High school is a unique time in most of our lives.
The combination of learning about life, growing into adulthood, and spending all our time with the same group of people for four years tends to create a period of unmatched drama and chaos for many. As annoying as that can be, at times it can also be downright hilarious. I’m sure that just about every one of us can remember at least one moment from our high school stints that made us laugh harder than anything before or since—and that has stuck with us throughout the years.
Here are 100 such moments, as told by the people who witnessed them firsthand.
1. Getting the Last Laugh
The biggest laugh I ever received in my life was during mass at the end of my senior year of high school. I went to a Catholic school, so for my religion credit I played guitar at our monthly masses and this other guy played piano. Last mass of the year, he's sick so I have to play both instruments. So when they're bringing the bread and wine to the altar, the choir director says "hey, you have to play something on piano here!" I ask what she wants me to play and she says "I don't know, anything!!"
So I played "The Final Countdown" by Europe and got detention for the rest of the year. But, I also got a huge laugh from the audience, so it was totally worth it.
2. Pomp and Circumstance
We blasted the audio of an adult film over the speakers in the auditorium while the principal was trying to give a speech to everyone about graduation procedures. I filmed it too.
3. Mixed Messages
I didn't think anyone would ask me to prom, but one of my guy friends actually did. I was kind of excited, and we did color matching and the stuff you're supposed to, and then one of my other friends told me he had a girlfriend who went to a different school. So after that I wasn't excited anymore. My whole grade wasn't that into prom, so a lot of us ended up playing Apples to Apples instead of dancing, including me.
My date told me as we were leaving that he was upset we didn't dance at all, but at that point I was like "What do you want me to do?"
And then I found five dollars. That was a highlight.
4. What’s So Funny?
The year was 2007. It was fifth period, history class. I was sitting in the front row with a clear view of the hallway. It was a mundane lecture until, out of the corner of my eye, I see a moderately attractive classmate walking in the hallway. Two seconds later she intersects with her friend. All of a sudden, her friend "pantses" her, causing her to trip and do a face-plant. I burst out laughing but, to my horror, no one else noticed. As a result, I was forever labeled as the dude who started randomly laughing during a very serious history lecture. Sigh.
5. Surprise Ending
My school had a very crotchety librarian in her mid-to-late sixties. She'd yell at kids for eating or using their phones or making too much noise or any little thing. One time, there were a group of kids gathered around a computer laughing loudly. She starts to march over and asks "what's so funny?" A smart aleck kid replied, honestly, with "dirty jokes."
"Dirty jokes?" she says angrily. Then without breaking stride, she adds " I loooove dirty jokes!"
6. He’ll Never Live This One Down
One of my friends got into a heated verbal argument with his sister in front of about 50 other students. He was so flustered and pissed off that, when he tried to say "I'm gonna kick your freakin' butt," he accidentally said "I'm gonna grab your freakin' butt!" instead. The sister was so embarrassed that she wasn't even mad anymore. Ten years later, we all still bring it up to him. Even his wife laughs about it now.
7. It Just Had to Be Today
My first prom I actually went to was as a junior in high school (around here it's usually just seniors that go), but I rounded up money from all my pals and their dates and we actually got a limo. So we are going out to eat and we make it 75% there and we get hit by someone running a red light. So we missed the reservation time at where we were supposed to eat, didn't get the full time we expected in the limo and got to the prom later than we wanted to.
It was funny afterwards (we were all okay) but it was one of those "it just had to be today" kind of things.
8. Lend a Helping Hand
I got invited to an afterparty by a girl I kinda liked and when she went to introduce me to her friend I went to shake her hand. Except that her hand was bent at the wrist permanently, atrophied, and smaller than the other one. Having not been expecting that, I didn’t react in the most polite way possible. At that point I was committed so I just grabbed a few fingertips and shook gently. Like Janosh in Ghostbusters 2.
And that was that.
9. High Crimes and Misdemeanors
The funniest thing that happened to me in high school was when I received a completely serious and legitimate detention for "Attempted Theft of a Pineapple." That is now on my permanent record forever...
10. A Father With a Sense of Humor
As a Junior at a Catholic high school, I had to take morality class. It was essentially a class that described the church's stances on modern social issues. Well, one day, we were talking about the issue of sexting and Father was describing the characteristics he saw whenever stuff like that was brought to the school's attention.
He told the class that when girls sext, they're usually full body nudes and they're smiling. When boys sext, it's usually just a picture of their junk and nothing else.
The golden moment came when my friend blurted out "You know what they say Father, one man's junk is another man's treasure."
Father was known for being pretty laid back, and he thanked my friend for having the "wittiest comment of the year."
11. Gotcha!
My friends set up two WWE wrestling figurines in the hallway, and we all made a circle around them yelling "GET HIM! FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!" The principal and a few male teachers came sprinting down the hallway to break up the "fight."
The looks on their faces were hilarious when they realized no one was actually fighting. I'm still in tears laughing about it.
12. Form Matters
Two kids were posturing, wanting to fight. Neither had ever been in a fight in school before. One of the kids had clearly never done that chest-bumping thing before that people do to initiate fights. He kept ramming his crotch against the other kid's. It was a rhythmic unintentional grind that went on for about ten seconds until a security guard came and broke it up.
Secretly, I thought I was the only person to notice it. Then, the next day, everybody was making fun of it. I guess it was way more obvious than I thought.
13. Loss of Interest
Well, I wore the same dress for two proms that I went to since they were a week apart and at different schools and we didn't do the limo thing or anything. The first prom he drove and the second and third my parents drove us. The reason my parents drove us the second time was because he got into a car accident the day before and my boyfriend, friends and I weren't willing to cough up $400 dollars for a limo.
We also kind of, I dunno, we just didn't really care all that much about prom and didn't want to pay for parking or anything.
