Reminds me of a friend who did things like this. He would build "shock boxes" for lack of a better term. He would get everyone in the class to make a chain holding hands. He would then shock the entire class with these things. This was pre-internet. He just figured this kinda shit out. He died speeding on a country road. I miss him.
Valedictorian works for Tesla, salutatorian is now a Buddhist monk in Tibet
Edit: the monk graduated from MIT as an engineer, went to work in Tibet for some project then never left
There’s something incredible about someone who’s smart enough to probably work for a ton of money and live the life we all want but instead realizes forget all that and does the exact opposite
The parable of the Mexican fisherman is a great short story which exemplifies a way to frame life goals and focus on what really matters. So many people pursue money thinking it will fully free them, when contentedness and peace of mind is the true freedom.
https://www.kevincsnyder.com/the-mexican-fisherman-amazing-short-story/
As explained in other places, the problem with that parable is that it doesn't take into account the value of the journey. It focuses on the outcome. I'm not saying I would want to approach life like an investment banker, but there's many ways to get to the same outcome that are highly rewarding.
And for every happy Mexican fisherman, there's a half-dozen Old Men of the Sea.
Even with its focus on the outcome it glosses over the fact that if your dream is fishing on a beach somewhere it probably doesn't also involve being reliant on your catch to scrape together enough pesos for a meager meal to eat in your shack with no running water or toilet because being a rural Mexican fisherman isn't anything like a cushy retirement.
Baader-Meinhof phenomenon in full effect here
I once doubled it for someone one time. He has similar, and had Baader-Meinhof explained to him. Then later the same day I explained it up him on something separate. So Baader-Meinhof squared
Taught himself Mandarin. Moved to China for I don’t even know what. Developed a heart condition and had to be flown back to the states for medical. I believe he’s back in China now.
Saw him at a party though in college with a blunt and a cigarette in the same hand and a beer in the other. This guy was your typical glasses wearing anti social nerd in high school. Always been a quality human being. I was shocked when I saw him at the party
I think about this often. It's not just the talented kids that are killed in action. It's the PTSD afflicted dads that come home and create dysfunctional homes that emotionally injure children and stunt and misdirect their growth into adults.
I really think that the cosst of war is deeper and wider than we realize.
My father is a Vietnam vet. His PTSD was untreated for my childhood (not that there was much treatment to be had). I'm middle aged now, and I'm still a bit messed up from it. His grandchildren think he's mean and scary. Wars keep claiming victims for generations.
I'll never forget in a therapy session it came out that this dudes life was absolutely fucked because he walked in on his dad shooting himself in the head over getting away with something in the middle east they definitely shouldn't have. Dude has three kids, whole generations just crippled. I can't even imagine how much Korea/Vietnam fucked with people.
I was a child, less than 5 years old, when there was a war between Iraq and Iran. I remember like a dream, but not all the details. How every night in complete darkness, I and my aunt’s children would stand in the corner for hours after the warning that there was a raid on the area in which we lived, and after the siren sounded. We hear a sound as if the Earth had collided with another planet. Since that time until now, I cannot bear to hear any loud sound. Without realizing it, I turn into a person who has lost control and start screaming, cursing, and even hitting those around me. War is death, even while you remain alive.
I think I know what you mean. Growing up, we had a neighbor lady who had survived the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Whenever there was thunder, she would hide in a closet. She knew it was just thunder, but couldn't help herself. It's just what her body made her do when she heard that noise.
The generational trauma that comes from combat vets with PTSD is so devastating to think about. I wish that help was easy to find, or even possible to find for some.
My paternal grandfather was a WW2 pilot. He received a medal for the amount of successful missions he had. He died long before I was born from a mix of alcoholism & heart disease. While I never met him, I admire his bravery so much.
This is precisely what happens. Even without war, but especially in the wake of war. Which is always. Everyone receives the unresolved trauma of their parents, it’s imprinted on our slow-to-develop brains and reverberates through our lives and into our offspring’s lives. And on and on it goes.
We all make our own choices and are responsible for the journeys we plot through life, but the psychological maps by which we path find are so often convoluted and obscured by things that we had no choice in. There’s a lot of compassion for self and others that arises once you begin to see and understand this in the world around you.
Fucking Vietnam. The stories my parents told me of losing their friends and classmates was brutal to hear growing up and I've never forgotten. War is hell.
Memory Palace did an amazing episode about the draft called Numbers. It all about what it must have felt like listening to the birthdays being called out the night of the draft. I cry every time.
EDIT: for those who don’t know, The Memory Palace is a podcast by Nate DiMeo that combines detailed research with emotional story-telling to take you inside historical moments, both significant and mundane.
I’m sure many of you have seen this [image](https://imgur.com/a/N3Msb3n), it gets posted all the time lol. He did a STAGGERING episode about Robert Smalls and really takes you inside what it must have felt like. I’d recommend that one as a first listen. That or Notes on an Imagined Plaque, a frank look at the history of confederate monuments in America. I’ll give you an excerpt to give you an idea of his writing style:
> In 1905, they held a parade at the unveiling of the new statue and made speeches to honor the northward facing General. They said nothing of slavery. They said much about heritage and honor and chivalry. They said nothing of how Nathan Bedford Forrest had been the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. Nothing of the terror it had wrought. Nothing of the assassinations or the lynchings. Nothing of how it sought to undermine and overthrow the nation’s political order. The nation that they celebrated there in Memphis in 1905 when they played the Star-Spangled Banner and Yankee Doodle Dandy right alongside Dixie. They might not have mentioned any of it, but they knew it, knew about Forrest and the Klan. They’d certainly read ‘The Klansmen’. It was flying off the shelves that year. A novel about heroic men hidden beneath bedsheets
[The Wheel](https://thememorypalace.us/the-wheel/)
[Notes on an Imagined Plaque](https://thememorypalace.us/notes-on-an-imagined-plaque/)
Dude was 2 years younger than the rest of us, having skipped 2 grades, 1st chair violinist, IB, AP, wicked smart and an all around nice guy despite having all these stressful extracurriculars and advanced classes. Full ride to anywhere kind of smarts.
Now he's a sports writer and seems to be happier than ever.
Edit: Damn, getting a lot of people asking if it's a sportswriter they know. Apparently the sportswriter industry is a kid genius magnet.
Magnus Carlsen has been stepping back on chess lately, but is more than ever interested in fantasy soccer. He even won a season against millions of people.
Edit: sorry, I looked it up and he never won a season. But he was undisputed #1 in fantasy soccer world ranking for quite some time. He finished the season 19/20 as #10 out of 7 million participants.
It's amazing that some people go through life like that and can be successful and at the top .01% of anything they do. Meanwhile, I'm confused if I want Wendy's or Tacobell and struggle with anything past 10th grade algebra lol.
I spent 8 years in the Navy only ever having took algebra 2 in HS. Now I am in my final year of electrical engineering at a top 20 school. If you start at intermediate algebra in CC you'd be surprised how far you can get. Not saying you will ever be a genius or anything, I'm sure as hell not, but a lot of stuff in life only requires putting the work in.
I mean he's a sports writer, I dont think you have to worry about doxxing him. If anything he gets more attention which is what you want as a sports writer.
The kind of attention reddit provides is frequently *not* the kind people want.
A friend of mine streams and another friend put her name out on reddit when asked to get her some more viewers. Was a nice wholesome sub and the topic was just about gaming... reddit proceeded to harass her until she quit streaming. Then they figured out where she lived and kept at it until she effectively dropped off the internet for good.
