I was liked amongst the nerds and band people. Outside of that nobody knew me. I’m fine with that.

High school (last 3 years): We had different levels of ‘cool kids’. There were the popular, well-off, highly driven A student types who were in most cases legitimately cool (and were afforded that status, surprisingly enough). There were the violent criminals, who thought of themselves as the cool kids. Then the usual stuff - band kids, caff kids, drama kids, goth kids, etc. - all ‘not cool’ in the eyes of many (they’d be wrong, but kids are stupid).

Then you had us - the smoke pit kids, and within that my subgroup, the military brat skids/stoners and their associates. In some ways we were kind of our own thing - pretty well liked, associated freely among all the other groups, never given much shit from would-be bullies because we’d return it in kind, etc. It was kinda nice, we all had friends and good natured relations throughout different cliques.

Middle school (late)/High school (early): I was one of the most popular boys in my age bracket, city-wide. To this day I have no real answer as to why, aside from solidly hitting puberty at like 11-12 and a very early 2000s pop-punk, unthreatening fashion sense. It was cool in some respects, but weird as fuck in others (e.g. girls I’ve never met coming to my house; suicide threat because I danced with one girl and not another; friends older sisters becoming very interested in me; people recognizing and knowing a crapton about me when I had literally never met them before; parents coming to me saying 'Oh, I’ve heard so much about you from (kid x)", etc.). I’ve always kind of wondered what high school would’ve been like if I didn’t move shortly after.

Middle school (early, different province): Nerd who would beat the crap out of someone who wanted to fuck around (wrestling packed on some muscle). Unpopular but less so than elementary school.

Elementary: Giant fuckin’ nerd. Decidedly unpopular.

I was liked by most of the students, but I wasn’t Miss popular. I basically stuck with my own friends group. My school was small, so it really didn’t matter.

I was well-liked, but not what I’d consider “popular” per se. I ended up being friends with a bunch of people from the various cliques and extracurriculars.

I worked in the school theater (peep my username lol) and ended up running shows for a bunch of different groups. Many of the football players were extras in the musicals, the cheerleaders were in the dance shows, the band kids were in concerts, etc… And all of the super outgoing popular kids were actors. So I didn’t belong to any of those circles, but I had plenty of friends in each. I could reliably show up at any of the various school functions and find some friends to hang out with.

Lol no. Well until I got attractive and funny in high school

When I first entered high school I wanted to be popular; I associated with all the “cool” kids and even started a half-fake relationship with one of the popular girls. For some reason, one day they all just turned on me and continued bullying me heavily throughout high school…

I’m actually glad it happened, though. All of those “cool” kids were, how do I put this… fucking morons. A bunch of them were literal drug dealers.

I went to a private elementary school where I was pretty picked on. One of my parents grew up poor and was an immigrant, the other grew up poor and rural, so neither really understood why I had a hard time socially in a suburban private school with mostly wealthy kids.They didn’t know how to help.

I transferred to a public middle school where I was neither popular nor unpopular. My elementary years taught me to avoid relationships so I just tried to blend in and keep things very surface level with other kids. I had no close friends but I was not being picked on.

In high school I developed a couple of closer friendships, but I would not say that I ever completely let my guard down. Like middle school, I wasn’t really picked on but I was certainly not one of the popular kids. I did let myself join athletics so I developed more self confidence, but social relationships were still superficial.

I’m now in my 40s and have been confronting myself about the fact that other than my wife and kids, I’ve not let myself have too many close relationships. I know it was self protective, but it also kept me isolated. My wife cannot and should not be the one person who meets all my needs.

I’m putting myself out there a bit more but man is it hard to make new friends at this age. Better late than never I guess.

Nope. I was the satellite friend. I orbit around other people’s friendships and made no effort to foster my own.

Hell no, I was far more popular out of school, I went to a small private school and was the poor kid there. I was also mentally ill and and addict, so at a Christian school I was reviled. However in my neighborhood and other areas I was well liked and did well socially.

