High school was great for me. Middle school was abysmal.

I agree completely. I feel kinda stupid about it, because high school was awful for me, but I pretty much still have the maturity level of a high schooler and on some level I feel like it might go better for me.

Maybe it's just because I think that after all this time (same amount as you), it feels like it's far enough back that it's something that could change the course of your life (as opposed to doing something differently a month ago).

I think part of the appeal of the anime friendships to me is that they portray goofy, annoying people like Tomo, Yui, and Konata as a solid part of the gang instead of that annoying person nobody wants to be around. ;_;

Japanese schools are a lot more strict and stressful then western ones.
Anime makes it look all fun and happy but It's all a lie.

My high school was more like a prison, I almost got caught in a crowd control pepper spraying once, the building was in shambles (except for "show" parts like the first floor and the football stadium), and some of the people I graduated with read at probably a 5th grade level. Those things, along with my crippling social anxiety, made every day I had to walk into that place a living hell. Luckily I was never picked on, or I probably would have been driven to suicide

>>6583

I think if schools were more strict I would have actually cared more about my grades and not flunk out of all my classes, forfeiting my future.

>>6585
On one hand, I think school should be more strict and punish failure more. On the other hand, the loose rules are what let me get away with never doing a public speaking assignment and still graduate, so I dunno

>>6586
Public speaking is only a small part of school, though. As much as I think school should be more strict, there's also the problem that the harder something gets, the less most people care about trying to succeed.

Public schools in the US are architecturally identical to detention centers.

That said, in all seriousness, I have had a lot of thoughts of how I actually did things and had thoughts in high school, and I miss seeing people and such.

I recently had the chance to go back to my old school. There was an improv show that was started by my class in our sophomore year. My school spent over a million dollars on an auditorium ten years ago outfitted with sound equipment that still isn't out of date. Anyways, I was there, and in the general social grouping that I was subjected to during most of my schooling. And you know what? I can honestly assure you all that you really DON'T want to go back to high school. You don't. It's a terrible place filled with idiots and bitchy girls and everyone thinks they are the most important person in the room. I was bitched at by a girl even though I was five years her senior for sitting in a seat I claimed in an empty row ten minutes before she got there late. It was terrible.

Some fun facts about my school:
Only one stall in all the men's bathrooms had a door, and that door traveled somehow.. To take a shit, you had to walk around the entire school to find a stall with a door.And most of the time someone shit all over the toilet seat and left it clogged.
50% of my class had "ADD," which is a prevalent mental illness where you think you are a gangster and you're too lazy to do your own work so you have someone in "learning center" do all the thinking for you. When you have to do an essay, you have your 3DPD do it.
People stole chairs from my school. Also the stall doors were stolen. Don't ask me how or why. It happened and I gave up trying to figure it out a long time ago.
The roof leaked constantly during rainstorms. But the leaking was odd. It would pool up on ceiling tiles and would stagnate and pool up more and more and more, until one (or several)ceiling tiles caved in and crushed people underneath them. This almost invariably happened in the cafeteria during peak lunch hours.
One fight a week was common.
Our student resource (police) officer would conduct random searches on people. One time a 3D bitch lost a twenty dollar bill out of her purse and blamed it on my physics class. The officer came into our entirely silent classroom, let out the loudest, deafening whistle, and continued to search each bag, expecting that any $20 she finds belonged to the girl who was "Stolen" from. To top it all off, the cop was a butch lesbian and feminist, so no male who had an injustice done against him would ever expect to find justice from consulting her. Also, all US schools have town police officers in the building 24/7.
If you entered the library, you could not leave for any reason until the end of the period. Even if you were in to print out a page for a class, you were not to leave for the next 45 minutes.
Swastikas were carved into all the picnic tables on the property about five years before my senior class became seniors. They were discovered one day by the staff and the offense was blamed on our class. There was a small investigation.
The science classes had a bee infestation.
My biology teacher drowned a baby snapping turtle to teach my class about evolution. My friend found the turtle, I took care of the turtle for a week, and the teacher drowned it to make a point to a fundamentalist girl in our class.
You could not leave school grounds and come back. You had to stay in the school from 7 to 2:15 with little to no exceptions.
Soft drinks and trans fats were banned from my school. Also salt was a commodity we almost never saw. We spent my entire senior year, however, storing cans, bottles, and bags of soda along with hostess cakes, dollar store cookies, and salt in a community locker with cups and such. A clique of about ten or so of us had the code, and between the ten of us and over 180 days of free periods and lunches we went through about $150-300 worth of food and drink in that locker.

