You guys may not know this, but my father, myself, and my eldest daughter all attended art schools at some point. We're a multigenerational family of artists and musicians - and yes, our house is exactly as "interesting" as you might think. You know that stereotype about artists being a little on the weird side ? ... Yeaaaaaaahhhh....
So when Reddit user I_Have_No_Clout asked
let's just say I got to go on a fun little walk down memory lane with the family. For a while there I had an obsession with taking the cutie marks off of My Little Pony dolls and re-painting them into things like zombies, murder victims, skeletons ... ya know, the usual stuff little girls are into.
These art teachers, parents, and others who spend some serious time with kids shared the sorts of things their little artists come up with - and honestly, it's inspiring in a weird sort of way. Might be time to break out the canvases!
Menstrual Majesty
One of my students, a 6 year old girl, went on a phase of drawing her family members with periods. She had probably just learned about it. So it was just loads of family pictures with everybody cheerfully standing around in pools of blood with blood on their pants.
It was unnerving to try and explain to any visiting teachers and parents why there was routinely a picture on some wall with her standing in a pool of red.
Mommy Pterodactyl
GiphyOne of my students, a small kid, drew a giant pterodactyl with pendulous, red-nippled breasts. When I asked him what he had drawn, he said, "This is my mommy."
Yugo Kid
This is not creepy, but for me weirdly cute. My significant other held a few art classes in primary school. There was this kid with issues, couldn't speak well, couldn't write, horrible at every subject, but he could do some damn amazing drawings. Colors of them, perspective, measures, this kid was a proper talent.
Here's the catch - he was really into one old Yugoslavian type of car called Yugo 45, he was obsessed with it. So all of his drawings were Yugo 45 themed somehow. Christmas drawing with Santa Claus pulling presents from Yugo's trunk, war themed picture of Yugo 45 being run over by a tank, summer picture of Yugo as a submarine, while on beach in the distance you can see a couple sunbathing on, guess fricking what, Yugo's roof.
Drawings were absolutely great, but what always got me amazed the most is how this little fellow was able to pull every goddamn subject to be themed about Yugo. We loved that kid. And we hope that he drives that car one day.
Save The Tigers
I think I creeped out my art teacher. We were given the theme "jungle animals" and so I drew my favourite animal at the time which was tigers. I was obsessed, my whole bedroom was tiger themed.
I was also in a bit of an emo phase so I decided to make my drawing about tigers being poached and endangered; so I drew a sort of montage of tigers roaring while covered in blood, standing in a lake of blood with the words "save me" written in my best scratchy horror looking font I could muster, all over the page.
He walked around class and looked at all our drawings and when he came to mine he said nothing, exhaled out of his nose and moved along.
Gangster Elmo
I used to work in behavioral healthcare with children. One of the clients that I worked with had a talent for drawing. He was obsessed with Sesame Street and... gangster rap.
He was this developmentally delayed, skinny white boy who would rap while drawing Elmo and Cookie Monster getting into a shoot out with the cops. He did this while at school and the school counselor insisted on a safety evaluation to make sure he wasn't going to hurt anyone. He was never violent, just liked gangster Elmo.
Francis Frosting The Eclairs
GiphyI suppose it's more funny and wholesome than it is weird, but I wanted to share nonetheless. I had a student we will call Francis. I taught him for three years, from grade one through three (he then transferred to a different school).
Francis was fascinating and totally odd - but in a great way. He was hyper-intelligent and light years ahead of his classmates. He had very specific and unusual tastes for a young kid - for example, his favorite show was Ken Burns' Civil War documentary and his favorite snack was brie cheese. He quoted literature. He studied US astronauts and could (and often did) rattle off details about their lives ("James Lovell's favorite food is shrimp cocktail!"). He was one of my favorite students.
During one particular art class, I created a picnic scene in the middle of the classroom and was teaching the kids how to draw still life. The one rule was that they had to draw what they saw in front of them. Francis being Francis, he grew bored with the lesson and took his picnic drawing in a slightly different direction...
