What makes enjoying high school worse than enjoying college or post-academic life? Just because you hated high school doesn't mean it's wrong for other people to have loved it. And all teenagers are angry and depressed? Seriously?

Furthermore, did you really only observe people who only cared about learning when there was a test in high school? Because I certainly experienced that constantly in college and beyond. I don't think that's any less true in the professional world.

At the end of the day, you didn't have any less free will in high school than you do now. You could've had a similarly loving girlfriend and great friends in high school. You didn't choose those things, though. You chose to do whatever it was you did then. You weren't a victim. While it sounds like you learned a lot from the mistakes you perceived you made then and your life is in a much better place now (both great), I think you need to work on letting the bitterness from back then go.

I love you too.

And, I still can't believe the news about our former classmate. God. Damn.

Congrats on the ten-year anniversary. And as trite as it might sound, I'm really really proud of you.

I just tried posting a very long and thoughtful comment, but your stupid website ate it. So I'll just leave you with this:

SPOILER ALERT

All of this positivity and fuzzy-feeling nonsense will soon come to an end when I burn you to the ground.

Here's the short version then. I loved high school. Not everybody goes through it sad and depressed. But I assume you were just generalizing, not actually trying to say that absolutely everyone is sad and depressed in high school.

High school was the best time of my life at the time. But every single year of my life after high school was the best year of my life (except for maybe 1L year). I'll never envy someone who still looks back at high school, many years removed, and refers to that time as the glory days. Honestly, that is a little sad. Onward and upward, right?

Also, as someone who cares about your well-being, maybe you should let go of some of the bitterness. But as someone who enjoys watching you cultivate a grudge, do what you like...

High School Ruled hits the nail on the head. Seriously? 10 years out and you are still bitching about your lack of whatever the "system" deemed important? What, exactly, is the system? Wait a second, I have to go, there are black helicopters circling overhead. If you need me, I will be wrapping my house in tin foil to protect myself from the "system".

High school ruled,
First off, I didn't say that I hated high school. I said that it was a rough time and that it wasn't the most enjoyable part of my life. Those are different things. There were a lot of things about high school I really enjoyed--being on the chess team with Santi, for example.

But I stand by my comments that I feel bad for people who refer to high school as the best time of their lives for exactly the reasons Mr. Vice articulated: if you enjoyed high school, that's great. But if, ten years later, you still think of high school as the best time of your life, then I think that's sad. What does that say about the intervening decade and what you've done with yourself? Most people have a lot of life left after high school, so to think that the next sixty years would all be downhill is sad, I think.

And as to your last paragraph, I'll address this first: I didn't mean to make myself seem like a victim. I wasn't. I meant to include something to that effect in the post itself. I wasn't a victim, I don't feel victimized. But as far as your point about free will, well, that's just stupid. Your argument that I had free will, therefore I could have chosen a loving girlfriend and amazing friends presupposes that those things were available for me to choose and that the other people necessary for me to have those things were both available and willing to choose me. In short, your argument is dumb because it completely ignores how things work in the real world.

Sanit,
Seriously, right? What a fucking mind-fuck.

Lauren,
Thank you.

Mr. Vice,
I think I might have preferred middle school to high school, actually.

And by the way, I appreciate the advice about letting go of the bitterness. It's good advice, and you're definitely right about it. But just so that you all know, I'm really not all that bitter. Some times someone mentions someone or something happens that pulls me right back to whatever it is that made me angry to begin with. And it takes me a few minutes or a few hours to pull myself out of that. But then it subsides. I don't let being angry detract from my life now.

And here's a question: is anyone out there really, truly completely without bitterness?

I'm with you, dude - bitterness is perhaps too strong a word. Things hit kids hard in high school - their brains are going through some crazy shit :) And when something unpleasant happens, you remember it - because at 15 or 16 or 17 or 18, it feels like it's the end of the world, and it's not easy to shake the memory of what that feels like, even 10 years out.

