Comfort isn't hard to find when the genetic sequences of everyone nearby is amazingly similar to you. Family is contentment, relaxation, because you know everyone. It's easy to be yourself because everyone else is so much like you. This makes it harder for those in the tree who aren't like everyone else. You all grew up the same way, so why are you so different?
Reddit user, u/Squishy_Pixelz, wanted the black sheep to be brave and speak out when they asked:
"Black sheep" of Reddit. What things make you the odd person out in your family?
We're Not Shouting
Ear shattering volume is the default speaking tone for my family.
I'm frequently told to speak up
Not A Fan Of Higher Education
Giphy
Every member of my immediate family has a minimum of 2 university degrees. I bailed on community college after two and a half semesters.
Oh. How are you doing now?
Trade school, five year apprenticeship, working in construction trade.
I like intellectual pursuits such as history, philosophy, and economics.
Just didn't like college.
Are The Rest Of You Deaf?
My family are like this when playing music or watching TV. I like to have my volume below 10 on the TV and at 30% on my phone.
Then I have family telling me to turn it up or playing stuff really loud
When The Genetics Point You In A Different Direction
My parents are both over six foot. I ended up being 5'6" on a good day.
My parents are super athletic. I ended up doing lots of theatre and was embarrassingly bad at sports.
There are other things, but I don't think I turned out quite how my parents imagined. I should have been a volleyball-playing supermodel, and instead I became an artsy little potato. An uncoordinated little spud. They still love me, somehow :P
Technically, You're Both Fighting Fires
Being a fire fighter in a family comprised of teachers.
Path Splitting In Your Career Future
We are 19 people in my immediate family.
I'm the only one interested in science and engineering. All of the adults work in public administration and all of my cousins plan on doing the same. And our political views are just too different. I just have nothing in common with them, I feel like an stranger.
Ugh...People...
I'm extremely introverted; I get drained by being around people for too long and I hate big social events.
Performance Over Public Service
My entire family works for the government (parents/brother/cousins are cops, uncle is a fire fighter, another uncle is a prosecutor) and I'm in musical theater.
As Far At The End Of The Spectrum As Possible
Wealthy father, wealthy siblings. Everyone went to a solid uni and then went into either family business or struck out alone and made ridiculous money.
Of the five of us I'm the ex drug dealing vagabond dropout, barely managed to survive my life this far and still somehow going, meanwhile my siblings are out there making their millions. Got my own place now though, a decent normal job and a new car all legit. Not sure how long it'll last since I'm slipping again but I'm here living the black sheep life. Wow formatting
Lot Of Pressure So Early On
I'm 20 and don't have kids yet.
Little do they know I'm never planning on it either.
I Live In A Better World
Being a nerd/geek. I get attached to fictional characters, buy a ton of merch, and I'm trying to go to more conventions. But most of my family think I'm weird.
One time I told my mom about how devastated I was over the death of a beloved fictional character, and she looks at me and says, "I don't have time to get upset about that stuff cause I'm busy living in the REAL world."
My mom basically called me delusional for being a nerd.
So, What Is The Truth?
Well for one thing apparently my parents raised my kids. One portion of the family thinks I had kids and dumped them on my folks.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Wait, You Can Eat Marmite?
1: I'm the only one on my household who isn't overweight~obese. I'm average BMI
2: I'm the only one who eats Marmite
3: I'm the only one with a Uni education
Tat Me Up!
I am heavily tattooed, like heavily tattooed (face, hands, etc..) which doesn't sound like much until you learn that I grew up in a very conservative family from the south.
Ignoring What They Don't Like
I'm transgender. I came out over five years ago and it's pretty damn obvious.
The worst part is that everyone keeps pretending that I'm not even though I change more and more between each Thanksgiving dinner.
Religion Or Ride
There are two things that make me the odd person
- I have a really religious family and they kind of force me into this whole Christian thing even though I told them numerous times that I don't believe in any kind of God but they just won't accept that because there can't be other people who have another opinion or just doesn't believe in this stuff.
- My whole family on my fathers side is really into riding. Their entire life is basically about horses and then there's me who hates riding because it is just boring. Plus I'm kind of traumatized by a weird horse camp I went to which was basically hell and since then I never even thought about riding a horse ever again.
