School is a sort of weird microcosm of the way the world really works - and one of the lessons we get to learn pretty early on is that it's easy to earn a reputation for something that may or may not have anything to do with reality.
One Reddit user asked:
What were you known for in high/middle school?
And we're pretty sure the person who was known for having a good sneeze absolutely never self-identified as a particularly melodic sneezer, but like they said - people still bring it up years later.
That doesn't mean your rep is totally out of your control, though. Quite a few of the responses were from people who went out of their way to cultivate whatever weird thing they were known for. Shout out to the person who committed to a fake accent for a full year before dropping it the next school year to confuse everyone.
That's the kind of commitment that'll get you places in life. Maybe not great places, but places.
Lighthearted Parody
Starting a parody twitter account of the principal. It was pretty cool hearing people reading my tweets in class and no one knowing it was me, lol.
Got exposed later though; principal thought it was hilarious. I didn't say anything offensive. Yes, I made fun of them but it was all lighthearted. I wish I could go back and read the tweets, lol
Forgot To Be British
british crown GIF
Giphy
In the 7th grade I came from a school on the other side of town so nobody knew me. I faked a British accent for a whole year. Then 8th grade started and I forgot I did that and just talked normal and everyone was very confused.
I did the same thing but I went to a different school once a week for gifted kids and when I was there I pretended to be an Australian
- HadesHat
There was a girl in my freshman English class who rotated styles and accents daily. She had spent some time in England, so when she dressed like a catholic school girl she sounded British. Then the next day she was a goth and American. Then she'd dress like a tomboy and drop her voice.
She also sabotaged all our socratic seminars with politics and held me up against the wall by the throat despite me being far more heavily muscled than her, but that's another story.
- legittz
At What Cost?Â
In middle school I was the guy that combed my hair before/after every class.
I now have no hair.
- DonJovar
Perfect hair, but at what cost?
Excessive of anything is injurious.
Tennis
Well I hit a guy in the face with a tennis racquet in the middle of math class and almost got sent to the principal's office because of it.
We could choose tennis as one of our class periods, so those who did would need tennis racquets and often carried them to school. Our lockers didn't fit our tennis racquets, so we had to carry them around with us to classes.
We ended up dating, and people got scared every time they saw me swinging my racquet around.
I similarly hit a girl in the face with a tennis racquet and then we ended up dating. She was an innocent bystander, it was eighth grade and I threw it just for sh*ts and giggles. After much apologies, we realized we thought each other was cute, eighth grade, blah blah.
We ended up hooking up later in life as well so 🤷
At The Bar
I was the kid that could get into bars.
My older brother was in a band, and I would go with them to help set up gear before a show, as a "roadie". Most bars let me hang out side-stage to watch and then tear down at the end of the night. So I was the 15 year old going to bars each weekend.
My parents and even the teachers knew, but I wasn't drinking so it wasn't a big deal. But the other kids though it was nuts and always wanted me to "sneak them in too".
Best Sneeze
In 8th grade there is a superlatives page in the yearbook for certain things like "Most likely to become president" or "Most likely to win an Olympic medal" and the 2 people that are voted for the most are pictured in the yearbook under that phrase.
I got voted for "Best sneeze" with another girl at my school, as we both have incredibly high pitched sneezes. To this day people still bring it up, even years later.
Shh
Being quiet. Not school shooter type of quiet, just quiet.
Same here, at some point someone apparently thought I died? Nope, just sittin in the back.
Friends assume you as re too shy to even make a presentation in class, they get the surprised Pikachu face, like dude.... there's a difference between being quiet (sometimes even lacking social skills) and not giving a damn of your grades
Never The Right Fit
Middle school - being that big city kid who has nothing in common with the local small town boys.
High school - being that small town boy who has nothing in common with the big city kids.
My parents moved around for work, and I never fit in during school.
This was me. I was always "the new kid". Went to 4 different high schools in 3 different states.
- realravenbell
VooDoo Queen
My ex boyfriend and I broke up (on a Monday) and he started dating a frumpy freshman the very next day. They both tried rubbing it in my face lol but I didn't care and took the high road. That Friday I had a bonfire with my friends to burn his sh!t he refused to take back.
