Not everyone has the best memories of high school, so it stands to reason that they might not be the most excited about attending their high school reunions.
For those who actually do attend, they're able to confirm that the events are not all they're cracked up to be and are sometimes, quite frankly, a little bit strange or surreal.
Redditor Zdvj asked:
"People who attended their high school reunion, what was the biggest surprise?"
Stuck in the Past
"My 10-year reunion was held at a bar. It was all the same people at the bar as it was every weekend, but this time they were wearing nicer clothes."
- survivalguyledeuce
All Grown Up
"Back in high school, there was one girl who was extremely popular, extremely pretty, and seemed totally unapproachable from my vantage point."
"She was also really catty, embodying a lot of the 'Mean Girl' stereotypes."
"Talking with her at the reunion, it turned out that she was very insecure, and had a very tenuous home life for which she was compensating and now she is extremely kind, full of gratitude, and just really down to earth. I love seeing that sort of change in people!"
- Hetvenfour
Excruciating Detail
"The only high school reunion I attended was my 50th. I was surprised that people remembered things I'd done with amazing detail specificity."
- zoosuitbeatnick
Past Crushes
"At some point during our 10-year reunion, I asked the girl I had a crush on back in seventh or eighth grade if she knew that I had a crush on her. I just thought it was fun talking about that as adults."
"As it turns out, she texted me several times during the next few days, we met again, and now, almost six years later, we're engaged (for two years... but didn't marry yet) we have a house, a child, second child on the way and everything is great."
"Not what I expected back then!"
- juleztb
Forgetting Everyone
"That I couldn't remember anyone."
"Everyone remembered me because I was the freak in high school, and people kept coming up to me and being like, 'Scienceforbid, it's so great to see you.'"
"And I kept having to run to the wall where they'd plastered blown-up yearbook photos to figure out who the f**k anybody was."
- scienceforbid
The Aging Process
"How incredibly differently have people aged."
- Loud_Adagio2222
"I’ve never seen men age/gray so quickly as when they increase the size of their family."
- JMDeutsch
"I've noticed this at work. I'm the youngest guy in my department, and most of my coworkers are 50+. But guessing the actual ages of any of them, or even who is older than someone else is really difficult. Some of the guys look really old in their early 50s, while others are nearly 70 and relatively young."
"There are lots of factors, the job they've had, genetics, how well they take care of themselves, etc. But by far the biggest factor is kids. The guys without kids all look great for their age. While the guys with kids look like they've lived a rough life."
"It's a couple of decades worth of differences like increased financial stress and worse sleep that causes the fathers to age more quickly."
- MazerRakam
Job Choices
"Real estate agents. So many real estate agents."
- Hectordoink
"And 'entrepreneurs' and life coaches. Really, they seemed to be there to market their services."
- TrenchardsRedemption
Uninvited
"The reunion itself."
"My wife was down in the state south of us for training and got into an accident. I went down and got things sorted with her so she was good and went back to what she was doing and I drove back north. It was a Friday and I was driving through my hometown and figured I would take my mother out to a restaurant we used to both really like going to."
"As we were eating, an old friend from high school walked through, waved, and headed into the back. Then another, and another, and another. Just as I was about to get up and go see what was going on an old girlfriend and later good friend walked in, saw me, and came up to talk for a bit. Then she asked if we should head back there, which confused me."
"Turns out I made it to the 10th year reunion for my class without knowing that I was at the 10th year reunion for my class. I finished my dinner with my mom, let her take my car home (I would catch a ride), and had a good night at the reunion I didn't know to expect."
- ACorania
Survival Stories
"A guy had cancer and attended. He looked to be 80 years old but was in his late 20s. Cancer really took a toll on him. Sad."
- Tuesday2017
Career Choices
"The biggest surprise anytime I catch up with people I grew up with is finding out their career. Most of us have pretty unremarkable jobs but some that stood out:"
"The guy who got arrested for underaged drinking three times is now a cop."
"The girl who couldn’t form a coherent sentence is now a teacher."
"The super genius is living in poverty because he decided to move to Costa Rica to save the rainforest."
"The bad kid joined the Army and now runs a small business and is doing very well for himself."
"The weirdo became a DJ and does shows at nightclubs."
"The nerdy D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) kid now owns and operates an outdoor shooting range and is one of the largest ammunition suppliers in the area."
- PM_Me_UrRight
The Late Classmates
"It was disturbing that 17 classmates had died by our 10th reunion."
