I was just a little above nerd and under the clique. Although both groups hung around with me. I guess I was just a clown. I never really cared what anyone "thought" about me.

My Daughter is more like me, only She is more outgoing than I am. Yet, reserved in dress and style.

My Son, has my Wit, but only shares in safe company of family. He loosened up New Years after the Champagne and He kept us in stitches.

I am very much like my Grandmother on my Mom's side.

Gayle

I was pretty much like you Kath. Very shy, rarely ever talked (especially didn't talk to boys). Had just a few good friends. I was in band too for years and was a straight A student.

DD on the other hand will talk to most anyone. She has several groups of friends and often hangs out with her male friends too. She is what my friends describe as "bubbley". No one would ever describe me that way! LOL She didn't put as much into her schoolwork as I did and her band career lasted less than a year. Seriously though - I wish I'd been less of the bookworm and more of the social butterfly like she is. Her life is so much more fun than mine ever was.

My kids are way more involved in school than I was. I pretty much did what I needed to get by. I was shy and quiet too but I went to school with pretty much the same kids from 3rd grade through high school so I knew most of them. I had a couple of really good friends and we're still friends today. My DD is almost 15. She loves to give speeches, talk in front of people, she's involved in clubs, etc. I hated speaking in front of people and failed English because of it. I still don't like it. My DS who is 17 is quiet but still more outgoing than I was. They must have gotten that from their dad - although he wasn't a good student, he is very outgoing.

Let's just say I relate to the character of Hermione Granger. I was a regular goody-two-shoes, liked to be the smart one. I would have started a society for the protection of house elves. LOL. I did a lot of volunteer work through middle and high school. I was not popular enough to homecoming queen, but liked enough to always go and have a date or a group of friends. I was often a teacher's pet and was always the one teachers left in charge if they had to leave the classroom. I was in the band, flute and trumpet and the drum major in the marching band, and most of my friends were in the band. Teachers thought I was quiet, but my friends knew I would talk your ear off. I mostly kept my nose clean, but once in a while I would do something that surprised people (b/c they just didn't know I had it in me).

My friends in HS predicted even then that I would become and English teacher. I "tutored" everyone who asked for help in English, spent more time proofreading others' papers than I did writing my own.

My oldest son is somewhat like me. He likes to do well in school and describes himself as neither popular or disliked. He tells me he just stays below the radar and gets along with everyone.

DD is only 8, but she is so much like me in temperment that DH and my family often laugh about it. She is the child my mother wished on me. She thinks she's always right and that others should just go along with her. She looks like me, walks like me, talks like me... she drives me crazy!! Now I can see how annoying I was. ;o) And how lovable I was!

My middle son has my sense of humor, he's very sarcastic. But otherwise he is not like me. He is smart, but uses wit to try to get out of as much work as possible. He is a class clown who somehow still manages to get the teachers to like him. Plus, he's a math whiz (something I never was) who cannot spell and hates to write (the shame! LOL). He is most like his grandfather, DH's father.

The youngest one is only 5, so it's a little hard to tell yet. At this point, he seems to be a little bit of DH, me, and all his siblings.

There are aspects of my kids that make me relate and sympathize with them so much. Sometimes it's a trait I know I had, sometimes it's a trait I wish I had had. I feel very protective of those traits in them, I don't want life and people to crush their spirit. It's a terrible feeling. I want to them celebrate who they are, never feel like they have to change it.

My kids were like me in the early grades....shy, quiet but good in sports. As I got into high school, I became a lot more outgoing and althought I wasn't in the popular clique, I was well liked and known due to my editorship on our school newspaper.
My DS remained shy and quiet and very good in sports....made excellent grades and went on to college.
DD came out of her shell and was a wild child in high school. She made good grades considering she cut classes and seemingly never studied.....had friends I didn't like, etc. She didn't go to college but has worked in the food and beverage industry since high school.
But, they both turned out to be happy, healthy, responsible adults. That is all I ever wanted.

Wow, Kath you sound just like me in school. Very shy! I did have a group of close friends though. They were A students but me..., well lets not go there. I'm afraid all three of my kids were like me, the shy part that is. They took after thier dad when it came to their grades, they were good students.

Lydia, I agree, my dd has more fun than I ever did. In fact, I remember being pretty darn miserable, and couldn't wait to grow up and move far away! She has tons of friends, talks to them on the phone, when they see each other out in public they hug each other. She has guy friends too.

Another very shy person here. I only had a couple close friends in school. The only time the other kids knew who I was is when they wanted help with science or math. They were always easy for me. Most of the time I was a goody two shoes. Although, there was that time I and a friend figured out how to make nitroglycerin in the backroom of the chemistry lab. At least we had enough common sense to not make a very big batch. Geez, now days we'd be labled terrorists. When the other kids were going to football games and dances and actually developing social skills I was wandering around the woods with my dog.
Most of my kids are quiet and reserved too. Except the middle one. He has this bubbly outgoing personality with a huge circle of friends. He was voted prom king. I didn't even go to prom. I didn't even work up the nerve to ask a girl out until I was in college.

Ron, the late bloomer

I think my life was different because I came from a small town/school. Everyone knew everyone else and most of us went all 12 years together. I was shy, but not around my friends. Most of us are still friends all these years later and visit when we can and e-mail regularly. We still remember each other's birthdays, etc.

I was a member of the National Honor Society, but not a nerd.

My kids were all boys and very outgoing with lots of friends. Always lots of kids at our house!!! But their grades weren't as good as mine because they had too many other things to do!

