When You Were In High School...

[Shine]

I guess this thread is aimed at the older members of SO. Well, not the older members, but to anyone who has been out of high school for a while. Back in high school we all had an idea of what we wanted to do with our lives. What we were going to study in college. What we wanted to do for a career. Now that we are either in college or working, many of us are probably not doing the things they we imagined we were going to do back when we were 16, 17. What did you want to be in high school and how different is that from what you actually became or are becoming?

Before I was laid off, I worked at a community college. I'm also working towards a master's degree so that I can be an American history professor. This is not something I ever would have imagined myself doing in high school. In high school I would never have imagined myself wanting to teach history. I hated history back then. I did well in it, but I never enjoyed it. It wasn't until 10 years ago that I became fascinated with early American history.

I should probably also mention that up until my junior year of high school, I had no interest in going to college. I just wanted to finish up with high school and be done with school. It was my parents who told me that thay expected me to get a college education. They said that I was going to go and that was final. Though I might add, I stil paid for 80% of the college education that they insisted that I get.

During junior year (of high school) I decided that if I had to go to college I would major in journalism, that I woud become a rock journalist. I had read four books (Shout: The Beatles in Their Generatioin by Phillip Norman, Hammer of the Gods: The Zeppelin Saga by Stephen Davis, Bruce Sprigsteen and the 1980's by Dave Marsh and No One Here Gets Out Alive: The Biography of Jim Morrison by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman) that really had a major impact on me. I thought it would be cool to be able to make a living by writing about the music that I loved. As part of my high school journalism class, I wrote a paper on Led Zeppelin and one on rock critic Dave Marah (the author of the Springsteen book) and got A's on both of them. I thought I was set.

Over the next year on regular basis I read Chicago Tribune rock critics Greg Kot's reviews and I could see that all he seemed to care about were the new bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Green Day and the like. With the exception of Nirvana, I had no interest in these newer bands. I just never understood Alternative Rock. In Jan 1995 (during my senior year) Kot wrote a mostly negative review of Van Halen's recently released album, Balance, which I LOVED! I realized that I wasn't in touch with the new music of the day, and my dreams of being a rock journalist came to an end.

For those of you here who really know me, do you think I would have made a good rock journalist? :)

[isiahthomas]

I hated high school because i went to a black school and black kids are really mean and ignorant. I got teased and laughed at all the time by ignorant black men so i hated school. I was surprised i didn't get into a lot of fights. There was times when i didn't wanna go to school and i wanted to die because of the ignorant black men that wouldn't leave me alone. Not only did i hate the ignorant black men at the school, i also hated doing homework, studying for tests and taking tests. I'm glad i didn't go to college but life has taught me a hard lesson that if you don't have a high education, you won't get a good job. I've had a lot of sh*tty jobs since i've been outta high school and i have no one to blame but myself. But i also think it's wrong that jobs can get away with paying people a low salary no matter what the job is. I graduated from high school in 1994. I was thinking about killing myself in 2002 because i was unemployed for awhile and i got tired of filling out job applications and nobody was calling me. I was almost homeless at one point because my grandfather put me outta his house because i was unemployed for awhile. Thank God my father let me move back in with him and my mom or i would've been dead by now. I also got tired of working low paying jobs with ignorant ass black men. God i hate ignorant black men. They are a pain in the ass to be around. They're always dissing and laughing at me because i'm not like them. I told myself i will never apply for jobs that have a lot of black men working there because i don't get along with a lot of them because of their ignorance.

[browneyes106]

I think you could have been a good rock journalist. You have passion for music and plus there are a lot of journalists who sometimes don't follow newer singers and bands.

[MickeyMac]

I hated high school so much. Try to imagine what it would be like if you died on gone to hell, that was my high school.

Anyways I wanted to be a writer and write about history and music, but as I started reading more and more books I soon discovered that people had already wrote about what I wanted to write about.

I also wanted to write a book on the JFK assassination(my take is there was a conspiracy).


Currently the only writing I do is on forum boards or an something I may write for myself.

[isiahthomas]

Why did you hate high school? Did you have the same experience i had meaning did some ignorant kids pick on you often?

[Faith]

In high school all i wanted to be was dead.. Honestly I never thought i would make it to 21. So in high school, I never really thought about what I wanted to do afterwards.

[MickeyMac]

Why did you hate high school? Did you have the same experience i had meaning did some ignorant kids pick on you often?


yup

[isiahthomas]

Yeah getting picked on often when you're not bothering anybody is a terrible experience and believe me i had to deal with that all of my 4 years in high school. I went to a mixed high school with mostly white kids and immigrants when i was in 9th grade for half a year and i liked that school. Some black kids went there but it was mostly whites. I wish my parents hadn't moved to a black neighborhood so i wouldn't have gone to a black high school. I don't wanna sound racist but i hate ignorant blacks. I f*cking hate them especially ignorant black men. They're always laughing and dissing people and i can't stand that. I diss and laugh at people too but i don't do it as bad as they do. They do that all day everyday. I also hate black women that are stuck up, materialistic and got a attitude problem. That's why i don't have a girlfriend because the black women i've dated have tried to use me and i don't let nobody use me. Faith, why did you wanna die when you were in high school? Did you get picked on often too by ignorant kids?

