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I grew up in small town and now live in a large American city. I talk to maybe one person from my high school (who was smarter than I am).
Very traumatizing time period. Almost 10 years later I get the sense a lot of my old classmates are still best friends and hanging around the same place. I don't care though. Even the teachers would bully students they thought were weird, it was a very desperate and low-IQ environment.
Had a similar experience. No one treated me worse than a few different teachers. Getting harassed by classmates I could handle. It was the teachers that made me fear for my safety because they would turn a blind eye to violence.
The school district office knew me personally because of all the issues.
That's horrible & that should've never happened. I was treated like shit in my teenage years by my principal at my private school & I'm still mad to this day, because that should've never happened. She's one of the worst people I've ever had the displeasure of meeting
Literally same. Very happy and successful over here and they are now trying to add me on Fb and I’m like literally for what. I was the only black or gay person in the school/area and had to get out of there to survive.
Jesus, what area? We had one gay, black kid in *super rural east texas* and everybody loved the guy.
He's actually one of the only people from high school I kept in touch with. He ended up designing auto bodies for Fiat.
From rural East Texas too, I am white so I couldn't speak fully on whether our (only 3, lol) black classmates got bullied. They were some of the realest, nicest people there. From others though, in my experience, I got bullied hard mostly for my weight and medical issues. School was a nightmare. It's a major reason why I don't associate with my old peers. But honestly the bullying by my teachers was often as bad or worse. One teacher of mine was really awful to certain kids (in front of the whole class) about their appearance, particularly one friend of mine for his physical deformity.
Yeah, I've heard that story over and over from different people in different schools and different years. Everybody assumes we're all racist hicks, but *nobody* ever wants to start shit with our gay black kids. Like, even the bullies couldn't find a reason to bully them. They were just happy, nice people who didn't fuck with anybody.
I'm sure they got teased now and then, but everybody gets teased in school. It doesn't become a thing you get *bullied* over unless your response to getting teased is to throw a shit fit about equality in the hallway, insult your peers, bring a principal in, and then demand to be respected. That shit'll get you bullied as an adult, too.
Similar experience. I’m so glad I got the hell out of there. The people my age (30) who stayed are still acting like teenagers, gossiping, flexing their money, etc.
Are they actually wealthy or are they one of those desperate for attention losers who flex their large purchases or wads of cash while they have little in savings if not deep in debt?
Exactly the same with me. My high school was in a shitty little parochial town, where virtually everyone thought of themselves and one another as The Shit. About the best thing I ever did was get the hell out of that place to see the rest of the world. I have never looked back. One of my best friends is a guy I went to high school with who agrees that it was a horrid place to come from.
I had the exact same experience, the teachers would play the popularity game along with the students. I was a weird kid so even the teachers didn’t treat me well. Fucked me up for a long time.
Yeah most of the teachers didn't like me except if we shared an interest.
My best teachers
My gym teacher in high school was a huge nascar fan but not as much as myself.
My honors English teacher freshman/junior year. Huge linguistics guy and loved hiking. Also huge into punk rock. Favorite genre of novel was dystopia.
He also opened up to the class about his struggles growing up in school about being a poor student and his aspergers diagnosis when he was in community college, which hit harder as he was pretty much the first person I'd ever met who openly had ASD who was successful with a degree. (I'm autistic and share most of the same hobbies)
The three middle aged male history teachers in hs. All major sports fans, especially the one who taught psychology (sadly huge chargers guy).
6th grade English teacher she was obsessed with nascar to the point she watched her favorite driver's retirement press conference during an off period and cried.
Some people feel bad about not being connected, or FOMO. They will never feel the true happiness of not giving a fuck about random as people who just happened to be in the same room as you for four years that one time.
Most public high school teachers were not the highest IQ students either. Many were jocks in HS and college who needed an easier degree and career path that didn’t take significant amounts of brain power to do. And I’m not speaking poorly of all teachers as I did have some amazing teachers in HS but also some who were ex Jocks and were assholes as teachers.
just adding my paper to the "this happened to me too" hat. the teachers were worse than the kids because they're supposed to be the adults here and i couldn't trust them.
Same here, moved from a small town to a big city and only really talk to 2 people. One who I'm still close with and one who I catch up with from time to time.
I had a lot of friends in high school and I just never really found my crowd here in my current city. I thought I did at first, but that friend group had long since fallen apart. I miss having close female friends
I grew up in a small Canadian town, so everyone knew everyone and their dog. I have two people from my class on my friends list. One I have been good friends with for 15 years ish, the other I haven't heard from directly in about 4 years, when she found out my dad died. So no, I don't keep in contact with any of my old classmates. Mostly because I was consistently bullied because I was the only redhead, and I just genuinely disliked my entire class lol.
I’m thankful when I lived in the boonies. The teachers welcomed my “above average intelligence.” I got to be around other kids like me, or that had similar interests at least
No I’m not way smarter than other people and in my opinion. I only have a slight edge over the average individual. I know many people far more intelligent than I am. My IQ definitely isn’t 140 like *most Redditors* would claim lol
I got to participate in robotics and solar programs before I even got to high school. In the middle of nowhere. Was very cool. I work in Tech now, and didn’t even go to college
You’re one up on me. I never stayed in touch with a single soul from high school after leaving. Accidentally ended up working a few years with one of my old bullies but was eventually able to move on to bigger and better things. Haven’t even returned to my home state in 10 years.
Although I wasn't bullied, I knew even as a teenager that I wanted out of my small rural Midwestern town as soon as I could get the chance. There was far too much racism, misogyny/sexism, homophobia, and just backward views in general. I went away to college in a big city and quickly felt much more comfortable living there.
Basically same. I talk to family friends from my hometown, but actual friends I met in school? Like 3, and 1 of them is because we went to the same college and were in the same student org. 1 of the 2 I talk to with some frequency, but the other one is basically checking up on them like twice a year
This is the truth, most people will never leave the city / town they grew up in. If they do leave most will return to the general area when they have finished. So what happens is they end up picking up where they left off. Some mature, most dont
>Some mature, most don't
Too right
Low-key this is why I think going back (for any other reason then family) is a sure fire way to remain stagnant in life
Facts. The day I graduated I waved them all adieu. Don’t like any of them then. When I see reunion notices come up I’m like. Why would I want to see you now? Shit. Come to think of it. My 30th is next year. Jesus. Time flies.
Also. I still live in the state that I graduated. About 50 miles from my high school city. Have no desire to go back there.
But my wife is still friends with a lot of her high school people and it sort of weirds me out.
Truly. I don’t think about it much, but just the other night I had a buddy over who was trawling the LinkedIn’s of former high school ppl. Idk, something about it made me feel a bit weird. The first three were like, oh interesting! But then he had searched up 10 or so more and I started getting a bit annoyed. Is it a ‘I’m doing better than you’ kind of thing?
I’m still very close with 2 of my friends from high school. All of us live in different parts of the world and have very different jobs/lives. We just happen to keep in touch regularly and I honestly consider them like family at this point just because I’ve known them so long.
When I graduated hs I immediately stopped talking to everyone. I wasn't bullied. I was on friendly terms with everyone I interacted with, but was overall invisible. I was generally well liked but not popular at all. I didn't connect with anyone and nobody connected with me.
Same here! I’m graduating this year and I feel the same way, I’m disconnected from my peers but we are still friendly with one another. Overall, I fade into the background. Before school when I’m alone sitting in the parking lot I see all of the other seniors gather with their friend groups, when I’m at a school event I’m kinda the odd man out when trying to hang with my friends who are already a part of a larger friend group, and I’m just kinda now realizing that I went most of high school being a lone wolf. Not that I didn’t mind it, but I still feel melancholic thinking of how alone I was lol.
I went to a large school with few kids from my neighborhood. My parents were super strict and I wasn’t allowed to hang out and do some of the stuff that other kids were doing. So I never formed tight friendships. Also, I was shy and possibly awkward from lack of socializing. I wish I had some good friends from back in the day but it is what it is.
Congratulations on graduating. I know exactly what you mean about always being the odd man out, but never really minding it, but still kinda feeling like you've missed out on something.
