I'm curious, did the friends who grew up and became successful (working for NASA, getting PHD's, becoming lawyers, etc..), live in a particular area, or grow up around the same time?
It seems like burnouts and imprisonment/deaths likely happened in America. I'm basing this off of nothing other than my predetermined bias about being an American myself.
For myself, going back to the elementary school days, I had a group of maybe like 4 kids, with the constant wildcards coming and going.
1. Became a jock in high school but still tried to skate. Got really into painkillers and started burning out. Got a really nice job as a union ironworker, thanks to his dad, but lost the job due to his drug addiction. Think he went to rehab and got clean. Hit me up a few years ago wanting to get into surfing, and I learned how to surf in my mid-20's with this guy. Now a total surfer, works for Amazon, and doesn't skate at all.
2. Was adopted by his uncle as a toddler, never knew his real parents. Always had a chip on his soldier (he was what we would call a midget back in those days), but his uncle would always give him like $100 to go skating for the day. He quit after learning how to do fs nosegrinds, and became a jigalow. We haven't talked in about 20 years.
3. Quit skating shortly after starting high school. Was always a really smart kid, we were academic rivals all throughout school. He joined the Airforce after graduating and has been in since. Just had his first kid. Haven't talked to him in years, but social media kept me in the loop.