Popularity, talent, and fame aren’t everything. Just because everyone promised you that you’d have a bright future after finishing school doesn’t mean that your life turned out that way. You can never predict what challenges you will have to overcome. Not to mention that your own decisions can completely derail the course of your life.
People who knew the ‘popular kids’ in their school spilled the tea online about how they ruined their lives, and what happened next. Their stories are heartbreaking to read, and they are a brutal reminder that we all have far less control over our future than we’d like.
#1
The popular kid from my school won four Superbowl rings. He lived two houses away from me.
Image source: MonkeyKingCoffee, Au Kirk
#2
There are a few of them that come to mind but, for me, the saddest is the guy who did really well for himself and got a excellent job at a top financial firm in Manhattan. Cantor Fitz. 105th floor of WTC1.
Sometimes you don’t have to do anything “wrong”.
Image source: JimTheJerseyGuy, Jeffmock
#3
Him and some friends got into pills during the oxycontin days. Eventually they started going down to Florida to bring back lots of them to sell to people. He’d give his cell number to everyone and save it “Kingpin” because he figured if it wasn’t his name how could anybody know it was him?
Eventually one of his customers got busted and the cops got his number and set up a controlled buy.
As “Kingpin” was headed to the spot, the cops changed the location to the high school parking lot so they could REALLY put the screws to him for selling in a school zone.
Earned himself a couple years in prison for that. .
Image source: Tumble85, Kindel Media/Pexels
We all have regrets in life. Though they are most definitely not the same in size and scope, if you allow your regrets to poison your life, it will affect your mental and emotional health and harm your future prospects.
The healthiest thing to do is to accept what has happened to you, begin the healing process (a therapist’s help here is vital), and regain your confidence. It’s easier said than done, but everyone has the power to live a good, long, and healthy life, no matter the mistakes they have made in the past. Tragic experiences in your youth can scar you for life, but you can also overcome them and grow stronger.
One study found that experiencing greater regret is associated with various negative effects, including depressive symptoms and lower life satisfaction.
However, regret does not necessarily have to be a negative experience. It can, in some circumstances, be incredibly productive and help you anticipate problems in the future. Meanwhile, if you use other people’s regrets as a reference, you can avoid a lot of pain in your own life, too.
#4
Took too much adderal to focus for an exam he needed to pass. Started freaking out during the exam, so he went to bathroom and took some Ambien he stole from a teacher to calm down. Came back to the exam and then a little while later threw up and passed out on the floor. Cops and paramedics called.
Image source: KJM31422, Mikhail Nilov/Pexels
#5
Handsome athletic Jock got fired from a ticket printing office for stealing. His boss chose not to press charges. A year later, Jock and his dad broke into the office and stole a bunch of Memphis Grizzlies tickets, intending to… I dunno, scalp tickets while cutting out the middle man, I guess. (?)
The next day, on Christmas Eve, Jock and his dad were driving, when they got pulled over by Memphis PD for a broken tail light. Dad got paranoid, and before the cop could even ask him for his license and registration, he broke and frantically confessed their recent burglary. I can only assume the Jock just rolled his eyes and kept muttering, “Shut up Dad, Shut UP.” They got arrested, and Mom refused to bail them out, so they spent Christmas in county lockup. They were charged with felony burglary afterwards and took a plea deal.
Image source: tifftafflarry, Kindel Media/Pexels
#6
He was getting his PhD in mathematics at the time, had a massive mental break and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Got medicated and was doing well for a while, then all of a sudden started posting really crazy rants and saying his meds were poison and he needed to stop. Vanished out of everything. Deleted all social media, his family doesn’t talk about him anymore. Nobody knows what happened to him.
Image source: chubbybunn89, MART PRODUCTION/Pexels
According to Robert Leahy, PhD, the founder and director of the American Institute for Cognitive Therapy in New York City, the difference between productive and unproductive regret is that the former allows you to learn from your mistakes or to anticipate learning from your mistakes. In other words, regret can be a type of self-correction.
