We all had that one friend who seemed to always start partying first and leave the party last. But years went by, responsibilities piled up, and juggling a full time job, family and other adult things gave most of us very little choice but to make those the top priority.
Not for the party animals, though. They tried their best to resist the inevitable pull of gravity, aka maturing, until the point they either let it go, or completely changed their direction of life.
“What happened to that friend that never stopped partying?” someone asked college graduates on Reddit, and the responses started following. Buckle up for the most interesting and surprising stories!
#1
He drank with the right executives at a conference and got offered a job. He now makes three times what I do.
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#2
ran into an old friend who was like that. We were in our late 30s when that happened and chatted; turned out he partied hard until late 30s and during that time, flitted around job to job to simply fund his partying. One day he looked around and noticed that he was the old guy at the bars hanging with early 20-somethings....realized that all of the folks our age were ahead in their careers, with family/kids etc. Said that was a pretty sobering revelation and enrolled himself back into school and was in his 2nd year of engineering as he wanted to be an aerospace engineer.
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#3
Librarian, I s**t you not. And he's married and a fantastic father to his daughter.My wedding reception is coming up. He warned me that he plans to party so hard that we'll need to pull his body out of the bay.
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#4
She literally was dead for a couple minutes in the ER after a heroin od. Miraculously they managed to revive her though, after which she went to some kind of rehab, I’m not sure we kind of lost contact by that point. She’s into plants and owns several cats now.
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#5
I graduated ~15 years ago, and just saw someone I went to college with the other day. She served me at Dunkin Donuts, and has no teeth. It made me sad for her.
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#6
i am that loser...i partied till i was 34 and as i looked around the bar i ask myself ...why am i here.where did all my friends GO.....they left the bar to go get married and have kids..and work ..it was a sad realization for me
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#7
He got into med school, partied too much and fell behind and was eventually dismissed. Lost the love of his life (who was also in med school). He moved across the country, and found Jesus.
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#8
that was me.... and i'm sober seven years now.
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#9
Still parties like he’s in college and looks terrible. Horribly overweight, alcoholic, nasty girlfriends that simply use him for his money and party favors. So…not much has changed for him I guess ?
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#10
A friend of mine in college pulled a Van wilder, and spent 7 total years in college (just getting his undergrad) because he liked the partying so much. He lived in the college 'dedicated party house' that had just two modes, actively throwing a wild party, or recovering from the latest party.What was wild about him was that even though he lived a party lifestyle, he got excellent grades and took phenomenal care of himself (when he wasn't getting black out wasted and having weird sexcapades), and was the person who got me into running/marathoning.
Eventually, he finally graduated with a degree in Mechanical engineering, moved to the east coast, got married and became a born again Christian. He seems happy and successful and just had his first kid recently, but its absolutely weird seeing him post pictures of him getting adult baptized and doing mission work when I once saw him rail cocaine off of a blow up sex doll.
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#11
dude has an amazing career, wildly intelligent, has a great house in a warm area etc etc. Absolute drunk tho, i think out of the last 6 times ive spoken to him he's been sober maybe once
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#12
He became a math professor and when not teaching he travels and has backpacked all over the world.
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#13
He never stopped. He continued drinking at a crazy pace, and lost his job, his driving license, and his wife. He had to move near to a liquor store to keep drinking.He was found dead on the floor of his apartment from a hemorrhage in his stomach caused by years of alcohol abuse. He bled to death from within. He left behind two sons.
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#14
He had a work/party habit that I envied the hell out of, one week he was partying literally every day, next week once his workload increased he was back to studying (and maybe rewarding himself with a spliff or beer after a hard day of working). Now he's on the final year of med school.
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#15
He flunked out of school sophomore year. I heard he joined the Navy and got married, sounds like he cleaned himself up. So that’s nice.
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#16
Worked at a bar in college, and friends worked at other bars. So I knew a lot of people who drank *a lot.*Most went on to be in sales or some other job where interpersonal communication skills are more valued than raw academic skills. Some do very well.
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#17
They’re being paid for it now.
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#18
He died due to the negligence of the police who picked him up on his birthday to take him to the “drunk tank”. He had graduated college the year prior.It was always somewhat of a joke that he would be the one to party himself to death, so definitely was VERY sobering when it happened. He was so full of life and just kind of a funny guy to be around when you were at the same place/party. The part that makes me the most angry was that he hadn’t done anything to cause the harm that ultimately led to his death, the police who were meant to keep him safe were the ones who killed him. The civil suit on that wrapped up last year and I watched the verdict come out live while in public. It was so surreal to know who he was past “20 something killed due to negligence of police”.
