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“My Friend Was Still Alive”: 35 People Share The Most Surprising Things About Their High School Reunions
For many, an invitation to your high school class reunion can feel overwhelming. With many but’s and if’s crossing your mind, it’s nevertheless very tempting to see how these people: friends, first loves, acquaintances, and maybe even former enemies who probably still appear in your dreams every now and then, are doing today.
Well, these people who attended their high school reunion say they were left quite surprised by what they witnessed there.
“People who attended their high school reunion, what was the biggest surprise?” someone asked on Ask Reddit and the stories started flooding in. Below we wrapped up the most interesting ones for you to read.
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#1
At some point of our 10y reunion I asked the girl I had a crush on back in 7/8th grade if she knew that I had a crush on her. I just thought it was fun talking about that as adults. Turnes out she texted me several times the next days, we met again and now, almost 6ys later we're engaged (for 2ys... but didn't marry yet ;)) we have a house, a child, second child on the way and everything is great.
Not what I expected back then.
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#2
The only real "surprise" was **just how wrong we were about how people would turn out.**
The ivy-league bound people you were sure would be CEOs one day, ended up dropping out of college, having normal middle-class lives, jobs, and marriages, and just being happy as "average".
The people you were sure would end up like [Wooderson from School Daze](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/7DdPZDYBSGI/maxresdefault.jpg), turned out to get Masters degrees and even PhDs in one case, and now work in either government or aerospace.
The guy who fought to get into West Point, ended up doing his required four years and then leaving the armed services.
One guy ended up becoming a semi-successful author, and nobody saw that coming.
Two committed suicide, and many asked "Why? He seemed to have everything going for him!?"
The girl who got pregnant at 16, who you were sure was destined for a life of struggle, ended up landing a great career and retiring early. And her kids turned out to be great people who any parent would be proud of.
The people you were sure would never lose contact with their friend group, vanished as if they never existed.
The people who had to ask yourself, "I don't recall that name at all, did they graduate in my class?" are now friends with 75% of the class on Facebook, and active!
The athletes (boys and girls) are now anything but athletes, overweight and frumpy.
The frumpy dumpy ones now are rock climbers and hike the entirety of the Appalachian Trail.
**IT JUST GOES TO SHOW:** Who you are on graduation day, is absolutely not who you will become in three, five, ten, or thirty years. The future is yet unwritten, and the only thing stopping you from change, is yourself.
#3
My band got asked to play "some 90s class reunion" by a venue. We took the gig. As we're setting up I thought "Hey, I know her... And him... And her... And them"
*It was my f****n class reunion and I wasn't invited.*
#4
In high school in the late 1970’s a punk bully took my back pack and threw it out a third story window. I hated that guy. He did random s****y things like that to a few others. At a recent reunion he surprisingly showed up. I decided to talk to him. After a few beers I brought up the back pack toss. He didn’t remember it. We further talked. Turns out during that time in high school his dad was dying of cancer and he was struggling with his sexuality. He’s gay. Through tears he apologized to me for his erratic behavior in high school. After a couple more beers he told me that his 30 year partner had also recently passed of cancer. Wow. I’m just glad I went to the reunion. I had been talking s**t about that guy for decades. Now we are great friends.
#5
Back in high school, there was one girl who was extremely popular, extremely pretty, and seemed totally unapproachable from my vantage point. She was also really catty, embodying a lot of the “Mean Girl” stereotypes. Talking with her at the reunion, it turned out that she was very insecure, and had a very tenuous home life for which she was compensating and now she is extremely kind, full of gratitude, and just really down to earth. I love seeing that sort of change in people!
A Bi-Cycle 1 year ago
I love this. Some (emphasis on this word) mean horrible people can change! :D
#6
The hottest girl in grade 12…totally out of my league…told me at the reunion she’d always hoped I would ask her out and didn’t like that I treated her more like a sister despite her attempts to flirt with me.
I am Captain Oblivious it turns out.
