Ex-Cons Reveal What The Hardest Habits To Break After Being Released From Prison
Ex-Cons Reveal The Prison Habits They Had Trouble Letting Go Of After Their Release
[rebelmouse-image 18349047 is_animated_gif=_Prison is a no joke, no fun situation, and surviving prison is a miracle unto itself. One's life as an inmate is not their own. Your every second is monitored, accounted for and controlled. Each person who lives has to figure out ways to get through and survive and if possible, thrive. There are a ton of daily quirks and routines you pick up along the way. Some you don't even notice until you breath free air again. _
Redditor _\KimJongChilled _**wanted to know **Ex-cons of Reddit: What was the hardest prison-habit to break after being released? **_Some of the answers will surprise you. _**
ONLY PLASTICS FOR YOU FRIEND!
Staring at sharp things. Like there is no desire to use them inappropriately but you are just kinda shocked they're there and available for use. You might be surprised what qualifies as a sharp object. I remember whenever someone tried to hand me a knife or something to cut veggies I'd be afraid to touch it. Glass was the biggest thing though, just mirrors in all the bathrooms. real ones. I could smash that shit and have a big jagged weapon, i cant believe this italian restaurant has such a dangerous thing in their bathroom. stopping thinking of objects as weapons is hard.
THANKS FOR SHARING...
[rebelmouse-image 18349049 is_animated_gif=Going to poop with my underwear up to my thighs to hide my junk. It took a long time to go back to pants around the ankles.
YOU MAY HAVE SECONDS AND THIRDS...
[rebelmouse-image 18348226 is_animated_gif=One of my foster sons came to us from juvie. Every meal his arm was around his plate and he woofed down his food. My mastiff couldn't keep up. He always ate back to the wall hunched. Took my wife and I a month to show him no one would take his food and we had plenty more. Funny part is he went in the Marines and did 8 years got out honorable and is now working in corrections.
HOARDERS: PRISON EDITION.
[rebelmouse-image 18349050 is_animated_gif=I don't smoke, but every time someone offered me a cig I would pocket it. on the inside thats a bartering chip, took me about a month or two to break.
NOTHING WRONG WITH A NEVER NUDE.
[rebelmouse-image 18349051 is_animated_gif=Not wearing shoes in the shower. Eating with forks and knives. Having salt and pepper for food. Not always having to watch your back. Being able to get food when you want it, and just get up and leave to go for a drive or something.
THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE...
[rebelmouse-image 18977481 is_animated_gif=Constantly looking over my shoulder. By far the hardest conditioning to break, which I haven't and doubt I ever will, is the constant pessimism and cautious optimism. You see, when you're waiting to work your way through court, get a deal, and get sentenced, you will have your dates changed 50 times, hope for certain things only to be disappointed, and any time you are told something hopeful it doesn't work out.
As a result, I never get excited for something until it actually happens. When my wife told me we were pregnant (I already knew from her symptoms that she was but still, you never know for sure till you take the test), I was obviously happy, but because I'm always cautiously optimistic and rarely show emotion, I couldn't feel comfortable or excited until I knew that my developing daughter was healthy. Even then, it didn't really hit me till she was born.
You can apply this to anything especially big events. Getting engaged, planning the wedding, buying a house, ANYTHING. I still hear from my wife how i wasn't crazy surprised or excited to be having a kid. I was, I actually was the half of the relationship who was dead set on a kid when my wife supposedly could've gone either way.
You just can't get your hopes up or look forward to anything until it is here or has happened. I've been home over 7 years now and with my wife for 6.5. She's truly the catalyst that motivated me to truly change my life and to not give any more of my life to the system, but she'll never know how happy she makes me because she misinterprets my cautious optimism/realism for pessimism or indifference.
SPOONS UP!
[rebelmouse-image 18353052 is_animated_gif=I didn't use a fork for a few weeks. Ate everything with a spoon without thinking. It's not the most interesting thing but I hadn't noticed it posted here.
NECESSITIES ARE VITAL...
[rebelmouse-image 18977938 is_animated_gif=Hoard feminine hygiene products. We were super limited on the number of pads or tampons they gave us. They didn't give any to the women in holding cells. There was dried and fresh menstrual blood on the floor and concrete benches, and a drain in the middle of the rooms like they intended to hose down the room, but if they did it was not often enough.
JUST CHANGING LIFE IN GENERAL.