These are just my issues with the building and people, nevermind the social issues, the asinine curriculum, the teachers telling students lies, etc.

At least we didn't have metal detectors.

Looking back on it, having some semblance of a social life was a lot easier back in high school. If you're forced into contact with the same people every day for a few years, there's a better chance you'll grow on people and at least somebody will get used to your quirks or get to know you eventually. After that, you're pretty much fucked if you're bad at meeting new people.

I sometimes miss the few acquaintances I had and lost touch with. I still see my best friend from school now and then, but he's even more of a shut-in than I am. He's also a NEET/sort-of-hikki living on disability, the type that might browse tohno-chan if he was more of a 2Dphile.

The IRC jogged my memory on an old tale.

Lockdowns are something that was instituted in public schools in the US after 9/11. They are reserved only for if an armed individual is on campus or terror attacks. They -literally- lock all of the doors and windows of a building, force everyone out of the hallways, and in some instances, have a SWAT team come in and guard all entrances with orders to shoot to kill anyone coming in or out.

The town police decided in my first year that they would initiate a lockdown so they could do a drug sniff.

So we get an announcement to go into lockdown mode, and it goes on for three hours. Mind you, we have no idea what's happening. Are they going to kill us? They had drug sniffing dogs and were pry-barring lockers open. Oh Haruhi someone has a bomb!

Three people had panic attacks that day and one was institutionalised. We only learned the next day that it was a simple drug sniff.

This became a yearly thing, too.

>>6588
>Public schools in the US are architecturally identical to detention centers.
I used to say the same thing all the time.

Students are treated as if they have no rights.
Just like with a prison, you're stuck in there with scum, and one wrong move around certain others can get you jumped/beat to hell.
crappy provided meals after an enormous line that sometimes didn't even resemble food.
the whole place was completely surrounded by spiked fences, barbed wire at some places, same for both high schools I went to.
I once tryed climing one of those spicked fences after gym class, because the guards forgot to unlock the gates ( the PE area/yard was sectioned off and locked down during class times ) tore up my paints on the thing, least I wasn't late I guess..
That's another thing, guards patrolling the grounds contently, it would always be a real challenge to hide from them if/when I skipped class.
outside of school grounds you have police on look out for anyone that should be in school.
Good thing I didn't leave my house when I skipped school for a day, which I did a lot, and boy did they love to threaten me about it.
Prisoners have their cells, students have their class rooms.
and it seems like no school is without a metal detector at the entrance, and guards patting people down to confiscate anything and everything they can.
Teachers clearly all hate their jobs, they get no respect at all like in other countries, here the saying is, "Those who can't do, teach."

During my time there one of the 'friends' I made was someone new to the school, and just as if he was new to prission, he wanted to make it known he was hard core and wouldn't take no shit, wanted to be the toughest guy in there ect, probably approved me because I looked tuff, or at least like someone that could help him in his goal.
Another friend made there would take me around town as he stole stuff for fun.
I regret having anything to do with them.
and you know what they say, criminals who go to prison just learn how to be better criminals.

American public schools are like training for the real thing.

they don't want to make anyone smarter, encourage thinking or enlighten anyone.
When I was there, I didin't see them trying to teach anything, help anyone to learn, most of what they did was hand out books and make people copy from them, I swar I had one class that was entierly devoted to how to anser tests, not how to understand what's on them or anything like that, but to know what to look for, know how some answers contradict other answers or the question and so on, stuff like that isn't educating people, it's only making them look smarter then they really are on paper.
I once too a test across the text from the instructor with the answers in front of them, not exactly hard to read something upside down, it didn't mean I was smart when I got a high score, it meant they didn't care.
specking of which, the only reason why they gave me so much crap about skipping school, was not because they cared about my education, they didn't even pretend to care, they told me flat out it was because it affected the school's funding.
This made skipping school all the more rewarding.

schools just like prisons only look to make you into a obedient functional member of society, that's all.
(and they both do a shitty ass job at it.)
Education is a joke.