Setting The Bar By Breaking The Bar
Giphy
I grew up dirt poor. My wife and I worked our a--es off to get me through college, I earned a master's in engineering. I am dedicated to my career and last year I made over 2.5x my nearest sibling, who is a teacher. Of five living siblings, three don't work, one gets by, and one earns a decent living as a teacher.
I am the black sheep because I am successful and it makes it hard to talk to my siblings. I just have very little to talk with them about. I love most of them, but we have nothing common.
Not Going To Play Your Game...
My grandparents are multimillionaires and own over 100 real estate properties last time I was aware of it. Ive made choices counter to family opinion and when questioned informed the grandparents that I wasnt going to try to make them happy for a check when they died like the rest of the family. They could either like me for me or not, but I thought it was immoral to make decisions based on their opinions.
Being "disowned" (and meaning disinherited) is the big threat they always use, and I told them I had no right to expect anything since it wasnt mine in the first place.
And my mom was previous black sheep, so I'm son of black sheep.
...And Not Willing To Stick Around
I am the only divorcee.
Unlike the previous generations, I do not stay and put up with abuse. I went to counciling, I tried to fix my marriage, but the abuse just kept ramping up. So I took my son and left. I watched my father abuse my mother and my siblings and I all through my childhood. I didn't want that for me or my son.
Curious to hear about some of the more creepy indiscretions people get away with, Redditor Flytechofficial asked:
"What is perfectly legal, but creepy as hell?"
These things that happen in public restrooms can be considered criminal.
Respecting Splash Zones
"Using the urinal next to me when there were plenty of other choices."
β Boochpooch
Nightmare For The Pee-Shy
"hanging out in a public bathroom timing how long people pee."
β freezingprocess
Bad Timing
"I swear to God. I did a lot of work in hospitals for a while, big f'king hospitals with tons of bathrooms all over the place. For some God damned reason, regardless of what time or bathroom I selected to take a sh*t in not 30 seconds after I sat down a janitor would knock on the door to clean the bathroom. It's not as if it was one janitor, just some random janitor would inevitably need to clean whatever bathroom I was in as soon as I got comfy. It's like I was being stalked by the janitors."
"So now I'm trying to take a sh*t knowing full well there's somebody out there actively timing how long it takes."
β ChaqPlexebo
Looky-Loo
"I was drunk in a casino and went to use the washroom. The floors in there were a polished marble or something. Sitting on the toilet, pants down, my stall neighbour made eye contact with me on the reflective floor tile."
β ashley-hazers
The following examples involving minors have no legal repercussions.
Outside Watchers
"Technically, you can stand on the sidewalk and stare into someone's house through a window. It's not illegal as long as you stay off of their property, but it's really freaking creepy."
β jpresley78
Keeping Tabs On Someone's Age
"A national newspaper having a countdown for when a child actress becomes 'legal' for sex."
"Answers to questions that will surely come. ....Yes. The Sun (UK). Emma Watson."
β pdirth
The Young Subjects
"When I was a child, we had a creepy horrible neighbor that would harass my family constantly. One of the things he did was stand at the corner of his yard and videotape me playing in a pool with my friends (we were around 8). My parents called the police but were told that it's legal if he's on his property."
β wildeforwomen
These perfectly harmless examples can give you goosebumps.
Macabre
"Hanging your doll collection from the trees in your yard using string made from human hair."
β baconwagoneer
People's Taste
"I believe the act of cannibalism itself is legal so long as you didn't murder anyone to do it. If your homie gives you his arm to gnaw on, it's fair game."
I recently treated myself by going to a movie theater after what seemed like a long hiatus for much of the year.
Streaming blockbuster movies from home, while convenient, has never made as much of an impact when compared to the moviegoing experience.
But after my recent trip to our local AMC, I'm beginning to think watching entertainment from the comfort of my quiet home is a much better option.
I forgot that a good majority of audience members are disrespectful and pretty much ignore all the rulesβincluding no texting or talking during the movie.
The normal volume conversations and the number of lit screens from people's smartphone's in my peripheral vision throughout the movie were huge distractions.
Maybe as I'm getting older, my patience has worn thin, or I happened to have a particularly unpleasant experience. But seriously, how can anyone enjoy going to the movies when people are constantly updating their status inside a darkened auditorium?