[rebelmouse-image 18977939 is_animated_gif=I eat fast.
I don't sit with my back to the door in public.
I always scan crowds constantly.
I question WHY people are nice to me.
I carry extra clothes, water, and various other things in my car in case I need it. (Not a hoarder but harder to get rid of stuff)
I don't like being away from home overnight.
I also quit eating boiled eggs, I over season my food, and I refuse to drink Kool-Aid anymore.
LIVING WITH THE SILENCE.
[rebelmouse-image 18977940 is_animated_gif=Not an ex con but my step dad has been in and out of prison for the majority of his life, he always said that whenever he gets out of prison you're so use to to it being loud all the time that when he got home he couldn't sleep because it was so quiet.
WHY JUST ONE LEG?
[rebelmouse-image 18977941 is_animated_gif=Dude I work with said for the first little bit after getting out he would take a leg out of his pants when he'd poop. Not sure how common that was, dude's a fighter though, so maybe that had something to do with it.
NOBODY'S WATCHING...
[rebelmouse-image 18977943 is_animated_gif=I was only locked up for four months in total, all things considered I got off easy. Hardest habit to break was just doing something without telling someone else. Hard to remember that there's no authority figure once you're out.
LUXURIATING IS A GIFT...
[rebelmouse-image 18977945 is_animated_gif=Taking as long as you want in the shower. For the longest time after I got out, I took less than 5 minute showers.
EVERY MOMENT COUNTS, USE THEM WISELY...
[rebelmouse-image 18977948 is_animated_gif=I had to completely change my sense of time. I agree with all the people who said they ate super fast, but then we would slow walk back from the chow hall- any excuse for a few minutes more outside.
I made sure I never consolidated enjoyable things. If I had a snack- I ate it and concentrated on it. If there was something good on TV, I watched it. Now, I'll snack while I watch a movie because there aren't enough hours in the day- but on the inside I was trying to make hours and days go away.
I've got a good job now, and nice respectable friends, but I still react to confrontational situations more quickly, decisively and... efficiently than they do. I'm able to pull back at the last minute, but it's pretty clear that violence is not a tool in their arsenal.
JUST GO ABOUT YOUR DAY.
[rebelmouse-image 18977949 is_animated_gif=I spent 72 months in prison for a tragic car accident that I had caused. After I was released I kept telling my wife exactly what I was doing without her asking. She thought it was funny at first but after a few weeks of it she was starting to get bothered.
THE MENU HAS BROADENED.
[rebelmouse-image 18977950 is_animated_gif=Making prison commissary-only food. Everyone around me thinks it is gross as hell to throw summer sausages, pickles, cheese, doritos, cheetos, and such into my ramen noodles, but good lord, I can't stop, and I have been out for five years.
STOP THE OVERLAPPING!
[rebelmouse-image 18977951 is_animated_gif=Doing laps. In prison, every time you get time on the yard, you do laps. Seriously, almost every single person does it too. When you get out, it's hard to break that habit.
GOOD NIGHT SWEET PRINCE...
[rebelmouse-image 18977952 is_animated_gif=My ex would sleep a certain way all the time. To me it seemed like he was sleeping as if he was in a coffin,his arms crossed and wouldn't move the entire night for a couple months. He eventually broke that habit.
JUST GIVE SOMEONE A CHANCE.
[rebelmouse-image 18977954 is_animated_gif=A somewhat-friend of mine did a few years and the one habit he couldn't shake was distrusting people.
He said that people in prison are never nice, if they're nice it's because of a hidden motive. Up to this day he still doesn't trust people who act nice / generous / helpful / .. towards him.
SOMETIMES YOU FIND GOOD HABITS IN THE STRANGEST PLACES....