I wish I could go back to middle school times and choose I would go for real high school and I could've been in good university. I started being minor hiki in middle school and then I decided I don't care about my future and I went really bad high school. Actually don't have exact high school concept in my country but myself I picked the "practical highschool" but I've always been bad in everything so I barely graduated.

>know how some answers contradict other answers or the question and so on
The bane of multiple choice questions. They are either stupid easy or based on some kind of technicality.

Call me whatever you want, but in hindsight high school was a very happy time for me. Well, mainly the last year. I went to a public school in Australia, one located in a middle eastern slum, but it doesn't seem to be as unpleasant as the stories you guys tell. I'm quite glad Australia has such a good education system. Education something I hold important. I think its the great equaliser in society.

NO.

Also what's the point if I can watch SOL with cute girls instead? That way I can experience just about everything that could've been pleasant about HS without having to deal with any of the negatives.

High School was goodish for me, great(nice good people) teachers, great friends. I think I was the "broken link" in High School, everyone else changed; they got 3DPDs/drivers licences/jobs/etc, started experimenting with drugs/alcohol, the general party stuff. I choose not to do that stuff, I saw no reason too, I would have been welcome, I was friends with most people, but I didn't.

And that is where my problems began, while my high school time was pretty good, that time ended when the school day ended or football practice, outside of school I had no one to socialize with, I was forgotten.

But I realized early that my future was bleak, then it became more bleak, and so on... So it is not like I am surprised by how it turned out.

also I was a horrible student. But to be fair the curriculum had a lot to be desired, and I often sat their doing nothing, because I didn't like it(I learn better on my own), but interactions with people were good.


There are somethings I wish I could do or think about; occasional thoughts for the girl(s) that got away (not that I pursued them though), but the one thing I really want is to be part of band or sing/play a song at a festival or something... Haruhi inspired me. <-- not a word filter, then K-on! inspired me more. The only problem is I can't play or sing. And speaking of Haruhi, I want to join the SOS brigade aswell.

Also most of dreams feature high school friends, so obviously I desire to be friendly with them again, but fuck some of them have probably already finished college, have interesting tale of travel, job experiences, have a children, man we probably even have less in common. Not to mention I don't want to be ostracized for my life decisions. This is why I don't like leaving the house, people will judge me (if I happen to know them). Though I have seen 1 friend twice for a couple hours, it wasn't bad.

fin

This depends on the context. DO you mean go there with my present mindset, or mindset from high school?

If present, hell no. If with my mindset from then perhaps. When I was in high school I think I could consider myself to have been most happy then because college hadn't made me into an incredibly pissy and depressed person. I blame my teacher's "whatever gets a paycheck" mentality and that they seem to have little-no idea of what they're talking about. I wanted to do graphic design but college has made me hate it and I'm pretty much still here as a actual job since it gives me the excess financial aid money and keeps my parents from kicking me out for not doing anything.

In high school I was semi-laid back guy that you'd just talk to at school but not interact with much and kept my hobbies and such to myself. Now I'm progressing into becoming a near complete shut in that just leaves the house when I need to go to school and has a horrible time doing so. If I do badly this coming semester though like I have my previous two I think I'm just going to drop out and try and bite the bullet and try to get benefits or disability of some kind, even though I know getting my parents to accept such a thing will probably not happen. In the case that I can't I'll probably just kill myself.

Personally i spent my high school years watching anime and hoping it would all end quickly so i could get away from all those people. And i wasn't even bullied or anything.

Guess i was born a hikki.

