# What happened to the kids in your HS after graduation who were 'too cool for school'? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 30, 2017, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kids-in-your-hs-after-graduation-who-were-too-cool-for-school/787713 "2017-05-30T12:41:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kids-in-your-hs-after-graduation-who-were-too-cool-for-school/787713/21 "2017-05-30T17:46:25Z")
> [@femmejean](#): > > What do you mean exactly? > > I’m really interested in this because I always heard from my crazy father and a few other people that ‘you’ll end up poor and homeless if you do shit in high school or drop out’, but from what I’m reading this doesn’t seem to be the case. > > I wonder how many stories are there of kids actually becoming homeless after failing high school. I suppose that was scaremongering but then I do wonder again why some teachers were so strict giving detentions when you didn’t learn all your work. Getting bad grades doesn’t seem to hinder your life too much apparently. > > Might ask some ‘tiger’ moms why they push their kids so much even when living in the West. I’d wager someone becoming homeless after pronging high school probably had many other factors leading up to homelessness. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kids-in-your-hs-after-graduation-who-were-too-cool-for-school/787713/22 "2017-05-30T22:07:09Z")
> [@femmejean](#): > > What do you mean exactly? > > I’m really interested in this because I always heard from my crazy father and a few other people that ‘you’ll end up poor and homeless if you do shit in high school or drop out’, but from what I’m reading this doesn’t seem to be the case. > > I wonder how many stories are there of kids actually becoming homeless after failing high school. I suppose that was scaremongering but then I do wonder again why some teachers were so strict giving detentions when you didn’t learn all your work. Getting bad grades doesn’t seem to hinder your life too much apparently. > > Might ask some ‘tiger’ moms why they push their kids so much even when living in the West. The kids who ended up poor and homeless after high school don’t normally provide updates on the alumni website, so it’s harder to keep track of them.:smack: I mentioned a couple of classmates who changed their life in a positive direction. I can also mention more than a couple of classmates who burned out even from a high school level. They weren’t exactly homeless, but some of them ended up hanging drywall, driving a school bus or other jobs that didn’t offer much long-term opportunity. I ran into one woman more than 30 years later. She had worked nothing but temp jobs for pretty much her entire life. Are those the kinds of stories you were expecting? ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kids-in-your-hs-after-graduation-who-were-too-cool-for-school/787713/23 "2017-05-30T22:32:32Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > I haven’t kept up with anyone I went to high school with. Yeah, ditto. I figured they had all just been a figment of my imagination. Or they were all dead. Or something, I never gave it much thought. ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kids-in-your-hs-after-graduation-who-were-too-cool-for-school/787713/24 "2017-05-31T02:42:06Z")
This reminds me of one of my favorite [scenes from **Annie Hall**.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYB0HonV6TA) ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kids-in-your-hs-after-graduation-who-were-too-cool-for-school/787713/25 "2017-05-31T18:48:07Z")
There are no absolute but for the most part, the academic kids went on to college and got professional jobs. Those that weren’t academically inclined, got trade jobs and did okay as well. Sure there were exceptions. Pretty much all the kids we assumed were gay did eventually come out, and a few more. Don’t get too hung up on what went on in high school, life is much bigger than that. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kids-in-your-hs-after-graduation-who-were-too-cool-for-school/787713/26 "2017-05-31T19:33:23Z")
> [@femmejean](#): > > What do you mean exactly? > > I’m really interested in this because I always heard from my crazy father and a few other people that ‘you’ll end up poor and homeless if you do shit in high school or drop out’, but from what I’m reading this doesn’t seem to be the case. > > I wonder how many stories are there of kids actually becoming homeless after failing high school. I suppose that was scaremongering but then I do wonder again why some teachers were so strict giving detentions when you didn’t learn all your work. Getting bad grades doesn’t seem to hinder your life too much apparently. > > Might ask some ‘tiger’ moms why they push their kids so much even when living in the West. So are you asking about high school dropouts or people who just had a bad attitude in school? That’s two very different questions because it’s hard to track outcomes based on attitude but quite easy to track outcomes based on education completion. For example here’s a 2012 showing just how much worse off high school drop outs are. Apparently the average income for high school drop outs is less than 1/3rd what I earned straight out of college 10 years ago. “Homeless” might be a bit hyperbolic but not by much. > **[By the Numbers: Dropping Out of High School | FRONTLINE](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/by-the-numbers-dropping-out-of-high-school/)** > > How costly is the decision to dropout of high school? Consider a few figures about life without a diploma. I could have sworn I saw an article in just the past couple weeks on much the same subject but with more recent data, but I can’t find it. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kids-in-your-hs-after-graduation-who-were-too-cool-for-school/787713/27 "2017-05-31T23:20:27Z")