- Back2Bach
"We had a lot of kids die with in the first 5 years after graduation. Can't remember the exact number, but it was in the neighborhood of like 20."
"Don't remember all of them, it was a weird mix of stuff. Three died in the same car crash, five to ten were OD-related deaths. At least one murder."
"We were a class of 650."
"Still, felt weird that there were that many deaths. We went to a pretty decent school in a nice area."
- Main-Yogurtcloset-82
Feeling Excluded
"The last I ever heard of my high school reunion was in an alumni newsletter. I was listed as 'missing' with a request for anyone who knew how to contact me to contact the alumni organization."
"The newsletter was sent to my house."
"I’m trying not to take it personally…"
- Someoneoverthere42
Surprising Turnout
"At the ten-year, one guy who had been a kind of a nerd and on the bowling team was now part of a 'wacky morning DJ' crew on one of the more popular radio stations in New York City, and came in with big hair and dressed like a rock star."
- brock_lee
Alternate Endings
"The only real 'surprise' was just how wrong we were about how people would turn out."
"The ivy-league bound people you were sure would be CEOs one day, ended up dropping out of college, having normal middle-class lives, jobs, and marriages, and just being happy as 'average.'"
"The people you were sure would end up like Wooderson from School Daze, turned out to get Master's degrees and even PhDs in one case, and now work in either government or aerospace."
"The guy who fought to get into West Point, ended up doing his required four years and then leaving the armed services."
"One guy ended up becoming a semi-successful author, and nobody saw that coming."
"The girl who got pregnant at 16, who you were sure was destined for a life of struggle, ended up landing a great career and retiring early. And her kids turned out to be great people who any parent would be proud of."
"The people you were sure would never lose contact with their friend group, vanished as if they never existed."
"The people who had to ask yourself, 'I don't recall that name at all, did they graduate in my class?' are now friends with 75% of the class on Facebook and active!"
"The athletes (boys and girls) are now anything but athletes, overweight, and frumpy."
"The frumpy dumpy ones now are rock climbers and hike the entirety of the Appalachian Trail."
"IT JUST GOES TO SHOW: Who you are on graduation day is absolutely not who you will become in three, five, ten, or thirty years. The future is yet unwritten, and the only thing stopping you from change is yourself."
- whomp1970
Many of these Redditors shared in the woes so many of us experienced during those rough high school years, but because they also toughed it out and went to at least one reunion, we're able to see all that we are, and are not, missing out on by potentially not attending.
Sometimes it's surreal to bring people back from the past.
Oh our high school crushes.
Be honest. How often do they cross your mind?
There is no shame.
They are the first people to set our hearts a flutter.
And they are forever immortalized in our memory as perfect.
But then went on and lived lives.
Let's see how that went.
Redditor anonymous-46wanted to talk about the people who made us blush back in the day. They asked:
"How did your high school crush turn out as an adult?"
Mine is "happily" married with kids. So cheers to them and whatever.
Still think about her...
"We graduated from HS in 1989 but went off to different universities. Looked her up about 10 yrs ago and unfortunately she had passed away from cancer. Still think about her!"
FreshStartLiving
Surprised you could find her. Women from high school and college are very difficult to locate without links from Facebook."
"They frequently change their last names. I have a few friends from college I've not been able to locate for 20 years. All my old contact information has expired. College email no longer exists. I no longer have my old phone number. This was before Yahoo Email and Gmail existed."
atari-2700
15 years later...
"She went to Korea to teach English after college, met a man from London, they're married and have a kid in London, he seems nice, she's still a great photographer."
illseeyouinthefog
"Quite a few Girls in my HS class did this as well( not American), especially places like Vietnam, Hong Kong."
"Some of them are still there 15 years later. I don't know how though, English was taken as a second language in my school. We where duel instruction, but hell if I know how some of them got the jobs. I pity those kids who will learn a bastardised version of English."
orbit99za
“he’ll go far”
"I looked one of mine up years ago. One of those “he’ll go far” types, so I expected to find just that. Turns out he’d died in a motorbike collision at 21. Best I could tell someone did something stupid and hit him. Such a waste. Worse was that his dad had died when he was quite young, so I can only imagine how devastated his mom and sister were."
Thanmandrathor
Swing Fast
The Ultimate Fighter Mma GIF by UFCGiphy"She moved to France and became a fairly successful MMA fighter."
astromech_d
An MMA fighter? Now that could been an interesting love story.
Good for her!!
