There are many things we take for granted that we should be thankful for.
But perhaps the biggest thing to be grateful for is having another day to live–which is something that has not gone unnoticed by those who've experienced a brush with death.
Curious to hear from those who survived to share their stories, Redditor Rapid_falls263 asked:
"What was the closest you have ever been to death? (Serious)"
Gravity is not always our friend.
The Right Landing
"I fell two stories off my roof onto concrete a few years back. I broke my knee and my wrist. Luckily that was it. If I’d fallen on my head, it would have been game over."
– Actuaryba
Tethered To Life
"Slipped on a steep hill with 100lbs of cable around my neck/chest. One end caught between some rocks and the cable started tightening around me, while I was sliding down the hill into a river ravine. I couldn't grab onto anything and saw the edge of the cliff coming up quick."
"Fortunately the cable stopped tightening before it got to my throat, and that ended up saving me from going off the cliff."
Lucky Timing
"Late teens heading to school by train, I was feeling like sh*t that morning and even puked halfway to the train but shrugged it off."
"As I was standing on the platform, waiting for the train, I was hoping it'd get better once I sat down on the train."
"A couple of minutes later when the train arrived, I waited until the train stopped and walked towards it. I blink and I'm suddenly on my back on the platform with a circle of people around me and a police officer asking me if I can tell her what weekday it is."
"Turns out, I had fainted walking towards the train and fell down on the track, behind the train. A passerby pulled me back up on the platform."
"Had I positioned myself near the tracks a few seconds earlier like I normally do, I would've fallen in front of the train. Instead, I got a mild concussion and a scar on my chin from the fall."
– Miathon
Some unexpected detours can be a matter of life or death.
Popped Tire
"Car accident on the fwy when I was 12. My mom popped a tire, lost control of the vehicle and ended up spinning around to a dead stop facing on coming traffic. A giant trailer was headed right for us. We got so lucky he saw the whole thing unfold so he had already slowed down and was able to stop."
– Turbulent-Army2631
Misinterpreting The Signal
"I ran a red left turn arrow right in front of a Chevy 2500 doing close to 60MPH. I was already stopped at the light and had been waiting for it to turn green. It was later in the day and the sun was positioned directly behind the light. 16 year old me looked up and said 'yeah, that's probably green'. No, no it wasn't."
"Anyway, I got T-boned right where the front and rear doors meet on the passenger side. The part of the frame that separates the doors got pushed all the way to the center consul, which I smacked my head against. I just remember waking up in a daze with a lot of blood on the right side of my face."
"Fast forward through the call to mom and the ambulance ride. doctors showed me a scan and said several fragments of my skull were a piece of paper thickness away from entering my brain. The best (worst) part is I was supposed to be taking my sister with me. She was taking her sweet time at home so I left without her."
– ThePassenger08
Close Call
"Haul truck ran an intersection and nearly ran me over. I speed up and swerved between him and another oncoming haul truck to avoid collision. A safety supervisor witnessed all of it, and had me and the idiot in the truck stop at a camp and proceeded to chew him out for nearly killing me."
– anothersatanist89
These examples serve as a reminder how our bodies are unpredictable.
Illness
"I managed to get Legionnaires Disease a couple years ago. 25% fatality rate, even with treatment."
"Spent 1 week in the hospital, and 1 week sleeping at home. Couldn't eat for most of the time (the bacteria was in my left lung and stomach)."
"edit: I didn't find out what it was until a week or two later when the Health Department called me with questions. Up to then, I was only told it was pneumonia."
– SubversiveLogic
Shower Accident
"Had a seizure in the shower, smashed my head into the faucet when I fell and landed face-down. I was turning blue and had a four inch gash on my head when my boyfriend found me. Cat was soaking wet, because he jumped into the tub. Took about four minutes of CPR."
"I do not shower with the bathroom door closed, and I do not shower if someone isn't at the apartment with me."
– SocksAndPi
Mom To The Rescue
"My appendix ruptured while I was lying in a hospital bed trying to convince the doctors that I really was in pain. They assumed I was pregnant and just lying about it. They took blood, pee, and did a pelvic exam--which made me throw up because it hurt so bad to move my torso, let alone put my feet up in stirrups."
