It's 25 years today since I graduated from high school

[Missy Vixen]

It's hard to believe that the years have gone this fast.

Here are some of the things I've learned:

Success is great, but I learned a lot more from the failures.

Some of the most educated people we know also have the least amount of common sense. Also, education is a lifelong pursuit that never ends.

I met a lot of other people before I met my husband. He was (and is, still,) worth it.

It is much better to have a few very close and trusted friends than to have a thousand acquaintances.

What have you learned since you got out of high school?

Julie
corrected for inelegant word usage

[Career Prole]

1. Kids who just got out of high school 25 years ago don't know diddly!

:D Just kiddin', Jules!! Nice post! :yourock:

[TheBlob]

2. "Everything"

Everything I learned about life came AFTER I got out of school.

"What have you learned since you got out of high school?"

[bif]

3. The kids that were assholes in high school

Are now losers, and assholes.

[Canuckistanian]

4. Hey, 26 years for me

Hard to believe how differently I view the world now.

[Catfight]

5. I just went to my 20th

I learned, that religion is an excuse not to be original and think for yourself.

I learned that an education makes all the difference.

I learned that sometimes refuge is found in the strangest places.

I learned that being alone and being lonely are two very different things.

I learned what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

I learned ignorance is bliss.

I learned the more I know the more I realize I don't know anything.

I learned that there should be licenses to have children.

I also learned that people who claim they are Christians or religious in general are generally nothing of the sorts.

I learned that we all are responsible for ourselves.

I learned about karma.

[regularguy]

6. Graduated in 1980, one of *the* worst students in a class of

over 400. I've since read a lot of books and such and can arguably claim to have progressed from ignoramus to wannabe intellectual.

I've learned that learning is fun. I've learned that you need to have more to offer a woman than the sincere desire to get laid. I've learned to hold off on the whining and complaining until *really* bad shit happens. I've learned that getting older is OK.

[WindRavenX]

7. HS is an emotional Hell

Granted I was "successful" in HS and had a close circle of kick ass friends, but jesus H christ, you couldn't pay me enough to go back there. I think adults today don't realize just how horrible HS is nowadays with all the tremendous pressure to get into a good college. And the real kicker is, even if they DO get into a good college, it's now getting harder and harder for kids from middle class families to pay for it...
And then there is the hormonal chaos. That was fun. And by fun I mean not fun.

[gauguin57]

8. More than 25 years out ...

I was a born-again Christian in high school! Jesus Freak Cult! Hey, it was the '70s. We were all experimenting with something. My drug of choice was the Lord. Probably kept me out of trouble. Thank goddess I snapped out of it early in college.

I could not be more different from my high school self if I tried. I can't wait to see the movie "Saved," and see my high-school self on the screen and become thoroughly appalled! And laugh like hell!

I thought I had all the answers then (and that they were all contained in one book! what a maroon!) ... now I know that 1) I have very few of the answers and many more questions and 2) that that situation is perfectly fine!

[Missy Vixen]

9. Me, too

>I could not be more different from my high school self if I tried. I can't wait to see the movie "Saved," and see my high-school self on the screen and become thoroughly appalled! And laugh like hell!<

I was an Assembly of God Bible-thumping pro-lifer in high school. I wonder if I'm ever going to be done apologizing to those hurt by my acting like a pompous ass in those days.

>now I know that 1) I have very few of the answers and many more questions and 2) that that situation is perfectly fine!<

It's amazing to pass 40 and find out how little one knows about anything. I'll be interested to see what I think about the whole thing in another ten years!

Julie

[gauguin57]

19. what made you stop thumping the bible?

MY ephiphany was the following, my freshman year in college: I was on Bible-study retreat with a bunch of dutiful Christian girls (and I was already on the road to disillusionment) ... price scanners were just coming into wide use in supermarkets at the time. And these girls were praying against the use of these scanners, because they believed that the antichrist was going to use bar codes to put his "mark of the beast" on his chosen.

And I lifted my head at the end of that prayer and said to myself, "Oh my GOD, these girls are fucking NUTS! And I'M ONE OF THEM!" Within about a month back in the dorm, I was cursing like a sailor, drinking, smoking pot and having absolutely guilt-free sex with my similarly disillusioned ex-Christian boyfriend. All the things I'd priggishly lectured all my friends against for years (bible in hand). And it was college, and it was FUN!

And I never looked back. And I now DESPISE those holier-than-thou types, who remind me of my younger self. I probably have a stronger faith in God now than I did when I was a "holy-roller"!!!

[Speck Tater]

10. Exactly 40 years ago for me. Seems like yesterday. (nt)

[arwalden]

11. Twenty Six For Me... Spooky Isn't it?

[bobbieinok]

12. at 20th didn't recognize the guys - men change a lot, women not so much

[bobbieinok]

13. my dad went to his 60th!!!!!!!!!!!!

