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Timid and inscrutable. What's changed!?
Academically rubbish.
Bullied. Then not, after I discovered hitting.
it was thirty years ago. As far as I can remember I was handsome, gifted, popular and cool.
My nic-name at school was either box head or bowl head depending if mum or Dad had cut my hair!
No need to go into how bad the rest of my education was 😉
I could have tried harder.
I then went on to a better university than Stoner.
Hull?
And as for the "public school = Automatic good University because of your class" bollox, I dont suppose youve given much thought to the 90% of my posh/public school educated A-level colleagues that went to other/crappy/no universites?
Lazy and a bit of a bastard if I'm completely honest.
Little man syndrome (I was always the smallest kid in the year) - I had to prove I wasn't gonna be messed with so I stood my ground when being confronted by bigger kids. It generally worked fortunately (I hated fighting and it was generally a victim of circumstance)
Similar here although I wasn't all that small. Did karate to brown belt (had it aged 13) and shocked a few potential bullies. While fights were rare at posh school, they were a regular occurrence at the comp. A kid a year below me joined from posh school too and got mercilessly bullied so I was glad I could stick up for myself. If anyone tried it on, they got decked until they gave up. Was still a good year or so of hell though - went from top of the school by miles to just slacking big time!
One real shocker at posh school was when an awful brat of a kid hit me for no reason in assembly. I immediately floored him in front of the whole school out of instinct. Had to see the (newish) deputy head and thought my life had ended (it was hard getting into the school) - he said "better not do that again and that's a fine right cross you have there."
I nearly died from relief!!!!
I used to deck a lot of the kids that took the piss out of me (look out TJ!). Didn't stop them doing it tho 🙁 Admittedly I was only 6 or 7 and my punches didn't do any serious damage...
The one 'fight' that marked me as not to be messed with was when a friend (who was regarded as one of the school's tough guys and a huge guy) tried to push toilet paper down the back of my shirt as I pee'd in a urinal. I instinctively jumped forwards and hit my head quite hard on the top (giving me a lump so big I can still feel the scarred bone now some 28 years later). I turned around and grabbed him by the throat and actually lifted him off the floor and against a wall then proceeded to hit him hard in the face.
It was obviously just adrenaline that took hold of me as I wouldn't have stood a chance in hell in normal circumstances and fortunately he realised that he had kinda deserved it so didn't wait for me after school to give me a proper kicking.
I spent most of the afternoon in the matron's office with mild concussion (fortunately this happened before I threw the condom full of water at her so she looked after me).
MF did you still have your willy hanging out? 🙂
LOL I don't remember actually - wouldn't surprise me if I did. But it is amazing how clear my memory is of that event - I can even recall how many urinals there were and where the mirror was etc as my memory remains so vivid (at least I think it is my memory - the bang could have done anything to alter my perception).
Was you c0ck still out during all that m_f? 😉
EDIT too slow!
"Could try harder". Coasted through school doing the minimum of work to get by - did my GCSE Geography homework in a weekend, after my parents got the letter to say I'd not done it, for example.
The school I went to used to alternate between worst and second worst in the town and was fairly rough, but I managed to avoid bullying and got through okay. I still never push myself forward for anything though, which is probably as a result of this.
Got a girlfriend at 14 (and married to her now).
Got enough GCSEs to get into the local sixth form college (ABCCCCCD). Got CDE in my A levels, then did another year and improved to ACCD which was enough to get me into decent uni (over the road from OMITN).
Coasted through uni as well, and got a 2:2 - the only modules I was worried about failing and so actually did some work for were physics units, for which I got firsts. (Would have got a 2:1 if my degree was on a straight average instead of the stupid system used.)
I was quite a swot until the 5th year. Took mock exams some way through the 5 year and got 6 'A's and 3 'B's. Something told me this meant I could sail through the exams so I spent the rest of the year skiving off with my mate and and various girls.
Subsequently failed all but 3 of my 'O'Levels and dismayed my hardworking parents and their plans for my University education.
crap at sport cause i was lazy and had poor hand eye co-ordination because i only had one good eye and it didnt get spotted that i was nearly blind in the other for years .....
then in highschool on the first week - being a taller than your average 12 year old - a group of kids thought they would have a go at me -them trying to assert there "im the hardest in the year" stance - went for the biggest one , threw him over my shoulder and through a closed door and carried on my way to class.
bumped into my old pe teacher who called me a failure once - because i refused to play basket ball for him - re point above about being tall for age. he asked what i was up to - told him i had an engineering degree and about the cycling i was doing - almost had to pick his jaw up off the floor - never really got into sport till after uni
The little kid with big glasses who read a lot and got bullied. Smart enough to know the curriculum, not smart enough to work out that I needed to apply myself. Didn't go out much, either.
