How much have you changed since High School?

[Saras]

Married with children

Weigh more and am a self-adoring twit

[Skanky Burns]

Less friends, less money.

On the plus side, I live with my fiancee now.

[Grandpa Troll]

Originally posted by Hippi
I have a problem with the question since I'm still in High School

Ahh..youth..see..then this QUESTION would not apply to you then

Seriously, it was meant for Post-High schoolers my friend..

Peace

Grandpa Troll

[Panag]

hi ,

gosh , if it was only possible to turn the clock back , .....

have a nice day

[Flubber]

hmmmm what hasn't changed ??

I graduated high school in 1986 as a pretty athletic skinny guy who was painfully shy with women ( although I did manage to lose my virginity prior to the Prom).

In college, I beefed up a bit, drank a LOT more and lost my shyness around women ( grew a set of nads)-- Now its what . . . 17 years after high school and I am a pretty laid-back dad, a few pounds overweight but still playing sports. I have two degrees and work as a lawyer. The biggest differences are that I have more confidence and I am better with people.

[Buck Birdseed]

I care a lot less.

[Mr. President]

Originally posted by panag
hi ,

gosh , if it was only possible to turn the clock back , .....

have a nice day

I wouldn't turn the clock back. I hated high school.

[Panag]

Originally posted by Mr. President


I wouldn't turn the clock back. I hated high school.

hi ,

thats one of the reason i want it turned back , .....

have a nice day

[Firelad]

Eli, same with me. 3 or 4 is still something and a grand annoyance.
Oh, my military profile went down from 72 to 64 since school ended. Just after my visit to the Army psychiatrist today...

[MattyBoy]

I've probably changed very little in truth, but my environment has forced different responses.

I am more conservative, have less time for people, cannot handle spare time, demand far more discipline from myself, hate to see people smoking when I used to just enjoy the smell. I also tread more timidly in the world.

I think it mostly comes down to having a very different family role than I had back then and to handling a demanding, but charismatic wife.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by monolith94
About two inches horizontally.
But that's comin' off this summer!

Penis reduction surgery? You da man!

[Sikander]

I was really a mess in high school, so I guess I haven't changed that much!

Seriously, like papa Troll I had a lot of work to do in order to make myself someone I (or anyone who wasn't seriously fvcked up) could live with. I knew some of that in high school, but it was the freedom from my crappy home environment which really allowed me to seek out people who could help me make those changes. No one in my high school years really knew me because I didn't really know myself. After about 5 years I had a much better idea of who I was, and perhaps more importantly who I wasn't.

In high school I never had a date. I was a non-entity amongst the girls in my school for the most part. I had no self-esteem, and only once got up the nerve to ask one of my classmates out. She said no, and I don't blame her. I was so nervous. The secret was that I had a lot more sex than most of my classmates, and a lot earlier. I would always manage to get laid by one or two girls over the summer, and in my senior year I was living with my girlfriend who was 4 years older than me. It took many years for me to put these two parts of myself together into an integrated personality. Today I am in a relationship which has lasted for 6 years and shows no sign of flagging, which is a record for me. I've shed a ton of baggage about relationships, and it's all been for the better.

Socially again I was like two different people. Amongst my classmates I was pretty quiet, but with older people I tended to come out of my shell and open up quite a bit. I didn't have the self-confidence necessary to really be a mentor or leader, but within a few years I was both, in the Army and as a youth counselor. These experiences were great for me, as they allowed me to measure my own progress in a very visible way that no amount of self-loathing could blind me to.

It's funny to hear people remember their youth with longing, as if they would have been happy to lock in their lives at some moment in their youth. Not so for me. Mine was hell, and college was in large part a struggle to make my way out of a pit 18 years in the making. Thus I remember bittersweet triumphs, the sort that don't make for good stories necessarily, but which with an understanding of myself show an inexorable rise to the sort of normalcy that at least makes life worthwhile. It was touch and go for a long time. Now, I'm actually happy sometimes, perhaps because I spend so much less energy beating myself up for stuff that isn't my fault, or of no consequence to a rational perspective.

[Dinner]

I weight a good 20 pound more, have slightly less hair, a bit more wisdom, far more experience, a decent amount more money, and much more self esteem.