What were you like when you were at school?

Conor84

Got a school reunion coming up after Christmas. 15 years since I left school. They are organising it after 2 of our year died during the year. I am going but am a bit nervous about going back again.

It got me thinking about what I was like at school. Up to Junior Cert i was very quiet and shy. My brother was ahead of me and did really well in class and at sport and I was never as good as him so that sort of held me back and I was always compared (badly) to him. I was never top of the class or anything but did OK in exams.

After I went back after Junior Cert my brother had left and I had done summer work and was more confident. I got involved in sports more and played hurling for the school. I still didn't do brilliant academically but I did alright and got into college.

I didn't get into too much trouble at school - mainly just for getting caught smoking which I started around Junior Cert. I remember having to pay a €2 fine and having to do litter duty. I only really had one fight and my parents were called up over that and it didn't happen again.

What were other people like at school - did you get into much trouble?

Have you ever been at a school reunion - had people changed much since being at school?

Arghus

Forgettably average, but I had a vivid internal life.

degsie

I was like, a student, like.

nullzero

Younger.

Stigura

I was just a child then. Now I'm only a man.

me_irl

A little cheeky cúnt.

Now I'm an older cheeky cúnt.

andekwarhola

Bit inattentive but was good academically. Got on well with most people and teachers but clashed with some teachers for being cheeky and stroppy and ended up suspended at one stage. Did OK in the end though, got into university.

Ran the whole gamut of fashions from football terrace to indie head.

Ironically, my eldest son is just like me and I now find myself having to pull him up over it.

Went to a small reunion once and enjoyed it. Most were good people then and still are albeit I don't want to go to them regularly.

Cupcake_Crisis

I was one of those rocker kids. Big baggy trousers, multi coloured hair, black eyeliner, piercings, band names scrawled over everything I owned. I was a bit weird tbh.

Had a very small circle of friends, but am still friends with most of them today! Went a bit mental in 6th year when I broke up with my "high school sweetheart" and ended up leaving 3/4 of the way through the year and studying from home.

So yeah....weird.

Irish Guitarist

I had maybe four or five friends in primary school. When I started secondary school I started falling out with them because I wasn't 'cool'. I started hanging around with complete morons. I knew they were using me because I would do stupid things and give them a laugh but I figured it was better than having no one to talk to. After a couple of years I fell out with them too.

After I did my junior cert and got my summer holidays I didn't return to school because I couldn't take any more abuse. A lot of it was verbal but there was other shit like my 'friends' chewing up bits of paper and spitting them at me. They would suck on these buts of paper for 5 or 10 minutes before spitting them at me. After every single geography class my neck would be absolutely covered in spit.

I've met people I went to school with in the street and they've said hello to me. Most of the time I don't even answer them. It's 24 years since I left school. They may think it's water under the bridge but I still remember vividly how they made me feel. There's no way I'd go to a reunion.

Stigura

Cupcake_Crisis wrote: »

I was one of those rocker kids. Big baggy trousers, multi coloured hair, black eyeliner, piercings, band names scrawled over everything I owned. I was a bit weird tbh.

Had a very small circle of friends ......

Are ye surprised?

Cupcake_Crisis

Stigura wrote: »

Are ye surprised?

I was also in the musical society.....it's a miracle I got out alive.

bikubesong

I was terrible for daydreaming and whispering to my mates in class but I was kinda allowed get away with it because I excelled academically. Don't remember ever getting in any kind of trouble really. Had a nice circle of friends. We weren't the popular kids and we weren't the social outcasts/oddballs.

Emotionally though, I had a very rough time during those years, although I bottled all that stuff up. I wouldn't relive my teenage years for all the tea in China.

Witchie

I went to an all girls school and for the most part was kinda cool and popular, well according to one of my best mates who I met in first year and she couldnt believe that someone as cool as me was friends with her. We still meet at least once a week and if we don't message each other once a day we think the other is dead.

I got on with most of the teachers but not until was in the senior cycle. In the junior cycle I was a cheeky wee bitch.

