what is/was "'normal' school" like?

Disclaimer I am 19 and I am pretty sure my school life is very different from other school experiences so I have never really experienced any of those so-called golden days that people talk about. 

I mean my elementary and middle school years were filled with befriending the kids who I knew would bring knives to school and be active threats to others in an attempt to prevent getting caught in the mess (so yeah this is not an ideal take on the whole school experience but). A lot of my socializing skills came from navigating tense situations and being talked down to by my teachers, while this isn't ideal there were good moments???

I found my group of people through the shared school experience and would skip homecomings and the like to do our own things. I never went out partying but drinking at a friend's house was close enough. Making our own fun and happiness with the shittiness around us all the time (a lot of troubled home situations which also made grades and shit worse).

School was everyone being miserable hating each other but pretending just to get through the day having hours of work for 6 classes that had teachers telling people we were going to do anything in life and overall really really not something I want to experience again (doing online college courses because I am tired honestly...).

Came out with a lot of anxiety and depression about the world and sometimes get overly paranoid. I'm sure the 'normal' school experience for someone else is probably a lot more glamorous and something they can look back on fondly but not for all of us.

So I am not sure if that's what you were looking for but it was something.

thank you for sharing this. and i mean "Making our own fun and happiness with the shittiness around us all the
time (a lot of troubled home situations which also made grades and shit
worse)" is actually what i did want to hear about

you're so valid to be exhausted tho i'm exhausted life is exhausting

mm.. i got bullied growing up (didnt stop till i finally mf graduated in jun 2024). so my sense of normal is pretty weird. plus i went to catholic school from k-8. so i kinda am doubting my credit to answer this lmaooooooooo- imma do it tho

elementary school and middle school: i saw the same 29 people every single day for eight years straight... i always got called weird for being shy or "annoying" (isnt it ironic how little me was getting called annoying while not saying a single word??). i always got bad grades cuz of the bullying. n it was physically exhausting too T_T my mom worked early in the morning so i'd have to be dropped off early (6 AM) and go to morning church with nuns at my school. and sit in an empty parking lot till 8 AM (the parking lot is a catholic school thing.. ik public schools had teachers who opened their doors for students).
i only had elective classes once a week n had to go to church every friday morning. i did church choir during my middle school portion, and i took spanish n two instrument electives (keyboard & ukulele). those were the only things i miss ab catholic school.. plus i was the only queer kid (i've been queer since i was in 3rd grade) and my classmates found out by finding my social media accts. so yay more bullying qwq.. thank god covid hit during my 8th grade year!!

high school: it was so so SO much fun! i loved the freedom, and the fresh new faces every single period i entered <3 i met my bestest friend in the whole wide world. we were friends since our online school classes in 2020. it was super weird being behind a chromebook for the entirety of 9th grade, but it made me realize that i learn better in slower classes. catholic school was going too fucking quick 4 me, n i couldnt catch up (so i always got C's and D's) but in high school, i got straight A's for half of my time there :3
lowkey, my high school felt like the movies. all the cliches, bullying, gossip, etc. i got bullied n rumored a lotttttt but i never noticed since my school had 1.2k+ students hahahaha (so da drama never came near me). however i was very unstable due to catholic school (plus my home life) traumatizing me so i was a teeny bit toxic due to never ever having peace in my life.. but my friends that i made also came from unstable backgrounds n we all recovered together just in time for college <3 i had PE and electives DAILY though. but i had access to so many more things! i loved playing sports every day in 10th grade (i was really good at soccer n softball.. two sports i never thought i'd ever get to play), and i learned korean (한국어 잘 못해요) for two years :3. i learned that i hate social sciences n english classes, and yaaa

i was a gay autistic furry everywhere i went so that explains all the bullying n shi. this is basically the norm for my fellow neurodivergent kids. i hope my yap is an easy read.. it's pretty long. good luck in community :3 im a first year who's majoring in accounting at my CC!!

dude you sound awesome and i'm sorry middle school was so rough but high school sounds awesome thank you so much for the reply

everyone's school experience is different, unfortunately for me it was really horrible lol. I dealt with bullying in elementary and also in middle school but not as bad.  High school was also awful, I ended up going to a different school every year. I didn't feel 100% safe at school, someone brought a weapon on campus, I as well as others had been SA'd by classmates, etc...Regular school was no good for me, I didn't go to dances or join clubs because of my mental health and was in and out of mental hospitals.  I was incredibly behind on credits and it was impossible to catch up.  The last high school I went to was a credit recovery which I did well in and even finished early. Traditional schools don't care about you as a human imo, also super draining and confining. 

kids at your school were SA'ing each other? that's so...awful. i'm so sorry

I am 19 and I grew up in a moderately poor public school in a median state so I can probably answer.
Disclaimer: when i read the title i thought this was from the perspective of a <13 kid that barely went to school and mostly remembers online schooling cuz of the pandemic lmaooooo
Public school is not what it's cracked up to be tbh. For me, it was a waste of time compared to independent education and online classes, mostly because of the sheer waste of time in class due to other kids being obnoxious. I swear, if a few kids had actually focused on their work, maybe it wouldn't have been so bad. Making friends was negligible, many people say that it's easiest to make friends through school/college/work, but to be honest any of those mostly only work if you are <15. After that age, or arguably even younger, like 10, and it's impossible to "naturally" make friends, especially since people tend to get into groups at a young age. On top of that, the work in public school is way too easy, while they add too much filler/bullshit into your work which is another waste of time, ontop of dealing with obnoxious classmates. The semester before highschool began, I had an annoying classmate who constantly did pornographic moaning noises in class just to bother others. Worst part is, the teacher hardly noticed/cared, and I even remember at one point he asked me if I was horny. To top it all off, it was even worse because at one point while my books fell over and I leaned to pick them up, he just pushed his hips into my behind... Anyway, most of the bad stuff about school just comes from kids themselves, and that happens anywhere (summer camp, etc)... If you are homeschooled, you are probably not missing out on much, especially if you get plenty of nice interactions with kids regularly.