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30 Former Students Who Grew Up To Become Not Who Their Teachers Expected Them To, As Shared In This Online Group
Being a human inevitably means being bound to evolve, grow and change, especially throughout the years of being a kid and a teenager. However, despite how natural it is for humans to change their ways, some transformations can be so drastic and unexpected that they end up surprising everyone around.
Around a month ago, the user u/hogw33d invited the teachers of the AskReddit community to share stories about students who completely surprised them with who they became as adults. "Long-time elementary school teachers, which of your former students surprised you the most by their adult life outcomes or personality?" they wrote in their post. The question received around 3k interesting stories and the thread itself currently has over 35K upvotes. Bored Panda has compiled a list of some of the best tales we managed to find, so here you go!
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There was a kid in my high school class who had severe dyslexia and acalculia, and although he clearly had a sharp mind when you spoke to him, it wasn't clear he was going to go far. His main interest back in school was blowing sh*t up and building bombs, and he went off to mining school so that he could work with explosives.
He got his PhD before I got my bachelor's, for building a robot that goes down mines and uses lasers to make a 3d map of the mine, doing a week's work for a surveying team in a couple hours (and without putting human lives at risk).
He's charming, his wife and kids are charming, and he builds robots with fricken lasers on them. Not bad for the kid couldn't read and only cared about blowing sh*t up
I teach English as a second language and I had a kid who spoke Arabic who barely could master English in the beginning (to be expected of course). Well 8 years later he’s on his way to being an astrophysicist. He came to school to find me to tell me last year and I’ve never had a prouder moment teaching. He told me I was the only one who believed in him.
I had a student that used to get into fights and was extremely aggressive and violent towards others, on the last day of fifth grade his last words to me and his class were "fu*k you!" -- many years later he came back to the school I'd been teaching at and looked for me so he could give me a big hug and apologize. In his words, "I was garbage when I was here, thank you for putting up with me and I'm sorry".
I cried like a baby - I was so proud of him.
I started in elementary school. One of my first students I had when she was In 3rd grade. Her father was abusive when she was younger and mom left him and was raising her on her own, but her mom was also heavily involved in gangs. She was very behind compared to the rest of the kids, but she was always very helpful to the other children, me, and the staff. I had a soft spot for her and she ended up being one of my favorites. Teachers will often say they don't have favorites, but that's a lie. A couple years later I was moved to 5th grade and I had her again, she was struggling a lot by this time, but still, I never gave up on her, and she never gave up either. Later, when she was in 8th grade, I was moved to middle school, and once again, I had her again. By this time her mom's lifestyle had had an influence. She always wore red, threw up gang signs, and used to get into a lot of fights at school. One thing that was different was she had caught up academically with the rest of her peers, and actually even surpassed many of them. She used to come by after school and started seeing me as a mentor, and we had a connection, as I too was heavily involved with gangs in my teens and early 20s. When she moved on to high school, she kept in touch, her high school was across the street and she used to come by after school all the time to check in. She eventually got involved in student body, became the senior class president, and was on the honor roll all 4 years. She got accepted into all 8 colleges she applied for. She is currently on a full ride scholarship at Stanford University and plans to continue with graduate school. She is very involved with the community too. She is currently 20 and a waitress but is planning on doing big things, and I know she will. I'm so proud of her.
Kindergarten teacher called my sister a loser that won’t amount to anything in life. So far, she’s done a tour in Afghanistan, wife, EMT and now is in the SWAT team... I think she amounted to some pretty bada** stuff
The student whose social skills were non existent and whose academics were equally as troubling is in college taking nuclear physics. I swear he was easily like 3 grades behind when I knew him in primary/junior grades (Canada).
Not me but know a guy, lovely quiet chap who lived to draw. Teacher said his work was no good. Went on to be a senior effects artist and later works for a major computer games company and can of course, draw.
I guess my mom might count since she's worked at the elementary school I attended since 1993, but she recently told me about one of my elementary school classmates. I was actually pretty good friends with him, but I thought he was a bit slow? And apparently, he had been evaluated for learning disorders several times in early grade school. He apparently just started a surgery fellowship at a prestigious hospital in Philadelphia.