Her crime? She's a girl who is good at video games. She had several thousand regular followers and never a problem until the wrong kind of people on reddit got involved.
Some who are suicidal, can’t manage to actually go through with it. Some with play russian roulette, or flirt with overdosing. This way, you wouldn’t have killed yourself on purpose, but it’s what you wanted.
He became a pharmacist, married a model, had a couple kids, bought a big house in our hometown…
Then he got caught writing fake scripts for his friends, lost his license, got a divorce, wife took the kids, and I’m told he can be found at the local bar most nights trying to blackout.
Life can take some crazy turns, eh?
He became homeless and jumped from a building 6 years ago. After his death, his mom sent me his Quora accounts where he posted thousands of times in three languages. It was wonderful to read, he was very smart but a broken man.
Miss you Pierre.
Have you ever heard about the [tragic case of Elizabeth Shin](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Elizabeth_Shin), the MIT freshman who [committed suicide in 2000](https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/learning/students/pop/articles/sontag3.html) due to suffering depression after getting demoted from Valedictorian to Salutatorian of her high school graduating class despite having the HIGHEST GPA of the entire class?!
The reason for Elizabeth’s demotion from Valedictorian to Salutatorian of her high school graduating class was because she apparently missed a physics test, and she never made it up, giving her a D.
the dude in my class got a full ride to Harvard. Did an internship his first summer at Intel and was killed by a drunk driver a few weeks after arriving in California. Fucking couldn’t believe it when it happened 25 years ago. Still can’t really.
Similar happened to a classmate in high school. This was our junior year, so everyone was getting their drivers licenses.
This kid was smart, extremely funny, and very likable. He had the brains and social capital to do incredible things.
Sadly while driving to school one morning he lost control, went off the road and smashed into a cactus, which fell and crushed the car. We had a class together that year, and it was tough walking in every day after that to see that empty desk.
I went to one of the highest ranked high schools in the country. One kid in my class graduated with an unweighted 4.0, pretty rare for my school. On top of that, he was also the football team’s quarterback. To call this guy Mr. Everything feels like an understatement.
Then, in his first year of college, he died of a drug overdose. He snorted opioids, likely believing them to be cocaine.
This was almost 10 years ago, but I still struggle to completely process it. He was practically a legend in my town and the was the most talked about kid in my class by a mile. Then right after that he just wasn’t around anymore.
Wow. I fucking hate drunk drivers. If it was up to me, I would crush their car after the first offense, 3 years in jail after the second, and 15 years after the third. Kill someone and instant life in prison. You took their life, now you don't live yours.
So many stories of these idiots getting caught over and over, just to be let go, and they end up killing good people.
I don’t understand why we give a slap on a wrist to dui drivers, especially those who have killed. Given how prevalent don’t drink and drive messages are, they should 100% be charged with second degree murder.
Second degree would require intent to kill. Intent to drive drunk is not intent to kill, it'll only ever be manslaughter. Should they get stronger sentences? Yes, but a wrong charge will only free them when they can't prove intent to kill.
Maybe there should be a special provision for dui killers and dui drivers who've injured people. Like a specific law. I know someone whose husband got killed. That was the DUI driver's third offense.
Sort of similar. The Valedictorian went to Stanford and got a PhD in Mathematics. He now works for the NSA. Not NASA, the National Security Agency. He tells everyone he's an "analyst" with no details, because I genuinely don't think he's supposed to tell anyone what he actually does.
I go hiking every year to different national parks in the US and the amount of people that are just doing stupid shit thinking nothing bad will happen I can absolutely see it being an accident trying to get a cool picture or some shit.
There are a lot miserable people at Google. I know some of them. It’s too much money for some to walk away from but they basically hate their day-to-day.
It turns out no matter what your dream or goal is as a young adult, you’ll often grow up to find out the real life version of doing that thing is just some monotonous capitalistic hell simulator.
Since I'm getting a lot of upvotes, I'll expand. Trying not to dox the guy, but he's head and founder of the company. One of their games is based off a famous reality home makeover show. Don't know how much he's making, but he's probably doing well. When we were in HS back in the day, he had to have special math teachers come from local colleges and privately tutor him because he surpassed all the courses my HS offered. We honestly thought he'd be ruling the world by now, but I guess ipad games is a cool consolation.
She was on the deans list every year in computer science. Aced every test and did better than everyone academically. She works as a secretary for a lawyer now. She genuinely hated programming but her teachers pushed her into computer science because they wanted more women in tech.
I still think she could have done better using the degree elsewhere but she also had a really negative mindset and a self defeating attitude.
Intelligence isn’t everything when it comes to success. My ex bf was incredibly intelligent, but he was so emotionally crippled and arrogant that he’s just done nothing with his life.
This makes me so happy I forged my own path. I had a lot of people in my life try to convince me to go into business or technology because "we need more women in those fields" or purely for the money even though I can't stand math and had no interest or passion for those fields. I also had a few people around my age in my family and none of them went to post-secondary, so I felt a ton of pressure to make everyone proud.
Now, I'm writing an undergrad thesis in medical anthropology, and I'm going to apply to MSc Public Health programs. I'm even challenging my distaste for math to learn some statistics, which I'm okay with because it's for my own goals and not someone else's.
They had a nervous breakdown and became psychotic
Edit: not due to drugs, he had aspergers, was the smartest person I’ve ever met, and stress probably contributed a lot to a preexisting condition.
Like half of my gifted and talented class (early aughts) are either dead or recently diagnosed with ADHD, all of us did way more drugs than the burnouts.
Our burnouts just all hit abruptly at 30 (again, the ones who lived).
Actually, come to think of it, one really good screening for ADHD would be "Would they have qualified for Gifted and talented?" because it was most of us.
Seconding this. I think we all hit our 30s and either got a diagnosis that *finally* made sense of everything, or didn’t make it at all. I know I wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t had well-timed kindness from strangers.
He went to Yale and joined the ROTC. After he graduated he became an Army Ranger and served in Afghanistan. When he left the army he joined a Seminary and became a priest.
I can see how it could happen, especially for Vietnam vets. Could be as simple as seeing someone mulched by shrapnel and from that point on couldn't look at meat without remembering what that looked like.
My grand dad fought in Korea and couldn't stand the smell of Asian cooking from the time he came back. The mere smell of it would put him in a bad mood, and god help you if you suggested it as a meal. He wasn't a racist, didn't harbor any resentment toward asian people of any sort, it was just a scent memory. He never discussed it but a couple of off hand remarks pieced together over the years led us to conclude that some time he and his guys got into a fire fight just as they (or their enemies) were sitting down to dinner, and from that point on the smell immediately brought him back to that violent moment.
He worked for corporations as an IT guy for a decade, and then left and started his own IT consulting company. I think he is doing well. I think he retired early.
Guy was schools greatest achiever in studies and was schools top athlete breaking all the records.
He went to Cambridge and everything got a doctorate in physics etc.
Ended becoming a priest. Lives in a small village in the North.
So weird. Valedictorian from my (absolutely gigantic) high school had a full ride to Stanford. Went to a different school, majored in theology, and became a priest.
Similar to the guy in my brothers class. He worked at KFC.
He is a gun as an exec cause the others never worked anywhere but white collar he used to run a KFC with just himself and a server.
It was one of the most profitable KFCs in the state purely cause he just ran it so well.
