High school cliques: where did you belong?

[goldenpig]

I thought this might be a fun topic!

1. Which clique(s) did you belong to during your junior high/high school years? (Feel free to check more than one).
2. Were you popular or not? Was your high school experience positive or negative from a social standpoint?
3. What are you now (personality and/or profession)?
4. Does your social status now match your status as a teenager?

[goldenpig]

I thought this might be a fun topic!

1. Which clique(s) did you belong to during your junior high/high school years? (Feel free to check more than one).
2. Were you popular or not? Was your high school experience positive or negative from a social standpoint?
3. What are you now (personality and/or profession)?
4. Does your social status now match your status as a teenager?

1. I voted Brain, Goody-Goody and Outsider.
2. I was definitely unpopular. I was pretty unhappy during junior high/high school. I was teased/picked on by a popular girl in junior high. I tried out for junior varsity cheer and didn't make the cut (of course, didn't help that I had two left feet). I ran for a minor student council position and lost to a girl who was so dumb that her assembly speech was about 30 seconds long and something along the lines of "Yay me, vote for me!" And after she won, she was disqualified for flunking out of math. My parents transferred me to an out of district high school (10-12th grade) for their IB program and the top student was upset that I displaced her and prevented her from being the valedictorian so she turned everyone (including my best friend) against me because I was an "outsider". I used to eat lunch in my car so I didn't have to sit by myself in the cafeteria. Ugh. Couldn't wait to graduate.
3. Doctor. Still kind of shy especially in large groups, but better in one-on-one and small groups.
4. Having kids has definitely helped my social life--a good icebreaker, great way to meet new people/make friends (through playgroups, school, even "virtual" BBB friends) and gives me something in common to talk about with other parents. So I'm doing much better now, thank goodness!

[happymomma]

I thought this might be a fun topic!

1. Which clique(s) did you belong to during your junior high/high school years? (Feel free to check more than one).
2. Were you popular or not? Was your high school experience positive or negative from a social standpoint?
3. What are you now (personality and/or profession)?
4. Does your social status now match your status as a teenager?

1. I voted for Brain and athlete. I went to a high school with a IB program. It was nice because everyone in the program was similiar. No one made fun of anyone for being smart.
2. I wouldn't say that I was popular but I wasn't not popular either. I had friends from every click. I had a lot of friends that were in the volleyball team (I played all 4 years) and also in other clicks. However, I didn't belong to one click of friends. So in that sense it was hard. I didn't enjoy high school as much as I wished I did. I was too busy studying.
3. I'm an accountant. Was a SAHM for a bit and now that the kids are bigger I've gone back to work part time. It's been nice.
4. I think I am still about the same. I have a lot of friends randomly so I don't have a set of people I hang out with. The only problem with that is that not all my friends know each other.

[klwa]

1) Brain, musician, goody-goody, & floater
2) Not! Negative in a lot of ways for the 1st two years. Went away for my junior & senior years to boarding school, and that was much more positive.
3) Engineer. Introverted. :) Good match, right?
4) Pretty similar. I don't have a lot of close friends. A few people here & there.

[elizabethkott]

I thought this might be a fun topic!

1. Which clique(s) did you belong to during your junior high/high school years? (Feel free to check more than one).
2. Were you popular or not? Was your high school experience positive or negative from a social standpoint?
3. What are you now (personality and/or profession)?
4. Does your social status now match your status as a teenager?

1. I voted cheerleader/artsy. I was not exacty popular - in our school, the cheerleaders kind of sucked. :) But I was captain of the sucky cheerleaders, though! :D I fell in more with the artsy, drama crowd, and that was where my core group of friends was.
2. Well, being a cheerleader didn't automatically equate with popular in my HS. The truly "popular" kids were the jocks - sports were heavily prized in my HS. If you didn't play field hockey or lacrosse as a girl or football and lacrosse as a boy, that was it for you. I do feel like I had a good HS experience, mostly because my core group of drama kid friends had way more fun hanging out watching Monty Python and stealing street signs than going to a kegger in the woods behind the elementary school.
3. I'm a high school theatre teacher. I'm still wacky dramatic and love Monty Python. I don't steal street signs anymore, but sometimes if I see a really good one, I'm tempted.
4. I feel like I still have a core group of friends. My "work friends" are certainly the other wacky, artsy teachers, too.

[MoJo]

I voted brain, musician, goody-goody, and outsider.

I was never really part of any clique, even though I was in all the AP classes, was in orchestra for 8 years, and was part of several student organizations including student council. Most of the other AP and student council type students came from a different middle school, and I just wasn't like them.

Now, I'm a part time office administrator and mostly a SAHM. A huge part of my job is interacting with other people, and I'm very good at it.

I found a very large "clique" in college of people who are a lot more like me and was SO much happier socially, but today I don't really have very many friends. I make good friends whenever someone gets a chance to know me one on one, but that just doesn't happen much. So far, having kids hasn't helped. The only other parent I see at daycare is pretty standoffish, and I don't see anyone else out and about trying to make it with two like I have. My husband isn't very social at all, and I know that creates even more distance for those who know us as a couple.

[TwinFoxes]

I picked brain, because I took AP/honors courses. But honestly, I wasn't one of those super brainiacs, the kind who started going to the nearby state college for math courses (we had a few) I also picked "other" because I had a good HS experience. I had fun, went to prom, wasn't a "sosh" but had good friends, I played club sports, but wasn't a jock. Just a normal experience that movies and books aren't written about. :) Really I was probably just a face in the crowd like here. For the most part I've been able to make friends easily. It takes longer as an adult, but I'm blessed that I don't have the difficulties I read about here.

