I really have no idea. I attended two high schools and don’t know about anyone. The most important person I graduated with is a top level judge in my jurisdiction. I’m not on FB or Linked In.
The best friend/wanted fugitive is kind of interesting…
Let’s see. Class was almost 600 students so tough to know all.
We didn’t really have a Val. But the best students in the class. One to brown and played a sport. Insurance agent in a small town up north. Other went to mid. She fell off the radar and didn’t have a professional life.
Class pres one left school early her JR year for a small lac. Married and an advocate of some sort as a volunteer. Sr yr pres passed away a few years ago in his 40s after bouncing around life.
All around award. One is my CPA and friend these 30 years later.
Female version. No idea.
Top Jocks. Too many to note. Some of us in business and others in trades. One was the number 2 ranked wba wbc middleweight boxer in the 90s. All pretty happy. A few lost along the way unfortunately.
No celebrities. No convicts. No famous pols. All in all. Not a bad result.
The nerds did the best. Most went into tech and have been very successful. The jocks and popular kids at my high school were never the kids in the highest level classes so their careers are a bit less impressive. What surprised me most was that many very quiet smart kids did exceedingly well. They were all nice and they ended up in the right spots. No big scandals in general.
Most of the top 50% of my high school class went to schools that kids can’t even think of today. The safeties that the B/C students went to are even impossible to get into.
You went to high school with Calvin Schiraldi, Bob Stanley, or Bill Buckner?
Calvin. He was in my 12th grade government class. He was a nice guy - quiet. Unlike the other jock in the class, Kelly Gruber (Kelly’s Facebook page is “TheKelly Gruber”). My story about Kelly took place in 7th grade Texas History. We had a sub one day. For some reason, she looked at ME and asked, “Do you know where Kelly is?” “Uh, yeah, he climbed out the window…” So my name was dirt for awhile for snitching, ha.
No idea really. We were unofficially tracked in high school. I was with the same group of kids all four years and had little interaction with the rest outside of PE. We were the academics and our circle did well outside some mental illness in a few sadly. I keep some contact with them but I struggle to even remember who was popular in the high school at large.
So BFF and I were the Vals: I’m a dentist, she’s an occupational therapist. We went to the same small LAC.
Most likely to succeed: me, and our class president. He’s the founder of a successful venture capital company. Still the same great guy he was in HS and the reason our class has well-attended reunions every 5 years.
Class athlete: once engaged to my BFF, he went to a directional, didn’t succeed academically. Asst manager at McDonalds. We didn’t have many girl sports, so I have no idea of the female winner.
Class couple: married right out of HS, still married. 45 years.
Most popular (yes, we really had this): still popular, but liked by all.
Class clowns: haven’t seen them since leaving HS.
Best dressed: still dressing great (at least at reunions).
And I can’t remember any more.
We were ALL the most popular, best looking, and above average. Lake Wobegone Class of '76.
Really, many went on to successful careers as airline pilots, doctors, lawyers, nurses, teachers (some at the same school) but many stayed ‘in town’ and got married, had kids, and did just fine too. About 1/2 our class of ~520 went to college, and about half of those stayed in town and went to the University in town. Many who stayed started working for the insurance company at age 16 so by the time they were 40 had 20+ years in and retired and took a pension. Then they started working somewhere else for 20 years and are now ‘double retired’ and get two checks every month. They have homes that are paid for spend time on their snow mobiles and boats. Many have Packer tickets, and yes, I’m jealous.
What is sad is how many have died - about 80 or 90 from my class alone! I’m on my classes’ FB page and the only things ever posted are about the reunion held every 5 years and who has died.
I don’t think popularity had much to do with the ‘where are they now’ success stories. Nor did college. Some of the most successful didn’t go to college but were working on their family farms from an early age - and inherited the farm!
“What is sad is how many have died - about 80 or 90 from my class alone! I’m on my classes’ FB page and the only things ever posted are about the reunion held every 5 years and who has died.”
Wow. That does seem like a lot for a group that is in its early 60s now. @twoinanddone , how big was your graduating class? Unless it is super big, it makes me wonder if their are environmental factors in your hometown that have contributed.
Our class of just under 500 (1974) has lost about 35: only 4 are women and 2 were accidents ( car and fire explosion), 1 from ovarian cancer. Don’t know about the other. But many men: heart, drugs, suicide, cancer. We also have the list read at the reunion; lots of gasps this year.
All our cheerleaders were honor graduates. Today they are nurses, a physical therapist, a doctor, a teacher, and an intelligence specialist.
Out Valedictorian was also a cheerleader. Went to Duke and was a cheerleader there. She now works for the World Health Organization.
