<p>There were 35 in my graduating class (small private school.) When I went to my 30th ReU 10 years ago, The BMOC (capt of football and b’ball team, etc., ) likely weighed in at 300 pounds and was completely bald. But still a successful businessman. Most of the guys were bald and fat. The “cool” girls all looked like old hippies - horrid gray hair & sacky dresses with Birkenstocks. I couldn’t believe my eyes how dreadful they all looked. OTOH, people came up to me and remarked how I looked great and they couldn’t believe it was me. Only my cousin looked as good as me. In high school, I had a figure like a 12 year old and Roseanne Rosannadana hair. If only there had been flat irons then. </p>
<p>Everyone has been pretty successful - especially the “nerds” who went to MIT. Several are out in Silicon Valley and were with start-ups that have turned into billion dollar businesses. </p>
<p>I missed my 40th a few weeks ago because we had a wedding. Hoping to make it to my 45th. </p>
<p>From what I hear most lived very normal rewarding lives, finishing college and often grad school. None is a
billionaire but when one other was very ill class members quickly raised thousands of dollars to help them out with some uncovered expenses. This is the class of 1967 so most of us have not seen each other for decades as people are highly dispersed around US and world.</p>
<p>Well, the “hot guy” was still pretty hot, married a pretty wife, moved to the west coast and opened a fitness place.
The kid on the school newspaper who liked sports writes for a newspaper as sports editor.
Most got married, had kids and are probably on CC somewhere. Some of the “losers” grew up and straightened out their acts and some who’d I thought would be doing great had problems.
The “cool” kids were actually pretty nice to me even if we weren’t exactly “hanging out”. I did have one bully–a girl who I hear is very nice. Go figure.</p>
<p>The cool kids from when I was growing up mostly became successful professionals. Lots ended up in medical school or law school even after ho-hum grades in regular high school classes.</p>
<p>From our public high school, cool kids tend to go into finance (including some in investment banking), sales, education, law school, or medical school. </p>
<p>I try, I really do but I just don’t care. Too much time has passed. I have a smattering of FB friends from back when, but no real curiosity or interest. Our 45th reunion will be in Sept. and I have no desire to go.</p>
<p>I sat at the same table for 3 years of HS. It seemed to me that everyone was good at something, be it art (she became an architect), compassion (she was a foster parent to 20+ kids), etc. My small groups included many of the brightest and leaders, and all went on to lead productive lives. The brightest men became PhDs & profs, and the next groups MDs. I enjoy seeing them on FB. The weirdest thing is that we look so old!</p>
<p>In our class we had several kids, mostly boys, who came from money and were obnoxious and full of themselves. A couple of them became lawyers but for the most part, they haven’t lived up to their high school hype. The most obnoxious one, a doctor’s son, is an office supply salesman or something. </p>
<p>In my high school, the cool kids were mostly athletes (and cheerleaders). They have mostly done fine, because a lot of those athletes make good sales and business types.</p>
<p>I think there is a huge difference between those who are cool and fun to be around -vs- those who are bullies/losers and people “like” them. Cool can be smart, kind and have ambitions. And then there is bad boy cool. Two completely different kinds of cool…</p>
<p>The cool bad boys have not done so well in life.</p>
<p>The nerds are all successful. One is a pharmacist who owns a few drug stores, another is an engineer, others are doctors, lawyers, high school principals, etc. I tell DD that the nerds are the future husbands & responsible fathers of the world. The hot, rebellious bad boys are typically the future losers. I’m sure I’m wrong in many instances, but I’ve seen it true more often than not. </p>
<p>I’m not calling it deviant behavior, though we sure did push some limits. A lot of them. In both my hs, cool included smart- plain old smart and some great nerds. In the first, Miss Popularity Cheerleader Mean Girl dropped out, pregnant. The biggest disappointment was seeing reunion pictures from the 2nd hs- no one looked good. Or looked like they even tried to. But it was a small number of people, out of 600+. </p>
<p>I knew a Ferris type, after grad school. He did use his skills to rise to the top of an international conglomerate. Maybe Yale and Columbia helped, and that grant. But despite being Mr Don Juan, no limits, he’s never married.</p>
