If you don’t want to spend your weekends drinking, you are clearly smarter than them and destined for a more interesting life. People make too much of their teenage years, in my opinion. None of the people I hang out with (I’m 35) feel like our teenage years were all that special. More like an obstacle course which teaches you some useful stuff about what not to do.

Having friends is important, at any age. So even if you skip out on the boring parties, I hope you have some way to connect with friends and spend time together. It doesn’t always have to be so very special, as long as you get to talk about the stuff that’s been going on in your life, and they talk about theirs, that can be a good time.

Maybe you can find activities/hobbies (local politics, amdram, music, volunteering, nature walks, reading to the blind, etc.) that bring you into contact with people of different ages. It can be difficult for a teenager to make friends with people who are older (and controversial if they’re of the opposite gender) but it can also be really rewarding. You sound like you might be a bit of an odd fish, and you’re in too small a social environment right now to find the other odd fishes. Once you get out of the fishbowl of school and your social life opens up a bit more, it’ll be easier to find people who speak your language.

For now, don’t alienate your friends too much, meet new people, and hang in there. It gets better.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 8 months ago by Will.