Sometimes all it takes is one wrong move and you’ve just changed everything. Sometimes you can get your life back, but sometimes you can’t.
Here’s a list of people recounting times they’ve seen someone make a mess of their life in an instant.
Many thanks to all the Redditors who responded. Check out more answers from the source at the end of this article!
1. What a waste.
I was the catcher for a kid in my town who was a nasty pitcher from an early age. At 16 or 17 he could throw 90 mph fastballs, breaking balls, whatever. It was painful to catch and I had to keep a wet sponge inside my mitt in case I caught one directly in the palm.
He was drafted 12th overall by the Marlins and received a $1.8mil signing bonus that he got before he even went to spring training.
Ended up blowing over a million and a half on drugs and partying, developed a coke habit that turned into an oxy habit that turned into heroin. Lost his ability to play, lost his spot on the team and his shot at many millions of dollars.
It wasn’t exactly overnight but the dude wasted a mil and half plus everything he would have gotten had he continued his upward trajectory and it all happened in about 8 months.
okaycitizen
2. A dream can turn into a nightmare.
A friend of mine took out a loan for $250,000 (I promise, I am not exaggerating this number) to pay for her “dream wedding” to a guy she had known for 3 months. They got divorced after less than a year and she is still in debt from it.
14UR3N
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3. A slippery slope.
I had a friend that sold weed in high school just to look cool, ended up getting into it a little too far. When he was a senior (18) he got busted with a few pounds of weed, went to jail for a little bit for that. Once he was out though he was on probation and just could never keep it together after that. He kept getting petty charge after petty charge and was in and out of jail for the silliest things for years after.
GurlinPanteez
4. Love makes us act in mysterious ways.
Girl had a fully paid scholarship to Yale and gave it up because her boyfriend wanted her to study at his community college so that they ”wouldn’t be apart”. She got dumped just 3 months later and fell into a downward spiral of depression and drugs. Last I heard of her, she had dropped out of the college and was working as a waitress at a restaurant.
salientlife93
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5. Don’t drink and drive. Ever.
There was a kid that was in my graduating class that was one of our valedictorians. Was a very smart kid, had college all paid for and all that.
Well two years later, he went to a graduation party for one of his old high school friends and ended up getting a DUI that night. For some reason, he was allowed to post bail a couple hours later and ended up stealing his friend’s car and getting into a police chase.
random2368
6. Driving is serious business.
People in my high school who drove like idiots and got themselves killed. Some of them were drunk, but even when they were sober they did stupid stuff on the road. One guy got impatient and tried to pass a car and plowed into oncoming traffic (and died). I remember on the way to a Senior Skip Day celebration, I struggled to keep up with everyone else because they were all doing 100 in a 60 mph zone.
MostlyEinsteinPoems
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7. Maybe give yourself a couple weeks to find something new?
An ex-coworker received a verbal, unofficial warning for completely dropping the ball. He then proceeded to go to his desk, write an email about how our boss was a horrible boss and he could not work under these conditions any longer and then sent it to the entire organization.
He then stuck his middle fingers in the air and walked out of his cushy, do-nothing, government, salaried job (with benefits) and went home to his incredibly pregnant wife and child (who depended on him entirely and now had no benefits).
criticalmissy
8. Addiction is no joke.
A guy I know and I went to a casino for fun once. I lost about $20 dollars on a slot and $50 on drinks and buffet, but that guy I knew lost $1250 before I kinda stopped him.
After a year he lost everything, including his family, because of gambling addiction. I still regret bringing him to a casino time to time.
jpark170
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9. Not funny at all.
A guy I know 17 years old thought it was funny to post fake threats on the app Jodel. Thinking It wouldn’t be taken seriously. “I have a glock that’s loaded in my backpack” “Don’t come to school tomorrow” etc. Police swarmed the school and they eventually found out who it was that wrote the threats.
Seventeen years old. Ruined every chance of ever getting a job in the future.
CuAnzu
10. I hope she finds her way back.
Meth. A beautiful (jaw dropping really) cousin of mine went from being a successful social worker with a Masters from UK, a beautiful family, and gorgeous home to single and jobless with both of her children in the same system she worked for.
elaxation
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11. What made him so sure?
A friend of mine was sure he was going to be a pro Overwatch player. Dropped out of school before the game even came out. Now he has no money, no education and no job.
PM_FEET_PLS_TY
12. What a crazy two weeks.
This happened in a 2 week period.
A friend of mine lost his kitchen job due to layoffs. Looked in the paper for a job he could get quick so he can make his bills, rent, etc. Finds a listing for a company looking for a driver/delivery person asap, he has a car so he figures it would be a good quick fix. Calls and gets the job over the phone and is told he starts the next evening. Gets a “company” cellphone and does his first pick-up. Turns out its an escort agency and he’s picking up and dropping off the talent.
Does this for a few nights and starts getting to know the girls. Turns out they’re all addicted to drugs. They get the idea in his head that he’s doing all the ground work so he might as well post the ads himself and get his own phone and they’ll work for him. So we’re about a week into this adventure and he’s gone from line cook to pimp.
Fast forward a couple of days into pimping and he comes to the conclusion that all these girls spend their money on is drugs so why not cut out the middle man and start paying them in what they want? He doesn’t know where to get it but his kitchen buddies can hook him up. He gets addicted.
I dropped by his place to hang out around day 10 (I had no idea any of this was going on), he meets me at the door explains what he’s been up to for the past few days and says he doesn’t want me there unless I’d like to pay and hook up with one of the people in his living room – I declined.