[Melaine]

I know this is meant to be a fun poll, and I don't want to ruin it by being negative, but I do think that it's important to point out the disparity in the options. I find it hysterical/sad that you put homeschooler as a separate group all together. As if homeschoolers don't have social cliques or interests that fall in one of the previous categories...this kind of attitude perpetuates the myth that homeschoolers don't socialize at all. Please don't pass this attitude on to your kids.

[SnuggleBuggles]

My school never seemed like the ones in movies and tv. I graduated with 350. There was a ton of mixing. For example, the lead in the high school musicals, 1st chair in orchestra and smart guy was also the back up quarterback. The head cheerleader was one of smartest girls in the school. The stereotypes didn't apply and there was a lot of crossover action. Being a band geek didn't prevent you from being part of the popular crowd and going to the best parties. Thank goodness my school was like that- it made it far more fun!

1. Which clique(s) did you belong to during your junior high/high school years? (Feel free to check more than one).
see above. But I was AP, orchestra, chorus, dancer plus other activities

2. Were you popular or not? Was your high school experience positive or negative from a social standpoint?
I wasn't unpopular. I had a good group and was friendly with most everyone. My group was great though. I never lacked for someone to hang out with.

3. What are you now (personality and/or profession)?
SAHM and I spend a good amount of time volunteering

4. Does your social status now match your status as a teenager?
I have no clue what my social status is but I am content with how things are. I have friends and don't really have a clique.

Beth

[hellokitty]

I hated high school, I have zero contact with anyone from that period of my life. I was in orchestra, a honors/AP student, goody-goody (volunteer work, not for religious reasons) and outsider. I had a small group of friends, but if they were not during the same lunch period (which was about 50% of my school exp btwn jr high and HS), I ate alone. Even within my own group of friends, I was not that close to them. My parents were extremely strict, only wanting me to focus on academics and they only let me do extracurriculars, b/c they felt it was important for college applications. So, I wasn't really allowed hardly any freedom to hang out with friends, unless they were in the same extracurricular activities that I was in. If my friends called me on the phone, my mom would listen in and then butt in and tell me that I needed to hang up and go study. Obviously, after a while, nobody wanted to call me anymore, b/c of my mom. Ironically, my parents were extremely upset that I was not this super popular kid at school, student council prez, on top of being a top student. They were unable to see that they were a major obstacle toward me making close friends and becoming popular. They also would not let me wear any popular clothing or name brands. I'm not normally really big on name brands now, but back then kmart clothes LOOKED like kmart clothes, kwim? Now if you wear clothes for target, it isn't even a big deal, but generic clothes has come a long way since I was a kid. I did get picked on for what I wore and my parents could well afford it, my dad was a doctor, so ppl knew we could afford it, so it was just a really weird situation, esp in an affluent district where pretty much ALL of the kids wore name label stuff, I felt like my parents went out of the way to try to make sure I'd be an outcast on more than one level. If you couldn't already tell, my parents were tiger parents.

Don't ask me why I never rebelled on them during HS. So, b/c of my family life and school combo, I was pretty miserable during most of my childhood. College was awesome. I finally got away from my smothering parents and while my K-12 exp was basically that of an invisible person (except when I got picked on b/c of my race or clothes), my social life vastly improved from college onward. I was heavily involved in student organizations, I think most ppl would not have guessed that I was an invisible person before college. It really gave me a chance to come out of my shell. I am currently a SAHM, but was a critical care RN prior to that. I've really finally grown into my own skin during my 30's (I'm almost 40!). Within my social group now, I'm seen as a leader. Most ppl would not have imagined me to be the way I was during my K-12 yrs. I am outgoing, well-liked and able to handle social situations just fine. However, growing up was a painfully awkward experience for me and I wish I could have one big giant re-do with different parents.

[KHF]

1. Which clique(s) did you belong to during your junior high/high school years? (Feel free to check more than one).
I put Brain and Musician. Like a PP, I was in the AP classes, but not really a "brainiac." We had a large number of advanced students my year, so I was one of many. I was also in band, orchestra and the area-wide youth symphony orchestra.

2. Were you popular or not? Was your high school experience positive or negative from a social standpoint?
I would say I was a neutral. Neither particularly popular or unpopular. I was on the fringes of every group I was in. My best friends were from the youth symphony and all went to other schools. I disliked high school and was glad to be free of it.

3. What are you now (personality and/or profession)?
I'm a computer systems engineer. I would say it fits me well. I'm much less shy than I was in high school, but still remain on the periphery of social circles.

4. Does your social status now match your status as a teenager?
Yep, see above. I'm only still friends with one person I went to high-school with, and I don't see her...just FB/email. She still lives in the town where we went to school and I don't. I spend most of my time with our family, so I'm not really in any social circle now.

Wow, that sounds pathetic :) But I'm pretty happy, so I guess it's OK.

[TwinFoxes]

I know this is meant to be a fun poll, and I don't want to ruin it by being negative, but I do think that it's important to point out the disparity in the options. I find it hysterical/sad that you put homeschooler as a separate group all together. As if homeschoolers don't have social cliques or interests that fall in one of the previous categories...this kind of attitude perpetuates the myth that homeschoolers don't socialize at all. Please don't pass this attitude on to your kids.

But it's a multiple choice poll, so you can pick Homeschooler AND jock. :) I get what you're saying though, I know there's a widespread view that homeschoolers are unsocialized.

