At first, I was the guy on the outside looking in...I had a couple of friends, but was mainly the butt of many jokes and resented by others because of my weight (I was Barkley-esque in stature at that point) and because I was one of the smartest people there. As time and high school went by, I lost nearly 80lb and matured so that by the time I was in 12th grade, I was just a tally, clumsy goof who got along with everyone (though I didn't necessarily like everyone). Wasn't amongst the popular crowd, but hung around just about every other crowd there was. I like how haven put it with the "likeable" crowd. That'd probably fit me and my group in high school best.
I was someone that all the teachers loved, but I was not all that popular with the "in-crowd". I had friends who were in the "in-crowd", but I also had many friends who were looked down by the "in-crowd". I never played football or basketball in high school, was never in student council, or any of those other popularity things. I just concentrated on being the best student (finished in the top 5 percent of my class) and I, of course, was a class clown. I was a class clown mainly to cover up my shyness which also was a reason why I wasn't much of a ladies man. My high school has had 2 class reunions since I graduated: a 5 year and a 10 year. I didn't go to either one of them, and I don't know if I will ever go to any class reunions, even the 50th one.
Small town, 185 in my graduating class. Finish 27th. I was friends with all the jocks and partyers, preps & lowriders, band geeks and brains. I guess you could say I was popular, but at a small school, everyone knows everyone...kinda like gametime chat.
I went to an International school in Japan, so our graduating class was pretty small (80 people or so) I guess I was mostly in the studious crowd which was large because it was a private school. I was the best at all the sports that didn't matter for popularity. Badminton, ping-pong, Volleyball captain, etc. I had a lot of fun though...people were pretty laid back and everybody talked to everybody - part of the fun of having people from around the world in your school.
And I was thinking I had the smallest high school....less than 300 students in a private school. My class had 70-ish. High school was bad-@ss, and there weren't really all these cliques that develop in bigger schools. I was too well-known as a 'smart' guy to be cool, but I was friends with just about everyone in the class, and everyone's parents seemed to know me. It was great, but college is very nice in its own way. Life is good.