On the other hand, unproductive regret is marked by self-criticism, self-loathing, rumination, and refusing to learn from the experience.
Leahy told the American Psychological Association that the “most economical way” to approach things is to use the regrets of other people to guide your own life. In other words, learning from other people’s mistakes is far less costly and painful than experiencing those regrets firsthand.
According to the expert, one of the techniques used in cognitive behavioral therapy is to ask yourself what your future self would say about your choices. “What would your future self say? Not your immediate self, your future self, because your future self may be the wise self. And that’s something that I think that’s something that people often don’t recognize—that consequences will follow from actions that you take or do not take.”
#7
One of the nicest, funniest guys from school and everyone adored him. He left town to go to a large city in the mid 80’s and contracted AIDS when it was pretty unknown. It breaks my heart to this day.
Image source: Cyberdoll77, Anna Shvets/Pexels
#8
In high school, there was one guy who was on half the sporting teams and made it to state in football. He dated around and had flings with many girls, lived a party lifestyle, made the local news, lots of social media followers, etc.
Anyways, he goes off to college and doesn’t change his ways at all. A year before he’s set to graduate, he makes the news again. He had gotten into a drunk argument at a frat party and decided to drive back with dual weapons. Got charged with attempt to take a life and ruined his future.
Image source: infinitewaters107, cottonbro studio/Pexels
#9
Never took responsibility for any of her bad behavior, including theft/arrests.
Refused to grow up and get a job.
Didn’t pay her bills.
Blamed everyone under the sun for her issues.
Alienated anyone who tried to help her in an honest way.
Wore her parents down so much that it put them in an early grave.
Image source: Kooky-Airport6757, MART PRODUCTION/Pexels
What happened to the most popular kids who went to your school, Pandas? Have any of your schoolmates completely wrecked their lives, despite being talented, bright, and gregarious?
What are the biggest regrets that you have from your school days and young adulthood? What life advice would you give anyone who is about to finish their education and enter adult life for the very first time?
Share your stories and words of wisdom at the bottom of this post.
#10
Honestly, we don’t know. She was incredibly popular. Basically an icon. However she wore her hair, half the girls in school were rocking the same haircut the next week. Her wardrobe drove fashion for the adults in our town. And people HATED her for it. High school girls are savage. The 50% who weren’t trying to be like her were trying to destroy her with vicious rumors and an insatiable appetite for her every move and every misstep.
She graduated, left the state and never spoke to anyone in our town ever again. No social media, no LinkedIn, nothing. Wouldn’t be surprised if she completely changed her name.
Image source: whiskyfuktober, Hồng Thắng Lê/Pexels
#11
She, but she got really into Christianity during college, like fundementalist Christianity, and she refused to listen to anyone except for church leaders when her husband became horrible and violent.
She did not survive. 💔
She was genuinely a wonderful person and she was popular for all the right reasons.
I still randomly break down over her loss all the time. I never know when the grief and rage will hit.
Image source: BetterRemember, Pixabay/Pexels
#12
She became a member of the People’s Temple. Died in 1978 in Jonestown Guyana. Very sad.
Image source: Any_Screen_7141, Federal Bureau of Investigation
#13
Became a foreign exchange student in his senior year. By the time he came back he was a baby daddy to one of his classmates in that other country.
Image source: tangcameo, Jorge Zaldívar Marroquín/Pexels
#14
Robbed a store and made up some crazy kidnapping story. Did his time, got out and applied to law school- telling them to ignore his record, and that he has a document from the attorney general saying it was a case of missing identity.
But the document he presented was fake as hell so he got arrested again with all sorts of fun felonies.
Image source: DougFrankenstein, Ron Lach/Pexels
#15
Kid had a full ride to college to play soccer and was nationally ranked at his position. He got drunk the week before leaving for college, drove and crashed into a telephone pole. He was ejected from the car and was airlifted to the hospital. Survived but never fully recovered from his injuries, lost his scholarship and never went to college.
Image source: Handsdown0003, Artyom Kulakov/Pexels
#16
A kid a few years younger than me who was very popular in his grade, well liked, had an older sister my age so we knew each other and got along well despite the age gap.