UncleRussian 1 year ago
Oh I'm thick as rock. Hints don't work for me, you have to be blunt, like, pretend that you're talking to a very dumb tree 😂 😂
#7
The last I ever heard of my high school reunion was in an alumni newsletter. I was listed as “missing” with a request for anyone who knew how to contact me to contact the alumni organization.
The newsletter was sent to my house.
I’m trying not to take it personally…..
Tucker Cahooter 1 year ago
I presume I am listed as missing too, and I intend to stay that way
#8
That my friend was still alive and he was equally surprised that I was.
We got into drugs together right after HS, we ended up being so f****d up that one night we robbed each other (he sold me a bag of actual grass and I gave him a dollar instead of a 20 and we both ran in opposite directions and never spoke again. Friendship ended, no one even confronted the other.
10 years later at my HS reunion I see him sitting in the corner, we were both sober and looking great. I walk over to him and first thing he says to me was "OMG I THOUGHT YOU'D BE DEAD" and I said the same thing back to him... we talked the rest of the night, he didn't even remember why we stopped talking in the first place, just that we were both in a very dark place when we parted ways lol. Anyway we both felt it best we leave the friendship there and did not exchange numbers or anything but I'm glad he's alive.
It's ame Mario 1 year ago
I don't mean to laugh but the story of the last time they saw each other is so funny....I can just picture them running opposite directions thinking of how much they screwed the other one
#9
The biggest surprise anytime I catch up with people I grew up with is finding out their career. Most of us have pretty unremarkable jobs but some that stood out:
-The guy who got arrested for underaged drinking 3 times is now a cop
-The girl who couldn’t form a coherent sentence is now a teacher
-The super genius is living in poverty because he decided to move to Costa Rica to save the rainforest
-The bad kid joined the Army and now runs a small business and is doing very well for himself.
-The golden child is now in prison for sexual assault
-The weirdo became a DJ and does shows at night clubs
-The nerdy D&D kid now owns and operates an outdoor shooting range and is one of the largest ammunition suppliers in the area.
UncleRussian 1 year ago
I think the reason why the golden child is in prison for sexual assault is because growing up as a golden child they probably never had received any repercussions for their actions so they just assume they can get anything in life... Even by force
#10
The reunion itself.
My wife was down in the state south of us for training and got into an accident. I went down and got things sorted with her so she was good and went back to what she was doing and I drove back north. It was a friday and I was driving through my home town and figured I would take my mother out to a restaurant we used to both really like going to.
As we were eating, an old friend from highschool walked through, waved and headed into the back. Then another, and another, and another. Just as I was about to get up and go see what was going on an old girlfriend and later good friend walked in, saw me and came up to talk for a bit. Then she asked if we should head back there, which confused me.
Turns out I made it to the 10th year reunion for my class without knowing that I was at the 10th year reunion for my class. I finished my dinner with my mom, let her take my car home (I would catch a ride), and had a good night at the reunion I didn't know to expect.
Take me to dinner first 1 year ago
Super nice of you to finish the dinner with your mom first, tho
#11
It was disturbing that 17 classmates had died by our 10th reunion.
#12
A guy had cancer and attended. He looked to be 80 years old but was in his late 20s. Cancer really took a toll on him. Sad.
#13
No one f*****g remembered me. I had more people staring at me all confused, rather than make conversation. That’s what surprised me. I was quiet back then, but damn!
#14
The massive stoner from the year below me who used to get suspended on a monthly basis was the head of the English department.
#15
My 10 year reunion was held at a bar. It was all the same people at the bar as it was every weekend, but this time they were wearing nicer clothes.
#16
That I couldn't remember anyone. Everyone remembered me because I was the freak in high school, and people kept coming up to me and being like "Scienceforbid, it's so great to see you." And I kept having to run to the wall where they'd plastered blown up yearbook photos to figure out who the f**k anybody was.
T'Mar of Vulcan 1 year ago
Me too. It's been 35 years since I matriculated and sometimes someone will stop me and say, "You went to Sir John! (Adamson High School, south of Jozi)!" And I'll say, "Yes," then ask how they know me. They just "know me". Apparently I'm very memorable.
#17
How incredibly differently have people aged.