Now I’m sober, and mentally stable and would say I’m popular within our recovery community

nope. i have various disorders, including autism, making my “friends” think i was incredibly stupid and had the intelligence of an animal. i was bullied, had rumors spread about me, and all sorts of things happened.

God no. I was very socially awkward. Funny enough though I was a bit of a clown and did a few funny things in front of some people and ended up being known as the “funny guy”. But people would just come up to me and ask me to say something funny, and I never had any idea what to say.

Definitely not.

My mental issues developed at around middle school age for reasons totally unknown to me. I stopped talking to most people and had extreme social anxiety. I couldn’t relate to my peers, didn’t know how to speak to them, and had extreme fears of what they thought of me. I never fit into the mold of a stereotypical girl who was feminine and I never knew how to or was interested in figuring out how to look presentable/stylish like other girls would. I never developed an attraction to the opposite (or even same) sex, which was confusing and felt slightly alienating to be different from everyone. I would chant berating words to myself in my head for some reason all day when walking between classes. I pushed away the one friend I had like an asshole because I was afraid of social ramifications.

In late middle school/early high school, I discovered that there were communities of people online. I felt extremely comfortable communicating there (text only…was never comfortable with voice), and I credit those communities with helping my sanity for loneliness and also teaching me about how to communicate with others.

But I never really learned to make friends in person. Occasionally, someone in high school would try to befriend me but I literally did not catch on. Behavior like people randomly wanting to sit next to me or chat with me confused me. It is only after the fact that I realized they were trying to befriend me.

I have no idea why that happened with me. I was never bullied.

There was a group of girls that I grew up with that eventually shut me out which was very hurtful, but I don’t know that it really happened before I got all weird to trigger it. I think when I got weird, they noticed and shut me out.

Some of us just ended up crazy for no discernible reason I guess.

I get that puberty can be a rough time for everyone, but I didn’t really notice other peers having the same degree of social impairment as me. My siblings growing up did not either. I actually asked my mom not to have a graduation party for me (because I didn’t have any friends but I didn’t tell her that).

I’m in my 30s and still interact primarily online, but I would say I am significantly more adept and comfortable at interacting with others in person. In a work environment, I am totally comfortable and confident. In a party environment for example, I freak out.

My highschool was a smaller charter school that was essentially a bunch of connected / encircled modular buildings.

I actually kinda miss it because it had different vocational paths and I ended up in a student-run computer shop. We actually fixed things around the campus and other people’s machines and stuff. Shame that sort of thing kinda fell out of relevance, job-wise!

We also had a large computer lab where we played things like CounterStrike Source, Battlefield Desert Combat or 2142, and sometimes Unreal Tournament maybe?

Lol anyway, to your question: I think I might have been popular-ish. In the sense that I think I was a sort of “ambassador” between groups.

I made friends with the drama kids, the nerds, had some goth friends, stoner / skater friends, and I’d often introduce them to each other. I had my “circle” but I was that guy who sorta knew almost everybody.

I think the thing I miss most is that everyone saw each other as individuals back then. Surface level you might fit with a “group” sure, but we tended to see each other as people and for the most part they got along.

But sadly when I moved away after graduation, only like one friend really made the effort to keep up with me over the years. :( Quality best friend though!

But I still think of them often and hope they’re doing okay in this crazy world…

I was. Started out really shy until something clicked in the sixth grade and I became a lot outgoing. Might also have to do with being appointed to deliver the morning announcements for a year. At the end of each morning’s announcements, we’d call students up to the office if it was their birthday so I and the office staff could sing happy birthday to them and give a birthday gift (usually a pencil, sticker, or mini candy bar).

For some reason, I did maintain the popularity despite how little I socialized outside of school hours and official extracurriculars. Many students would greet me by name and it was awkward when I didn’t know their names. By the nature of taking AP classes, my usual friend group consisted mostly of well-off and somewhat nerdy students.

Writing this made me realize how much being socially connected brought to my morale and well-being. It was a privilege and I most certainly enjoyed it.

I was an outcast