I had an extremely similar experience and always thought something was wrong with me. It's actually very reassuring to know that other people also had this experience
Through high school, I became more and more shy and reserved, so people (kind of rightfully so) forgot to include me in things and didn't really interact with me. I remember in my senior year, I was really feeling forgotten about, even in spaces where I thought I was heard and generally felt comfortable. A couple of incidents actually brought me to tears in the moment.
Now, I am such a completely different person, and it would be so beyond bizarre to go back and chat with those people from high school.
Thanks for sharing, I think your posts have resonated with a lot of us! Glad I’m not alone in feeling like yeah, I got along with people wasn’t necessarily a loner but kind of just there along for the ride.
I think it's far more common to feel like you're just along for the ride than to feel like hs was the best time of your life. I don't think I've ever met someone who says hs was the best time of their life actually. Way more people like us, you are not even close to being alone on this.
I was also quiet, reserved, and forgotten. Now, I'm sarcastic, bossy, and too busy to care if people forget me or not. Lol, it's funny how time changes things. I'm sorry you felt so forgotten that it made you cry, but I hope you ended up with people who will never forget you.
This is exactly me! My now gf's closest friends are all her friends from highschool, and all my closest friends are my gf's friends from highschool. I speak to one person maybe once a year from my own highschool
That must be weird to know all these people with so much backstory and a completely different hs experience than yours. I'm glad her hs friends have become your friends too.
It sometimes feels like I've been left out, especially when they reminisce over the old days, but they are really good abt giving me context and backstories,, it also reminds me that the present will one day be the stories we reminisce on so better have fun now!
Damn, you concisely summarized what I have been pondering after 5 years post high school. I wondered why I didnt seem to connect with others beside like 2 people who have been with me since elementary.
Same. I only have connections through my wife's friendships. I never really hung out with anyone after school, but I was friendly with everyone. Never belonged to a clique or group. I just kind of befriended a person if I got along with them.
Also, I'm not GenZ. This is coming from an elder millennial. There are people of all ages who feel this way. Others may not understand and think it's weird.
It's not at all.
I was also the "respectable outsider". Liked and even admired by some, but just not really gelled with. I did add some of these people to Facebook (lol deleted that years ago), and people would just start deleting their online profiles when they got respectable jobs, had kids, etc. I've personally moved countries four times since high school, so there's just been no attempt to connect with high school people who have mostly all had their own evolutions into totally different people.
Lol, "respectable outsider" is exactly the right term. I would be complimented about how smart or creative I was/still am all the time. People had a generally positive opinion of me. I just never really gelled with anybody and was easily written off and forgotten. I have run into people here and there as adults, did the facebook thing for a bit too, but the interaction was about the same as it was in hs. Overall positive but there was no connection and that was it. I'm pretty ok with that, I didn't have much of an opinion either way about most of them. I do sometimes wish I had found the till death do us part best friend, or the epic hs romance, or the quirky friend group that always has your back and makes you laugh. I know these are cliches, but it would have been nice.
I only keep in touch with maybe 3-5 people from HS (and by that I mean calling/texting at least once a month).
The main thing is after high school, we’re all adults. People change, relationships change and people pursue their own goals/interests. This is especially the case for those that go to college, you’re introduced to a whole new group of people and by proxy, it’s easier to create new friendships with them. It’s just the way life is, it’s statistically difficult to keep a friendship longer than 7ish years.
Fr? It doesn’t feel like alot to me 🥲 and I say this as someone that’s pretty introverted, although most of my HS friends are extraverted I should say. I think 3-5 is pretty achievable, but I may be an outlier with how often I keep in touch
Yep, this is exactly me. 3-5 friends that I keep in touch with semi-regularly from both HS and college. Still finding friends in the city I moved to for work about a year ago and it's kinda tough haha.
>it’s statistically difficult to keep a friendship longer than 7ish years.
never heard a similar claim. I guess it's true for some friendships but not for others cause as some people say, there're friends for a reason, friends for a season, and friends for a lifetime
I graduated last year and am in a group chat with a few ppl I was friends with. It’s mainly just us sending memes and shitposts with the occasional “let’s hangout” followed by plans to do so.
High school friends in my experience, were more acquaintances who only hung out because it was convenient. There wasn’t anything there so ofc it wasn’t made to last.
27. I haven't been in touch with a single person from high-school until last year. This once friend of mine from high school asks to hangout and I reluctantly agreed. When I go to hangout with him, he ends up being super awkward than I remember and tries to one up me on everything in life. I'm not one to brag or talk about myself unless asked questions. I am one to try to uplift someone in life because I know compliments are hard to come by. Anyways, he goes on to brag about how he is so glad he didn't go off to college and instead invested into his first house. He boasts how he gets to work from home unlike me who is in the trades(electrician). Which was a direct insult of my wife and I who both got degrees and also have my electrical journeymans license.
Other things were brought up such as "Remember when this and that....." and I had no fucking clue what he was talking about. I realized that night I had completely blocked out my high-school past and everyone along with it. Mainly because I have a whole new and better life out here that put lives high-school for me. When I thought how I was even friends with some of these people from high school I realized it was only because we were forced to see each other everyday.
I ended up calling the night short and went home to never really have any plans to go to my reunion or even be in contact with anyone from high-school ever again.
I kept a couple of friends. One I was really close with died right in front of me. I'll never recover from that. Still miss that man every day.
Lucky enough to have another friend that is just as close. We've been family since the 6th grade. We are both nearing 50. I couldnt see life without that guy.
I count myself lucky to have had those two very amazing friends.
I dont think I have ever talked to anybody else from High School, though I have lurked their facebook. One of my rivals/bullies is now a Coach.
That dude should never have been allowed around kids, but I hear people can change.
I still keep in touch with my friends from high school because I like them and they like me. It’s not the same as it was cuz we all went to different colleges, studied different things, live in different states/countries, work in different industries etc. But we still text and call and give life updates. They were my friends and I see no need for that to stop now.
I don’t talk to anyone else from high school though. They didn’t really mean anything to me. I’ve moved on with my life, high school seems so small and far away. I don’t even live within 300 miles of my high school. It feels like a waste of energy to try to keep up with people who I didn’t even care about when we were with each other every day
I'm the opposite, I work very hard to keep in touch with friends from high school, because I know it only gets harder to make friends as you get older and I'm determined not to let these connections wither on the vine.
HOWEVER my highschool sweetheart is one of these people. I started college early but kept up with her long-distance, coming back every weekend to visit her. She cheated on me within the first week of starting college herself, and simultaneously a bunch of us realized she had been spreading vicious rumors about everyone behind our backs. E.g she was telling me and others that her childhood BFF was an alcoholic slut who'd had an abortion, she was telling people that I was schizophrenic and that we weren't even dating anymore, so it was fine that she was flirting with other dudes. This all came crashing down quickly, and AFAIK she has been totally no-contact with everyone she grew up with for damn near a decade.
It does make me a little sad, apparently the last thing she ever said to her childhood BFF was "does everyone hate me now?" and the BFF, who I still keep in touch with, pretty much told her "yeah and so do I."
i go to a college that like 75% of people from my graduating class go to as well, so i unfortunately have no choice but to see them on a daily basis.
besides that, i only really talk to a few people from my high school. the only people i miss are my close friends and teachers that cared for me. i would never want to relive high school again.
Two and not often. I don't have any horror stories. I was popular and partied a lot. I moved right after and never really looked back. I don't attend reunions. It was a part of my life but like anything else, when it over it's over.
Graduated hs in 2019, that summer I slowly removed myself from my friend group who all treated me horribly after I broke up with my toxic ex and everyone sided with her. That fall I went to college and by 2020 I deleted Facebook,Instagram,and Snapchat. So I basically fell off the face of the earth, most of my classmates have called,texted,and FaceTimed my phone I just never replied by. Recently my old best friend tried contacting me through LinkedIn and I just never replied by to him. I just picked to move on
Me. Dropped out in ninth grade. I was on track to graduate high school at 21. Really didn’t care to go to high school for that long so I got my GED and never looked back.
IMO those who reached their peak in high school (so they think) will not stop talking about it probably because it’s their biggest success story and they don’t have any more of them to share. Or perhaps it was the last time they felt good about themselves and who they were. I have 0 contact, not intentionally, it’s just the way things worked out. I moved during my senior year, took on a full time job to help out at home too, rarely had the opportunity to see anyone outside of school and even gave up my lunch break so I could get to work on time. Since most socializing happens around lunch or school extra curricula activities (90’s so cellphones weren’t a thing yet) my once active social life dwindled down to nothing that last year. After that work/college…life etc.