Always make sure your friends are in a safe “recovery position” if you are not able to watch them after a heavy night of drinking and (further) vomiting. Never on their back. Never with the ability to ROLL on to their back. You never know when taking the extra 1 minute to get them in a safe position will be the line between them waking up the next morning or not.
#19
It was me.I drank about a handle a day for my entire 20's. I'm fairly outgoing and have a good degree from a decent school.
I failed upward via smooth talking and the house of cards crumbled eventually
The constant use takes a toll mentally and physically until it just breaks and you can't keep up.
I'm 2 years alcohol free now but I destroyed almost all of my relationships, and had to do some severe crow eating to feel good about myself again.
AA can go f**k themselves tho. Crazy lot.
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#20
He just had the breathalyzer removed from his vehicle that he crashed in when he received his 3rd DWI… small town, news spreads fast. Good & bad..#21
Parents pulled him out of college after one semester because he failed every class he was in#22
Full warning, its not good.Had 2 friends like this in uni (2017), one night we were partying at a friends house and they both were fighting on who gets to drive my car home when all 3 of us were drunk. They were blackout and I was halfway there but refused to drive because im terrified of dying in a car. I told them I'll call an uber and they proceed to try and kick my a*s and steal my keys but couldnt even walk well enough to make it over to me. Took my keys and walked home. Stopped hanging out with them. January 2020 they were out partying with their boyfriends, all of them drunk decided to leave and no one made it home. Live in a small town and most good housing is "outside city limits" I don't even know who was driving but they sped off a curve at the bottom of a hill that goes nearly straight down to a line of trees and a lake. Only know that much because that exact curve kills 5-10 people a year and at the time I lived 3 miles from where they passed and it was in the local paper. I refuse to swim at that lake anymore. As much as I didnt like them after our fight I really didnt want my literal worst nightmare to happen to them.
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#23
Sometimes I think of myself as “that one friend who never stopped partying” because I drink more than most of my friends, plus I still smoke which most of my friends seem to have outgrown (we’re all late 20s/early 30s now). But I live abroad now and have my masters and lead a research group and make a lot more money than most of my friends. In other words, I’ve done okay for myself.I realize that even though I’ve still got some healthy changes I need to make in my life, when I’m back in the states, sometimes I hang out with one friend in particular who just really kept PARTYING after college (which I have largely stopped, my drinking has migrated to like a 2-3 beers at a bar with friends). He’s just always done odd jobs after college and it didn’t occur to me until a few years ago he’s a major alcoholic and is still dating really young girls. He’s finally in group therapy and I’m really rooting for him but I dunno, his life makes me sad. Weird to think back on the times when we were all just partying to excess and seeing that some people just got stuck there. We were talking recently and he mentioned his blackouts keep getting scarier - which was concerning to hear that he’s been having drinking blackouts regularly. Even more concerning that it seemed normal to him. :(
#24
Know a few people who still party like college in their 30’s. It’s not been going so well for a few years.One has multiple part time jobs all the time to try and pay for his reckless spending. About $400/month on bars, or more. $350 car payment. Rent for a trendy area of town. Lord knows what he spends on clothes. Has many, many credit cards maxed out and not paying minimums. He is really very sad about his life.
Another is less of a financial wreck but still doesn’t make a lot of money, and spends $400+ at bars every month. Routinely shows up to work late, with a hangover and smelling strongly of vodka soda.
Neither can hold a relationship longer than a few weeks. Neither is really happy with life. Both started to look fairly unhealthy around 30 and now look like zombies and have developed more medical issues compared to the ones in our old group who moved on.
I see a lot of posts about perpetual partiers living great lives, but at least in my experience, most don’t do well at all and are unhappy.
Edit: can’t believe that I forgot the guy who died of a heroin od as well.
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#25
One is a doctor in his hometown. The other is a lawyer with multiple articles published.
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#26
He partied with the right guys and now makes very good money in sales where he parties with clients but the company pays for it.
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#27
Just got his PHD in Particle physics. Started tutoring on twitch for free. Started clothing brand, djs, holds festivals in desert.Seems like he’s doing just fine.