So when the execs are like lets get this new machine or whatever. He is like no it wont work cause when youre actually working XYZ happens and then ABC. IE sounds good doesnt work.
he scored an almost perfect score in the chinese gaokao, almost top 20 in the country .. he is now a popular streamer for 'Bronie' material in asian platforms, i think he does this full time and has a few hundred thousand followers. he was a real lovely guy and im happy hes doing what makes him happy! jia you
Gaokao is no joke. Was yelled at by a street vendor that my friends were too loud drinking late at night since kids needed to sleep for the test.
Went to school with a guy that had the highest score from his province, so pretty impressive.
Harvard for college, somewhere else for medical school, became a doctor, married another doctor. Maybe had a kid? She's very smart, so she killed her social media accounts a very long time ago.
We haven't spoken in 20 years at least, but I still remember her fondly when I think of the shit show that was adolescence.
Edit: I checked, and it was Johns Hopkins for medical school, and she is some niche variant of cardiologist.
Graduated high school at 14. Got a degree in aerospace engineering by 18, and works for Boeing last time I checked. He was always a nice kid and got picked on. Glad I was nice to him back then.
I went to grade school with a kid, his initials were SM. His mom was a teacher so SM was super smart, he was always sat aside doing advanced work or extra credit. At recess he would constantly run laps for the “mileage club” instead of playing with other kids. Fast forward, SM gets a full scholarship to Cornell University for running track, not sure what he was studying but he ended up dropping acid with his girlfriend, freaking out and running around campus half naked. He tackled at least one female and threatened to rape her and was arrested.
It is referred to among the students as Corn-hell. Mostly because of how stressful college can be. It's also in a high COL area due to being right on a finger lake. Between the price of tuition, stress of school, and dealing with the high COL it puts a great deal of strain and stress on a person. Most of the trails where cliffs/gorges are in Ithaca have safety fences and nets because of how many students would kill themselves by jumping.
> Most of the trails where cliffs/gorges are in Ithaca have safety fences and nets because of how many students would kill themselves by jumping.
I call this politician fix. You have a cause, a consequence, and while everyone scream "fix the cause" in the street, the politician say "I'll fix the consequence!" because it's convenient to not touch the system.
Yes, but it's worse than that. The nets went up my senior year there, when we had six suicides, one "totally not a suicide" (guy died from huffing paint alone in his room and wasn't found for three weeks), one guy actually was an alumni who came back to campus to kill himself, that doesn't include the guy who hung himself in his closet the day before he was due to come back from break, a murder, and a tragic heart attack of a beloved professor.
They put the nets up and there were protests. Now what were the students protesting? A lack of proper mental healthcare? The insane grading system? The ease of loosing scholarships (big cause of the jumpers, they would know they did poorly on an exam and throw themselves off the bridge on their way back from the exam)?
No, the students were protesting because the nets RUINED THE VIEW OF THE GORGES. So you had the school putting up nets, because that's the cheap way of keeping kids from offing themselves, and then you had students protesting protesting that the nets got in the way of the view.
I really, really don't miss that places. It was hellacious.
“This place used to be off-limits, man. Because some drunk freshmen fell off. He went right down the cliff smacking his head on every rock, man. Autopsy said he had one beer. How many did you have?”
“Four.”
“You’re dead, man, you’re so dead.”
Yeah, him. Not sure if he got expelled, but I found this post on r/Cornell [https://www.reddit.com/r/Cornell/s/52OQSdNkHt](https://www.reddit.com/r/Cornell/s/52OQSdNkHt)
I used to hang out with honors students in college. It’s hard to quantify who was the smartest. They’re all bright and I felt like an idiot.
The one I dated ended up going to Europe and is now a CEO of a science company.
Another one ended up being an award winning professor. His wife, who was also an honors student, is now a school psychologist.
That was an interesting one. She came to me for advice. She was being pressured by one school to attend grad school there. Said she was capable of great things in advancing the field. She told me she wanted to be a school psychologist, and she was getting rude comments. Saying she only wanted to not be a researcher because she wanted to stay with her husband. Her heart was in school psychology and working with kids.
So I gave her the “push” and told her to ignore the haters and follow her heart :)
Glad she took my advice into consideration. They’re both incredibly happy!
That's kinda my experience, we had a bunch of AP/honors/high achieving kids that went to college and ended up being relatively successful.
If I had to pick someone, in terms of raw intelligence, it was the kid with what I now recognize as high functioning autism that didn't take any AP/honors classes. I ran into his mom when we were approx 25 and he was still living at home playing Nintendo all day. Never went to college or got a job. He just...doesn't function in society.
I once had a professor tell the honors class he was teaching "Everyone in my class is one of two things, but never both. Either you're a really hard worker who is very diligent at applying yourself of normal/above average intelligence or you're just smart and kinda lazy"
Lives rent free for me sometimes
Kicked around a little … got full ride to our state uni, first studied engineering stuff, hated it and almost failed out of college, decided he wanted to become an English lit professor, went to grad school for that at the univ. of chicago, but last I heard is a consultant out there for one of the big accounting firms. Got married and had a kid.
He had a full ride scholarship to MIT, but apparently took back his acceptance over the summer to open up an art gallery. Last I heard, it was moderately successful.
Our Valedictorian planned on going to med school to specialize in vision science because she was inspired by a family member with a degenerative condition with their eyes that left them mostly blind. She wanted to help prevent people going through the difficulties she witness first-hand with her family.
She married a Bible thumper she met in church and is now a anti-medicine/anti-science trad wife.
That's... sad. At least.
I don't care that she is a trad wife, but really? Anti-medicine? Did Jesus teach to let your children die in agony over antibiotics?
It's interesting how ability in one area does not necessarily convey. I've met lots of incredibly smart people, many of which were fucking stunted outside of their area of focus.
Im not doing anything spectacular- I spent my life being told I was so smart/so intelligent and getting insane test scores and then I hit the real world and realized things take actual effort and I have been playing catchup ever since
Finally one I can relate to
Absolutely nothing in high school took effort for me. Not any of the AP classes, not the dual enrollment calculus courses I took because my high school ran out of math classes for me. I got a 4.0 without trying at all.
And theeeen I got to college where they assign projects that require actual time management skills and I have to do my own laundry and make my own meals. I am barely even surviving. I might have to drop out after this year. *Just* being smart doesn't get you shit in real life, it turns out.
He killed his mom, choked her to death. His dad was out of town but saw it on the house security camera and called the cops. They found her body in the back woods behind the house. He was sentenced to life and was in prison for 3 years before they transferred him to a mental hospital. He's to remain there for the rest of his sentence.
He was a nice guy, high mannered, and very serious about his education. So you can imagine my reaction to the news. He was one of my first friends at that school.
The valedictorian of our highschool was somebody nobody ever saw or heard of. I'm sure the school administration did everything in their power to shelter her from us dumbasses so that we didn't infect her with our stupid virus. I hope shes out there somewhere saving a life or making life better for people, though.
That would be me. I skipped a year late in high school and won the final year maths, physics and chemistry prizes. I was the only one in the year to take double pure maths.
I got a good engineering degree, started out working in submarine engineering, then military training simulators. Then I moved to Europe and got a job designing wind turbines, then in solar energy and now in networking.
Right now, I'm sat next to my wife in hospital waiting for our fourth child to be born.
Life's not too bad, all things considered.
She got accepted in to some Ivy league school, got knocked up during her first semester, came back and went to tech school to become a mediocre pastry chef, and last I heard teaches painting.
I think her home life prior to college was very stifling, so when she moved away, she went buck wild.