14. Catalyst for Change
The worst prom night I ever saw was when the school would not let two gay guys (a couple) dance on the prom floor. They were crushed—and embarrassed by being physically escorted out of the prom in front of everyone. Parents of straight students and their friends, plus most of the kids at school, protested afterwards so much that the school finally changed its policy.
But it was awful while it lasted—I felt so bad for them.
15. A New Kind of Marching Band
A prankster at my school stripped to his underpants, gave himself a wedgie, taped a party hat over his crotch, and paraded through the halls playing the bagpipes. It was his last day before graduating, but I hear he's banned from the property now. Sad, as it really was the greatest thing I've ever witnessed.
16. It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s...
One day in Sophomore year, a guy in our last class of the day gets a phone call right in the middle of the lecture. He pulled out his phone and said "hold on, I gotta take this," to the look of utter shock on everyone's faces. Then he goes "WHAT? Really!!" He hangs up his phone, stands up, and goes "duty calls!"
Then he rips his shirt off to reveal a full Superman costume underneath, with boots, cape, and everything. He takes off and starts running around in the hall. We saw him run by twice with the school cop chasing after him. He ended up hiding the rest of class in a bathroom. And got a week's suspension.
So. Worth. It.
17. How Do You Say “Yikes” in French?
We had a French teacher we didn’t like. A kid used her kettle as a toilet.
We were amused.
18. Persistence Pays Off or No Means No?
Guy in high school was really into me.
Get to the after party and he kept asking me to make out with him. I cycled between responses of "no", "never," and finally "I am not drunk enough," for most of the night.
Then at some point I was drunk enough…
19. From The Halls of Prom to the Shores of Bars
Senior year with my Marine (dirtbag) then-boyfriend:
I paid for everything including flowers and dinner.
I picked him up from the base 90 minutes away and drove him back.
He wouldn't dance with me even once cause "it felt weird" and he didn't like the music, but got insulted when I danced with my male friends.
He insulted my friends (???).
He went out with his friends afterwards to drink.
Yeah, that was a waste of my life.
20. The VIP Treatment
As a pre-freshman, the summer before beginning ninth grade, I started helping out as a student trainer. I helped all the football guys stretch, ice, tape, etc. I also had to deliver Gatorade. Every football player from freshman to varsity knew me.
School starts, and a senior in one of my classes started giving me the business—calling me waterboy and stupid things like that. Our first pep assembly is held, and as the entire school walks out of the gym, that senior stops me in the main hall, pulls out a penny, and yells to the gathering crowd about how this freshman is about to push a penny. Just as he turns back to face me, the entire varsity defensive line walks up, picks the guy up by his arms, and walks him out the back of the school. Everyone is in shock, as the QB turns to me and says "let me know if someone tries to treat you like a freshman."
I don't know what happened outside. But the guy never said a word to me, and would cross to the other side of the hall if he saw me from that day on.
21. Hay!
A girl started crying while giving a presentation about horses. Turns out she used to have a horse, but it had to be put down. Someone asked if the horse had one of those clever horse track names, and another student blurted out "Shooting Star!"
The entire classroom erupted, and the girl ran out of the room crying. Even the teacher was fighting back giggles while trying to bring order back to the classroom.
22. Let’s Get Crackin’
As a Junior in high school, I would take a few packs of saltine crackers from the cafeteria each lunch and put them in my locker. The plan was to do something spectacular for a Senior prank with all of the crackers. Anyway, my locker doesn't completely shut and can swing open if someone pulls on it. So I was sitting in the hall one day when nobody at all was there. My teacher and his little kids came into the hall and, out of all the lockers, the kid decides to fidget with and pull on mine. The saltines flood out everywhere and my teacher just gets the most confused look on his face. I hid my smile and to this day he has no idea why a locker was full of crackers. It's funny to me at least.
23. Taking One for the Team
A kid accidentally walked directly into the main doors of the high school in the morning, and his enormously dense skull shattered the inch-thick glass. There was blood everywhere, but we were highly impressed.
24. Music to My Immature Ears
Every day back in high school, a friend of mine would suck air up his butt like he had a pair of butt lungs, and then would rip out the loudest and longest farts I've ever heard in the middle of class. It was a sad day when he was eventually expelled from school.
25. The Pizza Plot
My friends and I ordered pizza, against the school rules, and had it delivered to the school. When it arrived, all the teachers were so upset trying to figure out who did such a thing. Meanwhile, me and my friends smuggled it inside and sat down in a private area to eat it. All of a sudden, one of the cool teachers walks up and we’re sure he’s going to bust us for being the culprits. But nope—he just asked if he could have a piece. So we gave him one, he ate it, and moved along. We all shared a laugh and tried to do it again a couple of weeks later.
26. Nip It In the Bud
This is funny now that I think of it, but at the time it happened it was quite embarrassing.
I was put in the cheerleading class by mistake at the beginning of tenth grade. It was glorious at first, because I was the only guy in the middle of 20+ beautiful girls, all in tights, dancing around me. However, I started getting bored just sitting in a corner all class till the bell rang, and so I started playing with my left nipple for some reason without even noticing—till I saw like five of those beautiful girls looking at me and laughing. Then it hit me.
I was holding my nipples with the tips of my fingers.
27. Raining Cats and Desks
Whenever the teacher turned her back, my friend Cory used to pick up entire desks, throw them across the room, sit back down, and have a totally straight face. The teacher was fresh out of college and had no idea what to do.
28. Where Was the Teacher When This Was Going On?
One time in high school, this kid did that thing where you pass yourself out by pushing on the arteries in your neck so that you stop the flow of blood to your brain. He didn't believe someone could pass themselves out. Sure enough though, he fell out of his chair onto the floor and woke up not knowing where in the hell he was for like ten seconds. All of this happened in the middle of class, and it was pretty entertaining—albeit dangerous.
