Were you popular in high school?

Not me I think… I belive I was amongs the social “outcasts” :p

What is popularity exactly? I guess that says it all for me. No, I really wasn’t popular in high school and it neither mattered to me then nor does it nowadays. As far as sacrifices being made, that was never a factor.

Not popular with the “cool” people, who are no longer cool in middle age. Popular enough with the Marsha Brady crowd. I went to prom all four years of high school, at two different schools. Does that count?

I know I tried to fit in and I know all that effort was a waste. I guess I sacrificed some small things, but I had no idea what I was doing. I moved to a new school late and everyone already had their cliques formed so I had to get in somewhere. I played sports so I always gravitated towards the “cool kids” (jocks & cheerleaders)

If I could tell the freshman version of me something I would say “Join the band, don’t worry about being considered a dork now it wont matter in ten years when you are in a rocknroll band and some of the girls that you think are ugly now will be gorgeous when it matters (so go for the beautiful brains).

@AlfredaPrufrock I never went to prom, does that make me a loser?

@AlfredaPrufrock. You went to 8 different proms? That has to be some kind of record and as far as popularity is concerned, that would certainly seem to count.

@tennesseejac. Not going to a prom doesn’t make you a loser in any way, shape, or form. I went to my prom with a girl I hardly knew and I was pretty much invisible to everyone else for the entire evening. I was okay with that because I was there for just my date and I and no one else.

I was liked by my friends. We were certainly not the popular crowd.

I went to a vocational school though. We were all outcasts compared to the “regular” high school students next door.

@JC, of course not. I would have gone to prom with you if I was 23 years younger, and you asked me. Only one of the prom dates was with a real “boyfriend.” Because this was back when dating did not mean sleeping with, and going out with more than one person at a time did not mean you were a skank. Prom did not require a big cash outlay Class dues paid for prom tickets, your mom would throw a dinner party or after prom breakfast for you and your friends, and no one rented a limo. Financially you were only into it for the tux and flowers. At my high school, the teachers ran a dating service for senior prom, matching people up. People made a point to get a date, so you didn’t have your home room teacher discussing your dateless state in front of the class. We had 550 people in our graduating class so everyone fit in with some group.

I like to consider myself one of the popular guys in my school. I got along with everyone, the jocks, the geeks, the stoners, and so on…mainly because I shared a bit of common interest with each group of people. I was always in sports through school, had good grades, and listened to the same music that stoners did.

I was popular (in the usual sense of the word) in junior high, and I did sacrifice a part of myself to get there. I dumbed down, so as not to seem so brainy/nerdy. I sat at the 2nd most popular lunch table. One day I brought a new girl to lunch at our table. She was unknown, unattractive, but smart and funny. My ‘friends’ told me in no uncertain terms to never bring her again. So I didn’t. I ate at her lunch table from then all the way through high school. I was a much better person for it, and still plenty popular in the only way that really mattered.

Five of the eight prom dates were with boys who went to all-male high schools. Only two of the boys would have been considered “jocks” and one played baseball, and the other, soccer. One boy was 2 inches shorter than me. He’s a doctor now.

I can still remember how confused I felt during high school. I’m not so sure I would have the confidence to plot popularity. I went to a very affluent public school, but came from a family with no money.

Having been bullied at every school I’ve attended i would say; yes i was popular but for all the wrong reasons. Popular to be picked on. I think it’s the red hair – has a tendency of attracting undue nasty attention. I firmly believe that because of these experiences throughout my childhood i have since sought acceptance from my piers and more specifically guys. I think i learnt through being bullied that generally girls didn’t like me (maybe they thought i was an alien or something) but boys (the one’s who would give me the time of day) thought i was quite cute. perhaps the good old mystery thing again

The fact that redheads in history have been thought of as witches, that had “special powers” and at one time were revered as being uber intelligent didn’t give me much consolation, much like the comments from my mother that they were “probably just jealous”.

Fortunately after years of seeking others’ approval for my right to live on this cruel planet of ours, i can see the silver lining and the rainbow peeking through the blue. I love myself now, I love my hair and quite frankly anyone who doesn’t for whatever reason can go and deal with their own evident insecurities. :-)

@lb: Bah – Fools. Don’t they know redheads are hot?!

