One of my best friends was from the wrong side of the tracks, poor, had a mullet and wore Metallica shirts way before they broke into mainstream.

He was extremely popular because he was crazy smart, very talented and driven. Everyone wanted to be his friend and he was very open about being nice to everyone.

Many many parents were like “don’t hang out with that John Smith boy, he’s on [substances] and a bad influence”
(He absolutely was not, it was the Satanic scare of the late 80s and 90s and he liked Metal Music)

He worked his as off all his life and is now pretty damn wealthy with a house, wife and kids in California.

When we chat it up on the phone he is the exact same person I grew up with. Crazy funny and extremely kind.

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Lyoness

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1 month ago

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Nice to read about a nice person.

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They are still as clicky as they were in high school almost 20 years later. There was a whole drama around the reunion (which I wasn’t going to), the valedictorian planned a reunion, and one of the “popular kids” in planned a separate one. People keep adding me to to the fb page and I keep denying myself entry. Not interested in any of them ??

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Lyoness

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I don't understand how grown adults can continue this nonsense beyond high school. But then again I worked for a company run by a quintessential mean girl, so I shouldn't be all that surprised.

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The most popular happened to be the highest performing, most of them didn't thrive after completing college.

I think the rigid process of accomplishing assigned tasks as they're presented screws people up when they're met with the real world and all of a sudden it's finally up to them to learn how to improvise.

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Lyoness

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Nothing sadder than "peaked in high school".

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I was once on a train from NYC back to my hometown for Thanksgiving. By chance I ended up sitting next to a guy from my high school; I didn’t know him that well, as we were part of a semi-large graduating class, but we were familiar enough to chat with each other, to pass the time.

He was good friends with two of the most popular dudes from our high school, and he said they were both kinda flailing in early adulthood:

-One of them got broken up with by his equally popular girlfriend, right before college had started, and he just could not handle it. He would show up to her school, unannounced, and just see what she was up to & bark at any dude who talked to her. She had to threaten getting a restraining order to get him to back off. Apparently he chilled out a little bit in the ensuing years, but just really struggled to make things happen for himself outside of the high school environment.

-The other did mostly fine during our college years, but really started to struggle once we all graduated & he lost the comforting structures of school. He was a handsome dude in our town, as a teen, but now, living in NYC, he was in an ocean of handsome dudes and apparently struggled a little bit not getting preferential treatment as often & not having girls interested in him after spitting a minimal amount of game.

I don’t bring this up to wish ill will on either of them. I think they’re both interesting examples of how poorly prepared most people are to jump off the “cliff” of leaving high school: you’ve spent your *entire* life building a life & network within a very specific life structure, and then suddenly, overnight, it all goes away.

I think some kids, especially ones who got popular *early* (like, going all the way back to 4th or 5th grade) do really struggle with the fact that one day, they’re thrust amid a sea of new people who do not perceive them as popular.

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Small town.

**There are always exceptions**, but most kids who were 'popular' were friendly, outgoing, well dressed, and emotionally stable. That happened because they came from families with more money and better educated parents.

Those parents often provided better mentoring, ensured they went to college, and as a result the kids ended up professionals who did reasonably well for themselves.

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Lawyer.

Doctor.

Current NBC Anchor in Lubbock.

Track and Field Coach for high school.

Physical therapist.

Engineer.

Prison for involuntary vehicular manslaughter and DUI.

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Lyoness

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That took a dark turn.

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The most popular class clown who drove teachers mad with his antics (to the greatesr enjoyment of the rest of us, seriously, this guy was legendary) went on to become a teacher.

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A girl friend of mine that I knew since kindergarten was appointed a California State Supreme Court Judge.

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He was our QB in highschool. Liked by everyone, handsome, did good in school, and was a humble person totally aware of his situation. Got married to a girl we went to school with, got a local job in a big local Industry, had a kid with her. I saw him at the gas station last time I was in town. He seems like he's doing well.

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My favorite is that the star wrestler, who was a bully, had a one night stand with the star cheerleader years later. It resulted in a pregnancy and she now complains on Facebook that he is a deadbeat dad.

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Don't know, Don't care.

Graduated in 1998, left for the Navy and never went back

Don't know what happened to any of them

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The kids who were popular in my school came from rich families, most of them simply went to rich schools and got jobs that didn't really involve working.

Now the cycle continues.

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They all became Instagram influencers and started selling detox tea

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They're doing fine. Contrary to what Reddit would have you believe, most of the popular kids in schools weren't bullies in my experience. They were kids who for the most part were nice, had a stable home life, and maybe happened to be fairly athletic

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I haven't been keeping tabs on anyone from my class save for myself. So I guess that makes me the most popular person in my class as far as I know.