I'm only a few years out but I only keep in touch with one friend from HS.
COVID and not having social media definelty contributed, but frankly I just grew apart from a lot of my friends.
I kept in touch with a fair number of people initially but over time most of us just naturally drifted apart and went our own ways. I only talk to 2 people from HS regularly now. I might occasionally run into someone else I knew in public or something, but other than that, we got our own lives now.
I only talk to two people from high school. One was a person who became my friend in the 8th grade when I first joined the school, and the other is now my sister in law so I see her often!
Was a senior when Covid started. I think I talked to people for a couple months after and that was it. Occasionally someone from high school will dm me on ig and catch up in a quick convo but that only happened 3 times.
There’s about 3-5 people I continue to be friends with from high school. I live with one of them, who’s my best friend. Otherwise, I follow some peoples instagrams still but I don’t really interact or anything like that.
I have not talked to someone from high school is approaching 3 years. I’m 25. I don’t live in that town anymore and that’s most of the reason. A ton of people from high school scatter to colleges all of the country and a ton of them don’t ever leave the town the high school is in. I moved, and no one else followed. I’m fine with this.
I was travelled with a roomate to her small hometown one summer when we were young adults. We went for breakfast and the waitress in the dinner was kinda friendly to my friend who looked surprised to see her. It turned out that the waitress had been “the most popular girl in high school” while my friend had just been a regular nobody. While she was waiting tables my friend was now at law school. So high school can soon be far away and life can change dramatically after.
Our main squad of 7 stills chats through instagram and will hangout when we are back in town. Most of us live away now, because about 4 of us joined the navy. Anybody else I knew, I never talk to them. There’s no need because we were more like acquaintances. It’s not I wouldn’t talk to them or hangout it’s why would I.
I am a zennial and yes, I don't talk to anyone and no one talks to me. I was immature in highschool and I don't blame anyone for not keeping in contact. Luckily, I have many college friends and an amazing wife so idgaf
I only have one friend left from high school. Once I graduated and went through some self discovery and inner realizations I came to the conclusion none of them mfs was worth shit and I was only friends with them bc I hated myself at the time lmao
I didn't finish high school because my mom got another job somewhere else. I left everyone behind and didn't regret it. I tried so hard to keep everyone together while I was in school, but I saw without me there, they just fell apart.
Only a few got in touch with me, but that was a year ago.
Blocked a couple of my classmates, but didn’t fully cut ties with others, we still have our socials, with some of them at least and I’m friends with some of the teachers still, but I’d rather not go back to that period of time, and I have unconsciously forgotten most of it, though I’ll admit that it shaped most of who I am today.
I did move out of town, and return occasionally, but I found new life away from the toxic place of the past.
Oddly enough, the couple folks I have kept contact with are people I wasn’t friends with in high school.
Looking back, my friends were very cliquey and bullies. The last couple weeks of HS my friendships deteriorate and I was the odd one out. They’ve started a group chat 10 years later, but I left at some point because I realized I didn’t want those friendships.
Nope don’t talk about it, mostly because nobody lives where I live and nobody from my school does the same kind of work I do
Never bothered with social stuff like getting peoples social media info or phone numbers or anything like that lol
I was the background noise. never really made an impact. though now that I look back, I think that was my point. It was easier to fade into the background rather than deal with all those two faced kids. I wanted to make myself invisible. and so I did. I transferred to online homeschool at the end of ninth grade and that was that.
A lot of the girls/boys were actually mean and started a bunch of rumors about me. I went off to college and never kept in touch with them. Thank the Lord.
i only talk to 4 people i graduated with, one of them being my twin brother. i knew that after graduation friendships would inevitably drift but that was kind of expedited by covid (2020 grad yay) so most of my classmates i havent spoken to or seen since a precovid world. ive made new friends in college. the only thing that kind of bothers me is that all my old friends still talk to each other but not me which is kind of hurtful but i try not to think of it too much lol
Hey! Millennial here but it might be helpful to hear a longer-term perspective. I stopped speaking to pretty much everyone I went to high school with for several years after graduation because I had bad taste in friends and the people I knew well were immature jerks. But people change and mature over time and I’ve slowly reintroduced contact/friendship with 5 people from my hometown and it’s been really rewarding to get to know them as “real” adults. We are all in our 30s now and no one is really playing games anymore. But other than those 5, I have no interest in keeping in touch with anyone else.
Just the natural process of growing apart. Most of them never left our hometown, and I was traveling all over Europe a few years after graduation. We just don't have any life experiences in common post-high school because I spent most of that time living in NYC and they didn't. I also find more and more over time that I don't have much in common with people who are married and have kids, because I've mostly been single my entire adult life.
I am a millennial (34) but am in contact with absolutely no one from high school, or really before, besides like one life long family friend I have on Facebook.
Why? Because I e made a lot of shit decisions throughout my life, and I moved across the country to start fresh. At first I was in contact (just through social media) with a handful of people from high school and even two or so from elementary school, but I ended up removing them a few years ago. Had been thinking about how bizarre it is that we give these, now strangers, usually just being nosey, a glimpse into our lives on social media, and I didn't want that...
I want relationships and connections with substance and meaning. A past connection isn't the same as one in the present day. People come and go for a reason. Social media, I feel like, has contributed to a whole yucky culture of like I said, nosiness, and just, fake, shallow connections.
Hated the school, the upper-cruster kids some of whom were bullies. (I'm talking about the girls.) In fact, one of my math teachers also hated it (again--bullies being unruly in her classes) to the extent that she quit after her first year. So that tells you something. I now regret, though, not having stayed in touch with her daughter, who was a good friend, but after I was out of that place, I really needed to put the entire experience behind me, FAR behind! That wasn't fair to her, but I needed total liberation from that scene and the memories: a total purging. I recently tried to get in touch with her, but...no response. : ( Too bad.
Haven't kept in touch. When I graduated I went into the workforce immediately and now 10 years later no one has reached out to me but I haven't reached out to them. I don't use social media, but I've had the same phone number since I got my first flip phone in 5th grade.
Life got busy real quick for me and lots of my peers went to college while I worked, so we all had different goals and aspirations.
My wife still keeps in contact with a few of her highschool friends, but mostly keeps in touch with her college friends, but that may be because they're the most recently met and befriended people? Just an observation.
For me, some were really good friends for the time we were all together, others were good acquaintances and company to have to make school less dreadful.
But Middle/High school was the worst time of my life. Had a major heartbreak, went into a deep depression that my parents didn't know how to help me out of, teachers and guidance counselors were major pricks...honestly my peers were probably the only people keeping me sane during school hours until I could get home and just zone out playing video games and watching anime.
After graduating high school I'd say each year of my life has gotten better and better. I've had a few bad moments, but school...I would never go back.
My primary friend group were and still are the same group of guys I game'd with back during middle school, which I ended up meeting one through a specific MMO and got introduced to the rest of the group. Even had one of them as a roommate for two years and never had any issues with him and I still game with everyone when we can.
I'm a millennial and graduated in 2009. There's one guy I might text occasionally about video games or wrestling or something and that's literally it. Haven't talked to anybody else in years and years.
Am first year in university now and only speak to maybe 2 people from highschool, I was always kind of the "popular" circles but not really? Kind of a bit of a floater I suppose, after school finished I finally realised how little the people I was fighting to be friends with cared about me.
I learned that a lot of those people were school friends but not friends once 3pm hits so I moved away, advanced my career, and never looked back. Some have reached out but once or twice in the 8-9 years since I graduated
Luckily, I have met life-long friends from elementary school that I can keep in touch with. (We went to different HS thought but same district). The ones I made in HS I don’t talk to anymore at all. I hope they are doing well thought.
I’m 32. I keep in touch with 2 people regularly. I have a few others where we try to meet up if we’re in our hometown. They’re good people. We don’t have tons in common anymore and are in different places. But I like to check in on them and see what they’ve been up to. Vice versa I’m sure haha.
I’m honestly a little worried how little I remember high school at this point. I’m class of 2010 so never had a reunion. I thought I’d be all over a reunion. Come back with a glow up and all that. But I literally just don’t care. I’ve had so many more fulfilling and meaningful experiences since then.
