How are you different than you were in high school? I don't think I've changed much, except for physically, though of course I must have.

-- Kymm (hedgehog@hedgehog.net), June 25, 2000

Answers

*jaw drops*

I've just been linked by Kymm.

I keep moving the mouse across the link and pinching myself, hoping I'm not dreaming and that really is my URL...

-- Katie (mrkite@apci.net), June 25, 2000.

I no longer believe in God, or Romance (or Astrology, or Vegetarianism). And I now believe in Politeness, which I didn't have much use for back then. I still believe in Truth, and Art, and the essential Goodness of human beings. I still live with one of my high school pals, and people still call me Uncle Aussie, same as they did in high school. My body, however, got real old a few years back, so I can't skip anymore. I can't even contemplate skipping, and that's a shame.

-- Uncle Aussie (aussie@woogly.com), June 25, 2000.

I'm much more self confident, I used to be quite introverted and shy, barely able to talk to anyone new at all. I think I've reverted back to the me of 2-6, when I was up for meeting anyone new, completely spoiled first and only Grandchild (up til I was 6, now there's billions of them. One of the major changes for me was starting work in the Taxation Office, it's hard to be shy when you're telling someone they'll be fined and all sorts of other pleasant things if they don't lodge their returns for the last umpteen months.

I also worked out that if I'm allowed to not have to like everyone, then they're allowed to not like me, and I don't have to get upset about that fact. Makes life a bit more carefree, I like who I like, and everyone else is not my problem. Kind of how I deal with online life too!

Physically, I've gotten a little less awkward, more comfortable in my own skin. People are less likely to ping me about my weight now than in highschool, and I weigh about 25 kilos more now! Of course, if they ping me about my weight these days, I'm just as likely to rip their head of and spit down their neck, which they know, as opposed to slink off and feel shitty like the 17 year old me did.

-- Amanda Page (amanda@amandasprecipice.com), June 25, 2000.

Confidence, definitely. I'm much more comfortable in my skin and in better shape but heavier. In high school, that would have just killed me, but now, I'm much more interested in how much I can leg press in the gym than what the scale reads.

I also no longer look like a fugly girl. I spent most of high school trying really hard to do the girl thing effectively. (I wasn't really innately fugly, I was just so awkward and uncomfortable that no matter *how* well I put my makeup, clothes, etc. on, I still came across as some kind of caricature.) It took me until I was out of college to realize it wasn't me. Now, 90% of the time I look like a fairly nice looking guy and that's just 100% more me than the days of fugly girlhood.

People from high school do tend to fall over from shock when they see me now though.

-- Tynan (ty@power-lines.com), June 25, 2000.

My Lord, how have I changed in the last 18 years since that last day at Interlochen?! Accepting my homosexuality meant that I could spend less energy on hating myself and concealment from other people and more on living and enjoying life and on concentrating on my career. Oddly enough, my behavior became less shrill and queeny -after- I came out. Go figure.

/Robert

-- Robert (rbdimmick@earthlink.net), June 25, 2000.

Tynan, yet again, you've hit that nail on the head..'fugly' was the only way you could describe in high school.

Mind you, the girls who used to tease the life outta me back then (who were all gorgeous, glamorous, and got all the boys), for the most part are definately the worse for wear these days, when I see them. And like you, they sure get a shock when they see me. I would not go back to being a teen again if you paid me!

I'm still pretty shy, but now I give as good as I get, instead of being a bloody wuss and bursting into tears from teasing. Ugh. If I could go back in time, I'd kick myself. In fact, I'll do it now..

*ouch* *ouch* *ouch*

-- jacqueline (admin@anv.com.au), June 25, 2000.

Er..that should've been 'fugly' was the only way you could describe *me* in high school.

-- jacqueline (admin@anv.com.au), June 25, 2000.

Yeah, I was going to say: What? You knew *me* in high school?

Actually it wouldn't surprise me. A few years back, I met a professional high femme dominatrix engaged to an FTM transexual, on a list for masculine female freaks of various designations and their partners, and it turned out we went to the same Catholic high school when I was a freshman and she was a senior.

Ever wonder what the results of a good Catholic education are?

I should be glad I got to transfer to public school in sophomore year. I can only imagine the horror of how I would have turned out if I'd stayed in Catholic school. :P

-- Tynan (ty@power-lines.com), June 26, 2000.

I weigh less and finally grew out of an ugly stage I hit at about 5 and didn't get over until 22. I was such an ugly kid! You know how people showcase pictures of themselves at their wedding? That'll never happen at mine because I would be fantastically embarrassed.

I also have more self confidence, a better idea of who I am, and a lower tolerance for other people's crap - but I think that stuff just comes with age.

-- grace (grace@betterthanfiction.com), June 26, 2000.

I'm way cuter now.
Less shy.
Less likely to wear black lipstick.
I wear colors other than black, too.
A wild weekend does not commence with the phrase "Hey, man, you want to trip with us?" but rather "Hey, Jen, it's your turn to do the wash, you know. And look at that fucking bathroom. Jesus."
I read things besides romance novels. Smart books that impress people. whoa.
I'm happier. And more likely to do a happy dance. Tappity tappity tappity.