Last time I saw him he was yelling at people for change on a downtown street.
14 days and his entire life turned to garbage.
crndwg
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13. Big mistake.
This kid I know, his cousin gave him a gun over the holidays as a present. So he ordered pizza with his friends and instead of paying they robbed the delivery guy. Again this is after they gave the address and name for the order. So now because he just turned 18 he’s being tried as an adult and faces like 10 years or more for being stupid.
Goldielonglocs
14. Nobody wins here.
My cousin’s husband got into a drunken fight outside a bar and punched the other guy pretty hard. Other guy fell, hit his head on the curb and died. Cousin’s husband is now in jail, she took their kids and got re-married. What makes it even worse is that the new husband is a total jerk so not only did those kids lose their dad, they’re now stuck with a dick for a step-dad.
LGBecca
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15. Don’t car surf, people!
When I was in college, I had a job at a local supermarket. One of my colleagues left at the beginning of summer as she was headed to uni in the autumn. Next thing I know, she’s in the papers because she was driving a car whilst someone was “car surfing” on it and the guy died. Saw her in the shop a couple weeks after it happened and she looked a mess. I believe she went to prison, but not sure how long for.
__Severus__Snape__
16. It can be easy to get hooked.
The fastest way I messed my life up was drugs. I got in a bad car accident in 2014 and had a bunch of surgeries and spent 5 months in the hospital.
Afterwards, I was an opiate addicted mess who eventually developed ptsd and was prescribed enough alprazolam to effectively erase about a year of my life. I’ve somehow managed to zombie my way through college and I graduate this May. My GPA sucks and I don’t know if I’ll be able to get in the nursing program I want. I’ve been sober for a month now, and it felt like getting kicked by a whole football team for the first two weeks. I laid in a fetal position on the couch and watched 10 seasons of Cheers on Netflix, ate crackers and ginger ale, and am somehow still alive.
tattvamu
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17. Ouch…
Watching a friend sign up for $620 car payments over a 72 month loan….not necessarily “mess up their life” but definitely hasn’t felt comfortable for the last 2.5 years.
clem82
18. Leadership should be rewarded.
There was this kid in my high school JROTC program who was at the top of his class, super smart and one of those people you know would succeed in anything they wanted. Well when it came to time to choose the “leadership” for the following year, the teachers overlooked him and didn’t choose him for a high position in the program. After that he started doing drugs, skipping class, and his grades went down quick.
He ended up not graduating high school, going to jail a couple of times and it’s sad because he was someone that I looked up to, since he was older than me.
novolvere
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19. Sad.
My ex-wife. Had four beautiful kids (2 girls, twin boys), decent job, and an MBA with way more earning potential than she was at. Had bariatric surgery, got obsessed with the attention she received from losing weight (Instagram, etc), met some guy on this game she played, cheated, tried to make it work (my fault for not ending it), went on a trip for work, met some other guy, “fell in love” (meth and heroin), landed a surprisingly great job, got fired two months later for not performing and being late/sick all the time, double deposited her pay checks at least twice. Now she’s awaiting trial for 4 felonies, presumably still doing drugs, and has no right to see the kids because I refuse to let them see her around that stuff. She makes no effort to see them and blames everyone else for her problems.
Don’t do drugs, kids. Or be a self-obsessed ever-victim.
supermaik
20. So many bachelors, so little time.
At a bachelor party in Vegas doing a strip club tour. We would always set a time to meet back at the limo before going to the next one. One dude fell in love and went into the VIP room with a dancer. Told him we were leaving after staying an extra 30 min. He waved us on and we left. Next morning we went back after he didn’t show at the hotel room. He was being “detained” by dancers for owing them 9k in lap dances but had maxed out all his cards and withdrew all his cash…. ON DANCES. That money was supposed to pay for his upcoming honeymoon. He was not the groom for this particular bachelor party.
TofurkyBacon
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21. All for the sake of a joke.
Not me but a friend was in AP Chemistry and they were working with some Sodium-something and his classmate snorted it as a cocaine joke. He was rushed to the ER and now his risk for Nasal and Lung cancer is through the roof. His predicted lifespan is like mid 30s maybe early 40s now and it was all for a stupid drug reference.
DaSkrubKing
22. Know your limits.
I’ve had 4 friends ruin their life over a mass multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) game. Kind of a happy ending I guess.
Four very close friends of mine all graduated high-school at the same time. They all went to college, I joined the Marine Corps. We were all nerds and were all familiar with MMORPG’s. This MMORPG had really started getting hot but there was just no way I could play it, but they all started. This was 2006-ish.
Fast forward 8 years. I had finished my enlistment and went to college. Me and two of those guys are graduating college together with our Bachelors. Another one never went back and the fourth one had to join the Navy because he failed so many classes that his debt was astronomical and he couldn’t get back into school. The culprit? MMORPGs. These guys were putting in 12 hours a day for YEARS on that game. They all failed, all dropped out, all had to pick up the pieces years later after they got their lives back on track.
They’re all doing well now. None of us, myself included, will touch MMORPG’s.
Seriously, if you see your life headed down the drain because of an MMORPG, make changes. These guys lost 4 years of their lives over essentially nothing.
SirChaseph
23. I’m back!
The course of a weekend. He met a girl at a party on Friday, put in his resignation at work and sent an email to his advisor he was giving up his grad program on Saturday and moved across the continent with the girl he met by Monday morning. Last time I heard about him, his friends gathered money to fly his homeless self home 2 years later and he’s been jobless and crashing on people’s couches ever since.
Robin_hoddie1
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