for a clique, I'm not sure any of my friends fit into one. We're sort of a random group of assorted weirdos.

[Vic_Rattlehead]

I think I was the only guy in my school with long hair. Never got no trouble over it though. I wasnt like one of the nerds or one of the 'popular ones'. I was just a guy who went to school, fooled about at lunch, did his work and did some extra-curricular activities.

Mind you, my school was rough. I was the only boy in my class to get A levels.

[Loc]

I was a total geek and had no friends at all...

Not much has changed :(

[I Like Shinny!]

I was a total geek and had no friends at all...

Not much has changed :(
Aw, cheer up emo kid. :)

I was the "goth".

[Vic_Rattlehead]

Aw, cheer up emo kid. :)

I was the "goth".


Actually, yeah, some of the ill-informed younger kids used to say.

"Are you Gothic, and do you listen to Blink 182?" I wouldnt even dress in anything 'gothic' either lol.

Good times...

[koku]

I was a total geek and had no friends at all...

Not much has changed :(


Anime will be your friend.

[Loc]

Nande Sasuke?!?! :gloomy:

[ellie]

I went to a really small high school, my graduating class had only 110 people. Therefore, we didnt really have many cliques, everyone was friendly to everyone--it was really nice. I am kind of shy, though, so I had a close group of friends and then a bunch of other people whom I would talk to and all but wasnt really close with.

[I Like Shinny!]

Actually, yeah, some of the ill-informed younger kids used to say.

"Are you Gothic, and do you listen to Blink 182?" I wouldnt even dress in anything 'gothic' either lol.

Good times...
Blink 182 = Goth? :rofl:

[Rear Admiral Grapefruit]

My school never had groups like that, usualy, it was just groups of people from the same classes would be friends, like you have sets 1-5, and usualy its the same people in each set for each class, the dumb ones were set 5 in most, the smarter were set one, i was mostly mixed between 1 and 2, so i'd just hang around with a hybrid of the two sets, i'm ashamed to say though early on (about 12yrs old i think, so 7yrs ago) i was a pokemaster :( i bought the cards from the internet and sold em on for a profit, made a decent living collecting dinner money, then i was the master on the origional games, unbeatable team of pokemon, including an unkillable mewtwo. I also got quite a bit too much attention from random people who were obsessed with my hair, everyone had a comment to make, because i kinda had like, upright ginger hair and it was all soft and fluffy and people wanted to touch it aswell, and they often did : / Oh god, the wounds you have reopened!! :gloomy:

But erm, yeah, i dunno what i was, i was a nothing i guess.

[h2orowe]

My group isn't really a stereotype or clique or anything. :3 We're just people who hang out, haha. I have other friends who fit into groups that I occasionally hang out with. I have some like... "hardcore" kid friends, I have some Wapanese friends, I have football player friends (I played football my freshman year), I have choir nerd friends, I have bando friends, I have metal-head friends, I have hip-hop/rap friends, I have some "stereotypical Asian friends" (I actually had a friend who hated white people. The only white friend he had was me. And at the end of the year he said something like "Joey, you're the only white guy I don't hate." and I'm like "Thanks >_>; ") and I'm sure if I took a long time, could think of the other cliques some of my other friends fit into, but I'm too lazy right now :3
Hell, I don't think I fit into a clique in the way I dress, really. All I wear is dickies, vans, and a band shirt. And it's not like it's one style of bands, it's like.. I'll wear Alice in Chains one day, Black Sabbath the next, then a Bob Marley one, then Matisyahu, then Flogging Molly, then Death Cab for Cutie, then Slayer.
It's just wild. :3

[Stephy]

I guess shy ditzy person who happened to be voted most gullible out of the whole senior class too. :'(

hm... Always quiet, sleepy in class, silly, and hyper at lunch and gym, and just the one how gets easily embarrassed by any "naughty topics" my friends brought up. Blushed a lot/shy/nervous. Was a cheerleader in Junior year, but I am not the stereotypical "snob/stuck up blonde" (hate those sterotypes. cheerleaders are way nice!) ...-_-;

[Jetsetlemming]

I was a nerd, without being very smart. :D AP/Honors classes, the equivilent of an A/V club (video production FTW!), and a shop class or two to round it out. My "specials" (the classes you chose besides the required courses) were spanish every year, 9th grade shop, and 10th to 12th video production and morning announcements (never on camera, god no >_>).