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#28
Works for some finance company making what I assume twice my income based on his house, car, and lifestyle. He partied and f****d off through college but if he had one thing going for him it was his ability to socialize and network, even in groups or topics he didn't know anything about. That's where I lacked. Even with my GPA and grades, I think he still would have out performed me(position wise) had I stayed in that field. Goes to show the importance of networking over actual qualifications.
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#29
One’s a doctor, one lives in a towable caravan.
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#30
I am that person. Addiction, rock bottom, AA, sobriety, life
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#31
I lived in a house with a bunch of guys. One of them was in electrical engineering. He got a job at Applebees for some extra cash and started having parties with work people after work (so 3-5am). That made it hard to make class so he dropped a semester. We all graduated and he said he would refocus on school soon, but he was having too much fun partying.I went back to college 20 years later for a football game. He is still working as a waiter at Applebees. He is the creepy guy who acts like he is best friends a with a bunch of 20 year old kids. He’s a mess.
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#32
His trust fund still pays more than twice my salary per month while he makes 200k at a large tech company with his communications degree that he got because his mom was friends with one of the board members.
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#33
He became a VP very early like in his 20’s. His job was to take clients out to bars, dinner, sports events, and the strip clubs after. Things were great. Got married, had two kids.At some point the 5 nights a week of partying caught up to him and he was a full blown alcoholic. He also got addicted to drugs.
Sold his car collection to tote the note places for a fraction of what they were worth. Wife and kids left. Last I heard he had a pity job at a friend’s company and even there he was asking for advances on his check.
Sucks. I was with him the first time he got drunk and always felt kind of responsible.
#34
He decided to do a commercial pilot license. Spent so much money on the training and the partying that his debts overtook him. Here, most airlines don't accept pilot candidates with outstanding debts or criminal records. He never got to fly a plane. He still owes a lot of people small to medium amounts of money.Accepted a menial job writing technical manuals
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#35
He failed and got f****d over by debts
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#36
Works for an investment bank and was published in the FT recently. Unless their habits have changed, that article was started an hour and a half before deadline and they did several 'cheeky bumps' throughout to keep them 'focused'
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#37
I briefly "dated" someone who was a constant partier and our dating was brief simply because he was always drunk when he came to see me. I Googled him out of mere curiosity to see if he was doing okay and found out he ran over a mom of 4 and killed her one night (he was drunk).
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#38
A couple. Over 5 years they traded their house for cocaine. They broke up. He finally wised up in his early 30's, she was last known to still be a complete mess. Her whereabouts are unknown, she may be homeless.
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#39
He turned 50 and had his first kid just last year. Everyone who knows him has had the same reaction: eyebrows shoot up, “wow”, knowing laugh, condolences to his young wife, then for the next hour crazy stories are shared.He has a good career and friends, but a lot of wreckage behind him. People from his past don’t have any interest in maintaining a relationship but are polite when he’s around
#40
He got married, then divorced. He got fat. He drives a truck for the Red Cross. He still parties, but at a lower level.#41
I've got two at basically the opposite end of the spectrum:1. The one that did the right type of partying and parlayed it into being the "fun guy" around the office. He's now making bank for a now well known Point of Sale company that if you're a small business basically anywhere in the states you're probably aware of them either because you use them or through their marketing material. He met a wonderful woman eventually that meshes with him really well, and even though he always said he'd never get married he seems to be enjoying that life.
2. After collage he's been in and out of rehab drugs and alcohol, he gets just clean enough to get on his feet and start making decent money, starts looking like things will turn around, and then faster than you can blink he's right back in the gutter. I largely blame his parents at this point as they've been his safety net every time, and I feel like they should have cut bait 5 years ago after his third time in rehab on their dime. This last time he lasted long enough to even buy a house and car. They're paying his mortgage, car payments, and utilities while he's in rehab. How is he going to learn if he literally has nothing to lose?