Salutatorian went to MIT. Not sure what he’s doing now.
One girl who was nice, but super nerdy has worked at Disney World for more than 20 years. Everyone visits her when they go to Disney and then posts their pictures with her on Facebook.
The guy voted most likely to be on Broadway made it there as a professional dresser and now works on a well known TV show as a dresser.
Popular guys: airline pilot, physical therapist
Athlete guys: SEC football player now a job recruiter after a short stint in the NFL, a school principal, a teacher, owner of a car repair shop
Others: commercial interior designer, hearing specialist, skin care consultant, yoga instructor, doctor who is an online medical web host
Several couples who were high school sweethearts and got married remain married over 25 years later.
In general a successful group of folks.
I’m class secretary, so I actually do know what a lot of the class is doing.
President of the boarders is a director in one of the departments at the U. S. Department of Commerce.
Vice president was a New York Times reporter and is now co-editor of an upscale e-newsletter.
President of the day school had a hard time with a super nasty divorce. Before she got married she did a lot of field observations for anthropologists. Her husband took her too a smallish town where she’s gotten involved with a local college museum. She homeschooled her two kids through middle school. She was a beautiful writer, and occasionally write a personal essay here and there. She is just not ambitious.
And the class flake has more degrees than anyone (law degree, PhD in social work), got married, bad marriage worse divorce, became a nun, the Order was dissolved. Lost her house in a hurricane. Got cancer, is doing well after surgery a few years ago. It’s like reading a soap opera to get her updates!
Went to school just outside NYC. Large percentage - top to bottom of the rankings - are in finance, and all have done well. Probably why I’m a firm believer that it doesn’t matter where you go to college because many of the state school/no-name LAC kids have also made 6-7 figure salaries.
Count me among those who don’t have a clue and don’t really care. High school was a long, long time ago – and I moved away from my hometown & didn’t return.
Just the opposite at my HS. The jocks/athletes and popular kids were all in the top quarter of the class and all college-bound. No dumb cheerleaders or football players in our class that I knew of, but our HS was a bit of a social experiment. Prior to building the new school, the town boundaries were redrawn to best align with the type of students who would do well in an open-concept facility that required concentration, active participation, and self discipline. Also, the residency requirement for teachers was waived, and a very high percentage of the faculty had doctorates. It was a fabulous place and a fabulous time.
I’ve heard a lot of them married one another and still hang out! LOL
Very scant info, because I didn’t stay in touch and have only been in contact with a few people via social media. I know that of my two major tormentors in HS, one seems to have become a nice guy (reached out to apologize, decades later) who is a HS history teacher, and the other seems to be a failed writer. They were both “popular”, compared to me at least.
My crush became a very dumpy looking dad, no idea what his job is.
A popular girl seems to have a lovely family and is a lovely person, no idea what she does. A couple of random guys seem to be doing okay in life, and might be quite successful, not sure in what though.
My frenemy seems to be a lawyer and always has resting bit(h face.
Me, I was a nerd. I moved overseas for twenty years, then moved to the opposite coast of where I grew up. Life is good. No desire to stay connected with the other coast and wouldn’t, except the family are all still there.
Out of curiosity, how many of those who were themselves popular know what their peers are up to? Are those of us who weren’t popular the ones who don’t have much info?
I was one of the “popular” athletes but the closer we got to graduation, the less time I spent with the popular crowd away from games/practice/lunch. I just was not interested in the partying part of being popular.
Class of 1996 - approx 400 in my graduating class. In my school the only popular kids were jocks and cheerleaders and the only ones that got mention in the yearbook as “most likely…” Most of the jocks and cheerleaders in my high school didn’t go on to do anything out of the ordinary with their lives. About half attended college and half didn’t…got married, worked regular jobs, had kids, etc. Many seem to be divorced and some re-married. All of the doctors, lawyers, engineers, successful business people etc I know were all students involved in band and academic clubs and were more “nerds” than anything in high school.
I couldn’t tell you who our valedictorian was. I could narrow it down to three people, but have no clue where any of them are.
The class President is an engineer that restores American muscle cars as a hobby.
Many of the popular people actually married each other, still live in the same town, and all of them continue to hang out together.
I didn’t pay much attention to cheerleaders. Most of my friends, both male and female, were athletes. Most have decent careers at this point.
My favorite former classmate that I follow on Facebook is a guy I never really socialized with. He’s a former combat medic and current SWAT medic. He’s always flying helicopters or teaching law enforcement agencies how to fly drones. By CC standards he’s not “successful” but he sure looks like he loves what he does and has a great time doing it…