29. Unlocking the Gates of Hell
Some prankster wreaked havoc on the entire school by stealing all the locks to the stalls in the bathrooms. Many shenanigans involving people taking pictures of each other, among other things, soon went down.
30. I Think, Therefore I Am
In the middle of class, a kid once randomly asked my philosophy teacher if he was circumcised.
31. Lost in Translation
We had open lunch in my high school, so we could leave campus by car and go eat at a fast food place if we wanted to. One day, I went to lunch with two friends who were from other countries. Two of us wanted Wendy's and two of us wanted Taco Bell, so we decided to get Wendy's at the drive-through and take that to Taco Bell where we would all eat. We walk into Taco Bell with the Wendy's bags, and the guy behind the counter says "Sorry guys, we can't allow foreign bags in here"...to which I responded, "Hey, don't call my friends bags!"
32. Seeing Red
Wanna hear about some terrible timing?
We had a very "urban" element at my school who would go all out at prom. Red suits with canes and hats, the whole thing. One kid’s mom from that group rented him a Lexus convertible, which he flipped about 30 seconds after leaving prom. Since he wasn't a licensed driver the insurance didn't cover it. They're probably still paying it off.
No costume can save you from that…
33. Promises Made, Promises Broken
A girl and I in grade eight made a promise to one another that we would go together if we didn't find a love interest in the meantime. To make a long story short, she found a guy so I was gonna just go and hang with my buds. They break up or fight and I get a call from my sister saying this girl will call me and I can't say no to her asking me to go again.
Reluctantly I tell her I'd go with her. Then just before the dance part, her and her BF make up and I was left alone, never getting my grad dance. I still see her from time to time as her sister and my sister are besties, but she probably thinks I hate her for another reason.
34. The Long Term Plan
Asked a girl I liked to prom, she said yes. Great. Towards the end of prom, asked her if she would go out with me on a normal date. She said no and left with another guy. Not great.
35. You’re All in Mass-ive Trouble
I went to a Catholic high school. During mass, my friend took the Eucharist and walked back to his seat with it. While we were all quietly praying, he looked over at us with the Eucharist broken in half and made to look like fangs. He let out a very loud "HEEEEEEEENNNNGGG" which made us all laugh uncontrollably.
We all got in trouble, and "Jesus Fangs" was talked about constantly after that.
36. A Comedian Who Laughs At His Own Jokes
First day of Senior year. I had just gotten back from a family vacation and hadn't smoked in two weeks. So I burn down two joints before I go in, apply some eye drops, and am good to go.
Nope. Turned out I was much higher than I thought I was. My friend tells me that I reek like the devil and I start freaking out. So of course, the only logical response is to go to the bathroom and put some liquid soap in my mouth to get rid of the smell. I almost threw up. I was a dumb kid.
37. Blowing Hot Air
Oh boy.
In high school, there was this one kid. Let's call him 'Z'.
Z wasn't a very bright kid, but he provided a lot of entertainment for the rest of us. My favorite moment was when, before the first band concert of sophomore year, he got himself so intoxicated that he broke out giggling during his own trumpet solo on stage in front of the whole school.
38. Vigilante Justice
One of the funniest, most memorable, and most satisfying moments in high school was watching some new kid who was getting bullied for months finally snap and smash the bully’s head through a door window.
The bully got suspended, and the victim just got a detention.
39. When Nature Calls
The funniest moment in my high school career was when a kid pooped on the trampoline. Ya gotta go when ya gotta go!
40. Do My Eyes Deceive Me?
One of my classmates once put a plastic bag loosely over his head and ran out of the classroom shrieking the teacher’s name repeatedly. You could hear him running down the hallway. The teacher had no idea what to do or how to react. She just stood there blankly for a few seconds.
My classmate then came back and sat down like nothing happened. Since none of us showed any reaction, I think she ended up thinking she was hallucinating.
It still makes me laugh to this day when I think about it.
41. Separate School From Your Private Life
A friend of mine in high school got in trouble for pooping into the printer's paper tray, getting intoxicated before finals, bringing drinks to a school-sponsored event on the school campus, and plenty of other stuff as well. The final straw was when he finally got himself expelled for signing up to multiple adult video sites using his school-issued email address.
42. Leaving Her Mark
We had a really weird substitute teacher at my high school. She always seemed like she was on a lot of prescription pills looking back on it.
Well, one day, we had her for math class and she always wrote her name on the board, even though we all knew who she was. That day, she mistakenly wrote her name in sharpie. This meant it wouldn't come off. The janitors did not find it anywhere near as entertaining as my whole class did.
43. An Unhappy Ending
I was one of those pandering nice guys who asked the girl in the wheelchair to prom because oh how noble of me. Anyway, she wanted the full prom experience, including hooking up afterwards, so we were making out and she asked me to pleasure her sexually, to which I replied "would you even feel it?" She burst into tears and made me take her home.
The whole time I'm thinking "there's no way on earth she's gonna be able to explain exactly what happened to her parents" which she wasn't, so now I'm just the guy who took their disabled daughter to prom and brought her home early sobbing.
44. A Slightly Important Detail
Senior prom I took a German exchange student who was pretty attractive, and we got along very well. I had known her for the entire year at this point and she waited until we were walking into prom to tell me "I have a boyfriend so I hope you don't think anything is happening tonight." All I could think to respond with was "I like how you assume that's the only reason I asked you.
But that would've been handy information to have, I don't know, six months ago."
That was our last time speaking.
45. A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
My friends printed and distributed 5,000 photoshopped pictures of my principal holding a huge sex toy. It was amazing.
46. Well That Plan Blew Up Fast
Some kid once bought a real grenade to school in the hopes of trying to sell it. He ended up getting immediately expelled. The rest of us found it hilarious.