While I was burning the last bit of stuff one of my field hockey teammates called me and told me the frumpy freshman got ran over by a car while making out with my ex. Apparently the girls sister was backing out of a parking spot and cut the wheel too sharp and dragged the girl under the tires while they were still embraced. It was such a mess.
Anyway, that's how I acquired the name 'voodoo queen'. But all three of those bastards harassed me all week leading up to that night and even afterwards. In my opinion, they all got what karma they deserved.
Ex also tried to get back with me numerous times after that since his new girlfriend was wheelchair bound and he didn't wanna deal with it. He was and still is a piece of sh*t.
I Was An Idiot
Had a fast loud car and always dressed up for every event/sporting game we went to. 1985 Camaro, graduated in 2011. Lots of burnouts and donuts. I essentially worked in high school to put money into that thing!
Everyone knew who I was and my sisters constantly got the "oh, he is your brother? You guys are so lucky". They were not lucky, I was an idiot.
- k666busa
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Ok, who is watching the clock? Those seconds aren't going to count themselves. The only way to understand time is to be its witness. Although that can get depressing. Let's focus on the light and cool.
History...
Calculate Figure It Out GIF by OriginalsGiphy"If you are an 80-year-old American, you have lived through approximately 1/3 of our nation's entire history."
Those Days...
"The 80s were 40 years ago."
"This is what messes me up because I was born in 82 and graduated high school in 2000 so for some reason my brain is stuck on the 80's being twenty years ago. The 70's thirty years ago etc etc. I have to stop and realize sometimes that my concept of how long ago things happened is way off."
Time goes by...
"We observe that light travels at 186,000 miles a second, but given the vast size of the observable universe, that's a snail's pace. But from the point of view of a particle of light, time doesn't even exist."
"Time slows down as you approach the speed of light, and theoretically stops completely when you reach the speed of light."
Years Gone By...
"MLK Jr. and Anne Frank were born in the same year."
"Betty White was born in 1922. Automatically pre-sliced packaged bread loaves became commercially available in 1928. Betty White is six years older than sliced bread."
Long Live the Queen!
queen elizabeth images GIFGiphy"The queen and Marilyn Monroe would've been the same age."
"And Marilyn Monroe and Andy Griffith were born on the same day!"
- osme1
I swear Liz is going to outlive dirt. Wait, I believe she already has. Well she won't be alone, she'll have Betty White. At least she better have Betty. Time is nothing without Queen Betty.
TV Time
Season 2 Omg GIF by Paramount+Giphy"Happy Days was a TV show made in the 1970s-80s about teenagers in the 1950s. Similarly, That 70s Show was made in the 90s-00s about teenagers in the 70s. If a similar show were to be made today, it would be about teenagers in the 2000s."
- VVillyD
A Croc
"If a T-Rex imagined a creature as ancient as the T-Rex is to us, it would be a Stegosaurus. If that Stegosaurus imagined a creature as ancient as the Stegosaurus is to us, it would be a Crocodile. If that Crocodile imagined a creature as ancient as that Crocodile is to us, it would be a Shark."
On the Clock
"On a twenty four hour clock the amount of time that humans have been on the earth would total around five seconds."
"How about this one: If Homo Habilus first appeared at midnight, 24 hours ago, that means the first Homo Sapiens appeared at 9:25 PM, or about 2 and a half hours ago. The first human civilization, in lower Mesopotamia, appeared at 11:57 PM, or about 3 minutes ago."
"The Western Roman Empire fell at 11:59 PM, or 1 minute ago. Everything that has happened since - the Crusades, the Plague, the discovery of the New World, the world wars, all of it - has happened in the last minute of human existence."
And that's just OUR Sun...
"The span of our lives are so insignificantly small that our Sun will last another 5 billion years. That's 9 zeros people. Our eldest live to around 100 in the best places. That's 50,000,000 (50 million) times longer than any person can reasonably expect to live. And that's just OUR Sun. The universe as a whole has probably existed for magnitudes longer than that already and will continue to exist until the end of time as we know it."
Tell Me a Story
william shakespeare GIF by will herringGiphy"We know what a good storyteller Shakespeare was but there were Greek playwrights who wrote shows nearly 2,000 years earlier that are pretty good, too."
I hate time. Only because I'm petty and irritated of the amount I squandered. That's neither here nor there though. Time marches on and continues to amaze. I'll keep watching.
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