[Druid]

Hmm...My group is like the super friends of nerds. We got the Wrestler/Nintendo fanatic, the Computerguru/politician, the Flash guy/Artist, the Tyrant/anime dude(Who weighs 280 and can bench 250 pounds >.<), and me, the renascence nerd/Historian. And as for me...I know to many people. Or rather, to many people know me. I kinda float in and out of different social circles. Lots o different people do I know.

[NERD]

While I would consider myself a nerd, I rather kept myself my own company- probably be seen as that quiet/weird Asian kid. According to my brother who goes to the same high school, my ex-teachers regard me as that smart yet quiet kid.

[Soli]

Band geek.

I haven't been in high school for very long, but I plan to be very active in band all 4 years. :)

[CrazyAce86]

Hey, thanks for answering, everyone!

I would've thought that my small class (67 kids) would've interacted more, but we didn't. Sure, we knew each other, but mostly ignored each other, too, usually in favor of the younger kids. I remember having friends who were in seventh grade when I was a senior, and that wasn't at all unusual.

[I Like Shinny!]

Early in my freshman year, I actually sometimes spent lunch time with some people I knew from middle school. We had a "punk" guy who looks like someone who would label himself emo. Actually, he did label his style as emo. Then there's the metal head who doesn't look like the average metal head. I'd say I'm a gamer, computer geek, a bit of anime fanatic, laid back hippie...

People would describe my style as emo, but I don't wear tight pants and sweaters :/ I always wear my signature sweater/hoodie/jacket, of course. Me wearing eyeliner thicker than even the gothic girls gets me labeled goth and emo by many though.

For most of the year, I'm a loner, of course. Spending time in the library to write poems and read vampire books. I really like being alone...
To not get labled "emo" or "goth" you must wear deengy puke green jeen jackets and faded old T-shirts and ripped jeens and people will be like; "ZOMG! 90's gruge lololol!!!!" or "OMG! He dresses like a homeless person. KOOL!" or "OMG! Stoner!" or "OMG! That guy's family is poor, but he looks cool!"

I have weird taste in fashion...

[PopCulturePooka]

Hmmm at the beginning of high school, in 8th and 9th grade I was nerdy. Was in the 'smart class' and most kids there in the beginning got picked on a bit by others, as would happen. I was also tiny.

By the end of 9th grade and for most of 10th I fell in with a rougher mob of kids and went of the rails. By this point I realised 10th grade in Aussie high schools is USELESS in the scheme of it all and used that year to slack off. Started becoming a rebel shit, getting a detention or two. Was still all at school though, outside of school I was quiet.

Year 11th and 12th I left the shithead kids and started hanging around with the one of the aspects of the popular kids. In Aussie high schools you generally have a few breeds of popular kid. The popular shitheads, smoking pot, being bad. The popular drama rats, always doing some performing arts things. And the popular academic/sporters. Generally the performers and academic/sporting popular types also end up in student councils by popular vote.

So I ended up with the academic/sporting type crew, but also spent time with some of the performing ones because I did Drama and Film and because of older links to shithead kids would occasionally bong on with the bad kids.

I missed out on getting prefect or a leadership position in 12th grade even though I ended up with more votes than other prefects. Reason being an 'indiscretion' in 11th grade.

I also had lots of parties at my awesomely good for parties house.

So went from nerdy year 8 kid into eventually one of those 'power player' types in senior year along.

[Unknown]

In 9th and 10th grade I was in the gothic group, even though I didn't dress the part.
And then I went to a new school, in both 11th and 12th grade I got invited to be in the gothic group but I chose to stay to my self for the most part. I do have a few people I talk to but I don't hang out with any of them after school. So I guess I'm just the quiet girl who sits in the back of the room reading a book in this school.

[Nebosuke]

Was a cheerleader in Junior year, but I am not the stereotypical "snob/stuck up blonde" (hate those sterotypes. cheerleaders are way nice!)
What a coincidence :P. The wierdest thing about cheerleading that I remember was one freak dude asking if he could lick my hand after a stunt routine we did during a halftime.

[Josh]

I hang out with everybody from all different cliques. I guess if I had my own it would be "fat kids who can hang out with everyone easily." Thats me. Im a FKWCHOWEE.

