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“It’s Always A Car Salesman”: 34 Things That Indirectly Scream Someone Peaked In High School
Quite a lot of people don't really entertain the idea of attending a class reunion - they just don't want to face people they were stuck in the same classroom with for years, and they have moved on with their lives.
On the contrary, some folks seem to be overly excited about the thought of returning to their school - it's a place where they felt the happiest. Some dub them as "folks who peaked in high school", as they seemingly never left it, at least mentally. Today's list is all about them, or to be more specific, the signs that signify that a person has this mentality.
More info: Reddit
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Forcing their kids to be football players/dancers/actors because that was THEIR thing in high school. they weren't good enough to go big leagues after school and they can't cope with that so they live vicariously through their kids.
Tempest 3 hours ago
I know a classmate whose dad did exactly this. Don’t know if the dad was trying to live up to his failed dreams through the son, but he sure as hell went the extra mile. The dad pulled him out of school when he was preparing for his GCSEs and enrolled him at a public school in the hopes that he’d have better chances of getting recruited into the national team that way. He was a super mischievous kid at school but did alright with schoolwork before all this. After changing schools, he ended up having to spend an year or two extra (compared to the rest of us - his former classmates) to graduate, possibly cause the dad was too fixated on his work in the sport than school. He wasn’t even exceptionally good at the said sport so it’s a pity that the dad took him down this path. Sadly he never made it into the national team. Best he did was get into the junior squad (under-19s, etc) but now that he’s off that age bracket, he’s simply playing in minor league (or whatever it’s called) teams.
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#2
If Coach had put me in fourth quarter, we would've been state champions. No doubt. No doubt in my mind.
#3
Still acting like a typical "Mean Girl" or "high school jerk" when they’re dang near (or past) 35.
If you turn on any movie or TV show set in a high school, you’re bound to see characters being thrust into certain social hierarchies based on their personality or social status. In the iconic movie Mean Girls (2004), plenty of such cliques were distinguished. Among them were “the Art Freaks”, “the Cheerleaders”, “the Desperate Wannabes”, “the Varsity Jocks” and, of course, “the Plastics.”
Such a concept of cliques exists in nearly all teen media, maybe with slightly different names. But not all of them get equal amounts of screen time – usually the types like “jocks”, “popular girls”, and “nerds” get the most attention, as movies are often based on the conflict between these groups.
#4
In my town it’s always car salesmen who were hired by the owner, their father.
Or home renovation salesmen who were hired by the owner, their father.
Michael Largey 1 day ago
One of my former students was given the family business to run by his father. Less than a year later, dad took it back. I could have told him.
#5
Still bringing up high school stories like they were last weekend.
Michael Largey 1 day ago
When you get to be my age, sometimes you remember high school stories much more clearly than you remember last weekend.
Sometimes, these storylines make it seem that once you’re thrust into a certain group, you will be a part of it for the rest of your life. Most of us know that, typically, that isn’t actually true. First of all, in real life, such social groups don’t exist, at least not as strictly as they’re portrayed in the movies; belonging to them is way more fluid.
Even when they do exist, when you're associated with them, that doesn’t define the rest of your life. It might influence your high school years in one way or another, but it’s rather uncommon for it to have a lot of influence over your post-school life.
#7
Still talking about good grades, standardized test scores or other academic achievements when that didn’t translate into real world success.
Reddit loves to act like the jocks and popular girls were the only ones who peaked in high school. A lot of the nerds did too and are still chasing that high of academic validation, especially the ones that didn’t go on to apply those skills to a well paying career.
#8
Dude was a cocky jerk in high school. When I saw him years later bagging groceries he looked at me with a look of half shame, half-I hope he doesn't recognize me. My life wasn't great either, but at least I didn't treat people like I was better than them.
#9
"Faith not Fear" or "Lions not Sheep" slogans on shirts and trucks. We get it bro, you're super tough. .
That is, unless you belong to those folks who are dubbed as “people who peaked in high school.” How to know if you’re one of them? Well, you can start by checking out today’s list – it’s full of examples that many netizens think describe such people perfectly.
Besides all of the points mentioned in the list, generally, people who are viewed as those who have reached their peak in their high school years are said to have certain characteristics that make them noticeable.
#10
Always talking about what happened in highschool, my friend and I are 25 and she regularly brings up things that happened 10 years ago in an effort to put other people down, and always sending me Facebook/ instagram posts of people I haven’t thought about in years.
#11
People who care about high school reunions too much
I graduated in 2010. We didnt have a ten year reunion because, you know covid.
