These are "my" people. You don't touch them.

I went back to my high school's homepage, 'cause I was feelings nostalgic and sentimental, clicked on "testimonials" and read a few stories of past students and their life after school. Let's just say, after reading and some reflection, I realized how blessed and privileged I was to attend such a school and be surrounded by caring, capable and knowledgeable teachers, and bright and driven peers (at least in my classes I took).

Where have my peers and other alumni gone?

• Football (D-I) player at United States Naval Academy.
• Baseball (D-I) player at Lafayette College (all-time leader in a few statistics, four year starter) now attending University of Pennsylvania for a Masters in Biotechnology.
• My class valedictorian, raised by a single mother, attended University of Illinois (Honors College, James Scholar) graduated in three years later to attend Case Western Medical School. He'll be a full-fledged medical doctor before his 28th birthday.
• My class salutadictorian went to Butler University attaining a Doctoral in Pharmacy 
• Another Butler University alum graduated from Northwestern University -The Feinberg School of Medicine. He's now a practicing physical therapist.
• A childhood friend of mine went to University of Illinois (Departmental Honors) later to attend pharmacy school at University of Illinois-Chicago. Made the Dean's List each semester.
• *Notre Dame Basketball walk-on now attends Cornell University Law. Schools that he turned down to be a walk-on at Notre Dame (his dad attended as did his older sister, so he grew up admiring the Fighting Irish): Stanford, Yale, Harvard, Colgate - among others. Oddly enough he turned them down like it wasn't that hard of a decision. "Yea, I know many are prestigious, but they aren't Notre Dame." 
• Out of the my brother's peers that I know of (both were top 10 in their graduating class), one became a priest (father is a deacon) and now preaches the gospel at an inner-city parish.
• Another peer of my brother, who was the valedictorian, attended Northwestern University. 
• Two of my peers -- one was so brilliant that my religious studies teacher urged him to get a doctoral and teach university, the other the opposite -- entered the military. One entered the Marine Corps (following his brother's footsteps), the other the Navy. The one in the Navy was stationed in Spain, got married and now has two kids. The Marine was stationed in Japan; he's now an accountant, graduating from a local university - all tuition paid by the GI Bill.

In perspective, my graduating class, and many before it and after, came nowhere near that of St. Ignatius Prep's matriculation, which has sent kids to almost every Ivy (and institutions that have never fallen on most of my classmates' ears) according to its latest statics. The high school I attended also did not have this degree of academic counseling. Not surprisingly, according to one of my friends who went to a rival school my high school was, initially, deemed as "the poor" school since it was built to accommodate families that were more blue collared as opposed to the families with more wealth (lawyers, doctors etc.) who lived in neighborhoods that were approximately a 20 minute drive away.

My high school isn't located on the Northeastern side of the States, or LA prep, so no group of parents or tradition of sending kids to top LAC's, privates or Ivies. It's not even considered "elite" (it's a parochial school, and because of this it's not ranked since my city's newspapers only rank publics). Many of the schools I've listed aren't "elite" besides UPenn and Cornell which were attended after undergraduate. Illinois is a good state school, but it's still looked down upon since, well, it's a state school even of it's a "Public Ivy." Notre Dame could probably be seen as an "elite" private, but Butler and Lafayette aren't - they're considered solid privates. For perspective, Notre Dame could compete with Duke with academics, but Duke would be the 'better' of the two academically.

What my high school did have was a very solid curriculum. It was a prep school, so it had to have that type of preparation if it wanted to be considered an appeal to families. I would guess the high school system that it belongs to - the Archdiocese of Chicago - is the area's version of whatever private school system the Northeastern region has. The Chicagoland area does have fine public high schools like New Trier, located on the north suburbs,  and Hinsdale, located in the western suburbs that have students attend elite LAC's, Ivies and elite privates. Not surprisingly these schools were located in the more wealthier suburbs.

The only family in my school that might resemble Northeastern's mentality of sending their kids to top privates, and later to top graduate schools (aka "the right schools") would be the Notre Dame walk-on. Both of his parents are attorneys who opened their own practice (only the dad attended an elite program - University of Chicago MBA); add to the fact his dad grew up in Connecticut, has his own fishing boat and loves marlin fishing. The mom of the walk-on was heavily, I mean heavily, involved in the community. She was president of several boards - one being the president of his grade school's board, another the community's baseball league. She was also an AAU assistant coach and president of a local union organization for a time. This woman has mad leadership skills once you look at her resume - better than Hilary Clinton, that's for sure (I couldn't hep it).

I'll also put my high school's profile into better context.