[sakana]

At my school smart does not mean nerdy. I'm in G/T classes but I'm not really a nerd. Actually most of the class is what you'd call popular. I don't really have a name for my group. We're not exactly the popular kids but we're not the nerdy ones either. People know that I know a lot about computers but they think its cool because of the flash movies I make. We don't really care what others think and people respect that.

[Stephy]

What a coincidence :P. The wierdest thing about cheerleading that I remember was one freak dude asking if he could lick my hand after a stunt routine we did during a halftime.

:eyepop: Nothing weird like that happened to me. Just the usual stares from both genders.

[ZaichikArky]

I was an unpopular dork/nerd. I would often get very hyper and run around during lunch, getting on peoples nerves. Also in class I was an active participant. And I was a band nerd for all 4 years :p.A lot of people made fun of me, but I think I calmed down a bit after 10th grade cause I don't really remember anyone making fun of me past then...

[Jetsetlemming]

:eyepop: Nothing weird like that happened to me. Just the usual stares from both genders.
...skirts.... *drools*:stirthepo

[japanat]

Primarily a band fag. I got along with everyone but the rednecks, and was known for skiing, but basically hung out with the band and the cheerleaders ;) Being a drummer is good!

[Psychochink]

In school: Brian with a smattering of John. Kept to myself and only associated with a couple of other people; spent a lot of time reading; not particularly engaged with the whole 'school' thing; studied 1/2 hour before tests and coasted through with good grades based on natural ability. Call The quintessential 'quiet nerd' stereotype.

(NB: Kids, even if you are smart enough to get away with not studying, don't. It's habit forming and will result in an endless series of last-minute, stressful situations where you scramble to get reports/briefs done just before deadline because you spend your time at work surfing the net - like right now, for example.)

On the other hand, if you decided you wanted to mix it up, I'd go for the jugular and wouldn't stay down.

Outside school: John with a smattering of Brian. Trenchcoats and lots of black; long hair; heavy metal/rock; partied hard.

The reason I hated school was that I had nothing in common with the spoiled rich kids that I went to school with (despite being reasonably well-off myself).

Parties/weekends in year 11/12 for me consisted either of; hanging at my best friend's flat in his shitty suburb (kicked out of home when 16, on Homeless Austudy); going to parties with friends' uni student siblings; parties with the Q Street Theater Company, where my mates and I did tech work for fun (BTW, nobody parties as hard as a bunch of amateur actors in their mid-20s).

Drinking, soft drugs, wandering the streets at 2am, petty theft (only from the government, we collected traffic hazard lights, warning signs and other paraphenalia - used to carry around an allen key set, pocket blowtorch and bolt cutters), a blase attitude towards sex, etc...I got a lot of that out of my system even before I hit university.

However, I was never really a 'bad kid', although that was definitely the impression that we gave. I remember walking with some mates back from a party once at about 4am and being stopped by CID (Criminal Investigation Division). The looks on their faces when they asked for ID and two of us handed over student IDs from <posh school> was priceless.

See, my mother used that horribly abusive parenting technique where she let me do and go pretty much anywhere I wanted and just said, "You're going to do that stuff anyway, so I'd prefer it if you just let me know what you were doing" or "I'd rather you were drinking here than off somewhere else" and topped it off with the deadly, "I know you're all good kids, so I trust that you'll do the right thing."

She basically adopted all of my friends and treated us like we were basically good kids...with the net result that we were. Nothing to hide, nothing to 'rebel' against - damn psychologist parents.

[seiji]

I was one smart kid (plenty of Gifted and AP classes, straight A's) out of a hundred smart kids, and my refusal to participate in sports and clubs ensured near-obscurity in my graduating class of 350. That is, until the graduation ceremony itself, when I exercised my sarcastic wit to deliver a masterpiece of an introductory speech for our self-righteous schmuck of a salutatorian. I was awesome. :innocent:

[Televisions_Nick]