So of course the rest of my life has been devoted to making up for all of that 😀
Mostly normal. Slightly above average academically, not bullied, for first 6 months of our school life I sat next to the chap who turned out to be the school bully , so I was by his definition "All right" (He died of a drug overdose not long after leaving school). OK at sports, could bowl OK, but didn't much like cricket, learned that I loved to run though, and still do. Girl's school was across the road, and we'd get on the same buses as them so they weren't a massive mystery either, and the school organised discos and the like, eventually the 6th forms were amalgamated, which was "fun". Got A levels, left for a succession of shite jobs.
Hardly ever there, even from a young age. I really found it hard to be at all interested in school when the outside world had so much more to offer.
No quals except art and I was extremely good at it, was set to go to art college but my old man died and I took off.
I also ran xc for school and county. That and the art were the only reason they kept me there.
I was naughty
I'm consistent. I was a cock then, I'm a cock now 😀
An annoying, speccy four eyed knob.
Found it all a bit easy so played up constantly in class while still getting *good enough* grades. Got bullied by the bigger lads for having glasses and being in the top sets. Disliked by the teachers who were annoyed at having a scruffy, argumentative, slouching kid in the class alongside their little blue eyed darlings (especially Maths, Mrs Wharburton hated me with a passion, and yet there I was taking my O level a year early). Unfortunately I thrived on the wrong sort of attention.
This sort of thing went on through college too.
I'll still the same really, except I'm less confident and mouthy. Still a knob though.
People at my school fell into two camps; Those that were good at basketball and those that weren't. Basketball players got extended lunches, got to turn up late to other classes and pretty much had the run of the school which some people find weird as it was a high school in a relatively small town in Scotland.
I always liked mountain biking and was good at XC running, which is the same as now except XC running has been swapped for fell running.
My biology teacher was ace and a keen mountain biker. I remember at the end of term MBR had just come out and issue 1 had a free video. Everyone else in the class was pissed off as me and the teacher sat and watched MTB videos whilst everyone else sat bored 🙂
I started off rebelling in years 1-3 then had got a boot up my arse in 4th year and got my standard grades then highers, but was definitely another of the "has potential, just fails to show it" and coasted by with pretty average grades.
STW is apparently awash with under-achievers then. How very interesting!
If I had been educated in the US, I would have been a "jock". First pick for rugby, hockey and athletics at county and regional levels, as well as being a county level sprinter.
Oh, and a rather talented linguist. But pretty rubbish with girls until I was about 18.
grammar school, good at whatever i was interested in, brilliant at art, brilliant at football which was a shame in a rugby school, did enough to get through what I needed to get through, lazy but great at exams, wasn't bullied, wasn't a bully, hated homework with a passion, maybe a chancer, got to uni somehow
Bit of geek / smart-4rse, but as with a many people on here, could do better. Never achieved my potential, apparently!
Slightly above average academically. Crap at sport (still am). Held my own on the fighting front. I was happy at school, got on well with most of my teachers and classmates and ended up Head Boy (god knows how tbh!).
I don't think I've changed much.
****in useless.
Still am to be honest.
'class clown' etc for years
got suspended in 4th year for boozing
numerous letters home and frequent saturday detentions for the tabs
many nights standing to attention outside PO studies
the football for many PO study football leagues
laundry basket pilot in laundry basket astro-mission leagues.... long story
wwf testman
general ****
not wanted back for 6th form
a certain teacher decided i was worth a bit more 'rigourous' treatment and got me back in after i had an interview in front of all masters in their common room.
then i changed.
top of year, not a **** (all the time)
award from Pr Andrew for academic achievement for lower 6th.
went to Uni. did well with zero effort.
all down to my champion teacher... top bloke.
oddly enough i am going on holiday tomorrow and passing through the school and hope to meet him again after all this time etc.
it's odd how you spend your youth thinking all the older people giving you advice were being douche bags. then you get older and realise they were right. humbling.
(i went to a weird old fashioned boarding school where only other old fashioned naval school boarders would understand. quite bizarre. if i listed the punishments i got/gave out you would not believe... truly odd)
Mr grim arbroath high - denis arnott mtbing biology teacher . Keith ritchie was the lad that said id be a failure.....
Mr grant the bball coach
What year you finish in ? I left in 04
As many above, good at what I was interested in. Did well academically and got into a good university but messed around when I got there.
One of the defining moments for me was also a fight. I was a lot bigger than most kids my age and got a lot of crap of a few nasty little twonks. I wouldn't hit back as I knew I would get the blame, being twice their size.
