I was born and raised in Yakima and went to Yakima public schools. Nob Hill, Franklin, then I went to Eisenhower for a while and finished up at Davis. Since I used to pride myself on being a unique individual, I never belonged to any specific group of people. Instead, I made a friend or two from each cliques. All of the stereotypes from preppies to jocks to stoners to slackers to nerd and geeks to cheerleaders and freaks. All of the above. There are several reasons I loved hanging out with the different types of people that attend school. Here are my pros and cons to most of these groups of people that you may consider the type of people you want to hang out with when you're back to school.

Jocks

Probably the most well established of all school cliques. They're revered by most of the students and by the entire school board. Hanging out with them looks good on you to the faculty as it shows you have school spirit and you want to make your school better for future generations. The downside is the school board may show too much favoritism to them and not enough to your other friends. Although we didn't have any 'dumb jocks' that I knew of, it did seem like the school's staff gave extra time and attention to those in sports, especially football, as they knew that if they didn't pass in grades, that means they couldn't play. Watch out for unneeded favoritism.

Geeks

You need to make at least one or two friends that are geeks. First of all, just to be clear, not all geeks are nerds and not all nerds are geeks. This is very stereotypical as the nerds (those who were smart) were also prone to use computers which automatically made them geeks. Now that everyone uses a computer this notion has been diluted. Geeks will eventually become your boss, according to Bill Gates, and you may need to have a geeky friend on hand to help you reformat your computer or set up your iPad if you're setting one up the very first time. The bad news is some geeks are so lost in a world of technology that some may not have the best social skills to talking to them for any length of time or inviting them to a social gathering may not be the best idea.

Nerds

To be honest, I'm not even sure if "nerds" exist anymore by the classic definition. Anyone who excels in school and it's subjects may have a way of making things interesting to you to learn. Me? I didn't care about US History. Sorry, it was boring to me, but I knew someone that thought it was awesome and could explain things in a way to make me interested enough to remember dates and events. The negative is, like geeks, the social aspect. Sometimes they're also very knowledgeable in a subject you're not interested in so they'll talk your ear off about it when you really don't care.

Cheerleaders

Well, the good news about having a friend who's a cheerleader is all of those nerds and geeks who have trouble in social settings will think they're your girlfriend. Even if that's not the case, they'll think you're awesome. Cheerleaders are also great for gossip on who's available or can maybe pair you up with someone. Using this to your advantage, you can see about making cheerleaders spread rumors or exaggerate yourself to make yourself look better than you are. Why not, it's worth a shot. The bad news is anything you say or do can and will be used against you in their gossip ring.

Stoners

Basically, these are the guys who smoke during lunch and between classes. The good news is they don't have school spirit so when it comes to pep assemblies that aren't required as they don't take attendance, you can hang out with these guys and chill for a bit. The bad news is just being around them may make you smell like smoke. Not a good sign if you're not a smoker.

Slackers

They don't want to be in school and, sometimes, don't show up to school at all. If you're prone to peer pressure, skipping class can seem much more welcoming than math so watch out for that. The good news is most of the slackers I knew didn't judge you for what you are. That's always nice

 

I'm sure there are more classes of students than that, but that worked for me. Just gotta know who you are, what you're in school for and to be yourself, no matter what anyone else says or thinks.

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