He definitely worked very hard in grade school and middle school, and now that I look back, he definitely sought out the "smart kids" in class and tried to befriend them and see how they thought.
I had a student in 3rd grade who was sweet, kind, and goofy, but the typical never-do-homework, mediocre-to-poor grades type at the time. When I moved up to teaching middle school and had him again in 6th grade, little had changed—I liked him as a person quite a lot, but academically and effort-wise he was a solid Meh C/D student.
Fast forward a decade or so: I had to retire from the classroom early and a bit abruptly due to a health crisis, resulting brain surgery, and the aftermath. This devastated me. At the time, I posted about how much I missed teaching and my heartbreak over it on my Facebook page. This now adult student, who had added me as a friend but rarely to never posted anything anywhere on FB, commented the most heartwarming words about what an inspiration I’d been and how he felt I’d started him on the path that led him to a degree in chemical engineering from a major university. He was the first in his family to go to college, nonetheless earn a degree.
His kind and generous words made me weep, and his academic success left me stunned. If you had asked me back when he was in 3rd or 6th grade which student would be the one to earn a degree in engineering, I think I would have gone through 2/3 of the class before I’d have even thought of him.
Imagine getting a ticket for a busted brake light from your former student whom you thought was going to be a criminal someday.
I had to be tutored for reading during elementary school. The same teacher came to my house after school a few times a week to help me. Years later, my mom ran into her, and she asked how I was doing. She was so incredibly happy and shocked to hear I was an English major applying to Library Science graduate programs.
I was voted most likely to burn a book, ended up writing one
My mom was an elementary school teacher and student taught under my old second grade teacher. sometimes my mom would get information from my brother and I about what everyone from our class got up to and gossip to other teachers.
There were two cases that always surprised people.
the overweight, smelly kid who was bullied, socially awkward, obsessed with trains, and didn't really have friends joined the Civil Air Patrol and later became an airline pilot.
the shy, socially awkward, goodie two shoes kid with an IEP a mile long became a plasma physicist and one of their projects actually made it onto the perseverance mars probe. They also came out as transgender and transitioned to female. Nobody thought the kid would make it that far because of her learning disabilities, but turns out she outdid most of the "gifted" kids. Also turns out her social awkwardness was entirely because she was trying to act like a boy and just... wasn't very good at it. Once you let her just be one of the girls she was suddenly a lot more socially eloquent and confident.
My brother was tutored by an elementary school teacher and he was a complete mess of a student as a kid. She was helping him transition from a top prep school to public school because the preP school didn’t feel he would ever amount to much in their care. She tried several methods to keep him organized and help his reading skills to no avail. She continuously checked in with his teacher (worked at the same school) to see his progress and constantly had to talk to him on behalf of the teacher. Everyone loved him, he was just an utter mess.
We ran into her a year ago and got to tell her that he got a full ride to law school at an Ivy League school. Blew her mind, but proof that some kids thrive in different learning environment. Terrible through traditional school but when he got to college, he thrived because of breaks between classes, time to study, picked his classes which were focused then trying to cover a thousand topics in a year, and got to know his teachers.
Thank goodness for my parents holding out hope all those years ha ha
Sometimes traditional school doesn't work for certain kids. It doesn't get taken into account how kids learning can improve in a different environment. We all have different ways of learning. Participation, reading, projects, all kinds of different ways. I actually learn better and faster if I'm left to research and put things together on my own. Formal classes? No. Learning environments and teaching methods need to be adapted for the kids, not the other way around. Also, as far as testing, people are better suited for different ways of doing so. If my test is administered in a way that I give verbal answers I can do that quite well. But don't expect me to answer a question that requires a written essay answer. I'll flunk it every time.
I had severe depression and anxiety among other things, stopped going to school at around 13 and fully dropped/tested out at maybe 16? I started going to community college at 17, and at 21 I'm finally transferring to a really good university. I have a 3.7 GPA and am majoring in cell and molecular biology!
Fantastic!! Keep up the wonderful work and also keep working on maintaining your mental health. The pressure can be tough. But it sounds like you are going in a direction you are excited about, and that's half the battle right there. Being in your element.
