What were you like when you were 17?

I did a lot of partying and getting into trouble. I was a straight A student, though I probably snuck out of my house every night. In retrospect, I was pretty depressed, but I tried to hide it by being the life of the party.

Hmmm. Apparently I was @ANef_is_Enuf‘s male doppelganger.

I was out with older friends who could stay out all night. I would get in trouble for constantly coming in at 2, 3, 4 in the morning. I was fucking like a rabbit. I tried never to be home when my parents were awake. I did just enough school work to get decent grades, but I wasn’t killing myself for the post part. Luckily, because I’m fairly smart, I could get away with not really studying and still do ok. I never smoked cigarettes, but I drank and every weekend was party time.

Let’s see. I turned 17 senior year in High School, started a co-op job at a big architectural firm, spent the spring cobbling together a portfolio for art school (after deciding against architecture school), and started college (I turned 18 one month into college).

So I was pretty serious and driven.

On the other hand, I had an amazing new girlfriend and a great bunch of friends. We spent a lot of time together and a lot of late nights out.

So I also had a lot of fun. Pretty balanced overall. Probably one of the best times of my life.

I turned 17 after graduating from high school. For most of that year, I was a freshman in college a long way from home. I didn’t go out much because I was strictly faithful to the boyfriend back home, so I spent a lot of time studying and also writing letters. I guess I would have been seen as quiet and aloof. I wasn’t really aloof, just not outgoing. Many quiet people are misjudged.

However, that was just when the 1960s were getting exciting, and I listened to a lot of folk music and was tuned into all the voices of the counterculture. I learned to play guitar that year and sang a lot of folk songs and topical songs, both the popular ones and the lesser-known ones. I pierced my ears, let my hair grow long, and wore beads. So maybe I wasn’t totally boring.

^Could’ve been another Joan Baez. You just brought back a ton of memories.

Kind of a trouble maker, school dropout. Spent a lot of time getting drunk and smoking weed, and hanging out with similar people, and we never really did anything constructive. When I turned 18 I had to fend for myself lol, so I had no choice but to get a job, kinda slowed down then.
Wasn’t all just stuff like that though, I spent a fair amount of time playing video games, reading and drawing. I was also into the Goth subculture, which I was into before I was 17, and went on a loooong time after that. In fact it’s only recently that I don’t care to look the part anymore. Of course back then, never having any money, my Goth wardrobe wasn’t really fancy, but people got the idea lol.

I was completely boring. I worked at McDonald’s, went to school, did my extra-curriculars and kept out of trouble. That whole year I focused on how I was going to get away from my guardian. I listened to a lot of R.E.M. that year and watched a lot of Monty Python. Those ten men combined really helped to keep me sane.

I didn’t have a lot of friends, I didn’t date (I was too terrified of my guardian to defy her on that point) and I made sure no one got close enough to me to know what was going on in the house I lived in.

… @ANef_is_Enuf @jaytkay huh, guess that makes three.

When I was 17, MTV was a child. I think I was adventurous at heart but geeky in look.

When I was seventeen? Gosh .. it was a whole lifetime ago. I remember that I did not like it .. well I was on my feet then. I had not time for adventures or any other things like this. I had no time for stupid things most teenagers get to do. I did those when i was younger so I did not miss on them :)

It was the mid-late 70’s, lots of parties and sex, drugs and rock-n-roll. I was a party girl but not stupid. I graduated at 17.5 also and that summer moved to a remote mountain/lake property and lived the hippie life on 200 acres of private land, with a cabin, a horse, 2 dogs, a couple of cats and a wild pony. haha

I was an independent, outdoorsey type and had a blast ’ homesteading’ all by myself.

Good times!

Wild. Crazy. Cute as hell and innocent as a new born…. :)

I was watching t.v. at home , and skipping school to do homework, and read novels on the Light Rail Transit… I was a class clown… and I slept in till noon. I watched the stars at night. I watched South Park and the French CBC channel at nights… My Nintendo was always hot. I belive I was playing Dragon Warrior 2.