We had a strict uniform policy where we had a choice of jackets - a maroon coat or a brown duffel coat. My mum had bought me an acid dyed denim jacket which looked kinda like an attempt to dye it maroon. Denim was strictly forbidden in school but I brazenly wore it and when a teacher tried to take it off me I told them that I had stayed up all night trying to dye it to suit their stupid rules. She didn't take it. When another teacher did take it I went to the staff room at the end of the day and demanded it back. When they refused I said I was ringing the guards. They gave it back.

Yeah was a total pain in the arse but then grew out of it and became the person who teachers relied on to get the rest of the class on side.

Cruised through classes on an A trajectory until I developed asthma and started missing school and was being bullied by one bitch so didn't really want to go to school much so then ended up doing a **** leaving cert. Oh well.

Conor84

Witchie wrote: »

We had a strict uniform policy where we had a choice of jackets - a maroon coat or a brown duffel coat. My mum had bought me an acid dyed denim jacket which looked kinda like an attempt to dye it maroon. Denim was strictly forbidden in school but I brazenly wore it and when a teacher tried to take it off me I told them that I had stayed up all night trying to dye it to suit their stupid rules. She didn't take it. When another teacher did take it I went to the staff room at the end of the day and demanded it back. When they refused I said I was ringing the guards. They gave it back.

That sounds a bit like that scene in "Synge Street" where the guy dyes his shoes to fit in with the colour rules and then the Brother takes him on. Loved that film - went to a Brothers school - and some of the things reminded me of my school.

We had a lovely gray uniform - blue tie for junior cert, black tie for leaving Cert. Never heard of school's having a coat policy though.

maudgonner

I was a complete swot and a bit of a pain in the arse know-it-all.

In reality I was very shy and had no self-confidence at all. I was good in class and did well in exams but not comfortable at all socially. So I thought the only way I could be 'me' was to be the smartest one in class.

It took me till my 30s to shake off the awkwardness and feel relatively happy in my own skin. So when people say school days are the best days of your life and they'd love to be young again? Nah, not for me. Lots of things I'd like to do differently, but I'd never want to go back.

Spent most of my life trying to get out of the school and away from the people in it. Couldn't pay me to 'reunite' with them.

As an aside, I was a spectacularly indifferent student. Was never cheeky or an ass, or treated anyone badly, but equally had no interest whatsoever in being there in the first place. Was like going to prison each day.

Ferrari3600

Top of the class academically, considered a 'diligent student', but never a lick-arse.

S.hite at sports.

Since then have become an alco and an utter piss artist.

Suffice to say I fell into bad company, and kind of liked it.

J Mysterio

maudgonner wrote: »

I was a complete swot and a bit of a pain in the arse know-it-all.

You're still a bit like that

Stigura

Alright. F**k it. Bit of a tangent here. But, I just have to get this one off my chest, before I die and it becomes my last memory ......

I pretty much grew up knowing Adam Gay. Perfectly nice guy. Might as well have been called Adam Gray. He was just so remarkably in the back ground. By our teens, he'd become just another lad I knew, from the old school.

Then, one day, the local (other religious denomination) school sent their Goliath. Or he came of his own accord. I dunno. Anyway, this guy stood at the school gate, calling out the name of some lad. Obviously, word spread like wild fire. But, the lad never appeared. Word had it he was hunkered down somewhere, brick laying.

Then, for some reason I've never in the least fathomed, this guy starts calling for my old mate; the quiet, completely unnoticeable, Adam Gay.

Someone gleefully rushed into the common room, where Adam was minding his own business. They breathlessly told Adam that this monster at the gate was now calling him.

Adam said, " Oh. ". He put down what ever he was doing. Walked out to the gate. Knocked the c**t spark out, with a single punch. Walked back to the common room and quietly resumed what he'd been doing.

F**king Legend!

maudgonner

J Mysterio wrote: »

You're still a bit like that

I'm still a swot (with extra added social skills - a tiny bit extra anyway) but now I know enough to know that I don't know it all :pac:

Definitely still a pain in the arse though!