#18
I didn't go because... well... f**k HS. It was hell. A friend of mine went to the 15yr one and said it was depressing AF. The people who showed up either couldn't live past their HS glory or were just sad and depressed looking people.
I'm good, thanks.
Glenn Cuneo 1 year ago
had this guy everyone called "Uncle Rico"-- 35 years later all he could talk about was coach not putting in 4th quarter.....
#19
Last year was our 10th year reunion. I went there just for s**ts and giggles and......wow. Where do I even begin?
- The biggest nerd in the whole year turned out into this huge egotistical douchebag.
- The school's most "sociable" girl became a nurse.
- The school gang of bad boys were: 2 dead - one car crash/ one drug overdose, 1 commited suicide, one worked is a tech store, one worked 2 jobs because he was paid child support to 3 women (remember, kids, condoms are a good thing), one actually turned his life around and got a bachelor's degree in English and was a middle school English teacher and the last one was working for his dad because he got kicked out of uni.
- My classmate, who many people thought was an asocial and stuck-up b***h, bloomed into a beautiful woman, who's married with 2 kids. We had a long talk and she said that she appeared asocial because our classmates were morons (true) and she had no intention to talk to them.
#20
The people who made fun of me for my weight were now fat, divorced, and barely making it. I lost weight in college, got married to a wonderful man, and have great kids. And in the end they thought they were still better than me. I guess I found irony.
#21
Real estate agents, so many real estate agents.
hardrad2009 1 year ago
One of the reasons why I stopped to go to any reunions is that on each of them someone always tries to sell me something.
#22
(20-year reunion)
How many people seemed like they wanted to get to know me better in high school.
When I was in high school, I felt like a total social pariah and I would only approach people I thought were also at the bottom of the social food chain.
It turns out, a lot of pretty cool people would have likely been my friends if I had given them a chance and been more open to it. Many people mentioned that they thought about being friends or better friends with me but weren't quite sure why it didn't happen. Also, at the reunion, I was much more extroverted and confident and I realized a lot of the people I thought were popular snobs were very cool people.
Back in high school, it's not like those folks were begging me to hang out and I said no, but I was definitely defensive because I didn't want to get rejected. This means that I might have missed out on having not only more friends, but better ones because picking from the lowest rung of the ladder often meant I was dealing with people who had a lot of emotional problems.
#23
At my 10 year reunion, one of the guys that bullied me for being gay had, himself, come out of the closet and I learned had embraced the bdsm lifestyle, in all the good ways. We chatted and he apologized for his behavior and we got to talking about our mutual interests. Not that night, but down the road, he bullied me again... he bullied my brains out... It was surprisingly cathartic.
#24
My wife and I hosted our 10 year in 2014. We arranged everything via facebook figuring it was the easiest way to reach people. We left the group open so people could add people who had been married and weren't easily searchable due to changing their name. Well this person added themself and started making trouble about everything - they literally had a complaint about every aspect of what my wife and I were planning. The issue was nobody had ever heard of this person. We looked in our yearbook and they weren't in it. We were getting messages from dozens of people about their behaviour in the group and who the hell this person even was. So my wife asked. Apparently they got kicked out of their high school final semester of their senior year and came to our school for three months. When the reunion came around they were the first to show up, sat quietly in a corner and left early. I still have no idea who this person is.
Huddo's sister 1 year ago
There was a girl who graduated with my class but I hadn't known until that year because she was in the year ahead but chose to do year 12 over two years. I barely knew her that last year either, until about the last two weeks of the year. When we were all signing each other's uniforms on the last day she asked to sign mine, which I thought was years but I said it was okay. She signed something really crass and I now have it permanently on my jumper I was planning to display.
#25
That the guy who pretty much terrorized half of the school, was highly aggressive and got into legal trouble multiple times, is now running a successful business.
He also has 4 kids now and apparently, one of the middle ones has a really big bullying problem at school. And he's part of a parent run school club to fight against school bullies.
