25 People Share What Happened To Their High School “Losers”

Not everyone is lucky enough to be popular in school or be brainy enough to get high marks on their exams. Unfortunately, a place of education is home to an eclectic mix of students from various backgrounds and upbringings. While some people excel in school, others are marked as ‘losers’ in high school. 

#1 I was a loser in high school. Stinky clothes, wore plastic grocery bags on my feet under my shoes when it rained, sometimes went to school barefoot. Pretty hungry a lot. Slept in a church youth room I had gotten a key for and would sneak in after hours. Some people were cruel to me, but I was pretty naive about it, so it didn’t stick and I don’t have any hard feelings about it.

Image source: Floopydoopypoopy, Oladimeji Ajegbile / pexels (not the actual photo)

There were some really nice people, too.

I was in a band, but that failed after 9 or 10 years. Failed my marriage after about 5 or 6 years. I pursued a dream of opening up my own music lessons and recording studio, but that failed too after about 8 years. Pretty spectacular failures, too. Very humbling. Back to square-one style, destitute, stealing food from the grocery store level failure.

So these days, I’ve been doing ok. I’ve worked with special needs kids for the last 10 years. Got my braille certificate, got a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, working on my masters in EdTech right now. Literally doing what most people are doing in their 20s, 20 years too late. Better late than never, I guess.

#2 He has an Emmy.

Image source: SousVideButt, De’von wellesley / unsplash (not the actual photo)

He was made fun of by everyone, including me, for being incredibly passionate about photography and film and having the humongous balls it takes to continue putting his stuff out there.

He’s far and away the most successful person from my class, and gets to do what he loves everyday. I’m super happy for him.

Edit: The Emmy was for his work on a News production. He’s not famous. Lol.

#3 This kid in my high school was by far the smallest and skinniest. Hung out with us nerds (before being nerds was cool), but otherwise kept to himself. Was very quiet and hid in giant hoodies and generally tried to disappear.

After high school, he joined the Army. Got ripped. Became a drill sergeant, and later, attack helicopter pilot. Married a gorgeous Hooters girl. She just got her M.D.

Wish I could have been a loser like that kid.

Image source: md9918

#4 It’s me, poor kid… “cootie kid”… all that s**t

Beautiful wife and kids , successful business, never looked back.

Image source: fattymccheese

#5 It’s me. Everyone else from my class went on to get a professional career and family.

Image source: Amalthea_The_Unicorn, Tima Miroshnichenko / pexels (not the actual photo)

Meanwhile, I got cancer, had a stroke, my disability payments got wrongfully stopped and I’m going through an appeal right now. So all my old school friends are living it up in nice houses with their families with hope for the future, while I’m starving, in danger of losing the roof over my head, sick and suffering side effects from my meds, all alone, and with nothing to look forward to. So yeah I was considered a loser in school because I liked rock music while the other kids liked r&b and Boyzone. Now I’m a loser in real life, as multiple people have delighted in telling me. I don’t even join my old school’s Facebook page because I’m too embarrassed to let them see how my life has turned out.

#6 She’s a published author of multiple books and crushing it in the explicit romance genre. She used to let me read stuff she wrote in a deeply boring class we were required to take and shared a two-person table in, and it’s the only thing that got me through. She was really talented.

Image source: TheNightWitch, Los Muertos Crew/ pexels (not the actual photo)

I’d have never said she was a loser though. Just a very earnest girl in a larger body whose social development skills hadn’t really kicked in yet. But she was smart and sweet and gentle. I asked her to come sit with my friends at lunch a lot but she’d never come over. Just ate alone every day, scribbling in notebooks. I’m really glad she found her path to happiness and success. Romance books aren’t my thing, but I preorder every one of her books as a show of support.

#7 He joined the Air Force at the same time I joined the Navy. Thirty three years later he retired a two star general.

Image source: Emergency_Brief_9280, Pixabay / pexels (not the actual photo)

#8 Dudes an aeronautical engineer now, we recently talked online and talked about where we are both now. Bro hit me with the “time flies” quote, genuinely happy for him.

Image source: carnagereddit, astakhovyaroslav / envato (not the actual photo)

#9 Define loser in high school.  The fat socially awkward guy? Oh he’s rich, married with 4 kids in a good career. The guy with the lowest grades, he’s bouncing in and out of prison. The guy who was doing hard d***s in high school? He’s dead.

Image source: RejectorPharm, Nataliya Vaitkevich / pexels (not the actual photo)

#10 Living in a van down by the river.

Image source: Kicker774, KoolShooters / pexels (not the actual photo)

#11 If by “loser”, you mean the malnourished, abused and neglected kid wearing dirty, torn clothes? That was me. I ran away from home and went to my grandparents. I was an outsider at my new school but made friends and graduated with a 3.6 GPA, then joined the military. Now I’m a 61 year old combat veteran and partially disabled. But life is great now. I have a wonderful, loving girlfriend and 5 cats who genuinely adore us.

Life balances out.