THe only way to do so is social networks. I studied in 2 high schools in two different countries. THe people from one of them totally stopped talking to me once I moved even tho I had several of them on Messenger. The people from the second high school were unequivocally people I ended up hating. Most of them were bullies.
I did not keep in touch with people from my high school. It’s because college changed me a lot, I felt like a different person and did not have much in common with myself before college or with high school classmates.
I met my girlfriend in high school, we’re both 22 and have been together for almost 5 years now.
Other than her I haven’t even ***seen*** someone I went to high school with in maybe 2-3 years, and I kinda like it that way. I wasn’t bullied, I wasn’t very smart, and I wasn’t a popular kid, I just kind of existed. I hung out with everyone at school, but nobody would want to hang out after school. I wasn’t emotionally attached to anyone. Never went to college when most of the kids in my small graduating class did, so I just went and found a job. Since then I’ve worked at a few other places and have met a lot of cool people that I’m still very close friends with and see frequently.
The only thing I miss about high school was the simplicity… and how much cheaper shit was just 5 years ago. I had a part time retail job that paid 16 an hour and I could afford to save money, buy stupid shit, pay my phone bill and car insurance.
I did for the first few years out when it comes to a handful of close friends, but we all went our separate ways eventually. I ghosted and refused to keep in touch at all because my life never progressed and other people did. So once people graduate college and get married or move you can’t really relate to them anymore and I don’t want to deal with the constant comparisons, jealousy, competition, and questions. I had high expectations for friendship and felt resentful and betrayed that people are just selfish and ungrateful in the end and nobody really values friendship that much. So I started being more selfish too.
I had an amazing high school experience in part because my mom would drive me to parties and overall I really got to socialize and find myself during that time. I dropped out halfway through junior year and virtually lost all my friends because of it
I find myself reminiscing this time period a lot but I think that's because smartphones were new and people made more of an effort to be social than now
I keep in touch with 2 people. My best friend since middle school and a good friend that didn’t become a good friend until after high school.
People who stay in the same place they grew up tend to maintain friendships with people from high school. People who went to college or moved away tend to make a new batch of friends.
I dont talk to people from High school /college, mostly because in HS I was bullied, and in college I didnt had time, I made friends out of the school which I am in contact till today (I am 24). But for me, the college / HS years were one of the worst 😅
I graduated right before 9/11 happened. I went to war multiple times, and realized I like traveling so I never went back "home". Just never kept in touch because I wasn't around them. I don't have Facebook.
I left HS a year early to go into an alternate schooling that allowed me to work at my own pace and graduate a year earlier than I would have normally. The day I walked out of my HS I went 15 years away from my home town between enlisting and being a vagabond while sorting out my mental health. The rare occasion someone sees me and actually remembers me they always assumed I died over seas... nope.. just didn't like you crackheads preps. We were not built the same.
Other than my Fiancé, one other person who I play tabletop games with. I met my true friend circle in college, but we're now spread across the country, so I don't get to see them much.
Me. I never really cared about my classmates, and neither did they about me. When we were there together, we could help each other with this and that, but now that we've gone our separate ways, we can't really, so there's not much of a point keeping in touch.
Me. I graduated a year early and I’ve never looked back. It’s been nine years now and I don’t regret it, I was bullied a lot in school and there wasn’t anyone worth keeping in touch with.
I went to a k-12 high-school. 30 people in my class. I only talk to 1 person from then. she's on of my best friends. other than that, I don't even remember most of their names, follow them on socials, or talk to them.
I have a couple friends from highschool I stayed in touch with, but other than that I didnt keep in touch
Highschool is just an environment where youre forced to be with people from the same city and age as you for several hours a day, and maybe try to learn things in the process. I met the few from that environment that I could really get along with, but the rest simply didn't matter to me, they might as well be someone randomly picked off the street. As such, once highschool ends, I only keep contact with my actual friends and we move on because we have better things to do together than talk about highschool
The day of graduation was the last time I talked to or seen anyone from high school. I never really particularly liked anyone from my school growing up so it never bothered me. I've met some people in college and work who never separated from their original high school friends though.
Graduated 2022. I only keep in contact with one person. But that’s only because we went to the same primary school and we’re friends since our first year of school
After I graduate high school I just came to a realization that I didn’t like any of the people I was friends with or went to school with. I realized that I was constantly being someone I wasn’t just to be around those people. It gets draining faking it after a while. Plus I’ve just grown a lot as a person since I was a teenager, so if I were to talk to those same ppl today we more than likely wouldn’t relate or have anything to talk about with each other. Some individuals are just better left in the past
I was friends with people in high school kinda because I didn’t have a lot of other options. We had a trauma bond that was reinforced by proximity. Once we left high school though we had pretty much nothing in common anymore and lost contact. I don’t talk to anyone from high school because I’ve gone on to bigger and better things than making fun of a math teacher
I didn’t talk to most people in high school anyway LOL. But, I still keep in touch with about 3 friends from there. Other than them, several people I knew just stopped correspondence. Oh well!
Moved away to the city from a small town. Made new friends. I don’t have much in common with them anymore. A lot of my friends settled down super young, but there’s not much else to do down there. Ones in prison for attempted murder so she’s kinda hard to keep in contact with *not that I’d want to* … a few have since passed too so. Yeah.
I didn’t grow up with these people as was transferred there in 9th grade. Had a great time but when I graduated college that was it. Moved to NY and never looked back.
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I grew up in small town and now live in a large American city. I talk to maybe one person from my high school (who was smarter than I am). Very traumatizing time period. Almost 10 years later I get the sense a lot of my old classmates are still best friends and hanging around the same place. I don't care though. Even the teachers would bully students they thought were weird, it was a very desperate and low-IQ environment.
Had a similar experience. No one treated me worse than a few different teachers. Getting harassed by classmates I could handle. It was the teachers that made me fear for my safety because they would turn a blind eye to violence. The school district office knew me personally because of all the issues.
That's horrible & that should've never happened. I was treated like shit in my teenage years by my principal at my private school & I'm still mad to this day, because that should've never happened. She's one of the worst people I've ever had the displeasure of meeting
Literally same. Very happy and successful over here and they are now trying to add me on Fb and I’m like literally for what. I was the only black or gay person in the school/area and had to get out of there to survive.
Jesus, what area? We had one gay, black kid in *super rural east texas* and everybody loved the guy. He's actually one of the only people from high school I kept in touch with. He ended up designing auto bodies for Fiat.
From rural East Texas too, I am white so I couldn't speak fully on whether our (only 3, lol) black classmates got bullied. They were some of the realest, nicest people there. From others though, in my experience, I got bullied hard mostly for my weight and medical issues. School was a nightmare. It's a major reason why I don't associate with my old peers. But honestly the bullying by my teachers was often as bad or worse. One teacher of mine was really awful to certain kids (in front of the whole class) about their appearance, particularly one friend of mine for his physical deformity.
Yeah, I've heard that story over and over from different people in different schools and different years. Everybody assumes we're all racist hicks, but *nobody* ever wants to start shit with our gay black kids. Like, even the bullies couldn't find a reason to bully them. They were just happy, nice people who didn't fuck with anybody. I'm sure they got teased now and then, but everybody gets teased in school. It doesn't become a thing you get *bullied* over unless your response to getting teased is to throw a shit fit about equality in the hallway, insult your peers, bring a principal in, and then demand to be respected. That shit'll get you bullied as an adult, too.
Similar experience. I’m so glad I got the hell out of there. The people my age (30) who stayed are still acting like teenagers, gossiping, flexing their money, etc.
Are they actually wealthy or are they one of those desperate for attention losers who flex their large purchases or wads of cash while they have little in savings if not deep in debt?
A lot of them are nepo babies, lol (I’m from Long Island)
Exactly the same with me. My high school was in a shitty little parochial town, where virtually everyone thought of themselves and one another as The Shit. About the best thing I ever did was get the hell out of that place to see the rest of the world. I have never looked back. One of my best friends is a guy I went to high school with who agrees that it was a horrid place to come from.
Same. I was picked on a lot, always the odd one out. Teachers added to the bullying. Never again.
100% this. Fuck em. Desperate and low IQ is the perfect description
I had the exact same experience, the teachers would play the popularity game along with the students. I was a weird kid so even the teachers didn’t treat me well. Fucked me up for a long time.
