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“High school is the best time of your life” is one of those beliefs that marks a person as having a pretty sad existence. In other words, live in such a way that the highlight of your life wasn’t random cliques, school spirit and, say, SAT scores. Unfortunately, there are enough folks out there who just don’t see it this way.
Someone asked “What screams “I peaked in high school "?" and netizens shared the most petty and embarrassing examples. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and be sure to add your own thoughts and stories in the comments section below.
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#2
At my ten year reunion, the prom queen came wearing a tiara with a custom "Queen '03" sash over her shoulder. I had to go outside I was laughing so hard.
But I'll be damned if she didn't rock that outfit the while time, so, respect.
Still sad though.
Gingersnap In Iowa 13 hours ago
I just wear my tiara around the house, would never wear it to my high school reunion. Also I don't go to my high school reunion.
#3
People who say "high school is the best time of your life".
Heather Ball 1 day ago
I would absolutely never ever say HS is the best time of your life - HS was horrible... but man, my knees felt pretty good back then. And that is, without a doubt, what I miss about high school.
#4
When I was in high school, the cool kids partied hard. They'd get black out drunk and used whatever illegal substances they can get.
I was looking through the profiles of some of those classmates and a few of them are still doing the same s**t. Talking gangsta s**t despite growing up in a middle class suburb, talking about how they miss their kids who are in CPS custody because they went to jail for using, going on rants about narcs, etcetera. They're about 27 or 28. What made you cool in high school makes you a loser as a grown a*s adult, especially when you're a parent.
Joanne Earle 1 day ago
The mean girl clique in my school 43 years ago is now the mean women clique today.
#5
I work in HR and once had a resume that mentioned the applicant had been the captain of the local high school football team. He was in his fifties at the time he submitted this application.
L M Desmet 1 day ago
In fairness, American obsession with school/college sports does make it seem like the kids in question are demi-gods.
#6
Never advancing your life past the moment when you graduate. I have a cousin who still lives with his parents, has had the same job he had since junior year, and has done f**k-all with his life.
Alternatively, I have a cousin the same age still living with his mom but he's going to college and taking care of his grandmother. I think he wants to make it as a concept artist but he's working on a fallback degree before he makes the big leap.
Huge difference.
Petra Peitsch 1 day ago
Yeap, your future plans and goals make the difference, not your actual circumstances.
#7
Loud mufflers and revving your engines on residential streets.
#8
A guy who graduated from my high school back in 2003 was arrested a few years ago for his 2nd DUI. He was wearing his Letterman jacket in his mugshot.
#9
I have a good one for this.
My cousin once dragged me out to a local bar that I don't particularly care for due to its reputation. But I was going through a separation and figured I could use a night out. A guy comes up to me, clearly already drunk, and belligerently declares "I've never seen you in here before."
I replied "that's because I've never been in here before."
Him: "Well I'm just saying I've never seen you here before."
Me: "Ok"
Him: "I'm John. I used to play football at the school up the road. You know the school just up the road? Up on the hill?"
Me: "Yes, I know the school. I went to the same school."
Him: "Yeah, I played football there."
Me: "Good for you?"
Him: "I don't remember you from school."
Me: "I don't imagine you do."
Him: "Well, I'm just saying, I played football there and I dont remember you."
Me: "Ok."
Finally he walked away. More like stumbled away. This was back in around 2013. I graduated in '04, he was 1 or 2 years ahead of me. So it had been over a decade since he graduated, and he was using his *high school football* to hit on chicks at the bar. He moved on to hit on my cousin so I pretended to be her lesbian lover to chase him off lol. She thanked me for it, guy is a total tool and always was.
*Edit: I seem to be catching a little flak from a few people for being "rude" myself. I left a portion of the conversation out to avoid being too long winded. I did ask him if he remembered a secretary at the school, and he started trash talking her. I told him she was my mother, he paused (at least he stopped trash talking mom) and then cycled back to not remembering me belligerently. To add a bit more context, I remembered him from school from a different belligerent encounter. He randomly said to me one day "you're like some kind of pothead, right?" I said no and asked why he thought that. He explained that I hung out with a few known potheads (I did) and that must mean I was a pothead, too. So I explained that they were just my friends and just because they smoked didn't mean I had to do it too, and that I didn't. Which was the truth. He repeated the notion that I must be because of who I hung out with, so I explained again that I didn't. He finally dropped the subject. This dude has always been belligerent, douchy, repetitive, and incapable of carrying a conversation. Hope this info and context clarifies things.*.
Michael Largey 1 day ago
"I played football there and I don't remember you." Sounds like a concussion to me.
