I wasn't popular in high school but it surprises me to no end to find out just how many people knew who I was/am when I run into them again all of these years later. I really felt like I blended into the background, but I guess I stood out more than I realized.

In high school I wasn't popular but i knew alot of people but not everyone because my graduating class alone was 800 some kids.
But I was well know in college because it was small and it was a two year trade school so i was like one of 30 women lol people I have never even talked to knew me it was creepy.

In high school I was shunned at one school, ignored at another, and semi-popular at my final school (because it was a school that had mostly goth/nerdy kids).

In college I had a small group of friends I was popular with, but mostly avoided contact with everyone else. College kids are almost as annoying as high school kids.

Highschool: super nerd. But I had a big group of people to interact with because of all the activities I did. Chorus, drama, marching band, honors classes, etc. My last semester was no fun at all, but I had started dating my husband, and just broke away from highschool people. I also realized that theatre is where I wanted to be, and very few of my close friends were part of that.

College: Better. I was finally in an area that I was comfortable. It wasn't a big department, but we put on nearly 12 shows a year, so there was always something to do. In my junior year I started up a directing track with my professors, and was "popular" because I was constantly doing shows, and people wanted to be cast. But I also met people who were as genuinely driven and intense as I was, and they are still my closest friends. That intensity was not popular with the social atmosphere of the other majors that were just having fun. But faces all blended in together at my college. People stuck to their majors, and little else.

In high-school I was a super-nerd as well, but I think there were more nerds than pretty "popular" kids at my high school, so it's not like I didn't have friends. I was serious about, and good at my studies, and it was a good lesson to learn early that friends that respect that and don't require you to dress a certain way, or have a certain "look" to be likable are the best kind.

College is less cliquish, so I made friends with lots of people (I will admit most of my oldest friends did all come from the same Hapkido class, though), although I got a lot less reasonable at the school part of school. It was quite a shock to go from straight A's to mostly B's and C's (and my first ever F almost killed me #_#) and even worse, when I'm actually *trying* . Going to an engineering school for a pure science is brutal, and I would not suggest it to anyone ever. Just don't do it. Go somewhere right for your major, where you actually get to study that major and your department gets funded (/rant)

In any case social and extracurricular stuff, even though I have less time for it, went from something I could take or leave to outright essential in college. If I had been more reasonable at picking my school though, I may not have learned to rely on and just be with people the way I can now , so I guess it was still a good learning experience, just not the one I particularly expected or wanted at first.

I loved High School and college. It was the best time of my life and I miss it!!