It should illegal. Rant over.
I feel like if there is nothing after life, it just invalidates life. But maybe I'm just dramatic. I hope there is peace. Thoughts?
black and white two funerals GIFTogether...
"When we die, the whole world as seen by us, dies together with us."
"Yes it does. As does the entire universe. Only when we are alive can we experience the passage of time. The instant we die the entire universe will experience heat death and cease to be. It my take a million eons but since we can no longer experience time it will be relatively instantaneous."
- OkEbb749
Thanks Alan
"It's one of the great wonders of life: What will it be like to go to sleep and never wake up? And if you think long enough about that, something will happen to you. You will find out, among other things, that it will pose the next question to you: What was it like to wake up after never having gone to sleep? That was when you were born. You see, you can't have an experience of nothing. Nature abhors a vacuum. ~Alan Watts"
So Romantic...
"When I was much younger, I had a dream where I died. Not a typical dream, not a romanticized dream. It was a dream where I was an archer in a medieval battle. About 5 minutes into the battle, chaos was all around me, and I watched an opposing archer aim and loose an arrow straight into my left eye."
"I remember the sensation of impact, ringing in my ears, and falling to the ground. I remember the warmth of the blood on my face. The feeling of life leaving my body, and the sense of worry evaporating into warmth and peace as the world left behind me."
"I remember waking up shortly after thinking that the feeling and reality of that experience was so vivid and so detailed that it must have been an experience from a previous incarnation hundreds of years ago. From that moment on, I've never feared the actual process of death. I feel like I've experienced it many times before."
Erase
Computer Reaction GIFGiphy"I think one of your best friends delete's your browsing history."
"Take the hard drive out of my computer at home⦠Put it in the bath⦠And make sure it's completely wiped. -Tensai Slime"
If you love me... rule number one... HIDE THE EVIDENCE!!! Let that be heard far and wide. And dreams, always so intertwined aren't they?
Before & After
Happy Baby GIFGiphy"Exactly the same as before you were born."
- whumoon
"I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it. -Mark Twain"
Moving On...
"We clean the bed and assign it to another patient."
"The REAL reason why nurses are so dark. 90 year old man in hospice got hit by a car on his way to get fitted for his funeral tuxedo, and didn't have a DNR. Kept him alive for four hours, and now it's time to document everything that was done to save his life because there will inevitably be a lawsuit from a family member who has had four years to say goodbye but somehow didn't get to."
Again...
"Play again?
Yes
[No]
I don't know what they mean or how to utilize them. I'm a Buddhist (but a gamer first and foremost) so it's cool you guys made those connections This totally makes up for r/movies continuously banning me."
Oblivion...
"I've answered this one before but here it is again. Either two things happen after you die: you either go somewhere or it's oblivion. If it is oblivion, then we're just going back to the same place before we were born and there's nothing wrong with that. We were there for billions or trillions of years, possibly infinity."
"You lose that concept of time since your brain doesn't work anymore so you don't even know it's over. It's not nothing because nothing would be something and that means that you are aware, which you can not be if you're dead. If we do go somewhere, then that's something no one understands because no one has ever come back to tell us."
"Those stories of people coming back after they "died" and "saw stuff" weren't really dead. Their hearts stopped but their brains were still working. If the Universe continues to recycle itself infinitely, then there's a chance we will be reborn or continuously reborn but have no memory of our previous selves."
- jamoh20
On Holiday
"When I was a kid I drowned while on holiday with my family, a giant fat man jumped in the pool on top of me and no one noticed till I was on the bottom of the pool. I remember the feeling of my lungs being on fire, then shivering then as everything was going dark a strange sense of peace and I was ok with it, No panic or terror then it went black."
"I was resuscitated at the side of the pool a few minutes later. I remember nothing from the black to being "alive" again. I was around 7 when it happened and since then I've been strangely at peace with the fact that one day I will die and slip into the dark void of nothingness. Hope that helps."
Popcorn?
500 days of summer cinema GIFGiphy"You wake up in a chair in a cinema and learn that the other are past lives of you and you're about to watch your next life very soon on the big screen."
The truth is none of us know the truth. We live everyday with the afterlife being a gamble. And that seems like it's going to have to be enough.
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