I don’t keep up with my HS cohorts. But I have a feeling that success/failure rate is correlated more with socioeconomics and family stability than academic performance. My high school had slackers from all backgrounds. But my guess is that few of slackers who were poor and from dysfunctional homes are working cushy jobs, and few of the slackers who were from wealthy, intact families are bedding down on Skid Row. ---
**Author:** ![Unabashed\_Fascist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/c2a13f/32.png) [@Unabashed\_Fascist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unabashed_Fascist)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2017, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kids-in-your-hs-after-graduation-who-were-too-cool-for-school/787713/28 "2017-05-31T23:32:29Z")
I was more or less running exclusively in these kinds circles during high-school and middle-school (low income slackers). I wasn’t a slacker personally, but they were the company that I enjoyed keeping. There were six of us that were really close, including my girlfriend and myself. I’m now seven years out of high-school, and I’m still good friends with all of them; still dating the same girl too (10 years!). My girlfriend, me, and one other went to college and graduated, of the other three only one managed to get his high-school diploma. Those three guys are all working various blue collar jobs, making between $12-$18 and hour, two are married (to each other, heterosexually) and the other is an eternal bachelor. The other girl who went to college got a degree in business, and works as an accountant making ~$40K a year, and is an eternal bachelorette. My girlfriend is in her last year of medical school and is hoping to get a psychiatry residency somewhere. I don’t think I really count, but I got my master’s last May and currently work as a computer programmer for the military industrial complex. Not too bad, all-in-all. Everyone is solvent, healthy and seemingly happy. ---
**Author:** ![Annoying\_Buzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Annoying\_Buzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annoying_Buzz)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2017, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kids-in-your-hs-after-graduation-who-were-too-cool-for-school/787713/29 "2017-06-01T00:57:30Z")
He wasn’t from my school, but my former manager (ad agency) was the main drug connection and ‘bad kid’ at high school (he told a story about mugging one of the future members of Phish for his tie-dye shirt. Believable, as they were at school together). Today, he’s in his early 50s and with a house, family, and fairly big-cheese status in a white-collar industry that depends on both work ethic and charisma. OTOH, he’s a major drinker with anger issues, and he’s pretty much stuck in Japan because the business environment here lets him get away with behavior that would get him fired, sued, and possibly arrested in the West. The ones I went to high school with were pretty much all dead or in prison on sexual assault charges by their early 30s. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2017, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kids-in-your-hs-after-graduation-who-were-too-cool-for-school/787713/30 "2017-06-01T01:42:26Z")
Still taking my lunch money. OTOH, he does make a mean Subway sandwich. I haven’t really made any effort to keep up with anyone from high school although I’ll hear a bit of gossip from time to time. Death and prison stories have the longest legs but I’m sure there are plenty that turned out well that aren’t as newsworthy. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2017, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kids-in-your-hs-after-graduation-who-were-too-cool-for-school/787713/31 "2017-06-02T03:23:09Z")
I actually keep in touch with a bunch of high school people through Facebook and I’ve been to almost all the reunions. I don’t think any of them became “homeless junkies or dead”. We’re all in our mid 40s now FWIW. One guy who was a bit of a dick who fancied himself as Judd Nelson from Breakfast Club joined the Marines for awhile and later became a cop or something. My best friend from Middle School went all punk and formed a ska band with a bunch of our classmates back in the 90s. They are still involved in the local music scene and seem to make a reasonable living from that. A couple of girls who got knocked up right after high school are either married or single with corporate jobs and their kids are off in college. I’d say at worst, a lot of them have “townie” jobs. Then again they are living in homes twice the size of my condo on half my salary or less. So whose the idiot? > [@femmejean](#): > > Might ask some ‘tiger’ moms why they push their kids so much even when living in the West. They want their kids to be lawyers and hedge fund managers and such. Not just “graduate and get a decent job”. ---