More than 20 years have passed since then and I don't have any bad feelings towards him (anymore). But I also hate the fact that he acts so high and mighty about it now, while also being the worst offender when he was young. People change and I'm the first one to forgive and forget. But it leaves a really bitter taste when you sit there and he talks for 2 hours straight about "How to stop bullies".
I mean... Thanks for my childhood trauma that really damaged my self esteem for the longest time... I guess? Happy you did so well for yourself.
Kraneia The Dancing Dryad 1 year ago
This sounds like my cousin, who bullied me.... And then grew up to talk about anti bullying in Facebook. I guess it's different when it's your own kid being bullied eh?
#26
I went to my 10 year reunion when it was held about 35 years ago. Not sure why I went because I was never part of the "in" crowd. One of the first people that comes up to be is a guy who is epitomized middle age while being only 28 - a little rotund, comically bald - top of his head was as bare as a babies a*s, but he had blonde tufts of hair around his head. Very clownish looking. He started to talk to me and I had no idea who he was. I finally asked him and he told me his name. I almost laughed at him. You see this guy was THE chick magnet at my high school and had the attitude to match. In shape surfer dude, charismatic, thick wavy blonde hair and always seemed to have cash. Karma was not kind to him.
#27
At my ten year, two dudes got in a fist fight outside the bar over a girl they both dated in high school.
Neither married her, neither even dated her past high school.
#28
How little I fit in now.
I went to a very religious school and was always a quiet kid who blended into the background but had a close group of friends, all of whom I lost touch with through uni and subsequent years.
At the reunion I’m there, very tattooed and now working in the film industry with lots of mad stories of my exploits and all my old friends are much the same as they were at school. No one really blown up big or fallen apart, just quietly working away at thing - mostly religious or charity work. I was very much the outlier at the reunion in terms of shear change of life direction which was odd!
#29
The couple from our graduating HS class that had nine kids by our 10 year reunion. They were even given an award for it, smh.
#30
The only high school reunion I attended was my 50th. I was surprised that people remembered things I'd done with amazing detail specificity.
Tucker Cahooter 1 year ago
I don't remember things I'd done too well but I certainly remember things done *to* me
#31
I was not invited to my 10-year reunion, despite being part of the facebook group. Apparently only about 50 out of 400 people were even invited, and only about 20 of them showed. I only found out about it from pictures on facebook I saw a few weeks later.
#32
At the ten-year, One guy who had been a kind of nerd and on the bowling team was now part of a "wacky morning DJ" crew on one of the more popular radio stations in New York City, and came in with big hair and dressed like a rock star.
#33
Being in a room of people who you grew up with, Were close to, did all kinds of things with are now all strangers. It was like meeting them all again for the first time.
#34
I was probably a big surprise for a lot of people.
And I met my husband, we knew of each other in high school but had both changed so much we were basically new and different people 10 years later. He’d been a huge stoner hippy but popular cool party boy and I’d been suppressed into near invisibility between an abusive boyfriend and conservative Christian parents.
I had zero interest in going and actually hadn’t even graduated from there, but my old friends (one was bullied terribly and was now out and proud, the other had a near-lethal cough syrup addiction and barely graduated but now had mid-6-figure internship on Wall Street) really wanted me to go because I was a late bloomer and they wanted to show up with a newly pretty girl on their arm. Plus I had really nice fake boobs. Their explanation not mine.
Pretty much the best decision I ever made. Met my husband and he’s so hot and super awesome and we’re still killing it 13 years later. Most unlikely couple ever.
Kathy Findley 1 year ago
This is the most boring, self serving story so far! Are you STILL in high school?
#35
I got a lot of apologies from bullies.
In high school I was kind of weird and insecure. Definitely didn't have any direction, purpose, or confidence.
By the time I went to my 5-year or 6-year reunion, I forget which, I'd run and held office, been covered in the major local news paper, and was dating a really hot woman.
I remember walking in and having all these guys who thought I was a dweeb and who bullied me and they all basically said the same thing, "Damn, man. You've grown."
What do you think ?