The sheer drama about that jesus christ. My class had a 15th year reunion this year, and multiple people who I hadnt chatted with since 2010 messaged me asking why I wasnt coming
I moved across the country and never came back. My life did not peak in high school-it's far better now. No desire to relive any if that.
Tabitha 1 day ago (edited)
I graduated in 1978. Haven’t been back to any of the many reunions and don’t plan on going in the future. High school was over for me 47 years ago, and I have actually had a life since then, because I moved forward instead of hanging back and clinging to the past. You know you can peak several times, in several ways, throughout your entire life, don’t you? I have peaked many, many times since I left high school, including recently, so I don’t have to dredge up ancient history to feel like I’ve accomplished anything. If I can do it, anyone can.
They like to be the center of attention, just like they used to be back in the day. They also tend to be stuck in the mentality that individuality, standing out from the crowd, is something a person should not strive for. All they care about is how to look “cool,” and most often, their view of that is stuck in high school terms. Besides all of that, they simply just miss the “good ol’ days” of high school.
Granted, all of these signs, both in the list and the text, are generalizations – they don’t apply to every single person out there. After all, “peaked in high school” is typically used as an insult towards a person who seems not to have matured at all since they left that educational place.
#13
For me, i saw a lot of those about 10 years after graduation when I was a cable guy. Every Wednesday was non pay day.all the installers went out with 25 or so jobs each and either collected the past due or disconnected them at the pole ( it's been a while). I worked the area where I grew up, and it was always awkward seeing the popular kids, cheerleaders, athletes, etc that had fallen pretty far. I was a cable guy , so no reason to brag, but it was shocking on some cases to see where they were.
#14
Wearing your varsity letterman jacket to the bar (or grocery store) when you are in your mid-20s.
#15
Using your HS graduation pic as your social media pic.
And while quite many of these signs can be applicable to such people, that doesn’t mean that it is all they are. People are usually more than just a two-dimensional description — even these folks.
Still, we can have fun by entertaining the “peaked in high school idea” – do so by adding signs you think this list is missing in the comments!
#16
Stay at home mom to MLM grifter pipeline.
Breadcrumb. 4 hours ago
Just wait, in the future when looking back, it's not going to look good for them.
#17
When I arrived at the school where I currently work, there was a late 20s guy who attended every football practice and wanted to attend every basketball practice because he played at the school and wanted to show his support.
I shut down attending basketball practice immediately. His *parents* called my boss, who was so flabbergasted he couldn't form words when he was telling me that I'm within my rights to refuse to allow him in the gym.
The odd thing? We've never been that good at football here but that dude wore his letter jacket as a badge of pride.
Barbara Panda 15 hours ago
Did anyone ever think he may be the type of person who enjoys being around children? I'll get censored but...P..E...D...O?
#18
Forcing their kids to relive their own youth when they hit high school.
Tabitha 1 day ago
People, let your kids be themselves, and not little carbon copies of you—-especially when they’re not and will never be. You’ll only be pushing them away if you push them too hard to do exactly the same things you did at their age. People who do that to their kids generally end up being the same people who are mystified as to why their grown children never call or visit them.
#19
You still have “beef” with people from High School. There isn’t a single person I can think of from my High School that I hated enough to think about negatively. Not even old bullies. We were kids, now we’re not, I just hope you’re the best person you can be.
Tabitha 1 day ago (edited)
Sometimes the best revenge is to live your best life and not waste your time thinking about the people who bullied you. That way, if you ever run into them, they make no indication of being genuinely sorry for their treatment of you, and they say something like, “I wonder what you must think about me”, you can honestly say, “I don’t think about you”. That is the ultimate cut you can make to someone like that, telling them they matter so little to you (and they crave the kick out of having a huge effect on their victims) that they never enter your thoughts at all.
Michael Largey 1 day ago (edited)
"Forgive your enemy, but remember the b*****d's name." - John f. Kennedy. The first to go from our class was racist, homophobic, entitled rich bully. The next was the doctor turned internet child predator. It's refreshing when your old classmates die in the right order.
TACO Don's Authentic TexMex 1 day ago
Read my comment, dude ended up dying a very unpleasant way several years ago. Don't know if it was överdose or alcohol but the people who knew him said his abdomen swelled up like a beach ball and was bright orangy/yellow. Something ate his liver up and fast
Load More Replies... TACO Don's Authentic TexMex 1 day ago
A dude in my class tried to k**l me after high school. I think I am well within my rights to still think pretty g*****n negatively about him and the other 3 guys he was with
Rick Murray 1 day ago
I wrote above that some people I'd never want to meet again. Thing is, I'd probably never know. I don't look like I looked then, so neither will they. And more importantly, I can't remember any of their names. Heck, I only remember a few notable teachers. Because I left school and that was that and, as I said above it was a boarding school so we didn't all live in the same place. I tried reaching out to some of my friends, but didn't get very far - too much distance. So I just let it drop and, well, and it all pretty much fizzled out of my life. The bad people that I forgot about instantly, and the ones I liked that never got back in touch. What was, was, and that's all it was. ;)
#20
Always talking about the past and despite being 30-40 yo trying to cling to youth.