I would love to go back and redo high school, provided I didnt have to do the schoolwork bits. I was never a dumb kid (I had the opportunity to go into a class for gifted kids but I chose not to) but I really struggled with the amount of pointless crap we had to complete, multiple assignments every week plus homework every night and studying for tests. I suppose its preparing people for the workforce; teaching them not to take pride in their work, just get it done and don't give a fuck.

>>6601
>I was the "broken link" in High School, everyone else changed
same here. I think yours is a common story among social outcasts.
>Haruhi inspired me. <-- not a word filter
lol nice

High School was a pretty mellow experience for me , OP. It was a slow and devouring way to teach me how society really works. During my senior year, all I had were a close bunch of friends. We did nothing but play MtG and talk about anime all day. Everyone was mellow. After graduation though, I felt a sort of melancholic feeling. It's as if nobody cared about what happened to anyone else, as they only strive to succeed by themself. It was harsh. I treated these friends like they were my siblings. Like I said earlier, it was all slow and relaxing. In other words, if it went by quick, I would have been a bitter and angry person. Since it went slow however, I understood why it all went down like it did. I'm thankful for what High School taught me and I use the experiences and what I've learned to this very day. I don't particularly regret much in High School, and I don't want to change or redo anything. Afterall, I like who I am now (despite me turning into some sort of vile disgusting creature-- to normal people eyes at least) and I like knowing these kind of things.

High School was awesome.

THINGS I NEVER LEARNED THAT PEOPLE THINK ARE COMMON KNOWLEDGE, WHICH I DON'T UNDERSTAND BECAUSE THEY ARE NEVER IN THE CURRICULUM:
1: How to drive. I didn't have $500 because I couldn't work because I was in school, and didn't have a license to drive to work to make that $500.
2: How to do personal banking.
3: How and when to fill out bills, credit card payments, W2 forms and all those things you get hammered with a gigantic charge or jail time for not doing
4: How to prepare my own fucking food. It's not that fucking easy

Here;s what I did learn:
1: Inflation is just printing more money. It's not any more complex an idea than that. The world market has NO impact on currency, and value of currency has no impact on if your economy is import or export driven, whether it is a goods or services economy, etc.
2: Japan was some mudhut country that came around in 1865 or so. Then they attacked Pearl Harbor in 1945 with no provocation. Then nothing happened for a while, then they got nuked. Now they're like, communists or something. Also Nazis were bad people and all the Germans were fanatical Jew killers. Italy wasn't in World War II. Neither was Canada or China.
3: Question authority, as it is your civic duty. Unless it's the authority of the school, your government, or the police, just shut the fuck up and take it. But if the usher asks you nicely to move to another section, you HAVE to be a gigantic douche to him or you aren't a real American.
4: Every. Haruhidamned. Detail. On how to fold, present, and pledge to the American flag.
5: English is a terrible thing to major in. None of these people can support themselves.
6: CSS is when websites are all chrome and hip looking.
7: Sociology is best learnt from the most antisocial person in the school staff, and psychology is best learnt from an undoubtedly insane teacher. I'm not kidding you. This is how it really was.

>>6622

Wow, exactly where did you attend school? #2 of what you did learn is totally disgusting.

>>6622
>1: How to drive. I didn't have $500 because I couldn't work because I was in school, and didn't have a license to drive to work to make that $500.

This is one of the things I loved about the American school system.
They expect 'minors' to pay for things, yet don't allow them to work if they're bellow 18 or still attending school for most jobs, not that you'd have the time to do so anyway with them taking your time and wasting it at school.

And Haruhi forbid you try and make money without a job, for a short time I tried selling candy at school between classes, damn did that piss them off, and most of what I was selling was from their own vending machines, so I was like wtf?
I don't think I so much as broke even.
that friend I spoke a bit of in a post before who was a thief got word of this, He flat out stole boxes of candy from stores in town, and paid his friends to sell the stuff for him, he made hundreds before the school stopped him, funny how that works.

>>6622
>7: Sociology is best learnt from the most antisocial person in the school staff, and psychology is best learnt from an undoubtedly insane teacher. I'm not kidding you. This is how it really was.
What? I'd always thought this much was obvious. Only an outsider can have an unbiased view of our society, and only an insane person can understand how insanity really works.