368100

Painfully shy with very few friends....which led to me being a complete pushover and bullied for most of my time there.

Fast forward 18 years (wow) and I'm still a little shy but learned to stand up for myself, and no way the pushover than I was, something I had to learn for myself to toughen up.....also have a great wide circle of friends and would be fairly popular, so much so that people don't believe me when I tell them what I was like at school.

It's funny though, i met someone I was at schoo with recently and we discussed reunions etc, i didn't go to the 10 year one.....the thoughts fill me with dread and I feel like I'd revert back to being so shy if I did go to one.....have no idea why.

Ferrari3600

368100 wrote: »

Painfully shy with very few friends....which led to me being a complete pushover and bullied for most of my time there.

Fast forward 18 years (wow) and I'm still a little shy but learned to stand up for myself, and no way the pushover than I was, something I had to learn for myself to toughen up.....also have a great wide circle of friends and would be fairly popular, so much so that people don't believe me when I tell them what I was like at school.

It's funny though, i met someone I was at schoo with recently and we discussed reunions etc, i didn't go to the 10 year one.....the thoughts fill me with dread and I feel like I'd revert back to being so shy if I did go to one.....have no idea why.

Do you mind if I make a recommedation?

Outlaw Pete

me_irl wrote: »

A little cheeky cúnt.

Now I'm an older cheeky cúnt.

Yeah, I'm sure that's exactly what you want everyone to believe.

You know something. You ought to spend a little more time trying to do something with yourself and a little less time trying to impress people.

You might be better off.

All right, that's it! I'm going to be right outside those doors. The next time I have to come in here, I'm cracking skulls!

messy tessy

Great academically, if I had an interest in the subject, to the point where I used to ask for extra English homework (just for myself not the rest of the class). For the subjects I didn't particularly enjoy I still did pretty good.

Was very very awkward though.

eet fuk

Outlaw Pete wrote: »

Yeah, I'm sure that's exactly what you want everyone to believe.

You know something. You ought to spend a little more time trying to do something with yourself and a little less time trying to impress people.

You might be better off.

All right, that's it! I'm going to be right outside those doors. The next time I have to come in here, I'm cracking skulls!

Does Barry Manilow know you raided his closet?

Boom_Bap

I was a pr*ck in school. I'm still a pr*ck. :pac:

J Mysterio

messy tessy wrote: »

Great academically, if I had an interest in the subject, to the point where I used to ask for extra English homework (just for myself not the rest of the class). For the subjects I didn't particularly enjoy I still did pretty good.

Was very very awkward though.

bodice ripper

A rocker with excellent grades, on the debate team, and assumed to be a lesbian by everyone.

rainbow kirby

Quiet shy tomboy metalhead, loved maths and science and hated everything else.

osarusan

They came down on me like a ton of bricks, because I was only fooling myself the way I was behaving.

razorblunt

A bit of a messer, in the "talking in class" sense. I think teachers refused to let me away with it as they knew I could do really well in exams but I was coasting by on minimal effort. They were right though, I did a relatively poor (by my standards and theirs) LC but got my 3rd choice course. I had maintained if I didn't get the top 3 I'd resit the LC.

Didn't like the course but I was always focused on what I wanted to end up working as. Changed courses in 2nd year and flew on from their. In hindsight too, college was a step too soon, coming from school with teachers on my back constantly I wasted my 18 months on the initial course.

Having to drop out and work in job I hated for 9 months until the next course began gave me the kick up the árse I've needed and I've not looked back since.

I've met a good few of those teachers since and a few have admitted they "knew I'd sort myself out".

I remember one ásshole of a teacher tough, we clashed regularly, it went beyond him trying to push me on it was just a genuine personality clash, couldn't contain his glee when he saw me working in a Dept store during college. "This is where you ended up?" He says.
"I'm only here until February', I said, 'Finishing up my PostGrad and then I'm starting a Graduate role with XYZ". He was crestfallen by it, what a horrible cnut.