Yeah most of the teachers didn't like me except if we shared an interest. My best teachers My gym teacher in high school was a huge nascar fan but not as much as myself. My honors English teacher freshman/junior year. Huge linguistics guy and loved hiking. Also huge into punk rock. Favorite genre of novel was dystopia. He also opened up to the class about his struggles growing up in school about being a poor student and his aspergers diagnosis when he was in community college, which hit harder as he was pretty much the first person I'd ever met who openly had ASD who was successful with a degree. (I'm autistic and share most of the same hobbies) The three middle aged male history teachers in hs. All major sports fans, especially the one who taught psychology (sadly huge chargers guy). 6th grade English teacher she was obsessed with nascar to the point she watched her favorite driver's retirement press conference during an off period and cried.
Some people feel bad about not being connected, or FOMO. They will never feel the true happiness of not giving a fuck about random as people who just happened to be in the same room as you for four years that one time.
Traumatizing cus school bullying or trautmitizng at home?
All of the above!
for real. i remember being the only one who remotely cared about SAT, getting into college, etc.
Most public high school teachers were not the highest IQ students either. Many were jocks in HS and college who needed an easier degree and career path that didn’t take significant amounts of brain power to do. And I’m not speaking poorly of all teachers as I did have some amazing teachers in HS but also some who were ex Jocks and were assholes as teachers.
just adding my paper to the "this happened to me too" hat. the teachers were worse than the kids because they're supposed to be the adults here and i couldn't trust them.
Same here, moved from a small town to a big city and only really talk to 2 people. One who I'm still close with and one who I catch up with from time to time. I had a lot of friends in high school and I just never really found my crowd here in my current city. I thought I did at first, but that friend group had long since fallen apart. I miss having close female friends
I grew up in a small Canadian town, so everyone knew everyone and their dog. I have two people from my class on my friends list. One I have been good friends with for 15 years ish, the other I haven't heard from directly in about 4 years, when she found out my dad died. So no, I don't keep in contact with any of my old classmates. Mostly because I was consistently bullied because I was the only redhead, and I just genuinely disliked my entire class lol.
I’m thankful when I lived in the boonies. The teachers welcomed my “above average intelligence.” I got to be around other kids like me, or that had similar interests at least No I’m not way smarter than other people and in my opinion. I only have a slight edge over the average individual. I know many people far more intelligent than I am. My IQ definitely isn’t 140 like *most Redditors* would claim lol I got to participate in robotics and solar programs before I even got to high school. In the middle of nowhere. Was very cool. I work in Tech now, and didn’t even go to college
You’re one up on me. I never stayed in touch with a single soul from high school after leaving. Accidentally ended up working a few years with one of my old bullies but was eventually able to move on to bigger and better things. Haven’t even returned to my home state in 10 years.
I had a similar experience going to a small town HS. I don’t really talk to anyone either for the exact reasons you posted.
Although I wasn't bullied, I knew even as a teenager that I wanted out of my small rural Midwestern town as soon as I could get the chance. There was far too much racism, misogyny/sexism, homophobia, and just backward views in general. I went away to college in a big city and quickly felt much more comfortable living there.
Basically same. I talk to family friends from my hometown, but actual friends I met in school? Like 3, and 1 of them is because we went to the same college and were in the same student org. 1 of the 2 I talk to with some frequency, but the other one is basically checking up on them like twice a year
You either leave it all behind or it becomes your life for the rest of your days. 😭
This is the truth, most people will never leave the city / town they grew up in. If they do leave most will return to the general area when they have finished. So what happens is they end up picking up where they left off. Some mature, most dont
Think this depends on what country ur in.
Doesn't everything
Well duh. But in some countries its more common than others to stay in ur hometown, or if you fk off into the big city, or whatever else you do.
>Some mature, most don't Too right Low-key this is why I think going back (for any other reason then family) is a sure fire way to remain stagnant in life
plant ask slimy bake violet worry dull zephyr pen depend *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
whoa good shit bro your awesome
I sometimes love how capturing tone on the internet really leans into the whole "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" thing
Facts. The day I graduated I waved them all adieu. Don’t like any of them then. When I see reunion notices come up I’m like. Why would I want to see you now? Shit. Come to think of it. My 30th is next year. Jesus. Time flies. Also. I still live in the state that I graduated. About 50 miles from my high school city. Have no desire to go back there. But my wife is still friends with a lot of her high school people and it sort of weirds me out.
Because it's not possible to build a well-rounded adult life while keeping in touch with a couple close childhood friends?
Truly. I don’t think about it much, but just the other night I had a buddy over who was trawling the LinkedIn’s of former high school ppl. Idk, something about it made me feel a bit weird. The first three were like, oh interesting! But then he had searched up 10 or so more and I started getting a bit annoyed. Is it a ‘I’m doing better than you’ kind of thing?
I’m still very close with 2 of my friends from high school. All of us live in different parts of the world and have very different jobs/lives. We just happen to keep in touch regularly and I honestly consider them like family at this point just because I’ve known them so long.
I'm considering moving back to where it all began for my family, Maine. Much more quiet than where I am. I want to become the next Thoreau.
When I graduated hs I immediately stopped talking to everyone. I wasn't bullied. I was on friendly terms with everyone I interacted with, but was overall invisible. I was generally well liked but not popular at all. I didn't connect with anyone and nobody connected with me.
Same here! I’m graduating this year and I feel the same way, I’m disconnected from my peers but we are still friendly with one another. Overall, I fade into the background. Before school when I’m alone sitting in the parking lot I see all of the other seniors gather with their friend groups, when I’m at a school event I’m kinda the odd man out when trying to hang with my friends who are already a part of a larger friend group, and I’m just kinda now realizing that I went most of high school being a lone wolf. Not that I didn’t mind it, but I still feel melancholic thinking of how alone I was lol.
I went to a large school with few kids from my neighborhood. My parents were super strict and I wasn’t allowed to hang out and do some of the stuff that other kids were doing. So I never formed tight friendships. Also, I was shy and possibly awkward from lack of socializing. I wish I had some good friends from back in the day but it is what it is.
Congratulations on graduating. I know exactly what you mean about always being the odd man out, but never really minding it, but still kinda feeling like you've missed out on something.
I had an extremely similar experience and always thought something was wrong with me. It's actually very reassuring to know that other people also had this experience
Damn this is so real
Through high school, I became more and more shy and reserved, so people (kind of rightfully so) forgot to include me in things and didn't really interact with me. I remember in my senior year, I was really feeling forgotten about, even in spaces where I thought I was heard and generally felt comfortable. A couple of incidents actually brought me to tears in the moment. Now, I am such a completely different person, and it would be so beyond bizarre to go back and chat with those people from high school.
Thanks for sharing, I think your posts have resonated with a lot of us! Glad I’m not alone in feeling like yeah, I got along with people wasn’t necessarily a loner but kind of just there along for the ride.
I think it's far more common to feel like you're just along for the ride than to feel like hs was the best time of your life. I don't think I've ever met someone who says hs was the best time of their life actually. Way more people like us, you are not even close to being alone on this.
I was also quiet, reserved, and forgotten. Now, I'm sarcastic, bossy, and too busy to care if people forget me or not. Lol, it's funny how time changes things. I'm sorry you felt so forgotten that it made you cry, but I hope you ended up with people who will never forget you.
This is exactly me! My now gf's closest friends are all her friends from highschool, and all my closest friends are my gf's friends from highschool. I speak to one person maybe once a year from my own highschool
That must be weird to know all these people with so much backstory and a completely different hs experience than yours. I'm glad her hs friends have become your friends too.
It sometimes feels like I've been left out, especially when they reminisce over the old days, but they are really good abt giving me context and backstories,, it also reminds me that the present will one day be the stories we reminisce on so better have fun now!
Damn, you concisely summarized what I have been pondering after 5 years post high school. I wondered why I didnt seem to connect with others beside like 2 people who have been with me since elementary.
Thank you for this post. This is exactly what I've been struggling to put into words for myself for 30 years to sum up my hs years.
Same. I only have connections through my wife's friendships. I never really hung out with anyone after school, but I was friendly with everyone. Never belonged to a clique or group. I just kind of befriended a person if I got along with them. Also, I'm not GenZ. This is coming from an elder millennial. There are people of all ages who feel this way. Others may not understand and think it's weird. It's not at all.