[NightTrain]

14. I didn't really start to learn until after I graduated from high school.

Class of 1984, by the way. And here's just a fraction of what I've learned in the past 20 years:

Despite the informed judgments of my learned peers, I am not in fact a wimp, faggot, retard, or pussy.

There's a whole lot of American history that my Social Studies teachers either skipped or watered down severely.

People my age who express a nostalgic longing for "the good old days of the '80s" are a bunch of idiots and losers.

I don't give a damn what a woman looks like; if she can't hold up her end of an intelligent conversation, I'm just not interested. (This applies to men too, though being hetero I don't judge them on their looks.)

If you don't watch TV, it eliminates 90% of all conversational possibilities with the overwhelming majority of people.

Infants, toddlers, and animals make far better company than the majority of so-called "grown-ups" do.


You can be the big cheese in high school and go nowhere in the real world.

A lot of the music I liked in high school sound like shit to me 20+ years later. Can you say, "Rick Springfield?"

[gauguin57]

21. love your list, class of '84!

Class of '75 here. I especially agree with the Social Studies comment. My God, my textbooks in the '60s and '70s were written by people with their heads completely up their butts. Total Eurocentric imperialist dead-white-guys spin on everything!! And we ate it up like good little bricks in the wall.

I went to an open house at my old elementary school recently (located in a very good school district), and I swear to GOD there was a history book in the library that I had studied from in the mid0'60s -- copyright 1964! What in the HELL is that book doing there? I should have put it in the trash and anonymously sent them something from this century, something that acknowledges some people don't think Christopher Columbus was the coolest guy on earth.

And I know what you mean about the music ... BOY did I listen to crap. I listened to so much John Denver, I'm surprised I can carry on a conversation without saying "faaaaar out!"

But awwwww, Rick Springfield! I still have my "Working Class Dog" album ... VINYL!

[ronnykmarshall]

15. Yikes! Me too!

[flamingyouth]

16. Congrats on your milestone, Julie!

:loveya:
Did you got to school in the Seattle area? I'm in the Ballard High class of '86. :hi:

[Missy Vixen]

17. Thanks, flamingyouth!

:loveya:

I went to Mountlake Terrace High School. (In those days, the moniker was "Mountlake Terrace Very High School.") DH went to Roosevelt.

You have a big anniversary coming up yourself in two years. Just remember though -- even though we've been out of high school for double digits, we're still glamorous ;-)!

Julie

[flamingyouth]

23. Hopefully by my 20th anniversary, I'll have a hot date! LOL

Yeah, I've heard all the stories about Terrace. I had friends at Woodway back then. :D

Hello to my glamorous friend across the lake! :loveya:

[geniph]

26. ARE YOU SERIOUS? Your husband went to Roosevelt?!!!

I too graduated from RHS, in 1977! It's been 27 years for me...and yeah, I think I graduated on June 9 or 10.

If Eric has any yearbooks that cover the years 1973-1977, have him look me up!

[SOteric]

18. That life is far too short to waste your time on things you don't love.

That despite the allure of sloth and slack, - there's actually more peace in order and organisation.

That people who aren't deserving of your friendship always show themselves in the end, and as much as it may sting in the short term, in the long run they're quite forgettable.

Einstein was right,- imagination is more important than knowledge.

[fudge stripe cookays]

20. I have TWO reunions this year...

I went to 2 different high schools for 2 years each. I can't go to one and not the other! Especially when I was happier at the first one.

One is in July, and I just found out the second one is in November, on a Saturday night in Austin, so I can go to both.

I've discovered a major strength I never knew I had in high school. My father died right before I got there, so I had so many issues with guys. I liked them, and could talk to the ones I wasn't attracted to, but the ones I liked I completely clammed up around. I had NO self-confidence. I ALWAYS had my head buried in a book, because I didn't want to deal with people. I was sure that I was being sized up wherever I went. That was my way of dealing with it-- I could ignore people by putting my head in a book.

It wasn't until I got to college that I finally emerged from my cocoon. Now, I'll say anything to anybody; I'm completely bold about everything I do. Now I just read in public because I hate most of the idiot people here. ;-)

Someone several years ago paid me the biggest compliment I've ever gotten. He said I was "passionate." Not just about love, but about art, about music, about literature....that whatever I was into I was 200% INTO. That's always stuck with me.

If I'd had the personality I have now in high school, I would have had dates coming out the kazoo instead of sitting alone every weekend. Oi. Youth is wasted on the young.

FSC

[Lestat]

22. It's been four years ago June 2 that I graduated

from high school.

God...I'm gettin' old. :(

[Wickerman]

24. Hey Julie, I have a 25th reunion this weekend!

yeee-haw! amazing!

[tsakshaug]

25. 25 for me too

-I am smarter than I was led to believe...having undiagnosed dsylexia and ADD didn't help.

-Enjoy life

-make mistakes, but learn from them.