Recently I was shopping in a Walmart and my day had been a cavalcade of suck. I'm still carrying Covid weight, my hair is greying and uncut and before I went to the store I opened a Diet Coke that blew up in my face and stained my new white shirt. So naturally, I went to the liquor store to preserve what was left of the hours before me. I didn't bother to change. Why? Nobody is looking.
While I was in the checkout a woman tapped me on the shoulder and said... "You have beautiful eyes. I noticed them above your mask. I saw you in the aisle and I just wanted to say that." I thanked her and we parted. After I stopped crying in my car while eating a rotisserie chicken and drinking a vodka/diet (in my mother's driveway... not driving) I reflected on that woman's kind words. They were short, simple and her intentions were only good. Yes, she was giving me a superficial boost, but, I needed it. And tomorrow was a better day because of it. Sometimes... a little compliment goes a really long way.
Redditor u/akar17 wanted to hear about all the ways we can make others smile by asking... What is the nicest compliment you have ever received?Crush
bashful snow white and the seven dwarves GIF
Giphy
A older friend of mine told me his daughter (teen) had a crush on me (not a teen) and said he was glad because that meant she had good taste and would find a good man when she grew up. I still think about it because although I was slightly uncomfortable I knew that must have been even harder for him to say which to me made it that much more meaningful.
fathers & sons
I lost my dad when I was in high school and a friend's mother wrote a condolence card that said "I never knew your dad but I do know the young man that he raised, and because of that I know what an amazing father he was." I got a lot of condolence cards around that time and that is the only one I remember.
Edit: thanks for the kind words, everyone! It was almost 20 years ago so it doesn't hurt quite so much anymore. We will all lose our parents someday unless they lose us first - and those are the real tragedies.
Let's do Trivia....
This was when I might have been 8-9 years old. I used to do well in trivia and quizzing. Not insanely good just good enough for people to notice. In our school sometimes if a teacher was absent a different teacher used to fill in their classes and these periods would be self study or something boring. One of the teachers who knew about me used to call me to the front of the class and frequently asked me to be the quizmaster and organize a mini trivia contest as an activity for that period.
I usually had some references books from where I used to source the questions.
One day she asked me to host the trivia competition for my classmates but I told her that I didn't have the book with me that day. In reply she told me that I should be fine because at that point I would know more than that silly trivia book anyway.
The confidence boost that one single line of random praise that I got that day still helps me tackle life's problems one at a time. I can essentially trace my confidence in my abilities to that one sentence uttered by my teacher. I'm eternally thankful to her words from that day.
Ride or Die
Kisses GIF by SpongeBob SquarePants
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Actually, I have two that are dear to me. The first was from a friend who had died way too young who told me that when he writes the book of his life, I would have my own chapter. The next was from a coworker who was ex-army that told me he would follow me into battle.
"you're so pretty!!"
7 years ago I was heading into the office to a job I hated, and stopped at McDonald's on the way.
I pulled up to the first window to pay, and after the young kid gave me my card back, before he closed the window, he said "you're so pretty!!" with a high voice and so much energy, and closed the window with a huge smile on his face.
That was when I was at my heaviest, nearing 300lbs and at one of the worst stages of my life physically, mentally, and emotionally.
I bawled my eyes out the entire ride to work after that. I'll never forget him and how he made me feel.
I Miss You
Probably not the nicest but one of the most memorable. I used to work as a runner for a delivery company (someone who helps drivers deliver stuff buy doesn't actually drive). If I was ever working with drivers I disliked, I would intentionally talk to them less and try unload the truck a lot faster than normal. If I liked the driver, we would go slower and have a lot more banter.
On my last day a driver I disliked came up to me in front of the boss and said "She's really fast and efficient, I'm going to miss working with her."
This made me realise that I spent way too much time getting frustrated at people who genuinely appreciated my help.
Silent Clap
I am very patient and usually overly-optimistic. I tend to think the best of others and the worst of myself.
In a morning status call recently, a coworker announced that she was "going to try to be more bubbly and patient, like me. A couple of coworkers agreed that they'd try and do the same and that everyone should try and emulate me a little bit. Typing this out, it sounds like some crap you'd see on r/thathappened, but it actually did happen, nobody clapped. I wish I had been recording the call. It was a huge boost to my mood and self-esteem and honestly one of the best (if not THE best) compliments I've ever received.
You Soothe
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One time when I was talking with a girl that I liked, she told me I have a soothing voice. I normally have trouble accepting compliments and actually believing them about myself, but that one kind of stuck with me.
Hair Bounce
Nicest compliment came from a little girl. She told me I had pretty hair, which is not anything special. But about 10 years on and I still remember this little girl I didn't know having the confidence to give a stranger a compliment. I dunno, it's stuck with me because SHE was so sweet.
Healthy Mind
Pop Tv Thank You GIF by Schitt's Creek
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That I was the most emotionally intelligent person they know. (By two different people on two separate occasions) I hold this closely to my heart.
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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."
Nightmare For The Pee-Shy
"hanging out in a public bathroom timing how long people pee."
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."
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."
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."
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."
– 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."
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."
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 rules—including 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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