Then one day someone who approximated my size made the mistake of joining in the bullying. It was third year and I think three years of pent up rage exploded. It took three of the biggest guys in the class to drag me away. I pretty much was left alone after that. I'm not proud to say I kicked the poor guy unconscious.
He's a used car salesman now who regularly appears in the local papers for selling clocked cars.
Top of every class, brightest kid in the school.
I was a social outcast and library geek. I liked being known as a 'dark horse' by some and I didn't want to be associated with the 'school personality'. Wore my hair back in a pony tail and had no desire to attract the attention of boys (or anyone else).
Having said that, I love learning things. Always got straight A's though the only real talents I had were drawing and remembering facts.
Thankfully I went to art school and met a boy who introduced me to bikes and music - and after a stuttering few years, I am finally starting to find my own personality 🙂
read that as 'sluttering a few years'... good work m_k 😯
Bright. Geek. Quiet. Reasonably good at sports but everyone including me assumed not until I was leaving when I discovered cross country running & that I could hit a rounders ball a long old way.
Same as now really, except I discovered mountain biking having hitherto assumed I was too much of a scaredy cat for such things :O)
In top-set with absolutely no effort on my behalf, even won some national maths award that I rushed because I really wasn't bothered with doing it, made the guy considered the school genius look dumb.
Spent a lot of time perfecting the art of keeping a chair on 2 legs. There was always trouble around me, but teachers could never pin it on me.
Often out of PE due to bike injuries. Thrown out of RE for challenging discussion.
Mostly remembered by students as the one with a leg of scaffold after nearly snapping my leg off bailing from a bike jump. Known by the teachers as the clever kid that won't work and that they just can't catch in the act of causing trouble. They had high academic hopes for me, I just wanted to do manual work in the outdoors, so much more rewarding.
Mid 80s. Flat top with a mullet back. bmxer. Spent most lessons scraping mud off my trousers with a ruler.
trail_rat - MemberMr grim arbroath high - denis arnott mtbing biology teacher . Keith ritchie was the lad that said id be a failure.....
Mr grant the bball coach
WOW! Very small world. Yeah, right on all three counts, except I'd forgotten about "bazza" Ritchie and never really spoke to him. Mr Grant is now retired I think and last I heard from my Dad, Dennis is running a landscaping business in his retirement.
It was Mr Grant that encouraged me to get back into running at school. I think he spotted my lanky potential 😆
I left in 2001.
Annoying gobby pr1ck mainly. Above average academically, voted head boy however stunned the school by simply leaving before my highers because, i dunno, i was bored i think. Sat my highers anyway (had a job at that point) - all A's. Careers teacher told me i would be a failure. Went to Uni, discovered MTB in 1990, bought first bike (an explosif) rode everywhere. Lots of outdoors stuff, did well at Uni (1st), became a ski instructor PT (i was in aberdeen). During all that discovered beer and pot but the latter in moderation, and girls but didn;t really know what to do with them. Left uni got a job, did that for 18 months then in a repeat of history left to travel the world, got to NZ and never came back ! Amen.
I hated school, was bullied a bit but something changed and I was left alone because I was sporty and also battered the school hard nut when he just p1ssed me off once too often. And i was a skinny wee weed but have a slight radge tendency. Still have 3 really tight mates from school. Also caught up with my old english teacher last June when i was bumped into him on the street in Edinburgh, had a few pints and a good yack. He was the one that really encouraged me to do WTF i wanted irrespective of what everyone said and he was dead right.
Totally uninterested in school, much more interested in motorbikes, air rifles, females, Led Zeppelin & Jethro Tull (in no particular order)
Am now 53 & haven't changed much.
Once said in my school report "sometimes Jason sits and thinks, sometimes Jason just sits"
Still do tha......
CaptainFlashheart - Member
...I would have been a "jock"....
I can think of something that rhymes with that. 🙂
A tomboy, clever but never applied myself - too busy day dreaming and chatting. Popular, but too much of a tomboy for the boys to fancy me. I girlified at the end of 6th Form and when I went to uni.
Weird combination.
Went to school in the next town over (Catholic school) so was always "the posh kid". Very bright, to the point where I was top in everything without really trying - hence was "the swot" even though I did very little actual swotting.
At the same time - athletics champion and more or less respected as "not to be messed with" after squaring up to a few who tried it on (played rugby outside of school so was pretty used to looking after myself).
Generally spent a lot of time trying to be accepted and not realising that I actually kind of was. Major teenage paranoia. Chilled out a bit by 6th year (by which time I already had my place at Uni in the bag). Fell in love with any girl who looked my way!