17 School Photos That Are Pure Nostalgia

School years are a time that stays in the memory forever. The first real friends, naive dreams and ridiculous haircuts — all this makes us smile and feel embarrassed at the same time. We put together photos, looking at which you’d want to say, “This happened to me too!” Get ready to dive into the past.

“Highschool was filled with rebellion and 80s hair-metal.”

• 90’s romance novel covers were like this. © IKMNification / Reddit

“Late 1980s: I thought the glasses made me look smarter.”

• It’s giving Kieran Culkin in Home Alone respectfully. © emilyradbecca2223 / Reddit

“School photo from 9th grade. This haircut was inspired by Cherie Currie. I saw her in the movie Foxes, and I loved the look.”

• Haha, I had a very similar haircut that year! © crazy-bisquit / Reddit

“My girlfriend gave me permission to show her photo from 1992. Here she’s somewhere between 14 and 15.”

• If she’d talked to me in school, I’d have dropped dead on the spot! © TheGoodIdeaFairy22 / Reddit

“I entered some drawing at a Seattle mall and won a free portrait sitting. I asked my boyfriend to go too and he wouldn’t. He said, ‘Take the cat!’ So I did. Here’s me and Nasty.”

• The cat was the best choice. © RoboticWitness / Reddit

“My worst school photo”

• It looks like you’ve just witnessed something awful, and you’re trying to squeeze out an awkward smile. © flinstonepushups / Reddit

“Posing for my boyfriend after a school dance, 1970”

• Your boyfriend was a vampire? I can’t see his reflection in the mirror. © slackjack2014 / Reddit
• Take a picture of me as one of those French girls. © Burnin_Oth / Reddit

“This is me in 2nd grade. A student, not a teacher”

• 2nd grade and already paying a mortgage! © MilkAdditional3737 / Reddit

“1977. Get ready, ladies.”

“High school. Questioning my life choices, but not my wardrobe.”

“Sixth grade photo, 1990, the lasers backdrop”

• Every year I begged my parents to splurge for the laser background, but they always said it was too expensive. My brothers and I still bring this up to our parents.
  About 8 years ago, I was telling this story to a class of sophomores on picture day, and they just couldn’t understand. So I projected the background onto the board to show them, and one of them took a picture of me standing in front of it and emailed it to me. All of my dreams came true that day. © TwoAndTwoEqualsFive / Reddit

“No regrets”

“I’m pretty sure I had a really great joke book in my backpack that I tried to memorize.”

• You look like you just performed a sick magic trick and are waiting for the response. © J3sush8sm3 / Reddit

“School trip to the zoo, 1974. I hate all my school pictures, from preschool to senior year. I either look puzzled, surprised, or confused.”

• I used to coach youth soccer, and that’s the exact look the goalies had when the ball was at the other end of the field. © slouchingtoepiphany / Reddit

“My parents sent me to live with my very conservative grandma who didn’t approve of my styles, and so she bought me all new clothes. I think I had about 5 different colors of those sweater vests.”

“You can tell by the look in my eyes that I was dying on the inside. In the end, I managed to persuade my grandmother to let me be me. I had pink and white checked Vans sneakers. When I wore them to school, the other kids were shocked because they hadn’t even heard of Vans yet (the town was small).”

“My ex helped me find old photos from 20 years ago. It was 2006, I was 12. I thought I was cool and daring.”

“I had the long bangs in the front and short and spiked hair in the back. Gotta love the ’no eyebrow’ thing I had going on.”

• If there was a picture that encompassed, “Can I leave now?”, this would be said picture. © Certain_Stranger2939 / Reddit

And here Internet users shared the most ridiculous rules their schools enforced. Check them out!