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It’s an interesting paradox that we often spend the majority of our younger years yearning for the freedom that comes with adulthood, but when we finally reach it, we start reminiscing about the lack of responsibilities and the good times we had in school.
It even happens that some people get too caught up in this web of memories and find it hard to move on to a brighter future. Seeing this way too much, one redditor turned to the AskReddit community with the question, “What screams 'this person peaked in high school' to you?”
From bragging about SAT scores ten years later to getting into fistfights at bars, scroll down to find the most awkward telltale signs that indicate a person has reached their maximum potential in their final years of education.
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#1
I had a teacher in high school who was always reminiscing about her days in high school and warning us that high school is the best time of our lives.
I'm a teacher now and I tell my students the opposite. You won't need to see these people ever again, who you are now is not who you will be in the future, etc. Things can get better!
Tabitha 8 months ago (edited)
When I was struggling socially in high school, my oldest brother told me something that made it easier. High school is temporary, and you will be amazed at how fast you will forget everybody once you leave. He said the world is full of all kinds of people, and there are plenty of them who will happily accept you just as you are, even if the kids in high school didn’t. And he was absolutely right! I’m 63 now. I graduated high school in 1978, and never looked back. I did find plenty of people who did accept me for exactly who I am, and never tried to make me change to fit in with them. I have even been married to one of them for decades now. I don’t look up anyone I was in school with online, or even know if the school has a website. Because I don’t really care. I left that part of my life a long time ago and don’t want to revisit it. Also, since I obviously didn’t peak in high school, I have peaked as an adult—-many times and in many different ways—-in all the decades since. That’s really the way it should be. We shouldn’t peak only once as teenagers. We should continually peak, several times in several ways, during our entire adult lives, and never stop peaking. People who peaked in high school and never peaked again are people who rested on their laurels at 18 and thought that was all the effort they ever had to make their entire lives. Sad. Misguided. And tbh, stupid.
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#2
I coulda went pro if I didn't blow out my knee in the playoffs senior year!
We know Mike, you never shut up about it
Tucker Cahooter 8 months ago
I remember a guy always going on about how he scored four touchdowns in one game; no surprise he ended up as a shoe salesman
Eric S. 8 months ago
Didn't pay much attention in high school either... "I could have went" always makes me cringe
LaserBrain 8 months ago
What were they in hs for then, obviously not paying attention in grammar class
Load More Replies...
Tabitha 8 months ago (edited)
Too bad they probably also ignored academics in favor of sports, so had little to nothing to fall back on. The most sustainably successful athletes, who remained rich even after retiring from their sports, are those with intelligence as well as physical prowess. They know sports is temporary and risky, and they know they really only have a handful of prime years to make the most of, as long as they don’t end up with a catastrophic and career-ending injury, so they don’t blow through the money they make. They invest it, and they network in different areas of the entire industry, to make sure there’s a job for them—-a new revenue stream—-when they can’t play anymore. Coaching, reporting, owning a team (fully or partly), and most important, lucrative endorsements. I mean, you have to have good critical thinking skills to formulate strategies when in the middle of a game, so you’d think that ability would also translate to making sure you don’t waste that high salary you’re making as a professional athlete. Every team should really have people hired to teach how to budget, how to invest, how to make your money last, and how to not go bankrupt. Maybe someone could suggest that to the owners and coaches.
Lew k 8 months ago
Always from the guy who’s 5’7 180 lbs. you might have been great playing against high school kids but your chances of going pro we’re always 0. This is why dreams of pro sports are so dangerous. 90% of people will not/ cannot play pro just due to they don’t have the physical size to do so.
Courtney Christelle 8 months ago
Had an ex that constantly brought up his high school wrestling.
similarly 8 months ago
I knew a guy who probably would have gone pro except for a knee injury. Mentioned it exactly once. Now coaches football. One of the kindest and most decent people I've ever met. Absolutely did not peak in high school. I think that guy will never peak. He's just an amazing person to know.
