What were you in high school (nerd, brain, band geek, jock, druggie, etc.); how did life turn out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was the outcast goth girl. Everyone thought I was a druggie (I wasn't) and a slut (not that either) and a mute (well, I was painfully shy). I also happened to be a math whiz. Aced my SAT math portion, went to Cal Tech, shed my goth-wear, gained confidence with all the nerdy boys fawning all over me (it was a 10 - 1, boy -girl ratio), started to blossom, recruited to work for what was at the time a small startup in Sunnyvale, became ungodly rich by the time I was 35, quite confident at this point in my life, yes, some plastic surgery along the way also helped, ended up marrying a boy from high school actually! Saw him at our 15 year reunion, he did not recognize me, but I had a huge crush on him throughout high school (he was a jock and a brain and homecoming king). Our kids love hearing this story over and over and I suppose I don't mind sharing it over and over.

The Frog Princess

that is AWESOME! Where do you live now? Still in CA? or DC area?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was the outcast goth girl. Everyone thought I was a druggie (I wasn't) and a slut (not that either) and a mute (well, I was painfully shy). I also happened to be a math whiz. Aced my SAT math portion, went to Cal Tech, shed my goth-wear, gained confidence with all the nerdy boys fawning all over me (it was a 10 - 1, boy -girl ratio), started to blossom, recruited to work for what was at the time a small startup in Sunnyvale, became ungodly rich by the time I was 35, quite confident at this point in my life, yes, some plastic surgery along the way also helped, ended up marrying a boy from high school actually! Saw him at our 15 year reunion, he did not recognize me, but I had a huge crush on him throughout high school (he was a jock and a brain and homecoming king). Our kids love hearing this story over and over and I suppose I don't mind sharing it over and over.

The Frog Princess

that is AWESOME! Where do you live now? Still in CA? or DC area?

Ha. I'm glad that you enjoyed it. I've never told anyone this story outside of my family. I just thought it might inspire others. My husband actually gave me a hard time for sharing this, on a public forum no less. Of course, my husband is really incapable of giving me a hard time, he is such a sweetheart, it was more along the lines of concerns about sharing something so intensely personal with so many, and also grows out of the concern that I may have "outed" myself. After basically retiring in the face of my good fortune, we now live a very, very modest lifestyle in our aging and small, if comfortable and cozy bungalow. Our 2 decade-old cars are the opposite of fancy. We are very much the nondescript family next door. I work for a non-profit I care deeply about. I volunteer for, and give a substantial amount of money to, organizations which seek to help the cast out and misunderstood elements of our society. My math skills are seldom used, I'm afraid, although I do help the kids with their homework (I am so amazed at how complicated the work get even for a 12-year old!), and I suppose also used when I tutor underprivileged kids on SAT prep. I also tutor adults working on their GEDs. Yes, we live in the DC area mainly because my husband is a government lawyer, and it is the kind of interesting and meaningful work that cannot be done outside of govt/DC. Other than that, I'm just a devoted mom who dotes on the kids, helps out a lot at their school and at church, trys to live a good life, and counts my blessings every day, including the fact that in a very round about way I ended up marrying my soul mate and one true love.

FP

[Anonymous]

Druggie. That was highschool years and even though i was a druggie, i still succeed my high school years by cheating and i graduated then when i went to a university, i studied hard (but i was still smoking) then graduated and now i am a vet

[Anonymous]

I was a nerd, voted the most shy person in a class of 400. Still a nerd, got a masters and a Ph.D., but in the past ten years I worked very hard on not being outwardly shy and it worked. I'm still an introvert but can deal with people more easily now. I was also very poor growing up and have a pretty financially secure life now.

[Anonymous]

Tracy Flick. Still kind of am :/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tracy Flick. Still kind of am :/

Well you are in the right place. I went to school with someone actually named Tracy Flick, but she was nothing like the movie character.

[Anonymous]

Had plenty of HS friends, but mainly hung out with work friends. Was approached at the 10 year reunion by a guy who was quite popular and had lots of parties with "You never came to one of my parties - you hung out with older guys". Who remembers this? Nice guy though.

