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.
***WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SENSITIVE MATERIAL. PROCEED WITH CAUTION!***
I can't think of anything hilarious at the moment. Make us LOL.
Lady
Shocked Oh No GIF by Yêu LuGiphy"I have this friend, love him to bits, but his wife has a tendency of just constantly showing everyone pictures of their son at every social event. At the start it was understandable, but now I'm just like 'Lady, it's been two years; they're not going to find him.'"
UnoriginalUse
at 9am...
"Not the most morbid but I love Anthony Jeselnik’s story about his neighbor who has Alzheimer’s. 'One of my next door neighbors is a 90 year old man suffering from Alzheimer’s. And every single morning at 9am he knocks on my door and asks me if I have seen his wife.'"
"'Which means that every single morning at 9am I have to explain to a 90 year old man suffering from Alzheimer’s that his wife has been dead for quite some time. Now I’ve thought about moving. I have thought about just not answering my door in the morning. But to be honest, it’s worth it… just to see the smile on his face.”
dreagan021
Comedy?
"Why can't orphans play baseball? They don't know where home is."
GW2RNGR
"Why can't orphans play tennis? They get confused when they hear love."
JayDub506
People who make comedy are evil. LOL.
The Darkness
That 70S Show Reaction GIF by LaffGiphy"Dark humor is like food; not everyone gets it."
storm_the_castle
God Laughs?
"A Holocaust survivor dies and goes to heaven, where she meets God. To break the tension she tells God a joke about the Holocaust, but God doesn’t laugh. The lady shrugs and says 'I guess you had to be there.'"
“'I guess you had to be there' is a common expression used when someone doesn’t laugh at a joke. It means that the comedy may not translate without the context of the situation."
"In this case the Holocaust survivor is saying it, meaning that during the Holocaust God was nowhere to be found. It’s not really a joke about the Holocaust, but the absurdity of belief in a benevolent God. Hilarious right?"
semimillennial
Oh Baby
"How many dead babies does it take to fix a light bulb? More than 3 cause my garage is still dark."
sirnibs3
I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Because I don't know what it says about us as people if we laugh. Oye.
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Curious to hear from strangers online, Redditor Liam_Tang asked:
"People who've divorced, aside from adultery, what were the irreconcilable differences that ended the marriage?"
You think you know a person when you walk down the aisle.
These Redditors were in for a rude awakening.
Pet Neglect
"My wife divorced her ex for many reasons, but the final straw was when she went out of town for a few days, and when she got back he had not fed or given water to the dog. The dog lived a long and happy life after that."
– StrangeCrimes
Obsessed With A Crush
"Not me, but I had an old coworker that divorced his wife for spending their entire savings on candy crush and games of the same type."
– Hexis40
Compatibility Musts
"ITT: Intimacy (sex/romance), beliefs (religion/spirituality/politics), kids, and I haven’t seen it yet but it’s coming: finances."
"The big four. You REALLY need to discuss these things in detail BEFORE getting married."
– rabbiskittles
Physical violence is a legit reason for people to peace out of a relationship.
The Flattening
"She threatened to hit me with a hammer."
– michaelrohansmith
Hitting The Bottle
"She became an abusive alcoholic. It was sad but I had to get out."
– diegojones4
Emotional pain is too damaging to recover from.
Truth Hurts
"She told me as we stood in front of the judge ending our 7 year marriage, 'I never loved you, I just wanted kids.'"
– Pinch_Dogs
Can't Fix Angry
"She was beautiful/smart but an angry angry person. I thought I could be sweet to her and 'fix' that. Heh. She kicked the crap out of me emotionally. Wife II has been a walk in the roses for 32 years now :)"
– lowlandr
A change of heart is worthless if comes too late.
"We Could've Had A Nice Marriage
"He could not understand that my wants and needs were as important as his wants and needs. We tried to make it work for 7 years. During that time, for things that were really important to me, I tried explaining logically, asking nicely, begging, crying, yelling, passive aggressiveness... cycled back through all of these options multiple times."
"(If I knew something was important to him, I would do that. For example, he was really into sports, so I went to all his events, even though that is not at all my thing.) When I finally threw up my hands and told him it was time to get a divorce, he suddenly panicked and said 'What can I do? Do you want me to do half the chores? I'll do it! Do you want me to get a job? I'll do it! Do you want me to buy you presents for your birthday? I'll do it!'"
"So, in other words, he could have been doing that all along, but just couldn't be bothered. That made me so angry. We could have had a nice marriage that we both enjoyed, but no, by the time he saw the light, that ship had sailed."
"We are both happily remarried now (to different people) and I joke that his new wife owes me a thank you note. It was his experience with me that taught him to listen to her and take her needs seriously."
– Bluebird-True
"What Can I Do?"
"My ex was exactly like this. I didn't marry him but when I told him let's break up, he went all like, what can I do? Let's get engaged, let's look at houses, etc. Basically all the pre-marriage topics that we should be discussing about after being together for 7 years."
"I got so angry and straight up told him it's too late... I don't need you anymore."
– gudetarako
As much as a couple wants to stay together, unforeseen circumstances can eventually tear people apart.
Very few people can maintain healthy long-distance relationships.
When a new job opportunity takes a significant other away, would you begrudge them for wanting a better position to earn more money? Or is it better for them to reluctantly turn down the opportunity so they could stay with you? Do either scenarios breed resentment?
These were questions I've often asked myself with past relationships, and my answers varied depending on the person I was with.
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