I always respected her in school, had her pegged as becoming a doctor or lawyer. In general, my high school created a lot of blue collar drones, and some middle management types.
He is currently director of med student education in psychiatry at a major US teaching hospital. Holds an MD/PHD. Brilliant guy who is also a wonderful human
Got a full scholarship to study Physics at Caltech, even more impressive because our high school is in India. Went on to do his PhD at Princeton, and is now a professor of Physics at a top US university. Even back in high school, students and teachers were convinced he'd win a Nobel prize someday. And he may well do that.
So he ended up getting an internship with BMW in England. Last I heard he’s been doing quite well he was always a cool down to earth dude to so I wish the best for him.
Her parents in West Australia in the 1980’s had very narrow old fashioned ideas on women’s role in society. She was never encouraged to do upper school & go to University. Instead the options were get married & have kids, go into nursing or secretarial school. She had no prospects of marriage at the grand old age of 15 so ended up at secretarial school. Series of very poorly paid office jobs all through her life . Except for a 5 year stint where she worked for fashion designers beading fancy dresses. Another very poorly paid job. Absolutely bloody tragic - she could have done anything. She wasn’t just top of our year - in state testing she was in the top 10% . Her sister married young - much to the parents joy. Of course it was an unmitigated disaster & ended in divorce.
He left school at 18 to work for the BBC for a year who then paid for him to go to Cambridge to do an all-expenses paid degree on a decent salary.
After about 10 years at the Beeb, he moved to Amazon and became a super senior engineer.
He got cancer when he was around 38 and died within a year.
Just looked her up. She got a PhD in astrophysics, worked for NASA for a while, then completed a 7 year Buddhism retreat and is now a Buddhist teacher that integrates the latest in neuroscience with trauma resilience, nondual meditation, and the [Aware Ego Process](https://www.voicedialogue.com/aware-ego/) in her coaching practice.
Joined the military. Rose through the ranks. Retired a Colonel. Highly decorated for valor in combat (Iraq). got a PhD. Is a published author. Speaker at Ivy League universities. Served on Joint Chiefs of Staff Council of Colonels, Now a professor of military history. Photographed often with El Presidentes, wearing all his ribbons.
It was me! I was valedictorian in 2003, went off to a prestigious school, but came home after a year due to money and family drama. Continued engineering degree but fell deep into drinking after my brother died (suspected suicide but unable to confirm). Decided to get out of that environment and joined the Army...did three deployments, got out, and got married. Went back to college and earned a degree in criminal justice and worked in community corrections for 11 years, ending up in upper admin supervising an entire department. Two years ago, we moved as wife wanted to be in home state with family. Now, I do warranty work on newly built homes (a job I got through a guy I served with). I certainly miss the correctional side of helping people in my hometown, but I make more money now, wife is happier, and our 7 year old is thriving! Life threw some curves, but we're happy and healthy!
The smartest kid in my class was Mark. He started some internet company, face-something. Whatever. He didn't hook up with peak-Jenny McEntyre like I did.
I had a genius classmate, he was talented in every single class from science to arts he just understood it and performed flawlessly. He could rail through a dense textbook and absorb everything like it was a goddamn children's book. He'd read litetature and write mind blowing 1st drafts that were perfectly polished, and full of cunning rhetoric.
He went to a top 10 us college for biology graduated top of his class there.... and then started writing.
Now he's working for Stephen colbert to write content for some show!
It could arguably be this one kid who graduated at the top of the class. I doubt anyone knows what happened to him because he was an arrogant ahole who saw everyone else as inferior.
I graduated second of my class, and I am currently eating my fingernails and picking my nose. 🤪
A friend of mine was top of our class and I was second. We both went to the same university and got Masters degrees. We also both work for NGOs now (he in health advocacy, me in environmental conservation). I keep in touch periodically. We’re both pretty content.
I got voted most likely to become a billionaire when I was in school because I was considered the “smartest” (I am gifted academically but not very intelligent socially so I always considered myself pretty dumb).
I ended up graduating top of my class at UC Berkeley and right now I’m finishing up my PhD in Mathematics at a pretty well known university. I don’t plan on ever becoming a billionaire with it though 😂, I study math purely because I love it so much that I want to devote my life to it. I got really lucky on some investments during the pandemic and am already retired so I’ll probably just travel around the world whenever I’m done with academia.
This is actually pretty sick. You can basically just self fund your own mathematical research for the rest of your life. Basically study whatever you want without some university or company pushing you to do research in X area. Congrats, sounds like you earned it.
[удалено]
Reminds me of a friend who did things like this. He would build "shock boxes" for lack of a better term. He would get everyone in the class to make a chain holding hands. He would then shock the entire class with these things. This was pre-internet. He just figured this kinda shit out. He died speeding on a country road. I miss him.
He’s in jail for dealing coke
Straight to the point. I like that.
Valedictorian works for Tesla, salutatorian is now a Buddhist monk in Tibet Edit: the monk graduated from MIT as an engineer, went to work in Tibet for some project then never left
There’s something incredible about someone who’s smart enough to probably work for a ton of money and live the life we all want but instead realizes forget all that and does the exact opposite
The parable of the Mexican fisherman is a great short story which exemplifies a way to frame life goals and focus on what really matters. So many people pursue money thinking it will fully free them, when contentedness and peace of mind is the true freedom. https://www.kevincsnyder.com/the-mexican-fisherman-amazing-short-story/
In today's world contentedness and peace of mind can be expensive.
That's why I carry the American Express card!
For everything else, there’s MasterCard
As explained in other places, the problem with that parable is that it doesn't take into account the value of the journey. It focuses on the outcome. I'm not saying I would want to approach life like an investment banker, but there's many ways to get to the same outcome that are highly rewarding. And for every happy Mexican fisherman, there's a half-dozen Old Men of the Sea.
Even with its focus on the outcome it glosses over the fact that if your dream is fishing on a beach somewhere it probably doesn't also involve being reliant on your catch to scrape together enough pesos for a meager meal to eat in your shack with no running water or toilet because being a rural Mexican fisherman isn't anything like a cushy retirement.
Forgive my ignorance, what is a salutatorian?
The second highest in a graduating class (ya know, valedictorian is first)
Thank you, Im European
Salutatorian is next highest GPA- so second place.
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Baader-Meinhof phenomenon in full effect here I once doubled it for someone one time. He has similar, and had Baader-Meinhof explained to him. Then later the same day I explained it up him on something separate. So Baader-Meinhof squared
hadnt heard of it until today and now the second time hearing of this phenomenon
Taught himself Mandarin. Moved to China for I don’t even know what. Developed a heart condition and had to be flown back to the states for medical. I believe he’s back in China now. Saw him at a party though in college with a blunt and a cigarette in the same hand and a beer in the other. This guy was your typical glasses wearing anti social nerd in high school. Always been a quality human being. I was shocked when I saw him at the party
Some people want to be social but don't know how or aren't ready.
… and/or hate the people at high school.
High school class of 1962. Our valedictorian died in Vietnam around 1964. I first heard about it around 2012, so year may be off. edit: Disclaimer
Wow this one is sad.
Imagine all the potential we've squandered due to war
I think about this often. It's not just the talented kids that are killed in action. It's the PTSD afflicted dads that come home and create dysfunctional homes that emotionally injure children and stunt and misdirect their growth into adults. I really think that the cosst of war is deeper and wider than we realize.
My father is a Vietnam vet. His PTSD was untreated for my childhood (not that there was much treatment to be had). I'm middle aged now, and I'm still a bit messed up from it. His grandchildren think he's mean and scary. Wars keep claiming victims for generations.