Deirdre Segraves 8 months ago
I mean... not to be a Mike, but I blew out my knee doing a lunge when I was 42 and it's been downhill ever since. I can't imagine how devastating that could be for a young athlete and I can totally see carrying the "what if" Well into adulthood.
RaroaRaroa 8 months ago
It's the same as saying "We could've won that game if we'd just scored more goals". You didn't. He couldn't have gone pro because he didn't have the body and/or the correct attention to preparation to be a pro.
John Haley 8 months ago
"I used to be an adventurer like you. Then I took an arrow in the knee"
Betty Vanderhooven-SchmaaSchmaa 8 months ago
Hitting your peak in life when you're in high school. I always worry about these folks.
Betty Vanderhooven-SchmaaSchmaa 8 months ago
Ive found these guys are usually drunk too. Tragic.
Jaya 8 months ago
Why are people so negative about this? I'm not into sports at all, but I imagine it would be heartbreaking if an accident ruins your chance of getting your dream career, if that sport was such a major passion for you, and you'd probably also given up parties and other fun things in highschool to practice a lot.
#3
They’ll scream at their kids at their sports games as if its a world championship lol
Cecilia Herrera 8 months ago
Poor kids who have parents that are trying to fulfill their own dreams through their children.
One common indicator that a person "peaked in high school" is if they rely on their past accomplishments to define their current value. Sure, it's great to be proud of one's achievements, but it's equally important to continue growing and setting new goals. If you feel like you haven't succeeded at something for a while and only tend to reminisce about the good old days, it might be a sign that you need to take on a new challenge.
Another indication is if the person is struggling to adjust to adult responsibilities. High school conveniently provides students with a structured environment and clear expectations and duties, which makes it trickier for some to transition into adulthood, where you have to take matters into your own hands. After leaving such an environment, individuals might feel overwhelmed or unsure of how to navigate the challenges of adulthood.
This can further lead to people struggling to find their own identity and purpose. Since high school provides a clear path for many of them, it can be hard to discover passions on their own without it.
#4
Telling teenagers that “These are the best years of your life, it’s all downhill from here.”
CanadianDimes 8 months ago
Yep, that is so not true for everyone. My teen years were largely boring AF. I’m in my mid 40s and I couldn’t say that any specific time was “ the best years of my life”. It’s all a mixed bag, some good, some bad, some in the middle. Right now it’s very good and I’m happy about that and enjoying it!
#5
I had a conversation in a bar with a drinking buddy years ago. The guy kept going on about "the one that got away." How perfect she was and their chemistry together, how natural it was, how he hasn't felt that way about any girl since, yadda yadda. He was feeling pretty sorry for himself and uninterested in meeting anyone else because they could never compare. When I asked how long ago it was that she moved away, he said "8th grade." LMFAO
However, it's not all downhill from there, as it's never too late to continue growing and find new successes in different areas of life. In fact, one study has found that people who performed well during their high school years tend to display better cognitive functions even 60 years later.
#7
Going back to the high school for any and every event
Did I say that out loud? (he/him)cis/het 8 months ago
I left my comprehensive school in 1985, and I've never had any desire to go back. I don't even know if there have been any type of reunion and I care even less.
#8
My dad regularly watches video tapes of his high school basketball games. So probably that.
#9
My ex-husband is a prime example. He was a football, track, baseball, choir, and drama star. He was super popular and people fell at his feet.
Now he's 50, balding, overweight, and a cocky know it all. He still has the "football star" big d**k energy but now its just sad. He's old, frumpy, and he brags about high school and is an a*****e to everyone.
He likes to bully and control me and our kids. He told me during Covid lockdown that he was immune to all sickness and doctors should study him because he's a perfect specimen.
Cecilia Herrera 8 months ago
I am glad that he is an "ex" husband. I hope you are having the wonderful life you deserve.
The reason our brains are so attached to our high school years might be because "instruction provided by more experienced and knowledgeable teachers might be more intellectually stimulating and provide additional neural or cognitive benefits," says Dominika Šeblová, a research scientist at Columbia University.
#10
Getting in fist-fights as an adult. Especially at a bar when you're drunk.
#11
Mean girl energy over the age of 22-23.