I think it is so odd that popularity was actually a factor for most of the people here. At the high school I went to, there really wasn’t any such thing as “popular.” There weren’t really “clicks” either – except for maybe the “bandos” who prefered to hang out with each other and not really anyone else. Most people hung out with pretty much everyone. There was also a lot of mixing within the grades. I therefore, had a lot of friends in high school and hung out with a lot of different people, but I wasn’t “popular” because no one really was.

@cprevite thanks you cheeky monkey ;-)

I wasn’t in the popular or unpopular cliques. Everyone knew me and liked me. I got along with everyone. I graduated in a class of 800. I never did, nor have I ever, changed who I was or the way I acted to have a friend. I have been very fortunate to have been liked by others most of my life.

I did not go to Prom. We were too poor to buy a dress. My husband and I graduated the same year from different schools. In 2007 was our twentieth Reunion. His class had a Prom,sort of, reunion. I finally got to go, and I had a blast!

I didn’t care.. I was busy skateboarding. But I did have a tight circle of friends. I always had stuff to do on the weekends. And I was getting laid so I didn’t really care about popularity.

The “conventionally popular” people always seemed like dicks. So I didn’t care.

My high school was almost exactly like one you would see on a sitcom. Popularity was everything, clicks everywhere, and very distinctive groups. I moved a lot before 9th grade so I was the dork. Easily picked on, easily made fun of, and easily ignored.

However, by the end of my sophomore year I changed it all around and started climbing my way up the popularity ladder. Yes, I had to step on a few people on the way up but it didn’t really matter to me. I thought ab out all the people who stepped on me over the years (most for no good reason). I thought of how much nicer it would be to get through high school without worrying about popularity any more. I knew I wouldn’t have many friends after high school if I chose the popularity route but I didn’t care simply because I knew I wouldn’t see any of those people after it was all over anyway.

It’s all held true 10+ years later. I can look back on my time in HS and feel good about it instead of trying to block out the years I got picked on, or the years I spent in lockers, or the years I spent without a girlfriend, or the years I spent not going to any parties. And as far as the people I “stepped on” goes, well, that worked up to plan as well. I don’t see anyone from HS. I win.

I had a small group of good friends. As far as I could tell we were a lot happier than the popular kids.

I had a huge amount of friends . that is why I never missed a day of school. lol .

Nope. It didn’t really matter then. It doesn’t really matter now. I had a few friends that, to be honest, weren’t really that great and I’ve moved on from. I had a few friends later that were awesome and I’ve kept. But being popular was never a thing with me.

I went to three different high schools. In each of the first two schools I had one close friend and several science nerd acquaintances. I tried a few clubs but wasn’t that into chess, could never figure out the reasoning behind the Pep Club, found the Spanish Club boring beyond belief, and really only enjoyed the science club and various sports.

The third school, from which I graduated, was in Texas. Football ruled everything. Racism was rampant (even though there were only four non-white students at the school, one of whom was the exchange student from Japan). Popularity was essential if you were to “exist.” However, I hung out with a group of 3 or 4 guys who took Russian and physics and who had pocket protectors, and spent my time getting good grades, reading, swimming and painting.

So, no, I wasn’t popular in high school, and it really didn’t matter to me then except when (in the third school) jocks would target me for practical jokes. I quickly learned how to get even without getting caught.

In fact, I not only never went to a prom, I never went to a high school dance at all, and I never missed it. It didn’t bother me then and it doesn’t bother me now.

I find in amusing, however, that my daughter is very popular with the jocks, the social elite, and the nerds. She goes to every dance, has been voted “Class Favorite,” gets straight As, and seems to know people all over town from all economic levels.

My high school wasn’t too bad. There were only 40 kids in my class as it was a private school. We didn’t have cliques, and there wasn’t any hating/bullying going on. I wasn’t really “popular” but well-liked by students and teachers. I was on no one’s bad side and no one was on my mine. It felt good.

Now Middle School? That was awful. I went to public middle school and I had to leave it early. I was sick of being bullied and my two best friends stopped sticking up for me when people picked on me. When I went into the bathroom stall, these girls would spy on me over the top of the stall wall and try to take pictures…(NO JOKE).

My middle school was a disgusting hellhole for filthy people. No wonder I was diagnosed with severe depression after going there. I’ve lambasted it since and convinced 2 of my friends from there to go to private school and now they are happy.