Stonedpilot

Shy,timid but very assertive when need be.

Winterlong

I was absolutely deadly at school. But perhaps not as humble as I am now.

SEPT 23 1989

Started off alright but then things got a bit hazy

Gunslinger92

I was one of the swots. That hasn't changed

I was happy out at school, wasn't popular by any stretch of the imagination but had my group of friends. Got along with all of my teachers, only got in trouble once for going on the lang and I felt so horrible when I got caught that I never put so much as a toenail out of line since!

I really came out of my shell in uni though, and I'm now in my first professional job and I still am coming out of the shell to be honest! I'm a completely different person now than I was when I left school, in a good way (I think)

Widdershins

Irish Guitarist wrote: »

I had maybe four or five friends in primary school. When I started secondary school I started falling out with them because I wasn't 'cool'. I started hanging around with complete morons. I knew they were using me because I would do stupid things and give them a laugh but I figured it was better than having no one to talk to. After a couple of years I fell out with them too.

After I did my junior cert and got my summer holidays I didn't return to school because I couldn't take any more abuse. A lot of it was verbal but there was other shit like my 'friends' chewing up bits of paper and spitting them at me. They would suck on these buts of paper for 5 or 10 minutes before spitting them at me. After every single geography class my neck would be absolutely covered in spit.

I've met people I went to school with in the street and they've said hello to me. Most of the time I don't even answer them. It's 24 years since I left school. They may think it's water under the bridge but I still remember vividly how they made me feel. There's no way I'd go to a reunion.

I know so many people who left secondary school because of abuse from other students. It strikes me as wrong that there's no penalty for potentially depriving someone of their education by driving them out.

Shannon757

I am the lad in school who people go to looking for a laugh. I have a good circle of friends, well known but by now means the most popular person in school.

I get on really well with the teachers. They all like me, some more than others. I can get away with nearly anything, such as not doing homework, and the other time I got in trouble was for a fight lad year so I got suspended.

I don't have another paragraph about how I got on after school, cause I'm still stuck here.

pauliebdub

Very opinionated and also very much my own person so I was considered a bit odd and not particularly nice by many of the teachers and my peers. I'd often argue with the teachers and would often say what was on my mind without thinking about it. I'm very different now and regret how hurtful I was towards some of the teachers and students.

drake70

I was very shy. Always told I could do better but was too lazy. A bit of a daydreamer.

Still managed to get expelled form two schools during 5th year.

Go figure

mcgrath1992

i was a model student up until end of junior cert , not one detention or missed day or even gave cheek...but after that i kinda changed in 5th year , got fed up with everything and started not giving a damn about my school work , started to get lazy to the point that i even began to ditch classes..i would get the school bus but i would stay up the river park for rest of the day smoking...
then in 6th year me and another lad got into a argument over something stupid and started beating the 7 shades of **** out of each other until a teacher came around the corner 2 mins later..needless to say we both got suspended for a week lol....
Few months later we had a teacher that was a complete prick to most people and thought he knew it all over the years i was there , he got fed up of my carry on one day and told me straight in front of the whole class that i wouldnt amount to anything...now i wasnt a complete failure at exams i got high grades but he was convinced that i was dumb or something cause of my low grade in his class class so to get my own back on him i started to pay a little more attention to my studies just for the leaving exam and ended up getting b's and few a's...so few laters after i finished college i went back and barged into his class with my leaving cert and college degree in tow and and put them right up to his face and said "remember when you said i wouldnt amount to anything mr know it all? i just proved you wrong" and i walked out with hands in my pockets smiling leaving behind a shocked look on his face

scdublin

I was really shy and a bit awkward most of the time. I had a few people I was close to but I wasn't popular or unpopular really. I only talk to 1/2 people from school now.
We had a reunion over a year ago and it was really nice to see some people again and almost draw a line under the school days. I'm a completely different person now, much more confident. I'm sure it's the same for most people.

josip

I started fires in school.
Every single day I was burning, burning, burning.

_Jamie_

Swotty if a little disaffected.