[daisymommy]

I was a three-fold mix:
-Preppy, popular cheerleader
-AP honors, gifted track
-Member of our student-run Christian club & volunteer organizations.
-Voted most likely to succeed
Never sampled so much as a drink or cigarette, let alone any drugs.

Why is it that I still feel embarrassed to admit that :o

What are you now (personality and/or profession)?
My personality is still the same. Although I don't feel the need to hide from brainy side the way I did in highschool. I'm more comfortable in my own skin.
I was a child psychologist & therapist before having kids. Now I'm a SAHM mom. I would have never guessed it would have turned out that way!

Does your social status now match your status as a teenager?
I'm really not a socialite the way I was back then. I think I'm way less cliquey (as are all the people I know here). There really aren't groups here. We're all just mom-friends with a wide variety of people. I like it so much better that way!

[bubbaray]

Not really sure how to vote. The whole school was brainiacs -- top private school, rigorous admissions testing. If you weren't smart, you didn't go there.

I think I was viewed as popular -- the fun party girl on most of the sport teams. I didn't "feel" popular, though.

[DietCokeLover]

1. Which clique(s) did you belong to during your junior high/high school years? (Feel free to check more than one).
I said goody-goody and other. I was a really good kid and hung out with other good kids, but I was not a Christian yet. So my "good-ness", was not really as a result of religious reasons, nor did I volunteer anywhere. I voted "other" because I graduated with over 900 in my class. I was smart, but you had to be outstanding in that many to be in the top. I was liked, but was not an athlete or a cheerleader. I was just a regular girl.

2. Were you popular or not? Was your high school experience positive or negative from a social standpoint?
I hated high school. My school was very snobby and I just don't work that way.

3. What are you now (personality and/or profession)?
Hard question to answer. I am actually very warm and inviting and make friends that last for a lifetime. But, we live in a strange community in which we don't interact much, and so for the 6 years or so that we have lived here, I don't have any friends here. It's very unlike me.
Professionally, I am a child therapist, but have just returned to practice one day per week. For the past 6 years, I've helped DH run our business and raise our kids.

4. Does your social status now match your status as a teenager?
I have no idea how to answer that. If we lived in a different community, I think things would be radically different. As it is right now, I feel like a hermit.

[Katigre]

A small private school greatly compresses the 'groups' you can belong to ;). I fit into at least 4 of the categories above.

[goldenpig]

I know this is meant to be a fun poll, and I don't want to ruin it by being negative, but I do think that it's important to point out the disparity in the options. I find it hysterical/sad that you put homeschooler as a separate group all together. As if homeschoolers don't have social cliques or interests that fall in one of the previous categories...this kind of attitude perpetuates the myth that homeschoolers don't socialize at all. Please don't pass this attitude on to your kids.

Not saying homeschoolers don't socialize at all. I was just trying to be inclusive to let homeschoolers speak up and be counted. You can pick more than one! Homeschooler AND popular. :D

[mommylamb]

1. Which clique(s) did you belong to during your junior high/high school years? (Feel free to check more than one).
I put floater because I had lots of different friends who weren't necessarily friends with each other.

2. Were you popular or not? Was your high school experience positive or negative from a social standpoint?
I was solidly in the middle and could pretty much get along with anyone. I was also the kind of kid who invited less popular people to eat lunch with my friends and me because I hate seeing people eat alone. I had been there, so I knew what it felt like. I even went to prom one year with a poor guy who had a big crush on me, but was considered very uncool (it was his prom, not mine. I was a Sophomore that year) because I didn't want him to not have a date. My close friends spanned a lot of different cliques, and were mostly the type that weren't in the super in crowd, but were never made fun of either. Some of them did sports, though I did not. I dated a lot, mostly jocks. It was a good place to be.

I didn't get into the honors/AP classes until my junior and senior years in high school because I was tracked wrong due to my learning disability (I'm dyslexic), so I wasn't really part of the brainiac crowd. I grew more academically in college.

BUT, I wasn't always in a good place on the popularity spectrum. I had been really unpopular when I was in elementary school and it was miserable. Back then my dyslexia had a big impact on me socially. It took me a long time to compensate for my learning disability, so when I was in elementary, I was one of those kids who was "different" because I had to leave the classroom to go to special reading help.

Things tended to get better for me the older I got.

3. What are you now (personality and/or profession)?
At this point in my life, I am lucky to have a lot of friends. My profession is EXTREMELY dependent on personal relationships and being likeable. I have to be able to go into a crowded room and start up conversations with complete strangers. It's hard. I have to force myself, but I do it all the time.

4. Does your social status now match your status as a teenager? I think so. I think the social skills I have now were ones I had at least begun to develop by the time I was a teenager.

[creativelightbulb]

Funny that this thread would be started today. My 18 year high school reunion party is TOMORROW!!

I was soooo part of the nerd squad...but interestingly it was an accepted nerd clique...we are student government, honor students, headed all the clubs, activities, ran the school store...etc. We were respected brains...

I'm sort of looking forward to seeing how those who are NOT not on facebook have grown up...

[ThreeofUs]

I thought this might be a fun topic!

1. Which clique(s) did you belong to during your junior high/high school years? (Feel free to check more than one).
2. Were you popular or not? Was your high school experience positive or negative from a social standpoint?
3. What are you now (personality and/or profession)?
4. Does your social status now match your status as a teenager?


1. Brain, Floater, and popular. I didn't really like being with the popular people - I would get angry at being pressured to do the "right" thing - so I often floated away from the group to be with more interesting people.
2. I was bored, alllll the time. I think I was very confused about what mattered, and HS didn't teach me *anything* about that.
3. I'm a person who has strong feelings about what's important, lol. I look back at HS feeling pity for that girl.
4. I don't know. My family was social. Me, not so much - I just don't care about being in the blue book.