It gives either you peaked in high school or you were bullied in high school and continued the cycle because you want to know what it feels like.
BROmanicus85 8 months ago
Or the 3rd option: you were and will always remain a bully because you're just petty that way...
#12
All their stories, all their accomplishments, all their succeses they mention were during high school.
#13
My dad's oldest friend spent his entire adult life talking about his high-school days -- dad says he was a very good-looking and popular guy at the time. We'll call him Tom.
Tom made good early life and was a very successful salesman until he had a heart attack at age 33 which pretty much ended his professional career.
From there, Tom worked a variety of odd jobs because he just couldn't get his act together. He became overweight and lost most of his hair and looked nothing like his younger self. Eventually, Tom found himself living out of his van and having to constantly borrow money from his mother and friends to survive.
When they had their 25th graduating class reunion, my dad said Tom was the first to arrive and the last to leave.
Tom, who was a regular fixture at our home in the 1980s, spent the next two months talking to my parents about how much fun he had at that reunion and how much enjoyed seeing everyone again and how he wished it could have lasted forever.
Sadly, Tom passed away a few years later at 47 from another heart attack. He was a nice enough guy, and I am really glad he enjoyed that reunion.
#15
In my 60's and just moved to a different town. Got into a group of bicycle riders. All these guys can talk about is their high school antics. Who dated who. Who skipped the most classes. How great they were at sports. Yada-yada-yada. I left hs and did six years in the navy. Then went to college on the GI bill. Had way more fun and excitement than hs. I stopped riding with those guys.
#16
They scored four touchdowns in one game playing fullback for Polk High, setting a school record.
#17
They post their entire life on social media. Everytime little Jenny opens their eyes, or little Johnny brings home a new art piece from school. Every single date night, OOTD, and selfie all put on social media.
#18
When they keep trying to organize high school reunions more than a decade after graduation, even though no one ever responds to them
Lance LaRocque 8 months ago
I don't want to know what happened to the people in high school because I just don't see the point. If I wanted to know I would have stayed in touch.
#20
You know someone peaked in high school when they're more concerned with maintaining their status as the 'cool kid' than actually pursuing meaningful goals and aspirations in their adult life.
#21
Making fun of someone’s appearance
THE COOL ZACH 8 months ago
I did that once thinking I made a “joke” it wasn’t,I was just being stupid and impulsive,and I really hate that I did that. There never jokes,the only joke was me thinking it was funny.
#23
I spent some time with a company in the Texas Hill country I was a mid-thirties exec type. I was amazed how many middle aged women told me they were a cheer leader in high school.
JayWantsACat 8 months ago
This definitely feels like something women from Texas would still brag about because it literally was the peak of their lives. I know it's not exclusively Texas but that whole football and cheer seen is so engrained into their culture and so many people never even leave their hometowns that of course they reminisce.
#24
An obsession with how many people you've slept with. If that's your only goal, you got nothing else going for you.
#25
Someone who keeps talking about it.
I don't mind sharing events of the past but it's been 14 years now since High School for me.
I've worked a lot of places and done a lot in life since then.
Hope to do even more and make more memories as I go.
CrunChewy McSandybutt 8 months ago
It's been 35 years since HS for me, and still some people my age are talking about it. I can't even remember most of the people from that time.
#26
Married high school gf , cheats on her at the neighborhood bar and gets into fights.
Bully mentality and closed to the rest of the world.
#27
It's evident in those who never evolved past their high school persona—still stuck in the same mindset, habits, and attitudes they had as teenagers, refusing to grow and mature.
#28
Joining an MLM.
naming their kid something like Nevaeh or Kinzleigh.
Living vicariously through their kid and making them join stuff they did when they were younger
They’re a pick me
me myself and i (She/Her) 8 months ago (edited)
the second one is a good example of a tragedeigh edit: the second name of the second example.l
#29
People who still display their trophies, medals , homecoming tiaras etc while working a dead end job in their late 30s.