[isiahthomas]

Yeah getting picked on often when you're not bothering anybody is a terrible experience and believe me i had to deal with that all of my 4 years in high school. I went to a mixed high school with mostly white kids and immigrants when i was in 9th grade for half a year and i liked that school. Some black kids went there but it was mostly whites. I wish my parents hadn't moved to a black neighborhood so i wouldn't have gone to a black high school. I don't wanna sound racist but i hate ignorant blacks. I f*cking hate them especially ignorant black men. They're always laughing and dissing people and i can't stand that. I diss and laugh at people too but i don't do it as bad as they do. They do that all day everyday. I also hate black women that are stuck up, materialistic and got a attitude problem. That's why i don't have a girlfriend because the black women i've dated have tried to use me and i don't let nobody use me. Faith, why did you wanna die when you were in high school? Did you get picked on often too by ignorant kids?

[MickeyMac]

Yeah getting picked on often when you're not bothering anybody is a terrible experience and believe me i had to deal with that all of my 4 years in high school. I went to a mixed high school with mostly white kids and immigrants when i was in 9th grade for half a year and i liked that school. Some black kids went there but it was mostly whites. I wish my parents hadn't moved to a black neighborhood so i wouldn't have gone to a black high school. I don't wanna sound racist but i hate ignorant blacks. I f*cking hate them especially ignorant black men. They're always laughing and dissing people and i can't stand that. I diss and laugh at people too but i don't do it as bad as they do. They do that all day everyday. I also hate black women that are stuck up, materialistic and got a attitude problem. That's why i don't have a girlfriend because the black women i've dated have tried to use me and i don't let nobody use me. Faith, why did you wanna die when you were in high school? Did you get picked on often too by ignorant kids?



If you dont mind I'd rather not get into this, especially if its going towards race. I got picked on in high school. That was over 15 years ago, I'm over it, I dont hold grudges and I have long since moved on. Lets leave it at that please :)

[Hollow]

In high school all i wanted to be was dead.. Honestly I never thought i would make it to 21. So in high school, I never really thought about what I wanted to do afterwards.
same. it was either killing myself or being an underground metal singer. i've wanted to be a singer on and off my whole life, but then i grew up and learned that i need to go to college and get a real career if i expect to make adequate money. almost dropped out of college before i learned how expensive life is.

[InspectorExstead]

i liked high school for the most part. the only thing i would have to complain about was the lack of freedom. i was DYING to get out, be on my own, etc.
i took a lot of things for granted in high school as well. my friendships with everyone would be an example. i knew my friends & i would never that close again, but i didn't realize how many people i would lose contact with. that sucked.
also, i don't think i was very realistic about my future. i didn't realize how much work college was, and how stressful it would be balancing school, a social life and work at the same time. looking back, everything was much easier in high school.

[Doodyville10019]

I hated high school. Almost every minute of it. The only thing that saved my butt was that I got to take classes in things that either I liked or I was already good at, so I put up with the 4 years of hell and graduated.

[ZeldaGilroy]

I liked highschool for the most part. My freshman and sophomore years were not great because I was always the kid that everyone liked well enough, but no one was really friends with. I was extremely shy and introverted. Then my junior and senior years I discovered newspaper and yearbook and that became my life. I had great friends in the other kids on staff and we had overnight journalism trips and hung out together after school working on the publications. I loved it.

I had told my parents when I was in kindergarten that I wanted to be a teacher, but when I became so involved in journalism in highschool I decided I really wanted to be a writer. My parents did not really support that idea, so I just kind of put it in the back of my mind and became a teacher. I had a creative writing professor in college who kept trying to get me to change my major to something in a writing field, but I didn't want to cause too much commotion so I stuck with teaching. I do like it...I've been teaching 11 years. And my little first graders are all amazing writers;). I get compliments on how creative their writing is every year!

I'm glad now that I chose teaching even though a part of me longs to be a writer. But I don't think I would have cut it as a writer anyway...so I probably made the right choice.

[Shine]

I think you could have been a good rock journalist. You have passion for music and plus there are a lot of journalists who sometimes don't follow newer singers and bands.

Thank you very much for this wonderful complement. It means a lot to me. :)

[dawsongirl]

High School was okay. I was never popular, but I wasn't bullied either. I was just there.

Anyway, my big goal was to be on TV, but I never thought I'd exactly bust my ass pounding the pavement in LA, so first I was going to be a meteorologist. When I was a kid, I sat and watched the Weather Channel for hours, so I thought I could do that and be on TV. Then I got to college and flunked Calc.

Then I decided to go to the news side. Why I'll never know...I'm wayyyy too shy to interview people and get stories. After one newspaper writing class in college and ditched that idea quickly.

Always did want to act...thought it was the only thing I was good at.

Never wanted to be an elementary ed anything and special ed kids scared me. Now look at me. lol

[comedyfreak]

I went to High School from 1977-1981 I enjoyed school for the most part. I wasn't popular and wasn't into sports. I had a few friends to hang out with during lunch, if I had to do it over again I would have gotten more involved. The thing I was good at was taking pictures and developing them. I took photo for 3 years and was on the Year book staff as a Senior. I went to City College but didn't graduate, and I ended up doing Security work never leaving the field.

[Sharop]

I didn't have a bad time in high school. I preferred the later years - 10, 11, 12 and 13. I was in classes with students who were more my sort of people. By the time I started A-levels (Year 12 and 13) most of the kids who caused trouble or who were bullies had left at the end of Year 11 and I hung around a nice group of people during my time in the Sixth Form.

I always wanted to be a writer when I was in school and I would still like to do something involved with writing. I'm just finishing my BA degree now but would like to return to university at some point to do an MA.