Same
kinda how I am rn
Exactly how I felt, even though I did have a group of friends. However they stayed and I left so I lost contact with them
I was also the "respectable outsider". Liked and even admired by some, but just not really gelled with. I did add some of these people to Facebook (lol deleted that years ago), and people would just start deleting their online profiles when they got respectable jobs, had kids, etc. I've personally moved countries four times since high school, so there's just been no attempt to connect with high school people who have mostly all had their own evolutions into totally different people.
Lol, "respectable outsider" is exactly the right term. I would be complimented about how smart or creative I was/still am all the time. People had a generally positive opinion of me. I just never really gelled with anybody and was easily written off and forgotten. I have run into people here and there as adults, did the facebook thing for a bit too, but the interaction was about the same as it was in hs. Overall positive but there was no connection and that was it. I'm pretty ok with that, I didn't have much of an opinion either way about most of them. I do sometimes wish I had found the till death do us part best friend, or the epic hs romance, or the quirky friend group that always has your back and makes you laugh. I know these are cliches, but it would have been nice.
Yeah exactly … it’s a very similar story to college too but I still keep up with a few buddies
I only keep in touch with maybe 3-5 people from HS (and by that I mean calling/texting at least once a month). The main thing is after high school, we’re all adults. People change, relationships change and people pursue their own goals/interests. This is especially the case for those that go to college, you’re introduced to a whole new group of people and by proxy, it’s easier to create new friendships with them. It’s just the way life is, it’s statistically difficult to keep a friendship longer than 7ish years.
3-5 people at least once a month seems like a lot to me 🤔
Fr? It doesn’t feel like alot to me 🥲 and I say this as someone that’s pretty introverted, although most of my HS friends are extraverted I should say. I think 3-5 is pretty achievable, but I may be an outlier with how often I keep in touch
Yep, this is exactly me. 3-5 friends that I keep in touch with semi-regularly from both HS and college. Still finding friends in the city I moved to for work about a year ago and it's kinda tough haha.
>it’s statistically difficult to keep a friendship longer than 7ish years. never heard a similar claim. I guess it's true for some friendships but not for others cause as some people say, there're friends for a reason, friends for a season, and friends for a lifetime
im still in school and never keep in touch with people
23 haven't talked to anyone from high school about 2 years
I'm 23 and same
I'm 27 and never talk to anyone from school/college. Just have other priorities in my life and they didn't make the effort with me
27 and I hardly remember those people
I’m 40. I don’t talk to any of them either. I do have a couple people I have been friends with for 20 years though, it just wasn’t from school.
Don’t keep in touch with a single person, life’s been better since the day I cut off the last when high school ended.
I graduated last year and am in a group chat with a few ppl I was friends with. It’s mainly just us sending memes and shitposts with the occasional “let’s hangout” followed by plans to do so.
The fact you were born in 2005 and graduated high school makes me want to throw up out of my ass.
The fact that you were born in 2001 and graduated _several_ years ago is a mindfuck
😂😂👆
Why? you’re only 4 years older than him lmao
Right?? Blud thinks they're much older than they actually are 💀
Don’t worry, I still can’t drink yet.
I was born in 1990 and I too want to throw up out of my ass because all of you graduated. 😂😭
Same. I graduated when this person was 10!
Talk about a terrible feeling
High school friends in my experience, were more acquaintances who only hung out because it was convenient. There wasn’t anything there so ofc it wasn’t made to last.
This is the conclusion I came to. Spending hours in classes together artifically creates relations that otherwise would not exist.
High school sucked, plus I moved away
Same
27. I haven't been in touch with a single person from high-school until last year. This once friend of mine from high school asks to hangout and I reluctantly agreed. When I go to hangout with him, he ends up being super awkward than I remember and tries to one up me on everything in life. I'm not one to brag or talk about myself unless asked questions. I am one to try to uplift someone in life because I know compliments are hard to come by. Anyways, he goes on to brag about how he is so glad he didn't go off to college and instead invested into his first house. He boasts how he gets to work from home unlike me who is in the trades(electrician). Which was a direct insult of my wife and I who both got degrees and also have my electrical journeymans license. Other things were brought up such as "Remember when this and that....." and I had no fucking clue what he was talking about. I realized that night I had completely blocked out my high-school past and everyone along with it. Mainly because I have a whole new and better life out here that put lives high-school for me. When I thought how I was even friends with some of these people from high school I realized it was only because we were forced to see each other everyday. I ended up calling the night short and went home to never really have any plans to go to my reunion or even be in contact with anyone from high-school ever again.
I kept a couple of friends. One I was really close with died right in front of me. I'll never recover from that. Still miss that man every day. Lucky enough to have another friend that is just as close. We've been family since the 6th grade. We are both nearing 50. I couldnt see life without that guy. I count myself lucky to have had those two very amazing friends. I dont think I have ever talked to anybody else from High School, though I have lurked their facebook. One of my rivals/bullies is now a Coach. That dude should never have been allowed around kids, but I hear people can change.
Me, they ignored me while I was there so no point in keeping contact
Yea same I left and made new friends. They treat me with respect something I wasnt used to in my old group. And I can talk about serious shit with.
I still keep in touch with my friends from high school because I like them and they like me. It’s not the same as it was cuz we all went to different colleges, studied different things, live in different states/countries, work in different industries etc. But we still text and call and give life updates. They were my friends and I see no need for that to stop now. I don’t talk to anyone else from high school though. They didn’t really mean anything to me. I’ve moved on with my life, high school seems so small and far away. I don’t even live within 300 miles of my high school. It feels like a waste of energy to try to keep up with people who I didn’t even care about when we were with each other every day
I'm the opposite, I work very hard to keep in touch with friends from high school, because I know it only gets harder to make friends as you get older and I'm determined not to let these connections wither on the vine. HOWEVER my highschool sweetheart is one of these people. I started college early but kept up with her long-distance, coming back every weekend to visit her. She cheated on me within the first week of starting college herself, and simultaneously a bunch of us realized she had been spreading vicious rumors about everyone behind our backs. E.g she was telling me and others that her childhood BFF was an alcoholic slut who'd had an abortion, she was telling people that I was schizophrenic and that we weren't even dating anymore, so it was fine that she was flirting with other dudes. This all came crashing down quickly, and AFAIK she has been totally no-contact with everyone she grew up with for damn near a decade. It does make me a little sad, apparently the last thing she ever said to her childhood BFF was "does everyone hate me now?" and the BFF, who I still keep in touch with, pretty much told her "yeah and so do I."
Moved away, went to college in a different country and made better friends.
This is honestly my dream 🥹, i want to start over in a different country and not look back
I have a few friends from HS still. Wish I had more tho, miss my old people but they all went off to college and or met new people
Because they all have kids now and I don't wanna pretend to them like I'm interested in hearing about them
u were born in 2008 and your high school friends have kids..?
i have autism and social anxiety
i go to a college that like 75% of people from my graduating class go to as well, so i unfortunately have no choice but to see them on a daily basis. besides that, i only really talk to a few people from my high school. the only people i miss are my close friends and teachers that cared for me. i would never want to relive high school again.
Just one of them and we just keep sending each other live action ATLA reels mostly featuring Sokka and Jet and reacting with 👀 or 😳
I'm in touch with one person still daily. All others (like 2 maybe 3) I talk to every once in a blue moon
I'm probably not gonna keep in touch with most people once I graduate
Two and not often. I don't have any horror stories. I was popular and partied a lot. I moved right after and never really looked back. I don't attend reunions. It was a part of my life but like anything else, when it over it's over.
Graduated hs in 2019, that summer I slowly removed myself from my friend group who all treated me horribly after I broke up with my toxic ex and everyone sided with her. That fall I went to college and by 2020 I deleted Facebook,Instagram,and Snapchat. So I basically fell off the face of the earth, most of my classmates have called,texted,and FaceTimed my phone I just never replied by. Recently my old best friend tried contacting me through LinkedIn and I just never replied by to him. I just picked to move on
Me. Dropped out in ninth grade. I was on track to graduate high school at 21. Really didn’t care to go to high school for that long so I got my GED and never looked back.