#42
He's my brother, he's an alcoholic school principal. He also DJs on the weekends. He's 52 and tries desperately to be 24.#43
I am giving them a ride to rehab this afternoon.#44
I could talk about myself here actually, except I never stopped smoking weed after college. I was addicted and let it be my whole mind and body. It kept me from achieving my dreams and desires. I finally stopped just two months ago, had a life changing epiphany, and I have the job of my dreams. Literally love my job and its exactly what I wanted to do since I was a kid. Never going back to those habits.#45
He became an aging stoner dude with two liberal arts degrees who is chronically overqualified, broke, and bored at every job.#46
Met a rich girl, rich girl’s parents bought him a house, now he doesn’t work. Kinda angers me when I’m unemployed with a master’s#47
He ended up calming down, but never finished school. Eventually got married and had a family, but works in a backbreaking manual labor field that doesn't pay well. I guess things could be worse, but he had a lot of potential and is/was a smart guy that could be doing better.#48
One of my best friends was a 24/7 party and total wild child, but had such a bright future ahead of her. Graduated early with 2 bachelors degrees, WITH honors and had a great job in finance that was going to make her mad BANK in a few years.Then she quit to live with her boyfriend and never took on another job. The boyfriend also was unemployed and her parents pretty much funded their life full of drugs and booze. She became heavily addicted to painkillers and an alcoholic. Eventually, the parents cut them off financially and she had a falling out with her parents over it. Shortly afterwards, she cut out her friends as well.
Last I heard, they were evicted from their apartment and bouncing around hotels, airbnbs, and shelters for the last year and a half.
#49
One of my first roommates was that guy. We were both teaching English in Korea. He'd get drunk alone most weeknights and yell at the TV (which was in Korean, and he didn't speak Korean). He'd get totally blacked out on the weekends, and I'd often have to field calls from bars at 2 in the morning. One day he came home and peed all over the kitchen table. Another day, he almost burned the place down when he started making mac and cheese and passed out.I couldn't get out of there fast enough, and he ended up living alone for a while. After a whole bunch of various shenanigans, he eventually got deported. He got into an argument with his neighbor and then went out drinking. He came home and smashed a bookshelf the neighbor had left outside the door. Cops called, and when they came, he pulled a kitchen knife when they came to his door. He was given the choice of deportation or jail. No idea what he's up to now.
#50
Broke down with stress and now parties moderately.#51
She’s full time employed as an ICU nurse but she seems notably less sharp than when I was in school with her. Others have pointed it out as well. She does a decent job, but her sentences linger, it seems like she takes longer to process information, and she just feels off. It’s like every year that passes is another year that she distances herself from who she once was. And yes, she still parties.#52
I was that friend. I spent 25 years on heavy drugs and alcohol. I wish I could have those years back, but I don't think I would be where I am today without the struggles that I went through. Coming up on 4 years clean now.#53
He died of a massive heart attack at the age of 35.#54
All these thread replies about how they are now extremely successful seem to fail to take into account factors like having rich parents or good social standing or even developed a prior good work ethic to match their social life. if you come from a poor family and you do this in college, you'll less likely be able to be as successful because if you f**k up when you partied too hard, you wont have anyone to help bail you out of different situations. money makes a lot of difference#55
I’m late to this thread and this probably won’t be seen, but I want to disagree with some of the top voted answers. I interned for a Fortune 100 and converted to a full hire, and worked with them for almost a decade. I know a lot of people who partied with the right people… and made absolute asses of themselves, threw up in a bush, and got fired the next day. Saw it happen during my internship as well as Christmas parties once full time.#56
i would wager a lot of these extravagant accounts came from people who were already somewhat wealthy.i grew up with dudes who "partied super hard" and didnt take their studies seriously or whatever and it didnt work out so well. half of them are dead, the other half are living paycheck to paycheck in drug dens.
when youre surrounded by opportunity, it doesnt really matter what you do, people fail upward all the time when they are born into opportunity and resource, i know people who f****d off their entire f*****g lives and their rich business owner dad just gave them a job making like 35 dollars an hour to basically do nothing.
its fun to pretend that its that easy for everyone but these people live in a completely different world than the average person, if you think its completely normal that someone can just fall into an extremely desirable career either you are naive or you yourself live in this other realm.
#57
He's an accountant.He moved from New York to Utah.
He broke his femur while skiing in Denver
The screws rusted and he caught an infection swimming in Broken Bow Lake in Oklahoma
He makes more money with a bachelors than I will with my Masters
Everyone talks about his newest wildest adventure and then says how they're worried about him, gathered every other month on their apartment porches and in small living rooms that haven't changed size since graduation a decade ago.
He lives in a massive Condo his job purchased for him after his previous apartment burned down. He's taking his third vacation this summer next week in Lebanon.