Great life now after challenging early parts of marriage. Have lots of acquaintances, just enough friends, and love FB for keeping up with everyone. I am the one who usually heads up reunions and parties when I go home. A core group of us from high school bonded at the 20th reunion and haven't really let go. SO nice to know they are always there!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was the outcast goth girl. Everyone thought I was a druggie (I wasn't) and a slut (not that either) and a mute (well, I was painfully shy). I also happened to be a math whiz. Aced my SAT math portion, went to Cal Tech, shed my goth-wear, gained confidence with all the nerdy boys fawning all over me (it was a 10 - 1, boy -girl ratio), started to blossom, recruited to work for what was at the time a small startup in Sunnyvale, became ungodly rich by the time I was 35, quite confident at this point in my life, yes, some plastic surgery along the way also helped, ended up marrying a boy from high school actually! Saw him at our 15 year reunion, he did not recognize me, but I had a huge crush on him throughout high school (he was a jock and a brain and homecoming king). Our kids love hearing this story over and over and I suppose I don't mind sharing it over and over.

The Frog Princess

that is AWESOME! Where do you live now? Still in CA? or DC area?

Ha. I'm glad that you enjoyed it. I've never told anyone this story outside of my family. I just thought it might inspire others. My husband actually gave me a hard time for sharing this, on a public forum no less. Of course, my husband is really incapable of giving me a hard time, he is such a sweetheart, it was more along the lines of concerns about sharing something so intensely personal with so many, and also grows out of the concern that I may have "outed" myself. After basically retiring in the face of my good fortune, we now live a very, very modest lifestyle in our aging and small, if comfortable and cozy bungalow. Our 2 decade-old cars are the opposite of fancy. We are very much the nondescript family next door. I work for a non-profit I care deeply about. I volunteer for, and give a substantial amount of money to, organizations which seek to help the cast out and misunderstood elements of our society. My math skills are seldom used, I'm afraid, although I do help the kids with their homework (I am so amazed at how complicated the work get even for a 12-year old!), and I suppose also used when I tutor underprivileged kids on SAT prep. I also tutor adults working on their GEDs. Yes, we live in the DC area mainly because my husband is a government lawyer, and it is the kind of interesting and meaningful work that cannot be done outside of govt/DC. Other than that, I'm just a devoted mom who dotes on the kids, helps out a lot at their school and at church, trys to live a good life, and counts my blessings every day, including the fact that in a very round about way I ended up marrying my soul mate and one true love.

FP

LOVE this story.

[Anonymous]

Smoked a ton of weed. Very skinny, very tall, awkward looking. Definitely NOT the cheerleader type and not the type boyse liked. I did however model a bit. The week after graduation I moved to NYC where I worked as a model for 5 years.

I'm now in sales and take excellent care of my body (no more weed!) have 3 children and have been with the same man I met when I was 21. I've always been very social which has helped me achieve a lot of success in sales. I never did finish college, but I'm sure I will one day for pleasure.

I hated my tall skinny body in HS and finally realize at the age of 36 and 3 kids, it is a huge blessing.

[Anonymous]

Thanks to the quarterback of the football team at the rival high school that I dated for a year, I got a reputation as a slut that never seem to go away. Boys seem to spread even worse rumors about me than girls. I wasn't slutty, but I did lose my virginity to that boyfriend who I was in intense high school love at 15. I was also labeled as "wild" even though I had strict parents and an early curfew all through HS.

Anyway, I am still friendly and in touch with many of my HS classmate. As for me, I am a Big law attorney, pretty successful, still my HS weight and look pretty decent for my age. I got married to a man who is way too good looking for me but for some reason he really loves me. We are very happy. He thinks it is really strange re the HS rumors.

[Anonymous]

Top dc private high school. Smart white kid who studied a lot and did tons of extra currics. Most of my friends were the daughters of government attorneys/journalists/foreign service etc - not high paid lobbyists, law firm partners, etc. We did not belong to country clubs or vacation in Nantucket etc. We were all smart and studied a lot.

The "popular" girls tended to have wealthier parents who worked in the private sector (probably because the group stemmed from elementary school and you need to be wealthier to send your kid to private all the way through). Some of them were just as smart as us and worked hard, but some of the smart ones did not work very hard. Some of them were not that smart by private dc standards. They were all more likely to drink, hook up with different guys a lot, and by senior year some did drugs.