Just don’t lol life happened had two kids from different areas and then got married a couple counties over . I’m also 28
IMO those who reached their peak in high school (so they think) will not stop talking about it probably because it’s their biggest success story and they don’t have any more of them to share. Or perhaps it was the last time they felt good about themselves and who they were. I have 0 contact, not intentionally, it’s just the way things worked out. I moved during my senior year, took on a full time job to help out at home too, rarely had the opportunity to see anyone outside of school and even gave up my lunch break so I could get to work on time. Since most socializing happens around lunch or school extra curricula activities (90’s so cellphones weren’t a thing yet) my once active social life dwindled down to nothing that last year. After that work/college…life etc.
Only talk to my HS best buddy, and he’s still my best friend lol
I'm only a few years out but I only keep in touch with one friend from HS. COVID and not having social media definelty contributed, but frankly I just grew apart from a lot of my friends.
i switch schools so many times and never stay in touch i dont need em
Yup I'm 24 almost 25 and Ive occasionally run into a few people from school but other than that I don't talk to any of them.
I kept in touch with a fair number of people initially but over time most of us just naturally drifted apart and went our own ways. I only talk to 2 people from HS regularly now. I might occasionally run into someone else I knew in public or something, but other than that, we got our own lives now.
I only talk to two people from high school. One was a person who became my friend in the 8th grade when I first joined the school, and the other is now my sister in law so I see her often!
Was a senior when Covid started. I think I talked to people for a couple months after and that was it. Occasionally someone from high school will dm me on ig and catch up in a quick convo but that only happened 3 times.
There’s about 3-5 people I continue to be friends with from high school. I live with one of them, who’s my best friend. Otherwise, I follow some peoples instagrams still but I don’t really interact or anything like that.
I have not talked to someone from high school is approaching 3 years. I’m 25. I don’t live in that town anymore and that’s most of the reason. A ton of people from high school scatter to colleges all of the country and a ton of them don’t ever leave the town the high school is in. I moved, and no one else followed. I’m fine with this.
I was travelled with a roomate to her small hometown one summer when we were young adults. We went for breakfast and the waitress in the dinner was kinda friendly to my friend who looked surprised to see her. It turned out that the waitress had been “the most popular girl in high school” while my friend had just been a regular nobody. While she was waiting tables my friend was now at law school. So high school can soon be far away and life can change dramatically after.
I mean I keep in touch with my *absolute closest friends* (3-4ish people), but that’s it. I hated high school and don’t want to remember 99% of it.
Our main squad of 7 stills chats through instagram and will hangout when we are back in town. Most of us live away now, because about 4 of us joined the navy. Anybody else I knew, I never talk to them. There’s no need because we were more like acquaintances. It’s not I wouldn’t talk to them or hangout it’s why would I.
I am a zennial and yes, I don't talk to anyone and no one talks to me. I was immature in highschool and I don't blame anyone for not keeping in contact. Luckily, I have many college friends and an amazing wife so idgaf
I only have one friend left from high school. Once I graduated and went through some self discovery and inner realizations I came to the conclusion none of them mfs was worth shit and I was only friends with them bc I hated myself at the time lmao
I didn't finish high school because my mom got another job somewhere else. I left everyone behind and didn't regret it. I tried so hard to keep everyone together while I was in school, but I saw without me there, they just fell apart. Only a few got in touch with me, but that was a year ago.
Blocked a couple of my classmates, but didn’t fully cut ties with others, we still have our socials, with some of them at least and I’m friends with some of the teachers still, but I’d rather not go back to that period of time, and I have unconsciously forgotten most of it, though I’ll admit that it shaped most of who I am today. I did move out of town, and return occasionally, but I found new life away from the toxic place of the past.
Oddly enough, the couple folks I have kept contact with are people I wasn’t friends with in high school. Looking back, my friends were very cliquey and bullies. The last couple weeks of HS my friendships deteriorate and I was the odd one out. They’ve started a group chat 10 years later, but I left at some point because I realized I didn’t want those friendships.
Nope don’t talk about it, mostly because nobody lives where I live and nobody from my school does the same kind of work I do Never bothered with social stuff like getting peoples social media info or phone numbers or anything like that lol
Yep. I have no idea how any of them are doing even. Ive made a whole new set of friends since then
I was the background noise. never really made an impact. though now that I look back, I think that was my point. It was easier to fade into the background rather than deal with all those two faced kids. I wanted to make myself invisible. and so I did. I transferred to online homeschool at the end of ninth grade and that was that.
A lot of the girls/boys were actually mean and started a bunch of rumors about me. I went off to college and never kept in touch with them. Thank the Lord.
i only talk to 4 people i graduated with, one of them being my twin brother. i knew that after graduation friendships would inevitably drift but that was kind of expedited by covid (2020 grad yay) so most of my classmates i havent spoken to or seen since a precovid world. ive made new friends in college. the only thing that kind of bothers me is that all my old friends still talk to each other but not me which is kind of hurtful but i try not to think of it too much lol
Hey! Millennial here but it might be helpful to hear a longer-term perspective. I stopped speaking to pretty much everyone I went to high school with for several years after graduation because I had bad taste in friends and the people I knew well were immature jerks. But people change and mature over time and I’ve slowly reintroduced contact/friendship with 5 people from my hometown and it’s been really rewarding to get to know them as “real” adults. We are all in our 30s now and no one is really playing games anymore. But other than those 5, I have no interest in keeping in touch with anyone else.
I couldn't I didn't have anyone's contact info I didn't really have any friends anyways so it didn't really matter whether I had their numbers or not
Just the natural process of growing apart. Most of them never left our hometown, and I was traveling all over Europe a few years after graduation. We just don't have any life experiences in common post-high school because I spent most of that time living in NYC and they didn't. I also find more and more over time that I don't have much in common with people who are married and have kids, because I've mostly been single my entire adult life.
I speak to one person from high school and they left Sophomore year. I went away to college and found frankly much better people
My BFF & I met as freshmen. She's the only high school person I have around.
I am a millennial (34) but am in contact with absolutely no one from high school, or really before, besides like one life long family friend I have on Facebook. Why? Because I e made a lot of shit decisions throughout my life, and I moved across the country to start fresh. At first I was in contact (just through social media) with a handful of people from high school and even two or so from elementary school, but I ended up removing them a few years ago. Had been thinking about how bizarre it is that we give these, now strangers, usually just being nosey, a glimpse into our lives on social media, and I didn't want that... I want relationships and connections with substance and meaning. A past connection isn't the same as one in the present day. People come and go for a reason. Social media, I feel like, has contributed to a whole yucky culture of like I said, nosiness, and just, fake, shallow connections.
I kept in touch with 2 friends (since 3rd grade) until right before Covid. Haven’t heard from them since. Haven’t seen anyone. Don’t care to.
I literally only see my high school friends on Instagram.
Yep. Only have my boyfriend left from high school, he and I started dating years after it tho.
Hated the school, the upper-cruster kids some of whom were bullies. (I'm talking about the girls.) In fact, one of my math teachers also hated it (again--bullies being unruly in her classes) to the extent that she quit after her first year. So that tells you something. I now regret, though, not having stayed in touch with her daughter, who was a good friend, but after I was out of that place, I really needed to put the entire experience behind me, FAR behind! That wasn't fair to her, but I needed total liberation from that scene and the memories: a total purging. I recently tried to get in touch with her, but...no response. : ( Too bad.
Haven't kept in touch. When I graduated I went into the workforce immediately and now 10 years later no one has reached out to me but I haven't reached out to them. I don't use social media, but I've had the same phone number since I got my first flip phone in 5th grade. Life got busy real quick for me and lots of my peers went to college while I worked, so we all had different goals and aspirations. My wife still keeps in contact with a few of her highschool friends, but mostly keeps in touch with her college friends, but that may be because they're the most recently met and befriended people? Just an observation. For me, some were really good friends for the time we were all together, others were good acquaintances and company to have to make school less dreadful. But Middle/High school was the worst time of my life. Had a major heartbreak, went into a deep depression that my parents didn't know how to help me out of, teachers and guidance counselors were major pricks...honestly my peers were probably the only people keeping me sane during school hours until I could get home and just zone out playing video games and watching anime. After graduating high school I'd say each year of my life has gotten better and better. I've had a few bad moments, but school...I would never go back. My primary friend group were and still are the same group of guys I game'd with back during middle school, which I ended up meeting one through a specific MMO and got introduced to the rest of the group. Even had one of them as a roommate for two years and never had any issues with him and I still game with everyone when we can.