Case in point: moving from podunk Pennsylvania to "The OC" at 16. Granted, I literally wouldn't be where I am today if my family hadn't moved, but the memory of those 2 reallllly awkward years still affects me. I was shy, it was hard, and I didn't just roll with it because I couldn't. I don't think that's a problem; it's not like I spend everyday pining about what "should" have been, and I know you don't either. (I guess it does mean that I waste twice as much time on facebook looking up people I knew in high school...)

But when something brings you back to that time, you relive it, and you probably have some added insight into what happened. Maybe you have some lingering regrets, maybe you don't. whatevs :)

I completely disagree with "If you have the best time of your life between the ages of fourteen and eighteen, something's seriously wrong." While i don't feel that was the best time of my life, for a number of reasons i don't see anything wrong with thinking that way. Just because your life has improved, your hypothesis seems to be that if one's life isn't continually improving, thats just sad. While that would be great, thats not always (and it's usually not always) the way it is.

I guess I just can't imagine that you were foreclosed from making and having close friends and/or a loving girlfriend in high school. I just don't buy it. I believe the way you view yourself and the world matters a lot more in whether you'll make and retain friends and loved ones than the setting. I just can't imagine that there were no friend or girlfriend candidates in the town in which you went to high school and you were really just an island; then, upon moving to Madison you randomly stumble across some people with whom you begin dating and become great friends. It sounds like you're implying luck has a lot to do with having good friends and significant others. I would disagree.

As for loving high school more than any other time period, I agree with morenonesense. People's lives just don't continually improve, as a matter of fact. Each decade won't necessarily be better than the last. It's almost like you think post-high school life is predisposed to being better than high school life. I don't get why you believe that. It's just a different. And no one is arguing that the next 60 years is downhill. Maybe there're plenty of ups and downs that never quite reach whatever was going on in one's life as a teenager.

Also, I like having no real idea of who you are or what you're into, yet debating you about your personal life. It's fun.

Ismael, you have issues. Your posts are frequently dark and have a major dose of arrogance. They often read like someone who has a major chip on his shoulder. When I read your post I think the point you are trying to make is that you were not the most popular kid in high school, but you feel better now because some of the popular kids are losers now and you're a successful small businessman who finally has an awesome girlfriend. You resent the beautiful people in high school. I loved high school and was part of the cool crowd, but I was a nice guy. Looking back at my high school years, there wasn't a whole hell of a lot not to love. I mean I had sex with a ton of hot chicks, I lived in Beverly Hills, I had a kick-ass convertible Mustang, I had a cool job at the Peach Pit and my parents paid for my existence. Sure I had a couple of issues with my bestfriend Dillon and dealt with other petty high school drama that at the time seemed like my world was going to end, but looking back at it...wow, high school rocked. My life is awesome now too. I have a beautiful wife, a daugther, I direct movies and I enjoy the fact that I made so much money at a young age that I don't really have to worry about working for the rest of my life. Yeah, I love my life now; it rocks. But I also loved high school for all of the reasons previously stated.

I guess you can distinguish me from the guy that says high school was the best time of his life because I am not saying that, but I have a feeling that you pretty much resent all of the beautiful people in high school regardless of whether they are bums now or CEO's or tree huggers. You resent the people that didn't play ball with you in high school.

My unsolicted advice to you is to start looking at yourself more critically when searching for answers as to why you were so miserable in high school rather than blaming the "system" and the beautiful people. I quote the following from a wise man: "I was not a good person. I was self-centered, extremely obnoxious, and loud." Well, who the hell would want to hang out with that person? Not all high school students are self-centered, extremely obnoxious and loud. I'm sure most have their moments, but your high school years seem to be defined by those qualities. You recently shared with us all that you wore a trench coat in high school POST Columbine!!! Who the F.ck would do that? Probably someone that was "not a good person...was self-centered, extremely obnoxious, and loud." Someone crying for attention. Usually those people get attention, but not exactly the type they were looking for. Your posts are filled with examples in your adult life of you fighting with the UPS guy, the guy throwing peanuts on the floor at a burger joint, the cable guy, the Best Buy guy, the guy parking in your parking lot, etc, etc. The posts always start out the same. You have good reason to be frustrated or annoyed with whats going on. Then you frame the issue like the other guy is a complete idiot (he very well may be), you try to reason with them, they don't get it and then you proceed to try to make them feel like shit. I think someone that is at such a great place in their life with great friends and an awesome girlfriend wouldn't consistently find themselves in that same position of getting into pissing matches with people that you feel you are so much smarter than. You just might be smarter than them, but you are treating them exactly like the "system" treated you in high school. Stop doing that and I ensure you that you will be in a much better place.

