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Message: <blockquote data-quote="maddman75" data-source="post: 2179953" data-attributes="member: 2673">Did you read the article about nerds linked above.  It matched my experiences 100%.  It was a strict caste system, and your peers let you know exactly where you stood.  I myself got in with what the article called freaks - though then (the early 90s) they were called 'hoods'.  The scary looking kids with Metallica or Ozzy Osbourne shirts and denim jackets, pierced ears and long hair, spending lunch smoking at the gas station across the street from the school.  You also had the jocks, the rich kids (often the same), the nerds, and the losers.  Only real difference between the nerds and losers is that the nerds were at least smart.  Losers had nothing going for them, and usually were poor.  Membership in these different tribes was determined largely by uniform.  Name brands and overpriced sneakers got you in with the rich jocks.  Hand me downs and thrift store clothes got you in with the losers.  Nerds could come either way - a nerd in Nikes is still a nerd.  I listed my uniform above.  Another part that rang true was those at the top of the food chain really didn't pick on the lower ones.  They sometimes even defended them.Why is it like that?  As the article said, the teens are largely left to their own devices to set up their own societies, and that most often looks like Lord of the Flies.  Teenagers don't have a fully developed conscious, and therefore can be horribly cruel to one another.  Ultimately, you learn that high school doesn't matter.  No one is going to care if you were the biggest loser or most popular guy.  In fact, there almost seems to be an inverse correlation.  Most of the time when I see one of the popular kids, who were treated as gods on earth in the old days, they are now doing something terribly thrilling like tending bar or waiting tables.  Not that there's anything wrong with those professions - just that these people were assumed to be so much better than everyone else.  Meanwhile the nerds, and the brighter of the hoods, go on to have actual careers.  Its like the popular ones burn bright in high school then burn out, while the rest of us come into our own later and stay that way a lot longer.</blockquote>

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