[golightly1118]

I voted on three groups-Brain, musician, and artsy. I was in a pretty solid AP track, played flute for eight years and wrote for the school literary magazine. I'd say that my high school interests still line up with my life now-I devour books, love music (although I gave up on playing long ago) and like to sew and knit in my free time. That said, most of my classmates at graduation saw me being a college professor, not a stay at home mom who worked as a pastry chef/cake designer before having kids.

[StantonHyde]

1. Which clique(s) did you belong to during your junior high/high school years? (Feel free to check more than one).
Total nerd/brain. I was on the debate team and loved it. But in my highschool in the 80's, I was practically considered "male" because I took Advanced Calculus. It was awful. I was in a small town where girls were expected to get married and have kids starting at 18. I did not fit that mold (we moved there in junior high). I didn't do myself any favors by being defensive and dismissive but OMG it was an awful experience. College was so liberating--you were supposed to be smart, have opinions, etc.

2. Were you popular or not? Was your high school experience positive or negative from a social standpoint? See above

3. What are you now (personality and/or profession)?
I have mellowed greatly since high school. Having whacko family dynamics of being told I was never good enough and then being marginalized at school did a big whammy on me. By the time I hit 30 I had finally worked out a lot of crap and felt comfortable being me. Now I am very practical--this is my way through life and other people have theirs. Live and let live. I know I am a nerd, I married a nerd, and my kids are nerds and I make friends with other nerds. :heartbeat: Manhy people would describe me as being nice. But I don't fit in with the cool people--the people who look like they have it all. I am just too open about how "off" my life is and I joke about myself all the time. I make it a point to be seen as human vs. perfect.


4. Does your social status now match your status as a teenager?
See above. I am so much more accepting now that I have my own self esteem intact. I am a much nicer person than I was in high school.

[AnnieW625]

1. Which clique(s) did you belong to during your junior high/high school years? (Feel free to check more than one).
I was a floater. I did just about every activity one could do in high school, except shop, ag., and business classes/clubs. I had zero interest in any of them. I spent multiple years on student council in both jr. high and high school, and also spent multiple years on the yearbook/newspaper staff. I was in choir in school for one year, and another year through my church. I was in National Honor Society. I was involved in 4-H from 7th to 12th grade. I played tennis in 10th, and 12th grades.

2. Were you popular or not? Was your high school experience positive or negative from a social standpoint?
I tended to think that people liked me and that I fit in well with everyone, but no I was never considered popular. I don't think I was risky enough. I spent a lot of time in my comfort zone. I have always sort of regretted not playing on the girls homecoming flag football team. I was friends with a lot of the male athletes but I never had one as a boyfriend so that was a tad dissapointing. My brothers friend who was two years younger asked me out; that was the worst. I spent all of high school afraid that someone would nominate me for homecoming queen or court and it would all be a joke. Thankfully it never happened.

Overall I think that high school was a positive experience for me. I enjoyed the many groups I was involved in, however there were things about high school that were hard like the social aspect of it. I never went to dances (including proms) because I was too afraid that I'd be that girl no wanted to dance with. My school work was always a challenge for me and I had to spend a lot of time studying and didn't automatically get As like most of the other students I had in my classes so that part was hard because I always longed to be a staight A student. I think midway through my jr. year I realized that it wasn't going to happen and that made the rest of my high school career grade wise a bit easier.

3. What are you now (personality and/or profession)?
I tend to think I have a very bright and social personality, same as I did then. I am more willing to take risks now than I was then to a point. I work as an insurance adjuster in state government (and have since I was 20 yrs. old) so I do somewhat crave stability in the work place.

4. Does your social status now match your status as a teenager?
Probably. I still don't have one big group of friends and I am still involved in a lot of stuff and seem to have friends from each one of those activities, but not one set group of close friends. I do kind of hope I'll eventually get that set group of friends.

[smilequeen]

1. Which clique(s) did you belong to during your junior high/high school years? (Feel free to check more than one).

I picked floater. My main group was not the popular nor the unpopular group. I was a brain, but I was at a private school where that was kind of the norm. I tended to get along with everyone. I didn't fit in with the popular group and I was shy, but I got along fine with them when I was around them.

2. Were you popular or not? Was your high school experience positive or negative from a social standpoint?

Popular, no. Most people knew me and liked me I would say, on some level. I was friendly and I smiled a lot...so I was told back then. Never was teased/tormented/etc. It was a positive experience. Now, elementary school I was mercilessly teased and it sucked.

3. What are you now (personality and/or profession)?

I'm a dentist. I'm still pretty shy. I am still pretty friendly and easygoing.

4. Does your social status now match your status as a teenager?

Yeah. I still get along with everyone but wouldn't consider myself a popular adult. I guess I'm more popular than as a teen though.

[BabyBearsMom]

I thought this might be a fun topic!

1. Which clique(s) did you belong to during your junior high/high school years? (Feel free to check more than one).
2. Were you popular or not? Was your high school experience positive or negative from a social standpoint?
3. What are you now (personality and/or profession)?
4. Does your social status now match your status as a teenager?

1. I guess I was a brain. I was in all AP classes and hung out with the smarty-pants, but I was also pretty much a goody-goody too. I was in a lot of clubs (DH makes fun of me and says my picture is on every page of the year book)
2. I was kind of medium. I was well liked and had a lot of friends that were in the popular clique, but I wouldn't say I ran in that click. In general, my high school experience was positive from a social standpoint.
3. I think I am still a brain. I work in specialized professional environment. I'm still generally well liked at work.
4. I would say yes, although when I was a teenager, I had a lot more time to socialize than I do now.

