The question of whether a life is “successful” or “wasted” (if these are the appropriate antonyms) is a pretty complicated one. It’s a short step to the glass half-full/-empty dilemma and I wonder if that 50% figure you mention is just a truistic reflection of that.

I hated high school (wagged lot of it but still managed to pass all exams). Nobody ever said “You’re smart, so really you can have any career you choose.” Was sent on a tour of RNSH in the hope I’d become a nurse. No chance. I hated the sight of blood. Went to uni under pressure to become a teacher. Dropped out. Invited back. Dropped out again.

I can’t remember who told me that 50% of gifted children lead wasted lives, but it sprang to mind when I saw one of my former OC classmates driving a bus years later.

Lucky for me, I stumbled into a great career and my life has been very interesting. Investigative journalist, then other interesting developments.

My kids are all blessed/cursed with high IQ and I made it my mission to keep them challenged enough with new adventures to try and keep them out of trouble. (I knew how easy it was for me to get into mischief when I was bored.)

They’ve lived and been schooled in multiple states – and countries – and I’ve made a very real effort to give them all the support I’d have liked when I was young.

Even with the benefit of hindsight, I’m still not sure whether attending Artarmon OC was a good thing for me or not. I’m extremely happy with my adult life, but I think that’s more a case of good luck than good management.

There was nothing simple about childhood in the 60s. Mind you, I can’t think of a better decade than the 70s for being a teenager. :)

Did you buy hot chips and potato scallops from the fish and chip shop opposite the train station? I almost missed my train a few times, waiting for an after-school scallop.

A reasonable number of people came and quite a few more provided info about themselves. I can’t remember the actual numbers.

The thing that struck me about what people did since is first the gender differential, including the quite surprising (to me) number of girls who went into nursing (maybe it wasn’t many but to me it was surprising that anyone would! – early independence was part of the attraction, I think) and secondly, a sign of the era, how many of the boys had ended up in computing/IT. Quite a few of the girls were now teaching, though mostly as jobs compatible with motherhood – by our cohort the Department of Education had practically stopped hiring.

Did many people attend the reunion? Of all the schools I went to, that’s the only where I’d be interested in hearing what the kids did in their adult lives.