"All negative. They still didn't believe me that I wasn't even sexually active at the time."
"Anyway, I have a very hazy memory of talking to my mom and telling her that it was okay, soon it wouldn't hurt anymore. I was just gonna sleep for a bit."
"She flipped and happened to work at that hospital, so she got them to do an ultrasound to find this phantom pregnancy. 1 terrified look from a tech later, I was booked for surgery and finally got a morphine drip. After almost 14 hours in the ER."
– Nillabeans
Aggressive Infection
"I had pneumonia, and I didn't realize how serious it was until the doctors tried three strong antibiotics, and the infection kept growing, and fluid was building up on my lung."
"They openly told me they didn't know why the infection was growing, only they it was resistant to all three antibiotics they tried. They put me on two IVs for four days, but the infection was not going away. It was getting harder to breathe, and laying on my back was impossible because of all the pain in my right lung."
"Eventually the infection started shrinking on its own, but it was so scary!"
– hyacinths_
On The Brink
"I was dx with lung cancer in 2014. Numerous failed treatments and I got down to 101lbs. I was very sick. But we finally found a good treatment and I have been NED for about 3 or so years now."
– Diianeee
These Redditors almost reached their final destination.
Mystery Tug
"Working on flight deck of aircraft carrier during flight ops. Felt someone behind me tugging on my coat trying to get my attention. When I turned around it wasn’t a person tugging on me; it was the intake of an F-14 trying to pull me inside for a closer look at the afterlife."
"Or maybe all the other near-death stuff that happens on a flight deck. It’s hard to pick just one. Cool job, though."
– ChooChooSoulCrusher
Thin Ice
"Fell through the ice ones frigid January day. Not quite the middle of nowhere. Thankfully a random motorist was driving the back roads and found me."
– PMyourTastefulNudes
Good Instinct
"Almost stepped on a Mojave rattlesnake when were were miles from civilization and nowhere near a road. I was a child at the time, and it was before everyone carried cell phones so if I got bit I would have been in serious trouble. That's one of the deadliest snakes in America."
"The snake was nestled in some big rocks that made a little hole in the ground. I was going to step in there because it looked cool, but right before I did, I had a six sense sort of feeling that I shouldn't. I trusted my gut, and really examined the area in front of me."
"It took me a while but I eventually spotted a little baby Mojave rattler right where I was going to step. One of the few times my I've experienced my instincts protect me like that. Kind of cool actually, it almost feels like a superpower when it happens"
– 14thCluelessbird
Consequence Of Contaminated Food
"I thought I got roofied once. One beer got me drink for 6 hours, got someone to drive me home from the bar. Next day worst headache I ever had, immediately threw up anything I tried to drink, so slept all day. Day 3 got up to pee, fell down couldn’t get up. Crawled to the couch and called 911."
"Ambulance lady said I had a temp of 103, I had E. coli in my blood, said another 24 hours I woulda been dead. I only called 911 cause my work said I’d get fired without doctors note. Otherwise I woulda just went to sleep on the couch."
"Also didn’t have pants on when I called 911. Had no pants to go home in."
– SomePerson80
The Unfriendly Visitor
"I was in Iraq and I thought I was just 'backed up' from the fortified peanut butter. It got worse so I went to the medic. Next thing I know they are flying me to Kuwait. I fucked up real bad, and caught some crazy parasite from eating ice off the local economy. The doctor said I would have died if that medic hadn’t got me outta dodge. Mortar fire, small arms fire on a daily basis and I almost get taken out by a parasite eating a hole in my colon….."
– 4t0micpunk
A Major Catastrophe Thwarted
"I learned that one of my coworkers was planning a mass shooting at my office, and the only reason it didn’t happen was that a family member found out and intervened at the literal last moment."
– Umbre-Mon
Failed To Detonate
"I stepped on two IED pressure-plates that failed to detonate, during one deployment."
"On another, my Bradley CFV juuuust clipped the edge of a AT mine buried in the road, but since we didn't roll over the pressure-trigger in the center, it didn't explode."
"Just another day in the life, back then......"