He's fine.
#58
Pretty successful event organizer now that he turned his lifestyle into a business. Not bad actually, plus he got a f**k ton of connections from all the friends he made. But i mean he was always one of those "work hard, party hard" people so I'm not really surprised that he's successful now.#59
He was a straight A student with a full scholarship. His grades slipped when he started partying. Lost his scholarship and dropped out. Saw him years later working drive through at Carls Jr (Hardee’s). Felt like I was sitting through a lecture from my dad.#60
The only two outcomes are dying and being stuck in a dead end job or using those party/social skills to become wildly successful, there’s no in between.#61
I finally retired from selling weed and I live in a nice house in Palm Springs.#62
The guy became a bartender and later opened his own successful night club and bar.#63
He has finished three years of a four year nursing degree, but has not completed his senior year, for two years now. Im not sure about specifics but I have to imagine that you can’t just pick up where you left off a number of years down the road#64
Had a friend that used to party hard, and had a tendency to pick fights. Awesome dude when sober, completely unstable a*****e when drunk, but directed his drunken rage at strangers. Had a string of fights and arrests, but always got off with a slap on the wrist because he was a very bright guy with great career prospects (solid programmer), and the fights were usually minor with no serious injuries, mostly because he was a garbage fighter.One day, he got into a fight with two guys. The fights spilled over into the street, and he ended up getting run over by a car. Died right there. He was like 23 or 24. This was 20 years ago, and I'm ashamed that I can't remember his name.
#65
There's a very perplexing myth that people who have fun as young men and women will eventually get their comeuppances, but truthfully most of them have excellent social and interpersonal skills, are very hard working (because the lifestyle they enjoy isn't cheap) and end up doing extremely well for themselves, as this thread is proving. It's the nerds with no social skills who end up struggling, interestingly.#66
She is a mess. Blatant alcohol problem. Every time I see her in public an emotional breakdown is forthcoming.#67
He was able to graduate from college - then went to Aspen and became a gigolo bartender at some hot cocktail lounge. He was always hooking up with different women. He got tired/bored around the age of 30 (his words) so he settled down with one of his hookups and they got married. She was a rich girl from an oil family and her father put my friend in a cush VP job so now he's f*****g rich. He also went rad conservative and is running for local office on an anti-CRT, grooming platform. Havent spoken to him in a few years now. Total twat.#68
One has Parkinson’s and went through AAOthers getting married but we no longer speak.
#69
I lost track of themSeems to always be the way it is with certain personality types, at one point or other they seem to just completely drop off the face of the earth never to be seen or heard from again
#70
She has the suburban house, kids in a good school who play all the sports, luxury minivan, house mom life... but is still a raging alcoholic. Poor kids.#71
Moves from dead end job to dead end job, has no steady place to stay, lots of health issues, and is the king of “vague booking.”#72
He overdosed, blacked out and fell off a balcony at a hotel and hit the pavement so hard his mother couldn’t recognize him.#73
He graduated with a 4.0 and two published papers. High functioning alcoholics are on another level#74
Friend of mine is like that, and he will finish up his PhD this summer.Having said that, it did take him quite a few years. But he has done it nonetheless
#75
They ODed.#76
It takes mental and physical fortitude to party heavy and consistent. Those skills transfer easily to a job. Especially with social skills diminishing#77
After undergrad, he went onto med school to become a Doctor. Intelligent and surprisingly good time-management while partying and doing drugs/drinking a lot. Died from doing cocaine laced with fentanyl one night.#78
If they're not still partying, they're not the person that never stopped partying.#79
Became mayor of my home town#80
We aren’t friends anymore. I can’t be picking people up from the floor and putting myself in bad situations so she can have a “fun” night out. You don’t really get how addiction hurts other people until you are on the receiving end of abuse when they are drunk and fake apologies/ “I don’t remember” when they sober up. I think she’s still in law school and she’s rich so she wont actually have consequences for her actions until someone or herself is irreversibly hurt. It also puts you on EDGE when you see them pull out a bottle or get a glass of something because who knows what dr. Jekyll/mr Hyde b******t is coming down the pipe.#81
He’s dead. Overdose. We rarely remember him as time passes.-
#82
Dead.#83
I’m fine thanks for asking#84
He robbed a train with the Russian mob, and now appears on TV specials and podcasts.#85
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