'Who you are on graduation day is absolutely not who you will become': 10+ cringeworthy high school reunion stories

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Sep 30, 2023 4:00 PM EDT

Is there no greater social experiment to observe how people change and/or how people don't than a high school reunion? Even just attending your reunion requires some degree of posturing. You want to present the best version of yourself to the people who used to make fun of you, the people you used to have a crush on, and the people you had a crush on who also used to make fun of you. Sure, the purpose of attending your high school reunion is to show people just how well you're doing and to potentially prove them wrong. However, the essence of the experience is almost always one of reverting back to old high school dynamics. After all, no matter how far you've progressed or how much you haven't, there is something forever imprinted in your mind about those four years of joy, misery, confusion, all of the above…

Keep scrolling below for these reunion stories, which were collected from this r/AskReddit thread. For more content like this, check out these cringeworthy baby names!

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  • 01
    Product - High School Reunion Drama
    via Kyo Azuma
  • 02
    Font - r/AskReddit Posted by u/Zdvj People who attended their high school reunion, what was the biggest surprise?
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  • 03
    Font - survivalguyledeuce. My 10 year reunion was held at a bar. It was all the same people at the bar as it was every weekend, but this time they were wearing nicer clothes. 1.2k Share
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  • 04
    Font - whomp1970. The only real "surprise" was just how wrong we were about how people would turn out. The ivy-league bound people you were sure would be CEOs one day, ended up dropping out of college, having normal middle-class lives, jobs, and marriages, and just being happy as "average".
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  • 05
    Font - The people you were sure would end up like Wooderson from School Daze, turned out to get Masters degrees and even PhDs in one case, and now work in either government or aerospace. The guy who fought to get into West Point, ended up doing his required four years and then leaving the armed services.
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  • 06
    Font - The people you were sure would never lose contact with their friend group, vanished as if they never existed. The people who had to ask yourself, "I don't recall that name at all, did they graduate in my class?" are now friends with 75% of the class on Facebook, and active!
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  • 07
    Font - The athletes (boys and girls) are now anything but athletes, overweight and frumpy. The frumpy dumpy ones now are rock climbers and hike the entirety of the Appalachian Trail.
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  • 08
    Font - IT JUST GOES TO SHOW: Who you are on graduation day, is absolutely not who you will become in three, five, ten, or thirty years. The future is yet unwritten, and the only thing stopping you from change, is yourself. EDIT: Thanks for the award! 1.2k Share
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  • 09
    Font - scienceforbid. That I couldn't remember anyone. Everyone remembered me because I was the freak in high school, and people kept coming up to me and being like "Scienceforbid, it's so great to see you." And I kept having to run to the wall where they'd plastered blown up yearbook photos to figure out who the anybody was. 1.0k Share
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  • 10
    Font - JU juleztb At some point of our 10y reunion I asked the girl I had a crush on back in 7/8th grade if she knew that I had a crush on her. I just thought it was fun talking about that as adults. Turnes out she texted me several times the next days, we met again and now, almost 6ys later we're engaged (for 2ys... but didn't marry yet ;)) we have a house, a child, second child on the way and everything is great. Not what I expected back then. ↑ 797 ↓ Share
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  • 11
    Font - zazzlekdazzle (20-year reunion) How many people seemed like they wanted to get to know me better in high school. When I was in high school, I felt like a total social pariah and I would only approach people I thought were also at the bottom of the social food chain.
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  • 12
    Font - It turns out, a lot of pretty cool people would have likely been my friends if I had given them a chance and been more open to it. Many people mentioned that they thought about being friends or better friends with me but weren't quite sure why it didn't happen. Also, at the reunion, I was much more extroverted and confident and I realized a lot of the people I thought were popular snobs were very cool people.
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  • 13
    Font - Back in high school, it's not like those folks were begging me to hang out and I said no, but I was definitely defensive because I didn't want to get rejected. This means that I might have missed out on having not only more friends, but better ones because picking from the lowest rung of the ladder often meant I was dealing with people who had a lot of emotional problems. 532 Share
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  • 14
    Font - brock_lee. At the ten-year, One guy who had been a kind of nerd and on the bowling team was now part of a "wacky morning DJ" crew on one of the more popular radio stations in New York City, and came in with big hair and dressed like a rock star. 480 Share
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  • 15
    Font - Kaiser93. Last year was our 10th year reunion. I went there just fors and giggles and.......wow. Where do I even begin? - The biggest nerd in the whole year turned out into this huge egotistical - The school's most "sociable" girl became a nurse.
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  • 16
    Font - - My classmate, who many people thought was an asocial and stuck-up bloomed into a beautiful woman, who's married with 2 kids. We had a long talk and she said that she appeared asocial because our classmates were morons (true) and she had no intention to talk to them. 455 Share ↓
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  • 17
    Font - PM_Me_UrRightNipple. The biggest surprise anytime I catch up with people I grew up with is finding out their career. Most of us have pretty unremarkable jobs but some that stood out: -The guy who got arrested for underaged 0 cop 3 times is now a -The girl who couldn't form a coherent sentence is now a teacher
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  • 18
    Font - -The super genius is living in poverty because he decided to move to Costa Rica to save the rainforest -The bad kid joined the Army and now runs a small business and is doing very well for himself.
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  • 19
    Font - -The weirdo became a DJ and does shows at night clubs -The nerdy D&D kid now owns and operates an outdoor Orange and is one of the largest ammunition suppliers in the area. 4.3k Share :
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  • 20
    Font - Someoneoverthere42. The last I ever heard of my high school reunion was in an alumni newsletter. I was listed as "missing" with a request for anyone who knew how to contact me to contact the alumni organization. The newsletter was sent to my house. I'm trying not to take it personally..... 3.3k Share
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  • 21
    Font - Hetvenfour. Back in high school, there was one girl who was extremely popular, extremely pretty, and seemed totally unapproachable from my vantage point. She was also really catty, embodying a lot of the "Mean Girl" stereotypes. Talking with her at the reunion, it turned out that she was very insecure, and had a very tenuous home life for which she was compensating and now she is extremely kind, full of gratitude, and just really down to earth. I love seeing that sort of change in people!
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  • 22
    Rectangle - kiltguy2112. Recently went to my 40th. A bunch of old people showed up. 2.1k ↓ Share
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FAILS school students reunion teachers askreddit School of FAIL high school entitled reddit thread Reddit funny entitled people
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