I miss it sometimes but I'm glad I'm out now, especially since I graduated so long ago. The splendors of adult life are both a blessing and a curse.
A lot of teachers and students in my high school were "rats", i.e. nepo-babies. I moved from Washington state to an Upstate New York suburb when I was pretty young, so my family were outsiders. My mother tried to join the PTA but she was essentially bullied out for being what the natives call a "transplant". My older brother was bullied relentlessly since he was already in 10th grade at that point, and lots of teachers and students in the school didn't take kindly to someone who wasn't born and bred in this one town.
A lot of kids in my school got a lot of shit handed to them on silver platters for no other reason besides being natives. Their parents were born and bred, their grandparents too, and their grandparents parents. I was on my high school football team and I can't even count on two hands how many times our lineman were shuffled around to give rats their time in the spotlight, whether they were actually good or not. One of our guards was a kid named Bobby (not real name). He gave about 1/3 effort he should be giving and I saw him get trampled by others constantly, and yet he still was the star and won all the awards. He even had the balls to get cocky about his status. This was for no other reason besides multi-generation nativeness.
Thank god the teachers weren't allowed to sway our grades because of our status. I got it easier only because I was young when we moved, and I graduated with flying colors. As for the others, high school was pretty much the highlight of their lives. I kept tabs on them and about half our football team couldn't finish their first college semester because they weren't used to actually having to work for what they want rather than it just being given to them. Nowadays, they're STILL in this little suburb, slamming drinks at the local pub and whining about how the miss the "good ol' days".
So in other words, I had a very mixed school experience. I made loads of friends that I still talk with to this day, but nonetheless there was a lot of bad vibes to go around. I can only hope that the culture heals someday.