Do you feel your teenage life was different from others?

Peers at school=/=peers in fandom/TV Tropes/wherethefuckeverelse. That's the best way I can put it, right now. The commonplace here is far from such in the wider world (though less uncommon than in earlier times).

So far, I don't think this topic has been the angstfest I expected, which is surprising.

Stories get worse when everyone is telling the same one.

And even aside from that, non-tropers consider themselves just as "different" as anyone else. Everyone wants to be "different". I remember a football player, everyone considered him to be just a jock, not in any way academic, and he once tried to start a conversation with me about the situation in Africa or something, and he was clueless. You don't have to be socially isolated to think you're different than everyone else.

I don't really think anyone is trying to say that they're a "unique special snowflake." I just think the question was about comparing yourself to your peers, and maybe they thought they were a little different, compared to the people they were around. I don't think anyone here is trying to say they were "better" than their peers in high school either.

My teenage life was different because my parents were abusive. I didn't have many friends because I wasn't allowed to go anywhere except to school, monitored extracurriculars (where my parents sat and watched my every move), or church functions. I was also not allowed to have friends over to my place. My (step)dad made me go to the gym regularly, and constantly harassed me for being fat, and said that I would never get a husband because I wasn't pretty enough. Thanks to my thyroid disorder, which was not medicated at the time, I gained weight despite struggling with bulimia and having a strenuous workout regimen.

Dad referred to the garage as the "dungeon", and that's where he'd hit me because it muffled the screaming. The church we went to condoned child abuse as a way to keep children pure, because through some biblical verse or another, it says that beating kids was a good way to keep them out of trouble and a good way to drive the devils away.

I was raped by my boyfriend when I was seventeen, and we got engaged shortly afterwards (That's what the Bible said to do.). I never told my parents that was how I lost my virginity. I still blame myself for allowing it to happen.

My parents goaded me into taking out large student loans for college, then slowly siphoned it away under the guise of "rent", despite making me take full time classes, work a part-time job, and expected me to still get dinner on the table and keep the house cleaned. I wound up being overloaded and failed out, and I'm 10k in the hole because of it.

I almost died when I was in college because I developed polycystic ovarian syndrome and hemorrhaged blood for three months (Looking back, it might have been a miscarriage. I'm not sure). Instead of taking me to a doctor, they simply took me to the church and tried to pray it away. Eventually my grandparents noticed and got on Mom's case until she took me to a gyno. Then she argued with the doctor because he wanted me to go on birth control, and she flat said that she'd rather me die than sin like that. The doctor was pretty smart though, and I went on a more expensive pill cocktail that did the exact same thing.

So yeah, I had a different childhood, and it still bothers me sometimes.

You're the first person on TV Tropes who's honestly made me want to give them a hug, DG.

I feel consumed with a rage.

Mostly toward DG's parents, and boyfriend, and most especially her dad.

If I saw any of the above in public, I'd attack them.

But otherwise, in regards to my social half of my teenage life, you could say I went through phases.

9th Grade: antisocial wreck. Largely due to a bully from Middle School who harassed me on a day to day basis. Hated everyone else, to the extent some people thought I might be a Columbine Kid in training. Thankfully, I did not do anything of the sort.

10th grade: high functioning Smug Snake, tried to be something I wasn't. My approval rating was almost at zero percent.

11th grade: Matured a bit, and largely things cooled off.

12th grade: I became a bit of a Jerk Jock. No, I didn't wear a letterman jacket, though I really wanted one...

And now, I'm basically a more mature, less jerkish version of the above.

Goddammit Yeah Bro, every time I see a post from you, I lick the screen. I'm taking you to prom.

On Topic: My teenage life was only somewhat different in that I didn't dare use any of my misfortunes as excuses for my stupidity. Nor did I feel that they set me apart from my peers.

I was just -and still am, but to lesser degree- an idiotic arse.

edited 12th Dec '11 11:47:27 PM by DisasterGrind

But that's exactly what I was trying to say!

Nah, but really, I think I did mention at the start and end of my own post that many people on this site would have been "different" in similar ways, and it wasn't about being "special" but rather about being in a (significant) minority among teenagers.

So I win.

edited 13th Dec '11 12:17:39 AM by ekuseruekuseru

Didn't venture out all that often. I guess it's thanks to a few friends of mine I made in the elementary school and kept contact with that I didn't end up developing a schizoid personality disorder.

I'd honestly be very surprised if someone said their life wasn't different from others. I mean...people aren't clones and stuff.

Still, my teenage years were essentially therapy to help me repair the damage from elementary school and re-acclimate myself to social interaction pretty much from square one. I hope to God that's not normal.

edited 22nd Dec '11 1:04:00 PM by Pykrete

My life's pretty normal.

My teenage years were different, because I never did drugs, rebelled against my parents, went to parties, worried about dating, etc.

As a teenager, I certainly haven't been drastically different from others. My philosophy as a teenager is and always has been "Conform, for everyone's a nonconformist nowadays." I wanted to stand out, sure, but I didn't want my life to be different from others.

So I, myself, was not that different. Was my life different from others'? I pray that this is not the norm. o___e

edited 22nd Dec '11 6:26:40 PM by DJay32