I had a severe speech impediment in elementary school to the point where teachers would foist me off in the reading room (for kids with learning impairments and difficulty reading to get extra assistance) during class despite the fact that I was writing and reading at a very high level.
The only person who vouched for me was my speech teacher. I met with her 3x a week during elementary school, she allowed me to stay in her classroom during lunch when they forced us to go to the playground and it was 5 degrees out, she gave me work to do over the summer so I could get to a point where I could actually say my name properly which had been my only goal.
She encouraged me to tell my fifth grade teacher that I was reading at a higher level than he suspected, and, buoyed by her confidence in me, I did it and was moved to the highest reading group. I just told my parents this story earlier this year and they were so angry I had been ashamed to share, but grateful I had an adult vouching for me.
I ended up ‘graduating’ speech in fifth grade after years of working with her and she was so proud. She had changed my life and given me the gift of speech. She believed in me when other teaching professionals simply heard me talk and assumed that it was easiest to assume I was a slow learner.
I am now the communications director for a government official in my country. I messaged her on Facebook when I first got my job to tell her that I wouldn’t be where I am without her. She remembered me (of course, she said - I wouldn’t let her forget me) and she couldn’t be more proud. She is one of my biggest online cheerleaders and I couldn’t be more grateful for her work... I quite literally would not be where I am without her.
if kids just had the right support systems available as you had with that teacher. Congratulations!
Family moved to Canada when I was 11. Spoke no English and got picked on in my first year (gr 6). In gr 7 and 8 I failed all science and history tests due to language but teachers just gave me enough marks to move on to the next grade. I spent more time studying and with encouragement of my gr 11 chemistry teacher I believed in myself. By end of high school, I was ranked top 1% in Canada in math, chemistry and physics competitions. This led me to great school and a great career so far.
Thank you Ms. Harpell!
It is inexcusable that when people come from another country not knowing English that there aren't many ways to help them learn. I remember when we, Canada, took in so many Syrian refugees most could not speak English. Their biggest issue was that English classes had not been started fast enough. They want to learn. Make a way.
Not me, but a kid who used to be my friend...
He was studios. He got good grades. Teachers loved him. He was well behaved. He wasnt bullied. He didnt bully other kids. He had a lot of friends. He wasnt popular, but he wasnt unpopular. He was definitely more popular than me though. No one had a problem with him. Since he got good grades his parents let him do whatever he wanted. They bought him whatever he wanted. He had the latest video games and consoles as they came out. We loved sleeping over his house because we could stay up all night, jump on the trampoline at 2 in the morning, and we didnt even have to sneak out for mischief. We could just walk out the door. Anyways, he moved in 8th grade. I was sad.
A couple years back someone sends me a facebook message of a local article. This guy stabbed someone 23 times and is awaiting a murder trial. I have no clue where his life took a hard left turn, but it did clearly.
The hard left turn happened when "his parents let him do whatever he wanted. They bought him whatever he wanted. "
My mom has been a teacher for the past 25+ years. There was one student in particular that stood out.
This kid was insanely smart. In high school, perfect grades, he also got scholarships on scholarships plus full ride to almost any college he wanted. I think he wanted to be a physicist or engineer for nasa. After high school he headed off to college and fell off of everyone's radar for a few a while.
We learned a few years later what happened. The extreme pressure to always be the best ended up getting to him. Everyone in his life understandably had super high expectations for him, but he couldn't handle it. He had a massive mental breakdown and ended up dropping out of college and went to work in some chain fast food place.
I didn't know him personally, and only met him in passing, but even I was sad. Such a brilliant mind, someone who had a lot of potential, reduced to a tiny fraction of himself. It's been several years since then, and I hope he is doing better.
Expectations can do you in so badly. Others high expectations of you and sometimes your own expectations of yourself. I think there is even more of that going on in the world these days. The load that students in university are expected to carry can be mentally and physically damaging. It's so sad that this happens to so many people. More than we know.
