The four years in High School I did nothing extracurricular.
I didn’t like sports, but it wasn’t that I was lousy at them. When I had tried out for sports in junior high and freshman year of High School, I discovered all my ‘teammates’ wanted to do was expose my weaknesses and berate me about it. They didn’t want to be my equal. And I didn’t want to spend 10+ hours a week letting them pour their derision on me.
I didn’t participate in any plays. The people that ran/tried out tended to be elitists who would rather have the same people do the same parts. The play would make much more money if a ‘popular’ kid was in the lead. Well, I helped make some props for a few plays, but that was only because there was a girl there who I had a huge crush on. When I found out she was just a huge flirt and didn’t find me any more special than anyone else, I stopped staying after school to put props together.
I didn’t even have a job, either. In fact, I didn’t get a job until I was eighteen. Didn’t get a Driver’s license until I was 20. I did mediocre in High School.
But it seems like I’m a minority in this- most other people I know had high school experiences that were very productive- were on sports teams, plays, debate, FFA, part time job at the hardware store, the whole nine yards.
I was a boring HS student. I didn’t work until I went off to college. I was in the band my freshman year, but then I quit. I wasn’t in any clubs or the like. I did well in most of my classes, but I wasn’t valedictorian or salutatorian. I didn’t participate in the student council or anything. I did get my license six months after I turned 16, but that’s about it.
I feel very much that I didn’t do a bloody thing in High School - I found that entire period of my life dull beyond compare and generally pointless.
However, I did have a girlfriend, I participated in plays, I ran the school newspaper, had a job, goofed off as much as I could while still passing classes and had a weekly D&D game with my chums.
It was terribly boring and very stressful much of the time, but it sounds much more interesting that what you did, so I can’t complain too much.
Wait, was I supposed to make you feel better or something?
I guess your right. Its just sometimes I see how much other people did in High School, and it makes me feel a little insecure about the fact that I didn’t do anything- like that time was wasted or something.
I suppose one of the reasons I didn’t really get into anything was there wasn’t anything I was really passionate about.
I didn’t do anything. No sports, no clubs, no cheerleading, I didn’t attend any games. I got decent grades and had lots of friends, but I was way too busy smoking pot under the bleachers to be bothered with any of that extracurricular crap. It was very clique-ish.
I didn’t really do much in school beyond just going to classes and doing my homework and then going home at the end of the day. I never played in sports and I was never in the marching band (just the symphonic band). I rarely had any reason to stay after school for anything and I never participated in any school clubs or attended any functions put on by the school outside of regular class hours. The one notable exception was spending a week in Mexico on spring break with a few fellow students from my Spanish class. Yeah, I was a really boring student, barely a blip on most people’s radars, and I didn’t have a lot of friends.
Don’t feel bad. I didn’t do much in HS either, other than goofing off as much as possible while still getting decent grades when I wasn’t at home doing chores or something. I was in choir, but only because it was the only way for me to earn a letterman jacket. I wasn’t anything special, no big solos, nothing. I only went to football games because my best friend Melanie was in the band and I was there to support HER and not the team. I didn’t participate in any school plays until my senior year when I was in a student-written play called “Here I Am” and I got to perform a short monologue.Yay me.
It didn’t occur to me how I did virtually nothing in HS until I was applying to a university that required one of those personal essays. I was not involved in a single student body or social clubs. I had very, very few friends. Okay I’ll be honest – I had a friend. Granted I’d occasionally hang out with some people who I was closer with in elementary. Well why were they no longer really my friends after elementary? I wasted an absolutely insane amount of time on MMORPGs as well as Subspace during JH + freshman year of HS.
I know this isn’t a thread on JH, but the whole computer gaming thing probably helped lead up to my uneventful HS experience. For the first year and a half after grade 7 started, I had amassed 3000+ hours on Subspace (which is 125 days or over 5 hours a day). Then I met Ultima Online, which lasted a little over a year – no logged times available in UO, but I was nearly expelled/put in jail over it (it’s illegal, in Alberta, to miss IIRC 75 or more hours of school without a valid excuse if younger than 16… I had 200+ absent hours that year, including some times where I wouldn’t go to class for three weeks straight). Finally, I met Everquest… played until grade 10 was almost over (a little less than 13 months) and had 200 - 210 logged days. Do the math – that’s about 13 and a half hours a day. On some of my report cards I had 50 absences – which could very well have been a lowball figure (but still 3 months worth of class – we had 5 month semesters).