[rebelmouse-image 18977955 is_animated_gif=I did almost seven years. Been out two years. I'm 35. From Wisconsin. Wisconsin has a law called "Truth in Sentencing," _you do 100% of your time. There are multiple head counts where the guards make sure that all of the inmates are accounted for. Every morning at 5:00 a.m. I felt like I was doing something wrong if I slept past 5:00 a.m. It took me almost six months before I slept past 5:00. Even now, 6:00 a.m. is sleeping in for me. It has allowed me to never be late to work, and show up everyday. I was a drug dealer with no work ethic, and I slept until noon. Ironically, I am more successful than I ever thought I would be because of this habit. I actually just got poached by another company who offered me a 150% salary increase. Nice to see you, new tax bracket. In two years, I have become a model parolee. My life is great. I married my wife last September. I go to therapy for a multitude of conditions that manifested while I was a guest of the state. I was diagnosed with general and social anxiety disorder, and PTSD. I was out a few months and I had a panic attack. I had no idea what was happening to me. I was literally paralyzed and afraid. I thought prison ruined me. It made me a better person in general. I am not praising Wisconsin DOC by any means. The guards dehumanized the inmates and treated us like pure garbage with no hope. They always told people _"You'll be back."I won't be back. People that go back produce job security. They want people to come back so they do what they can to steal your dreams. I changed myself. Prison allowed me to step back and really look at my life. I saw who I hurt. I saw who was there for me. I saw who abandoned me. I became focused on change after my third year. I contemplated suicide because I wasn't even half done with my sentence. After I seriously thought about hanging my life up I committed myself to being the best human being I could be. I revolted by behaving, teaching myself things, and being positive. My life is now amazing. I'm surrounded by people who love me and support me. All of the \_"ex-cons" _reading this, and people just interested in this thread, that label is bullshit. We are human beings with feelings. We can change. Stay positive and stay hopeful. Never give up. All of my fellow Redditor's, one love.
People Who Earn Six Figures Explain What They Do For A Living
Reddit user Luffy_Tuffy asked: 'For everyone making six figures, what do you do for work?'
"I work all night, I work all day to pay the bills I have to pay
Ain't it sad?
And still there never seems to be a single penny left for me
That's too bad"~ "Money, Money, Money" ABBA
Money is either the root of all evil or the key to happiness, largely depending on whether you have any.
So how do people with money get it? One method is a job that pays the bills.
Reddit user Luffy_Tuffyasked:
"For everyone making six figures, what do you do for work?"
Fly the Friendly Skies
"Air Traffic Control"
~ yadayadab00
"That was a super popular job in the Army when I joined in 2007."
"They stopped letting active duty sign up because they’d get just one enlistment (so 3-5 years) out of them before they’d bounce and go to the civilian side making a lot more money."
~ Affectionate-Arm9547
0/10 Would Not Recommend
"Pharmacist."
"250k student loan. Super stressful job that I hate. Would not recommend."
"When I was starting school, even Walgreens took care of their people and had plenty of tech hours."
"Now you don’t even get enough help to staff the window, the cash register, entering, and filling scripts."
"I’ve worked weekends at the busiest store in the district with only one tech. It’s ridiculous."
~ XThePariahX
What Life?
"Doctor. But I sold my life and my youth. It’s not worth it."
~ euphoric-alpaca
"My husband wants to be a doctor. He's 43."
"I tell him it's not worth it because he would be paying off his student loans until or after retirement. At least that's how I imagine it would go."
~ Public_Honeydew_8997
Belly Up
"Bartender for 16 years, started making around $80k and have slowly moved up to $110k."
"I recently made a pivot to a new career but still bartend to pay the bills for now."
~ dj_destroyer10/10 Would Recommend
"I'm in heavy construction. Class A Driver/Equipment Operator."
"My CDL (Commercial Drivers License) got me in the door, and I slowly learned to operate everything from excavators to directional drills."
"I can give some advice to anyone interested in trying it out, the money is there if you're willing to try."
"The trick to succeeding in heavy construction is to be confident. Not necessarily outwardly (though it does help), but confident in YOURSELF."
"Do not be intimidated by any tool or machine. Raise your hand and ask to learn EVERY chance you get.
"You'll see a lot of miserable old 45-year-olds that have been swinging a shovel or broom for 25 years and complain all day about their situation. Don't be that guy, treat this job as an education."
"Remember, the more you can do, the more you're worth."
"Keep your nose clean. Stay off the drugs and alcohol. Failing a drug test will ruin your reputation in the industry, companies talk to each other."
"And showing up hungover every morning will effect your performance and cognitive function. You do not want that."
"Never, EVER get a superiority complex about your rank/position. Operators can help use a shovel or broom too."
"Don't ever be that guy sitting in his truck/excavator watching everyone else work. Be the stud that will hop out and help carry something when you're not operating."
"Even if it's just cleaning the interior of your rig while on standby, it shows that you're part of the team."
"Going union will ALWAYS be your best bet, but its not necessary at first. I've seen guys work their a** off at private companies for a couple years, work their way up to foreman, then jump into the union as a foreman."