When I graduated it was a mix of white working class, white middle-class, Mexican and Polish immigrants. In a way it was ethnically diverse, but nowhere near the crayola box that could be found in many Californian or New Jersey high schools. The area it was located in, as one "transferred" Navy personnel put it (from what I understood the Navy 'sentenced' her to the Midwest out of a court-martial -- or something) - who spent most of her life on the east coast - "the seventh circle of hell," due to the area's ethnic segregation. Little did she know it was segregated out of choice (for the most part). The Navy personnel hadn't even lived in the area for six months and she was already spewing about its lack of racial integration (daughter married an Hispanic). Some people really do think the middle America is hell. Fair enough. It's not an out-of-touch Utopia, so I understood her frustration.

What I listed above were those who have met academic and/or career success. Many did not. Many did not become professionals in jobs that are considered white collar or "cool" (no actors, photographers, directors, punk-band members or models). Numerous entered the trades as electricians and mechanics. Many of these would probably not be considered "college material." And that's okay. This world needs people to fill such jobs. Some became policemen and firefighters. Some joined the military, as noted above. Many alum, in a way, "disappeared" without any updates on their lives. Maybe they've found success; maybe their failures. Who knows.

No parent that I knew were doctors, only one parent was a professor and none were in the entertainment business. Most worked in blue-collar jobs, were homemakers or were in careers that would be considered "Midwestern" aka insurance.

The top students performed like any top student would. My school, I think, never had anyone attend an Ivy or an elite LAC, but other schools in the system did. Most top performers in my school saw Northwestern, University of Chicago, University of Illinois, Notre Dame and Washington University in St. Louis as their destinations. The Patriot League occasionally reached into my school's athletics for strong student-athletes. The top athletes went to the Big Ten.

To be honest, I don't think most of the top students - and I definitely feel this applies to most of my graduating class - knew about the liberal arts schools located in the Midwest, or what a liberal arts college was. You see, my parents were like most (immigrant) middle-class (Asian) parents: Persistent on their children to attain good grades in order to get into a 'good' college/university. My dad literally has folders for almost every LAC within the region. Grinnell, Carleton, Knox, Wheaton, Illinois Wesleyan, Oberlin, St. Olaf (my favorite campus tour), DePauw, Kalamazoo, Kenyon, Beloit etc. I remember chuckling when I first read the name Gustavus Adolphus. He even had folders for music schools when we weren't even majoring in music, theater or the performing arts! Take for instance the Curtis Institute and Eastman School of Music. The man had done his homework. Thanks, dad!

The one family that did send most of their kids to the Ivies and "elites"? My cousins who were raised in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Their father is an engineering professor; their mother is a chemist turned homemaker. The UP has the topographic diversity like the Northeast, but it's clearly not he Northeast and the population is sparse. The eldest went to Cornell for engineering, attended Rice University for her doctorate and now is doing a post-doc. The youngest is currently attending UPenn (viewed to some as the most pre-professional out of the Ivies, which is looked own upon). The second eldest attended University of Michigan (elite public), dropped out of his doctoral program at Renseelaer Polytechnic Institute to accept a job at his start-up company (co-founder) which then was bought by Yahoo!, to later work for Yahoo!. The second youngest attended Michigan State (not elite).

It really comes down to the culture. Add in a given student's innate ability to perform academically (Lafayette baseball star), to dream (my class valedictorian) and genetics (cousins). I cannot stress the difference in how my family (dad's side at least) saw higher education (we each saw college as the next natural step - and to aim as high as possible for admittance), how families of the lower-middle saw college as a path to the America Dream and how others saw higher education as a foreign land (my grade school basketball coach who was an electrician by trade).

With that picture painted, I'm inspired. I'm humbled. One day I hope to add my own "testimonial" to the page. Many of the "success" stories wouldn't be considered anything special (Northeast corridor) or be thought of as "conventional" (LA mindset), but they're very special to me. These aren't famous/established people in the entertainment world or part the academia elite. And that's a good thing.

*Some high school players get the chance to transfer, for a single year, to a prep school to further attract scouts in hopes for a (better) basketball offer(s) -- the Notre Dame walk-on had an opportunity to play at a New England "power house" conference his senior year, but declined the chance. He was too attached to his high school team & school. Now I'm impressed, really, with this young man. He had the choice of attending several tip-top ranked universities - full out prestige card (Stanford, Harvard, Yale) - where he would've been a starter (at least at the Ivies), but chose Notre Dame and became a walk-on. He could've left our small parochial school but chose to stay (and 'upped' his general atmosphere to a more 'sophisticated' one) to help lead the basketball team his senior year. This kid was in my AP European History class, had a smile on his face every time I saw him, and I'm glad to say I got to experience his personality and his intelligence first hand. He really is a stand-out kid. Oh, and his parents made his younger sister take the (yellow) bus, sometimes public transportation, to school.

UPDATE: Recently a student ('15) signed a LOI to play baseball at Cornell.