47. Thanks for Dropping In
When I was in high school, our band program was new and still very small. Sometimes we'd have chill days (especially after football season ended) where we would just play around in the band hall. One day, some of the boys decided to gang up on our band director (a young, slight, 24-25-year-old man) and try to wrestle him.
This one kid, who was built like a linebacker, snuck up on the director and tried to jump on his back. The director noticed at the last second, grabbed the kid's wrist, and straight up flipped him over his back and slammed him to the floor like a full-on pro-wrestler. He stood up all wide-eyed and half-smiling, not sure if he should be proud of himself or submit his resignation for flipping a student. The landing knocked the wind clean out of the kid. Everyone else thought it was hilarious and applauded. They never messed with him again.
48. Not This Thing Again
Didn't have a girlfriend at the time, so I asked a friend from church if she wanted to go with me. Another friend of mine did similarly. Tried dating the girl I asked, but there was nothing there, so we decided to still go as friends. Fast forward to prom night, and we decide to switch partners for a dance, "just to change it up" (You see where this is going, don't you?).
Fast forward to the next afternoon at church, another friend asks if my date and double-guy are STILL dating. Turns out they were dating the entire time, and didn't want to make anything awkward for me (I appreciate it, but it sure as hell made the conversation about how much I'd like to try dating the girl I went with again on the ride home after dropping them off really awkward).
49. Do I Sense a Tad of Sarcasm in Your Tone?
Took my crush to the prom. She avoided me and ended up sleeping with my best friend. Totally awesome for my self-esteem.
50. The Right Attitude to Go in With
While the first two proms I went to were a lot of fun, the third one was really boring.
My boyfriend at the time had a sore throat, he was also a freshman in college and complained the whole time about how he didn't want to be there and how dumb school dances were.
51. A Message From Above
I went to a Catholic school that had lockers on the second floor. Someone found a hole in the bottom of their locker that went right through the ceiling of the classroom below. He would speak into the hole every now and then, pretending to be God calling out to the class. The acoustics were perfect in that locker. It took the teacher weeks to catch the culprit.
52. Taking Responsibility
I was set up with a girl to take to prom my Junior year. Out of the limited female friends I had at the time, none were available. So, we decide to meet up before the big event just to feel each other out, and I proceed to show up high with two of my guy friends at a pizza place. I don't think I said more than a couple words. In fact, I think my friends got to know her more than I did.
I've come to realize I just can't tolerate weed. My self-esteem plummets, I become way too cerebral and paranoid, and I simply can't function socially at all. Prom wasn't much better. I mean, I think she had formed her opinion on me after that first impression, and I don't blame her. It wasn't terrible or anything, but it certainly didn't lead to anything.
I don't even like those types of parties, can't dance at all, and probably was too aggressive when we did, so I probably wasn't that fun to be around. Conversation was a little better at least, but she didn't stay long at my friend's afterparty.
53. What Else Could Go Wrong?
No date. All my friends went. Was in a cast from tearing up my knee and losing out on scholarships. Worst Senior year ever.
54. One Incident Creates a Reputation That Sticks For Life
I didn't go due to my girlfriend at the time literally canceling on the day of for no reason. She broke up with me the next day.
She never told me why, but my guess is that she was angry or confused as to why I didn't want to have sex with her the previous week. I didn't want to because we had been together for literally all of a month, I had no condom, and while I was legal, she was still underage (her father was and still is a jerk and had he found out, would without a doubt have pressed charges).
You know how much people poke fun at you because you didn't go to prom? It truly sucks. I was made fun of for like two weeks as the literal only guy that didn't go to prom. Some of the guys I know went alone and danced with each other just to break the monotony and throw the teachers off. Apparently they were bumping and grinding on each other like it was a strip club back room, despite being straight and having girlfriends.
But not me, nooooo, I was stuck at home wondering why my girl didn't want to go to the biggest dance in my high school career. I don't even like to dance and I was excited to go to this one. So now every time I go to see friends who get to talking about school days, I'm remembered as the guy that didn't go to prom.
55. Cards Against Humanity
My class had this loud girl who was pregnant and would sit in the back, complaining about being in that form. After a test, I pull out my Yu-Gi-Oh cards and start going through them because I had a match against a friend after class. This girl walked by me and said loudly, "You still play with Yu-Gi-Oh cards?"
I looked her dead in her eyes and calmly replied: "You're pregnant." The whole class lost it and she almost punched me in the face. She tried to come up with a comeback but I was too busy winning my match.
56. Disconnected
We had this math teacher whom the entire class disliked. She would always use the interactive whiteboard to do her lessons. Some activities involved needing to go online to a learning website to demonstrate stuff. The Ethernet port was at the back of the classroom behind my friend, and he would pull it out slightly so that the computer wouldn't connect to the internet whenever she was trying to use it. It drove the teacher mad whilst we were all pissing our sides because we knew what was going on.
57. Public Service Announcement
When one of the seniors found the codes to the school’s phone/intercom system, he played Adam Sandler's "Vice Principal" sketch for the entire school to hear a few minutes before the real announcements would normally start. Watching my geometry teacher's reaction and subsequent attempts to cover up the speaker was pure gold.
58. A Forgotten Favor
Oh, I have a glorious one. My junior year, I had glasses, braces, and acne, and so I was not too popular with the ladies. My friend who was a senior was dating a junior girl who was quite attractive, but did not want to go to prom without her friend. Her friend was a larger red headed girl who was not attractive at all. He asked me as a favor to take the large red headed girl to prom, so I could go with him and his girlfriend would go.
Now, I really had no desire to go to prom, but he was a good friend, so I decided to do it purely as a favor to him. Flash forward to about four weeks before prom. My friend and his girlfriend break up because he was cheating on her with a freshman girl. Now, I am stuck going to prom with a girl I don't like, and her friend is now the dateless one. Awkwardness ensues.
