You never know where people are going to end up, and the older you get, the more you realize that.
One of the goofiest guys in my high school is now an emergency room doctor. Mind. Blown.
In this AskReddit article, people share the surprising paths that friends from high school took in their lives.
1. Late bloomer
“I knew a girl in high school who was very sweet but very shy. She had very poor eyesight, had some tough dental issues, was overweight, and lived with a foster family in a trailer park. She wasn’t particularly close with anyone in school; I got the sense that she was just trying to make it through —- head down, get it done.
But she was always kind and I would talk with her a bit here and there. Mostly she kept to herself and seemed to want to just not be noticed at all.
After high school, we lost touch.
Twenty years later, I get a Facebook request from someone with her name but the picture looks nothing like her. Not even a vague resemblance.
I accept because I’m curious.
Well, it was indeed her!
It turns out that she worked her way through/paid for community college, ended up getting a good job with a family company and worked her way up the ranks there. She saved all of her money. By her late 20s, she saved enough money and had good insurance for eye surgery and dental surgery. She also started really focusing on getting healthy.
She said it all boosted her confidence so much that she started traveling around the country. During those travels, she ended up meeting a great guy. She and her husband have a nice family, good jobs, and live in an affluent community.
She acknowledged that her early years were tough and she had such low self esteem that she had a tough time making friends. She thanked me for always being kind to her.
She ended with “I may have blossomed late, but it was worth the wait”
I’m so happy for her. We keep in touch.”
2. Sad
“Very smart guy, but after his parents died, he inherited their house, quit his job, and sat around getting fatter and fatter and finally died of a heart attack at age 48.”
3. Hello, Father
“The son of my teacher was a football player, had a beautiful gf (they broke up before he graduated though), and was a procrastinator. Once he graduated, he went to work at a restaurant for a year and as far as I knew, he was going to attend college the next year but he had no idea of what his major was gonna be.
I just found out two weeks ago he got accepted to a local seminary and is going to become a priest! I was shocked to say the least.”
4. Rock star
“A really nice and shy guy who liked Queen and played guitar a bit. Became a bass-guitarist in #1 rock band in Ukraine.”
5. The life
“Probably the smartest guy in class but never actually paid attention or did his homework. Was always sleeping in class or doing his own thing or goofing off
Recently sold his startup for 8 figures and is now back to goofing off.”
6. Awful
“He was two years younger than me, absolutely brilliant and went to Stanford after high school.
Died in his sleep from a heart attack at age 20 while visiting family in China. He had an undiagnosed heart defect.
So yeah, that was pretty unexpected. RIP Kevin.”
7. “My parents hated him”
“Best friend in high school. His step dad was a district attorney and apparently they didn’t get along at all. This was the bible belt south east. I met him in the tenth grade as I smoked weed and he happened to sell it. He lived in a trailer park and financed it with his weed sales. My parents hated him.
After he graduated from high school while living 100 percent on his own, he did two years of collage before getting accepted in a major medical university program that actually paid him to be there. He is now a pharmaceutical engineer living in Switzerland. My parents were surprised to hear that.”
8. Made it
“Guy who sat behind me in hometown. Was a good student, but not an intellectual superstar by any means.
After I relocated to Eastern PA, turns out he was in Western NJ. Multi-millionaire, former CEO of a pharmaceutical company.
Great guy, super happy for him, but truly unexpected.”
9. Success story
“Not me, but my cousin in the UK went to school with Dev Patel. Dev was apparently super into the drama club, and people thought he was too over the top, and kind of a try hard that would never actually be a professional actor. His success was definitely unexpected for people he knew back then, based on what my cousin said.”
10. Great…
“High school meth dealer and local lunchroom pot/cigarette vendor ended up being roomates senior year. Two months after graduation they both joined the las vegas PD.”
11. OMG
“One dude who was always a dick to me but hung out with our friend group got expelled in High school for having legit childporn on his phone. He moved cities and I didn’t hear from him for years. Turns out he murdered an elderly gay man and is in jail now.”
12. The wrong path
“Not really a friend as I didn’t run with their crowd, but like at every school there was the really popular girl. Pretty, cheerleader, everybody liked her, wealthy parents, etc… I’m sure you knew someone like that yourself.
Just maybe two or three weeks ago she got arrested and charged with several felonies for possession of meth, prescription pain killers, and a large amount of weed.
I moved away from that town years ago and haven’t really kept in touch with a lot of the people from there. However a buddy of mine sent me a picture of the report in the newspaper and was like “remember her?” Definitely didn’t expect it, that’s for sure.”
13. Drinking his life away
“There were two that really stand out. One of them was a girl who got in a fair amount of trouble. She skipped school, had a bad attitude and was more interested in hanging out with friends than learning. She ended up becoming a lawyer and eventually became the assistant DA of a city with about 3 million people.
The other was a nice guy, got along with most everyone, I even considered him a friend and hung out with him on occasion. He came from a great family and while he didn’t get the best grades, he was good at things like fixing cars so I assumed he would end up going into that field. Instead, he started a career in drinking.
By the time he was 30 he had been in jail several times, in a rehab a couple of times, had been arrested numerous times, had two restraining orders on him from former girlfriends, and had burned so many bridges with his family they had given up on him. Now in his mid 40’s, he still lives in that same town. He looks like he is in his 60’s, is on disability, and likely doesn’t have much of a future as he continues to drink himself away.”
14. Didn’t see that coming
“Dude was the typical cocky douche to most people but we got along well enough. We’re 25 now, and he moved to Vegas went bald, put on about a hundred pounds and is dating a sixty year old stripper.”
15. That is dark
“My best friend since I was 5 yrs old, smartest person I ever knew. She went off to college and got into heroin. She is now serving a life sentence for first degree murder.”
