High school was the first time in my life that I spent more than 2 years at one school. We moved a lot when I was young. I was, and still am, an introvert, but I was friends with the other quiet kids. I also worked at McDonald’s in high school, also worked my way up to manager. I didn’t date, would have liked to, but didn’t get asked. I was a banner carrier for the marching band, so had friends in that group. I really liked science and math, not so much English and history, got decent grades but slacked off toward the end. Took a couple years off after graduation and then stared slow at junior college. Eventually transferred to a 4 year school to get my degree. I am still in touch with my 2 best friends from hs and we try to get together every couple years.
I really liked high school. I worked hard and became a good student. Had a good group of friends, and I felt very comfortable at school. It’s a cliche’ to say, but my high school years really were a formative experience.
I was a band kid. But I participated in band because I felt pressured to do so by my parents and I was afraid to say no, so I just stuck with it and ended up being dragged into almost every band thing ever…marching band, concert band and oh since you can play the piano, here now you’re going to be the piano accompanist for all of the school musicals for the next 2 years. Oh and jazz band, too. Volunteered at a hospital 4 hr/week for 3 yr of high school not because I was interested in going into healthcare or anything, but because my mom told me to.
I was a good student, took a bunch of AP classes but only had the nerve to take 1 AP exam. Graduated in top 10% of my class. Pretty large high school (graduating class was >600, I think). Went to all of the football games, dances, etc. Had a good group of friends. Was boy obsessed but nobody ever asked me out on a date. Went to senior prom, but my friends set me up with my prom date and we kind of barely knew each other. Regretted going, to be honest, because my friend group pretty much ignored me the entire senior prom dance.
Participated in the all-nighter ‘grad night’ party that the high school put on (organized by all the parents) at the high school. Had a great time.
and then after that, I kind of never looked back. College was awesome, so much better than high school. Felt like I could finally be myself and not play a specific role that people had constructed for me. Kept in touch for awhile with a couple of high school friends, but we all gradually drifted apart.
In the pre-facebook days, somebody in my graduating class set up a website where you could post updates about yourself of what you were up to and you could get other classmates’ email addresses from that, too. Nobody ever emailed me. And I never reached out to anybody either.
There have been reunions, but I’ve never bothered to go. Just not interested in reliving those years. I’d rather live in the present. My present life is way better than high school felt. Felt through most of high school like I didn’t quite fit in anywhere, even though I had plenty of friends and all that. So there’s no point in going to a reunion ever because I moved on a long time ago from all of that and why would I want to drudge all that up from the past now anyway? Life is much better now than in high school. 
Yes, our HS is having its 50th year reunion. H and I tried going to a few of my class reunions but it always felt like wasted time. I had no people I wanted to re-connected with from HS who attended those things—most of the people I had liked and been close to didn’t go to those events.
H liked his HS and we go to HIS reunions. They are having their 65th! The people are nice enough but I don’t know them and don’t connect with them that much. The 50th one was pretty nice and I got to know some of them, but the one I liked best got Alzheimer’s and recently died. H finds them bittersweet, as he’s always sad when one of the classmates die, but I remind him that not everyone lives as long and healthily as he does!
I was a shy bookish kid in HS. Very smart but a bit lazy - killed it academically when I was interested (English, History etc) but only did OK when I wasn’t (math/science). Most of my friends were also in the “smart” kid group. I did a few ECs - literary magazine, track, speech team - but wasn’t a standout at any. Barely dated because I was so shy and didn’t go to prom. HS was “meh” for me. I enjoyed college much, much more. However, I my BFF has been my best friend since 5th grade and we did manage to eke out some fun in HS.
I find this little sample size interesting. No one on here was a cheerleader or captain of the football team??? Or maybe no one ADMITS to being popular.
I think you have a good honest outlook and you only looked forward, never back - which is totally ok!
Weirdly, many of us sound like carbon copies of each other!
Smart but not the smartest
Rarely dated
Lots of band peeps.
College was much better
Maybe we would have all been pals!! 
I dated a bit in HS but significantly more in college and beyond. What ia a “bank peep”?
Deleted
I think she may have meant “band.”
I went to a small artsy public school in the city. No honors or AP. No football, cheerleaders etc. I had an eclectic group of friends. I excelled in creative classes and English, but had to really work at math and science. It was an atmosphere where no one was popular or unpopular - you were just you. I dated a lot in high school. Many of my high school friends moved to California after graduation. As much as I enjoyed it, I never looked back when it was over.
