I went to high school with this guy whom I'll call: Some Guy, and he had a girlfriend in high school and they were in a long distance relationship except for during the summers while they were in undergraduate. Anyway, she was a 10 if such a thing exists, so I'll call her: Dime Piece. Some Guy broke up with Dime Piece right before starting medical school because he knew the demands of medical school would be all encompassing.
You're 63 years old. The guy now is 62-63 and the Dime Piece is now a former Dime Piece as she's also 62-63. We don't know how well this woman aged. Her looks did go downhill at some point. In a better case scenario, she stayed physically active into her 30s and early 40s. Very few women will reach 50 looking attractive.
Junior and senior years of high school were the tail end of the 1970s, maybe 1980. Undergraduate was probably 1979-1983.
You didn't provide details on why this high school couple didn't choose to go to the same college. If they were really serious about each other and wanted to see if they were going to spend a lifetime together, they would have at least done that. Back in the late 1970s/early 1980s, people did get married earlier in life. If she was a Dime Piece in looks, then I would think the guy would be willing to see this relationship through. If they attended the same college and broke up while in college, then it truly wasn't meant to be.
Going to the same college would have avoided the long distance relationship while they were in college. The end of high school was a good time for this couple to part ways. I would assess that Some Guy broke up with the Dime Piece at the wrong time.
Doing a long distance relationship with the technology of 1979-1983 (landline telephones and postal mail) was not a good idea. Long distance relationships in the 2000s-2020s also haven't been a good idea, but at least the 2000s-2020s decades have had better technologies for communicating.
I think his breakup excuse was weak. It's a decision that I don't understand in any way. Trying to start a new romantic relationship while dealing with the demands of medical school is more difficult than keeping up a relationship with a girlfriend/wife he's known since high school or a girlfriend he met on a college campus while in undergrad is an easier path.
Fast forward, Some Guy becomes an MD and marries another MD who is a 5 and they have a son. While Some Guy and his wife both have a lot of money, Some Guy passed up on Dime Piece to be with a 5! Do you think he messed up, or not?
Generally, I do think he messed up. I can think of at least 4 paths in his mating life that would have had strong potential to have brought him greater happiness over the course of his life than what did actually happen for him.
1. He stays with his high school girlfriend, they go to the same college together, and their relationship survives the college years. They likely get married around the end of college and he enters medical school with a Dime Piece wife who is emotionally supportive of him while he's in medical school. Maybe her personality is so good that she's willing to carry the financial load for a short period of time while he's in medical school. He gets to enjoy her Dime Piece looks until they fade once she has his 1-3 kids or reaches 35-40. The hope is that she stays physically fit as she ages and likely has kids. If the marriage stays together and is of reasonable quality, this could have been a good path. If it ends in divorce at some point during the 1980s-early 2000s (when most Boomers got divorced), then this could have had a lot of downsides with alimony, child support, and then re-dating in his 40s. As a divorced 40 something MDs in the 2000s, he might also have been able to get a 20 something girlfriend then too. We don't know what happens then.
2. He stays with his high school girlfriend, they go to the same college together, and the relationship fails during the college years. He's on a college campus with plenty of options. He dates multiple people for a time in college and finds a girlfriend during college. Perhaps she's not a 10 but maybe she's a 7-8.5. He ends college with an above average looking girlfriend and this relationship works out while he's in medical school. They either get married while he's in medical school or while he's a new MD. She isn't attending medical school. Depending on the personality fit, this could work well too and likely better than marrying a feminist-careerist MD with mediocre looks.
3. He and his high school girlfriend part ways at the end of high school. This spares him the effort of doing a long distance relationship with early 1980s technology. They go to separate colleges and perhaps they stay in periodic contact during the next 4 decades. This guy dates around in college and ends college with a girlfriend entering medical school. This looks a lot like option #2 above. This will likely beat marrying some mediocre looking feminist-careerist MD woman who only has time to pop out 1 kid in her 30s because she wasted her most fertile years on academia and her career.
4. He and his high school girlfriend part ways at the end of high school. No relationship that he starts in either college or medical school turns out to be a long lasting relationship. As a practicing MD, he finds some long lasting relationship. This will likely beat marrying some mediocre looking feminist-careerist MD woman who only has time to pop out 1 kid in her 30s because she wasted her most fertile years on academia and her career.
This is what Some Guy actually did and here's what his life has looked like for the past 3+ decades.
He met some woman after completing his MD (either in residency or after completing residency) either at his workplace or some medical industry event. That's such a beta male thing to do. It shows me that he likely didn't develop good cold approaching skills. In the context of the 1980s, being a beta male wasn't as much of a negative as post 2000, but it's still not a good look.
His MD feminist-careerist wife has been both mediocre looking and likely has a mediocre to unpleasant personality. He's had to spend the last 30+ y ears living with that. She has probably never had genuine burning desire for him, likely how she would have had genuine burning desire for a 6'0"+ muscular, low body fat, tanned guy that she could have met at a Spring Break style foam cannon party. She's likely been frigid in the bedroom, hasn't cooked or cleaned too much, or been supportive of him and his goals. She was likely an absentee mother during her son's formative years, as he likely spent a lot of time in daycare or with babysitters. Perhaps there were grandparents that could have given the son good family time in a better case scenario.
The blue pilled world will probably admire the fact that 2 MD's stayed together 30+ years and raised a son into adulthood. Even though a marriage lasts a long time, it doesn't mean that it is a quality marriage. My sense is that these 2 MD's haven't have that great of a marriage. She likely placed her own needs above his and her career likely was her priority over having children and being a good mother. We also don't know how much infidelity happened in this marriage. I think there's a good chance he had some paid sex on the side or possibly had an affair without directly paying for it. She might have also had sex with a pool boy, one's of her son's friends once her son reached the 18-24 age range, or some other attractive guy.
If he had spent his life with a woman with only a bachelor's degree who had more limited career ambitions (a possibility mainly from Paths 2-3 above, or maybe from Path 1 with his Dime Piece he met from high school), he likely would have enjoyed his marriage and enjoyed his life more. If he wanted to meet a woman who had better wifely skilled at the workplace, he could have found a wife from one of the nurses or medical assistants in the hospital or a private practice where he worked (this would have been one way Path 4 above was realized). Some of the nurses might have had a bachelor's degree but medical assistants typically have a trade school certification. These will be less careerist options. Millennial nurses have gotten worse than the late Boomer or Gen X nurses he would have met in the 1980s-1990s though.