– TheGoodJudgeHolden
This terrified my mother more than it did me, but as a five-year-old–I believe–I fell out of the passenger seat of the car while she was driving on a residential street.
Luckily, the truck behind us came to a stop. However, my mom had kept driving as she panicked from seeing the empty seat next to her and mistook the gas pedal for the brake.
Apparently, I begged to sit in the front like the "grown-ups" did and I eventually figured out how to unbuckle the safety belt, unlock the door, and pull on the handle.
I was a very curious child.
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When we're intoxicated, or even the slightest bit tipsy from having a little too much to drink, our immediate perspective on things is hazy.
But there's nothing like a bit of alarming news or a jarring incident to snap us out of the fog and focus on the moment.
Sometimes alcohol isn't always to blame for our impairment.
It can be a state of mind, like a perpetual numbness from being complacent in life, and all it takes is one shocking moment to rattle us back to our senses.
Curious to hear from strangers online about this type of scenario, Redditor Known_Challenge_7150 asked:
"What’s one thing that sobered you up real quick?"
These individuals were witness to shocking events that sobered them up right quick.
Bleeding Out
"Got out of a taxi and found a naked man profusely bleeding from his head crawling up the driveway in my condo. Called him an ambulance completely forgot I was absolutely wasted until 45 minutes later when I'd helped him translate and in to an amublance and stepped in my front door."
"Later a few days later learned he'd slipped in the tub and literally crawled out for help. Poor dude. He was fine but I genuinely thought he was going to die there."
– DongLaiCha
Tragic News
"At a bachelor party and we got a phone call that the groom’s father had suddenly passed."
– accountnameredacted
Bottom Of The Barrel
"I went to visit my parents back in July. I was homeless and deep into fentanyl addiction so I lost a lot of weight. My folks could see it. They knew something was up. Anyway, I spent the night and I was getting ready to leave in the morning and I looked at myself in the mirror for a good long time. I finally had enough and told them everything. They took me to detox, from there I went to rehab. Graduated in August and been living with them ever since then. I have 160 days clean and sober."
– Crotch-Monster
A reality check can be enough for some people to snap out of it.
Like Father, Like Son
"Was driving a drunk friend home, he had been on a bender again and was smart enough to call me for a lift rather than try and drive. As I helped in to his house his mother came down the stairs and said 'your as drunk as your father' and went back upstairs. I haven't seen him drunk since then, he still drinks but the thought of turning into his dad scared him out of hard drinking."
– psycospaz
Busted
"Flashing blue lights."
– FiddleOfGold
"This sobered me up just thinking about it."
– redmaple_syrup
Losing Sight
"Woke up to no sight in one eye. I had cataract surgery so just thought one of the lenses had slipped and it was an easy fix. Eye doc says nope, you had a stroke. I loved soy sauce, teriyaki sauce and salty food, which caused high blood pressure, which caused retina damage. Over six months was able to get most of my eyesight back with medication, and all back within a year. Trying to navigate life with one eye was very sobering. Started taking HBP much more seriously."
– MissHibernia
Quitting The Bottle
"Looked up someone I went to highschool with who was an awesome guy. Found out he had been dead for 3 years from alcoholism, at age 33. I made an overnight change. I hadn't started drinking that night yet, 10 months ago. Haven't touched it again since."
– omgtater
These disturbing moments were enough for Redditors to immediately come to their senses.
Unplanned House Guests
"Me and a buddy Woke up in someone’s living room, realized neither one of us knew the people, they were just nice and let 2 drunk guys sleep on their living room floor. We didn’t even say goodbye."
– Oneinsevenbillion75
Serious Health Warning
"Elevated liver enzymes."
"And the knowledge that this sh** was gonna kill me and I just couldn't orphan my family over it."
"So I opted for recovery, instead."
"Clean and sober since June 5, 2009."
