A closeted gay acquaintance that I knew from shared extracurricular activities, is now a judge who ran as a Republican because that’s the only party people will vote for in the redneck town we grew up in.

My best friend was a fucking degenerate in high school. Drugs, alcohol, fights, got his girlfriend pregnant at 16, was in and out of jail for all kinds of stupid shit… I fully expected him to die young or end up doing hard time.

He’s now a department head at a very large university, even has his own published textbook. I’m incredibly happy for him.

A friend I met as an adult. He had a pretty rough life growing up, his family was homeless and roamed around a lot, he was supposed to be ‘homeschooled’ but was really taking care of his parents during that time, so he never really had an education, obviously never went to college, etc.

He fell into learning programming as a teenager and started working when he was 16 as a web programmer. Now in his 30’s, he makes more money than anyone I’ve personally known and I’m so freaking happy for him. A lot of bullshit people like to brag that they’re ‘self made’ when they own companies, or are CEO’s, etc. And this guy is like the most humble, kind and well adjusted person I’ve ever known, and he did it all himself. Super greatful to be his friend and have him in my life.

A guy I grew up with playing music and working odd jobs for his dad is now a hardcore right wing influencer.

His family was very progressive (still are as far as I know) and we lived in a staunchly blue part of the country. Hell, we wrote songs that were hyper critical of the govt and authoritarian systems.

Now he’s screeching to a million plus followers and participating in counter protests as a pro-maga mouthpiece.

I am sure it has to be for money. He was always an egomaniac. Between that and the dopamine hit of a good grift, it has to be. I just can’t resolve in my own heart that he’s truly gone to the dark side.

A guy with good grades was accepted into a prestigious architectural school.

He works for a local brewery now.

He wasn’t a friend, but he was an acquaintance. There was this guy named Robbie, who was dating the principal’s daughter, and everything seemed bright and shiny for them.

They were like our small school’s power couple, Robbie and Shannon.

After high school, Shannon came up pregnant, and everyone was excited and startled because they hadn’t gotten married yet, and then it came out that the kid wasn’t Robbie’s.

Robbie took a nap on a train track.

The weird thing is, he survived being run over by a train. It was a huge event in our suburb.

But then he went deep into drugs and just fell apart. I don’t think he made it to 27.

Fuck it, I’m gonna skirt the rules a little and say me: I’m alive past 25 years old.

not a friend, but the biggest asshole drug dealer at my school and his trailer park family ended up being Mayor of Toronto and Premiere of Ontario.

I just assumed they would be incarcerated by 21.

The girl who got into every prestigious university for hard sciences is now working in the performing arts. I assume she was studying to placate her parents and then chose her own path as soon as she could escape.

Not necessarily a friend but someone I often spoke to back then. We met once again some years ago (just around when Covid hit).

He mentioned, he’s trying to get his life back on the rails; he got send to jail twice and then he went to the gym and got much more healthier (lost a lot of weight). I was surprised that he got send to jail, let alone twice.

My punk show / skater buddy went hard into religion, which led to apparent right-wing politics.

Both my best friends from highschool died.

One during a winter storm her freshman year of uni, car accident.

The other I lost contact with until I heard she died of an OD.

Nearly all of my friend group got hooked on drugs (except the one who made it to uni) and I guess some got clean but I never hung out with them again. My friend dying in the snow storm really fucked me up. we were inseparable in school. I think she’d let me laugh though, took her five tries to get her license, maybe should have taken 6 :(

The biggest shock was a guy I met in first grade and was friends with all throughout school. We went our separate ways for college but saw each other on breaks. He went on to grad school, then med school and residency after that and I didn’t see him much. I was supposed to see him and a bunch of other friends at wedding but he didn’t make it. We callled him and gave him shit about it and he kinda played it off.

One day a year or so later my mom asked if he was done with residency and was a full doctor yet. I wasn’t sure so I looked on Facebook and his was about as barren as mine the last 10 years. Did a search, and nope not a doctor, got caught trying to pick up a 15 year old.

I never expected anyone I grew up with to ever be on the wrong side of the law for anything more than a misdemeanor.

The sweet, shy, quiet band girl ODd on heroin sophomore year.

I am Italian, and in high school I had a friend who was REALLY into Indiana Jones movies and games. He kept saying he was going to be an archaeologist and we all scoffed at him.

Fast forward 20 years later, and he is not only an archaeologist but one of the best Latin epigraphists.

Some years ago, I was visiting an ancient Roman villa close to Naples and sent him the photo of a random marble epigraph, and he told me that that guy named there was the son-in-law of another epigraph he sent me promptly a picture of, but also that since I was so much into Stoicism, I would be interested in the bust that is 180 degrees behind me, picturing the neighbor of Seneca in Baia or something like that.