One of the craziest things in this life nowadays is seeing people on Facebook that I went to high school with and how haggard and horrible they and their lives have become. They're all single parents with dead end factory jobs, kids that go to the same exact school we all went to, and absolutely no future beyond nursing their fuck trophies for 18 years until they're all too washed up and old and lazy to do anything else besides rot away in the one and only boring, stale routine they've ever known.
Even some of my best friends from those days have fallen victim to this. What traps these people? Having kids too soon? Not enough motivation to improve their situations? It's almost they all just said "well fuck it, here's the hand I was dealt" and just tolerate a menial existence.
Baffles me. Maybe they're just products of the suburbs.
It's because high school in the US is such a ridiculously exaggerated social status club that people are literally scarred for life when they graduate. There are exceptions but honestly, don't you remember how important it was to belong to something in high school? Not saying you did because I didn't either, but there was more pressure in high school to be a certain way than anything else I've ever experienced in my life, not even the military.
High school warps people's minds and that carries over into college and after. The people who were usually not uber popular and kinda did their own thing usually made it out ok and lead productive, interesting lives, but the others usually don't fare so well. American high school is literally a mini society, full of norms and cliques that can be so harsh that it would drive some kids even to suicide, and it has. If you've ever hated anyone in your life, chances are it was in high school. Sports are more important than education, which is obvious judging by our pathetic record, and it even carries over into universities. Granted, the universities are much less likely to curve or let you skate, but unless we're talking Ivy League, education really isn't necessarily the first goal of the institution...it's making money. Only in the US is college known for partying all the time and getting wild and such; everywhere else universities are places of learning, not playing beer pong. The reason is because most people have been doing that since they were 16, and by the time they get to university, they're ready to buckle down and focus on their future. In the US, people just came out of the mind-fuck that is high school and all they wanna do is get drunk, get laid, and party all the time. They don't get a chance to grow up. Therefore, they usually flunk out and sink back into the comfort of high school with their friends, doing the same routine and trying to re-live past glories.
It's truly sad but I really don't pity them...they were usually dickheads in high school anyway.