Not mine but my mom's story: she used to teach the second grade and there was a kid who was ruthlessly bullied because he had another finger on his hand, he didn't come from a very good background and had to work jobs in the middle of school for his family (this is pretty common for low income families in India), he was shouted at alot by the principal as he missed like half of the school so my mom told him to come to our house so she could tutor him every few days. He's now studying mechanical engineering att IIT (very prestigious university in India) and reached to my mom on Facebook and thanked her.
My best friend got kicked out of his former highschool beacuse he "would never undestand math". Now he's in the second years of astrophisycs phd and he's certantly going places.
Maybe it was more about what math he was being taught. I used to be picked on by kids who aced algebra. But then came the time I was acing geometry and they just couldn't get it. To me trig was fun, like decoding secret messages. Those kids. Nope. Not at all. Sometimes you have to adjust the subject material. For them it was algebra. Go with that subject for them and they'll probably move up grades ahead of the one they're in. I envied them so much because my brain couldn't get around it and so I thought I was stupid at math. I guess maybe not. Just different areas.
I’ve been on our PTA for a long time, does that count? There was a very skinny quiet kid who was super smart. The other kids picked on him quite a lot but he never stood up for himself. I always thought he would work for NASA or something as he was so smart. I saw his linkedin a few months ago and he is now a prison officer at a maximum security prison.
I think this applies to me. I was the kid that never passed exams the first time. Kids would tell me in middle school I would never graduate. First semester of high school I didn't pass 7 out of 14 classes.
Right now I'm halfway through a Masters program for Bioscience engineering at one of the best universities in Europe. I would still call myself a mediocre student, but it's getting better. My thesis will be about vertical farming and for the first time in my life as a student, I'm excited.
A mate of mine does some building work for a guy he went to school with 30+ years ago.
The High School Principal stood him up in front of the entire school assembly and said "Take a look at this boy. This is a boy that will never amount to anything".
That boy just sold his house for $20million to buy a bigger one.
What!!!?? He should have been fired. That is so damaging. It's wonderful that the boy didn't listen to that and proved him so wrong.
I'm not a teacher but something along the lines happened to one of the kids I graduated with.
She was top of the grade for academics and sports woman of the year every single year since we were 13. She was head prefect in middle school and head girl of our highschool in our matric year. Both her parents were senior management at our old middle school.
She was very very rich, both her parents drove sport cars and she got an Audi SUV for her birthday. She also lived in a poes huge house.
Last thing I heard from her is that she got accepted into one of the best universities in the country, Stellenbosch University, for veterinarian science.
I mean if anyone was going to succeed it would be her?
She's now a secretary at a run down accounting firm in Pretoria that's badly in debt. She's also been to rehab twice.
I have no idea what happened to her but, it just shows. Nothing is cast in stone
Her parents were management at a middle school and that rich??? I’d be suspicious that they had a side criminal business. Like drug trafficking money laundering for gangs. Manufacturing drugs. The management at a middle school all a front. The middle “men” in criminal enterprises are “normal” seemingly upstanding law abiding citizens. All is not what it seems in many wealthy homes. A good indicator of possible illegal begotten money…you find yourself asking “how can they afford their lifestyle on their wages/job???” And they don’t have wealthy parents, inheritance, a trust fund or won the lottery.
my dad was a bad kid in school. like really bad.
fought teachers, suspended half the year, expelled from school dances, etc..
anybody in their right mind would bet their life savings against the chance he’d make anything of himself professionally.
well, now he’s 49... never went to college, but worked his way up to his current job making six-figures and had been offered promotions to pay more. talking to him and meeting him you’d never guess he was probably the worst kid in the entire school district. plus, he’d beat my ass if i ever did the sh*t he did.