When I asked him what he was doing, he said (read with a very heavy lisp) "I'm making an upper-class picnic, with high quality, organic items. There's suckling pig - look, there's an apple in its mouth! There's gourmet lobster, cherries, shrimps, Swiss almond cake, escargots, sparkling water, and cocktail wienies!"
Me: (trying to stifle my laughter) "And who is that person?"
Student: "That's Mr. Carson."
Me: "Who is Mr. Carson?"
Student: "The BUTLER, of COURSE" (rolls eyes, sighs heavily). "Do we have a chocolate-y brown crayon? I need to frost the eclairs."
The Entire Process
A girl, 9 yrs, was doodling, and looking at the drawing afterwards I could immediately see her process:
1.She drew a little dancing dude, arms and legs apart
2. She drew him a little wiener
3. She freaked out upon seeing the wiener. Her first idea to fix it? add more wieners!
4. She must've really freaked once she saw the penis-udder-frankenstein she had created, so she switched to a marker and drew a skirt over the wiener, added a girly hairdo to the head and added some eyelashes.
Hands All Over
The assignment was about making a painting about something that's been in the news. Blonde haired blue eyed girl (and ex model) picked Epstein. She painted a blonde haired girl with blue eyes with hands all over her body...
More sad than weird or creepy. But it still heavily alarmed people.
- streep36
A Little Dismemberment
I taught at an art summer camp for 8-10 year olds when I was 17 and a little boy drew himself having his penis cut off (He proudly explained this to me so I'm not just misinterpreting a kid's drawing). Reported it to the supervisor because I thought it might be a sign of something going on at home and she just shrugged and had it hung up with the rest.
Sweeney Todd
Had a student who only drew Sweeney Todd related things. She was special needs and it was her special interest. Unfortunately she refused to even be in the class if she wasn't able to make her projects Sweeney Todd related. And so, I had to present to the parents a whole line of beautiful proportioned face studies and then one montage of a guy getting his head chopped off and eaten.
Always Been A Dragon
My Sister is a 4th-grade Teacher.
She asked her students to draw a picture of themselves. One Girl drew a dragon. My sister asked her "Are you a dragon?" and the girl with a straight face says:
"In my mind, I have always been a dragon, it's why my family hates me."
- obievil
The Best Possible Outcome
During my very first teaching job, a girl in grade 2 drew a picture of herself hanging by the neck with people laughing and pointing at her ☹ That was very disturbing. I can't even imagine thinking of that when I was 7. This girl also hardly ever came to school, and when she did, she'd show up at noon with a lunchable in hand. So she had basically no friends because she was never there.
I showed her aunt (who had custody of her) and she was less concerned than I thought she should be. Ended up calling child services and after I made that call, she was at school every day on time. Coming to school consistently was the best thing for her. She made friends and her reading level went up.
The Project
I used to teach music and art at a catholic school. My last year there, we had a program where 5th grade would draw a picture and the high school class would turn it into a sculpture. One of my 5th grade girls was obsessed with Pennywise, the evil clown from It and drew him.
Now imagine my shock when, a few weeks later, I turn the light on in my room and a 7 foot tall evil clown was starring right at me. High schooler went wild with this one and it was just terrifying.
"Booblies"
I once had some kids draw out their favourite superheroes and there was this one kid (6) who drew hulk and it was nice and all except I noticed these big circles on his chest.
So I asked the kid about it and with the biggest smile on his face he responded, "booblies" I didn't know what to do man.
- looppIV
Elmo's Revenge
GiphyFor a perspective drawing, two of my 8th grade students did a collab. One drew a peaceful town with Elmo in a window singing the classic "La la la" music. And a TV saying "Escaped killer" with a mugshot of Elmo.
The other student makes the same town but with radiation and bombs dropping from the sky. Then has an Elmo silhouette in the street saying "Elmo's world now."
They titled it "Elmo's revenge"
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.