What happened to the 'popular kids' from your high school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You people and your jealousy and your schadenfreude ...

DCUM must be almost completely full of unattractive, uncool people desperate to be cool or something. Because the volume of these posts is depressing.

This. Imagine spending your whole life being jealous of someone and blaming them for making you feel like your life is pathetic and only getting over it after they lose everything and die.

+ one billion. This type of bs is so pathetic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm 38. The popular kids at my high school weren't mean or bullies. I'm sure some of them were but not to any one that I knew. At least by the time we were in high school. The mean kids were a different group. For context I grew up in a wealthy suburb of Boston.

I don't know about all of them but from what I know, they are all where anyone else is at this stage of life. Some are incredibly successful. Some are happily married with families. Some are divorced. Some haven't had as much success. I can say that none of them "peaked in high school" or had their lives be a total failure or something like that.

I am 52, and my answer would be very similar. The popular kids weren’t bullies, and their lives turned out OK. There is something to be said for the superior social skills they obviously had then and continued to have, and that’s been helping them a lot.

[Anonymous]

Popular boy went for house seat but didn’t win.
Popular girl is COO of a weed lobbyist.

[Anonymous]

35 years on, most of the bullies from my high school went into blue collar work. Two of the jocks I knew went to military academies and had long esteemed military careers. The pretty girls are a mixed bag with varying success in life and marriage. Many of them are still pretty. (I was never more than sort of cute and I'm definitely 50-something frumpy now.) I am happy to be among those with a partner. I don't envy those who are still or back in the dating game.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No idea. I left the area.

+1. I wasn't bullied, but I have no curiosity about the people I wasn't friends with at the time.

Really? I’m curious. Not in a comparison way, but in a how just how are we all doing way. We all grew up
together. Same neighborhood, same teachers, very similar experiences. Bonded by our unique community. I am curious what everyone is up to. It is neat to hear about the different paths our lives took.

Popular kids mostly stayed in the areawhere we grew up. Shop owners, other small business (landscaping), dental hygienists, x-ray tech, physical therapist - all went to college. From what I see on social they are all still gorgeous with handsome husbands! About 1/2 come to reunions. The really smart kids became doctors of various sorts and they don’t keep in touch.

One other popular girl went to DC like me and we did get together and were friends for a while even though not really in high school. she has since moved away. She never married and no kids. I can’t tell if she wanted to get married.

[Anonymous]

The kids who were popular because they were well-off, from well-connected families, smart, athletic, high-achieving etc. all did pretty well. Not all are, like, CEO’s or doctors in high paid specialties, of course, and there are also successful people from outside this group.

The kids who were popular because they partied a lot mostly dropped out of college or never went in the first place and most still live in the general area (Midwest, small-medium size metro area, not a growth area). But it seems like some did get their lives together after awhile and are married, have kids, and have ok jobs. And I guess there’s something to be said for living near your extended family where you grew up!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The kids who were popular because they were well-off, from well-connected families, smart, athletic, high-achieving etc. all did pretty well. Not all are, like, CEO’s or doctors in high paid specialties, of course, and there are also successful people from outside this group.

The kids who were popular because they partied a lot mostly dropped out of college or never went in the first place and most still live in the general area (Midwest, small-medium size metro area, not a growth area). But it seems like some did get their lives together after awhile and are married, have kids, and have ok jobs. And I guess there’s something to be said for living near your extended family where you grew up!

+1 NP. The bolded.

Also, many addicts in both groups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm 38. The popular kids at my high school weren't mean or bullies. I'm sure some of them were but not to any one that I knew. At least by the time we were in high school. The mean kids were a different group. For context I grew up in a wealthy suburb of Boston.

I don't know about all of them but from what I know, they are all where anyone else is at this stage of life. Some are incredibly successful. Some are happily married with families. Some are divorced. Some haven't had as much success. I can say that none of them "peaked in high school" or had their lives be a total failure or something like that.

I am 52, and my answer would be very similar. The popular kids weren’t bullies, and their lives turned out OK. There is something to be said for the superior social skills they obviously had then and continued to have, and that’s been helping them a lot.

Same experience. Went to high school in Nova back in the 90s

The popular kid myth - they peak in high school and then crash and burn- just doesn’t come to fruition in large HCL areas like the DMV

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't really know because I didn't know fully who the popular kids were, being an immigrant kid and locked out of that social sphere.

But knowing my school, I assume that the athletes were the popular kids

- one kid (football captain, tried to grab my bottom in 8th grade) now a police officer, rising in the ranks. Hope he matured

- one kid, who I never spoke to but was well know as another football kid whose girl friend was the top cheerleader. They were the it couple and married after graduation. I literally never thought about him. He seemed so mediocre and a little mean. He made the local news for trying to hire someone to kill his wife (cheerleader) because she was having an affair with a coworker.

- third kid, played a lot of sports. Nice guy, one of the few who were nice to me. He also married his high school sweetheart. I was really sad for him to hear she passed away from breast cancer as a young mother. I wish him well.

[Anonymous]

The popular kids at my school were popular because they were all nice, pretty, and (mostly) smart and they have remained that way.

[Anonymous]

Popularity takes many forms, but the ones at my school who fit the most traditional form all seem to have turned out fine from what I can tell based on LinkedIn and gossip. Some people are married with kids, others divorced with/without kids, and others still never married. The ones who didn't have a family business or a talent or passion that translated to an obvious career have mostly ended up in sales and seem to do reasonably well.

I went to private school (not in DC), though, so most people had thicker safety nets.

[Anonymous]

Popular girl is married to a guy who has sold several startups and they are now obscenely wealthy. She was always nice to everyone and hasn’t changed much. We are still in contact.
Popular guy is now a pediatric surgeon.

[Anonymous]

Most popular guy - extremely handsome, star quarterback, from a rich family - ended up a drug addict. He eventually got things together but at 39 looks ROUGH.

I dated one of the most popular guys senior year and he reached out to me this year with the whole “my wife is horrible I’m super rich now” very obviously trying to rekindle something. I was able to find his salary from 3 years ago as he was a public employee and he was something like a janitor making $25k a year. Parents must be supporting him because he lives in a very wealthy area.

Couple popular girls did very well - one is a Hollywood actress, another is a journalist who has won multiple awards. A few others married rich and stay at home.

One of my friends who was a total delinquent - druggie, in and out of jail, was the one who got me into sneaking out and drinking at 16 - is the most normal looking person you’ve ever seen. Good looking now, dad, devoted husband, cute wife.

The guys I had crushes on in high school all look pretty rough now. Most went bald and didn’t use proper skincare.

[Anonymous]

I'm friends with a bunch of them on Facebook and now they seem to be doing pretty well for themselves, career wise. They all have kids, and most have had a marriage or two. And they're nice people. I think I got lucky in where I went to HS- the popular kids were pretty nice overall.

[Anonymous]

Most beautiful girl in my hs is still gorgeous in her mid 40s. Moved to NJ and is a LCSW married to a nice guy with a good job. Has a kid with profound special needs, is a loving mom.