On the plus side though, the girl that I took to prom was loaded, and her dad was like a major CEO or something, so we had a free limo to prom. She was a very nice girl, but really, I was not attracted to her physically at all and I just wanted high school to be over, to not date anyone (I got nicer looking my senior year when puberty finished, not like omg gorgeous, but not the hideous dungeon troll that I was before either).
My "friend" went off to college, didn't really see him again too much after that. Ran into him once in our hometown when he was like 21 and I was 20. He was with a girl who looked about 15. Awkwardness ensued.
59. It’s Amazing That You Are Still Friends With Her After That
My date asked me to prom (I'm a guy, but I didn't really plan on going in the first place). We get to prom, she wouldn't dance with me because she "didn't dance," then has the nerve to ask me to take her to a town an hour or so north so she could show her prom dress to this creepy dude who was about seven years older than us, who had a reputation for just banging a lot of underaged chicks.
So I took her to a girl I had been sort of dating at the time’s house, talked with her for two hours, took her to said creepy dude’s house for 15 minutes, and finally dropped her off at home. Worst prom experience ever. I forgave her though, we are still friends today.
60. Your Prom Photos Will Remind You Of This Forever
My friend's date spilled gravy down the front of my dress at supper before prom. It was a pale yellow dress. It showed terribly. The waitress helped me try to get as much off as possible with club soda while I tried not to cry.
61. A Hair-Raising Scheme
This one is only funny because it's so ridiculous, but these two trashy girls at my high school got into a fight. One of them pulled huge chunks of hair out of the other's head as they were going at it. Let's call the girl that lost Sarah. The girl that won made posters saying "Got hair? Sarah doesn't." She taped strands of Sarah’s hair on the posters and posted them all around the school. "Sarah" was a huge bully though, so everyone just thought it was hilarious.
62. Snatching Defeat From the Jaws of Victory
At the end of the year, we had a special assembly where the school gave out prizes for "merits" collected during the year. It was raffle style, and “that kid” won a then-current generation iPod. He ran down, shook the hand of every teacher, and then proceeded to celebrate by doing a striptease in front of the whole school. He was well liked and we cheered him on until he was handed his shirt and escorted back to his seat.
63. A Painful Loophole
I went to a fairly conservative Catholic school. One of the rules was no visible piercings (aside from a small piercing in each ear, with rules about appropriate types of earrings).
There was this one girl who was a constant prankster and delightful deviant—one of those never in class, always wandering around the halls types. She decided the best way to circumnavigate the "no visible piercings" rule was to get her nipples pierced.
The day after she got them pierced, we had this assembly where we were welcoming about twenty priests from all over the world for a conference. For some unfathomable reason, that girl was chosen for the welcoming committee.
She had to stand at the door for over an hour and hug these men as they came in, while smiling and hiding the pain of freshly pierced nipples. Every time she got a hug, she winced—and the girls who knew about it just lost it.
64. Staying in Familiar Territory
The popular kids I knew in high school ended up being teachers, mainly. Good ones as well, from what I understand. Turns out being popular and really enjoying school makes you want to go back there.
65. Appearances Can Be Deceiving
These two jocks at my school were really "popular" but didn't actually have many friends other than each other. The administration loved them but all the students except a couple other football players hated their guts. They used to beat up my little brother until one of them got expelled and then moved.
After he left the guy who stayed killed himself, and then it came out that they had been secretly dating each other since junior high.
The guy who moved recently friended me on Facebook and he seems all right.
66. There are Pros and Cons to Every Life Decision
All—literally all—of my ex-classmates are parents or work in retail/fast food now. We are 26. No one has any big career ambitions. The populars had babies together and the rest are scrambling at their casual jobs.
It was a small city. I left for a big city and I work in medicine.
To be honest, I'm jealous of them. They have friends, family and children. I'm alone.
67. Judging By What Really Matters
A perfectly successful rich kid I went to HS with turned out to be a perfectly successful rich adult. It's all good, I don't measure myself by how the popular kids turned out. Best of luck to them. I wasn't so popular but I turned out fine.
68. Some Have Moved On
I have no clue what happened to anyone I went to school with. After I walked at graduation, I kept walking.
69. Precious Memories
Besides our wannabe Eminem limo driver getting lost and the homeless high-as-heck guy trying to break into the limo, I think the highlight was when my dress ripped when my date closed the door on it. Yay prom 2014!!!!!
70. Love Triangle
Had a huge crush on one of my friends who asked me to take her with less than a week to go before prom. Holy moly! My best friend at the time had also invited me to their pre-prom dinner. So excited. Turns out my best friend had been dating this girl for a couple months without making it public, and I hadn't told him who I was taking.
Needless to say we were all pretty shocked and in very different moods after everything came out. The girl I had been crushing on for some time was using me to make my best friend jealous. She wouldn't even dance with me at prom—ended up pawning me off to her dateless friend. In her failed attempt to win my friend back on prom night she feigned illness and had me drive her home before the post-prom party.
My buddy was pretty upset because he obviously didn't want this girl around, but since nobody knew they had been dating he didn't blame me. Overall it was a pretty awkward night.
71. Training in the Field
Stayed up all night with my classmates getting drunk and stoned in a field, then went to my induction day at a supermarket.
It wasn't actually that bad, I got paid for the induction and just had to sit and watch training DVDs while trying not to fall asleep.
72. You Can Really Never Tell
The captain of the football team is the groundskeeper at the hospital.
The really popular cheerleader went to college, got pregnant in her first semester and had to balance having a kid and college, she eventually worked it out and became a better person because of it and now she is now a counselor for the town council.
73. No Consistent Correlation
One got a modeling gig and seems to travel a lot. Another became a doctor. Quite a few never left the small town we grew up in. Some married their high-school SO's, and others are still living with their parents.