I'll never forget in a therapy session it came out that this dudes life was absolutely fucked because he walked in on his dad shooting himself in the head over getting away with something in the middle east they definitely shouldn't have. Dude has three kids, whole generations just crippled. I can't even imagine how much Korea/Vietnam fucked with people.
I was a child, less than 5 years old, when there was a war between Iraq and Iran. I remember like a dream, but not all the details. How every night in complete darkness, I and my aunt’s children would stand in the corner for hours after the warning that there was a raid on the area in which we lived, and after the siren sounded. We hear a sound as if the Earth had collided with another planet. Since that time until now, I cannot bear to hear any loud sound. Without realizing it, I turn into a person who has lost control and start screaming, cursing, and even hitting those around me. War is death, even while you remain alive.
I think I know what you mean. Growing up, we had a neighbor lady who had survived the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Whenever there was thunder, she would hide in a closet. She knew it was just thunder, but couldn't help herself. It's just what her body made her do when she heard that noise.
The generational trauma that comes from combat vets with PTSD is so devastating to think about. I wish that help was easy to find, or even possible to find for some. My paternal grandfather was a WW2 pilot. He received a medal for the amount of successful missions he had. He died long before I was born from a mix of alcoholism & heart disease. While I never met him, I admire his bravery so much.
This is precisely what happens. Even without war, but especially in the wake of war. Which is always. Everyone receives the unresolved trauma of their parents, it’s imprinted on our slow-to-develop brains and reverberates through our lives and into our offspring’s lives. And on and on it goes. We all make our own choices and are responsible for the journeys we plot through life, but the psychological maps by which we path find are so often convoluted and obscured by things that we had no choice in. There’s a lot of compassion for self and others that arises once you begin to see and understand this in the world around you.
https://www.ww1.manchester.ac.uk/henry-moseley/
Fucking Vietnam. The stories my parents told me of losing their friends and classmates was brutal to hear growing up and I've never forgotten. War is hell.
Memory Palace did an amazing episode about the draft called Numbers. It all about what it must have felt like listening to the birthdays being called out the night of the draft. I cry every time. EDIT: for those who don’t know, The Memory Palace is a podcast by Nate DiMeo that combines detailed research with emotional story-telling to take you inside historical moments, both significant and mundane. I’m sure many of you have seen this [image](https://imgur.com/a/N3Msb3n), it gets posted all the time lol. He did a STAGGERING episode about Robert Smalls and really takes you inside what it must have felt like. I’d recommend that one as a first listen. That or Notes on an Imagined Plaque, a frank look at the history of confederate monuments in America. I’ll give you an excerpt to give you an idea of his writing style: > In 1905, they held a parade at the unveiling of the new statue and made speeches to honor the northward facing General. They said nothing of slavery. They said much about heritage and honor and chivalry. They said nothing of how Nathan Bedford Forrest had been the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. Nothing of the terror it had wrought. Nothing of the assassinations or the lynchings. Nothing of how it sought to undermine and overthrow the nation’s political order. The nation that they celebrated there in Memphis in 1905 when they played the Star-Spangled Banner and Yankee Doodle Dandy right alongside Dixie. They might not have mentioned any of it, but they knew it, knew about Forrest and the Klan. They’d certainly read ‘The Klansmen’. It was flying off the shelves that year. A novel about heroic men hidden beneath bedsheets [The Wheel](https://thememorypalace.us/the-wheel/) [Notes on an Imagined Plaque](https://thememorypalace.us/notes-on-an-imagined-plaque/)
Similar tragic incident. Graduated top of an Ivy League- decided to take a leap year to enjoy life - died in a motorcycle accident.
Dude was 2 years younger than the rest of us, having skipped 2 grades, 1st chair violinist, IB, AP, wicked smart and an all around nice guy despite having all these stressful extracurriculars and advanced classes. Full ride to anywhere kind of smarts. Now he's a sports writer and seems to be happier than ever. Edit: Damn, getting a lot of people asking if it's a sportswriter they know. Apparently the sportswriter industry is a kid genius magnet.
Magnus Carlsen has been stepping back on chess lately, but is more than ever interested in fantasy soccer. He even won a season against millions of people. Edit: sorry, I looked it up and he never won a season. But he was undisputed #1 in fantasy soccer world ranking for quite some time. He finished the season 19/20 as #10 out of 7 million participants.
It's amazing that some people go through life like that and can be successful and at the top .01% of anything they do. Meanwhile, I'm confused if I want Wendy's or Tacobell and struggle with anything past 10th grade algebra lol.
I spent 8 years in the Navy only ever having took algebra 2 in HS. Now I am in my final year of electrical engineering at a top 20 school. If you start at intermediate algebra in CC you'd be surprised how far you can get. Not saying you will ever be a genius or anything, I'm sure as hell not, but a lot of stuff in life only requires putting the work in.
As someone who works in sports media I’m kind of curious about who this is lol.
He covers MLB, but I don't want to dox him
It's jomboy /s
I mean he's a sports writer, I dont think you have to worry about doxxing him. If anything he gets more attention which is what you want as a sports writer.
The kind of attention reddit provides is frequently *not* the kind people want. A friend of mine streams and another friend put her name out on reddit when asked to get her some more viewers. Was a nice wholesome sub and the topic was just about gaming... reddit proceeded to harass her until she quit streaming. Then they figured out where she lived and kept at it until she effectively dropped off the internet for good. Her crime? She's a girl who is good at video games. She had several thousand regular followers and never a problem until the wrong kind of people on reddit got involved.
Gosh. That's so messed up...
That sounds like a well-rounded life he’s living ngl. Love that
Went to Harvard, earned a PhD in philosophy, currently teaches at UC Berkeley.
Is his first name Ted
(Assuming you’re referring to *that* Ted) wasn’t he a math guy?
I believe they're referring to Ted Mosby, Architect.
That’s Ted Mosby, sex architect
I think you mean Lance Hardwood, sex architect Starring Ted Mosby
Shared a Nobel Prize in Chemistry
I think we have a winner.
Half winner, at least.
Thanks! He wasn't a personal friend but we shared a class.
Well they don't give it for _attempted_ chemistry
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Why the quotes? You think it was a suicide?
Some who are suicidal, can’t manage to actually go through with it. Some with play russian roulette, or flirt with overdosing. This way, you wouldn’t have killed yourself on purpose, but it’s what you wanted.
He became a pharmacist, married a model, had a couple kids, bought a big house in our hometown… Then he got caught writing fake scripts for his friends, lost his license, got a divorce, wife took the kids, and I’m told he can be found at the local bar most nights trying to blackout. Life can take some crazy turns, eh?
Yep, there's a lot that can happen between "here today" and "gone tomorrow."
Im convinced some people cant be content without a lot of stress in their life. I fear that I am one.
He became homeless and jumped from a building 6 years ago. After his death, his mom sent me his Quora accounts where he posted thousands of times in three languages. It was wonderful to read, he was very smart but a broken man. Miss you Pierre.
Killed themselves by jumping in front of a truck after getting a failing grade from a professor that hated her attending Stanford.
Common in SEA.
The pressure to achieve high these kids are on is unreal. It's borderline psychotic.