A few of the "popular girls" I went to high school with (graduated in 2000) literally never went on to do anything meaningful with their lives after high school...except to get married and post endless photos of their "perfect families." No real college experiences, no travel, no job accomplishments. The captain of the pommer team who ended up taking a certain departmental award solely because her dad was the head of it literally does nothing but post all the perfect photos of her family....married for 20 years...no one has the heart to ask her if she knows that her husband cheats on her....with men.
Donna Peluda 8 months ago
That when south at the end.. she probably knows or suspects something but just doesn't want to know. He gets what he wants an she is left alone to keep up the appearance.
#30
Difficulty adapting to new environments, challenges, or responsibilities beyond the structure and routine of high school life.
#31
You can tell when someone peaked in high school by how they approach life now—constantly chasing after faded dreams or living in a state of perpetual nostalgia, unable to move forward.
BarkingSpider 8 months ago
I have a perpetual nostalgia friend, but it's weird because he didn't do anything in hs either. He's a really nice guy with a family, and it makes me sad that all he does is look backwards.
#32
Only friends with people they went to school with. If you had something to offer post-school, you’d have managed at least one new friend.
Tempest 8 months ago
This isn’t something unusual or a “peaked in high school” situation. Friends you had in school have been in your life for a long time, some as long as since you started school. They’re basically people you grew up with and knows about each other well. Whereas those you meet in college or work are relatively new people. Unlike with school, you don’t always get many years with them, especially with college friends who go different ways. People are accustomed to having their school friends around for so long that it’s easier for them to continue those friendships, but it doesn’t mean they don’t or can’t form new friendships as they progress in life.
#33
“You think you’re better than me?”
CanadianDimes 8 months ago
If someone asks that question, the answer automatically becomes “yes”. I might not have before you asked, but I do now.
What do you think ?
SirWriteALot 8 months ago
I went to a bunch of different schools in different countries but nowhere was there this kind of obsession with it. Football star. Cheerleaders. Valedictorian. Homecoming, whatever ... everywhere EXCEPT the US are schools just places where kids go, learn, then move on and live their lives.
Penguin Panda Pop 8 months ago
Mostly true except for folks who went to the (confusingly named) Public Schools in Britain. People who went to Eton or similar love to tell you they went to Eton (or similar).
Load More Replies...
Tempest 8 months ago
Liking and appreciating your school years doesn’t mean you only peaked at that time. It’s not the same as being fixated and refusing to let go of your “school persona”. The school system in my country is a continuous process from nursery/grade 1 up to grade 12, without a division of primary, secondary, and high school. The school is one large complex with all these students. Students in each grade have been together since they started school up until they graduate (except for those who left or joined halfway). We don’t always have the same friends throughout these years, but we get to know and be comfortable with each other so well because we grow up in the same setting for so long. Whereas, once we go off to college/work we meet people of different backgrounds and don’t have the ample time as before to be with them so these friendships don’t always work out. Might be the system but for most people in my country their school friends are set for life and share the best memories with.
Jessica SpeLangm 8 months ago
I hated my high school and didn't peak there. I'm living my best life now and rarely think of my high school days. I did go to a couple of reunions, but I left soon after I arrived because I had nothing in common with my classmates anymore, except we all graduated together.
Donna Peluda 8 months ago
I had a great time and a couple of pranks we pulled are legendary. Doesn't have to mean that I didn't go on from there. Had some interesting jobs and meet some great people on the way having fun while doing it. The only thing that bugs me about then and now is I just don't have the same energy. Now I have to pace myself more.
Guess Undheit 8 months ago
My annoyance with high school is that I was forced to go, neither lousy "parent" nor the school board willing to let me do independent study. I could have graduated one or two years earlier, but was denied the chance to study at my own pace.
Poppy 8 months ago
I absolutely detested high school - possibly due to my own undiagnosed ADHD - and I would never ever want to go back or live in that sort of environment ever again. In the UK there isn't this obsession with high school, in fact I didn't even go to my prom which was just starting to be a thing in the UK when I left school in 1991. Once you've left school, it's very rare that people are nostalgic for those days and feel people have peaked in those days.