"It would have taken 10x as long if they had done that within the union, seniority slows things down. Go operators union. Laborers is good too, but operators make much more money."
"IBEW is also great, especially on the west coast. If you're not scared of electricity, try it out."
"Remember, this is a field that you can get into with a GED and no experience and make a damn good living, but you cannot slack. You'll pay your dues and endure some rough days."
"You'll go through some sh*tty companies and meet some sh*tty people, but eventually it will pay off. You'll meet the good people, find the good company, and be comfortable in your job. It's worth it."
~ EatMyGrandma
Let's Try It
"Staff scientist at a national lab, but don't get too excited. You go to college for 9 years first, and lots of analysis shows the better money is taking an undergrad engineering job, getting paid sooner, and working up the corporate ladder."
"I basically get to chase down whatever cool ideas I want though, within reason."
"Shoot positrons through magnets to make X-rays? Let's do it."
"Can we make a better jet engine using //redacted// for compression blades? Here's 20 million dollars, go find out."
~ Pr0methian
Crane Mode
"Crane operator in the oil industry. Easiest job I've ever had."
"$3000 to get your NCCO and $6500 to get your CDL."
"I work 12hr days but only on the crane 1-1.5hrs a shift. The other 10.5-11hrs is spent sleeping, playing Xbox, watching movies, etc..."
~ wildarcher69
"Yeah my dad is a crane operator, too."
"Six figures in his salary alone but also gets $150 per diem, since he has to live in whichever city his crane is, and his crane is nowhere near his state of residency."
~ Affectionate-Arm9547
All The Nuts And Bolts
"Aircraft mechanic."
~ gimplegs
"I work as a machine mechanic and my uncle's best friend works in aircraft."
"His schedule and on-call pay makes me suuuuper envious."
~ meetmeinthebthrm
Grow Your Own
"I own a commercial gourmet mushroom farm bringing in high six figures. Zero student debt, no wage ceiling."
"I have land right outside of a large metropolitan city where the farm is. It’s a small/medium sized farm, I have two guys working for me."
"We do four large farmers markets in the city per week and sell at around 20$ a lb and also wholesale sell directly to many restaurants in this city at 10$ a lb with deliveries going out two days a week."
"We produce around 1000 lbs a week but my goal is for that number to keep going up. My overhead is very low because the farm is on my property and all expenses I have are tax write offs making my taxes extremely low."
"I started the farm two years ago and it’s growing very fast. I’m pretty capped out at the moment with what I can directly sell to my community so I’m working on connecting with a local distributor at the moment to keep growing."
~ Brave_Badger_6617
Banking On It
"My best friend is a senior underwriter for Chase Bank. He makes about $115k."
"What's really a slap in the tits is he's a high school drop out."
~ cjtripp1433
"It seems like there is a lot of room to grow at a bank."
"A friend started an entry level job at a local bank and a few years later got hired by a mortgage broker and made $750k in 2021."
"They're having a bad year now and only making $200k. Wild."
~ 2050orBust
A Fresh Coat
"I own a house painting company. 20-30hrs a week of manual labor a week and about 10 of office/paperwork. 2 employees."
"From my perspective it is a very rewarding and fun job. I work with two of my friends, or rather one of my friends and one guy who became my friend after being hired."
"I do the jobs we want to do when we want to do them and generally have fun most days. There is a lot of stress too but I honestly like that as well, I love problem solving."
~ FlowBjj88
Reading Is Fundamental
"Public librarian in California."
"I’m at the top of our salary scale for non-managers, since I’ve been here (current job) for 11+ years."
"Gross salary is right around $100K + full benefits and a pension."
"And I actually enjoy the work, too!"
~ ZoyaZhivago
Seen Things
"I'm a court reporter/stenographer in the US."
"I was researching being a paralegal then saw an ad for this."
"I looked into it more and found a school nearby and decided to try it."
"A big part was that it was something I chose and not something I felt I was being forced into."
~ paramore814
While 6 figures isn't the boon it once was, it's still enough to live comfortably in most places.
Were you surprised by any of the jobs earning over $100k?
We've all heard of intuition or premonitions or "seeing the future," and a lot of us have laughed at it at some point.
It's easy to disregard these images or feelings as a symptom of anxiety about something coming up.
But for some people, by listening to a gut feeling they had, they were able to save someone's life, possibly even their own.
Redditor guywhousesreddit09 asked:
"What was the 'gut feeling' that you listened to that saved your life?"