<p>I always tell my kids about the ‘cool’ popular girls who had babies at 16, never went to college, may not have married said babies fathers, boys that ended up on drugs, in jail, some dead (quite a few actually). They were the cool ones - thank god I was not! Now when i see some of them at reunions (i’m talking 30 year reunions) they look really, really old. I always say “God will repay you if you do the right thing”. I listened to my Mom, stayed away from the druggies, those stealing cars, etc…, girls who were promiscuous — I made the right decisions and hope they will too… </p>
<p>The very pretty girls who were full of themselves tended to use there looks to get all the guys, which led to becoming teenage moms, many spiraled into drug use and look horrible 30 years later, many are now grandparents at the ripe old age of 40. </p>
<p>We didn’t have “cool kids” so much as “popular kids.” They tended to be the kids who were the most involved in campus life, such as athletes, student council kids, etc. </p>
<p>Most turned out fine and seem perfectly happy. </p>
<p>I’m glad I didn’t stay completely away from promiscuous girls! Most of whom, truth be told, were nowhere near as promiscuous as their reputations. </p>
<p>I just went to my 30th. My grad class was 40 (small private in NYC) and about 25 were there, plus a few from the grades above and below. Honestly we didn’t have cool kids, just kids, some of whom were more physically attractive or more involved in school stuff than others. </p>
<p>I will say there was a group that was kind of “too cool for school” and they have never shown up at a reunion, I think they tolerated being there and never looked back after graduating.</p>
<p>I like the folks from H’s HS class of 1960. When I graduated in 1975, I was not very fond of many of my HS classmates & didn’t really know many of the over 750 kids I went to HS with all that well. I hung out with my HS BF and his buddies. They aren’t fond of reunions and we’ve all lost touch. H really LIKES his HS buddies and we have attended a significant number of their functions, including a trip to Alaska and will be going on another to Niagra Falls and DC. Don’t really know about “coolness,” just that H and I weren’t/aren’t–then or now.</p>
<p>Just got the invitation to my 40th reunion and am hoping I can go ( very busy time at work for me).
My group of friends were the “almost popular” people so we were friendly with a lot of the popular kids. In my HS class (500 plus students, regional public school) most of the popular kids were very nice as well as good students, no surprise many have done quite well.
The kids who were drinking/ having sex in middle school were NOT popular in high school. And they did not fare very well.</p>
<p>I thought my friends and I were cool in HS and I still think I’m cool, but it may have been self-delusion then and now. Here is what happened to some: head cheerleader/prom queen is PhD engineer running her family’s engineering firm; another cheerleader is a very successful politician; other cheerleaders/homecoming court/various queen bees are mainly realtors; male class president is partner in big deal local law firm; female vice pres, after getting her CPA, runs the family business her dad began; male basketball star is ob gyn; the quarterback took over his dad’s car dealership; a bunch of other male jocks (basketball, football, baseball) became engineers or MDs. One guy became a golf pro. There were no female jocks as far as I know. There were no male cheerleaders.</p>
<p>It was a middle class neighborhood and the results were fairly predictable for that time and place, imho.</p>
<p>In my neighborhood, pretty much everyone was drinking/ having sex in middle school. Pediatricians routinely prescribed the pill “to regulate menstrual cycles.” There were unbelievable quantities of legal and illegal drugs easily available. Several dads had pharmacies. Lots of parents had really full medicine cabinets. I am probably still alive only because, as a middle schooler, my psychiatrist father convinced me he could read my mind and that he could keep me home by grounding me. By the time I got to high school, I understood neither was true but my hormones had settled and my behavior became more rational.</p>
<p>One not so very cool girl became (as she describes herself in one of our reunion booklets) one of those radical feminist nuns and I think she probably turned out the coolest. I have never been able to make a reunion but do keep up a few good friends who give me all the gossip about the rest of our class.</p>
<p>The “coolest” kid in my high school class (this definition fits) went on to law school and is now a prominent judge in my home town. This is a town where only 20% of the population has any kind of degree (2 yr or 4 yr), I was surprised he even went to college. I am always amazed when I see his name in my hometown newspaper for activities as a judge or an award he has received. He is the guy that the judge would have been sentencing if he had just been caught in high school.</p>