#11
Want to earn money from home and set your own hours?
E: thank y’all for the hella love. And sorry you all have had that ‘bestie’ (read: distant acquaintance) reach out to you with a desperate sales pitch.
#12
Getting the score of the football game you won against the school's rival tattooed on your shoulder.
#13
A high school teacher who berates a student (me) for deciding not to go to prom. "You're going to regret it for the rest of your life!"
I see why you became a high school psychology teacher.
#14
Sharing EVERY memory from Facebook talking about the “good ol days” and “wish we could go back” when it’s only been a few years since graduation.
kansasmagic 1 day ago
Anyone who graduated a "few years" ago is not allowed to play this game.
#15
The class that graduated before me had their ten year reunion last year and apparently a big fight broke out over something that happened when they were all still in high school. I guess that is one way to tell if someone peaked in high school. Pretty embarrassing.
Michael Largey 1 day ago
Sounds more like a low point in high school that they haven't gotten past.
#16
My mom, a 42 year old, has a giant stack of numbers that boys gave her in high school. She brings them out to brag every now and then. It’s embarrassing.
#17
When I was in high school, this guy a year before me had a fearsome reputation. At house parties, people would fear him just by name alone. He would show up to parties with his cronies and start fights. He came from a decent enough family. Everybody wanted to be on his good side.
Anyway, he graduates high school, and most of us were still in 12th grade.
I remember he used to come around lunctime to smoke with the people out front, shoot the breeze and talk about how much fun it is to just sleep in and do nothing and have all this freedom.
A couple of months of "Ohhh cool!" To, "Why are you still here?" as we awkwardly shuffled back to class.
#18
Still bragging about high school basketball games from 10 years ago.
#19
I did some work at a guys house when I was about 20 when I was on summer break from college. I was doing some landscaping and such. This guy was a cop, about 35, and was married with a pretty nice house. I would work there and he would pop over to the house once or twice a day for lunch or whatever and would check on how the work was going.
But one day he tells me to come to the garage with him. He is searching around the garage for something but won’t tell me what. Finally he finds a box with his old homecoming crown from high school when he was named homecoming king. He started talking about how high school was such great memories and all that. He was trying to show off and thought I’d be really impressed. But I was really embarrassed for him to be honest.
Michael Largey 1 day ago
Doing it once is not a problem. Nothing wrong with reliving a happy memory now and then.
#20
I dated a guy with his high school mascot tattooed on his arm. It was such a turnoff.
#21
Making any mention of SAT or ACT scores. Bonus points for that IQ test you took when you were a kid online.
kansasmagic 1 day ago
Just a guess, but most people with SAT scores worth bragging about probably did *not* peak in high school.
#22
Billy Joel feels compelled to write a ballad about how you and your ex were the king and the queen of the prom, how the two of you married right after high school, and how it all went to hell from there. Bonus points if your names happen to be Brenda and Eddie.
Joanne Earle 1 day ago
I can remember all the words to that song, but not why I walked into any given room.
#23
Forcing your kids to be good at sports.
Petra Peitsch 1 day ago
Or be good at whatever you were. My stepdad was forcing me 2-3 years in my middle-school years on math, because he is a math-nerd. I freaking hated it and the math classes more, than I would naturally by myself. I'm a creative person with imagination and good writing skills (not english is my first language). We were two different worlds.
#24
I went to school with a girl whose parents graduated from our high school 20 years prior. All 4 members of their family got the school’s logo tattooed. Her boyfriend still goes to the football games and reposts his game highlights on Instagram. We’re all 21-22.
I’m from New Mexico and live in the largest city in the state. We’ve never had a good hs football team and the bf usually goes to pick up underage girls and brags to everyone about how he was the star football player. If someone from another team makes a really good play he’ll make some kind of remark about how he could’ve done it better or he’ll go into a detail about his JV football experience.
#25
Filming yourself running drills and throwing footballs off camera in front of your van/mobile home.
#26
Wearing your high school ring after graduation.
Heather Ball 1 day ago
While I actually haven't worn it in forever and have no idea if it would even fit a finger, I wouldn't begrudge anyone wearing their's. My dad bought me my HS graduation ring, and he died when I was 20. I wouldn't be ashamed to wear it, if just to be near to him.
#27
Huge social media presence, full of interactions with people from high school that you are ‘friends’ with (but never spend any time with in person).
#28
Going to highschool parties when you are out of highschool over a year. A year is okay as you may still have friends there but after they it's just sad.
#29
Not letting go of old memories where you were QB on the football team, doing senior pranks, s******g on the freshmen, on and on and on and just never shutting up about it.
