In high school, I had a several groups of friends, but maybe one of the closer ones was made up of a couple of girls I still speak to (Brandy will be my MOH and Carin's been asked to play the ceremony music), and then there was Margot.
We liked Margot well enough, but you couldn't go anywhere with her. If she wasn't being loud and obnoxious, she acted like a moron. This is pretty much fine on school grounds and in private homes, but waitresses and shop clerks will kick a bunch of teenagers out of a place for less.
Margot and Carin were also friends with Nick and Jeremy, and so they became a good part of our company. The two guys were a year ahead of us. Both of them were your angsty Wiccan types. At the time, no one recognised this for what it was, and I especially spent a lot of time doing what all high school kids do, spending a lot of time talking about "deep issues". I remember talking Nick out of killing himself at least twice via e-mail (this was before instant messenger really caught on).
Nick was an odd guy. He was sweet and nice and everything, but a really odd dork. He dated his way through the all of us except me, because I caught him in advance and told him there was no way. He was in a near fatal car accident his senior year, but after graduation I don't really know what became of him.
Jeremy, on the other hand, was (last I knew) told by his doctor that if he didn't give up caffiene was going to die. He gained something in the realm of a hundred pounds (not that he was thin to begin with) and was engaged to a freshman cheerleader from a neighboring school district.
Today, I think I found all three of them again. I'm not certain about Nick, but I know I've found the other two. They have neither changed, nor gone on with their lives. The only thing that's happened to Jeremy is that the wedding is only recently officially postponed. Four years have passed, they are still living the exact same lives they did in high school.
This is why I think that people who quit college to go back to their hometowns and work are really not fulfilling their destinies. If you wanted to go to college, start a new life, get out of the state (so many things I have heard from the people I know going back) what on earth are you doing going back to live in the same high school social scene you tried so desperately to get away from? I understand, college doesn't work for everyone, but when talented, independant people drive back from Chicago every weekend to drink with their friends from their freaking high school?
Waste of talent, waste of life.