No. I had a few friends, but most were from church or Job’s Daughters ( a Masonic group for girls).
I would advise any young child to get involved in SOMETHING: band, choir, sports, or groups outside of school. No need to be lonely.

I had a small group of close friends and a casually friendly relationship with most of the cliques. I thought that all those people struggling to be “cool” to get into the clicks were foolish (my friends and I were more the brainiacs than the nerds, and happily self involved).

I never had a date in high school. I never went to a single school dance, much less a prom. I was often lonely, and had very few friends.

You tell me.

I went to three highschools and they were all pretty different than other schools. I had many friends but didn’t grow up with everyone. Being the new girl was awesome. The guys loved me and the girls hated me :)

I went to two different high schools. The first one (frosh/soph) was an awful public high school in the city where I grew up. The second (junior/senior) was a wealthy suburban high school. I had friends at both schools, but not many. I was in brainy kid classes at both schools and was involved in a lot of activities, academic, athletic and school-related.

At the first school, it had so many students, I’d be surprised that anyone other than the kids in my classes knew I existed. I took part in the activities that were also favored by the better-off kids at the school, so they knew who I was. Oy, the second school. I was involved in activities there, but not as many because by then I had to work after school to contribute to the household. I had a couple of good pals.

However, after the most popular senior boy at that school asked me on a date and to prom my junior year (both of which I had to turn down) and that got out, everyone in school knew who I was. He was just a sweet, quiet kid who happened to look like Halle Berry’s baby daddy. He was so handsome, it made me nervous to be near him and we had a couple of classes together. There was an auction for charity where anyone from the underclasses could bid on having a senior trail them all day to carry their books and buy them lunch and whatnot and I found out later he had been angling for me to bid on him. I didn’t know this at all at the time, and that got out too. The last few months of my junior year were weird, weird, weird! It was a strange sensation to walk down the halls and have people whisper to each other as I passed by. :/

When I saw Pretty In Pink for the first time in college, I laughed hard at certain parts because, yes, that was junior year of high school for me.

I met the love of my life in high school.

We both have a tight circle of friends, but I don’t think by any means we were the popular kids we were in the marching band for crying out loud although our band was the most awesomest in NY, top 12 in the country. I played on many sports teams inside school and outside of school so that allowed me to have different groups of friends both more popular and less popular.

I think what matters is what you did after you left those 4 years. I found the love of my life!

I couldn’t find my niche in High School. In Jr. High I was involved in drugs and when I went to High School I was ready to break away from that life. It proved harder than I imagined. The song Hotel California just came out and it haunted me. My need to connect with people was so strong, to be liked, to be “popular.” When I felt so alone I knew that the stoners would always welcome me and accept me. There was a price, however, and I did things that “nice girls” don’t do in order to feel accepted, only to feel dirty and sold out. My limited world view at the time told me that you were either a stoner or a jock and since I didn’t have any athletic ability I felt doomed to stay a stoner. I dropped out my sophomore year and graduated from a HS completion program at 17. I finally did gain some self esteem, although it probably took me 20 years.

I’m originally from a very small town in MS; the high school is tiny (350 or so students) and all the teachers have graduated with your parents. There, basketball is everything. If you’re not any good at it, you are permanently planted at the bottom of the social ladder for the rest of your high school career. As you can probably tell, I am no sports star, and my status manifested that. I was a “smart, rich” kid from a well off family with no life other than the one I shared with my chemistry book. This just proved how ignorant some small town bigots can be.

I’m a junior now and attend an advanced boarding school where no one knows my “unpopular” past. Here, I am one of the most well-liked people just because I am able to be myself. No stereotypes. No “social ladder”. No “cool crowd”. We’re all here for the same reason: to further our education and better the world; there’s no motive to degrade the girl behind you because she doesn’t look like Jessica Alba or play basketball like Lisa Leslie. We are who we are and that’s all that matters.

@Sloane2024 ;
Yeah for you!!!!! I wish I would have had your opportunity.

I think had a similar experience as @seekingwolf. I went to a very small private school (grad class had less than 30 students), so it was impossible to really ignore anyone. We were one tight-knit class, all overachievers in some sense. I fit right in.