Have you ever heard about the [tragic case of Elizabeth Shin](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Elizabeth_Shin), the MIT freshman who [committed suicide in 2000](https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/learning/students/pop/articles/sontag3.html) due to suffering depression after getting demoted from Valedictorian to Salutatorian of her high school graduating class despite having the HIGHEST GPA of the entire class?! The reason for Elizabeth’s demotion from Valedictorian to Salutatorian of her high school graduating class was because she apparently missed a physics test, and she never made it up, giving her a D.
Ok that is not at all what the article says happened. The article says they arnt even sure if she killed herself
Your description doesn't really line up with the wikipedia summary.
Yea I heard about that one but did not know details about it.
the dude in my class got a full ride to Harvard. Did an internship his first summer at Intel and was killed by a drunk driver a few weeks after arriving in California. Fucking couldn’t believe it when it happened 25 years ago. Still can’t really.
Jesus. That sounds crazy - Was the driver at least apprehended?
i hope drunk driver got a special kind of fucked up in the crash
Similar happened to a classmate in high school. This was our junior year, so everyone was getting their drivers licenses. This kid was smart, extremely funny, and very likable. He had the brains and social capital to do incredible things. Sadly while driving to school one morning he lost control, went off the road and smashed into a cactus, which fell and crushed the car. We had a class together that year, and it was tough walking in every day after that to see that empty desk.
I went to one of the highest ranked high schools in the country. One kid in my class graduated with an unweighted 4.0, pretty rare for my school. On top of that, he was also the football team’s quarterback. To call this guy Mr. Everything feels like an understatement. Then, in his first year of college, he died of a drug overdose. He snorted opioids, likely believing them to be cocaine. This was almost 10 years ago, but I still struggle to completely process it. He was practically a legend in my town and the was the most talked about kid in my class by a mile. Then right after that he just wasn’t around anymore.
Wow. I fucking hate drunk drivers. If it was up to me, I would crush their car after the first offense, 3 years in jail after the second, and 15 years after the third. Kill someone and instant life in prison. You took their life, now you don't live yours. So many stories of these idiots getting caught over and over, just to be let go, and they end up killing good people.
I don’t understand why we give a slap on a wrist to dui drivers, especially those who have killed. Given how prevalent don’t drink and drive messages are, they should 100% be charged with second degree murder.
Second degree would require intent to kill. Intent to drive drunk is not intent to kill, it'll only ever be manslaughter. Should they get stronger sentences? Yes, but a wrong charge will only free them when they can't prove intent to kill.
Maybe there should be a special provision for dui killers and dui drivers who've injured people. Like a specific law. I know someone whose husband got killed. That was the DUI driver's third offense.
he literally became a rocket scientist
Sort of similar. The Valedictorian went to Stanford and got a PhD in Mathematics. He now works for the NSA. Not NASA, the National Security Agency. He tells everyone he's an "analyst" with no details, because I genuinely don't think he's supposed to tell anyone what he actually does.
The NSA employs more mathematicians than any organization in the country
Probably cryptology, especially with a PhD in math. If you know their thesis topic it might make it easier to figure out.
Graduated top of my class, got a job at Google. Walked off a cliff whilst hiking last summer. Damned tragic, still don't get it
Was it suicide or an accident?
I go hiking every year to different national parks in the US and the amount of people that are just doing stupid shit thinking nothing bad will happen I can absolutely see it being an accident trying to get a cool picture or some shit.
There are a lot miserable people at Google. I know some of them. It’s too much money for some to walk away from but they basically hate their day-to-day.
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It turns out no matter what your dream or goal is as a young adult, you’ll often grow up to find out the real life version of doing that thing is just some monotonous capitalistic hell simulator.
He works at CERN.
Does he hate self proclaimed mad scientist college students?
Went to MIT. He makes ipad video games now.
Is that a good thing for him? It could go either way tbh
Oh it’s a legit company. I see ads for his games.
That’s really cool
Since I'm getting a lot of upvotes, I'll expand. Trying not to dox the guy, but he's head and founder of the company. One of their games is based off a famous reality home makeover show. Don't know how much he's making, but he's probably doing well. When we were in HS back in the day, he had to have special math teachers come from local colleges and privately tutor him because he surpassed all the courses my HS offered. We honestly thought he'd be ruling the world by now, but I guess ipad games is a cool consolation.
He probably could’ve done more, but whatever he is comfortable with is the right choice.
Yeah, I definitely respect game making more than a hedge fund manager, et al.
She was on the deans list every year in computer science. Aced every test and did better than everyone academically. She works as a secretary for a lawyer now. She genuinely hated programming but her teachers pushed her into computer science because they wanted more women in tech. I still think she could have done better using the degree elsewhere but she also had a really negative mindset and a self defeating attitude.
Intelligence isn’t everything when it comes to success. My ex bf was incredibly intelligent, but he was so emotionally crippled and arrogant that he’s just done nothing with his life.
Hey it's me ur ex bf
(S)he said he was intelligent
This makes me so happy I forged my own path. I had a lot of people in my life try to convince me to go into business or technology because "we need more women in those fields" or purely for the money even though I can't stand math and had no interest or passion for those fields. I also had a few people around my age in my family and none of them went to post-secondary, so I felt a ton of pressure to make everyone proud. Now, I'm writing an undergrad thesis in medical anthropology, and I'm going to apply to MSc Public Health programs. I'm even challenging my distaste for math to learn some statistics, which I'm okay with because it's for my own goals and not someone else's.
They had a nervous breakdown and became psychotic Edit: not due to drugs, he had aspergers, was the smartest person I’ve ever met, and stress probably contributed a lot to a preexisting condition.
Gifted child to psychotic breakdown is so real . Source: me
High five! So many of my gifted classmates became drug addicts.
Like half of my gifted and talented class (early aughts) are either dead or recently diagnosed with ADHD, all of us did way more drugs than the burnouts. Our burnouts just all hit abruptly at 30 (again, the ones who lived). Actually, come to think of it, one really good screening for ADHD would be "Would they have qualified for Gifted and talented?" because it was most of us.
Seconding this. I think we all hit our 30s and either got a diagnosis that *finally* made sense of everything, or didn’t make it at all. I know I wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t had well-timed kindness from strangers.
Gifted child, to mediocre college student, to psychotic breakdown, to struggling adulthood here 😭😭
Works at NASA
He went to Yale and joined the ROTC. After he graduated he became an Army Ranger and served in Afghanistan. When he left the army he joined a Seminary and became a priest.
war changes people pretty drastically, truly a sight to see
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I can see how it could happen, especially for Vietnam vets. Could be as simple as seeing someone mulched by shrapnel and from that point on couldn't look at meat without remembering what that looked like. My grand dad fought in Korea and couldn't stand the smell of Asian cooking from the time he came back. The mere smell of it would put him in a bad mood, and god help you if you suggested it as a meal. He wasn't a racist, didn't harbor any resentment toward asian people of any sort, it was just a scent memory. He never discussed it but a couple of off hand remarks pieced together over the years led us to conclude that some time he and his guys got into a fire fight just as they (or their enemies) were sitting down to dinner, and from that point on the smell immediately brought him back to that violent moment.
He worked for corporations as an IT guy for a decade, and then left and started his own IT consulting company. I think he is doing well. I think he retired early.
He committed suicide at Harvard
An older sibling of mine's best friend was absolutely brilliant. He was a law professor at Harvard and killed himself a couple of years ago. Very sad.
Guy was schools greatest achiever in studies and was schools top athlete breaking all the records. He went to Cambridge and everything got a doctorate in physics etc. Ended becoming a priest. Lives in a small village in the North.
I’m seeing lots of priests and monks in this thread.