What I've learned is that high school popularity doesn't necessarily equate to success in adult life.
74. A Turn for the Worse
On the sex offender registry. Lmao the jerk had it coming.
75. Some Are the Real Deal
Our student body president was a really good guy. My most vivid memory was him dancing with a special needs girl with a crush on him during prom for the last dance and two or three other times.
Reconnected with him recently, and told him how cool I thought that was. He said, "Stacy? Yeah, we still talk every week and I visit her as often as I can." He's a very successful lawyer, super hot, and looks like he met the man of his dreams.
76. Falling Off the Grid
They've all done fairly well, except for that one guy. Most of the popular kids were popular for a reason: they had social skills. They're all successful years later. That one guy was popular for being mean...and no one has heard from him (maybe he's doing well). Maybe not. I dunno. But, given my sample, like, 11 out of 12 popular kids remain popular/successful in life.
77. Sounds Like a Disaster Area
I am 50 yrs old. My high-school was literally like Fast Times At Ridgemont High; so much drugs and skipping school and pregnancies and buying grades and coaches bonking students and female teachers sleeping with football players and the principal got TWO students pregnant.
I have never attended a class reunion. I have zero interest. Some think I am snobby. Excuse me for wanting to stay-the-F-away. I don't care that we all grew up. Everything we have in common is awful.
And since I'm never at the reunions you have someone to gossip about!
78. Noticing a Trend?
This entire thread is just a measure of how messed up your school or town is. Good school in a city? Popular kids are successful well adjusted family people. Lousy school in a lousy small town nowheresville? Barbie the cheerleader is now a crack addict and Daryl the quarterback mows lawns.
79. Social Media Versus Reality
One of the dumbest Barbie dolls at my high school has "interior designer" down as her job on Facebook.
She actually works retail at a paint shop.
The most popular girl at my high school has her job down as "child and youth support officer." Considering she left school having failed most classes, couldn't get into a single college, and was last seen two years ago working at an ice cream shop I find that very hard to believe.
I think this is the case for most. According to my Facebook I'm an extreme sports fanatic who builds computers in my spare time. Really, I spend most of my free time in World Of Warcraft. I am shockingly lame.
80. People Are Complicated, People!
A friend of mine was a total jock and a football star. He was pretty darn cool and I felt lucky he sat with me (I was friends with two girls) in art class (my only non-academic class).
Anyways, he was actually a pretty cool guy and we both drove mustangs, so kind of "bonded" with that. He dropped off the face of the earth after HS, I graduated, finished college, and moved abroad.
Anyways, found out that he got his gf pregnant right after HS, didn't finish college, had two kids, got his act together, went back to school, and he is doing great. Not all "popular" kids are jerks and I'm glad you're doing alright Fidel.
81. Positive Influences Can Lead to Positive Results
Many of them are doing very well, but many of the popular kids weren't jerks. Some of them are starting families, others are done with college and moving on. Unfortunately some others have died, and some have turned to drugs. So is life.
I came from a really nice, class A school. And this is coming from someone who was on the bottom of the food chain. No one liked me haha. But generally many of the popular kids were popular because of how well they did in school, and how active in the community they were, and not how much they partied. So even if no one was a fan of me, I still look back on them quite fondly and I'm happy to see they are doing well.
82. Evening the Score Years Later
The kids I knew in high school ar mostly doing ok. Most of them still live in my small town, are married to kids we went to high school with, and hang out at the same corner bars our parents went to. I ran into a few over the holidays and they were nice enough but it was definitely a "the cycle repeats itself" kinda thing with their parents. I'm glad I got out.
Though I do have one fun story about my run-in with them: my junior year a rumor went around that I was a lesbian because I played Rugby. Literally, that was the only reason. It sucked for a while, mostly because I couldn't find a boy to give me the time of day after that whole thing.
I ran into a bunch of the guys from school over winter holidays and all of them were shocked I was engaged to a dude, except for one guy. He sheepishly admitted he was the reason everyone thought I was into girls, because he found out one of his friends had a crush on me and thought if he started that rumor when his buddy made a move it would give him a better shot, like I'd say yes to anyone willing to have me. Instead the friend thought I was a lesbian and refused to make a move, and I got called p**** puncher constantly for the next two years. I made him buy me a beer to make up for that.
83. My How The Tables Have Turned
Went to a very small school (about 20 kids per grade). Popular kids dropped out of college, developed drug and alcohol addictions, or had a bunch of kids and are currently unemployed. Some got fat. One is dead. One was a suspect in a murder case.
I've noticed some of the nerdy kids got better looking and are doing well in life though.
84. You Really Never Know What Goes On Behind Closed Doors
I was bullied really, really bad in high school. When I was given the option to nope out my junior year to take college-level classes at our local branch of University, I never looked back. I'm not in contact with anyone from high school, besides following a few of my former classmates on FB. Two interesting stories:
One of the girls who bullied me the most—popular girl spreads rumors that geeky Harry Potter fan is into witchcraft—reached out a few years ago on FB and apologized. She seemed really sincere, and has contacted me a few times about hanging out. I thought she did it as part of a 12 Steps program or something, but apparently she had become a Yogi and was on a higher plane of existence. I guess.
Another girl, who pretended to be nice to your face but was just an uber jerk behind your back? We ended up in the psych ward together last year. It's a relatively small town, so they had people with addiction problems and people with other psychiatric disorders grouped together. I was in there for a suicide attempt, she was there for heroin addiction. She spent a lot of her time asking others how best to shoot up when she got out.
I don't know, man. It's so weird when you have such a clear picture of who people are, and you find out they're not who you thought they were after all. Bamboozled again?