I grew up with this one girl, who ran cross country and track in junior high. I went to a little school, so a lot of times they will let 4th and 5th graders run with the junior high kids. This girl, she hit growth spurt when we were still in elementary school. She towered over boys and girls. Unfortunately, this doesn’t help with running. She was an awkward runner and she would often get last place in cross country. Our track coach didn’t know what to do with her, so he put her in the 800, 400, 200, and long jump. I don’t think she beat anyone in 4th or 5th grade. I felt super bad for her, because she is super nice, just wasn’t an athlete. I think by the end of 5th grade, her PRs (personal records) were around 2 in the 400, 4:10-20 in the 800, 9-6 in long jump, and 50ish in the 200. Well, fast forward a couple months, and she is already better in cross country. She ends up crushing her PR from the year before. Then track came, and she really started to improve. Every year she got better and better. Fast forward 4 years, and we are now sophomores. She has already broken the school long jump and 800 records, and will probably break the 200 and 400 records. She also anchors all the relays she is in. Kind of crazy to remember that she wasn’t always super fast.
I was teaching 3rd grade. I had a kid that would literally shoot spitballs in class. Through a straw. Kid would bring his own straws to school and chew notebook paper to shoot. This happened every day, probably seven or eight times a day I'd catch him doing it. He would just start fu*king with other kids, poking them with pencils and sh*t loudly in the middle of class.
Now, I hate sending kids to the principle because I feel it undermines my authority in the class. This kid was different though. He got sent to the office average twice a week. Just couldn't deal with it. He goes onto highschool. I don't hear good things about him. I don't hear much just that he'd fallen in with a bad crowd. It's 2005 when I'm teaching him in 3rd grade. Flash-forward sixteen years and I pull up to a red light on my way home from work. Red lamborgini. Who is sitting there in the driver's seat? Of course this kid. No sunglasses, actually he had pretty nerdy/hip Jefferey Dahmer glasses on.
"Mr. Igot!" He says. And he smiled at me. Seemed really genuinely happy to see me. I didn't even had time to compose myself, realize it was THIS kid and respond before the light turned green and he rocketed off. He had this smile on that I'll never forget. Good for him!
A teacher who can't spell "principal"? Gonna have to call BS on this one.
I had no social skills and was way behind in grade 9. Dropped out that year, spent the rest of the time I should've been in high school fu**ing around, and now I'm in university TAing a chemistry course and about to graduate with a BS in Biology. My grades are good enough that I am seriously considering med school or law school.
K-12 doesn't mean sh*t. It's not a fit for all people.
And then there's the whole SAT thing. Just because you may not do well at that doesn't mean you shouldn't get the opportunity to go to university. As with so many of these stories you can't judge smarts by test results.
Not a teacher, but my best friend in high school was the most picked on kid in a high school of 4000 students. He definitely wasn't much of an academic and seemed destined for barely getting through life.
He's now worked his way up in fast food, has franchised a couple Dairy Queens, and worked for Homeland Security in between.
Why are there high schools with 4,000 kids? Or even 1,000 kids? No wonder they fall not through the cracks, but what i can only imagine to be gaping holes? How can a teacher be expected to know their students well?
Note: this post originally had 37 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Shoutout to my kindergarten teacher. Due to my home situation she was letting me stay overnight at her place, countless times. Thankfully all was resolved and I grew to be a decent person (I hope😊). She is our family friend ever since, was "must be there" guest at my wedding, who accepted invitation in a heartbeat despite the distance of thousands of miles.
All my school reports said I was bound to do great things in the future. Jokes on them, I had a breakdown at 17 and spent 20 years doing absolutely nothing
one teacher in high school called me a snot. wasn't really a favorite of any teacher as i was kind of the weird kid. barely graduated high school but sometimes think they did it just to get rid of me. fast forward a few years, returned to school. graduated with three degrees, dean's list all semesters, presented with coveted award for that college, and a 3.97 gpa (damn that b+ in political science!). also, after i got myself in for the first semester, i managed to get scholarships to help with the rest of the time i was there.
My son's third grade teacher assumed he wasn't smart - miserable often undeserved grades. It was the first year of the state test comprehension test. We got the results over the summer. I ran into the teacher. She apologized for his dreadful test scores. ?? He had a perfect score on 11 out of 18 sections. He missed only one on question in the other sections. Far above average. The year before he took the gifted and talented qualification test. It required slightly above average reading skills. With poor reading skills, he scored at the bottom of qualifying scores. He was denied entry. In 7th grade he begged to be put in a more difficult math class. "It is not what my mother wants! I want it. She just wants me to be happy." He designs cell phone towers now.