The Kiddie Pool
"My mom and grandpa were putting out a kiddie pool for my siblings and me in our backyard when we were little."
"My grandpa had set it up, and my mom kept insisting that for some reason, she felt like they should move it to a different spot."
"Thankfully they did, because while we were all playing in the pool, a huge branch from a tree in our yard snapped and came crashing down exactly where the pool had originally been."
- WaitWut7
A Questionable Passer-by
"When I was around 13, I was walking to the bus stop in the morning. A car was going through my neighborhood very slowly, which made alarm bells go off in my head."
"When it passed me, I glanced over my shoulder to keep an eye on it and saw it was doing an immediate U-turn."
"I noped right out and dove through the bushes, crossed a bunch of driveways, and found a neighbor who was washing his car."
"I looked back to where I had been standing. The strange car had stopped, a seriously scary-looking dude had gotten out, and was looking in the bushes."
"I don't know if I would've died exactly, but I would not have had a good time."
- Symnestra
'Final Destination,' Who?
"I was driving uphill behind a flatbed truck carrying I-beams and I envisioned them sliding off the truck and hitting my windshield."
"I changed lanes so I wasn’t behind the truck and two seconds later, the I-beams were sliding off onto the road where my car would’ve been, sparking and gouging the pavement. Terrifying."
"To this day, I won’t stay behind a truck with anything that’s 'strapped down.'"
- Infj-kc
Thank Goodness for That Lock
"In middle school, I was up late one night. My mom and my brother were asleep, and my dad had gone on business. I had let the dog out, and when I went to go get him, I got a bad feeling like someone was out there."
"There wasn't really a reason to feel this way, it was just dark, and I got spooked, so I put the chain lock up on the back door when we got back inside. Back then, we never locked our doors."
"A few minutes later, the dog is drinking by the back door, and he suddenly stops and starts growling (like a low grumble) at the door."
"I was sitting where I could see the dog but not the door. Then I hear the door pull open and the chain lock catch."
"The dog started barking like crazy and I ran upstairs to wake my brother up. He went out and looked around, but no one was there."
"I think the dog's barking scared them away, but I don't know who it was or what would have happened if I hadn't locked the door."
- monaforever
A Mom's Close Encounters
"My grandmother accidentally saved my mom's life by not allowing her to go to a sleepover when she was young. During the night, the father murdered his entire family and would likely have killed my mother had she been there."
"Another amazing coincidence that I'm alive, is when my mother was in high school, she and her best friend were arguing over who was going to take a ride on the back of their guy friends' new motorcycle."
"My mom lost the argument and her friend got on the back of the motorcycle and rode away. She never saw them again because her friend and the guy were both killed in an accident during that ride."
- ekyrt
Wait a Second
"It was very late driving and there were minimal cars on the road, I came up to a red light, and as it turned green, something inside me said, 'Don’t go yet,' and a van blew through their red light."
- imbribecca
"Similar situation, but there were four of us in the car. My friend was driving and our friend in the back yelled to stop the car immediately even though we had a green light we were coming up on. A semi blew through a red light. He later said he felt like it wasn’t even him saying it and he had no idea why he yelled it other than a bad feeling."
- harlow2088
Mother Knows Best
"Not my life but my son's. I was 33 weeks pregnant and I noticed my son wasn't moving as much as usual. I waited a day and nothing changed."
"Despite advice by doctors and family saying I should just stay home and he wasn't moving as much because he was just running out of room to move, I went into the ER and had my son that night due to fetal distress."
"He had his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck eight times and weighed just three pounds. He spent 30 days in the NICU and now is a happy two-year-old."
- Goatintree
An Insistent Friend
"A friend's feeling saved me from my gut."
"I had just finished hosting a meeting (I swear it was productive) and a friend said, 'You don't look so good.'"
"I had just come off a weekend boat diving in the Red Sea and figured I was just tired. My friend said, 'Nah man, I'm taking you to the doctor.'"
"The doctor at our clinic poked me a few times and said, 'Take him to the ER and tell them it's his appendix.'"
"I was in surgery less than 90 minutes later. My surgeon said I was two to three hours from it blowing up. I lived alone and no one would have missed me until the next day."
- ksuwildkat
A Night Walk
"About two years ago, my dad and I loved going on night walks, It was something we’ve always done more or less every night."
