What was your high school experience?

[yourlibrarian]

As part of my effort to clear stuff out of the house, I came across my old yearbooks. (BTW, if anyone has any recommendations of places that will buy or take yearbooks, please let me know. I just want them anywhere not here without having to pay for postage). As I hadn't looked at them in quite some time, I browsed through them to see what condition they were in and ended up reading a bunch of messages across different years. I noticed a lot of people referenced the fact that I was writing stories in class.

These were mostly fanfic although I did draft an original novel at the time too as well as various short stories. (These efforts were almost uniformly terrible). The point being that while people did in fact know I was fannish about different things (which was mentioned by a few) they didn't know about fanworks or about it being part of the fan experience. If they remembered anything about me, it would be that I was going to write for a living (even though I never said any such thing to anyone).

I'm curious what experience other people had and whether they'd likely be remembered as a fan by classmates and why?

Comments

[isis]

Libraries (local to those schools) will sometimes take yearbooks.

I was not remotely fannish in high school. I played D&D - that was about the closest thing to fannish behaviour!

[yourlibrarian]

Thanks for the tip! Unfortunately I'm no longer anywhere near their location anymore.

That's really interesting that you got into it later given the reputation fandom has as being, not only composed by the young, but something you get into at that period of your life.

[isis]

I guess I was an adult-onset fan. I went to SFF conventions while in college, but I didn't know of the existence of fanfic or feel fannish in the sense I do now until, um, age 39.

[yourlibrarian]

Was it mostly being online that brought you into it?

[isis]

In the sense that being online connected me to those communities, it was certainly a contributor. But I was online during the 90s and not fannish; I was on Usenet but never looked at the, oh, rec.arts.sf.fandom or similar groups. (Pretty much all my participation was in the rec groups for more mainstream hobbies of mine, like rec.food.cooking and rec.bicycling, plus the sci. groups for my job-type interests, and talk.bizarre for silliness.)

I was traveling for three years and out of touch from mainstream media (as well as not having regular online access) and returned to the US just as the second Harry Potter movie was released. My sister-in-law, a children's librarian, recommended it, so I rented the first movie, watched the second in the theater, then went to the library and got all four (at the time) books and devoured them. Then I went online to see if I could find anything else relevant...and I discovered Fuh-Q-Fests and the veela-inc mailing list. :-) That was the beginning of my long descent into fandom....

[yourlibrarian]

It can be tough to be connected to fandom when one's schedule is irregular or one's immersed in other things. I expect that part of it is that it takes time to explore and find out who and what is out there, or keep up with developments, which is tough to do when it can't be done with any regularity.

But it can also just take that one source that really hooks you :)

[raine]

I went to high school in the late '80's - being a fan of something back then meant you were a Trekkie or a Star Wars fan or something else, and the 'something else' wasn't something I wanted to disclose. It wasn't until after college that I really got into fandom - basically about the time that Internet access was available to everyone. So I probably wouldn't be remembered as a fan by my classmates.

[yourlibrarian]

Ah, see for me it was music in high school. I'm not quite sure what the boyband era was -- after my time anyway. But I remember in art class there were a few band inspired paintings being done.

[silverr]

If your yearbook is old enough, consider googling "[name of school][year] yearbook" -- I discovered that there's a library with a collection of yearbooks from my high school, and they didn't have my year (1972). ~ Not sure where you reside, but in in the US the donation might be considered a charitable contribution. (You might save enough on your taxes to cover postage. :p)

I went to HS in the mid-70s, and was primarily known as a hardcore Bowie fan during that time (I was the first to chop off my long, ironed-smooth hair in favor of a Ziggy mullet). Though I'd been a Trek and general Sci-fi fan for years, it wasn't until I moved away to college that I got into fandom.

[yourlibrarian]

Afraid not, but thanks for the tip!

Our school had a dress code so that definitely stood in the way of different forms of fannish expression, but a haircut would have slid right past it :D

[batsybeth]

I'm pretty certain that if I'm not remembered for constantly drawing/doodling on everything - being a emo/goth into various comics, anime and 'geeky' things is definitely more likely.

In school from 2003 and onwards - I was always carrying around a comic or manga borrowed from the local library and would talk way too much about the things I was interested in if someone was unfortunate to ask.
That being said, I drew the line at talking about fanworks like fanfiction or the fact that I posted up my own fan arts on sites like livejournal and deviantart. It felt too personal to talk about - plus I was really getting into m/m or f/f ship fics because they were the closest things to queer literature that closeted gay me could get her hands on at the time. One of the main reason I didn't talk about fanworks was mostly fears about outing myself.

Although, in the latter years of secondary school I did managed to make friends with someone because she over heard me geeking out over an anime movie and we became convention buddies after we were done with school.

[yourlibrarian]

I was always carrying around a comic or manga borrowed from the local library and would talk way too much about the things I was interested in if someone was unfortunate to ask.

Haha, I suspect that latter fact is a common one :D

[klangley56]

My first fandom is Star Trek, and ST fandom had been around only for a few years when I hooked up with it--while I was in high school. Bought my first fanzines and never looked back. Didn't have any particular reason to talk about or show any zines around at school. I did, however, give a speech in my Speech Class about how the make-up of Mr. Spock's ears was done. And in another class, when we were asked to write about our favorite book, I wrote about The Making of Star Trek (by Whitfield and Roddenberry).

Now, at work on the other hand, I wear my fandom openly -- fannish t-shirts, buttons, posters, memorabilia, etc. Play filk songs in my office. Did a "show and tell" one time on fanzines, for one of my boards.

[yourlibrarian]

That was a lucky break! I went to my first con at 11 -- also Trek -- but was too young to connect with other people. My mother took me but she wasn't fannish herself. It wasn't until after high school that I met up with people in a fandom and could make friends with people I could stay in touch with.

I imagine it's much easier to be known for being in fandom at work these days -- and also depending on the workplace. Libraries have generally been welcoming, for example. Even so I don't think anyone knew about my fandoms, certainly not in a way they identified with me, until I was going for my PhD.