Bored Sailor 1 day ago (edited)
I tried clinging to youth got to high, lost my grip and broke me back. That slingshot my to past my current age./s
#21
Adults who still bully others.
I think when people feel they're past their peak, they continue acting that way to stay (what they consider to be) the best version of themselves. Someone who still bullies thinks that being a bully was the happiest they'll ever be with themselves. The most fulfilled/satisfied they think they can attain. Which is sad, both in that I strongly disapprove, and that someone really sells their potential so short for most of their lives.
#25
A divorce to their high school sweetheart and a messy fall out entirely publicised on facebook by the time they're 25.
bonus points for cringy stuff / "i'm better than you now" quotes and content definitely not aimed at their ex.
#27
Its been 2 yrs since my high school, and there’s this friend of mine in college who has dragged me to visit her school 7 times this year when I’ve not even visited mine once after it got over.
Michael Largey 1 day ago
As a high school teacher (mostly seniors), I got a lot of visits the first two years after they graduated, but there was a noticeable drop-off after that. I might not hear from them again until I got an invitation to their college graduation party or their wedding. (Oh, or if they needed a recommendation for grad school or employment.)
#28
This will only make sense if it’s happened to you, but when someone hasn’t seen someone else in years and still has them in the same “box” that they had them in during highschool so they treat them the exact same way they treated them in high school.
#30
They openly brag about or are too proud of HS athletic accomplishments.
Rick Murray 1 day ago
I have dyspraxia and am shortsighted (but that wasn't known at the time). I very nearly impaled the PE teacher with a javelin...and I wasn't even trying to aim for him. Does that count? In every other imaginable way, I absolutely súcked at anything athletic.
#31
Believing every single conspiracy theory they read online without a second thought.
#33
Probably not exactly what this is looking for, but:
Nerdy people who *never* matured beyond their highschool *I'm the bullied one* attitude. These people are overdramatic, dependent on social media, and are constantly starting fights, but then claim victimhood when people don't agree.
Like, dude, we are all nerds- you aren't special and we aren't here to raise you. Raise yourself or get professional help.
#34
Being a cop.
Fat Harry (Oi / You) 1 day ago
Guy I went to school with and was friends with lives round the corner from me now and is a cop in the firearms unit (or whatever it's called in the UK). He was brash, loud, and funny, but also an above average student at school. He's a decent guy now, so I don't really understand this answer.
What do you think ?
LakotaWolf (she/her) 1 day ago
I first started dating my now-ex when I was 18 and he was 19. He didn't have a class ring, but one of those... I don't know what they're called, but they're little shield-shaped pendant things that are intended to be strung on a necklace? Anyway, he wasn't big into rings/jewelry in general, but his HS gave them free to graduating seniors who had been in an athletic club (I don't know how HS sports work, so I only have the vaguest notion of what that all means) and my ex was on the tennis club (he was too smol for basketball/football.) Me being the teenaged starry-eyed idiot I was back then - I asked him if I could have the shield-pendant and I wore it for YEARS (::massive cringe::) It's not like we were HS sweethearts and I never even WENT to HS myself (mom pushed me into college at 14) so in hindsight, I'm not sure why I wanted to wear it XD I stopped wearing it in my late 20s because I'd realized at that point what a controlling a-hole he was.
Load More Replies...
Nova Rook 1 day ago
Many items on the list just sound like high school bullies finding new reasons to insult people. Still wearing that jacket? How uncool? Oh you told a story from years ago? I'm so awesome I don't even think about years ago!
Breadcrumb. 4 hours ago
I agree, I don't like the tone of the article. It's not even funny, just mean.
Load More Replies...
Gingersnap In Iowa 1 day ago
I talked to a friend yesterday. She lives just outside of the small town where we went to highschool. She invited me to the big summer celebration of the town's founding bc there's a school wide reunion. I graduated in 1988 and haven't been physically in that town since I moved my Mom out and sold her house. I had a panic attack on the phone for an invite to something over 6 months away. I wasn't bullied nor did I bully, generally got along with everyone. But the thought of going back there and seeing anyone makes me sick to my stomach. I don't think 🤔 there's enough Xanax or therapy for me to go back.
