Or maybe it should be "People who DID turn out like everyone expected"

One guy from my high school class partied too much in college, flunked out around sophomore/junior year, developed a coke addiction, and last I heard was just out of rehab (this was 2 years ago). Another guy flunked out freshman year, joined the army, and did a tour of duty in Iraq. Both of these guys were in the top 5% of my high school class and everyone thought they'd do great in college.

The valedictorian of my high school said she planned to come back and teach there, and that's what she's doing right now. She's also married with a kid. No weird curveballs there.

Who in your high school took different paths than you expected? Did you turn out like you would've thought?

7/9/2009 10:14:58 AM

I'm probably one that people would say didn't turn out like everyone expected. I was a shithead in high school. Most people would have probably guessed that i'd be in prison by now.

7/9/2009 10:36:31 AM

i have little clue what happened to 99% of the people from high school.

^ a shithead then. they probably figured you'd be one now. boy, you proved them wrong...

oh i keed keed bobby

7/9/2009 11:48:32 AM

aha

i'm a different type of shithead now.

7/9/2009 12:13:32 PM

bougie and yuptastic

7/9/2009 12:48:28 PM

a friend i grew up with from elementary school until high school. he drank like the rest of us, but got in to drugs pretty heavily in high school (coke, pot, ecstacy [that i know of]--all day everyday). he would say the most obscene and disrespectful things to his mother. we were all just kind of i mean, we had the teen angst thing too, but this guy was on a completely different level. he was a straight up punk/shithead in high school. brilliant for sure, but a punk. i don't even recall him graduating with us...it's all fuzzy at the end (did he go off to military school? i can't remember)

anyway, he found Jesus--WOW did he ever find Jesus. a friend of mine and he had class at the community college one summer. she was completely blown away by the 180 he had done. he asked her had she found her peace with God yet, and told her that, "no wife of his would ever work." he went to liberty. did mission trips in Costa Rica. married (housewife of course), and is now in medical school at Michigan State.

i mean he went from a tortured, miscreant, shithead, punk kid that was sure to be on a path of destruction...to a God fearing, bible beating, drug free, soon to be DOCTOR. a few of us got together recently and we were all blown away by it.

aside from the jesus freak part, i'm really proud of him for turning his life around, and glad he didn't turn out like we expected...and i know his mother is too. such a sweet little lady, that never deserved the type of treatment and language he gave to her when we were younger--craziness...

7/9/2009 3:33:23 PM

Quote :

"aside from the jesus freak part"

some people have to be god fearing to be a good human being.

7/9/2009 4:03:34 PM

point taken.

7/9/2009 4:20:07 PM

Not to derail the thread, but the "no wife of his would ever work" thing is a little extreme IMO

7/9/2009 4:24:16 PM

my best friend went from full ride to chapel hill, passed a bunch of AP exams for classes our school didn't even offer and had rich ass parents who bought him a house so he basically had nothing to worry about.. everybody thought he'd do great. oh, he was like in the top 5 of his class, etc.

aaaand now he's on house arrest at his parents house right now after his like 18th arrest for drugs. failed out after 2 or 3 semesters..ended up at guilford tech. fail out of there too. they sold the house.

[Edited on July 9, 2009 at 10:13 PM. Reason : asdf]

7/9/2009 10:11:53 PM

99% of my senior yearbook valedictions had the word "crazy" in them. Now I'm married to a man I met on tww and work in a library. Guess I showed them.

Or they called it.

I can't tell some days.

7/9/2009 11:18:17 PM

Pretty much everyone who was in my AG class that I'm still aware of has done nothing with their life There's maybe two exceptions I can think of.

7/9/2009 11:53:06 PM

A lot of my peers from Creedmoor got knocked up and still live in Creedmoor. No shock there.

7/10/2009 9:15:11 AM

Quote :

"Not to derail the thread, but the "no wife of his would ever work" thing is a little extreme IMO "

apparently you dont know much about liberty college

7/10/2009 9:20:27 AM

Agreed.

7/10/2009 9:23:22 AM

^^No, I do, but whatever.

7/10/2009 9:59:11 AM

^^No, I do, but whatever.

7/10/2009 9:59:11 AM

A girl I knew in highschool got a full ride to state on the park scholarship, passed fuck tons of APs and was salutitorian of our HS class. Got her degree in microbiology

Now she's studying seminary in tenesee after failing out of 2 different law schools.

7/10/2009 10:30:52 AM

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/5018815/

7/10/2009 10:46:01 AM

^ So is that how you expected him to turn out or no?

7/10/2009 11:22:45 AM

[no]

His dad was is one of the wealthier people in Rocky Mount and is very well connected. His brother is doing very well from what I hear. He was always a really good guy. If you had asked me 10 years ago I would have said that he probably didn't have the aspirations of his dad, but I expected him to do fine in life. He is a smart guy and certainly had the opportunity to do anything he wanted. I guess it's not too late for him to do something with himself, but he's going to have to do his time. I'm assuming he'll be going to prison again. Hopefully he'll come out better off this time, but that's up to him. I don't think anyone can help him except himself.