– Far_Meal8674
The Joyride
"Grew up in a rural area. The little town hosted dances at the hockey arena, everyone (adults and kids) went and they overserved everyone, regardless of age. I was maybe 16 or 17 and was absolutely sh*tfaced, and jumped in the back of someone's truck with about 8 other people to go back to someone's cottage for after dance drinking. The driver (still don't know who it was) started racing one of his buddies and we whipped around small dirt roads, flying around blind corners on the wrong side of the road, going god knows how fast. It was basically a disaster waiting to happen. It was crazy scary and I was sober and thankful to be alive when we finally arrived."
– foxfood9116
The human psyche is a fascinating thing, isn't it?
How we can automatically focus on something urgent at a crucial time, even after getting buzzed from drinking too much alcohol.
But as we're in the thick of the holidays, it's a good reminder to drink responsibly and stay off the roads if you drive to your celebratory destination.
Cheers. Stay safe. And happy holidays.
We've all complained or vented about something in our lives which, in the grand scheme of things, wasn't exactly a problem, or is very easily solved.
Then there are those who complain about things that others almost hope will happen to them at some point in their lives.
These are known as "first world problems", as they are problems that pretty much only the world's one percent faces.
From having to fly business class instead of first class, or being served Roederer instead of Dom Pérignon, these complaints are often met with amusement, bewilderment, or even anger.
Redditor jennimackenzie was curious to hear the most absurd "first world problems" anyone ever complained about, leading them to ask:
"What’s the most ridiculous 'first world problem' you’ve seen people get worked up over?"
"Tale As Old As Time..."
"I once knew a mom who was legitimately devastated, to the point of tears/grief, because a doctor predicted her 8 year old daughter's final height to be around 5'2","
"Which wasn't tall enough to get cast as Belle at Disney World."
"That was the child's (and her mother's) only dream in life, apparently."
"Didn't appreciate my suggestion that she could be Minnie or Mickey."
"Lol!"
"Only a face character would do!"- TravelLovingMom
"Must Be Funny, In A Rich Man's World..."
"My boss from about a decade ago was this insanely rich dude who always went to the bank to get fresh and crisp currency."
"He'd call the bank in advance to make sure they had some on hand."
"I think he was a germaphobe."
"He had a trash can that he'd throw $1 and $5 bills in that he thought was 'dirty' and regularly just donated it vs spending it."
"I asked him why he did this and he said it was too much trouble and asked if I wanted it."
"I said f*ck yeah dumped it into my bag and when I got home it was close to $400 in singles and fives.
"Another time, he wanted to upgrade all the computers in his studio, so we went to a store and bought 10 PCs."
"They all had $150 mail in rebates and he wasn't bothered to go through the trouble of mailing them in."
"3 weeks later I received $1500 after spending a whole afternoon filling out all those goddamn forms."- azninvasion2000
Money Burn GIF by nog
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Who Wore It Better?
"When I was about 19 years old, I was at my boyfriends family BBQ."
"I was wearing this pretty floral sundress."
"His cousins girlfriend showed up in the same dress and she was SO mad that she went and changed."
"I will never understand being upset when someone is wearing the same thing as you.'
"Did you really think that your shirt you bought off the rack is going to be unique to you?"
"No."- mertsey627
Seeing Red! Or Blue In This Case...
"The blue of the balloons wasn't quite the same as the bridesmaid's sashes."
"Years ago my wife and I attended a wedding."
"It was very low key."
"The dinner was in the dining hall at the university where the couple met, cinder block walls and all."
"It was a Baptist wedding - no booze and very serious."
"The dark blue balloons attempting to liven up the hall were a slightly darker shade of blue than the sashes on the bridesmaid's dresses."
"The bride lost here sh*t and absolutely raved for nearly an hour."
"I can't remember how they finally managed to talk her down."- mechant_papa
south park wedding GIF
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See You In Court!
"Rich neighbors who end up in expensive court battles because they disagree about where a tree can be planted or whether the color of a fence fits in with the street’s 'amenity'."
'These disputes get really heated and rack up huge lawyers’ bills."
"The most pathetic part is after the judgement when they are arguing about who should pay the other party’s costs."
"Lots of affidavits filed citing the 'emotional distress' they had to endure, or painting themselves as brave warriors who were forced to take a stand to fight for 'justice'."
"Also lots of pompous litigants insisting that the judge refer to them by their 'Dr' title."