[arivecchi]

I went to a Catholic all-girls high school so we did not have the typical cliques.

I voted brainiac because it was a tough school academically speaking and I took lots of AP classes and did really well in school. I was not super popular but I was popular enough and has tons of great friends in HS. I LOVED my HS years. I was also quite involved in other activities, French club, debate, bowling (LOL), class events, English Lit competition team, and many others. My class was really small though (about 80 students) and we all pretty friendly. Pretty much the entire class is on FB now and we are all FB friends.

I am a lawyer which plays to my strengths since you have to be studious and detail-oriented, but honestly, I dislike lawyers in general. Not a fun bunch. I think the profession attracts a lot of introverts that are incapable of socializing,

I think I am still the same way I was in HS. Not super outgoing and shy in large settings but I have lots of good friends and am fairly content with my social life.

[BillK]

1. Which clique(s) did you belong to during your junior high/high school years? (Feel free to check more than one).
2. Were you popular or not? Was your high school experience positive or negative from a social standpoint?
3. What are you now (personality and/or profession)?
4. Does your social status now match your status as a teenager?


1. Other than a small handful of good friends (who I'm still good friends with 25+ years later) - Outsider/Didn't Fit In.
2. Not popular - mostly negative highschool experience - I was fat, dorky and picked on.
3. Pretty popular and social I guess now - most people I graduated with don't even know who I am now if they haven't seen me since then. Professional/business owner.
4. No not really - in fact - in my experience most of those roles from high school days are now reversed in my case. The popular, athletic, prom king/queen types have not been overly successful and the less popular non-mainstream types from graduating class have been fairly successful.

[longtallsally05]

I thought this might be a fun topic!

1. Which clique(s) did you belong to during your junior high/high school years? (Feel free to check more than one).
2. Were you popular or not? Was your high school experience positive or negative from a social standpoint?
3. What are you now (personality and/or profession)?
4. Does your social status now match your status as a teenager?

1. Brain/AP and Goth/Emo
2. Not school-wide popular, but I had plenty of friends in multiple grades.
3. SAHM now, but I have a BSN and a law degree (plus a B.A.).
4. Sort of. I love learning new stuff, I am an awesome student, I still love to read and dance, plus I like the same genre of music. My satellite radio pretty much is always on Alt Nation or First Wave. My wardrobe contains a LOT of black, lol. It's tougher to make friends now b/c I have less time (aka two little kids), plus we move around very often as we are a military family. We're getting ready to move again, and we haven't even been @ this duty station for two years. Thank goodness for Facebook, or it would be tough to keep up.

[crayonblue]

Brain and goody-goody. I was not popular but I had a very good set of friends who I am still in contact with.

I was too poor to be popular. You can't fit into the popular crowd when your mom shops at the cheerleaders' garage sales for your school clothes!

[boolady]

1. Which clique(s) did you belong to during your junior high/high school years? (Feel free to check more than one). Brain, popular, jock, floater. My high school was very small, so people did lots of different things.

2. Were you popular or not? Was your high school experience positive or negative from a social standpoint? It was fine. I got along with all sorts of people, and I think I was fairly popular. I was not likely to be voted most popular or anything like that, but didn't offend anyone and got along with everybody. I wasn't unpopular, but I wasn't prom queen material, either. My high school experience was largely positive, though I really don't keep in touch with anyone from high school at present, other than on Facebook. I had a lot of fun at the time.

3. What are you now (personality and/or profession)? I'm an attorney with a typical type A attorney personality-- extremely analytical and pretty opinionated. Despite being opinionated, I understand that often you just have to agree to disagree. I am loyal to the extreme.

4. Does your social status now match your status as a teenager? I don't know what my social status is, really. I guess it does, in that at work, I get along fine with just about everyone, but am only really close to a few. The same holds true in our neighborhood-- I have a very nice time with most/all of our neighbors, but at the end of the day, would really only confide in/want to spend one-on-one time with a few of them. I'm just not, nor have I ever been, a huge gaggle of friends kind of girl. A sorority would have been my idea of a waking nightmare. :ROTFLMAO:

[smiles33]

1. Which clique(s) did you belong to during your junior high/high school years? (Feel free to check more than one).
I checked Brain, Popular and Athlete, based on junior and senior year. Freshman and sophomore year, I was just a brain and athlete (weird combination, I know, but I played basketball and volleyball at a school with very few students ever going on to play Division I college sports). I always got along well with everyone from different cliques but was a total homebody (my friends those years didn't hang out on the weekends, we just ate lunch together on school days).

By junior year, I moved into the Popular crowd because one of my closest friends and co-newspaper editor-in-chief was the star football player. Once he asked me to junior prom, I became the "Andrea" (of 90210) of the group that was sort of on the fringe of the popular group. For instance, I was the only one of my entire group of friends not chosen for one of those "senior superlatives" in the yearbook (you know, best smile, most school spirit, best dressed, best body, nicest, etc.)

2. Were you popular or not? Was your high school experience positive or negative from a social standpoint?
Yes, I'd consider myself part of the popular crowd. While I was never chosen as Homecoming queen (though apparently nominated a few times by random people), I was elected senior class VP, went to proms in the limo with the cheerleaders/football players, etc. I really enjoyed my time in high school as I did well academically and then got to enjoy myself junior and senior years.

