how did/do you deal with high school

[Dr Snakeman]

By kind of coasting through it in every sense of the word. You know the saying, "nothing ventured, nothing gained"? That describes my high school years in a nutshell. Classes were easy (except for that one goddamn pre-cal class that I failed the second semester of), I had no extracurricular activities, few friends, and never dreamed of dating.

I was, in a word, a loser. But it certainly wasn't hard for me; just boring.

Luckily, my university and my attitude towards it are a thousand times better than high school. I actually look forward to school. Interesting classes, far fewer useless people (though there are still some), crazy-awesome extracurricular activities, and ROTC. I don't think it's too much of an exaggeration to say that this is the best time of my life so far.

So no worries, pal. It gets better. A lot better.


Oh, and by the way?

having to choose subjects that will determine your life

No. High school in no way determines your life. I mean, your grades and test scores determine what college you get into, and what kind of scholarships you can get ahold of. But beyond that, it's all meaningless. If you aren't intending to go to college, you just need to pass. If that's what's stressing you out, you can stop worrying right now: people telling you that your high school career matters in the long run are full of crap.

 

[TehCookie]

I never found high school that hard. Went to class, did homework in my other classes so I didn't have as much at home. I only worked 10 hours so it was never a burden but still gave me money do have fun. Didn't have much of a social life sine my friends were always working on scholarships or had more hours, but we still got together and had fun from time to time. If I felt depressed I just thought of how much worse my life could be which cheered me up.

Then I went to college and I hate my life and he only career choice I can think of right now is serial arsonist who burns down universities.

 

[Rnr1224]

i just stayed to myself mostly. ignored the assholes and kept up the hard work.

 

[Max G-v]

Personal research. It helps. I studied a lot in the older methods of psychology, back when it was more abstract, like Piaget's theory of development, Montessori's teaching methods and things like that. Plus my philosophical studies gave me good circular logic and allowed me to literally breeze through high school, i only ever studied on a few rare occasions (i could count the times on one hand ) and got an overall average of above 80% (not that it does me much good now ). People didn't like me because i was the "arts boy" in a sports program, so i said "fuck it" ill find friends later. And it did me some good

Mainly, just relax, people take things too seriously nowadays. When you worry, you tend to fuck things up, so don't worry, and you won't fuck it up

 

[The Funslinger]

I... did my studies and played varsity baseball. On the weekends, I played D&D. It was probably the easiest time of my life. I never see what the big deal with it is. High school is fucking cake.

College. That was harder. Juggling womanizing, alcohol abuse, keeping a high GPA, being good looking, battling with the troubles of being intelligent... man, life is hard. So hard.

Getting around is a dirty job, but someone has do do it, right?

OT: Try to figure your limits for working before taking on any extra credit stuff, and be sure to take the occasional plunge out of your comfort zone socially. If popularity is an issue, then think. Before you go somewhere new, how do you want to be known? I was popular enough in secondary school, and now I'm at A level college and doing better than ever. I'm "crazy hat guy who got stabbed" there. To be fair, I got knifed in the intervening holidays. While painful and horrible, worked out quite conveniently!

As for the womenfolk, I lost my virginity before my peers, but it was to someone from out of school. At college, I've now got people trying to get into my pants just to see my scar. I don't get out to social events much, but when I do, (not exaggerating here) they get 50% more awesome for all involved.

 

[The Funslinger]

If you are worried about not having sex, don't. You will once you go to the real world. Trust me. Unless you are some sort of Varys.

At least if he's like Varys, his peers will learn to fear his gash!