-- Jen (maharishe@yahoo.com), June 26, 2000.

As a child I was self-confident, outgoing, and convinced everyone liked me. During adolescence and young adulthood I was convinced no one liked me. Life's been good since about age 25 when I realized I was right the first time. :)

-- Lucy Huntzinger (huntzinger@mindspring.com), June 26, 2000.

Oddly enough, though I've changed a great deal physically since high school, at some point I started changing back and now I look a lot like I did in high school again. The difference is now I realize that I looked good! And I always wear a bra nowadays :)

And I've gotten over most of that shyness, though the cute boys can still bring it out in me sometimes.

-- Catherine (catcoicrit@earthlink.net), June 26, 2000.

When I was in high school, I took things entirely too seriously. I was such a somber kid -- for no good reason apart from the fact that I was a teenager. I didn't have nearly as much fun as I should have, so intent was I on being a brain.

I am a lot more free-spirited now. I've taken more than a few hard knocks in life, and all of them have taught me that life is just too damn short to spend it worrying about things that might or might not happen. If the worst happens, I'm strong enough to survive, and I know that. I don't think I did know that in high school.

I am still wicked (as we used to say) shy, but I'm more likely now to stand up for myself than I was back then.

-- Laura (lbhelfrich@yahoo.com), June 26, 2000.

I get the feeling that I'm the same person I was in high school, but that if I ran into the same situations, I'd handle them differently. Does that make me a different person? Might be the whole definition of different ("all I want is something just for me. Is that so selfish?" "Actually, it's the definition of selfish.").

I'm doing basically the same stuff mentally and emotionally; physically I'm completely different (not as healthy but in much better shape). Music was the main driving force in my life for 10 years (well, music and lust), and I haven't played a note since I moved out of my parents' house 15 years ago. I hardly read SF at all any more; I'm content waiting for the dozen or so authors I read to crank out a book every year or two, but I watch almost exclusively SF on tv. Physically, if I don't have a beard, I look the same; if I grow a beard, I look like my father.

-- Colin (ethilrist@prodigy.net), June 26, 2000.

OK, -physically- since high school I've inherited my father's body. My butt's flat and my tummy curves out a little, exactly the reverse of what it should be. The teeny-tiny Dimmick Double Chin is making itself known, too, but it's only a teeny-tiny double chin, a mere shadow. My hair is darkening from blond to brown, something I resent, but not enough to go through the bother of coloring it.

/Robert

-- Robert (rbdimmick@earthlink.net), June 26, 2000.

Oh man. I think I am inadvertantly working my way towards Kymm-ness and I didn't even know it! My hair was long and blonde 3 months ago and now it's short and red. I've had my nose pierced and am planning on doing it again as soon as I get a job that will tolerate it. (or any job at all, really) Too bad I have no acting ability and am not known throughout the web!

As for the HS thing, I've got way more confidence in myself. Yay for not being 16!

-- Liz (lizstricklen@yahoo.com), June 26, 2000.

That was far too many exclamation points for one post. Sorry...

-- Liz (lizstricklen@yahoo.com), June 26, 2000.

The biggest indication of all that you are turning into me!

-- Kymm Zuckert (kymmz1@yahoo.com), June 26, 2000.

The first archeological dig I was on (age 26), I grew into my coordination. I was 6'4" tall when I was 14, and awkward.

I was stoop-shouldered, in high school, but developed good posture when I learned that Rachmaninoff's nickname was "The General."

I read "Waiting for Godot" in Theater Arts magazine in 1953. Pictures in Life magazine of Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, sitting in a cafe. Now, I'd be more interested in Maurice Merleau-Ponti.

My heroes in high school were Charlie Parker, Jackson Pollock, and Lenny Bruce. Dylan Thomas. Henry Miller, Jack Kerouac, H. L. Mencken. Pretty much still are. I am an anachronism, a throwback, trying to write like them in a world that wants...I don't know what the world wants, and don't care. I know what feels right to me, coming out.

Is you is or is you ain't an existentialist.

-- Jack Saunders, The Daily Bugle (www.thedailybugle.com) (jacksaunders@mindspring.com), June 27, 2000.

Well, if I am going to start on the road to Kymm-dom, I guess it's time to pack all my stuff up and move to NY. Damn. I had just gotten everything unpacked from moving back to Atlanta!

-- Liz (lizstricklen@yahoo.com), June 27, 2000.

Don't forget to acquire four cats.

-- Lucy Huntzinger (huntzinger@mindspring.com), June 28, 2000.

hyq43 45yhw <-- My niece says Hi.

I've actually been writing about just this (and including pictures) the past couple of days. I have really changed a lot since high school. Not physically so much, but mentally. I'm a much stronger, more grounded person now.

I know who I am, even when I don't know where I'm going.

-- Suzy (suzy@cyberbabies.com), June 28, 2000.