I hated high school. We moved to a new district after my 9th grade year. I had spent K-9 in the same district and had good friends, then all of a sudden had to make new friends at a smaller district. My dad was my high school principal and the other kids did not trust me from the get go.
I was not athletic, though I was in band and met other students that way. I quit band in 11th grade. I did have a boyfriend my junior and senior years. He was from another school district, I went to his prom once. I never went to prom at my school.
At the end of my junior year I only needed two more semester long classes to graduate. I started at the local jr. college in the mornings of my senior year and went to high school in the afternoons that fall semester, then went to jr. college full time the spring semester of my senior year. It was a much better fit.
Strong student at an excellent girls school where we also had to play sports year round and do at least one serious artistic club. I was a terrible field hockey, basketball, and lacrosse player so was relieved when we could finally do tennis (fall and spring) and modern dance (winter). I did theater as my “art,” never good enough for a lead but always had something to do on stage. I was on a merit scholarship at my school and painfully aware of the differences between my family and most of my classmates – economically struggling Irish Catholic vs. WASP wealth felt like a cavernous difference in the 70s. I excelled academically, loved the challenge and our amazing teachers and, in hindsight, appreciated the academic focus that a single sex school allowed.
I didn’t love it socially as social life depended on connections with boys schools in the area, and it seemed like people knew each other outside of school, either from living in similar “old school” neighborhoods, belonging to same country clubs or vacationing at the same ski resorts or summer places – none of which was part of my life. I had a couple good friends who were also pretty academic, but I spent most Friday nights watching tv with my mom and grandma. But my first year of college was easy after high school, I had already managed huge work loads and written so many papers my senior year of high school. And college led me to a great law school and a career I love, so I will always be grateful to the Asst Head of School and Head of School who saw something in an anxious 6th grade girl and gave her a full scholarship to their school.
I did date in HS. And I went to both junior and senior prom, although for senior prom I went with a friend. College was definitely better for me.
I was friends with a cheerleader who was on the Homecoming Court. She was super nice. I always thought she had a great time in high school. Forty years later, we reconnected - I found out that she struggled with depression all through high school. She has had a very difficult adult life, struggling with depression and addiction. Talking to her helped me put high school in perspective. I realized that I didn’t have a clue how others really felt, and my perception of their lives wasn’t necessarily correct.
I was a smart kid in high school, but not athletic nor did I hang out with the “in” crowd. When I was a sophomore I had my first boyfriend who was a senior and captain of the baseball team. He was a very sweet, shy guy and all of the popular girls were after him, but somehow the two of us just connected. The relationship fizzled out the next year when he went to college at USC on a baseball scholarship.
My parents insisted that I have an after school activity to keep me out of trouble. I ended up working at Del Taco and met a great group of people there. We all went to different high schools and we would hang out after our shifts on the weekend. Our financial advisor was the grill guy and I worked the taco bar. We have been friends for almost 50 years!
My HS was slated to close after my senior year. We lost some kids who made the jump to another school especially underclassmen. So it wasn’t a large school by the end.
I at the top of the class. I played sports, but gave up one midway through HS. I was involved everything. I flowed between groups.
Interesting dynamic in my HS. The “popular” group were the jocks, cheerleaders and affluent kids. I hung out with an adjacent group of the smart kids who were athletes, but not in the popular sports like football and basketball (we were pretty much the soccer team). I was friends with many kids in the popular group but my close friends were the smaller group of athletic nerds who ended up going to Duke, Cornell or studied engineering at UD. We spent Saturday nights playing Risk, pool or ping pong vs drinking beer or smoking weed at some permissive parents’ house. All in all, I enjoyed high school and am still friends with many of my classmates.
We moved the beginning of high school to a country in South America. My sophomore year was private American based. 50% students were from the country so they could have an Ametican curriculum, 50% from the rest of the world. My high school was 50. My class 13. Coming from a huge jr. high school, I felt like I was on Oz!
I loved every minute. No “popular crowd”. The best year of my life before college ever! A group of 6 of us hung out all the time.
Moved back to the states and reintegrated with my 1300 student class. I like the term popular-adjacent. That was me. Wanting to be one of those gals, never was. I was in the “clubs”, but never in the circle. My best friends weren’t friends themselves. I did separate stuff with each of them. I was studious but not in the National Honor Society. I dated, but not extensively. Felt like I was on the outside looking in.
Happy to go to college.