From someone who went to high school with Ismael and thought he was a really sweet and misunderstood guy, I think I understand his bitterness and frustration with high school years. We went to school in a town where half the kids spoke no English, much less knew how to read it. Our classes up until high school were filled with idiots who slowed everything down to a snails pace when it came to learning. In high school the advanced classes were filled either with naturals or those who needed to excel for the alcolades. The students who grasp what is being taught the first time it is presented, we were isolated and automatically classified as nerds. I'm sure it is typical in any school for the athletic and popular kids to be not so bright, but the athletic popular kids were cruel and hurtful to the smart ones. The scholarship driven popular kids were cruel to the naturals and I'm sure they resented the fact that they had to try hard to get acceptable grades; they were resented for the fact that they didn't have to try hard to be popular. Again, probably typical of most high schools.

I personally was a pretty balanced student. I played on a few varsity teams, hung out with Ismael and his chess buddies, ate lunch with the cheerleaders every now and then, took a few advanced classes, and smoked pot with all the stoners. I could blend in anywhere but didn't really fit into any group. For me high school sucked enough to push myself to graduate a year early.

As far as Ismael having a girlfriend in high school....not possible unless he aimed low. The one thing that I always admired about Mr. I.T. is that he never lowered his standards. The pretty and popular girls were mostly dumb bitches who could never engage in a conversation worth listening to. The really intelligent girls were so socially handicapped and quite frankly homely that engaging conversation was not enough to balance out the need for a bag over their head. Not that looks should be everything but there should be some physical attraction. Ismael held out for a woman who could meet his intellectual standards and also had a physical draw. Could he have bagged some ass in high school, sure...but no ass is better than dumb or fugly.
Why blame the system??? blame the system because it rewards the popular and often undeserving people, places them higher for superficial reasons. It rewards the dumb because "they are trying their hardest". The system ignores the people who thrive on knowledge not praise. Administration takes the word of a class president over that of the unpopular chess genius, the word of an athlete who has potential to take the team to state over the shy kid just trying to soak up knowledge. Why? Because these are the kids who will bring them notariety. You never hear about the kid winning a chess tournament but rather about the kid who scored a touchdown to win the game.

Maybe Ismael loves his life more now because he is recognized for his achievements, getting into law school, winning a case, snagging the hot (and intelligent) girlfriend. Maybe life is better because the system of adulthood (while still flawed) is more fair than that of high school. Looks get you now where unless you are a model, athletic tallent is useless unless you are the rare professional athlete. Intellegence and hard work are rewarded by paychecks and promotions. So Ismael, power to you for improving your life and being more content . I hope every year and decade is more rewarding that the past. Oh, and if they are selling tickets to our classmates' trial...count me in.

Nice job Andy! -- and I second what Lauren said.
What the hell are all these other people talking about?
If you want something to put an end to all these good feelings, however, consider the fact that although things are currently "getting better all the time", pretty soon now things will reverse course and get steadily worse, until finally we are all in nursing homes in diapers, unable to care for ourselves or do anything interesting at all.

"Brandon Walsh" is a complete tool. Case in point: He doesn't even know how to spell the name of his purported "bestfriend Dillon."

Asshole. I'm going back to my beach condo and drawing handlebar moustaches over all of your yearbook pictures.