Image source: bathoryduck

#12 I’m actually really proud of him and I always knew he had great potential. The typical high school “loser” with a trench coat he literally got out from a dumpster would be bullied daily. Today he is a professional special effects artist for costumes and sets.

Image source: Blackety, LightFieldStudios / envato (not the actual photo)

#13 One owns his own tattoo shop, doing alright. Another who was a massive stoner ended up being really great at selling cars and is quite wealthy.

Image source: PickpocketJones, cottonbro studio / pexels (not the actual photo)

#14 I’m an RN who would save my bullies’ lives and then show them the old picture of me in our yearbook.

Image source: NurseWretched1964

#15 I was pretty much a loser at school, only had a couple friends, terrible grades, pretty much spent my time f*****g around and gaming whilst being socially awkward.

For all intents and purposes that guy is dead now, moved country to where no one knew me, changed my whole personality, got into uni as a mature student, hit the gym, started taking care in my appearance, made a load of friends and have a great girlfriend.

Even if I accidentally ran into anyone from back then I doubt they would even recognise me anymore.

Image source: IvarTheBloody

#16 After taking a 20 year detour with a lot of d***s, psych wards, rehab and a bunch of dysfunctional relationships… now have my dream job in the medical field

Image source: lsdandcrack, Jonathan Borba / pexels (not the actual photo)

High school can really f**k someone up lol

Took me years and years to get a good sense of self and become confident after being the “loser”.

#17 He runs a successful dental surgery clinic and has 2 sons in the NHL.

Image source: WTP07, Anna Shvets / pexels (not the actual photo)

#18 I went to school with this kid who lived with his single dad- dirt poor, greasy hair, socially awkward…I think most people would have classified him as a “loser”. He’s now a multimillionaire bitcoin tech guy. I’m so happy for him and it makes me smile to know he’s doing so well.

Image source: cadeycaterpillar

#19 In federal prison for blowing up those blue postal boxes with pipe bombs. Genius could have blown up trash cans and since no one got hurt, it would have been a misdemeanor. But tampering with the mail is a *federal offense.* and each individual letter destroyed is a *separate count.*

*And*, he got caught by leaving an unfinished pipe bomb in the back of his friend’s dad’s car. And this friend’s dad was the *Fire Marshall,* and had been consulting on the case. ?‍♂️??.

Image source: CSWorldChamp

#20 Everyone is going to say that they were the loser but I actually was. By the time junior year rolled around I had no friends, I spent my lunchbreaks walking around aimlessly or eating my lunch in a bathroom stall. I blended into the background (on purpose) unless someone decided I was an easy target to publicly mock or to make up school shooter jokes. My clothes all had holes in them because we were poor and lived in a trailer, I had severe acne as well and nothing over the counter worked. If I accidentally made eye contact with a girl I would get laughed at and be on the receiving end of “that look.” I had terrible grades and failed 10th grade so the other kids made fun of me for being stupid on top of my looks, etc. My teachers openly disliked me, especially the female ones. From what I can gather pretty much everyone in my life back then just expected me to kill myself.

I am now a mechanical engineer making far more than the household average for the area I live in. I own multiple sportscars and motorcycles, I have traveled overseas for recreation and am in extremely good physical condition. I have gotten cosmetic surgeries and turn girls down that approach. Things are far from ideal but I feel like I’ve clawed up from a pretty precarious situation. The thing is I still don’t forgive anyone from back then.

Image source: virga944

#21 It’s me. I’m the loser. Married 26 years, 2 awesome kids, own house and God willing in five years, collecting a pension. If I could just go back to kid me and tell her school isn’t real life and it was going to be ok.

Image source: MacabreMori113, August de Richelieu / pexels (not the actual photo)

#22 I’m an operations manager for a unicorn startup in New York City. The girls who bullied me are still in our podunk town.

Image source: ManhattanMaven, Andrea Piacquadio / pexels (not the actual photo)

#23 There was a kid in our class who would cry every time he was asked to read out loud or say something in front of the class. It was always very painful to watch, and some kids would make fun of him. He also would frequently eat his own boogers, when he thought no one was watching. He moved away after 6th grade (1978) and I never saw him again. I looked him up recently on LinkedIn and it turns out he got a PhD in Computer Science from Stanford and made a fortune on patents he got with Silicon Graphics (SGI). He didn’t reply to my LinkedIn invite.

Image source: ksandbergfl, Dennis van Zuijlekom / flickr (not the actual photo)

#24 Well the school mascot is in charge of a navy submarine in the Atlantic. When people were freaking out about the Russian Sub all I could think is… The start of WW3 might be down to Tony who wore the banana suit during spirit week…

The trenchcoat kid… Who was actually super nice.. has a business 3D printing sex toys.

And me? I’m in manufacturing in Cleveland ?.

Image source: Conscious_Camel4830

#25 He went to a good university, got two degrees, and lives at home with his parents. He is broke and can hardly muster the energy to pull himself out of bed every day. He has no friends and a dwindling support system, and his mental health is dangling by a thread.

Dear reader, he is me.

Image source: OwMyCandle