5n59r5n97j 20 hours ago
I am starting to wonder if this is about people who peaked in high school or people who were complete losers in high school and are still sore about it.
#30
This guy who graduated 2 years before us peaked in high school. When it was my year to graduate we had a teachers vs students basketball match and because the PE teacher knew they were gonna lose he invited this guy to play for them. Since he had nothing better to do and wanted to relive his glory days he came and played.
Panda Panda Bo Banda 12 hours ago
Interesting. My school had an annual teachers vs students hockey game and the teachers always blew them away.
#31
1) Still wearing your letterman jacket and class ring in your 30’s
2) Talking about high school sports games from a different decade as if they meant something.
3) Still living in your hometown and looking forward to that night at the bar just before thanksgiving when everyone who left comes home....so you can talk about high school stuff to people who have grown up and have real lives now.
René Sauer 1 day ago
Lord, so much stupid sh*t in this list. I already talked about the jacket and ring in other posts here. But now "still living in your hometown"? What´s so bad about that?
#32
“I was in the nhs so I know a little bit about leadership” anytime after high school.
#33
As someone who recently graduated, the students who returned to the school every time they came home from school just so people would pay attention to them. Also not sure how to explain it but the people who now posts blank screens and just text on their snapchat stories that just say things like "always crazy to see who you can really trust when xyz happens" or "surprising to see who really cares about you when you need friends the most" Like I said I dont know how to explain it but there's definitely a correlation.
#34
When at an interview and asked what your biggest achievement was and responding with: well when I was high school ...
Michael Largey 1 day ago
One of my high school students saved the life of someone dying on a wilderness mountain side when he was 17. That was peak enough.
#36
Your only friends are from high school
You tell your college grad older brother "Yes you got a math heavy degree, but in high school I took algebra 2 and you took geometry like everyone else looking for the easy path."
Says to older brother "Everyone looked down on you in high school."
Gets pissed when older brother says "You are 38, you graduated 20 years ago... Please tell me you have something to be proud of from the past 2 decades.".
#37
Working at Scoops Ahoy.
Joanne Earle 1 day ago
This is a Stranger Things joke. Not meant to put down service employees.
#38
Still drinking in the same pub you drank in as a student. Because that’s now full of students. So you’re that guy or girl who never left home and drinks with school kids much younger than you.
René Sauer 1 day ago
That´s stupid. If you like the atmosphere, the food, the drinks, the servers, why should graduation stop you from visiting that place?
#40
Having 3+ kids by the time you're 25.
Edit: I just got home and saw all these replies. For all you folks getting triggered and "well actually" ing me: Save it. I never said there was anything wrong with having a lot of kids at a young age. Just that it indicates you might have "peaked in high school," whatever the f**k you take that to mean. No one is judging your life choices and Reddit is not "s******g on" anyone.
Note: this post originally had 46 images. It’s been shortened to the top 40 images based on user votes.
What do you think ?
BarkingSquirell 1 day ago
So judgmental. I'm happy with my choice of "Comfort in Familiarity." Obviously the obnoxious ones are distressing, but getting married and having kids has always led to senses of happiness.
René Sauer 1 day ago
so much stupid sh*t in this list. Lot´s of elitism, looking down on people who haven´t "advanced" as much after school then others... 🤦♂️
StrangeOne 6 hours ago
Yeah, I agree. It was very off-putting. Made the OP actually sound like the one who didn't peak since High School.
Load More Replies... Warren Peece 1 day ago
Spending the rest of your life bragging about how you scored four touchdowns in one football game at Polk High School.
General Anaesthesia 21 hours ago (edited)
It could be worse. It got you a Dodge, a house, a stay at home wife, a ditsy daughter, a randy son, and a dog. And great neighbors.
Load More Replies...
BarkingSquirell 1 day ago
So judgmental. I'm happy with my choice of "Comfort in Familiarity." Obviously the obnoxious ones are distressing, but getting married and having kids has always led to senses of happiness.
René Sauer 1 day ago
so much stupid sh*t in this list. Lot´s of elitism, looking down on people who haven´t "advanced" as much after school then others... 🤦♂️
StrangeOne 6 hours ago
Yeah, I agree. It was very off-putting. Made the OP actually sound like the one who didn't peak since High School.
Load More Replies... Warren Peece 1 day ago
Spending the rest of your life bragging about how you scored four touchdowns in one football game at Polk High School.
General Anaesthesia 21 hours ago (edited)
It could be worse. It got you a Dodge, a house, a stay at home wife, a ditsy daughter, a randy son, and a dog. And great neighbors.
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