3. What are you now (personality and/or profession)?
No longer an athlete, that's for sure! I would say I'm still brainy, but more nice and helpful. Good girl next door, sort of. While I planned to go into public policy with my law degree, I took a different path and ran a nonprofit before moving into law school administration to promote public service. I pretty much get to help/convince law students to devote their careers (or some portion thereof via pro bono service) to helping others. It's an awesome job that really fits my personality and strengths.

4. Does your social status now match your status as a teenager?
No, I don't have the social life I used to have a high school/college/law school student. I'm a total homebody now focused on DH and my DDs, since I work FT and want to use nearly every non-work minute with my family. I'm still friendly, but I don't care to be part of any sort of clique. My only regular interaction with non-family is the BBB! This message board (and Facebook!) satisfy most of my needs for interaction with non-family members on the weekend. Sad, but true!

[scrooks]

1. Which clique(s) did you belong to during your junior high/high school years? (Feel free to check more than one).
I put Brain and Musician. Like a PP, I was in the AP classes, but not really a "brainiac." We had a large number of advanced students my year, so I was one of many. I was also in band, orchestra and the area-wide youth symphony orchestra.

2. Were you popular or not? Was your high school experience positive or negative from a social standpoint?
I would say I was a neutral. Neither particularly popular or unpopular. I was on the fringes of every group I was in. My best friends were from the youth symphony and all went to other schools. I disliked high school and was glad to be free of it.

3. What are you now (personality and/or profession)?
I'm a computer systems engineer. I would say it fits me well. I'm much less shy than I was in high school, but still remain on the periphery of social circles.

4. Does your social status now match your status as a teenager?
Yep, see above. I'm only still friends with one person I went to high-school with, and I don't see her...just FB/email. She still lives in the town where we went to school and I don't. I spend most of my time with our family, so I'm not really in any social circle now.

Wow, that sounds pathetic :) But I'm pretty happy, so I guess it's OK.
This is very similar to me...not quite as musical (just band), different kind of engineer (civil) and I keep in contact with 2 high school friends...otherwise the same !

[elektra]

Athlete, floater, popular

My good friends were cheerleaders, student council people and AP people. I was the athlete. AP folks were not all nerds at my school though and the school was so big that there wasn't only one "popular" group.
I would not view myself as popular but I got along well with all kinds of people. I was not the type of girl that high school boys were into though. So I spent most of my HS time crushing on boys and never having boyfriends. Better to peak late. ;)

I actually find it really refreshing now not to categorize people I meet now in a way that would lump them into the group they would have been in in high school. I know I was way too "categorizing" as well as "categorized" in high school and probably missed out on some great relationships because of it.
I still love silly BBB polls on these topics though. Don't get me wrong. ;)

[zag95]

I was kinda across several groups- including Ap/Honors classes. I was an Orch dork- played viola all the way thru jr high and HS. I played volleyball in HS (although only on JV and then phased out) and did Model UN all 3 yrs of HS. (we had Jr high grades 7-9, and HS grades 10-12) I was friendly to many, but had alot of the same kids in my track (honors/academic) track.

[MaiseyDog]

Well, since DH and I were just discussing this very topic last week, I'll play


1. Which clique(s) did you belong to during your junior high/high school years? (Feel free to check more than one). I picked two, brainy and musician. I was in AP classes and on the academic decathlon team and academics were a large part of how I viewed myself at the time- a smart girl. I was also in band, although I don't classify myself as musical at all. It was an activity to do and since I had a lot of friends in band I stayed.

2. Were you popular or not? Was your high school experience positive or negative from a social standpoint? I wouldn't say I was popular from a schoolwide prespective. My high school was large so there were several different socail climates and band had it's own social hierarchy that was separate from the rest of the school. Within band, I would say I was popular. I was part of the group that tended to lead the way and that was the group I hung out with after school and on weekend. Others outside of band would probably say I was a band nerd, but I was happy where I was.

I enjoyed high school and I often get very confused by movie portrails of high school because my experience was different. Just kinda normal. I had my friends, others had their friends and everyone just kind of floated along not really bothered by the other groups.

3. What are you now (personality and/or profession)? Socially, I think I'm much more reserved now than I was in high school. I was pretty chatty then and had a good cricle of friends which really can give a kid a lot of confidence. I think in high school I just fell into a group that fit without any real intention on my part and didn't realize that makeing friends can be hard. I learned that in college. I went to a college that was near home and had a good pharmacy school, but where the typical student is not anything like me - it has a reputation for being a bunch of rich, party kids. It was very confusing and heartbreaking to be in a situation, where I wanted to make friends, but didn't have a lot in common with the people I was coming into contact with. I struggled there.

4. Does your social status now match your status as a teenager?[/QUOTE]
Now I'm happy to have a 1-2 close friends and to mostly focus on the family. There are times I miss having a large circle of friends like I did in high school- where there is always someone to hang out with and lots going on, but mostly my life is much calmer now than it was as a teenage and I'm happy with that.

[niccig]

1. Brain and goody goody. I got the highest grades and was a prefect, on student council etc

2. I wasn't in the popular crowd, but no one liked the popular crowd as they were mean. I was liked and knew everyone. Popular kids knew not to be mean to me - i was older because spent a year as an exchang student, and I thought they were very immature. One of them made my younger sister cry, and I confronted him. If I heard them saying snide comments about someone, I told them to stop. I was much more confident than my friends with dealing with the mean kids. My mother was a teacher at the school, and I didn't go running for help, but if someone was being particularly mean, I told her about it.