Come to think of it, since I no longer played computer games (as much) in grades 11 and 12 (there is no grade 13 in Alberta, grade 12 is essentially the same), I wonder where my time went. As a recap, I was not involved in any clubs, I never did homework, I had only like one friend, I didn’t have a job, I didn’t amass a bunch of technical skills (that I really wish I did in preparation for my upcoming co-op work term), didn’t have a gf, and so many other things that are common for HSers. The one thing that I can say I did that quite a few people here said they did not was I got my full driver’s licence on my 16th birthday.
And now I’m in university, in engineering, also having a fairly uneventful time. Granted I have friends now, but I just piss my time away (I really need to start doing homework!). It’s definitely not the ‘college experience’ so many people talk about (granted I’m only in 1B). I don’t know how it’s really possible to do that much with 32 hours of class a week and probably 15+ hours of HW (assuming I did most of it, which currently I do not).
I’m a high school senior nearly finished with it all, and I agree with Ian in that I didn’t realize how little I’d actually done in high school until I needed to apply for colleges and scholarships. I’ve just been a reclusive fellow for a while, so it simply never occurred to me to get involved in anything with people at my high school–especially since most extracirricular activities were sports, which don’t usually appeal to people like me who were pretty bad at sports throughout their youth–and I’ve mainly killed the time reading and writing at home. Looking back (even though I’m kind of in the middle of it still), I regret it; I’d be more social if I had joined a few clubs or more interesting if I had taken some classes that interested me at the community college. I’ve pledged to seize any opportunities that interest me in college, and I’ll probably get a job over the summer, even though I rarely need money for anything, to feel more productive.
It’s funny that high school is so focused on cliques, but I never, ever found mine. I think I was always hesistant to fall into one because I wasn’t sure if I belonged in it, so I’ve always hovered on the outside of society. Obviously, most people aren’t incredibly popular in high school, but most at least find some people whom to smoke pot or play Dungeons and Dragons with or something. I think it’s odd that I was never assertive enough to fall into anything like that.
Just about, I’m not big on sports so I just did swim team and worked for a ballet company. But everything else. Theatre, yearbook, newspaper, choir, Quiz bowl (short and unintentional career there) took a full load of college classes as well as my high school ones for the last three terms, worked part time at a bage shop, partied hard every weekend…everything.
Loved just about every second of it.
Never want to do it again. I finished everything I could ever want to do in high school and was completely done with it. Good times. On to new and different things.
So, nope, can’t relate. Though i do feel as if you didn’t miss much. I did a lot of growing during high school. That’s what I value about it. Would I have done the same growing without the constant activity? No. But people grow in different ways, at different times. As long as you are happy with who you are, and living without regrets, you didn’t miss anything.
I’m also a senior, and haven’t done anything extracurricular in school, though I did participate in outside sports. Looking back, I don’t regret any choices I made (outside of academics), thanks to the superficiality of the students at my school and my utter contempt for everyone here.
Looking back, I used up all my extracurricular activities energy in high school. I was in orchestra all four years. Did the literary magazine, student handbook, daily newspaper, and a couple other publications. I worked closely with my counselor and a couple of my teachers. I even served time on the class council, with all the cool, smart kids. I worked at McDs on the weekends.
All I did in college was write a column for the newspaper. Even that was done reluctantly, more out of a sense of obligation as a journalism major than out of any real desire to write. Didn’t pursue any of my previous activites, as it seemed there either weren’t any of their kind to be done, or you had to be a major in order to be a part of it. I worked, but it was always on campus. The only thing I truly enjoyed and found rewarding in college was teaching introductory psychology. Ironically, this was after I graduated.
Another boring HS student here. I didn basically nothing the whole time. I did quite well but I think maybe 6 people would’ve noticed if I was never there. Was in band my first year but the teacher was a horrible bitch, so I dropped that. Never had a job, only had a few friends, wasn’t very social. Oh well, it’s over now.
If you don’t only count extracurricular activities I don’t think its possible for someone to go four years of their life without some major events, especially in the turbulant changing times of High School.
High school was like the lay-over in my flight of life. It was just a segment of my life that I spent waiting for it to be over. I skipped the whole “high school experience” including the whiny teen angst thing. It had its moments, but overall I’m glad it’s over.
I never applied myself, never joined any clubs, few friends, no job, didn’t go to the prom… I just wanted it to be over. I completed the bare minimum credit requirements for graduation and left school in the middle of my senior year.
I did the yearbook and newspaper, though that mainly involved sitting around and playing with computers (which is something I tend to do). I was also in National Honor Society, though all that involved at my school was showing up to like 2 meetings. I had a group of friends, though they always went out without me outside school, so we weren’t great friends.
Most of my time was spent doing stuff online, playing games, just chatting, whatever.