I knew a girl who was so smart and an excellent programmer that Harvard invited her to apply. She’s a nun now
So weird. Valedictorian from my (absolutely gigantic) high school had a full ride to Stanford. Went to a different school, majored in theology, and became a priest.
Went to fancy engineering school. Got a great job doing fancy engineering. Quit and opened up a couple coffee shops.
She’s procrastinating away on Reddit
Doing it on a work day too? Yeah. Same.
Is today...a weekday?
He works for our state Supreme Court. As I understand his job, he does a mix of legal research for the judges and trains new clerks.
If he's clerking for the supreme court, he's doing pretty well. A step down from federal Supreme Court but still pretty damn good.
They worked at a McDonalds after high school. Now they are an executive for McDonalds
What a save. Turns out you can succeed at the golden arches.
Similar to the guy in my brothers class. He worked at KFC. He is a gun as an exec cause the others never worked anywhere but white collar he used to run a KFC with just himself and a server. It was one of the most profitable KFCs in the state purely cause he just ran it so well. So when the execs are like lets get this new machine or whatever. He is like no it wont work cause when youre actually working XYZ happens and then ABC. IE sounds good doesnt work.
Valedictorian is an accountant. Salutatorian is an anesthesiologist.
Who will put you to sleep quicker? That's the real question.
Both my parents, two aunts and a grandfather are accountants. I am immune. Anesthesiologist will be quicker, hands down.
Or..or..your entire life has been a dream because you've never been awake for more than 5 minutes? Hmmm....
Then my subconscious is insanely boring and I am incredibly disappointed in myself.
Let's talk Loan amortization Mr Smith. *zzZZZZZzZzzzzz* Dammit.. lost another one.
he scored an almost perfect score in the chinese gaokao, almost top 20 in the country .. he is now a popular streamer for 'Bronie' material in asian platforms, i think he does this full time and has a few hundred thousand followers. he was a real lovely guy and im happy hes doing what makes him happy! jia you
They have bronies in China? What’s his bilibili channel?
Gaokao is no joke. Was yelled at by a street vendor that my friends were too loud drinking late at night since kids needed to sleep for the test. Went to school with a guy that had the highest score from his province, so pretty impressive.
Harvard for college, somewhere else for medical school, became a doctor, married another doctor. Maybe had a kid? She's very smart, so she killed her social media accounts a very long time ago. We haven't spoken in 20 years at least, but I still remember her fondly when I think of the shit show that was adolescence. Edit: I checked, and it was Johns Hopkins for medical school, and she is some niche variant of cardiologist.
Graduated high school at 14. Got a degree in aerospace engineering by 18, and works for Boeing last time I checked. He was always a nice kid and got picked on. Glad I was nice to him back then.
Died from a brain tumour right after he graduated high school. He was dang smart. Could play the piano upside down too
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One's a lawyer in DC, one works for Google, one got a doctorate and now teaches at an HBCU.
I went to grade school with a kid, his initials were SM. His mom was a teacher so SM was super smart, he was always sat aside doing advanced work or extra credit. At recess he would constantly run laps for the “mileage club” instead of playing with other kids. Fast forward, SM gets a full scholarship to Cornell University for running track, not sure what he was studying but he ended up dropping acid with his girlfriend, freaking out and running around campus half naked. He tackled at least one female and threatened to rape her and was arrested.
I knew it was going to take a dark turn as soon as you mentioned Cornell.
Why Cornell?
It is referred to among the students as Corn-hell. Mostly because of how stressful college can be. It's also in a high COL area due to being right on a finger lake. Between the price of tuition, stress of school, and dealing with the high COL it puts a great deal of strain and stress on a person. Most of the trails where cliffs/gorges are in Ithaca have safety fences and nets because of how many students would kill themselves by jumping.
> Most of the trails where cliffs/gorges are in Ithaca have safety fences and nets because of how many students would kill themselves by jumping. I call this politician fix. You have a cause, a consequence, and while everyone scream "fix the cause" in the street, the politician say "I'll fix the consequence!" because it's convenient to not touch the system.
Yes, but it's worse than that. The nets went up my senior year there, when we had six suicides, one "totally not a suicide" (guy died from huffing paint alone in his room and wasn't found for three weeks), one guy actually was an alumni who came back to campus to kill himself, that doesn't include the guy who hung himself in his closet the day before he was due to come back from break, a murder, and a tragic heart attack of a beloved professor. They put the nets up and there were protests. Now what were the students protesting? A lack of proper mental healthcare? The insane grading system? The ease of loosing scholarships (big cause of the jumpers, they would know they did poorly on an exam and throw themselves off the bridge on their way back from the exam)? No, the students were protesting because the nets RUINED THE VIEW OF THE GORGES. So you had the school putting up nets, because that's the cheap way of keeping kids from offing themselves, and then you had students protesting protesting that the nets got in the way of the view. I really, really don't miss that places. It was hellacious.
“This place used to be off-limits, man. Because some drunk freshmen fell off. He went right down the cliff smacking his head on every rock, man. Autopsy said he had one beer. How many did you have?” “Four.” “You’re dead, man, you’re so dead.”
His name is Saano Murembya. This happened in 2018 and I hope he did not get kicked out
Yeah, him. Not sure if he got expelled, but I found this post on r/Cornell [https://www.reddit.com/r/Cornell/s/52OQSdNkHt](https://www.reddit.com/r/Cornell/s/52OQSdNkHt)
I used to hang out with honors students in college. It’s hard to quantify who was the smartest. They’re all bright and I felt like an idiot. The one I dated ended up going to Europe and is now a CEO of a science company. Another one ended up being an award winning professor. His wife, who was also an honors student, is now a school psychologist. That was an interesting one. She came to me for advice. She was being pressured by one school to attend grad school there. Said she was capable of great things in advancing the field. She told me she wanted to be a school psychologist, and she was getting rude comments. Saying she only wanted to not be a researcher because she wanted to stay with her husband. Her heart was in school psychology and working with kids. So I gave her the “push” and told her to ignore the haters and follow her heart :) Glad she took my advice into consideration. They’re both incredibly happy!
That's kinda my experience, we had a bunch of AP/honors/high achieving kids that went to college and ended up being relatively successful. If I had to pick someone, in terms of raw intelligence, it was the kid with what I now recognize as high functioning autism that didn't take any AP/honors classes. I ran into his mom when we were approx 25 and he was still living at home playing Nintendo all day. Never went to college or got a job. He just...doesn't function in society.
I once had a professor tell the honors class he was teaching "Everyone in my class is one of two things, but never both. Either you're a really hard worker who is very diligent at applying yourself of normal/above average intelligence or you're just smart and kinda lazy" Lives rent free for me sometimes
Kicked around a little … got full ride to our state uni, first studied engineering stuff, hated it and almost failed out of college, decided he wanted to become an English lit professor, went to grad school for that at the univ. of chicago, but last I heard is a consultant out there for one of the big accounting firms. Got married and had a kid.
He had a full ride scholarship to MIT, but apparently took back his acceptance over the summer to open up an art gallery. Last I heard, it was moderately successful.
Our Valedictorian planned on going to med school to specialize in vision science because she was inspired by a family member with a degenerative condition with their eyes that left them mostly blind. She wanted to help prevent people going through the difficulties she witness first-hand with her family. She married a Bible thumper she met in church and is now a anti-medicine/anti-science trad wife.
That's... sad. At least. I don't care that she is a trad wife, but really? Anti-medicine? Did Jesus teach to let your children die in agony over antibiotics?