I love the stories where the teacher made the difference on the long run. Similar with me, I was not motivated at all at high school, almost had to redo a year because of bad grades and was already on lower-level education than most of my friends. This one math teacher who never taught me invited me to join the theater technician group, light/sound at musicals etc. He rekindled a spark in me. By now I received my PhD summa cum laude in psychophysics and computational neuroscience and am an independent researcher fully funded by the EU. I was at his retirement party last year.
Most of my teachers were surprised when they heard I went to university. Took me a while but got my honours in chemistry. Got a good job editing chemistry textbooks. And then I transitioned to dev work and doing really well at that.
I was told by my high school counselor that she wouldn't fill out a recommendation form for nursing school for me. She didn't feel like I would make it as a nurse and wouldn't put her name behind me. Well 16 years as a nurse later and I'll be finished with nurse practitioner school in about 5 months. She still occasionally sends me a friend request on Facebook, but I always deny.
My English teacher said I never survive in modern world since I can't speak English. My psychology teacher said I never gonna get in university. Well I have now bachelor degree in psychology which I did in England where I have been living past 5 years. And currently doing my masters in counselling and psychotherapy.
My father was a high school dropout. Enough people told him that he wouldn’t amount to anything that he just gave up. He went to war, started a family, and worked in a factory. He had some pretty low points early on (untreated PTSD is brutal). Fast-forward to when I was in middle school. Dad decided to get his GED. I helped him with his Spanish lessons by practicing with him, but otherwise he did everything independently. We were all super proud of him, but I think he was most proud of proving himself.
What have I become that would surprise people? I was only trying to impress my family for 50 years. I am impressed that I finally walked away from them. I have not become brilliant or financially successful, but I AM FREE!!
My freshman year in high school, my parents basically forced me into the AP English class, despite my ever decreasing grades coming out of middle school. I think I managed a D grade (barely passing), but I learned so much from Mr. Mullen, that it sticks to this day. 34 years later, my wife and I run a publishing services company - she's a very successful ghost writer, and I'm the graphic designer/project manager. I occasionally write, and am always amazed when I get complimented for my work. I recently called Mr. Mullen to thank him. He was very appreciative and gracious. Invited me to come visit him at his summer home in Maine next time I was there.
I was one of THOSE students. In primary school, they had the idea to transfer me to special education, because I was "not normal". I never really got what they meant with that, as it was them who put me in a group of weirdos, haha... No, seriously - school was more about making exploitable units for the workforce than any else. I hope no teacher claims he had anything to do with me going to university and getting a degree in engineering - none of them had any impact on me that led there. I knew I had to get along in school well enough, so I did exactly the minimum needed. Homework was not part of this, from grade 8 on, with the exception of physics in the last two years, I didn't do any homework. Everything that I was interested in I found a lot more about outside school than inside. At the university, this was different, of course - interesting stuff, finally!
Had a vice principal in high school who told me I did not have the intelligence to be a nurse, so he would not let me take the needed subjects at this time classes were full. I mentioned that she would be quitting soon because she was pregnant. He told me that she had already been accepted at her moms nursing school. He said I might a well quit school so I did back then you could take free correspondence courses from the Depart. of Edu. I did went into nursing. First year back in my home town he was admitted to hospital, was completely dumbfounded at all I knew but all I knew couldn't help him but before he died he said "I am so sorry I didn't believe in You."
Shoutout to my kindergarten teacher. Due to my home situation she was letting me stay overnight at her place, countless times. Thankfully all was resolved and I grew to be a decent person (I hope😊). She is our family friend ever since, was "must be there" guest at my wedding, who accepted invitation in a heartbeat despite the distance of thousands of miles.
All my school reports said I was bound to do great things in the future. Jokes on them, I had a breakdown at 17 and spent 20 years doing absolutely nothing
one teacher in high school called me a snot. wasn't really a favorite of any teacher as i was kind of the weird kid. barely graduated high school but sometimes think they did it just to get rid of me. fast forward a few years, returned to school. graduated with three degrees, dean's list all semesters, presented with coveted award for that college, and a 3.97 gpa (damn that b+ in political science!). also, after i got myself in for the first semester, i managed to get scholarships to help with the rest of the time i was there.
