[ SECRET POST #3161 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3161 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 042 secrets from Secret Submission Post #452.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I get this feeling that this type of AU is so popular because it lets people relive their HS days in a safe, and often very idealised setting. There's a lot of media telling us that those are the best times of our lives, but for many people it's anything but. So they live vicariously through AUs with their favourite characters.

[diet_poison]

I've always heard that about college, not high school! And ironically I had a MUCH better time with high school than college.

However, I choose to believe my best days are still ahead of me. /corny, but true

[(Anonymous)]

Media says it about both.

I think it's primarily a class thing, actually, which one it gets considered as.

[diet_poison]

ahhh, you're probably right.

AYRT

[(Anonymous)]

True that, college tends to be singled out as the 'best years of your liiiife' so much more often! Maybe I should've phrased my comment differently? I feel like the portrayal of HS in media is a bit far from the reality of many people's experiences, and so they feel like they're doing something wrong.

I personally had/am having a bad time with both, so I often feel like I'm just wasting my life and I'll wake up one day and be too old for anything nice, haha. Wish I could have your optimism - I think your way of thinking is a much better one!

Re: AYRT

[diet_poison]

When I was in college I just wanted to get. out. I wanted it to be done and overwith.

I graduated by the skin of my teeth, and spent several months working part-time while semi-enthusiastically job hunting, but now I have an interesting full-time job that won't make me rich but it pays all my bills and leaves me with a little spending money, and I'm supporting myself and working and I'm so much happier now than I was when I was in college.

(Honestly I think a big part of the reason for that, ironically, is that it's waged work. Salaries have their benefits, but the awesome thing about waged work? When I'm off the clock, I'm off the clock. I don't have to take work home with me, physically, mentally, or emotionally. There is no homework. While I'm there I'm utterly focused on work, and while I'm at home, I'm not thinking about it at all. Ironically my boss is a dick who yanks us around and yells at us and instigates drama so it is starting to affect my mental health, but I'm currently in the search for another job in the same line of work with a better boss, so hopefully that will solve that!)

Er, anyway, point is: you can get through it and once you're done, your lifestyle will change dramatically. I hope it's for the better!

[(Anonymous)]

I will be corny with you, because I prefer the same outlook. I have a co-worker who seems to think college was the peak of his life and there's something kind of sad about him because of it, even though he has a successful career, amazing wife, and two adorable kids. (Maybe it's more of a mid-life crisis thing, I dunno).

We sometimes have to go to the city where he went to college for business (it's our state capitol) and the campus is right there and he won't shut up about his college days when we're there and talks about how if he isn't careful, he'll regress to his college ways. When I didn't take him seriously, he insisted it would be the same way for me if we were on my old campus. No, it would not. First of all, my "college ways" were apparently very different, and secondly, I've been back there since and it wasn't like that.

College was an awesome time of my life, but it's done. Going to any college campus now, whether I went there or not, inspires that same kind of akward feeling you get visiting an elementary school and I'm always surprised the chairs aren't too small or the bathroom sinks aren't too low to the ground.

[(Anonymous)]

I feel sorry for your co-worker. Especially because he's so invested into thinking that because his own current life isn't satisfactory that he longs for his college days, everyone else must be in the same position. Me, I had fun in college and enjoyed it. But I'm not interested in going back because I like my life now even better.

[diet_poison]

Man, that sucks.

If there's something missing from his life now, he should try to figure out what it is and address it. Going back to college isn't a good answer, unless he actually wants another degree for something, in which case nothing wrong with that, but it doesn't sound like that's what it is for him.

[(Anonymous)]

Someone finally explained the thing!

[(Anonymous)]

it's kind odd but my boyfriend is strange about his nostalgia.

when we first met, he was studying for his undergrad and he kept talking about his nostalgia of high school. it got really annoying at times (mostly because i had a horrible adolescence - he wasn't doing it to be mean, i was just extremely envious) to where i had to sit him down and ask him if he really misses the past that much.

now that he's working full time and studying for his master's, all he ever talks about was our time before he graduated. it's kinda weird how he does that though but, right now, only my college days was a decent start, but i want better days and a better future.

[(Anonymous)]

Huh, interesting. I always assumed it was high schoolers trying to find ways to better relate to characters, but that could be as well.

(Although I dunno, the media does a fairly good job of showing HS as terrible. It's just that it normally does a horrible job of showing why HS can be terrible, and has unrealistic outcomes.*)

*In fiction: New girl makes new loser friends on the first day.

Realistic outcome: New girl makes casual friends who dump her when she needs someone to eat lunch with. Makes one or two friends halfway through the year, but never has lunch periods with them. :P

[diet_poison]

I think I'd write a better HS AU now than I would have in high school - and I'd enjoy reading it more now, too, since I've had a wider range of experiences and can view high school more objectively.

I hadn't thought of high schoolers being the ones writing them, but it could be! Of course I wasn't really aware of fandom in high school so maybe it would have been different if I had!

[(Anonymous)]

I can sort of see the logic you're describing, but disagree about the conclusion. I agree that it's bullshit the media pretends the high school years are the best years of one's life. That's why, like the OP, I don't have time for high school AU. One person's "reliving it in a safe space" feels more like adding to the bullshit idea that high school is some awesome wonderland.

[(Anonymous)]

"One person's "reliving it in a safe space" feels more like adding to the bullshit idea that high school is some awesome wonderland."

Oh fuck you. I was horribly bullied, and while I agree that it's not an amazing wonderland, I'd really prefer to imagine an experience where I wasn't made to feel like I was nothing. Where I didn't go through every day feeling like I had to keep it in.

Maybe it's not contributing to some bullshit idea or pretending that it's a perfect place, maybe some people would like to imagine an experience that wasn't incredibly painful. Wish fufillment. The same kind of wish fulfillment as people who would like to go to Hogwarts. Why is wish fulfillment for a fantasy or sci fi setting acceptable, but wish fulfillment for a better high school experience is just bullshit?

[(Anonymous)]

My conclusions are for me and how I view high school AU. You do whatever you need to do to be happy.

[(Anonymous)]

I apologize. I initially misread you as saying that people's reasons for writing it is to present it as perfect. I was wrong, and I apologize for being aggressive.

[(Anonymous)]

Apology accepted, and no worries. Given your bad experiences, I completely understand wanting to reinvent high school as a better experience and I hope it helps.