<p>What do you think about " fitting in" during high school? How has this affected your high school experience?</p>
<p>I'm a nerd that gets incessantly bullied, spit on, and abused.</p>
<p>At least used to be.</p>
<p>I am the quiet girl who most people ignore untill they need to copy homework. I just act like me and my small group of friends is fine for me.</p>
<p>^I used to be like that (of course, they disliked me because I wouldn't let them copy). But for some reason, I've always maintained some ties with, if not necessarily the "popular" crowd, a socially visible group of people. People can be brutal during high school, but they can also be really awesome and accepting. If you're an open, low-key person (or at least can hide your neurosis when the time comes haha) seeking out friendships or fun, people will usually open up back to you. Honestly, I haven't found fitting in to be a problem. Even at my big school where people don't have to socialize with groups of people if they don't want to, I have a range of friends, from immigrants to wealthy to music geeks to athletes to nerds to the sexually active. We all get along fine.</p>
<p>I have aquaintances, and I'm friendly with most people I know. However, I don't have "friends." I enjoy the solitude, but, I mean, I probably would benefit from greater social engagement. High school to me is no more than the stepping stone to college, so I don't really let these sorts of things bother me.</p>
<p>It hasn't really, at all.</p>
<p>From what I can tell, there really aren't any distinctive stereotypes to be found at my highschool There are a bunch of different groups, some with different combinations of qualities, but we all sort of intermingle.</p>
<p>Moodret is my best friend.</p>
<p>Our school is not really cliquey. There are just two main "groups:" Really smart, and smart (not trying to be arrogant, but with prep schools you get the advantage of being surrounded by intelligent people).</p>
<p>Anyway, I used to be an anti-social nerd. Then I stopped. I altered my personality as necessary, started getting nice clothes (NOT sweatpants that were too short for me), started catching up on pop culture, and now I have really solid, great group of friends.</p>
<p>Don't be afraid to change. The payout is worth it. You would be surprised how little "yourself" there is that can't change. Don't be afraid to alter yourself. If you don't like it, stop. But the benefits can be really great.</p>
<p>I went through a hilariously angsty goth phase in middle school -- glad I got that over with. But you know what? My core group of friends (who are not in the least angsty or goth) has remained the same. I've met tons of people in high school, but I'm still friends with the people that I befriended during that embarrassing stage in my life, i.e. middle school. Personality compatibility is generally stronger than any petty label or categorization. </p>
<p>I kind of agree with Baelor; change can be good... but only if you're doing it for yourself. There's nothing wrong with striving to be the person that you want to be -- just don't strive to be the person you think everyone else wants you to be. WOWWW corny; sorry.</p>
<p>I fit in with the band kids, and I had zero desire to expand from there. I can think of maybe two or three people that I DIDN'T meet through band, and I'm not very close to any of them. I never talked in any of my classes except for band, unless I had a band kid in class with me (which wasn't very often; our band was small).</p>
<p>I have band friends and smart friends. I don't like hanging out with anyone else (at least at the school I'm attending now).</p>
<p>"I kind of agree with Baelor; change can be good... but only if you're doing it for yourself."</p>
<p>True! And even if it's for someone else at first, you may like the improvement.</p>
<p>There are so many movies about being true to yourself, etc. It's somewhat true, but the movies miss the point that "yourself" can change. If you're a nice person, that doesn't mean becoming a snobby mean person. On the other hand, changing your appearance or the way in which you interact with people can be a good thing.</p>
<p>i was kinda a 'floater" i didn't really fit into a stereotype. I was kinda a partier who loved to skateboard but also got decent grades i also had some "nerdy" qualities such as loving the final fantasy video games lol</p>
<p>I will talk slightly differently and act a little differently around different groups, but, for the most part, I am myself. I am that smart theater guy who loves sports.</p>
<p>I'm a "floater". I tend to get a long with everybody and have a wide circle of friends. </p>
<p>When I started, however, I was the quiet-tall-awkward-genius girl. Then the goths found me and I found a home :). But I have friends who are jocks, preps, theater geeks (like me), smart kids, ISS kids, drop outs, band geeks, etc. I don't really get picked on because, to be honest, nobody really dislikes me. I just have that kind of personality that attracts everyone, but I am WAYY too shy to be "popular". I like it that way anywho.</p>
<p>Then again, our school is so big that there really aren't "popular" kids, or kids that fit into any stereotype. We constantly are with new groups of people since we rotate between 4 buildings, so it's hard for one group to have the monopoly on popular-ness. Pretty much everyone fits in here.</p>
<p>Perhaps I am just apathetic about finding a label and labeling myself as anything. I've gone through my whole high school process with the whole "I like this person because he is himself" attitude, and basically going with the flow. But then again, at my high school, there wasn't that much of the intellectual difference.</p>
<p>I've never tried to fit in anywhere. And as a result, I'm a "wanderer." I'm friends with the "geeks," I'm friends with the "popular kids," I'm friends with the band geeks (hell... I am one), I'm friends with the theatre kids, etc, etc. But because of this, I often find myself home alone with nothing to do because they all assume I'm with other groups of friends and whatnot.</p>
<p>Ugh. I hate my school, and most of the people in it, but I fit in. I'm smarter than all of the kids below, in, or directly above my grade. Actually, the kids above me know more because they have been to more classes, gotten more knowledge, etc. But their innate intelligence that they are born with is probably lower than mine. Yeah, my school sucks.
So I'm the nerd. I'm also the athletic girl, the weird one, the rebel, the artsy girl, and the "popular" girl. I'm not popular, in the sense that I'm one of the popular group. But i have a ton of friends from every group we have, and it's a small school anyway.
Fitting in sucks.</p>
<p>People know me as the crazy MUN chick who spends half her life in the art room and eats incessantly but somehow remains exactly the same weight. There are less than forty people in my grade, so I get along pretty well with everyone. I don't think anyone "fits in" 100 per cent because most people are at least a little bit different.</p>
<p>I guess I'm different. I'm a guitarist, so I hang out with all of the musicians in my school. Since I play a lot of rock and metal, I hang out with all the kids who have long hair and wear band shirts. At the same time, I play A LOT of jazz and classical, and thus I mingle a lot with the members of the school band and orchestra. I'm also an honors student, so I end up spending a lot of time with the smarter people in my classes, and they've become really close friends of mine this summer. I have never once changed the way that I acted or looked for any of this; I guess I just got lucky.</p>