My friends and I are all in boring professional jobs like attorney, doctor, etc. Most of us have kids but all are still working outside the home.

A few of the "popular" girls are in traditional professional positions like attorney, consultant, etc. But most of them, even the smart ones who have great academic backgrounds, are doing SAHM or fun sounding jobs like photography and art consulting that probably don't pay a ton. Yet they are still able to live very nice lifestyles.

So let's see. My friends and I have worked our asses off since ninth grade. The "popular" girls partied more in high school and now don't work or do fun hobby type jobs.

You judge who is better off......

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Super nerd. Pretty high GPA, I had one best friend and no one else. Super racist environment, got called all kinds of terrible names. I wasn't bullied but boys and men especially said some horrible things to me. I had a long awkward stage, 11-17. We were poor and I had terrible clothes.

No boyfriends whatsoever - until I started working at an amusement park. I had clothes, I had new friends, new people outside of my close minded little town. Josh, if you are out there, you were great.

I'm confident in my looks now, not very ambitious, moderately successful lawyer (meaning I have a job). I did ok, I think.

Watch the way way back
And adventureland

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think some of this depends on what is valued as popular at your particular school. At my Big 3 private school is was smarts and drugs more than sports. At my DCs MoCo public high school it's smarts and sports. So no reason to think that groups where popularity is based largely on smarts aren't going to be successful long term. There may be places where the dumb jock/cheerleader stereotypes still exist, but it doesn't seem to be true in my world or my kids world.

Gds?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was the outcast goth girl. Everyone thought I was a druggie (I wasn't) and a slut (not that either) and a mute (well, I was painfully shy). I also happened to be a math whiz. Aced my SAT math portion, went to Cal Tech, shed my goth-wear, gained confidence with all the nerdy boys fawning all over me (it was a 10 - 1, boy -girl ratio), started to blossom, recruited to work for what was at the time a small startup in Sunnyvale, became ungodly rich by the time I was 35, quite confident at this point in my life, yes, some plastic surgery along the way also helped, ended up marrying a boy from high school actually! Saw him at our 15 year reunion, he did not recognize me, but I had a huge crush on him throughout high school (he was a jock and a brain and homecoming king). Our kids love hearing this story over and over and I suppose I don't mind sharing it over and over.

The Frog Princess

that is AWESOME! Where do you live now? Still in CA? or DC area?

Ha. I'm glad that you enjoyed it. I've never told anyone this story outside of my family. I just thought it might inspire others. My husband actually gave me a hard time for sharing this, on a public forum no less. Of course, my husband is really incapable of giving me a hard time, he is such a sweetheart, it was more along the lines of concerns about sharing something so intensely personal with so many, and also grows out of the concern that I may have "outed" myself. After basically retiring in the face of my good fortune, we now live a very, very modest lifestyle in our aging and small, if comfortable and cozy bungalow. Our 2 decade-old cars are the opposite of fancy. We are very much the nondescript family next door. I work for a non-profit I care deeply about. I volunteer for, and give a substantial amount of money to, organizations which seek to help the cast out and misunderstood elements of our society. My math skills are seldom used, I'm afraid, although I do help the kids with their homework (I am so amazed at how complicated the work get even for a 12-year old!), and I suppose also used when I tutor underprivileged kids on SAT prep. I also tutor adults working on their GEDs. Yes, we live in the DC area mainly because my husband is a government lawyer, and it is the kind of interesting and meaningful work that cannot be done outside of govt/DC. Other than that, I'm just a devoted mom who dotes on the kids, helps out a lot at their school and at church, trys to live a good life, and counts my blessings every day, including the fact that in a very round about way I ended up marrying my soul mate and one true love.

FP

LOVE this story.

Me too. Are you also the one asking if you can still wear Doc Martens? You can, and you would make an awesome friend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:By 11th grade I found my niche with the art crowd and found my style somewhere between what was then "new wave" and what eventually was called goth/industrial. Before that I was probably considered smart and trending toward nerdy.

Today I'm a lawyer in what lawyers consider a prestigious practice area, though I'm now with the government so I'm not making millions.

I only know how a few of the popular kids from HS turned out. One manages or maybe is part owner of the family business -- a restaurant (maybe two restaurants). Another (jock) was a youth counselor last I heard.

What would this be?

Probably appellate