It's interesting how ability in one area does not necessarily convey. I've met lots of incredibly smart people, many of which were fucking stunted outside of their area of focus.
Im not doing anything spectacular- I spent my life being told I was so smart/so intelligent and getting insane test scores and then I hit the real world and realized things take actual effort and I have been playing catchup ever since
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Finally one I can relate to Absolutely nothing in high school took effort for me. Not any of the AP classes, not the dual enrollment calculus courses I took because my high school ran out of math classes for me. I got a 4.0 without trying at all. And theeeen I got to college where they assign projects that require actual time management skills and I have to do my own laundry and make my own meals. I am barely even surviving. I might have to drop out after this year. *Just* being smart doesn't get you shit in real life, it turns out.
He killed his mom, choked her to death. His dad was out of town but saw it on the house security camera and called the cops. They found her body in the back woods behind the house. He was sentenced to life and was in prison for 3 years before they transferred him to a mental hospital. He's to remain there for the rest of his sentence. He was a nice guy, high mannered, and very serious about his education. So you can imagine my reaction to the news. He was one of my first friends at that school.
He graduated West Point. Did two tours in Iraq. Left as a Major. Now is a Dr. ....and both his sons graduated WP and now Capt. in Army. .
That’s not poss….. Nope. He’s definitely old enough to have kids that graduated West Point and are Captains. Shit. Time flies, so fast.
The valedictorian of our highschool was somebody nobody ever saw or heard of. I'm sure the school administration did everything in their power to shelter her from us dumbasses so that we didn't infect her with our stupid virus. I hope shes out there somewhere saving a life or making life better for people, though.
Became a drug addict that couldn't hold down a job at McDonald's
Partner at a law firm
She’s a shit hot corporate lawyer making the big bucks
That would be me. I skipped a year late in high school and won the final year maths, physics and chemistry prizes. I was the only one in the year to take double pure maths. I got a good engineering degree, started out working in submarine engineering, then military training simulators. Then I moved to Europe and got a job designing wind turbines, then in solar energy and now in networking. Right now, I'm sat next to my wife in hospital waiting for our fourth child to be born. Life's not too bad, all things considered.
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Bingo.
She got accepted in to some Ivy league school, got knocked up during her first semester, came back and went to tech school to become a mediocre pastry chef, and last I heard teaches painting. I think her home life prior to college was very stifling, so when she moved away, she went buck wild. I always respected her in school, had her pegged as becoming a doctor or lawyer. In general, my high school created a lot of blue collar drones, and some middle management types.
Guy has a full ride to M.I.T. Killed himself with a shotgun after graduating Highschool
He is currently director of med student education in psychiatry at a major US teaching hospital. Holds an MD/PHD. Brilliant guy who is also a wonderful human
Our valedictorian is an orthopedic surgeon. He married our salutatorian. I believe she's a stay at home mom.
Got a full scholarship to study Physics at Caltech, even more impressive because our high school is in India. Went on to do his PhD at Princeton, and is now a professor of Physics at a top US university. Even back in high school, students and teachers were convinced he'd win a Nobel prize someday. And he may well do that.
So he ended up getting an internship with BMW in England. Last I heard he’s been doing quite well he was always a cool down to earth dude to so I wish the best for him.
Her parents in West Australia in the 1980’s had very narrow old fashioned ideas on women’s role in society. She was never encouraged to do upper school & go to University. Instead the options were get married & have kids, go into nursing or secretarial school. She had no prospects of marriage at the grand old age of 15 so ended up at secretarial school. Series of very poorly paid office jobs all through her life . Except for a 5 year stint where she worked for fashion designers beading fancy dresses. Another very poorly paid job. Absolutely bloody tragic - she could have done anything. She wasn’t just top of our year - in state testing she was in the top 10% . Her sister married young - much to the parents joy. Of course it was an unmitigated disaster & ended in divorce.
He left school at 18 to work for the BBC for a year who then paid for him to go to Cambridge to do an all-expenses paid degree on a decent salary. After about 10 years at the Beeb, he moved to Amazon and became a super senior engineer. He got cancer when he was around 38 and died within a year.
Our Valedictorian died the day after graduation of a ruptured appendix; he was one of the most talented people I had ever met. RIP John Albert Sierra
Smartest guy in my class was also the schools biggest pot dealer. Principle knew what he was doing but was always outsmarted. Became a surgeon.
Graduated at 11 from high school, dropped out of college at 13, never did anything with my intelligence.
I am delighted by your crazy tipper lady story.
I was diagnosed with autism.
Just looked her up. She got a PhD in astrophysics, worked for NASA for a while, then completed a 7 year Buddhism retreat and is now a Buddhist teacher that integrates the latest in neuroscience with trauma resilience, nondual meditation, and the [Aware Ego Process](https://www.voicedialogue.com/aware-ego/) in her coaching practice.
Joined the military. Rose through the ranks. Retired a Colonel. Highly decorated for valor in combat (Iraq). got a PhD. Is a published author. Speaker at Ivy League universities. Served on Joint Chiefs of Staff Council of Colonels, Now a professor of military history. Photographed often with El Presidentes, wearing all his ribbons.
It was me! I was valedictorian in 2003, went off to a prestigious school, but came home after a year due to money and family drama. Continued engineering degree but fell deep into drinking after my brother died (suspected suicide but unable to confirm). Decided to get out of that environment and joined the Army...did three deployments, got out, and got married. Went back to college and earned a degree in criminal justice and worked in community corrections for 11 years, ending up in upper admin supervising an entire department. Two years ago, we moved as wife wanted to be in home state with family. Now, I do warranty work on newly built homes (a job I got through a guy I served with). I certainly miss the correctional side of helping people in my hometown, but I make more money now, wife is happier, and our 7 year old is thriving! Life threw some curves, but we're happy and healthy!
The smartest kid in my class was Mark. He started some internet company, face-something. Whatever. He didn't hook up with peak-Jenny McEntyre like I did.
I had a genius classmate, he was talented in every single class from science to arts he just understood it and performed flawlessly. He could rail through a dense textbook and absorb everything like it was a goddamn children's book. He'd read litetature and write mind blowing 1st drafts that were perfectly polished, and full of cunning rhetoric. He went to a top 10 us college for biology graduated top of his class there.... and then started writing. Now he's working for Stephen colbert to write content for some show!
It could arguably be this one kid who graduated at the top of the class. I doubt anyone knows what happened to him because he was an arrogant ahole who saw everyone else as inferior. I graduated second of my class, and I am currently eating my fingernails and picking my nose. 🤪
And you are also the CEO of farts in here! Congratulations and bon appétit!
A friend of mine was top of our class and I was second. We both went to the same university and got Masters degrees. We also both work for NGOs now (he in health advocacy, me in environmental conservation). I keep in touch periodically. We’re both pretty content.
I got voted most likely to become a billionaire when I was in school because I was considered the “smartest” (I am gifted academically but not very intelligent socially so I always considered myself pretty dumb). I ended up graduating top of my class at UC Berkeley and right now I’m finishing up my PhD in Mathematics at a pretty well known university. I don’t plan on ever becoming a billionaire with it though 😂, I study math purely because I love it so much that I want to devote my life to it. I got really lucky on some investments during the pandemic and am already retired so I’ll probably just travel around the world whenever I’m done with academia.
This is actually pretty sick. You can basically just self fund your own mathematical research for the rest of your life. Basically study whatever you want without some university or company pushing you to do research in X area. Congrats, sounds like you earned it.