Some very interesting stories here. I just found out about a month ago that this one guy I’d fallen so hard for, had a thing for me too. It really blew my mind! I wish I’d known then, he was such a dreamboat, tall, handsome, a smile to die for, and his voice, <oh,my, what a voice>, and eyes I could get lost in forever. sigh.
And, the month before that, I found out that another guy, my best friend since we were in jr hi together, also has had a crush on me for all these years! He never gave me any hint at all, I was so clueless. I love him as a friend, but it was so cool to realize that I was so well thought of, in those days when I thought I was just another ‘miss goody-two-shoes’. Go figure!
You sing in my consciousness like a counterpoint to my life.
L.L.
Nah. I was weirdo geek boy at my school. Well known, because of being weirdo geek boy mostly, but not lusted after by anybody of consequence. Or anybody at all, come to that.
Or at least, not that I’m aware. But then I’m totally blind to that, I reckon…
However, as I worked in the Theatre a bit in the last decade, and had many friends who are gay… I think a lot of people thought I was gay too, which may explain a hell of a lot.
Like GuanoLad, I was wierdo geek boy in high school. It didn’t help that I skipped a grade in elementary school and was always the youngest kid in my grade.
I was also a bit overweight (okay, not a bit, I’ve lost twenty pounds since I was 15 and there’s another 10-20 to go). I hated sports and I was way too smart for the school. Bad combo. My life was hell in school. When I transferred during my senior year I was actually glad.
If I met someone from high school today I’d probably be in jail. . .
– Sylence
“Excuse me, are you reading Torah and eating crayons?”
Unlike some of the posts so far, I got through HS dork free. And yes, I am making up for it now.
I was popular, athletic, in shape, well-known, etc.
Everything was cool: I had a cool car, I had cool parents, I had cool friends, I was good at football and wrestling. I got to get down with all the hot girls and do lots of fun stuff.
I thought I was hot shit, I was a stuck up prick that was young dumb and full of cum.
Anyway, the I am only writing all this to convey in a meaningful way how much of a dick I was.
Now that I meet people they have me labled as this womanizing, alcoholic, beligerent cock o’ the walk.
I have changed! I graduated and went to college and found out that I am not a superstar, and that I was a dumbfuck for the way I treated people. I grew up and now I am a nice guy.
Stop laughing! I am!
“Winners never quit and quitters never win, but those who never win and never quit are idiots.”
My story is actually from junior high, which was basically the worst time in my life. In high school, I had plenty of friends (not the “in-crowd”, but not the geeks either - we called ourselves the trolls, if you can believe that), but junior high was awful, was terribly shy (no one who’s met me IRL will believe that!), had no self-esteem, and was basically a basket-case. I definitely did not consider myself memorable.
But when I was a freshman in college, 100 miles from where I went to junior high, I ran into a girl who I swear I had never seen before. She said, “Aren’t you Kyla? Didn’t you play in the band at Petaluma Junior High?” Dumbfounded, I said, “Yeah…do I know you?” Turns out she had played in the band with me for one day, then something happened and she switched to the other junior high in town. I never saw her again, and was completely shocked that I had made such an impact that she remembered me six years later.
This is starting to be a little creepy. I also ran into a friend from high school on Saturday (on my way to the NC Doper meeting)!
Anyway, I have the opposite problem than the OP. I was pretty popular in high school. We had very small classes and the school is a 1-12 grade school so I had been there for many years. For years, when people graduated, they moved away. However, starting with my class a little and more so with the class following mine, people decided to stay here. My little brother went to the same school(4 years behind me) so whenever I run into anyone from school they are usually younger than me and they say, “Hey, aren’t you Mike’s sister?” So much for my popularity!
Here’s a thought: maybe, just maybe, everyone you’ve ever had a crush on, if the caste system that is the American High School system was non-existant, would have expressed interest in you. Maybe what we see as a crush is really a mutual pheromone reaction. Maybe I should cut down on coffee. But you know what I mean?
DON PEDRO: Your silence most offends me, and to be merry best becomes you; for, out of question, you were born in a merry hour.
BEATRICE: No, sure, my lord, my mother cried; but then there was a star danced, and under that was I born. -Much Ado About Nothing, Act II, Sc: i
I was going to post, until someone starting singing Kum ba yah. (Ugh.)
Had an interesting experience last summer. I attended my 10 yr high school reunion. Went back home and got to see all those people I went to school with. Remembered most of them.
Funny thing was this one guy and his behavior. We were in elementary through high school together. He was a total asshole from day one, and stayed one all the way through. He was also a rather dumb shmuck. Well I ran into him at the reunion, and he was the nicest guy you could imagine. He went out of his way to ask how I was doing, be polite, talk and all. He even apologized for being such a jerk. It was strange.
It’s odd how people you knew from high school react later. Ever run into someone you knew after you’ve both moved off to college? The same jerk who wouldn’t say two words to you suddenly is your best friend. Something about familiarity - I know this person, I’ll catch up on old times.
About the OP: what stands out to me was leaving jr high. After spending three years feeling like the perpetual butt of the joke, we had our last day, and everyone brought notebooks to write things like yearbooks. I was amazed by the number of positive remarks, things like “You’re so sweet, don’t ever change!” and “We pick on you a lot, but you’re okay.” Of course they were back at it the following year like nothing happened.
I went through HS with pretty much non-existent self-esteem. I was the valedictorian, track star, Vp of Student Council, wore completely unfashionable flannel shirts and plain white tees and shorts with long johns… in short, geeky, freaky and athletic at the same - not the most sttractive combination for a HS girl in the 80s. I thought of myself as unattractive, undesireable, whatever you want to call it.
About halfway through college, one of my best friends revealed that when we went to parties he would get a lot of entertainment out of watching guys hit on me and me cut them down. I had quite the sarcastic mouth on me, which got worse the more I had had to drink. I had no idea these guys were hitting on me. I guess I thought they were mocking me, so I slew their puny egos with my rapier-sharp tongue.
I am actually sad that I didn’t know what was going on. I remember a verbal encounter I had with this one guy that I found especially satisfying because I left him speechless. The thought that he might actually have been hitting on me is depressing because I had a crush on him.
In any case, it appears that there were actually guys who found me attractive. I wasn’t ever going to be the prom queen, but if I had known I wasn’t the ugly wart I thought I was I might have had a more pleasant high school experience.