3. Librarian then SAHM and now student to be a SLP

4. Same personality. Several friends. Not the most popular, but I get along with different people.

[larig]

1. I was an honors kid, math team, JETS team (junior eng & tech society). I went to a small high school and (k-8 too), so everyone knew everyone else and had forever. I was also a music geek (band, madrigals, choir), and artsy and I hung out with the skaters, who were the only ones listening to new wave and college radio stuff then. Our school was really more divided by what kind of music you listened to. I never got in trouble (my parents were teachers at another school, so I would have been seriously in trouble). Outside of school I did same kinds of naughty things that most of my peers were doing, so I guess I wasn't really a good girl.

2. At the time I whined about h.s., couldn't wait for college, etc., but looking back it was a positive experience. I had lots of different friends, and never lacked something to do. I usually had a boyfriend (serial dater), although two long-term ones went to a different h.s. from my own.

3. I'm a former h.s. math teacher. I think that makes sense. I still play music and sing.

4. I like people, but I'm pretty shy and quiet in large groups.

[SpaceGal]

I was in the Nerd group of Science and Honors students. However, they tended to be rich kids and I wasn't...I always felt a bit awkward and so in a sense I was an outsider/loner with a few good close friends.

[wencit]

1. Which clique(s) did you belong to during your junior high/high school years? (Feel free to check more than one).

I voted Nerd, but I also didn't quite fit in anywhere. I took all the AP/Honors courses, got good grades, etc., but my high school was very competitive and so there were some kids who were even smarter than me, which meant that I didn't quite fit in with the "Uber Nerds." :p I was definitely not the athlete/cheerleader/goth/band type, so I essentially "floated" throughout high school.

2. Were you popular or not? Was your high school experience positive or negative from a social standpoint?

I was not popular at all, and my high school experience was very, very negative. I was extremely shy, and my parents were the typical Asian domineering type, so I wasn't allowed to have much of a social life anyway. As a result, I basically counted down the days until I could head to college.

3. What are you now (personality and/or profession)?

Pretty much the minute I got to college, my entire outlook changed, and I became a much more outgoing, happy person. I'm still naturally a bit shy and insecure (partly due to some of the teasing I endured in HS), but I now have more of the social skills needed to cope in new, unfamiliar social situations. It also helps that I'm a SAHM now (after 10 years of being an engineer -- talk about not needing social skills! ;) Just kidding!). I quickly learned that if I wanted my kid to have friends, I needed to put myself out there and meet some people myself.

4. Does your social status now match your status as a teenager?

Absolutely not! While I'm no social butterfly, I'm also not the miserable, awkward teen I once was.

[jbbhb]

1. Which clique(s) did you belong to during your junior high/high school years? (Feel free to check more than one).

I picked brainy, popular, and floater. I was in AP/Honors classes as were most of the "popular" crowd. At my high school it seemed like you weren't cool if you weren't in the honors classes, or at least college prep which was like the middle level. We had a fairly small class of 180

I was a cheerleader which is why I chose the popular category. Cheerleaders were really not cool at my high school. I never really felt popular in high school, although looking back I think I was. I always thought of myself of being smack dab in the middle of the "B" group.

I did a lot of different activites and had friends from many of those activities. I got along with pretty much everyone. I did swim but wouldn't necessarily say I was an athlete (JV all four years anyone? ;))

2. Were you popular or not? Was your high school experience positive or negative from a social standpoint?

See above. I didn't feel popular, but I didn't feel unpopular either. At our reunion I realized that maybe I was a bit more popular than I thought.

I absolutely loved high school. I cried like a baby on the day of my graduation.

3. What are you now (personality and/or profession)?

I am a pediatric nurse. When I see people from high school, they seem to be surprised I am a nurse, not sure what thats about.

I think personality-wise I am much more reserved as an adult. I think a lot of that is because I am totally comfortable with myself and don't try as hard to impress people. I am still very friendly and I feel like I gt along with everyone.


4. Does your social status now match your status as a teenager?

Not really. I was very social in high school. I talked to my friends all the time and had many friends. Now I just have a few close friends that I don't talk to as frequently but am much closer to. Not very many of my friends have kids yet (I'm not that young, they are just not there yet) I do sometimes wish I had more friends that had kids which is probably why I spend so much time here....

[LexyLou]

1. Which clique(s) did you belong to during your junior high/high school years? (Feel free to check more than one). Popular/In Crowd. Not really sure how or why. All 3 of my brothers were total nerds. It's really just because I was a cheerleader and dated a football player.
2. Were you popular or not? Was your high school experience positive or negative from a social standpoint?Yes, I was and I'm thankful because I was lucky enough to have a great high school experience. But having nerdy brothers I know how bad the experience can be for some and am and was always super sensitive to that.
3. What are you now (personality and/or profession)?I'm still kind of a leader. I love meeting new people and have no problem in large crowds. I was an accountant for many years (Software Rev Rec, so I met with a lot of people not a desk jockey, and now I'm a fitness instructor which I love!
4. Does your social status now match your status as a teenager?I don't know. Is there really a popular crowd in our adult lives? I don't care about being with the jonses. I just find people who make me laugh and are down to earth and have fun. but I do love my girlfriends.

[kijip]

I ran the gauntlet:

-Nerdy/extremely academically inclined.
-I played softball and did wrestling and weight training.
-I was in drama.
-I was a leader of our school government and mock government programs like Youth in Government and Model UN type things and went to many leadership development trainings.
-Goody goody. I was a very active volunteer and church girl, including sitting on a board to plan 4 youth church conferences per year for two years. Ran food drives, volunteered at a free clinic, volunteered at a low-income housing development etc. I was totally straight edge and never did any drugs or drinking.
-I was big into punk rock, rap and folk/country music.
-I was in a conservation group and did a lot of hiking.
-I dressed like a cross between a hippie and a punk rocker more or less. In my school, in my city, in my decade this was the hip way to dress. Preppie was not popular at all.