EnergyFIT Mixed Martial Arts & Fitness
85. It Was Clearly Past Your Bedtime
After an insanely boring prom, my girlfriend (who is now my wife) and I sneak off to a backwoods riverside park under a bridge and go at it like normal hormone filled teenagers. After a couple of rounds of that, we leave so I can take her back home. On the drive back to my house I am just exhausted.
I end up falling asleep going about 60 mph. Luckily its 3 am and I'm on a empty road that is at the base of an airport runway. I am driving my moms SUV and I drift off the road, down into the drainage ditch, up the steep embankment towards the fence for the runway. The Durango turns just before hitting the fence and screams back down to the drainage ditch and launches airborne flying across the road.
This brings me back to consciousness with like 50,000 volts straight to the heart, so I slam the brakes and the SUV comes to a stop. I get out to assess the damage and somehow there isn't a scratch on the vehicle. I look around and realize I split the difference between a telephone pole and a steel light pole by inches. Then I turned around and my heart nearly stopped.
I had flown across the street and screeched to a halt just inches away from plowing into a row of brand new corvettes. By some miracle they left the gate open and I managed to stop right before doing my best impression of a monster truck. I drive home with the biggest adrenaline rush I have ever experienced in my life, stop to say thanks to the Virgin Mary statue out front of the house and whatever guardian angel had my back that night, and crash out still in my suit. Crazy night.
86. Third Wheel to the Rescue
After prom, we went to a friend's house to hangout. It was him, his girlfriend (my BFF at the time), and me. I slept on the couch while they did their thing. At around 6 am, they came running down to get me for help.
I guess they were so drunk that they intentionally sexually and/or jokingly peed all over each other and the bed, and were trying to use bug spray to clean. It was the epitome of a hot mess.
87. You’ve Got to Put the Work In To Get the Right Results
One super rich kid I went to school with never studied b/c his father would make donations to the school, invite some teachers to a fancy restaurant, then he would never have to repeat any year. His family made most of its wealth on furniture. Ikea, the bad economy and the internet has destroyed their business model and they went bankrupt.
This is how he is now. Young parent with no friends, no career.
88. Karma Hurts, Doesn’t It?
Popular kids in HS made me feel insecure about my weight and all. Now, they still live in the same old town, just another nobody. I am now working abroad and earning close to six figures at age 28. I turned out pretty well. Bottom line: being popular in HS isn’t a good barometer of success as an adult.
89. A World of Extremes
I don't really keep up with many people to be honest. The ones I've added on Facebook have mainly either fallen into the "wildly successful" group or the "hot mess" group.
The first group includes a Broadway actress, a reporter, a few lawyers, and a CFO.
The second group included jail time, arrests, divorce, custody fights, and one porn star.
I don't think being popular or not popular really helped anyone in life, long term. I think how hard a worker and how privileged they were had a bigger impact.
90. Mixed Feelings About A Mixed Bag
I don't really know for most of them, social media wasn't much of a thing at the time I was in high school, so at most I had a few on Myspace. And I didn't bother to hunt them down on Facebook.
But I went to my reunion and I found out an abnormally high amount of people from my graduating class died a year or two after high school. A few of them were popular kids. A few others I met had pretty normal lives, nothing super successful or amazing. One popular girl was in one of my rival firms, haha (I still hate her guts to this day and finding that out didn't help). One popular guy claimed to be a part of a baseball team, but I don't know how true that was, or how big the team he's on even is.
91. Is This the Ending of a 1970s Movie?
The starting quarterback now sells women's shoes. That weird kid with the mustache and afro somehow became a paleontologist. Fat guy with a heart of gold has an amusing cast for a family and owns a motorcycle shop. That prissy brat who pissed in everyone's cheerios is now a stand-up comedian. I don't know what happened to any of the girls, for some reason.
92. Taxation Without Representation
My high school class president staffed the student government with a clique of his friends. I wouldn’t really call them the “popular” crowd, but they were close enough and were cozy with social circles that didn’t want much to do with me and mine.
For graduation, they were tasked by the principal with making a slideshow of high school memories to play for the parents. They had weeks to do this according to my teacher who supervised the student government, but they neglected to tell anyone else in the school that they were collecting pictures for the slideshow until 36 hours before graduation.
No one had time to contribute, so the “graduation slideshow” that got shown to all the parents and grandparents of a class of 400 students consisted of 20 minutes of photos of the class president and his best friends at school events and going to bars in the city underaged. There were literally ten people represented in the entire photo collection.
So yeah, now the class reunion is coming up and I’m about 80% sure it will be the same thing.
93. No Filter
My mom walked into her reunion and was saying hi to a few of the women when one of them dragged their husband over. In a very loud voice, she said: "You remember this woman, her brother was the one that fired you last month!"
My mom ended up avoiding them the rest of the night.
94. A Cynical Picture of The Way Things Work
About five died from various things. One suicide, two died from colon cancer which I hear was from supplements they took for working out. Another was murdered and the other I can think of died when he was hit by a semi. Mostly they are failures unless their parents had power or pull. One girl I went to school with was the daughter of a provincial leader and she was a real "dirt bag," still got a good city job because of daddy.
I am amazed at how I never see people I went to school with though.
95. Stay Away From Drugs and Alcohol
I cut ties with everyone I went to school with the second I left and I've never looked back.
However, I did see not so long ago in the newspaper that the star athlete (who was a major jerk btw) went to prison after police raided his home and found huge quantities of cocaine under his floorboards.
Also, the popular chick at school who everyone loved and lusted over (also a bit of a jerk if you ask me) is now morbidly obese with three illegitimate kids and, I hear, has a drinking problem. I can't help but smile a bit when I see her around town. It's amazing how life plays out.
96. Cleaning Up This Matter
The super popular generic football quarterback that had a decent GPA is now 26 and is now a janitor.
97. Gone On to Bigger and Better Things
Graduated in '08. I only know that two former popular girls became Instagram famous with millions of followers. And I only know that because I stumbled across them.
