How a Person Can Change After a Few Years

Today I was sitting in a bar drinking a cup of coffee. I noticed a Chinese barman called Kevin, and recognized him as one of my old classmates, but I couldn't imagine/believe he was the same person.
When he came near to me I asked: "Are you Kevin?"
He answered smiling."Yeah and you are Laura, aren't you?"
He has changed a lot: six years ago he was uglier and less wise than now. We had been talking for a couple of minutes about the main events of our lives. He works in a bar and he dreams of going to Spain while I study at university and plant to go to Russia this summer.
I realized how he had changed during all this time and I confess I was quite shocked because he used to be a lazy student and very talkative. No teacher could have imagined he'd be a succesful guy.
All this reminded me a lot of my old classmates: one became an hairdresser, another is a mechanic and another works on a farm. They are different people now. Maybe I didn't know them well enough or my class judged them for their lifestyles, not because  of their personalities or their practical skills.

How a Person Can Change After Some Years

Today I was sitting in a bar drinking a cup of coffee. I've (had) (either simple past tense or past perfect tense) noticed/recognised (since you knew him by name ...) a the Chinese barman called Kevin, as one of my old classmates (named Kevin), but I couldn't imagine/quite believe he was the same person as I had gone to school with.
When he arrived passed near to me I asked: "Are you Kevin?"
He answered smiling."Yeah and you are Laura, aren't you?"
He has had changed a lot: six years ago he was uglier and less wise(???) than now. We had been talking talked/chatted for a couple of minutes about the main results events/happenings in our lives. He works in a bar and he dreams to go had been dreaming of travelling to Spain while whereas I study had studied at university and I go plan to go to Russia this summer.
I realized how he had been changing during all this time and I confess I was quite shocked because he used to be a lazy student and he was very talkative/a real chatterbox at school. No one None of the teachers could had imagined he'd be succesful guy/would ever amount to anything. (well, were they wrong?)
All this reminded me a lot of my old classmates: one became an hairdresser, another is a mechanic and another a third works in on a farm/is a farm-worker. They are different completely changed people now. Maybe I didn't know enough about them, or else my class judged them for only by their exam results, not for by other aspects of personality or their practical skills.

(Not quite sure whether there is a conclusion you have reached , or whether it is just an observation with no conclusion)