Olishi4

I was a middle of the road student, not a trouble maker but not a nerd either. I did enjoy school for the most part. There were a few alright teachers and a few odd eccentric ones. There was one evil witch. She wasn't even a teacher, she'd supervise us sometimes if we had a free class. She'd snap at you for anything. She was constantly cranky unless another teacher was around, then she was like butter wouldn't melt.

We were in German class once and we were reading a story about a boy who delivered leaflets on skates. I remember a friend of mine started playing thick and kept questioning the teacher about the skates. He was like "hang on a sec, why would you deliver leaflets on skates?" and we all joined in saying "ive never seen it before", "you'd surely be better going a bike?", "it doesn't make any sense", "the pavements aren't really great for skates in fairness" etc! We went on for ages and god love the teacher, she kept answering the questions until she was like "please would you just forget about the skates, the class is nearly over and we're still talking about skates" and my friend said "well... I just don't buy it"

Also remember in English, we were reading a book and at the end of the chapter it was implied that two of the characters had sex but it was very ambiguous so I remember saying to the teacher "wait, what actually happened in that barn? Why did they go out there together?" My teacher just laughed and said nothing.

Four Phucs Ache

Mr Murphy: Toolface (shouts across the room)
Me:what?
Mr Murphy: The blowtorch was not designed to be used on anything other than steel.
Me:I'm just toasting my sambo
Mr Murphy:Shakes head and leaves me at it.

pragmatic1

A fanny. Had the potential to do well academically but just daydreamed, crammed and smoked far too much hash.

Right2Write

Very different person now, though funnily the influence of a few teachers have resonated throughout my life. Was involved in all sorts of student stuff and extra activities in school but little of that now. I can only think of one person that I still know from my year, though I see/ hear bits and pieces about others from time to time. Went to a reunion after 20 years, people were more or less as they were, the same groups and cliques. Was a bit disappointing though, as some of the people whom I'd really like to have met again, didn't show up.

Temptamperu

I was the smelly one

Widdershins

I don't know what I was like at secondary school. I mean I don't know how I was perceived.
I still see some people from school as I'm back in the area I went to school in. They haven't changed, really. I don't think there's anyone I miss from those days. I was one of the ones who couldn't wait to get out of there.

elefant

mcgrath1992 wrote: »

so few laters after i finished college i went back and barged into his class with my leaving cert and college degree in tow and and put them right up to his face and said "remember when you said i wouldnt amount to anything mr know it all? i just proved you wrong" and i walked out with hands in my pockets smiling leaving behind a shocked look on his face

I'm cringing just thinking about someone doing that.

Outlaw Pete

mcgrath1992 wrote: »

i was a model student up until end of junior cert , not one detention or missed day or even gave cheek...but after that i kinda changed in 5th year , got fed up with everything and started not giving a damn about my school work , started to get lazy to the point that i even began to ditch classes..i would get the school bus but i would stay up the river park for rest of the day smoking...
then in 6th year me and another lad got into a argument over something stupid and started beating the 7 shades of **** out of each other until a teacher came around the corner 2 mins later..needless to say we both got suspended for a week lol....
Few months later we had a teacher that was a complete prick to most people and thought he knew it all over the years i was there , he got fed up of my carry on one day and told me straight in front of the whole class that i wouldnt amount to anything...now i wasnt a complete failure at exams i got high grades but he was convinced that i was dumb or something cause of my low grade in his class class so to get my own back on him i started to pay a little more attention to my studies just for the leaving exam and ended up getting b's and few a's...so few laters after i finished college i went back and barged into his class with my leaving cert and college degree in tow and and put them right up to his face and said "remember when you said i wouldnt amount to anything mr know it all? i just proved you wrong" and i walked out with hands in my pockets smiling leaving behind a shocked look on his face

lol. To get your own back? You do realise that your reaction was exactly the response he was looking for, right? Classic reverse psychology. You turning things around would have just ensured that he employed those very same tactics with many more students who were similarly not applying themselves down the years.