His junior year he got a little too drunk at a party, decided to sneak out and take the interstate home. He drove into the pillar of an overpass doing at least 100mph. I’ll never forget the picture of his truck that got shared around. He didn’t even know he hit. Just a kid letting loose and made a terrible decision that nobody caught him doing. RIP.
Image source: jimmyfeelinfroggy, Julien/Pexels
#17
She publicly rejected several scholarships during her valedictorian speech. Immediately after graduation she married her “true love”, a guy with zero ambition and got pregnant. He cheated on her multiple times before I got the hell out of town.
Image source: Bricktop72, olia danilevich/Pexels
#18
Became the lead singer of a famous rock band and didn’t mess anything up at all. It’s actually kind of annoying.
Image source: Glass-Nectarine-3282, Dustin Tray/Pexels
#19
I was a formerly popular middle school kid and then i moved across the world and went through a mental health crisis due to adverse circumstance in my new home, developed extreme agoraphobia, isolated from my old friends and never finished high school. but i just enrolled in an adult grad program and plan to go to college!
Image source: missgirlipop, Gera Cejas/Pexels
#20
Got into an argument with his girlfriend while going 120 mph in his truck, hit a boat that was on a trailer backing out of a driveway.
7 days before his 18th birthday, his girlfriend was ~8 months pregnant too.
Image source: CantStandIdoits, Ann H/Pexels
#21
Ended up in the Epstein files. Though like a lot of others it didn’t mess up his life as much as I’d have expected.
Image source: jmoriarty
#22
Did steroids and had a heart attack while working out and passed away.
Image source: HPM2009
#23
I moved away and barely kept in touch with anyone, but I remember in middle school there was this boy who was the most popular in our whole area of the city. Everyone at all the schools there knew him. Lots of girls had crushes on him.
That was in 6th grade. Then he gradually put on weight, became really withdrawn and depressed, and was rumored to be struggling with dependencies. I have no idea what happened, but he never recovered. Later in life, he sobered up and became a dock worker. After coming from a rich family and seeming like he was all set for life.
I’m guessing something bad happened in his life that led to that spiral. But it also hit me that he probably never knew how popular he was when he was 12. He probably thought he was just riding his bike around and talking to different kids, being a normal kid. He probably still has no idea he was so many girls’ first crush.
Image source: airconditionersound
#24
In the late ‘80s. Head cheerleader. Won the school beauty pageant, the whole
Works. Got caught blowing her boyfriend under the bleachers during a football game. Lost her crown and the pageant was canceled forevermore. It was glorious and I revel in it to this day, as she was a nasty little jerk to everyone she deemed to be below her, which was everyone.
Image source: firstname_m_lastname
#25
The summer after graduation he was at a party where he got really drunk, did a bunch of blow, then decided to drive home. From what I heard people stopped him, then he waited until people weren’t paying attention and left anyway. Wrapped his car around a telephone pole. Didn’t survive.
Image source: BeastInDarkness
#26
She was stunning. She eventually hooked up with some gazillionairre and moved to Miami. She had the life. Then she got older and gained some weight and it was all over. Last I heard she was back home living with her mom.
Image source: eezypeezycheezy
#27
Did not take his diabetes seriously and sadly passed away in his early twenties.
Image source: polkadotd
#28
Became a raging alcoholic after he moved to NYC to become a model. He was beautiful.
Image source: Pyramids-and-tombs
#29
Keep thinking and behaving as they’re the main character. now they can’t stay in one job for 3 months.
Image source: SlimStrawberry
#30
Not the most popular kid in school but probably the most famous one now: a classmate of mine OD’d in the bathroom of her daughter’s hospital room while said daughter was undergoing surgery. Made national news.
Image source: Low-Contribution2094
#31
The senior class president of the class ahead of me died on the last day of classes in an accident at the local (illegal) swimming hole. Held onto a rope swing a second too long, hit the rocks and went under.
Image source: pm1966
#32
Got pregnant unplanned.
Image source: tjtonerplus
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