Chicken Thumbs Up GIF by happydogGiphy"She started dating right out of high school and quickly got married. Has kids, successful family, seems nice. I'm on Reddit, so you know my story didn't go that well."
jayval90
The End
"He moved to a different state, became a cop, and was later arrested for pocketing cocaine that was confiscated from traffic stops. He was one of a group of cops from that city that was involved in it. Not gonna lie, my crush ended shortly after reading about that."
Responsible-Top-6882
"good enough"
"He was very successful for many years. Then he lost his job, no other offers were 'good enough' for him, he had to sell the house because he was unemployed, and he moved his family into a smaller place. He started drinking heavily, then one night shot and killed his wife in a drunken argument while the kids cowered in the next room. I didn't miss much."
nakedonmygoat
So Godpseed to him...
"He got really into giant puppets that take like ten people to move, tie dye, & jam bands, & moved to Vermont, which is really the perfect place to pursue all of these interests. So Godpseed to him on living his best life, but it would be hard to imagine a guy that is more NOT what I want for myself. So glad it didn't work out."
youhaveonehour
Success...
leslie odom jr broadway GIF by Hamilton: An American MusicalGiphy"He's a successful Broadway actor and as dreamy, talented, and kind as ever. He's a good person and deserves good things, so I'm genuinely happy for him. We actually keep in touch and when I'm in NYC he takes me backstage at his shows."
Ok_Whatever_Budd
Changes
"She dropped out of university after a bad breakup and initially got into drugs and a dead end job. She also became insecure about her looks because of one of her boyfriends and went for plastic surgery a few times. Last i heard she moved to a whole new city to restart her life and go back to school to get a degree. Hope it works out for her."
Eggsegret
34
"One is my ex-husband. He's sliding into hoarding, conspiracy theories, and general nastiness. I'm sliding the custody arrangement around so that Son is at my house way more often. Still, we keep it civil and respectful, and I've yet to say an unkind word about him to Son. One is gay, and as far as I know, is doing well. He still keeps in touch with my twin brother. One is dead. Epilepsy killed him at 34."
insertcaffeine
Paradise...
love GIFGiphy"45 years later. Married 35+ years, three kids, two grandkids and next year we retire together in our version of paradise. So pretty good so far."
cisco54
Too Different
"Lost touch with her in 1985. Found her again in 2009 just as I was divorcing my 1st wife. Life hadn't treated her kindly in the interim - homelessness, abuse, drugs etc whereas my life has been OK mostly. We got together... married in 2013. Getting divorced now. Her life and mine have been too different... the differences were a good thing for a long time, but now we accept we are incompatible. I think we are both relieved."
plentyofeight
All 3
"I dated the 3 guys in high school I had crushes on. One became successful in tech — happy, married with kids now, a bit boring but very nice. One is wanted by the FBI for defrauding investors with a fake company, among other things, and was last known to be somewhere in Asia (no lie)."
"One became a puppeteer.I’m only still in touch with the first one. I could have called it on the fraudster — he was super charming but extremely shady with a cruel streak, even then, and we only lasted a few weeks. Trust your instincts, even when young!"
HalcyonRye
Don't Tell Me
"I don't know. I don't want to know. I recently made the mistake of reaching into the past and received a sharp reminder that those aren't the people you used to know. It's better to just enjoy the memories for what they are."
Tuna_Salad_Rebellion
"That sounds like both good advice and a warning. Enjoy the memories.... OK."
PowerCord64
Passing By
"He went to the big city after high school, for university, and I didn't know what became of him after that... I eventually went to another province too... but I did see him passing by at an airport, 20 years later, and he was as elegant and smoking hot as ever. Looked like he was happy. He smiled when he saw me. *heart aflutter*"
Moving On
Peace Out Goodbye GIF by NETFLIXGiphy"I told her I liked her and she let me down gently, after that I realized it wasn't gonna happen and kind of moved on. She's still one of my best friends though, she got more attractive, she's got her own fitness business, she's doing well for herself and I'm very proud of her."
Unknown_Captain
The Menace
"I think he's doing alright, he was a menace in high school. But now he mainly hangs out with his wife, dog, & plays video games. He's gotten more annoying as he has gotten older, but turned into a pretty great man. But, this year we will be married 8 years. :)"
"We actually have a game room with a his & hers game set up! He built both of our pcs too. :) I normally like cozy games & he plays all kinds of stuff, mainly mmos. But sometimes we find a game we both like & get sucked into it together."
rousekitten
Well good luck to everyone involved. Hopefully it all worked out as it was meant to.
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