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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!

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#1

30 People Who Kept Tabs On The "Party Animals" From Their College Share What Happened To Them 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.

rudebish , Jakob Owens Report

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#2

30 People Who Kept Tabs On The "Party Animals" From Their College Share What Happened To Them that was me.... and i'm sober seven years now.

LetTheGoodTimes_Roll , KAL VISUALS Report

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#3

30 People Who Kept Tabs On The "Party Animals" From Their College Share What Happened To Them 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.

GlastonBerry48 , Patrick Fore Report

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#4

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

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OmBoyGanesh
OmBoyGanesh
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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

See. Now my closest adult friend was this example. Grew up really poor & without resources. 2yr transfer to 4yr school with grants & loans and dropped out due to partying. No one to prop him up. But he’s the guy who can talk to anyone and make them feel like family. Never stopped partying but sold himself into a tech sales job (think Apple or Adobe) where his yearly bonus is 6 figures. I get the social-economic warriors always creating visibility for the class abyss, but this specific topic doesn’t hold tight to that narrative.

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#5

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.

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Helen Bennett
Helen Bennett
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Upvoting because I'm glad to know that partying with the right people isn't necessarily the route to success! Ps you are currently at #18.

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#6

30 People Who Kept Tabs On The "Party Animals" From Their College Share What Happened To Them I am that person. Addiction, rock bottom, AA, sobriety, life

DeliriousMax , Pixabay Report

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#7

30 People Who Kept Tabs On The "Party Animals" From Their College Share What Happened To Them 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.

Elegant_righthere , Mike Mozart Report

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#8

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.

xbenzerox Report

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#9

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.

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#10

30 People Who Kept Tabs On The "Party Animals" From Their College Share What Happened To Them He became a math professor and when not teaching he travels and has backpacked all over the world.

ripper4444 , Roman Mager Report

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Uncanny
Uncanny
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Why did my eyes see ‘meth professor’ and then send me an immediate image of Walter White? I watch too much damn tv. 😂

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#11

30 People Who Kept Tabs On The "Party Animals" From Their College Share What Happened To Them 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.

StoolToad9 , Taylor Wright Report

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Jeremy James
Jeremy James
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So that's why my library doesn't open until noon? The librarians all have to walk-of-shame home first?

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#12

30 People Who Kept Tabs On The "Party Animals" From Their College Share What Happened To Them He drank with the right executives at a conference and got offered a job. He now makes three times what I do.

Moctor_Drignall , ELEVATE Report

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Ahmad Hamad
Ahmad Hamad
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The moment when you discover that the studying & working hard won't reach you to the top.

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#13

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.

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Alex J
Alex J
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It’s possible to be a self made person, just takes a lot of luck too.

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#14

30 People Who Kept Tabs On The "Party Animals" From Their College Share What Happened To Them 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.

SpaceLaserPilot , Warren Wong Report

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#15

30 People Who Kept Tabs On The "Party Animals" From Their College Share What Happened To Them 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.

mmhBigGay_McJewBoy47 , Leonie Zettl Report

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Me
Me
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This reminds me of a very sad accident in my honetown about 15 years ago: some teenagers were at a party, the boy who was supposed to drive got too drunk and his girlfriend refused to go with him and walked home with a friend instead. They boy ignored all his friends and took the car. In a curve he lost control, crashed to the sidewalk and hit his girlfriend and her friend. Both girls died, he survived with several injuries. Lot of people were unsure if he hit the girls on purpose.

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#16

30 People Who Kept Tabs On The "Party Animals" From Their College Share What Happened To Them 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.

alpacasarebadsingers , Mike Mozart Report

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#17

30 People Who Kept Tabs On The "Party Animals" From Their College Share What Happened To Them 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.

MySonHas2BrokenArms , Campaign Creators Report

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#18

30 People Who Kept Tabs On The "Party Animals" From Their College Share What Happened To Them 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).

BookDingo , Eliel Frances Etruiste Report

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Me
Me
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Always get so mad about drunk drivers who claim "it's my life and choice if something happens while I drive drunk" because they NEVER think about others they could hurt or even kill

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#19

30 People Who Kept Tabs On The "Party Animals" From Their College Share What Happened To Them 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.

komnenos , Drew Beamer Report

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#20

30 People Who Kept Tabs On The "Party Animals" From Their College Share What Happened To Them 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.

yehoshuaC , RF._.studio Report

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Erik Rydbom
Erik Rydbom
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There's a difference between a self-destructive party animal and a flourishing party animal.

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#21

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.

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#22

30 People Who Kept Tabs On The "Party Animals" From Their College Share What Happened To Them 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.

To_Fight_The_Night , Arif Riyanto Report

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#23

30 People Who Kept Tabs On The "Party Animals" From Their College Share What Happened To Them 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.

Dreadheadjon , Towfiqu barbhuiya Report

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Dani Pret
Dani Pret
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My dad's very wealthy friend once said when i was a teen t's not what you know it's who you know and that made no sense back then. I cant say I know the right people but I've learnt to be able to adapt to whoever in around.

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#24

30 People Who Kept Tabs On The "Party Animals" From Their College Share What Happened To Them 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

Unlikely-Outcome-394 , Inzmam Khan Report

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#25

30 People Who Kept Tabs On The "Party Animals" From Their College Share What Happened To Them 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.

Share-Shuffle , rebcenter moscow Report

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#26

30 People Who Kept Tabs On The "Party Animals" From Their College Share What Happened To Them 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.

UnitAlFa , Vera Arsic Report

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#27

30 People Who Kept Tabs On The "Party Animals" From Their College Share What Happened To Them 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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Mimi M
Mimi M
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Somebody pays for that in the end - him, his body or his loved ones.

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#28

30 People Who Kept Tabs On The "Party Animals" From Their College Share What Happened To Them 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.

picksandchooses , Scott Webb Report

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#29

30 People Who Kept Tabs On The "Party Animals" From Their College Share What Happened To Them 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.

PM_ME_YA_TITS_N_ASS , Pixabay Report

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waddles
waddles
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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

that’s a bit sad, at least there’s a happy ending though

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#30

30 People Who Kept Tabs On The "Party Animals" From Their College Share What Happened To Them 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.

AmigoDelDiabla , Austin Distel Report

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Lee Banks
Lee Banks
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sounds about right, but never underestimate the earning power of a really smart/educated bartender. I stay service industry because I love it.

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