I was part of a school-within-a-school that had a really stringent applications process starting from 8th grade (to be admitted starting in 10th grade) so the entire program was full of smart kids. Future Harvard/Yale/U of Chicago/Georgetown/Princeton/Brown/Cornell/Stanford grads, that type. I was considered a weird kid, but I was relatively popular. (I got voted "Most Unique" for Senior Class Superlatives, and if you check my yearbooks from those three years the words "weird", "strange," and "unique" show up a lot, usually followed by "but you're cool" or "but you're awesome.") In 11th grade I scored third-highest on a standardized test (the PSAT) in the school, which I guess made some people think I was one of those top-of-the-class folks, but I ended up with only the 31st best GPA in a 121-kid class in the program (though 33rd out of the entire 443-kid graduating class of the school). I was kind of a firebrand. I was part of a group of kids (mostly smart-but-underachiever types) who started an underground newsletter that was mostly comedy but had some pretty harsh words for the administration of the school and some of the students (the school had a different administration than the program I was in). Very nearly got suspended because of it, but the school probably didn't want to suspend one of their seven National Merit Scholars, so I got away with it. A buddy of mine got two death threats in his locker because of the newsletter and for a week a security guard walked with him everywhere in school. That was fun. I didn't play on any sports teams (well, I was on the wrestling team for about a week but it conflicted with three of my other, academic extracirriculars, so I quit) but I did karate on my own outside of school. I was involved in pretty much every academic extra-cirricular except Speech & Debate (because at my school Speech & Debate was the extra-cirricular that you did when you weren't smart enough to get on any of the academic teams). I was on the trivia team two years (vice captain the second year), the Model United Nations Team two years (won an award at Harvard MUN), Science Olympiad two years (won four medals at State, only kid to do that in our school's history), Chemistry Bowl (we won State), Literary Magazine, Vice-President of the Stock Market Club, and was in two plays (The Diary of Anne Frank and Hay Fever). In our program, being on academic teams was one of the things that gave you status, so I never had problems with bullying or anything like that, got along pretty well with everyone except the loner folks (though I always tried to be friendly to them). Of course, in the end, all my standardized test scores and extra-cirriculars got me was a couple free trips (Boston, New York, Virginia, Chicago twice, Orlando, Nashville twice, Atlanta like a billion times) and a free ride at Florida State Univeristy (which is realtively valuable since I'm from Alabama and out-of-state tuition to FSU is about 30 grand a year).

Our school was exceedingly atypical. Like I said, almost everybody was brilliant (kids behind me in the graduating class went to Rhodes or Rice) and almost everybody mingled. Parties didn't have invitations, you just got told by somebody during the day. We had no prom (but we did have the "Ballroom Blast") and half the stuent body came stag and danced with each other (I think I danced with eight girls, one of whom was the date of a friend of mine who I had never met before). There were like four parties on graduation night and 45% of the kids made an appearance at each one before settling down at one of their choosing. It was a really chill vibe. The feuds that happened were always between individuals, never between groups, and kids rarely took sides, usually staying friends with both of the feuding people.
Also, my school was fantastic because being in Montgomery, Alabama and being a majority-African-American school, we had Rosa Parks come and give a lecture. It was INCREDIBLE. She's totally awesome.
The year after I graduated the school-within-a-school got it sown building and became its own entity, which is actually rather fitting. Our graduating class was considered one of the best/brightest in years, and we were officially the last class of the program (since from then on it was a school).

[Snake eyeS]

I got kicked off my highschool and took me 4 months to get accepted to a new highschool. Every highschool i signed up for called up my old highschool and they got told i was a menace. I went through 4 months of die-hard special school. Where i wasnt the top dog and had to fight for every minute i was in there to keep my head above the water. Man those were shitty times.
Anyways as you might of guessed by now, I was the badboy and bully of the school. 2 highschools and 2 special schools later i grew up and became normal.

[The Divine Comedy]

I suppose I'm just a quiet artsy smart person. I came into this school system after sixth grade and was shy and quiet as hell, so the other artsy smart people don't really know me or talk to me much, though I think they're interesting. I'm mostly on the middle fringes of a random group of misfits, but I suppose it's interesting even though it's drama-y and stuff. I occasionally hang around a small bit with popular-ish girls and people from other groups, but I'm mostly a loner besides the misfitish group. Sucks a small bit, but I'm almost outta there, so I can deal for the last year. :)

[Pierrot le Fou]

'Grunge' -> Industrial -> Stoner -> Smart Kids
6 months -> 6 months -> 15 months -> 2 years


Some overlap, obviously. I was in high school in the early/mid-90's.