Looked like Marsha Brady (who didn’t back then) wild, had a ‘69 firebird, free.

I was an asshole. I know what you are thinking… “what do you mean was?”. Just trust me on this one. I’m practically a saint now.

17 was just two years ago for me. It was a pretty good time for me; it covered my entire senior year of high school. The first few months were taken up by applying to college and the stress that ensued; after that it was mostly partying and hanging with friends as much as I possibly could. I wouldn’t say I was “wild and crazy” but I was probably at the peak of “fun” for high school. I had already been pretty outgoing and party-happy for a couple years. There was definitely a decent amount of alcohol consumed during that year. But I had some of the best experiences of my life during that age: first kiss, three vacations with friends, Senior Fashion Show, all that graduation hoopla, it was a good time :)

I was excited to move on with my life and celebrate the end of an era.

I started college 6 weeks after I turned 17, so I was a freshman in college. My first semester, I was talkative, very sociable, hyper, athletic, a big flirt, very naive and trusting and basically just a really happy upbeat kid. I didn’t see problems as problems, was very capable of rolling with the punches and did not want to be tied down to anyone or anything.

Something happened during Christmas break—Spring semester I was very quiet, careful, scared and sad. I only hung around with 5 or 6 people and stayed by myself quite a bit.

Age 17 was when my life got turned upside down when my father passed away, I started out a normal Junior in High School with lots of dreams to ending the school year with his death 2 days before school let out. I started my Senior year sad, missing him, fighting with my mother constantly, worried about alot of things that a teenager should never worry about. I went from wanting to be a fashion designer and thinking about colleges to having it the furthest thing from my mind in a matter of minutes.

But now 42, my life turned out great so it was all a learning experience.

17… couldn’t resist this

I was very independent and outgoing. I didn’t get into any real trouble, but that was luck more than good management at times. I had some good friends and some good times but I was sensible too. I went to college, paid my bills, worked part time. So a good mix of sensible and silly.

@Bellatrix You say luck… that’s a good one. I think luck’s what kept me alive during my daredevil days!! That lasted until I was about… 28? Not completely gone yet… XD

I didn’t date much until I was 17, a senior in high school, and had a boyfriend who was a freshman in a nearby college. We agreed to go steady on Saturday nights. That left me free to see other guys on Friday nights (which didn’t happen often, but it was nice when it did). This gave me a bit of prestige in high school and made me feel a lot better about myself. I was a very slow bloomer, so it was perfect for me. I began to grow into a more confident person.

Just coming into myself, figuring out how to be, that I could be myself and likeable. Depressed because I was living in a country I couldn’t stand, and because I was depressed, I ate a lot and became the heaviest I ever was (215 lbs). At the same time, I was naive as hell, so open, energetic, and full of promise.

Pretty much all downhill from there. Heh.

I was lifegaurding on the beach that summer and all the life that went with it.

I believe the correct description here would be that I was a humping machine!!! All done responsibly of course…......no, I didn’t ask their parents permission, silly! I always used protection, coz I was a good boy I was ;¬}

17 was a confusing age. I started the year out sick as hell and had a near death experience soon after. I felt very confused and unclear for a long time afterwards. It’s hard to explain, I just felt this distinct feeling that I had been going about everything in the wrong way for my entire life; that I had some sort of fundamental misunderstanding of what it was all about. I don’t know if maybe it was a bit of PTSD, or what. I know I became very appreciative of life for several months following and didn’t waste so much time. I spent a lot of time on creative hobbies. I’d say at 17 I was confused, on my way to figuring things out.

I can’t really remember what I was like at 17 although by that point I had been in full time work for a year or so and it was during that year that I matured quite a lot and it was more noticable when I was with friends that were still at sixth form/college. I do remember that 17 was a good year for me and I was dissapointed when I turned 18 that I would never be 17 again.