The last time I saw him was after the armed robbery, but before he set the Wal-Mart on fire. He was sober and mentally he seemed 100% there at that time. I think he could get it together if he chooses to do so.

[Edited on July 10, 2009 at 1:26 PM. Reason : l]

7/10/2009 1:22:09 PM

Hopefully he won't come out given his list of prior convictions.

7/10/2009 1:23:09 PM

good god - that WRAL story - that Davis guy is a train wreck!

7/10/2009 1:58:55 PM

One HS classmate of mine got killed at age 23 after getting wasted and plowing into a tree at 100mph in a residential zone. He was always a big drinker and partier but no one foresaw that.

Another classmate was a classic preppy type, but at the 10-year reunion he looked like the hipsters who hang out at the Third Place.

The class president a grade ahead of me was the Mr. Perfect overachiever type, with perfect grades in all his A.P. courses and a track team star as well... last I heard he dropped out of UNC and got a job at the Sylvan learning center.

One guy was a raging flamer at the reunion. He had kind of an effeminate voice back in high school but I never had him pegged as gay. He'd been in L.A. for several years before getting burned out and coming back to Raleigh.

I had a college suitemate who was a super-conservative, uptight religious nut. I heard from my former roommate that he had become a girl.

I don't know if I turned out as expected or not. I always thought I'd still be single, fat, and living in my parents' house but making a big salary. I'm married, live 75 miles away, lost 40 pounds, and make a shitty salary that barely covers my monthly bills.

7/30/2009 5:00:19 PM

i was always the artsy type... this time next year, however, I'll be a real estate lawyer

7/30/2009 7:30:51 PM

^^ did you go to BHS?

8/1/2009 10:56:41 PM

Quote :

"I had a college suitemate who was a super-conservative, uptight religious nut. I heard from my former roommate that he had become a girl."

This one made me laugh.

8/2/2009 10:24:43 AM

I had finished my running around a new graveyard and was just looking at the headstones while I cooled down....saw one of my classmates planted.....I probably wouldnt of recongized the name had they not had a photo of him on it. He died 4 years after graduation...tombstone said he was a dad. When I was doing my running another day some girl I think spent the night at his grave. I had a feeling it might of been the baby momma since the headstone only said father, brother, son and there was no place on the headstone for a wife that normally happens when one or the other dies. I run for about a hour and she was there before I started and was there when I left (pitch dark). I thought maybe that was the day he died but I checked that out the next day and that was not the case. I do not believe he was into drugs so I wonder what was the cause of his death. He was a good singer though, I remember when the english teacher asked him to sing a song to the class....his headstone says "Singing at heavens door"....this particular graveyard has lots of young people.....i mean barily teenagers, most died due to drugs, car wrecks, or they took their own life. Probably the next most common age is 20 somethings.



[Edited on August 3, 2009 at 1:52 AM. Reason : w]

8/3/2009 1:45:03 AM

One of my friends in High School barely graduated. He had to go to summer school to pass English. No one expected him to do much other than maybe go to community college or work construction.

Well, he did go to Community College for a year. Then transferred to A&T on a minority scholarship. Then to UNC. He graduated from UNC before me or any of my other friends graduated from our respective colleges. He now owns his own business in Cary and makes probably double what I make a year.

Another friend of mine was always in trouble, but when he got kicked out of my high school he ended up at Oak Ridge. He was a star on their football team and ended up getting a scholarship to Appalachian. While in Boone he was the lead singer for Weekend Excursion. He graduated from App, and moved back to Greensboro where he got a pretty good job and bought a house.

Last week I saw him on the side of the road with a cardboard sign begging for money. I stopped and talked to him, gave him $20. Lost his job, lost his car, lost his house.

8/3/2009 11:37:49 AM

the jesus freak from earlier reminds me of a friend of mine.

we randomly met in middle school - she went to a catholic school until 8th grade, and then a different high school. but we got to know each other through GYC (volunteer thing). she was sort of goth, wiccan, and generally rebellious from her (fairly horrid) catholic mom. she was a loose girl (she would tell you herself), ended up at "middle college" for her last year of high school, and then got pregnant. she had the baby, and then, at some point, found jesus.

now, she's still working on her college degree while being a single mother and working at least two jobs. while her finding jesus was a little weird at first, and still is at times, it's seriously amazing to me what she juggles now (especially with a deadbeat baby daddy to do nothing).

8/3/2009 11:56:45 PM

Quote :

"Today, I found out that the girl I tutored in high school in basic ENGLISH just received her PhD in Biophysics. I am now the manager of a McDonald's. I was also the Valedictorian of our graduating class. FML"

8/4/2009 11:47:08 AM

no one believes i ever did anything until i whip out the ole business card

8/29/2009 6:01:10 PM

After spending my whole life swearing I'm not a math and science person, I'm working on a B.S. in Clinical Lab Sciences. It may be the death of me. We'll see.