Petra Schaap 8 months ago
i dont understand most of them, and highschool was most definitely a time i'd like to forget. But i mostly feel sorry for those people, i dont see it as my problem.
SheamusFanFrom1987 8 months ago
High school was fair enough for me for slightly different reasons. It's where I met my Bros4Life and we are still very much in contact. I was pretty much a loner back in HS (can't say too much has changed) but now I am a little more active in the social circle now than I was then. One thing I did in HS that I'm getting back into now after a good 15+ year hiatus is sports but I'm not as agile or spry as I once was so one step at a time.
Angela C 8 months ago
Some of these are valid but a lot of it seems to be saying if you acknowledge that you went to high school and it wasn't absolutely terrible you peaked in high school. I have good memories of high school. I also have bad memories of high school. Same with literally every other time period in my life. But according to the Internet I'm supposed to forget that any of it happened or I'm cringey and peaked in high school
SirWriteALot 8 months ago
I went to a bunch of different schools in different countries but nowhere was there this kind of obsession with it. Football star. Cheerleaders. Valedictorian. Homecoming, whatever ... everywhere EXCEPT the US are schools just places where kids go, learn, then move on and live their lives.
Penguin Panda Pop 8 months ago
Mostly true except for folks who went to the (confusingly named) Public Schools in Britain. People who went to Eton or similar love to tell you they went to Eton (or similar).
Load More Replies... Tempest 8 months ago
Liking and appreciating your school years doesn’t mean you only peaked at that time. It’s not the same as being fixated and refusing to let go of your “school persona”. The school system in my country is a continuous process from nursery/grade 1 up to grade 12, without a division of primary, secondary, and high school. The school is one large complex with all these students. Students in each grade have been together since they started school up until they graduate (except for those who left or joined halfway). We don’t always have the same friends throughout these years, but we get to know and be comfortable with each other so well because we grow up in the same setting for so long. Whereas, once we go off to college/work we meet people of different backgrounds and don’t have the ample time as before to be with them so these friendships don’t always work out. Might be the system but for most people in my country their school friends are set for life and share the best memories with.
Jessica SpeLangm 8 months ago
I hated my high school and didn't peak there. I'm living my best life now and rarely think of my high school days. I did go to a couple of reunions, but I left soon after I arrived because I had nothing in common with my classmates anymore, except we all graduated together.
Donna Peluda 8 months ago
I had a great time and a couple of pranks we pulled are legendary. Doesn't have to mean that I didn't go on from there. Had some interesting jobs and meet some great people on the way having fun while doing it. The only thing that bugs me about then and now is I just don't have the same energy. Now I have to pace myself more.
Guess Undheit 8 months ago
My annoyance with high school is that I was forced to go, neither lousy "parent" nor the school board willing to let me do independent study. I could have graduated one or two years earlier, but was denied the chance to study at my own pace.
Poppy 8 months ago
I absolutely detested high school - possibly due to my own undiagnosed ADHD - and I would never ever want to go back or live in that sort of environment ever again. In the UK there isn't this obsession with high school, in fact I didn't even go to my prom which was just starting to be a thing in the UK when I left school in 1991. Once you've left school, it's very rare that people are nostalgic for those days and feel people have peaked in those days.
Petra Schaap 8 months ago
i dont understand most of them, and highschool was most definitely a time i'd like to forget. But i mostly feel sorry for those people, i dont see it as my problem.
SheamusFanFrom1987 8 months ago
High school was fair enough for me for slightly different reasons. It's where I met my Bros4Life and we are still very much in contact. I was pretty much a loner back in HS (can't say too much has changed) but now I am a little more active in the social circle now than I was then. One thing I did in HS that I'm getting back into now after a good 15+ year hiatus is sports but I'm not as agile or spry as I once was so one step at a time.
Angela C 8 months ago
Some of these are valid but a lot of it seems to be saying if you acknowledge that you went to high school and it wasn't absolutely terrible you peaked in high school. I have good memories of high school. I also have bad memories of high school. Same with literally every other time period in my life. But according to the Internet I'm supposed to forget that any of it happened or I'm cringey and peaked in high school
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