Leo Domitrix 1 year ago
What this shows is that we are not at 30 who we are at 15. Shock, horror/s/ In seriousness, assuming people will turn out a certain way based on who they are in high school is, simply, silly. If they're happy, doesn't htat matter more than what you expect of them from adolescence? BTW, I was once voted most likely to never be married. I'm now married 30 years, in a row. to the same person. So.... High school is just a time in life. Not your whole life. Thank you for reading my TED talk....
Caro Caro 1 year ago
HA ! There was a new kid at our school and he was autistic and a sweet guy. He was bullied and I stood up to the bullies and protected him. He is my brother's best friend, still remembers what I did for him and has a very successful career. The so called popular guy is still the same and still nice. The beauty is still beautiful but now doesn't give 2 effs how she looks LOL. The highly intelligent "nerd" is a baker. I could go on. I'm still nuts :)
Load More Replies...
censorshipsucks 1 year ago
This is the main reason to go to these things, to see how karma/fate dealt with the people who were not-great. In my case: the weirdos were rich; the smart kids were mediocre or teachers; the jocks (ie sports guys) were unemployed; the trashy guys (ie guys who smoked, slept around, didn't go to class) were doing manual work like plumbing etc. Not ALL of them, but mostly the losers at school were the biggest successes after school. It was an eye-opener and very satisfying.
Leo Domitrix 1 year ago
Your prejudice toward manual labor will bite you in the....er.... plumbing if you're not careful. Our car repair guy makes twice what Hubby does, and for all we know, he was a "loser" in school who now can afford to collect cars!
Load More Replies... Rocco MZ 1 year ago
The first reunion I went to was my 25th. I was still in touch with a lot of people from that time period thanks to social media. Even though I live on the other side of the country, our core group stays in touch. Our class was HUGE, but there was never any drama or cliques. It was nice to see everyone and everyone was as nice as I remember. It was at my 25th reunion that I found out I was popular in high school. Who knew? Apparently, everyone but me. I'm in my mid 50s and I still chat with our core group of friends and even became friends with a classmate's 77yo dad via Facebook.
Leo Domitrix 1 year ago
What this shows is that we are not at 30 who we are at 15. Shock, horror/s/ In seriousness, assuming people will turn out a certain way based on who they are in high school is, simply, silly. If they're happy, doesn't htat matter more than what you expect of them from adolescence? BTW, I was once voted most likely to never be married. I'm now married 30 years, in a row. to the same person. So.... High school is just a time in life. Not your whole life. Thank you for reading my TED talk....
Caro Caro 1 year ago
HA ! There was a new kid at our school and he was autistic and a sweet guy. He was bullied and I stood up to the bullies and protected him. He is my brother's best friend, still remembers what I did for him and has a very successful career. The so called popular guy is still the same and still nice. The beauty is still beautiful but now doesn't give 2 effs how she looks LOL. The highly intelligent "nerd" is a baker. I could go on. I'm still nuts :)
Load More Replies... censorshipsucks 1 year ago
This is the main reason to go to these things, to see how karma/fate dealt with the people who were not-great. In my case: the weirdos were rich; the smart kids were mediocre or teachers; the jocks (ie sports guys) were unemployed; the trashy guys (ie guys who smoked, slept around, didn't go to class) were doing manual work like plumbing etc. Not ALL of them, but mostly the losers at school were the biggest successes after school. It was an eye-opener and very satisfying.
Leo Domitrix 1 year ago
Your prejudice toward manual labor will bite you in the....er.... plumbing if you're not careful. Our car repair guy makes twice what Hubby does, and for all we know, he was a "loser" in school who now can afford to collect cars!
Load More Replies... Rocco MZ 1 year ago
The first reunion I went to was my 25th. I was still in touch with a lot of people from that time period thanks to social media. Even though I live on the other side of the country, our core group stays in touch. Our class was HUGE, but there was never any drama or cliques. It was nice to see everyone and everyone was as nice as I remember. It was at my 25th reunion that I found out I was popular in high school. Who knew? Apparently, everyone but me. I'm in my mid 50s and I still chat with our core group of friends and even became friends with a classmate's 77yo dad via Facebook.
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