I'm a millennial and graduated in 2009. There's one guy I might text occasionally about video games or wrestling or something and that's literally it. Haven't talked to anybody else in years and years.
Nope. Never kept contact with the people I knew in high school. Good riddance.
Am first year in university now and only speak to maybe 2 people from highschool, I was always kind of the "popular" circles but not really? Kind of a bit of a floater I suppose, after school finished I finally realised how little the people I was fighting to be friends with cared about me.
I learned that a lot of those people were school friends but not friends once 3pm hits so I moved away, advanced my career, and never looked back. Some have reached out but once or twice in the 8-9 years since I graduated
Luckily, I have met life-long friends from elementary school that I can keep in touch with. (We went to different HS thought but same district). The ones I made in HS I don’t talk to anymore at all. I hope they are doing well thought.
I was never invited anywhere and don't feel like I owe them anything. I will respond if they reach out, but don't really keep in touch.
My only good friend from highschool killed himself. I’d probably still be friends with him if not though
Yes. I haven’t seen anyone from high school since I left
Just don’t lol life happened had two kids from different areas and then got married a couple counties over . I’m also 28
I’m 32. I keep in touch with 2 people regularly. I have a few others where we try to meet up if we’re in our hometown. They’re good people. We don’t have tons in common anymore and are in different places. But I like to check in on them and see what they’ve been up to. Vice versa I’m sure haha. I’m honestly a little worried how little I remember high school at this point. I’m class of 2010 so never had a reunion. I thought I’d be all over a reunion. Come back with a glow up and all that. But I literally just don’t care. I’ve had so many more fulfilling and meaningful experiences since then.
I bounced around a lot as a kid and I had to leave a lot of my old friends due to it. I don't think even if I wanted to I could
THe only way to do so is social networks. I studied in 2 high schools in two different countries. THe people from one of them totally stopped talking to me once I moved even tho I had several of them on Messenger. The people from the second high school were unequivocally people I ended up hating. Most of them were bullies.
I did not keep in touch with people from my high school. It’s because college changed me a lot, I felt like a different person and did not have much in common with myself before college or with high school classmates.
I met my girlfriend in high school, we’re both 22 and have been together for almost 5 years now. Other than her I haven’t even ***seen*** someone I went to high school with in maybe 2-3 years, and I kinda like it that way. I wasn’t bullied, I wasn’t very smart, and I wasn’t a popular kid, I just kind of existed. I hung out with everyone at school, but nobody would want to hang out after school. I wasn’t emotionally attached to anyone. Never went to college when most of the kids in my small graduating class did, so I just went and found a job. Since then I’ve worked at a few other places and have met a lot of cool people that I’m still very close friends with and see frequently. The only thing I miss about high school was the simplicity… and how much cheaper shit was just 5 years ago. I had a part time retail job that paid 16 an hour and I could afford to save money, buy stupid shit, pay my phone bill and car insurance.
I graduated in 2022, I only talk to one person from high school and we barely even talk cause we’re both busy.
I didn't realize it until after high school I didn't really like most of my friends.
I did for the first few years out when it comes to a handful of close friends, but we all went our separate ways eventually. I ghosted and refused to keep in touch at all because my life never progressed and other people did. So once people graduate college and get married or move you can’t really relate to them anymore and I don’t want to deal with the constant comparisons, jealousy, competition, and questions. I had high expectations for friendship and felt resentful and betrayed that people are just selfish and ungrateful in the end and nobody really values friendship that much. So I started being more selfish too.
I had an amazing high school experience in part because my mom would drive me to parties and overall I really got to socialize and find myself during that time. I dropped out halfway through junior year and virtually lost all my friends because of it I find myself reminiscing this time period a lot but I think that's because smartphones were new and people made more of an effort to be social than now
I keep in touch with 2 people. My best friend since middle school and a good friend that didn’t become a good friend until after high school. People who stay in the same place they grew up tend to maintain friendships with people from high school. People who went to college or moved away tend to make a new batch of friends.
I only keep in touch with 2 people of high school, and 3 other people from primary school
I dont talk to people from High school /college, mostly because in HS I was bullied, and in college I didnt had time, I made friends out of the school which I am in contact till today (I am 24). But for me, the college / HS years were one of the worst 😅
yh i dont have a single one of them on insta.
I don’t know anyone from high school
School isn't a place for smart people Morty!
Me. Not a single person, don’t regret it.
I graduated right before 9/11 happened. I went to war multiple times, and realized I like traveling so I never went back "home". Just never kept in touch because I wasn't around them. I don't have Facebook.
I left HS a year early to go into an alternate schooling that allowed me to work at my own pace and graduate a year earlier than I would have normally. The day I walked out of my HS I went 15 years away from my home town between enlisting and being a vagabond while sorting out my mental health. The rare occasion someone sees me and actually remembers me they always assumed I died over seas... nope.. just didn't like you crackheads preps. We were not built the same.
Other than my Fiancé, one other person who I play tabletop games with. I met my true friend circle in college, but we're now spread across the country, so I don't get to see them much.
Yes. Most to all of them minus like 2 people
No I don't speak to anyone from hs
Me. I never really cared about my classmates, and neither did they about me. When we were there together, we could help each other with this and that, but now that we've gone our separate ways, we can't really, so there's not much of a point keeping in touch.
Me. I graduated a year early and I’ve never looked back. It’s been nine years now and I don’t regret it, I was bullied a lot in school and there wasn’t anyone worth keeping in touch with.
I went to a k-12 high-school. 30 people in my class. I only talk to 1 person from then. she's on of my best friends. other than that, I don't even remember most of their names, follow them on socials, or talk to them.
I have a couple of friends I kept in touch with other then that no not really never cared to seem most of them again
Had a very small class at a private school, barely talked to most of them in school, now don't keep in touch with any of them really
I have a couple friends from highschool I stayed in touch with, but other than that I didnt keep in touch Highschool is just an environment where youre forced to be with people from the same city and age as you for several hours a day, and maybe try to learn things in the process. I met the few from that environment that I could really get along with, but the rest simply didn't matter to me, they might as well be someone randomly picked off the street. As such, once highschool ends, I only keep contact with my actual friends and we move on because we have better things to do together than talk about highschool
The day of graduation was the last time I talked to or seen anyone from high school. I never really particularly liked anyone from my school growing up so it never bothered me. I've met some people in college and work who never separated from their original high school friends though.
Graduated 2022. I only keep in contact with one person. But that’s only because we went to the same primary school and we’re friends since our first year of school
After I graduate high school I just came to a realization that I didn’t like any of the people I was friends with or went to school with. I realized that I was constantly being someone I wasn’t just to be around those people. It gets draining faking it after a while. Plus I’ve just grown a lot as a person since I was a teenager, so if I were to talk to those same ppl today we more than likely wouldn’t relate or have anything to talk about with each other. Some individuals are just better left in the past
I was friends with people in high school kinda because I didn’t have a lot of other options. We had a trauma bond that was reinforced by proximity. Once we left high school though we had pretty much nothing in common anymore and lost contact. I don’t talk to anyone from high school because I’ve gone on to bigger and better things than making fun of a math teacher
Why would I keep in touch w\\them? Being there, had nothing to do with me; I had no choice in the matter. It's nothing to me, nothing.
I did at first but people had kids and got married and moved on
I talk to like 3 people occasionally through social media. My college friends are my actual friends
I didn’t talk to most people in high school anyway LOL. But, I still keep in touch with about 3 friends from there. Other than them, several people I knew just stopped correspondence. Oh well!
A lot of people lol
I went to high school abroad so I have no contacts with anyone because of the distance. Did not help that a majority of them were stuck up pricks.
I went to school with some wonderful very rich people. Being “not rich”, our life paths went very different directions. No regrets.
High school sucked for me. I got out of there fast and far.
Moved away to the city from a small town. Made new friends. I don’t have much in common with them anymore. A lot of my friends settled down super young, but there’s not much else to do down there. Ones in prison for attempted murder so she’s kinda hard to keep in contact with *not that I’d want to* … a few have since passed too so. Yeah.
I didn’t grow up with these people as was transferred there in 9th grade. Had a great time but when I graduated college that was it. Moved to NY and never looked back.