30 People Share The Juiciest Details About How Their High School Crush Ended Up As Adults

We’re here for the gist!

Jesse

• Published in Interesting
• January 14, 2023

High school crushes are one of the most exciting phenomena ever. The truth is, having a high school crush is almost a staple thing everyone experiences, regardless of how silly they may seem.

We’ve all had the one person that gave us butterflies just at the thought of them, not to mention those crazy wobbly legs and red hues on our cheeks. 

Asides from having crushes of our own, we’ve lived vicariously through movie characters. We bet you watched the high school rom-com and encouraged one kid over the screen to tell their crush how they feel about them after months of pining over them.

The most incredible thing, however, is seeing your high school crush years later and having a good laugh at the days when they had such a hold on you.

One Redditor wanted to remind others about those crazy days of blushing and being tongue-tied. They asked, "How did your high school crush turn out as an adult?"

Redditors couldn’t hold themselves back from sharing. And we can tell you for free they sure were some juicy responses.

We’ve compiled the most interesting responses shared, so grab some popcorn and saddle up for a ride!

1. He had a rollercoaster of a life

I admire him more than ever, and more than most people I know, but can't wrap my head around why I ever found him physically attractive. Maybe it was always just his heart.

By age 25, he had a PhD, a wife, and was a captain in the navy. By 30, he had two PhDs, a small business where he made a metric a*s-ton of money, and his wife was pregnant. By 31 he was diagnosed with stage-4 skin cancer that swiftly spread to his lymph nodes, bones, esophagus, and a few other places. He was told he had minimal chance of making it 5 more years. Even with the best health insurance money can buy, it still basically wiped him out.

Seven years later, he's living a comfortable but not extravagant life as a civilian contractor for the navy, same wife and two happy healthy kids, and spends most of his free time advocating for better public health care.

2. My high school ex randomly sent me a text years after we split up

The text went, "I know you don't like metal, but I thought you'd like this" and a link to a clarinet cover of a metal song (I played in HS).

Little did he know that I hated playing clarinet and I was now a total metal head.

3. Became a leading surgeon in a major city.

Pretty impressive, if you ask us!

4. My friends high school crush was Tom Holland.

Like they went to the same school

We can relate. It’s Tom Holland; nobody can fault this crush.

5. My crush turned into a self-righteous pr*ck who still lives with his parents.

He became livid when he found out my husband and I had a baby. I apparently was supposed to be his back-up plan if he couldn’t find anyone better.

6. I believe he’s moved away and is a teacher now.

This person definitely deserves a lot better.

7. Still super hot

She married some loser and has a few kids with him. That loser was me. Just celebrated 22 years of marriage.

8. The guy I crushed on for 2 and a half years did not end up turning out great. The second however...

I'm still friends with his younger sister, so I know that he recently acquired his third DUI and his second divorce. He's currently living in his friend's basement and occasionally works for his friend's moving company as a mover, but only when he feels like it. He spends all his money on booze and owes the two moms of his 5 kids tons of child support. But man, was he hot in high school.

My second crush in high school is the only reason I got over my first crush. He's currently doing great, mostly because he gets to be married to me for going on 20 years :D.

You’ve just gotta love second crushes

9. She passed away our senior year, six months after she agreed to marry me after we graduated

How tragic!

10. Overdosed and died last year.

I got to see him before he was taken off life support with a really good mutual friend we shared (organ donor too). It was surreal seeing him dwarfed by all these machines. He had one the largest hearts I’ve ever come across.

A painful loss, no doubt.

11. Multiple degrees, on track to being a full-time educator, mother of two, and my wife

Congratulations are in order!

12. Still a ten for looks.

I'm sure she kept on as the amazing, kind person she is. She moved to another country, speaks multiple languages and is more successful than I imagined. She seems happy but we haven't talked since the time I told her how I felt about her about 20 years ago.

13. Dead by 32, drugs

Say NO to Drugs!

14. My only GF in high school was my crush.

Her mom banned her from dating me after about a year because my GF admitted to her mom that we were fooling around. This was about 20 years ago.

She’s still living with her mom, no kids, and as far as I know never again dated seriously after her mom broke us up. Still has the same job from high school too. It’s like her mom went way into protective overdrive and my former GF never grew up.

15. Still cute as heck, one of the kindest and most sensitive people I know, and still one of my best friends 15 years later

A possible love story. We’re rooting for them!

16. She is actually a very successful artist and an art teacher at a renowned university in France

She even got decorated for her work (Chevalier des arts et des lettres)

17. She worked with the Obama administration and got married to some politician’s son

She is happy and that’s the only thing that matters, oh she was also our schools Valedictorian she was so busy with her job she could not organizeour high school reunion so that’s a plus. I wasn’t head over heels for her I admired her but I knew I wasn’t for her.

Then there’s another crush of mine, we ran into each other years after graduation at grocery store. After talking I asked her out to dinner at my house, I pull out all the stops I buy rainbow trout filets and make all the fixings.

6:30 rolls around I open the door and “who the hell is this man behind her?” Oh this is my fiancé , she tells (neglected to tell me about) me. Turns out they wanted to sell me on some MLM thing. She tried to cross the threshold I put my arm out and asked them politely to leave. I turned away from the door and had my saddest meal I ever ate.

18. Became a professional cheerleader, Died of breast cancer at 34.

Googling names from high school is crazy!

Cancer strikes again. Terrible!

19. She's married with a couple of kids now, so pretty standard life I guess.

I briefly worked with mine and didn't realise it was her until I left for another job. She looked almost unrecognisable, but it was 15 years after I last saw her.

20. Went on to be a teenaged model for hair products

That's not all...

She also graduated from Yale, toured Europe, opened her own successful ceramics company that is sold worldwide and is often written up in magazines. Makes me feel like s**t every time I think of her

21. He’s 32 and still works at the same pizza place and is a conspiracy theorist

I feel like I dodged a bullet.

At least he can whip up a nice Pizza.

22. Haha, my husband!

Our first marriages didn't work out and we reconnected after our divorces. If only I would have confessed I had a crush on him in high school, might have saved myself a lot of trouble... Lol

The second time was the charm.

23. Hot douche who doesn’t really do much except go to the gym.

To be fair, that’s how he was in high school, I just liked it back then.

24. An insanely talented molecular biology researcher at Boston

And she’s still insanely attractive

He should totally hit her up.

25. He’s an attractive gay man.

 I am none of those things.

26. Pretty good. Seems to have her life together, although she had a few setbacks.

She's gone back to uni since job prospects in here field kinda sucked, but seems to be really enjoying it. She's dating me though, so clearly her judgement sucks.

A win for sure.

27. One of them is homeless and a druggie. The other one is famous in his home country, is a best selling author

I guess they balance one another out.

28. My English teacher still looks fine as f**k

We certainly didn't see this coming.

29. Began acting

It’s weird - every so often I’ll see a commercial or something and be like “oh, hey, I know them!” My crush is an incredibly sweet person, so I’m glad.

30. I had three. One from the first two years and two from the last two.

The first one is now F to M trans, who walked to Colorado to join a cult/commune. He is now in Arizona recording rap albums.

The second girl moved to Florida and lives in a swamp. She periodically hits me up to tell me she misses me, how dumb I was that I didn't follow through, that we should get married.

The third was a missionary. She wasn't really into it once she grew up, came back home and I introduced her to one of my closest friends. They've been married for 15 years.

High school crushes are some of the most memorable crushes a person will ever have. That’s why these people had no problem remembering them.

We bet reading this took you down memory lane too. Let’s have a little fun! Tell us about how your high school crush turned out in the comments below.

Jesse