98. Let’s All Hold Hands and Sing Kumbaya
"Popular kids" at my school is a term that most of us didn't really use. I lived on a military base. The burnouts, Christians, jocks, nerds, and freaks all co-mingled. I would say that the prom king and queen turned out great. One is a social worker and the other is an out-shoreman on a rig.
99. What a Difference 50 Years Makes
Graduated in 1962, never went to any of the reunions. Didn't even know about them until the 50th, in 2012. I had been in odd places in the world, though. Encountered a classmate 50 years later; he gave me the roster. Most of the people who went had never left the small farm town.
Of the people who could be tracked, over half the males were dead. Vietnam, drugs, AIDS, and all the random other usual culprits. I was nobody in high school, but I still seem to be on the green side of the dirt.
100. Umm, Surprise?
I play in a band. We got booked by a restaurant to play "for some class reunion." I show up to set up for the gig & it's my freaking class. I wasn't even invited.
101. First Person Account of a Huge Downfall
I was popular.
Varsity cheerleader, always slept around with older guys and went out drinking every week. The summer after graduation I dated a guy from my job (breakfast hostess at a hotel, he was a bartender) that winter I got pregnant. We moved in. A few weeks after our son was born he started smoking pot and beating the crap out of me. I got pregnant again but that didn't stop him.
Last October I finally left after he hurt our son for the first time. Now I live with my parents, with my one and two year old kids and I'm 50 lbs heavier than when I graduated. Some days are good, other days are bad. I live in a small town (population about 6,000) and most people know about my story. I know it's used as a "how the mighty have fallen" tale, but no one deserves this.
102. Life Can Change Forever in an Instant
Well, most of the people I knew in high schoool turned out well enough, there was one guy that didn't. He was the "hot guy" of the class. Girls loved him because he was gorgeous...blah blah blah... Anyhow, he wound up having a kid and eventually came out as being gay. Apparently he broadcast it to the wrong person. An old man came on to him, and tried to have his way with him. He strangled the old man to death, discarded his body in a ravine, and was later arrested for it. From what I understand, the old man came on to him forcefully on a back road. He's now doing time for the murder. I actually got along really well with the guy. It's unfortunate that this happened to him, especially considering he has a daughter. Funny how life can change in a short amount of time. I know he's technically a murderer, but I wish him all the best.
103. Brent, Brent, Brent
Well, damn. I usually don't really tell this story, but I don't really talk to the parties involved anymore, so here goes:
Senior year, people had begun to make prom plans after fall break. I had hatched a brilliantly intricate plan to ask a girl I was close to, which consisted solely of me awkwardly asking "Hey, do you want to go to prom with me?" So I came into first period and approached her. To my extreme surprise, she turned to me out of the blue and said "Hey buddy, let's talk prom." I was stunned.
She followed up with so, [other female friend], [male friend], and I wanted to go in a group and wondered if you wanted to get in on this. Obviously, my answer was "yes". So, our group was made, and it was decided that I would drive my grandfather's 1965 Ford Galaxie 500 convertible.
Fast forward to the week before prom. She asked me if it was alright if this other guy, Brent, joined our group. Brent was an alright sort of guy, and I knew he had just been turned down by another girl. So I said yeah, alright. By this time, it had been explicitly stated that the males of the group were not to invest in corsages or bouquets.
Prom day rolls around. The car is ready, I've got a snazzy suit, my hair and beard have been neatly trimmed (so as to not look like such a hippie radical), and everything is in order. Everyone shows up at my house for photographs. Who shows up with a bouquet for the girl I thought was my date? Brent. Who insults my grandmother? Brent. When we leave, who takes the back seat with the girl? Brent.
So, we get to prom. It's in downtown Indianapolis, at the zoo at the "Dolphin Pavilion." So, we're there a little early, I'm showing off the car, messing around with some of my buddies, and just waiting around. Brent and the girl are growing noticeably closer, but I'm not worried (hindsight is 20/20). The doors open, we go in, and the festivities begin.
It didn't go so bad for a while. She and I slow danced for quite a while, and then she excused herself. Fine with me, I understood. I went, got a drink, went to the restroom, and came out to the dance floor. Who was passionately locked in a grinding slow dance with her? Brent. At this point, I naively decided to wait it out, and politely cut in. I gave it three or four songs, and went back out. They ignored me. So, I did the only logical thing: I went back to our table, removed my tie and suit jacket, and lay down on the floor.
It was a lost cause at this point. So, prom ended at 11:00, and we all went to post-prom. Guess who both took the back bench seat and were mostly silent the whole ride? It doesn't even need answering at this point.
Post-prom was held at a two story mini-golf arcade place. Those two ended up in a dark corner together for four hours. I lost $700.00 worth of money (virtual, but still substantial) at the blackjack tables, drank eight cups of coffee, and sat alone and depressed in an easy chair.
But the story doesn't end there, oh no. Two hours in, Brent comes up to me and asks for my car keys so he can put something he won in a raffle in the trunk. I go out with him. In the parking lot, I say "Hey man, are you and her a thing now?" "Oh yeah," he says "Sorry about that." I went from dejected to ready to kill. "You knew! You knew she was supposed to be my date!?" "Yeah, I did. But don't worry, I'm sure you'll find another girl like her in college." I walked away. I went back to my chair, and resisted the urges to cry and start a fight.
Sorry about the wall of text and incoherent ramblings. I'm a freshman in college now, and I no longer see her or Brent, and she no longer talks to me at all (but that's another story). It doesn't really matter now, but I can't help but think that things could have been different.
So although I had a date with the person I had wanted all along, some guy just had to get turned down, muscle his way into our group, run off with my date, be a jerk to me, and essentially turn me into their chauffeur for the rest of the night.
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