"An absolutely insane dumpster fire of entitled rich people problems."- ElectrocRaisin
It's Always People With Money Who Don't Want To Pay!
"I work in a public library."
"People will get so so mad if they have to be put on a wait list for a book."
"A popular book that just came out."
"Ok our services are not only free but so are the books."
"You’re welcome, a**holes."- Switchbladekitten
A Warm Butt Is A Happy Butt!
"My own."
"We have a bidet toilet seat (Fabulous! Everyone should have one!) and not only does it wash your bum and blow dry it, but the seat's heated!"
"It's shocking how much a heated toilet seat makes the whole process more agreeable."
"Except: We had a power outage and I went to use the toilet and the seat was cold!"
"Unacceptable!"
"This shall not stand!"
"I was really upset because it didn't feel good."
"Then I stopped and thought: This is the most first-world problem anyone's ever had."
"I was really pissed because my heiny was tepid."
"I got over it."- DeathGrover
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Holy Matrimony!
"Weddings are a gold mine for this question."
"People get so hyped up over their 'most important day of their life'."
"They'll destroy friendships, go into debt, and have crazy expectations."
"It's not always the couple who go crazy, either."
"Sometimes, it's the parents or another family member who feels entitled to control the wedding."
"It's just a party."
"Be considerate of guests, have plenty of food and drinks, and enjoy it."- magicrowantree
When Fast Food Isn't Fast Enough...
"Having to pull off to the side to wait for a drive-thru order to be brought out to you because your food isn't ready and there's a line building up behind you."- demanbmore
In Case You Don't Think Customer Service Employees Are Undervalued...
"I was working the return desk at a Target next to a military base so I have so many stories."
"One of my favorites was a lady who had her baby shower before revealing the gender and was livid that she had received floral newborn diapers when she’s having a boy."
"It was a huge box of super expensive, all organic diapers, that we didn’t carry and therefore could not return."
"I cannot accurately express her fury and disgust."
"How dare either suggest her boy could wear feminine diapers."
"I suggested she donate them if she didn’t want to use them and she instead threw away the entire box."
"When she left we pulled it out and threw it in our donate bin."
"There have also been multiple times where mom’s order massive toys and when we bring them out to the car they get furious that they aren’t wrapped."
"We don’t offer wrapping services."
"Here’s the thing, if you don’t want your kids to see the toys you got them for Christmas or their bit to day DON'T BRING THE CHILD WHEN YOU PICK IT UP."
'I’ve had multiple women scream and curse me out that I had ruined their kids Christmas by bringing the toys they ordered out to the car like they requested."- clever-mermaid-mae
Customer Service Waiting GIF by Juno Calypso
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Happiest Place On Earth!
"I used to work for Disney."
"That in itself should tell you everything."
"However for fun I'll give you two specific stories one form our tech department and one from my wife who worked bookings."
"I specifically worked for their call center to help with technical issues with magic band and the website."
"Suddenly got worse huh?"
"A right of passage call everyone has at least one story of is the 'Dome call'."
"Basically there is a subset of Disney Guest (TM) that believes if it rains at Walt Disney world there is someone that will push a button to encapsulate the whole of Disney property in a dome to keep out the rain."
"I'm not kidding."
"If this button is not pushed they call our tech department to angrily ask why."
"My wife worked booking."
"Pretty much everything including Bibbidi Bobbidi boutique and Pirate's league."
"These two things did roughly the same thing difference being price and theme."
"BBB was expensive did more and was focused on princesses, pirates league did a bit less and focused on mermaids and pirates."
"Lady called up my wife, and got pissed about BBB being booked up (It goes FAAAAST)."
"Karen: 'Im going to give the phone to my daughter and I want you to tell her how you are ruining her vacation by not letting her do BBB'."
"Wife proceeds to explain how pirate's league is so much cooler and how she can be a mermaid or pirate and basically gets the kid to start demanding to their parents about how they want to be a mermaid instead of a princess."- trollsong
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The horror!
Being booked into a junior suite at Disney World instead of an executive suite!
It's almost as bad as having no money for groceries, or no food to feed you children...
Said absolutely no one.