Popularity was only an issue in grade eight, when the self-proclaimed “popular” girls talked my crush out of dating me. At the time, I was heartbroken. I decided never to be on the offending side of that exchange, so I never pursued popularity.

Prior to that, I’d been in another private elementary school and a public elementary school. I had a few friends. I wasn’t bullied, but I was definitely teased from time to time. I don’t think I even realized it at the time, though. I was a kid with my head in the clouds.

I was well known, but too weird to be popular. Actually that is still pretty true…

I wouldn’t say I was popular, but I was well known. My high school was full of immigrants, gangsters, and the “participaters”, like the jocks and cheerleaders. My small group of friends and I were the wierdos of the school. I had blue, red, green hair (not at the same time), and wore strange clothes. I did have friends from the other groups, even the gangsters; they used to call me “huera loca”-crazy white girl. I usually got my weed from them.

I was too unattractive to be popular, though I had friends.
It did matter to me then, just because I wanted to know what it felt like to be one of those kids BUT I knew I was better off with the few good ones I had in the long run.
Now? Still, that feeling is a mystery to me but I can deal with it. Bigger problems in life, you know.
Sacrifice anything? Lost a little dignity in some attempts, sometimes friends, but you know.

I was “popular” in highschool which i found strange because i did not care about it at all.I had a couple good friends from every “clique” but i really didnt align myself with any of them. I actually disliked 95% of the “popular” people and was quite open about that. Yet for some reason everyone seemed to like me(to my face at least). Honestly like i would tell those really stupid ditsy girls to fuck off on a regular basis yet still they tried talking to me everyday.

Then again how could you not like someone as awesome as I?

In guess I was moderately popular in high school. I’d been going to the same school as half the student body since eighth grade (for high school the two junior highs in my city mixed into one) so I knew a lot of them and I had a ton of friends from all kinds of groups. I went to school events, I belonged to clubs and was a member on sports teams, and I could easily talk to anyone I met. I got along with girls, with boys, with teachers, with librarians, with “yard narcs” and everyone in between. Luckily, I was never picked on. Mostly I think that’s because I have a good sense of humor and can laugh at myself. The only people who teased me were my really good friends.. and I got my zings in at them, too.

i’m in my junior year of high school, and i’m not popular, nor do i think i have any part of me that wants to be popular. it sounds like a hassle to me. most of the popular kids at my school are actually pretty intelligent (school-wise anyway), and super involved in everything (namely football games, which is reason number one that i would not even be able to be popular if i wanted to haha), and have every one of their tiny arguments widely publicized across the school/internet, and seem to have falling outs with their friends more often than most current celebrities get married. also, i’m not one to post tons of pictures with captions like “omgzzz s0o0o0o wastedd lololzz fun partiiie~”.
i don’t hate the popular kids by any means, but i don’t take to them very well either. i think i could probably hold a reasonably interesting conversation with the majority of them, but i don’t see actual friendships with them. i’m really content with my current friends.

however, recently one of my friends said something about “well, people don’t talk about as much this year” and i was like ”what?”. so i don’t really know what that means. i don’t really have a hold on how much popularity any of my friends or myself have, because i really don’t pay attention. but i guess some people know who we are. i don’t know. i really don’t pay attention at all haha.

Not Quite there yet, but I’ll tell you that I am probably the most hated in my class. But I still have a few friends, not so much in school.

I was, though I did not realise it at the time. I was fortunate enough to be in a school with very little intrigue and strife, and most of us generally got along with each other. My whole generation was a bunch of friends that never split into gangs and so on. And there was very little competition between us. In that sense all of us were popular, though thinking back I guess I was more popular than most other kids.

Were you popular in high school? No.
According to you. Nope.

Did it matter to you then? Yup.
Or now? Nope.

Did you sacrifice anything in the quest for popularity? Nope. I just gave up.

(But I’m popular now!!!)

GQ!

ZEN OUT

@Zen_Again – Yes, you are popular now. I like you and so does Boudreaux.

Thanks. I don’t particularly want to be “popular” – just accepted, I guess. I’m like ancient now.

:-)

Like, me, too, dude.

My kids are shocked (shocked!) that I know how to text, albeit slowly.

My kids just ignore me, til they need cash – and think I am a troll. They are correct.

Ah, yes, the good old Bank of Mom and/or Dad.