It was me. I was the smartest kid in my class for most of school. Then I dropped out of college and now I fix cars for a living.
Not saying that’s a bad thing, the world needs mechanics and I’m paid well enough to live, but the sense of lost or wasted potential is overwhelming.
I wouldn’t worry about it. I was one of the gifted kids, got my Bachelors then Masters in Computer Science with good grades. But also I got massively depressed and it took me a while to get a job after graduation. One of the more valuable lessons I learned from that experience was that I was often not seeing the forest thru the trees. After all, going to college is just a means of hopefully ensuring that you have an easier time covering the cost of living long term. So, overall, if you’re happy and don’t have to constantly worry about your bills there was no real loss of potential.
Dont feel bad, the smartest kid in our school now pumps gas.
No idea, I moved away and moved on. Have a great life. Don’t care what the others are doing. Hope they’re well.
He worked as a chemical engineer until he was killed by police over non-existant drugs. None of the officers involved got into any trouble.
ACAB
I scored the highest tertiary entrance rank in my school without studying a day in my life and had my pick of any university course or career. I went to university, and excelled at exams, but because I had undiagnosed ADHD and had never learned time management, I couldn’t cope with assignments that couldn’t be thrown together at the last minute in my lunch break. I was academically excluded.
So there was that. Basically, my life has continued to look like some variation of that experience since then :P
I'm in this answer and I don't like it.This also happened to me. I dropped out of game art & design school. Now I’m doing art and animation for a game dev company. I took the scenic route, but I got here eventually!
He went to Havard and got a PHD in mathematics. He had a short career as a researcher and professor. Later he bought a piece of land and became a hermit. But he was annoyed with society and sent people bombs, and published an article about contemporary world issues. He was eventually jailed.
A person distantly affiliated to me called the FBI on Kaczynski back when he was in society, saying this guy is FUCKIN dangerous and you really need to look into him. They said, well, he hasn’t actually done anything, so honestly there’s not much we can do.
Wasn’t he part of MK-Ultra so isnt the government is probably to blame for some of his antics
He was. His participation in MK-Ultra is documented and I think it’s a safe to conclude that that means the CIA probably fucked up his brain and/or traumatized him, and made him that way in the first place.
You went at school with Unabomber?
Sounds familiar
I gradually, but absolutely fell the fuck apart after middle/high school. I’m working with a therapist and job coaches so I can get my shit reasonably back together. As it turns out, Gifted kids are most likely just neurodivergent kids who would really like someone to see them as something other than test scores and probably are smiling through a bunch of unaddressed problems. I hope the other TAG kids from my year are doing way better.
She was killed in a traffic accident senior year.
Well, fucking shit man.
He became addicted to drugs and fell off. Last time i heard anything off him, he lives in south america somewhere as a street performer and found love. So i dunno.
He got a degree in architectural design and now tours the country playing the fiddle. He could have been anything he wanted and that’s the life he chose, but I respect him for it. He’s happy and that’s what really counts.
Works in open source charity driven software - he’s having a ball.
it’s reading lemmy right now :p
I mean we had a few that were al up there. From what I recall Jamie dropped out and had a couple of kids, Mark still lives at home 'cause he’s got no job and Just plays guitar and smokes a lot of pot. Jay committed suicide. Brandon OD’d and died.
What the hell is going on??
Society doesn’t reward intelligence and drive, together or singly. Society rewards mediocrity (make boss look good, not yourself) and undercutting.
The cruelest dream - reality.
Chances thrown, nothing’s free
Longing for what used to be. Still, it’s hard
hard to see
Fragile lives
Should’ve known we’d never get far.
He’s married, three kids, great wife, manages a team of salespeople.
Everyone left. There’s nothing the state can offer to keep the most productive people. Most ended up going to California.
The ones that returned became educators.
They got a PhD in science from a well-known university and worked on research for a while. Last I heard, they got married and ended up selling real-estate.