 

[Ray Conner]

High School is easy. The classes you pick don't determine your lot in life. Your later years of Uni do. Take 2 sciences and an art in your final year, and your set to get into any field you want as long as you don't derp it up in the finals of the final year.
Entering an arts with extra ciricular activities, like drama, will give you an excuse to surround yourself with like-minded people, which makes things much easier when it comes to making friends and having a social life.
With your projects, its all about budgeting time, plain and simple. What I did was I multitasked. On the bus ride to/from school, or when I was watching SSoHPKC/whatever tv show I wanted on youtube, I did homework at the same time. Projects get done very quickly if you can write and channel surf at the same time.
As far as temp jobs are concerned, 9 times out of 10 all that will happen is it will kill your weekends. It sucks, but it doesn't change even in Uni. If you need money, its something you have to deal with, no getting around it.
And as far a sex is concerned, stick a condom on it, make sure people are using the pill whenever possible, and don't be an asshole.
If you can reliably get onto a sports team, it looks good on your resume, and can help get you into the "sports group", not that that offers any tangible benifits. Playing Magic the Gathering or DND also works as far as making friends go. Typically if people want to do these activites, choices are limited, so as long as your not a jerk they'll be happy to include you.
Lastly, just don't skip classes where you have actual work. Paying attention to class halves your study time, and most teachers do a good job at explaining the annoying things. If they don't you can ask questions.

 

[dryan21]

Suprisingly well considering how much of a little smartarse I liked to be, although I am a pretty friendly person, so it just ended up with competetive banter with teachers. I dabbled in most friendship groups, so was pretty popular. A lot of casual drugs and drinking. To be honest I am still relatively the same, I have still yet to mature.

 

[Vern5]

You learn to accept people how they are. You learn to treat everyone around you with a degree of aloofness. In High school I became a jerk. That's how I survived.

 

[A Free Man]

yeah just read the title
currently at highschool (halfway through)
dammit this is hard
having to choose subjects that will determine your life
getting new projects left and right with very little time to complete
sex
social life
temp job

how did you make it through this mine field

as added bonus all my friends and anyone else that went to primary school
all went to different schools
and the people in this school are completely different to those that I went to primary school with

I never really thought of highschool as that difficult, but I have been lucky in a sense I'll try and answer as much of the question as I can.

Subjects that will determine your life: Keep in mind that the subjects you do in highschool can and often do not have much of a determining factor to what you will do in the future. For example my whole school career has been comprised of maths and science based subjects until last year and this year when I did IT and have just recently placed a university application that is made of only IT related subjects. However, I would still put a lot of thought into your subjects, because the more you think of them and the greater importance you place on them the higher chance you will have of doing well as you will begin to prioritize school above some other things.

Getting new projects: Teachers and parents would kill me for saying this and even I know it isn't great advice but my honest way of dealing with this is to just ignore them until they are actually due and then cramming the night before. On the surface it seems like a stupid idea but it really helped me not get swamped down on work as I'd only be doing one or two cramming sessions a week instead of small sessions every night which just worked better for me.

Sex: Sorry can't help you there I go to an all guy school -.- but fingers crossed for uni next year

Social life: Just find people who are fun to be around but also just easy going. I find it dificult to be friends with really needy people as I usually get bored of them very quickly, so just find people with similar interests as you and stick around them as much as you can. Trust me a good group of friends can make anything enjoyable. Sometimes I do study sessions with friends as well as even if you only get a tenth of the work done with them at least you don't get insanely bored within minutes.

Temp job: Honestly this is the one that there is not much of a cure to. Depending on what job you have you might get away with listening to your iPod or something similar and if you can I strongly recomend you do. I had a casual job only working 3 hour shifts twice a week but did so for about 4 years until I quit this year for final year of highschool but it was crazily boring after a while.

 

[Shockolate]

I didn't. I've dropped out twice over 6 years. I'm current doing alternative learning.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

I'd count the days down to longer weekends or breaks. "Only five more days until a three day weekend", or "only two weeks until Winter Break".

Gives me a short and bearable goal. Day-to-day really hasn't bothered me, since my periods are able to hold my attention.

 

[GartarkMusik]

Trust me buddy, right now in high school, your job is to get through it. Your life will not be determined by how well you do in high school necessarily. As for everything else, like the social life and job, concentrate on yourself and your schoolwork first and then you can try the other things. And as for not knowing anyone, just talk to people. I was in this situation last year beginning of my freshman year at college, and if you just keep talking to people, you're bound to find someone you connect with. Hope this helps!

