For many, an invitation to your high school class reunion can feel overwhelming. With many but’s and if’s crossing your mind, it’s nevertheless very tempting to see how these people: friends, first loves, acquaintances, and maybe even former enemies who probably still appear in your dreams every now and then, are doing today.
Well, these people who attended their high school reunion say they were left quite surprised by what they witnessed there.
“People who attended their high school reunion, what was the biggest surprise?” someone asked on Ask Reddit and the stories started flooding in. Below we wrapped up the most interesting ones for you to read.
#1
At some point of our 10y reunion I asked the girl I had a crush on back in 7/8th grade if she knew that I had a crush on her. I just thought it was fun talking about that as adults. Turnes out she texted me several times the next days, we met again and now, almost 6ys later we're engaged (for 2ys... 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.
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267points
#2
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](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/7DdPZDYBSGI/maxresdefault.jpg), turned out to get Masters 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.
Two committed suicide, and many asked "Why? He seemed to have everything going for him!?"
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.
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240points
#3
My band got asked to play "some 90s class reunion" by a venue. We took the gig. As we're setting up I thought "Hey, I know her... And him... And her... And them"
*It was my f****n class reunion and I wasn't invited.*
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240points
#4
In high school in the late 1970’s a punk bully took my back pack and threw it out a third story window. I hated that guy. He did random s****y things like that to a few others. At a recent reunion he surprisingly showed up. I decided to talk to him. After a few beers I brought up the back pack toss. He didn’t remember it. We further talked. Turns out during that time in high school his dad was dying of cancer and he was struggling with his sexuality. He’s gay. Through tears he apologized to me for his erratic behavior in high school. After a couple more beers he told me that his 30 year partner had also recently passed of cancer. Wow. I’m just glad I went to the reunion. I had been talking s**t about that guy for decades. Now we are great friends.
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231points
#5
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!
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159points
#6
The hottest girl in grade 12…totally out of my league…told me at the reunion she’d always hoped I would ask her out and didn’t like that I treated her more like a sister despite her attempts to flirt with me.
I am Captain Oblivious it turns out.
159points
#7
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…..
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156points
#8
That my friend was still alive and he was equally surprised that I was.
We got into drugs together right after HS, we ended up being so f****d up that one night we robbed each other (he sold me a bag of actual grass and I gave him a dollar instead of a 20 and we both ran in opposite directions and never spoke again. Friendship ended, no one even confronted the other.
10 years later at my HS reunion I see him sitting in the corner, we were both sober and looking great. I walk over to him and first thing he says to me was "OMG I THOUGHT YOU'D BE DEAD" and I said the same thing back to him... we talked the rest of the night, he didn't even remember why we stopped talking in the first place, just that we were both in a very dark place when we parted ways lol. Anyway we both felt it best we leave the friendship there and did not exchange numbers or anything but I'm glad he's alive.
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151points
#9
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 3 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 golden child is now in prison for sexual assault
-The weirdo became a DJ and does shows at night clubs
-The nerdy D&D kid now owns and operates an outdoor shooting range and is one of the largest ammunition suppliers in the area.
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134points
#10
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 home town 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 highschool 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.
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129points
#11
It was disturbing that 17 classmates had died by our 10th reunion.
129points
#12
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.
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104points
#13
No one f*****g remembered me. I had more people staring at me all confused, rather than make conversation. That’s what surprised me. I was quiet back then, but damn!
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102points
#14
The massive stoner from the year below me who used to get suspended on a monthly basis was the head of the English department.
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100points
#15
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.
91points
#16
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.
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84points
#18
I didn't go because... well... f**k HS. It was hell. A friend of mine went to the 15yr one and said it was depressing AF. The people who showed up either couldn't live past their HS glory or were just sad and depressed looking people.
I'm good, thanks.
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80points
#19
Last year was our 10th year reunion. I went there just for s**ts and giggles and......wow. Where do I even begin?
- The biggest nerd in the whole year turned out into this huge egotistical douchebag.
- The school's most "sociable" girl became a nurse.
- The school gang of bad boys were: 2 dead - one car crash/ one drug overdose, 1 commited suicide, one worked is a tech store, one worked 2 jobs because he was paid child support to 3 women (remember, kids, condoms are a good thing), one actually turned his life around and got a bachelor's degree in English and was a middle school English teacher and the last one was working for his dad because he got kicked out of uni.
- My classmate, who many people thought was an asocial and stuck-up b***h, bloomed into a beautiful woman, who's married with 2 kids. We had a long talk and she said that she appeared asocial because our classmates were morons (true) and she had no intention to talk to them.
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77points
#20
The people who made fun of me for my weight were now fat, divorced, and barely making it. I lost weight in college, got married to a wonderful man, and have great kids. And in the end they thought they were still better than me. I guess I found irony.
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67points