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

[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.

Same.

[Anonymous]

Most hot popular girls in high school are now fat over weight and divorce at 25 reunion and trying to hookup with ever single guy there…..lol

[Anonymous]

Most are doing pretty well, although we've lost a few already (class of 1990) - one to alcohol and one to a heart attack.

I went to a high school where it would not have been surprising for people to peak in high school, but I can't think of anyone that did. Even our star quarterback, who was kind of a douche, seems to have grown up all right.

[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.

+1
From random suburb in JoCo, KS.

[Anonymous]

One popular girl is a famous person in the entertainment industry. She is a nice person and I'm very happy for her success, though concerned for her in hindsight due to her connection to Diddy.

One popular boy from my HS seemed to have it together but struggled with alcoholism and died in an accident. He was also very nice and I was sad to hear it.

[Anonymous]

Expensive private school, class of 1998. The "popular" clique aka the more naturally confident and often hard partying kids, have mostly normalized and are doing well. Some extremely well. The confidence in HS years can be a strong indicator of future success. For a few kids, that confidence did lead to unfortunate experimenting with drugs with not a happy outcome but those are the exceptions, not the rule.

The whole popular kids peaked in HS and became losers afterwards always reeked more of jealous stereotyping than reality.

And, no, I was not one of the "popular" kids, being more bookish, but am pragmatic and realistic.

[Anonymous]

Most popular girl in my Midwestern high school moved to Hollywood and became a wedding planner to the stars!

Most popular guy moved to NYC and acts on soaps!

Love both of those trajectories for them.

[Anonymous]

Played in the NFL but then went to prison.

[Anonymous]

Baptist school in south.

They all went to Liberty together. Married young including many to each other. Most moved back to hometown. The women became stay at home parents and had kids very young. The men mostly became pastors. One went into conservative politics. Others returned to work in family businesses like landscaping. We are late 40s and they are starting to become grandparents. Divorce is rare.

[Anonymous]

A surprising number of social workers and teachers in my year! One super extroverted, energetic guy is a middle school principal. Generally the popular kids at my school were also smart honors type kids. It seems someone unique to my grad year that so many “best and brightest” are in the middle class helping professions.

My high school’s biggest “success story” is probably the one who just scored a pretty significant position in the Trump administration though. A couple of years behind me though.

[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 from a Boston suburb as well and had the same experience- popular didn’t equate mean. I was considered popular because I was nice to everyone and had lots of friends. I have enjoyed a good life - nice family- good career and still have a lot of friends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Expensive private school, class of 1998. The "popular" clique aka the more naturally confident and often hard partying kids, have mostly normalized and are doing well. Some extremely well. The confidence in HS years can be a strong indicator of future success. For a few kids, that confidence did lead to unfortunate experimenting with drugs with not a happy outcome but those are the exceptions, not the rule.

The whole popular kids peaked in HS and became losers afterwards always reeked more of jealous stereotyping than reality.

And, no, I was not one of the "popular" kids, being more bookish, but am pragmatic and realistic.

+100

Confidence serves you well, whether in high school or adult life.

[Anonymous]

Went to a private (not in the DC area) about about half of the popular kids did really well, they were just good all around people: one went to UVA and became an accountant, another went to a service academy, another girl became a doctor.

But the meanest popular girls did not fair so well: one cleans houses now, another has a failing retail store her parents bought for her and is a rabid MAGA. All still mean, all divorced and not very successful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Played in the NFL but then went to prison.

Michael Vick?

[Anonymous]

Eh, one thing I noticed is that a lot of the mid tier boys in particular went on to get super cushy jobs in finance and are richer than most of the HS smarties. Not surprising in retrospect. Can’t really say whether they were popular tho but they probably were.