"One night, however, as we were about halfway through our daily route, we got to an alleyway. Now normally, I’ve never thought anything of it, but something this night just told me not to walk through, I had a really bad feeling and I urged my dad to just go back home."
"He kept brushing it off and saying I was just scared of the dark and nothing was going to happen. After a couple of minutes of arguing, we finally turned back and walked home."
"Turns out about 20 minutes after we left, there was a completely random attack in that exact alleyway that left a poor young girl stabbed, thankfully not to death, but with life-changing injuries. I still dread to think what would have happened if we didn’t walk back."
- No_Project6675
Definitely Not a Black Bear
"Up in Northern Pennsylvania, I had a gut feeling I needed to turn around and walk out of the woods I was hiking."
"That turned out to be a good idea because I saw the big cat that was tracking me on my way back out."
"I was hiking a stream up around Emlenton, PA, checking it out to see if it's wadeable for fishing. I didn't know y'all had any wild cats around there; I was just worried about black bears."
- abspencer22
Protecting Her Own
"Years ago, I went into my garden at night, after my husband had left for a road trip minutes before, and saw a pair of sneakers in the dark, in the gap between the fence and our house."
"I didn’t think, I just said very loudly, 'What are you doing there?' When he didn’t reply, I shouted, 'GET OUT OF MY GARDEN!'"
"He muttered, 'Yes, ma’am,' and scuttled off. Also not thinking, I picked up a BBQ knife that happened to be right there, went through the house to the front windows, and saw him crouched by my car in the driveway."
"I called the cops, they arrived, and we discovered that someone, probably the same dude, had just broken into our neighbor’s house and stolen a gun."
"The cops gave me a condescending talking-to about the ‘risks’ of confronting a criminal, but I am convinced to this day that my instincts saved me from a life-altering and horrible experience. We humans are animals and one animal knows when another will fight like h**l."
"We got an alarm system after that. And the guy came back several weeks later. I looked up to see him on our porch, about twenty feet from the sidewalk. Called the cops again. They sent a SWAT team this time. And a helicopter."
"They got the guy."
- Fair_Leadership76
Medicinal Negligence
"I was pregnant in the very early weeks (five or six weeks), and started getting these intense pains on the right side of my abdomen. Like so extremely painful that I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t make noise or move."
"I went to my doctor the next day, and he said I was being hysterical and it’s completely normal to be in pain when you’re pregnant. He refused to get me to an OB-GYN, and said I could go private if it was such a big deal."
"I went to a private scan, and my pregnancy was ectopic (stuck in my fallopian tube), and my tube had ruptured and I was bleeding internally. I was rushed to the hospital and had surgery to remove my tube that night."
"If I hadn’t booked that scan, I would have died in my sleep that night due to internal bleeding."
""I reported him for negligence."
- Murky_Conclusion4210
Potential Robbery
"A guy asked me for help with bus fare and offered to take me to an ATM. I got a bad feeling and dipped. Then I saw him on the news a week later for robbing somebody at gunpoint."
- BurghFinsFan
A Chillingly Close Call
"My wife was going to go on a road trip with friends down to a bigger city for a concert. She had done this several times before."
"Friends were close friends of ours but for some reason, I felt off about it that one day. I said to her, 'Babe, I don’t know why and you can ignore me if you’d like, but I don’t think you should go. I don’t know why, but I feel like something is going to happen.'"
"She knows I’d never tell her not to do anything she wanted. It was out of the blue and out of character for me. So she decided to stay home and watch movies with me."
"About two hours later after the rest of the crew left, we got a phone call that they had gotten into a severe accident. Two friends were in the hospital and someone from the other vehicle died on the scene. Had she gone along, she would have been sitting in the seat where they had been hit by the other driver and most likely killed."
"Someone, somewhere, somehow was warning me. And I’m glad we both listened to it."
- Sperryxd
Always Stop to Look at the Rainbow
"I was driving along a rough mountain road heading home from work. The mountain pass ends at a lake, and you drive around the lake to meet up with the main road."
"I got to the bottom of the mountain and started down the lake road, and saw this stunning bright rainbow over the lake."
"I had this weird gut feeling and urge to stop and look at it, with the way the sun was shining, it didn’t make sense that there would be a rainbow, but it was mesmerizing. So I stopped and stared at it in awe."
"A couple of seconds later, as soon as I looked back at the road, a massive boulder came barreling down off the cliff above about 20 meters in front of me, hit the road, and smoked all of the concrete barriers as it went into the lake. I 100% would have been killed if I hadn’t stopped."
