Let's face it: people are weird. But these people? They take weird to a whole new level.
Thank you to all the awesome folks at Quora who shared their wildest stories with us.
1/30. That adults could read minds. I believed this one for way too long.
2/30. That if you put lemon juice on your eyes, they will become light green or blue.
3/30. That we could and should have unprotected sex because he can't have children. We were 22 at the time so I asked him how on Earth he knew this.
He said: "I take after my dad, he couldn't have kids either, that's why they adopted me".
We didn't have sex at all.
4/30. Someone once tried to convince me that my mother, who is a paraplegic, was just pretending that she couldn't walk in order to have more votes for the election for state representative.
Stephanie Edelmuth
5/30. Wearing two condoms at once is safer.
innatetits
6/30. That humans had in fact evolved to hold extra space in their stomachs for dessert. I thought she was making the same light hearted joke many of us have when we're about to indulge, even after a full meal. She was not, and boy was she mad.
7/30. You can hatch eggs that you buy from the grocery store.
[deleted]
8/30. My mom successfully convinced me that gas pumps are voice automated when I was 10 (1994). It was my first time pumping gas and she said to put in $20 worth. I asked how to make it stop at 20 and she told me it was voice automated. NBD, I wait until it gets to about 15 and mutter "stop at 20." It keeps going full steam ahead and I started getting nervous. By the time it got to $19 I was screaming "STOP AT 20!" It slowed down (she had prepaid) and I thought I had succeeded... until I noticed everyone staring. She wouldn't even leave right away because she was laughing too hard to drive.
9/30. Former income tax commissioner of India, Vishwa Bandhu Gupta trying to convince people to stay away from cloud storage/computing. He firmly believes that cloud computing is about real clouds and that data can be lost if the cloud bursts into rain.
10/30. That a planetarium is a place where plants are grown. After arguing about it for a minute, this person said, "no, sorry--you're right. I was thinking of a plantatarium."
Read more on the next page!
11/30. An older cousin of mine tried to convince me that if our heads collided, and we didn't strike them again in a small time, horns would grow on our heads.
12/30. I knew a guy who tried to convince me of the hollow Earth theory. Basically that the Earth is hollow and that there is a whole race of subterranean humans, who branched from us thousands of years ago, living inside the Earth. And that he had been there and met them.
13/30. In jr. high we convinced our friend that asian women had sideways vaginas. He eventually learned the truth but was grounded for looking at porn.
mikeykelch
14/30. That the Holocaust didn't happen. Me and my friends tore him apart so viciously he came back the next day claiming he was joking the entire time. He wasn't.
15/30. Two of my friends were absolutely certain that West Virginia wasn't a state. They tried to convince me for like half an hour before I pulled out a map, and even then they weren't sure I was right.
thewintersgo
16/30. An ex of mine was convinced crows had a life span of 300 years.
pinegenie
17/30. My parents told me there was a guy who lived in the North Pole who delivered presents to every child in the world on one night. For free.
If you think I was stupid to believe that let me tell you about this creepy-as-f*ck fairy that collects baby teeth.
18/30. That human blood is blue until it comes into contact with oxygen.
Mostly_Invisible_Man
19/30. That if I don't forward a spam mail to other 10 people, then I'm cursed.
Griffith Chen
20/30. My identical twin brother tried to convince me that I was adopted.
McFu124
Continue reading on the next page!
21/30. That cold water boils faster than warm water.
22/30. I was driving in the country when we drove over "buzz strips" before a stop sign. One girl I was in the car with asked what those were there for. The other girl quickly replied, "So that blind people know when to stop."
colechampagne
23/30. My husband (in cahoots with my grandmother) tried to convince me that Marshmallows grew in bushes, kinda like cotton.
g33kch1c
24/30. When I was a kid I loved documentaries. One day my Dad tried to convince me the old man on the table next to us in a restaurant was David Attenborough (famous wildlife documentary maker from BBC / Discovery).
When my Dad turned back, he saw me at the old man's table apparently quizzing him on parrots. I made a scene as Dad dragged me away, apologizing profusely to the very confused old man.
Farhad Meher-Homji
25/30. Overheard at a cosmetics outlet:
A salesgirl once tried to coax a customer into buying an anti-ageing cream or something like that, which supposedly works wonders. When questioned by the customer on what was so special about the product, she replied that the cream permeates the skin, much further down into the genes (um, I think she thought genes are like bones) and changes the DNA to stop ageing.
26/30. Unbeknownst to my brother and me, my father hated whole wheat bread. One time when we were both around seven years old, my mother served slices of whole wheat bread at dinner. When she stepped back into the kitchen to bring out the main course, our dad told us quietly that the bread was dark because it had been dragged through the dirt.
My first actual taste of whole wheat bread wasn't until college. Turns out it is not as literally as earthy as dad made it out to be. Oh, you crafty man.
27/30. That the Hazard light indicator was the button for the ejection seat.
28/30. When I was a kid, mom would try to convince me that if you watch TV from too close, the person in the TV would suddenly grab you and take you inside for eternity.
29/30. My boyfriend still insists that the grease stain on the carpet in the living room came from the old lady that lived there before us dying on that spot. He has a whole story about it. He goes into great detail about how her decomposition fluids drained onto the floor and no one found her for weeks and weeks because she was lonely and had no friends.
W***e_Bag
30/30. When I was young my half-sister convinced me that she found and nursed back to health a lost grizzly bear cub (while staying with her father in Montana) and when the mother grizzly bear found them she kissed my sister on the forehead in thanks. Shut up, I was four!
Don't forget to share!
Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.