VERY shy,only a few friends. We lived in the bay area and my parents had a quarterhouse farm/ stable. The wealthy kids kept horses at our place, I was just invisible. I do keep in touch with my 2 best friends still..41 years later! WOW...
My kids were a mixed bag, 3 shy, 2 were very popular and outgoing. going figure! Kathy

I was shy around ground ups, but not at school. I loved learning and learned quickly, so I was promoted from 1st to 2nd grade shortly into the school term. I had friends around the neighborhood as well as at school. High school was harder and I had to work at it, but always made good grades, just not always the best grades. My best friends at this time were two neighbor girls and we did everything together.

My family moved and I had to change schools for my Junior/Senior years. This was a large school and most of the kids had gone to school together since first grade. I was accepted by "every body" but not by those cliques that were already formed. Things got better gradually and I made some good friends, but never among the cliquers. Except for one girl. We are still friends even though we live many miles apart now. My grades were good, but again not the best.

My kids. Oldest is my DD, who is like her dad and is the "book smart" type. DS is more like me and we tend to be the common sense and logic type. Both are responsible, independent adults.

I am more socially-oriented than either of them, in that they each have a small group of long-time friends. I have always found friends within group situations, but some of those became and still are good friends.

This has been interesting, in that I have looked back in my mind about our traits and personalties.

Hmmm.

O would some Power, the gift to give us,
To see ourselves as others see us!
It would from many a blunder free us,
And, foolish notion:

(We don't often include this line;)
What airs of dress and bearing would leave us,
And even pridefulness!

Sue

.

I'm kind of like MaryAnn, small school. etc. except I was NOT shy! LOL I was popular, belonged to a lot of clubs, etc. I once was moved three times during one English class and the teacher (my favorite one, by the way!) asked me, "Is there not ANYONE that you can sit by and not talk to them!?" I looked around and said (quite honestly!) "No, I like everybody in here!" LOL

I made good grades, not nearly as good as I could have, but I hardly ever studied, or had to. My DD was a lot like I was. DS's grades were worse but he REALLY didn't give a rip! LOL Neither of them were the "joiner" that I was, but they also went to a larger school and I think that made a big difference.

They both have a lot of both their dad's and my personalities. They both could (and do) move in and out among a lot of different "cliques" and had friends from all walks of life (and still do.)

I was so clueless about "things" that the girls in my gang called me "Sister Margaret Frances" They said the only way I was going to have children was through Imaculate Conception.
My brothers were ahead of me in high school and left me a hell raising reputation to live up to.
I mostly "laid low" and tried to stay out of trouble.

In school, I was quiet, never caused anyone any trouble and made good grades, altho I didn't particularly like school or study. My best friend...who I met over the summer before she started school in our little town...and we met because we both had horses, ended up being the most popular girl in school. She was well liked by everyone, had very nice parents and money...had 9 horses...and always a crowd of people at their place. Due to being friends with her, I was included in a lot more and dated a lot. We double dated all the time.

My daughter was a lot like me, in that she was also quiet, no problems, and she made better grades than me...
A+ in every class she took. The teachers loved her and she loved school. She didn't date but had a lot of friends...all the really nerdy geeky ones

In high school she also dressed weird...and would go to thrift shops and buy the most hideous old clothes you can imagine. She went with the school to New York City one time, and wore an old black lace prom grown that was so old, it was turning purple, that she bought for a quarter at the Salvation Army, and a pair of combat boots to a Broadway play. She wore old polyeaster "old lady style" pants suits...1970's, and she would buy old 1960's hostess gowns to wear when they went out to plays, etc.

I never said anything to her about the way she dressed, because she wasn't like a lot of kids today and showing body parts.

I worried about when she went to college, but was surprised that when she started college, she went to jeans and same type of things that most of the other kids were wearing.

She graduated with highest honors, so being weird for awhile never hurt her.

I was very, very shy, especially around boys. I didn't even have a boyfriend in high school. Whenever I had to stand in front of the class to give a report or whatever, I was so nervous I would be sick to my stomach, and my hands would be shaking horribly. Although I was shy, everybody still knew me. Even now, I will see someone from school and they will say "Aren't you Tammy Mohr? I remember you, you were so quiet!" And the people who say that to me are people that I would've thought didn't know I existed. I was also very afraid to go anywhere and do things by myself. I HATED gym class. I'm not athletically inclined whatsoever, and barely scraped by in gym with D's and D-'s. My grades in school were b's, c's and d's, and I had to study my brains out to get those grades.
Dd on the other hand is the TOTAL opposite. She's not scared of anything and never has been. She's so outgoing that it shocks me she's my kid! LOL! She's been a cheerleader for the last 3 years. If she likes a boy, she just starts talking to him, not shy what-so-ever. I homeschooled her through the 4th grade. The night before she started 5th grade at public school, I was so nervous for her that I was sick to my stomach. I didn't sleep all night. That morning I asked her if she wanted me to go in with her and walk her to her classroom, she said "No. I know what I'm doing." She has always been like that, not scared at all. Even this past summer when she flew to Texas by herself, not scared one bit. I would be a nervous wreck flying by myself even now at 36 years old.

I guess you could say that I was more the leader-not the follower type. Class officer for 4 years, Student Council President for 4 years, Triple Trio, Chorus, Prom Coordinator for 4 yrs and voted Best Dancer & Best All Around by my Sr class.
Our school had 4 different courses at that time...Academic, Commercial, Ag & Home-Ec and you had to select your course in 9th grade. Most only hung with friends in their Course, but I mixed w/all of them, not with just my Academic friends.
Both my sons & my daughter always seemed to be the reverse.
Once my daughter became a Senior-she was chosen as a cheerleader & it brought her out of her shell..and to this day-she's been more like her mom! My boys stayed in the background and remain that way yet today.