I was pretty popular in high school, very outgoing. I tried very hard to be a people person/please others in school.

I am less popular and outgoing now, I am more reserved and tend to be more of a homebody now than before. We have a lot of friends and do social things, but I like being alone more now. I am generally well liked but I don't worry about everyone liking me like I did in high school.

I work in a relationship based field, fundraising and non-profit leadership, so part of my change of preference at home is just needing to unwind from all the social stuff I have to do for work.

Social status is inextricably a class based thing for me. I definitely am seen in a different way by the outside world now, and differently than people see my parents. People perceive me as a middle class/seattle yuppie whereas in school I was still clearly poor.

Like a pp, I am a way nicer, kinder person now than I was in high school. I could be really mean to people in high school, especially boys who wanted to date me.

[lizzywednesday]

1. Which clique(s) did you belong to during your junior high/high school years?

Brain (AP & Honors courses galore; captain of the 'Quiz Bowl' team Senior year)
Musician (4 years of chorus work with both the in-school and extra-curricular ensembles)
Artsy (4 years of Drama Club/Thespian Society; voted 'Most Dramatic' in "Senior Superlatives" in Senior yearbook)
Goody-Goody (2 years church youth group, 1 of those as "Peer Minister"; felt a personal obligation to be a great role model for my 3 younger sibs, so I didn't do anything out of the ordinary)

2. Were you popular or not? Was your high school experience positive or negative from a social standpoint?

I was not popular with other students, which was hard for a little bit, but I got over it. (I was VERY popular with teachers and other kids' parents. What can I say? I was an authority-figure's dream kid.)

Socially, high school was pretty "meh," but I was OK with that. I had a (very) few great friends who I could rely on while the rest of the world moved forward. I am still very close to my high school "bestie" and have reconnected with people I'd considered simply "acquaintances" then, but find they're becoming true friends now that we're adults.

3. What are you now (personality and/or profession)?

Professionally, I am in information, so it plays into my "brain" past.

Personally, I am still a brain and have been working on reclaiming the musician part. However, I no longer write creatively nor do I do theatre - there isn't enough time in my week!

4. Does your social status now match your status as a teenager?

I'm a little less shy and a lot less reserved, but I'm still more of a loner than anything else.

DH is bothered by the fact that I have very few friends, but we define "friend" a lot differently. For me, a friend is someone like my BFF. I only have one of those and I am OK with that. For him, a friend is someone who he hung out with in college and likes OK ... so he's got a larger social circle than I do.

Frankly, I am OK with that, too.

[TxCat]

1. Which clique(s) did you belong to during your junior high/high school years?

I voted Brain. I was valedictorian, voted Most Likely to Succeed, etc. I played sports, but only because you had to as part of the graduation requirements and definitely didn't stand out athletically.

2. Were you popular or not? Was your high school experience positive or negative from a social standpoint?

Not popular, but not made fun of. Probably just a "non-entity" socially. My high school class was actually very stereotypical in a John Hughes sort of way - it wasn't considered "cool" to be smart until our junior/senior years when some people realized that they actually needed good grades or challenging classes to get in to certain colleges. Even then, it was just the popular guys who took AP classes - most of the "popular" girls wouldn't be caught dead in AP classes (there were exceptions, but we're talking about 2 or 3 girls, and not those at the top of the social hierarchy). That being said, I had a wonderful group of friends who were all in the same classes, same extracurriculars, etc. Of the "top ten" students in the class ranked by weighted GPA, 9 of the 10 were girls, and most of the AP classes were girls, even AP calculus. It was definitely a unique experience (esp. for a public high school), and ended up being very supportive. I didn't love high school and I didn't hate it - at the time I was sad to have missed out on some of the "milestones" like going to prom and Homecoming, but I generally enjoyed my time there and look back on that time somewhat fondly. My best friend, who had the same social status and did many of the same extracurriculars, including sports (but was a much better athlete than I was), remembers high school much, much more negatively which always surprises me. I think she feels that we were nerdier than I remember (the truth is probably somewhere in between?).

3. What are you now (personality and/or profession)?

I work full-time as a physician. Socially, I'm much, much more "bubbly" and outgoing than I was in high school, which started in college.

4. Does your social status now match your status as a teenager?

Not really. I definitely hung out with a much more social crowd in college, dated a lot of athletes, popular types, etc. I gained a lot of self-confidence in college and came out of my shell more, which helped a lot. It also helped that in college, the social hierarchy was much less rigid (ie, I was at a school where it was the norm to be smart and high-achieving). I also became more fit and athletic - I wish I would have enjoyed sports and working out as much in high school! As I've moved into adulthood, I've continued to be fairly social. However, I think in a way, I always see myself as I was in high school, so I'm sort of surprised when people seek me out and make extra efforts to befriend me.

[american_mama]

I voted Brain, which was largely true, but even in the Brainy crowd, there were subgroups and crossovers. There was a cool, fun crowd within the Brain crowd that I liked and would have loved to have been part of. There were sporty brains. A lot of the popular kids at my school were also athletes, so there was crossover there.

But the other crowd I was part of was the Not Really Noticed crowd. I was happy in high school and had friends, and I liked myself. But I was largely overlooked by others. No one talks about that "identity," such as it is, in high school, but I think a chunk of people fall into that group.