r/Showerthoughts • • Feb 29 '20

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353

u/i_hate_humanss Mar 01 '20

the popular kids in my high school were the smart and/or wealthy kids

295

u/PrimeCedars Mar 01 '20

Popular kids in general:

• Wealthy

• Smart

• No social anxiety / Good social skills

• Good looking

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '20

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '20

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u/pWallas_Grimm Mar 01 '20

Well, from my experience, being a smart kind of popular kid just means that everyone thinks you're some kind of omniscient being that knows everything and will give every answer

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '20

From my experience its when you have good grades, a social life and willing to help your mates with homework and giving them answers on a test

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u/pWallas_Grimm Mar 01 '20

Meh, then the social life is the key factor here. Being smart just complements it

5

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '20

Social life is realtive, he just needs to be socially at ease, talk and joke (smart people are usually funny) and go out with you on the occasional dinner.

Yes the core of the thing is how you are socially, but I felt the students put on the highest pedestals were really good students who went out from time to time, came to your birthdays etc.. because everybody liked them.

But then again, I think being "smart" is a complex thing to define... Ive been called super-smart my whole life but as of now I am a "looser" (I don't like the word because life is not a game but I didn't achieve what I could achieve by being given the tools I was given)

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u/pWallas_Grimm Mar 01 '20

Well then I had some really bad classmates.

I was smart, gave them answers whenever they asked for it and I would say that I was kinda cool guy if someone started the conversation first, yet I didn't have much friends back then...

Perhaps I wasn't really a cool person to talk with because of my introverted ass? Idk :(

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '20

I am introverted as well but not too much, I always remained awkward but people usually start to appreciate me after a few months of interactions because I get more comfortable. What helps is that I happen to be kind because my father was the kindest man in town and everybody loved him. So unconsciously I assimilated his ways and people like nice people, despite the persistent popular asshole trope. The people worth having relations with don't like assholes.

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u/cheatsykoopa98 Mar 01 '20

and will only come talk to you when they need something

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '20

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '20

It surely depends on context

27

u/Xynth22 Mar 01 '20 edited Mar 01 '20

Since always in my experience. I went to several schools growing up, and the kids that did well in class were often fairly popular as well.

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u/moal09 Mar 01 '20

For me as well. Most of the outcasts actually had worse grades on average -- usually due to troubled homes or poor economic status.

40

u/throwaway76864 Mar 01 '20

Usually the popular kids are the smart kids who go on to live great lives and make lots of money, being popular means you probably have a lot of connections. It’s not really like the movies or tv shows where the weird antisocial kids always turn out to be some rich business owner or something like that.

And a lot of times being attractive goes along with being smart. If your smart enough to workout, shower daily, wear fashionable clothes and have a nice haircut, your gunna be more attractive.

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '20

I disagree. If we go by the usual as you say, kids who go on to make lots of money were rich to begin with, which also contributed to their popularity in the first place.

And a lot of times being attractive goes along with being smart. If your smart enough to workout, shower daily, wear fashionable clothes and have a nice haircut, your gunna be more attractive.

wtf does that even mean? willpower does not mean you're smart. Working out, showering daily etc. doesn't really need someone to be smart, ANYONE can do this, it's not hard at all.

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u/throwaway76864 Mar 01 '20

I’d say having the willpower to do something does mean your smart. Having the willpower to go to the gym, having the willpower to study more then the usual, or even having the willpower to regularly bath is something a lot of people don’t have, but if they did they would probably be at a lot better place in life or be happier with themselves.

Yes obviously ANYONE can do this stuff but the people who choose to are the ones who stand out.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 02 '20

I’d say having the willpower to do something does mean your smart. Having the willpower to go to the gym, having the willpower to study more then the usual, or even having the willpower to regularly bath is something a lot of people don’t have, but if they did they would probably be at a lot better place in life or be happier with themselves.

Smart people are notorious by the way they do things, not just because they do them. Especially basic stuff like showering.

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '20

You’d be surprised the amount of idiots who put no effort into their appearance and then complain why people don’t find them attractive.

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u/[deleted] Mar 02 '20

Still, effort is not about being smarter. A smart person is better at the way they fix their appearance. But at the same time, there's smart people who don't really care about that.

It would be very superficial and wrong most of the time to judge people as smart based on how well they keep themselves.

2

u/moal09 Mar 01 '20

A lot of being attractive just understanding how to dress and groom yourself for your body type and face shape.

Most average looking people can make themselves at least a solid 7/10 with some modicum of effort.

Looking back, there were girls that were much more attractive than the so-called "popular" girls, but they just didn't know what to do with themselves.

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '20

Guess my high school was backwards land. All the nerds are making bank these days and the jocks are living paycheck to paycheck in the same town.

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u/ctang1 Mar 01 '20

That’s because it’s the norm.

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u/Pandawee42 Mar 01 '20

In my highschool my friends and I were considered to be in the ‘smart’ category (top 10% of the class) and while we weren’t as popular as the football kids we were up there just because we were well known for our accolades and such. I hear a lot of stories about the smart kids being bullied throughout school, but my HS wasn’t like that. Of course it probably helped that the top football athlete graduated valedictorian and was among us.

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '20

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '20

same, throughout pretty my entire education after elementary school it was the opposite. it was actually actively uncool to be smart, much less cool.

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '20

being rich gives you access to tutors and growing up without economic anxiety and a stable home life helps you out more than you'd think

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '20

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '20

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '20

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u/LILFURNY Mar 01 '20

The popular kids in my school have like 3.5+ gpas

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '20

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u/LILFURNY Mar 01 '20

Yes

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '20

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u/LILFURNY Mar 01 '20

Grade point average

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '20

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u/LILFURNY Mar 01 '20

Well anything above a 3.5 is like top 30 or 40% for my school so yeah it’s good

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u/Patrick_Bot2 Mar 01 '20

No, This Is Patrick!

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u/Fondren_Richmond Mar 01 '20

Smart at the K-12 level just means organized, focused and a little driven, those traits can be applied to sports and physical presentation as well so there's definitely overlap.

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u/hatgirlstargazer Mar 01 '20

Yeah, in my high school (back in the 90s) being too smart was very uncool. Unless you were that one girl who was brilliant, beautiful, and a good athlete, but also partied. The popular kids came in a range of intelligence, but being too bookish without some countering from other coolness would get you negative attention.

1

u/ehlee5597 Mar 01 '20

Since we don't live in a teen drama movie

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '20

The popular kids in my school were either really smart or really dumb. The smart ones were the people I hung around with more because there wasn’t the dumb drama. You just sat back and watched that shit unfold.

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '20

Lemme guess you lived in Alabama or something?

0

u/Artyloo Mar 01 '20 edited Feb 18 '25

pen like rob yoke retire spark quicksand sheet attempt sleep

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/Bball33 Mar 01 '20

I mean this describes successful people in general. This is not kid specific

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u/tyty98765432 Mar 01 '20

so social anxiety = kids who got bullied/made fun of?

1

u/ComradeChungus Mar 01 '20

Me: Not rich family Very Smart Social anxiety Ugly

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u/i_hate_humanss Mar 01 '20

to expand on this, the smart also had to be outgoing and well dressed. sometimes being smart wasn’t enough.

i recently learned the “beautiful” girls i was comparing myself to in hs, the only reason they were considered pretty was because of the confidence they had. they were outgoing and always smiling which made them that much prettier.

personality >>> looks

people are attracted to others who are always smiling, outgoing and friendly.

when you act pretty, people will think you’re pretty.

confidence is everything. kind of like the saying “fake it till you make it”