Recently, redditor u/After_Crab_1921 asked, "What happened to the smartest kid in your class?" People shared stories about what happened to the "smartest kid" in class, and they range from seriously surprising to actually heartbreaking. Here are some of the most shocking responses:
1. "He got a full ride to Harvard. Did an internship his first summer at Intel and was killed by a drunk driver a few weeks after arriving in California. Couldn’t believe it when it happened 25 years ago. Still can’t really."
2. "There were two. They were twins. They're both geneticists now with PhDs, and they work at the same university."
3. "The smartest in my class were twins, too. They would get perfect or almost perfect grades in every subject. Like, 100% on almost every test or assignment, whether it was a math test or history paper. Did a ton of volunteer hours, too. They both got accepted into Cambridge University’s med program. I think only five or ten applicants got accepted from all of Canada. One’s a neurosurgeon, and the other's a cardiologist now."
4. "Smartest guy from my high school became an actual rocket scientist."
5. "He's in jail for murder. It came as a surprise. He was a really nice, friendly guy. I didn't expect him to ever be violent."
"In school, he was known for being super friendly and helpful to all the other students in class — even held study groups and stuff. A few years later, I read he killed his business partner and that he got connected to a bunch of fraud and embezzlement cases."
6. "The smartest kid in my school was really popular and was one of my closest friends. But when he graduated, he left everyone and everything behind — including his family. He even changed his name."
"I found out this little bit of information because a friend went to an academic conference and showed me a group photo, and he was in it. He kept his first name, but his last name was an anagram of his original name."
7. "I believe he works for NASA. He deleted his Facebook a while ago (like the smartest kid in our class would do), but that’s what he was doing last I checked."
8. "Died from a brain tumor right after he graduated high school. He was dang smart. Could play the piano upside down, too."
9. "There are two. I remember one of them crying when they got an A- on a test in, like, 7th grade. One of them (the one who cried) is an executive at a Fortune 500 company. Nothing special but making a lot of money. The other one is a brain surgeon."
10. "Fentanyl happened to her. Married the most abusive guy ever and had three kids. They're now divorced."
11. "She worked at Johns Hopkins doing research with psilocybin."
12. "He moved to Poland and became a molecular biologist."
13. "After never having even smoked a cigarette or drank alcohol in high school, straight As all the way through, he got a full ride to a really good university. As a freshman, he dropped acid, walked out in front of a car, and was killed."
14. "He went to MIT, works for Apple, and has a very expensive home in California. He also has a wife and four kids and seems to be very happy. I remember he was programming games in high school and was valedictorian. A big nerd who became a wealthy big nerd."
15. "The smartest kid I knew ended up drowning, tragically, right after we graduated. I wish I could have seen him make an impact on the world."
16. "My best friend (at the time; we drifted apart and speak only rarely now). He got a PhD at Harvard, studied science in Antarctica, and now teaches at an Ivy League university."
17. "Became a superstar pediatric neurosurgeon. Most confident person I’ve ever met. Guess you’d have to be to cut open a little kid’s skull and operate on their brain."
18. "He was smart enough to never associate with people from high school again. He has never attended a reunion, and it’s been over 30 years."
19. "I had such a big crush on her and told her. We dated, she moved across the country to study, and is now a doctor. So proud of her even though our lives changed paths."
20. "He dropped out of college to marry and support the woman he got pregnant. Now (30 years later), he owns a board game store with a large back room for mini painting and games and is a father figure to half the neurodivergent kids in town. Still married to the same woman, too. It's not a high-flying life, but he makes a difference to so many people."
21. "He is currently an aerospace engineer who played a big role in the engineering of the Canadarm."
22. "She got a PhD in neuroscience from Stanford, and I think she's a professor or associate professor somewhere now. She was possibly the sweetest girl I'd ever met. I was an intelligent underachiever, and ended up in a few AP courses with her because our teachers saw my test scores and refused to continue to let me do dumb things with my dumb friends; she was always super proud of me when I actually showed up and put some effort in and, lo and behold, got excellent marks."
"Honestly, she really turned around the last two years of high school for me."
23. "He went to Harvard Law School, then moved back and created a startup that helps make healthcare accessible in disadvantaged communities. Was a great guy then and is a great guy now."
24. "He did his undergraduate degree; he couldn’t afford a master's, etc., so he ended up working in offices for 15 years where he had to hide his intelligence around his coworkers. Finally, he founded his own company and is now in politics, where he can be the smartest person in the room and people will respect it."
"Good guy, just way above most people’s level of intelligence and has had to hide it most of his life."
25. "The one from high school disappeared. Somebody said he was working in a coffee shop while the rest of us went to college, but literally, no one ever heard from him again. The one from college launched several successful tech startups and is considered a mentor to many in Silicon Valley."
26. "She married the (now) second richest man in the world. Divorced him and is now the fourth richest human. Not bad."
27. "From one school: He was razzed (not QUITE bullied) because he wanted to be a truck driver. He later graduated as the valedictorian from our local vocational-technical school, got an associate's degree in diesel mechanics, did that for a few years, and later went back to the community college and has taught it since the late 1980s. He would have been a drastic failure as, say, a doctor or a lawyer."
"From another school: She and her husband are probably sovereign citizens. I sure wish I was making that up."
28. "He went to college for mathematics as one of the most promising young minds in the Midwest. Was in college for a year before switching to study Spanish. Dropped out a year later. He currently works at GameStop 20 minutes from his parents' house, where he lives."
"He was a good friend of mine, but I recently learned that he considered me his best friend. ... He is literally so smart and has such a talent for math, but he seems 'content' with his life. Who am I to judge?"
And finally...
29. "That was me. I'm now a stay-at-home dad of four wonderful kids and in a loving 16-year marriage. My wife is my best friend. While I may not have reached my full potential academically, I'm happy. Very happy. I realized that life is too short to care about anything other than living my life the way that I want to, not the way that I'm expected to."
What happened to the "smartest kid" in your class? Let us know in the comments below.
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.