 

[Roofstone]

By trial and error. Eventually I hit upon some classes I really liked. Now I love my job, love my life, and love my home. =)

Only tip I can give is to not give up, keep it up until you are as satisfied as you can get.

 

[someonehairy-ish]

yeah just read the title
currently at highschool (halfway through)
dammit this is hard
having to choose subjects that will determine your life
getting new projects left and right with very little time to complete
sex
social life
temp job

how did you make it through this mine field

as added bonus all my friends and anyone else that went to primary school
all went to different schools
and the people in this school are completely different to those that I went to primary school with

The 'choosing which subjects determine your life' thing is bullshit. Just go with the ones you like the most, it doesn't really become important until A level.
The projects you will get in high school are nothing compared to college, so quit whining and just do em.
Sex and a social life are infinitely better than no sex and no social life, just make sure to leave time for both work stuff and social stuff.
Or were you asking how to get sex and a social life? My only advice in that case is just to talk to people, don't 'adjust' your actual personality around people, act like you genuinely want to. If you have a particaular talent that you are proud of, even if it seems like a 'nerdy' talent, show it off.
I always found art easy/fun, so I would bring in drawings of mine to lessons, show em off a little. Tis a good way to get started talking to girls before you find out more about them.

As for the job, can't help you there. It depends so much on the actual job.

Also if bullies cause a problem for you, never be passive about it. Tell people, get people on your side etc.

 

[AngryMongoose]

I think at some point I just learned to switch off. Luckily I was pretty clever so I could sleep through classes and come out damn well.

Still far better than primary school. I at least had friends, and no one would go out of their way to bully me.

 

[Brightzide]

High school was an odd period for me. But I survived it and ended up with good grades-ish ( if you count B's in everything, good ) by doing simple things.

Chose my friends well, someone once told me you dont pick your friends...Bull!...Stick close to these friends and use any 'shields' you get from having them as a friend at any turn. And by shields I mean 'meeting and knowing someone who was a link from your other friend' to deflect or reduce any hate towards you.

Be nice to everyone you meet, not overly nice, just show some respect and say 'Hi'. Can get you very far in school. You dont have to be Mr. Popular but you dont have to be the school Ghost. Its so much easier with an ally or two right behind you. And most of all, do the work...Study hard, play hard, and find some time for yourself to just relax and take a step back and see how you're doing. Remember, there is always room for improvement, either on your social life or your educational one.

Take it slow, try not to get stereotyped or put into a group. And if that does happen or has already happened, the worst thing you can do is deny it. Accept who you are ( because it's not a crime to be into D&D, or comicbooks or any other nerd culture hot topics ) and deal with it.

You dont necessarily 'have to' hang out with like minded people, though it does make for easy friendship building having things in common, but variety is the spice of life. And a friendship circle of many lifestyle and racial backgrounds ( much like the one im in at this moment in time...not braggin' ) is so much more dynamic, you have clashes of opinion and discussions about stuff that doesnt really matter but you have a passion for, you learn about the other peoples lives and why they like this or dislike that...Its a life experience we can all do with.

Anyway, thats enough from me. Farewell

 

[shotgunbob]

My high school is pretty good. Have plenty of friends, do well in my classes, and there aren't really any bullies. So, I guess I'm just lucky?

Pretty much the same here. I find it enjoyable and fairly easy.

Although our school parking lot is terrible and I'm amazed my car hasn't been hit yet

 

[iFail69]

I learnt to ignore people who I deemed not worth my time, worked wonders for me, people didn't give me problems because I'm generally quite a confident person, and had no problems telling people what I thought of them should they cause me trouble, as well as accepting that I am most certainly a nerd/geek/whatever you want to call it, so people knew who they were dealing with from the start. Physical threats were non-existant because I'm 6'5" (or about 195cm) and went to the gym from 15, but I got mental threats because I was an oddball (That guy who played D&D and a lot of online games rather than being "popular"), but I dealt with them as I said above.

The studying, job and social aspects I just took as they come, I didn't have a lot of friends, but the friends I did have were really good ones. Again, seemed to work just fine, even if I did mess up my subject choices a little (Could've done a lot better than I did -.-)