My son's third grade teacher assumed he wasn't smart - miserable often undeserved grades. It was the first year of the state test comprehension test. We got the results over the summer. I ran into the teacher. She apologized for his dreadful test scores. ?? He had a perfect score on 11 out of 18 sections. He missed only one on question in the other sections. Far above average. The year before he took the gifted and talented qualification test. It required slightly above average reading skills. With poor reading skills, he scored at the bottom of qualifying scores. He was denied entry. In 7th grade he begged to be put in a more difficult math class. "It is not what my mother wants! I want it. She just wants me to be happy." He designs cell phone towers now.
I love the stories where the teacher made the difference on the long run. Similar with me, I was not motivated at all at high school, almost had to redo a year because of bad grades and was already on lower-level education than most of my friends. This one math teacher who never taught me invited me to join the theater technician group, light/sound at musicals etc. He rekindled a spark in me. By now I received my PhD summa cum laude in psychophysics and computational neuroscience and am an independent researcher fully funded by the EU. I was at his retirement party last year.
Most of my teachers were surprised when they heard I went to university. Took me a while but got my honours in chemistry. Got a good job editing chemistry textbooks. And then I transitioned to dev work and doing really well at that.
I was told by my high school counselor that she wouldn't fill out a recommendation form for nursing school for me. She didn't feel like I would make it as a nurse and wouldn't put her name behind me. Well 16 years as a nurse later and I'll be finished with nurse practitioner school in about 5 months. She still occasionally sends me a friend request on Facebook, but I always deny.
My English teacher said I never survive in modern world since I can't speak English. My psychology teacher said I never gonna get in university. Well I have now bachelor degree in psychology which I did in England where I have been living past 5 years. And currently doing my masters in counselling and psychotherapy.
My father was a high school dropout. Enough people told him that he wouldn’t amount to anything that he just gave up. He went to war, started a family, and worked in a factory. He had some pretty low points early on (untreated PTSD is brutal). Fast-forward to when I was in middle school. Dad decided to get his GED. I helped him with his Spanish lessons by practicing with him, but otherwise he did everything independently. We were all super proud of him, but I think he was most proud of proving himself.
What have I become that would surprise people? I was only trying to impress my family for 50 years. I am impressed that I finally walked away from them. I have not become brilliant or financially successful, but I AM FREE!!
My freshman year in high school, my parents basically forced me into the AP English class, despite my ever decreasing grades coming out of middle school. I think I managed a D grade (barely passing), but I learned so much from Mr. Mullen, that it sticks to this day. 34 years later, my wife and I run a publishing services company - she's a very successful ghost writer, and I'm the graphic designer/project manager. I occasionally write, and am always amazed when I get complimented for my work. I recently called Mr. Mullen to thank him. He was very appreciative and gracious. Invited me to come visit him at his summer home in Maine next time I was there.
I was one of THOSE students. In primary school, they had the idea to transfer me to special education, because I was "not normal". I never really got what they meant with that, as it was them who put me in a group of weirdos, haha... No, seriously - school was more about making exploitable units for the workforce than any else. I hope no teacher claims he had anything to do with me going to university and getting a degree in engineering - none of them had any impact on me that led there. I knew I had to get along in school well enough, so I did exactly the minimum needed. Homework was not part of this, from grade 8 on, with the exception of physics in the last two years, I didn't do any homework. Everything that I was interested in I found a lot more about outside school than inside. At the university, this was different, of course - interesting stuff, finally!
Had a vice principal in high school who told me I did not have the intelligence to be a nurse, so he would not let me take the needed subjects at this time classes were full. I mentioned that she would be quitting soon because she was pregnant. He told me that she had already been accepted at her moms nursing school. He said I might a well quit school so I did back then you could take free correspondence courses from the Depart. of Edu. I did went into nursing. First year back in my home town he was admitted to hospital, was completely dumbfounded at all I knew but all I knew couldn't help him but before he died he said "I am so sorry I didn't believe in You."