>>6622
>Sociology... and psychology...

Who cares: both are frauds.

The only reason I would go back to high school is if I could become younger again so I could chabge my life while I still had a chance.
Being a 30yo with no social contact, minimum wage job, and a bad credit history is no fun.

>>6628
...but you're a wizard.

>>6628
Thanks for mentioning that your age, now I feel a bit less out of place.

>>6628
>Being a 30yo with no social contact, minimum wage job, and a bad credit history is no fun.
And I was fired today. So now I am a 30yo with no social contact and no job. Such cases.
So yeah, when you think it cant get any worse - it will.

>>6652
at least you have us!

>>6653
Guess that kinda proves his point.

>>6627
Quite.

School was easy. All you had to do was turn up. Sit in silence in the lessons. Do the homework and in return, you got to be a legitimate member of society. There was people all around. You could listen to their conversations and feel as if you were part of society, you felt connected.

I sit now and think how strange it was. I might be a hiki weirdo now, but back then, I used to be an actual legitimate person. I used to go to school and be part of society. I used to get to see other people and do limited safe interaction with them in a safe controlled environment. I was in the place where I was supposed to be. I didn't have the burden of hikikomori shame that I have now. I was more normal than I realized at the time. I was just an introverted loner.

But now.... Now I'm not normal. I've been a hikikomori for the best part of a decade. Now I am totally disconnected from society with no way of getting back in. It's not possible now. I'm too inexperienced for people my own age and too old for people with the same level of experience as me. So now I'm just cut off. Like a spaceman cut off from the spaceship. It's so sad. It's such a tradgey. How did I end up like this?

So I think back to my time at school and try and think what I should have done differently. But I don't know. I think I might just end up doing the same again. When I was a school, I couldn't wait for home time, to get away from the other people. It was such a relief everytime I walked home from school on my own. TO get away from those other people. All I wanted to do was to hide away from other people. And that's exactly what I've been doing all these years as a hikikomori. I've been hiding away. I got what I wanted. Except now I'm feeling so isolated and disconnected from society. Like there's no way of getting back in. I've burnt my bridges. Been in isolation for too long. I would never want to meet up with the people from school. They would ask me what I've been doing all this time. I've been doing nothing. They would laugh at me. I would be humiliated. Now I must hide away out of shame. The shame of having been a hikikomori for so many years.

>>6849
My biggest fear is when I go outside I'll run into somebody I know and will have to small talk with them. I even avoided going to a funeral because of it.

As for the space man thing ;_; and the being developmently stunted, and being isolated because of your age, too true.

...and my excellent public high school education shows itself.

How the hell do I fill out a W-4 form?

>>6863

It must have been better than mine. What is a W-4 form?

>>6863
No idea, I've never had to do it myself. My employers at the two jobs I've worked in my life filled them out for me if I remember correctly.
>>6864
It's a tax form, has something to do with how much of your income is taxed or something like that. I had a QUALITY public high school education too.

>>6580
>School has started again.
Stop reminding me, I just failed out of college.
Again.
And this was my final chance, now it's trying to find a job I'll hate or become a NEET (which I also don't want).
I just can't seem to do anything right in my life.

A lot of nostalgia is associated with school, I think. Even if I were to redo it, it would still be shit since I'm surrounded by... high school kids. I guess I would more actively look for decent people, though.

I would also do different activities (get in the habit of exercising, learn another language, maybe do acting or drawing while I still have easy access to classes to do so) since I know better what would be best for my enjoyment of life now than I did then. Unfortunately I live in the middle of fucking nowhere so I would need to work with what I got.

I would also do a different degree or something since I absolutely loathe what I'm doing now, but it's too late to change.

...I would need to redo a lot more than HS if I wanted to change my situation.

>>6594
Yeah, that's why I socialize even less in college. I'm only in class a few days a week. There are more opportunities for extra curricular activities in college though, however my university has awful clubs.