I'm not doing great

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Lot of em dead, some highly successful, some still have their varsity football pic as their Facebook profile picture.

In my 30s

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He graduated in 1961 as an all-star athlete with letters in two sports over four years. Class and school president, homecoming king - the whole package in a very small town. He was handsome, too.

Went to college on a sports scholarship and flunked out the first semester. Came home, knocked up his HS girl friend, married had two kids, and got divorced. Worked for my dad as a farmer and remarried maybe 10 years later.

Dad decided to bankroll this '*star' with an underwritten line of credit so the wunderkind could start grass seed farming on his own. This credit line swelled up to over $850K - in the late 70s, or nearly $4 million in today's money. Come to find out he was buying expensive equipment and also chartering jets to Las Vegas for golf and gambling trips for his friends. He'd often be seen in bars lighting cigars with $100 bills because... why not? (Dad then cut him off and seized all his property, sold it, and managed to pay the bank most of the money from that)

Fast forward to today: He's 80, living on his (remarried) wife's pension as a teacher and taking care of her as she developed early Alzheimer's. His mom gave him a house and place to live forty years ago, so he has that. I looked him up on FB recently. He has as his 'profile photo' a fuzzy snapshot of his HS 'Most Valuable Player' trophy.

(*he's a cousin)

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They’re making askreddit posts

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One of if not the most popular girl in my grade had money, her parents owned the only liquor store in county (dry counties for 45 miles.)

Well that gravy train ended when the county went wet and prices got competitive, problem was they apparently never saved money the whole time. Then their regulars saw that the price was much lower at the gas station compared to what they had been paying them, like 30% over SRP. They closed very quickly, all their luxury vehicles got sold but they had the house paid. They moved after a while.

I saw her 3 years post graduation and she had doubled her weight and was having pics printed of her fiancé who I found out was a trust fund guy after the fact. (The souped up muscle car in his pics was a hint) He broke it off with her like a month later. Heresay was he figured out she was just there for money.

Most of that info I got second hand and I was only present for the pictures part. I don’t use Facebook so I never verified anything. I also do not care to investigate, I’ve stopped letting hs bs live in my head rent free.

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Last I heard they were failing to organize a 10 year reunion. I think it technically happened, but the facebook group where they organized it has like 5 people in it.

Also, 2 of them are ministers now, and *wow* would I have stories to tell their congregations.

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Was a popular ish kid: currently in school

Other people in my friend group:

- Dropped out of ivy league
- Got pregnant in freshman year at ivy league
- Dropped out of west coast CS school for a start up. Not going well
- on track for med school but not currently doing well on MCAT. Considering quitting medicine
- went to europe to model. Not going well

Doesn’t look too good for me atm lol

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I saw some pictures from my 30th year reunion. The popular kids and jocks did not seem to fair well.

The folks who did well academically seemed to have done very well in life all around. I have bumped into a few others over the years as well, and many have done well others settled into low wage jobs. The back parking lot crowd mostly ended up blue collar but not unhappy lives. It was kind of a mixed bag. More people died than I would have thought.

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I had popular kids in my school who were popular because they were the loud and disruptive, too-cool-for-school jocks and meangirls type. They're not up to much last time I heard.

I also had popular kids in my school who were popular because they were extremely charismatic and well put together. These folks are doing just fine

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One of the more popular girls (who I had a gigantic crush on) posed for playboy right after high school, got pregnant, got married. This was 20 years ago. I hear how she’s divorced and works as a manager in a retail store. (Nothing wrong with that, just that’s where she is now)

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One went trans. One went to prison. One became a pompous musician. Most of them gained weight like it was their job

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Lyoness

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1 month ago

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Can we stop with the language like "WENT trans"? They ARE trans, they didn't follow directions on a map to get there. It may seem like a picky little difference in terminology but in the trans community it's a big one.

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I’m old. Graduated from high school in 1970. My classmate rundown: One of the most popular ones came up with the name “windows” while a VP at Microsoft. One became a state governor and a U.S. Senator. Left politics in disgrace over racist comments. One is a hot shot on Wall Street. One of the less popular ones headed up a major record label for awhile. One was once mayor of a coastal town. Another less popular one was the victim of a serial killer. Another thoroughly unpopular one faked his death to get out of some financial fraud. Most, popular and unpopular, faded into obscurity as most of us do. Heard about a death just this week. Time marches on.

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