Sally Moen 1 day ago
When you live in the same town you grew up in just because Because it's where you're always lived and you know everyone and they know you. That tells me you probably don't make a lot of new friends and if you moved you would lose that status you kept from high school. Do you stay, even if it makes sense for your career and your family
SchadenFreudian Psychology 6 hours ago
A girl from my childhood neighbourhood ended up: 1) living in a house across the street from the house she grew up in, where her parents still live; 2) becoming a teacher in our high school; and 3) marrying one of the teachers in our high school (and they met when she was his student.)
Load More Replies... Rick Murray 1 day ago
Went for an after work get together with some of the nursing staff on the early morning of 1st January 2000 (and how annoyed we all were that the world didn't implode). One of the women invited my mom and I, a gay guy with the dress sense of Elton John, and a little Filipino woman around to her flat. We were all déad tired, but her parents hated her and she was lonely and just wanted to play Monopoly with somebody, so we all went along and... basically fell asleep on the floor pretty quickly. When we woke up, she did us breakfast and she showed us around her flat, then we played Monopoly with her for a while before tidying ourselves up to go work that day too. In her bedroom, hanging from a clothes hanger hooked onto a large mirror, was a white blouse inside a grey pinafore dress. Her school uniform. She was nearly thirty. Ummm... She also had a pretty startling collection of Beanie Baby bears (remember when those were a 'thing'?).
LakotaWolf (she/her) 1 day ago
I first started dating my now-ex when I was 18 and he was 19. He didn't have a class ring, but one of those... I don't know what they're called, but they're little shield-shaped pendant things that are intended to be strung on a necklace? Anyway, he wasn't big into rings/jewelry in general, but his HS gave them free to graduating seniors who had been in an athletic club (I don't know how HS sports work, so I only have the vaguest notion of what that all means) and my ex was on the tennis club (he was too smol for basketball/football.) Me being the teenaged starry-eyed idiot I was back then - I asked him if I could have the shield-pendant and I wore it for YEARS (::massive cringe::) It's not like we were HS sweethearts and I never even WENT to HS myself (mom pushed me into college at 14) so in hindsight, I'm not sure why I wanted to wear it XD I stopped wearing it in my late 20s because I'd realized at that point what a controlling a-hole he was.
Load More Replies... Nova Rook 1 day ago
Many items on the list just sound like high school bullies finding new reasons to insult people. Still wearing that jacket? How uncool? Oh you told a story from years ago? I'm so awesome I don't even think about years ago!
Breadcrumb. 4 hours ago
I agree, I don't like the tone of the article. It's not even funny, just mean.
Load More Replies... Gingersnap In Iowa 1 day ago
I talked to a friend yesterday. She lives just outside of the small town where we went to highschool. She invited me to the big summer celebration of the town's founding bc there's a school wide reunion. I graduated in 1988 and haven't been physically in that town since I moved my Mom out and sold her house. I had a panic attack on the phone for an invite to something over 6 months away. I wasn't bullied nor did I bully, generally got along with everyone. But the thought of going back there and seeing anyone makes me sick to my stomach. I don't think 🤔 there's enough Xanax or therapy for me to go back.
Sally Moen 1 day ago
When you live in the same town you grew up in just because Because it's where you're always lived and you know everyone and they know you. That tells me you probably don't make a lot of new friends and if you moved you would lose that status you kept from high school. Do you stay, even if it makes sense for your career and your family
SchadenFreudian Psychology 6 hours ago
A girl from my childhood neighbourhood ended up: 1) living in a house across the street from the house she grew up in, where her parents still live; 2) becoming a teacher in our high school; and 3) marrying one of the teachers in our high school (and they met when she was his student.)
Load More Replies... Rick Murray 1 day ago
Went for an after work get together with some of the nursing staff on the early morning of 1st January 2000 (and how annoyed we all were that the world didn't implode). One of the women invited my mom and I, a gay guy with the dress sense of Elton John, and a little Filipino woman around to her flat. We were all déad tired, but her parents hated her and she was lonely and just wanted to play Monopoly with somebody, so we all went along and... basically fell asleep on the floor pretty quickly. When we woke up, she did us breakfast and she showed us around her flat, then we played Monopoly with her for a while before tidying ourselves up to go work that day too. In her bedroom, hanging from a clothes hanger hooked onto a large mirror, was a white blouse inside a grey pinafore dress. Her school uniform. She was nearly thirty. Ummm... She also had a pretty startling collection of Beanie Baby bears (remember when those were a 'thing'?).
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