**Author:** ![moojja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@moojja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moojja)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2017, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kids-in-your-hs-after-graduation-who-were-too-cool-for-school/787713/32 "2017-06-02T17:59:43Z")
> [@femmejean](#): > > Might ask some ‘tiger’ moms why they push their kids so much even when living in the West. There’s is this preconception among Asians: since Asians are thought of as outsiders, they need to work harder/longer to get the same job/level as white people. That’s why Frank Grimes from the Simpsons became a controversy for Asian population. Asians saw too many similarities (whether the writers intended it or not). ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2017, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kids-in-your-hs-after-graduation-who-were-too-cool-for-school/787713/33 "2017-06-03T00:27:48Z")
At my age, those guys got drafted and killed in Nam. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2017, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kids-in-your-hs-after-graduation-who-were-too-cool-for-school/787713/34 "2017-06-03T02:08:35Z")
Of the ones I can think of, many ended up with drug or alcohol problems, in and out of jail, some OD’d on fentanyl, etc. Really not a bunch that ended up ok, the best ended up in low wage jobs. I’m sure a few turned themselves around and got an education and a decent job, but I’m not sure who. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2017, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kids-in-your-hs-after-graduation-who-were-too-cool-for-school/787713/35 "2017-06-03T02:12:42Z")
> [@femmejean](#): > > What do you mean exactly? > > I’m really interested in this because I always heard from my crazy father and a few other people that ‘you’ll end up poor and homeless if you do shit in high school or drop out’, but from what I’m reading this doesn’t seem to be the case. > > I wonder how many stories are there of kids actually becoming homeless after failing high school. I suppose that was scaremongering but then I do wonder again why some teachers were so strict giving detentions when you didn’t learn all your work. Getting bad grades doesn’t seem to hinder your life too much apparently. > > Might ask some ‘tiger’ moms why they push their kids so much even when living in the West. You really can’t tell how someone will end up based on high school. Even if you drop out, nothing is stopping you from doing a GED and then going on to college or getting a certificate or associates in some boring middle class field. In my experience, the reason that the ‘too cool for school’ kids ended up leading fucked up lives is because they were fucked up people even as children. People with emotional issues, came from homes of abuse or neglect, people who never were too bright, etc. Most came across to me as not very bright people from abusive homes, some of whom had mental health issues to boot. Thinking of one of the too cool for school kids who ended up ODing, I could tell he was seriously fucked up in 2nd grade. He would’ve been 7 years old or so. Probably abuse and neglect, and that stuff can fuck your whole life up if you let it. Basically if you drop out of high school and never get anymore education, yeah you’ll be fucked up. But some people drop out, spend a few years listless then do a GED and tertiary education. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2017, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kids-in-your-hs-after-graduation-who-were-too-cool-for-school/787713/36 "2017-06-03T08:08:19Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Some of them ended up dead, mostly from alcohol or drug abuse. A few did time. The majority of them just ended up working at blue collar jobs. Yeah, that was me. I did wind up dead from alcohol and drug abuse. I’m astonished the demons let me post here. ---
**Author:** ![Graymalkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@Graymalkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Graymalkin)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2017, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kids-in-your-hs-after-graduation-who-were-too-cool-for-school/787713/37 "2017-06-04T03:13:25Z")
They ended up just fine. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2017, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kids-in-your-hs-after-graduation-who-were-too-cool-for-school/787713/38 "2017-06-04T05:39:06Z")
They have boring middle-class jobs and married very attractive spouses. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2017, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kids-in-your-hs-after-graduation-who-were-too-cool-for-school/787713/39 "2017-06-04T20:41:29Z")
We’re all gonna be dead, eventually. Jocks, nerds, stoners. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2017, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kids-in-your-hs-after-graduation-who-were-too-cool-for-school/787713/40 "2017-06-04T22:48:20Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Some of them ended up dead, mostly from alcohol or drug abuse. A few did time. The majority of them just ended up working at blue collar jobs. This pretty much matches the story of my high school class. > [@kunilou](#): > > The kids who ended up poor and homeless after high school don’t normally provide updates on the alumni website, so it’s harder to keep track of them.:smack: I know this makes me a terrible person, but I couldn’t help but giggle at this. “Mr. Bully McHellraiser has relocated from beneath the High St. bridge to the abandoned factory on the outskirts of town. He still summers in a tent near the river”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-kids-in-your-hs-after-graduation-who-were-too-cool-for-school/787713.md?page=1)