9/1/2009 10:38:17 PM

i always like to tell this story even though its nowhere near as ridiculous or downtrodden as some of the others

in high school i was the classic "underachiever" because although i was smart enough to do well, i just didnt care to, mostly because i wasn't challenged enough, or thats what i was told by administrators, teachers, etc.

so i did ok in high school but i only failed one class. Honors American Government. not like, i didnt do well and got a C. like "F" fail. aka

DID

NOT

PASS

and since then my entire career has been based on an intricate understanding of government as a lobbyist/congressional staffer, etc

haha

9/2/2009 12:40:52 PM

man i'd love to be a politician, my family has been involved in local and state government for decades and i hear some cool stories. not gonna be in DC just yet though, gotta test the local waters first. im gonna run for city council or mayor or something. !!1

9/4/2009 7:14:37 AM

If you do, I'll donate money to your campaign.

9/6/2009 2:59:44 PM

Quote :

"If you do, I'll donate money drugs to your campaign. "

haha, jk mang

9/7/2009 4:44:15 PM

can you imagine the shit hey will dig up on him?

10/30/2009 4:32:15 PM

In high school there was this kid who would never miss an opportunity to talk about how alcohol, tobacco, and drugs were bad. The weird thing was, he wasn't religious, he just didn't want anyone's life to get fucked up or anything, and he had a fairly sheltered upbringing. He was also extremely tight with his money, which annoyed everybody because it meant he had more than everybody but wouldn't share the wealth.

Last I heard he was a chain-smoking drunk who wouldn't have minded some drugs, but he was too poor to get any. His name is GrumpyGOP, and he's my hero.

---

Likewise, my friend (who coined the term that would later become my username) was one of the top five or so in the class and was going to UNC-CH to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a doctor. Last time I talked to him he said he worked as a bank teller because "it doesn't interfere with getting high."

---

Another friend was really big into Army stuff, JROTC and shit like that. Very macho. He was lined up to go to West Point but they found out he had some kind of eye problem that the government didn't want to have to pay for for the rest of his life, so they turned him down after accepting him. He ended up at a Quaker school and, if rumor is to be believed, is now a homosexual.

[Edited on November 4, 2009 at 6:54 PM. Reason : ]

11/4/2009 6:48:34 PM

Quote :

"I'm probably one that people would say didn't turn out like everyone expected. I was a shithead in high school. Most people would have probably guessed that i'd be in prison by now."

11/6/2009 5:17:50 PM

Quote :

"the jesus freak from earlier reminds me of a friend of mine."

Reminds me of my little brother actually. He used to do and sell drugs, run weapons, got arrested a few times, and still can't go into parts of my hometown. Somehow managed to get into a local college but nearly failed out of there as well. Then he found Jesus and became a missionary who served in Fiji, Indonesia, and Azerbaijan among other places and finished his degree. I honestly didn't believe he had changed until at least a year had passed. He's happily married now and doing inner city work in Atlanta.

As for my high school, no real surprises. Our valedictorian and salutatorian ran off and got their PhD's and are doing the whole post-doc dance now. The artist type went to art school and is now an artist. Smart kids went off to med school or law school and became doctors and lawyers. Though there are a few people I wasn't able to link back up with, so I kind of wonder what ever happened to them.

11/9/2009 10:23:00 AM

I'm sure I didn't meet my highschool class's expectations. I was a smart motherfucker in high school (or at least people kept telling me that), and I'm sure it was expected that I'd have a PhD by now and be doing all kinds of fancy shit. I don't even have a job right now.

Could be worse, though. At least I didn't collapse into a life of booze and drugs, or accidentally knock up someone and have child support that I can't pay.

11/10/2009 10:36:45 AM

lol, everyone is told that in high school

11/10/2009 4:12:24 PM

super duper smart and driven girls who are housewives/mothers.

why.

11/11/2009 2:06:06 PM

^ not saying that people shouldn't get their education, or want to better themselves...

but it always struck me as odd when I would meet girls in college, who only aspired to be housewives. not to work, or use their degree in any way. housewives.

11/12/2009 8:12:51 PM

lol, why would you work if you don't have to?
At least you can hold an intelligent conversation with those girls.

11/13/2009 1:30:44 AM

I've always had a bit of cognitive dissonance over that issue. I respect those who have ambition, but for 99% of people who are intelligent and educated, they still end up working for someone else. Thus, perhaps the ambition to be a "housewife" is smarter than ambition to be owned by someone else for 40+ hours a week.

the housewife of 2009 is not the same as the housewife of 1959.

but still.. if i was single, and I met a girl who told me this, it would be a huge turnoff.

11/13/2009 10:21:16 AM

i would love to be in a position where my wife could have the option of being a housewife

11/13/2009 11:47:00 AM

Quote :

"Then he found Jesus and became a missionary who served in Fiji, Indonesia, and Azerbaijan among other places and finished his degree. I honestly didn't believe he had changed until at least a year had passed. He's happily married now and doing inner city work in Atlanta."

sounds like a good cover to keep trafficking drugs and guns.

11/13/2009 4:02:41 PM

^^

haha, I'd be jealous if my wife got to stay home all day while I worked my ass off.

I want to be the one to stay at home. The problem is that I'd get bored, and probably spend most of my time submerged in a pile of tall boys, and then end up like this person

11/13/2009 4:20:47 PM