I went to a fairly small high school (about 400 kids total). You needed to take a test and get a certain score to get in, so mostly everyone was a bit nerdy.

There was a frat atmosphere amongst the dudes in my grade. There were only 100 kids in the grade and everyone knew each other, each others business. Word would spread around fast. I was a shy kid coming in from a conservative family. I was a short, very skinny kid just trying to find my way around.

Suddenly I found myself atop the social food chain just because kids thought I was funny. I saw this as a way to fit in, so I played it up, exaggerated and became overly dramatic to get some laughs. I wasn't even studying anymore, I was just focusing on being entertaining and funny during classes. Friends would try to take as many of the same classes as me just to join in on the fun. My social status skyrocketed and it felt like a high I never experienced. It felt good to have people around you make you feel like the man all the time.

Despite all that, I was still awkward around girls, and I was still very skinny. I never ended up with a girlfriend. Most of the girls were unattractive but there were a few that weren't, and EVERY guy went after them. Little did I know at the time, it was straight up beer goggles, when there were only 50 girls in the grade, a 7/10 looked like a 9/10.

Anyway fast forward to after high school, everyone moves onto college but still remain in close touch. I still had my circle of friends and still felt like a star. Then one day it hit me, I was 25 and haven't had a relationship since middle school. And it was going to continue that way if I kept hanging out with the same friends. All the hanging out, group chats, fantasy football seasons together, masked the fact that we were fucking unattractive losers in the real world and no body gave a fuck about us. All the inside jokes we thought were so funny had meant jack shit to people outside. Girls at the bars would look at us like a bunch of outcasts and I was the only one that seemed to notice.

One day I said fuck it, I started going on dating apps, I started going to clubs by myself. I started studying material from this reddit. I read the book "Squat Everyday" and started working out every single day. I was beginning to date attractive girls, shit I never expected. They were way more attractive than the girls from high school. I focused on my financial goals and hit milestone after milestone. I started spending time with people who were successful and attractive, which led to more dating and business opportunities. Things just kept snowballing the right way.

I wanted to share this for the people out there that are knowingly or unknowingly "stuck" in their social circle because of their high school, college days. It took a long time until I started objectively looking at my friends and realize the truth. The truth was we were all unattractive, group of dudes who never improve ourselves because we always fucking laugh, hype each other up and feel comfort by being in the group.

Where are those friends now? They actually never ended up dating anyone OUTSIDE their social circle. They all married girls from the same high school, yes even after going through college, the workplace, the best shot they had was from high school. Now all my high school friends see me as a traitor for leaving the group.

Chillin with my high school buddies made me feel like the man and that everything was going well. It wasn't until I stopped investing time in them that I started to see reality and really grow up. It was very hard to leave them, but I'm happy I did.