at all. But I suppose the fact that I got an advanced degree, a decent job, and managed to live this long counts as exceeding expectations.

Plus, I exceeded my own expectations in that, when I have gone back to my high school reunions, most of the people I knew back then were genuinely glad to see me.

Nor would I have cared if they volunteered that info, which they didn't.

But if you asked my classmates I think they would say I was a failure. I don't have any kids, I don't work at Walmart and my social life consists of more than Saturday nights at the Casino and Sunday mornings in church.

I know I have done well in my life.

I am as I always have been, content with the way my life is going. I suppose I could've been popular or not, just didn't give a rat's arse about being part of an in-crowd clique. I had several circles of friends who where worth more than empty popularity. We would die for one another.

I never was, and I'm happier than either of them appeared to be. After being drafted and sent to Vietnam, I decided, once and for all, to please myself and to hell with anyone else's opinions. Thanks for posting such an interesting poll, Kaleva.

I've been trying to escape my area my whole life. The older I get, the more roots I've grown (sigh)

It feels great, doesn't it?

My high school principal told me I disrespected authority and would amount to nothing in life. Her son is Tom Cotton....(shhhhh)

I got my GED at age 16 and went on to be the first female funeral home manager in my county. She can go to......along with her asshole son.

Off rant.

that I left Texas for California and to some that's kind of cool. 👍

I don't think anyone had any expectations because we were not around...out of sight/out of mind.

The Tikkis

be a manager at Safeway.

I’m an engineer.

that many expected great things of me. I had no idea, and no desire for fame and fortune.

Just trying to get from birth to earth with as little trouble as possible. It's been a happy life and it appears it will continue to be so.

At the time I graduated from high school we were still pretty much expecting women to marry and have kids as a career. I didn’t know where I was going after college and made no useful plans.

I had no idea I would end up practicing law.

expectations.

I think by their standards, probably not. I'm not rich, but I'm my own boss. I don't care much about material goods like cars (vehicles are just big tools to me). I have no kids, but I never wanted them. Most importantly, I've never cared about their opinions and disliked most of them while I was in school, so I've never been to a reunion and pissed them off several years ago when I refused to respond to any FB requests, letters sent to my mother, etc. One of my few friends from that time I'm FB friends with, directed me to an online discussion about trying to find various classmates for an upcoming reunion, and one comment said something like, "TlalocW is being a real jerk and hiding. He even told his mother not to tell anyone who called what city/state he lives."

That said, I am entertaining at my high school's prom at the end of the month. Gotta pay me to show up.

TlalocW

The north side was where all the rich candy asses lived. There was a lot of racism and class bigotry when I went to high school. Someone even asked me if I was in "N" lover. They asked me if I was a Jew. I had to fight these suckers. I ended up working in the music business for many years doing well and appearing on major television shows as a musician. I recently went back to a high school reunion. Folks were nice to me that would have never been nice to me in school. I didn't have to say anything but it was obvious they were jealous as hell. I loved it. I hate to gloat like that but when you're dealing with racism and bigotry in the south at that time it was despicable. They just couldn't understand back then how I could be white and not hate people who were not like me.
At first I didn't want to go to the reunion but I am so glad I did.

The cliques at school didn't help.

Within 4 years, I had a degree in mathematics. The atmosphere at my high school was so toxic, that once I got out of there, I thrived.

I think the class of the High School I graduated from (1970) held no expectations of me at all.

I ran into one classmate a year later in Boston and he semi-recognized me, but forgot my name. 45 years later, the President of the United States greeted both of us by our first names, and I bet my classmate STILL wouldn't know mine. Fine with me.

As for the rest of them, I assume the rich guys are still rich, the VIP sons probably all doing fine due to family connections, and the rest of us, basically who knows or cares, but would you like to make an alumni contribution (no, I would not, go hit on the Bush family).

I applaud you for any successes you have achieved in life. Certainly starting from that baseline and turning your life into something positive is commendable. But really the only person's expectations you have to meet or exceed are your own.

Mostly ignored, although I earned good grades. My greatest accomplishment was going to the senior prom with my best friend's out of town cousin. He was gorgeous. The next week, I had people that would never talk to me otherwise, cheerleaders and such, coming up to ask, who was that guy?

Same here for escaping this little racist, judgmental, midwestern town. I moved from there to MN, back to KY, to OH, to CA, now back to KY. Over that time, I began my own successful business, and been at it 25 years now.

Have no desire to go back there, although still have some family there, and my parents and sisters are buried there. I just have very few good memories.....

my high school classmates ever thought twice about me. I was in that vast neither popular nor unpopular area of high school. I disliked it and couldn’t wait to leave. I was an underachiever and probably have not lived up to my potential. And while we’re on the subject of high school, a big F U to my guidance counselor, whose expectations I surely did exceed - thanks for nothing!