- Epantz
These accounts gave us absolute chills as we read about other people's close calls.
We never know when our time will be up, so we absolutely have to be careful with the time that we have.
The people who love you the most can break your heart because of their betrayal of trust.
Cheating is cowardly and inexcusable, but depending on the situation and the couple, it is possible for them to find a path to healing emotional wounds.
But there are some ways in which infidelity is totally unforgivable.
That's the kind of scenario Redditor WCh3L3 was curious to hear about when they asked:
"What’s the wildest cheating story you’ve witnessed or happened to you?"
It must be exhausting leading double lives.
Hospital News
"A friend of a friend found out that her husband was cheating when she got to the hospital to see her husband who had just moments before been brought in by ambulance after a serious car accident only to be denied entry to his room because 'his wife was already in the room with him.'"
"He had two simultaneous lives with two women, neither of which was aware of the other."
– JeBronlLames
The Ruse
"My ex-wife pretended to be admitted to a mental health ward for long term treatment while actually staying with her new man and cheating on me."
– Impossible-Visit-199
"This one is just next level."
– most-royal-chemist
"That’s some Batman villain level of intrigue and machination. His wife missed her calling and wasted her abilities on sleeping around."
– filifijonka
A Separate Life
"My friend's mom was in a relationship with a guy for years and they ended up getting engaged and due to marry."
"The guy was a senior director of a company for which he travelled every week abroad for business."
"Eventually, the guy had a heart attack and when my friends mom turned up at the hospital, his wife and 2 kids were there also."
"Turned out he was already married with children and living a double life the whole time. When he went 'abroad' for business, he was simply going back to his actual family."
– wallbagz
Here's The Story
"My dad did this. He worked nights and would juggle both families that way."
"He came clean after he got admitted to hospital for heart trouble and realised that if things went badly he’d end up in this exact situation."
"I was 16 when he came clean that I have an older brother and sister. They found out about me then too - as did his wife."
"ETA: I’d actually already figured it out before he told me though. Nobody else had."
"EATA: I saw a preview of a text on my dad’s phone from my sister. I didn’t know she was my sister obviously, but it said ‘hi dad, mum says…’"
"At first I was in denial and I thought his friend must have borrowed his phone or something. I started to watch him more closely."
"He had a ringtone (lol the 00’s) that would say the name of the caller. I noticed whenever a certain name rang he’d leave the room. Some tactical eavesdropping later and 15 year old me had it figured out that I had a brother and sister."
"I didn’t clock I had a stepmother though, or that I was family no2 and they were his primary family. But I still think I did pretty well!"
"My whole family on my mum’s side knew - mum respected that it was my dad’s secret to tell and she gave him time to tell it. (Although they did have a few arguments about it as I was growing up, I never knew what they were about at the time.)"
– notemily-
Life is never the same once the truth comes out.
Shameless
"A family friend's husband was having an affair for 20+ years and that woman knew the entire time about his family. He was at her ranch one time and was bucked off a horse and broke his back. The affair partner called his wife to tell her and acted like everything about this situation was normal and the wife had no reason to act all upset at the affair. Some people really just have no shame."
"Guy lived and made a complete recovery, left his mistress and they stayed together since they were working on their relationship. He died a few years ago and the wife finds out he never actually left his mistress just lied."
– SailoLee92
Unilateral Decision
"In a small town the husband kept telling people he had an open marriage; finally someone asked his wife about it, she was unaware of this new arrangement."
– Long_Strange_Trip_GD
Rehab Romance
"Was in rehab, two people were there for sex addiction one a minister the other a Jewish housewife. They left rehab together early. Woman divorced her husband who sent her to rehab for sex addiction and married the guy she met in rehab. They are still married 10 years later and seem very happy."
– Life-Evidence-6672
On The Case
"I knew a guy years ago that was a private investigator. Many times he was approached by a spouse who suspected their partner was cheating."
"He had a slam-dunk strategy. He would suggest his client sign up for a course, whether a hobby thing, or educational. The key was that the class would happen for a period of weeks, all on the same day of the week, and all at the same time of day."
"Then, while his client was in class, he would follow the spouse."
"Caught them every time."
– PJMurphy
If you have a hunch about an unfaithful significant other, it's there for a reason.
Going For A Run
"Had a coworker who cheated on her live-in boyfriend. She would tell him she was going for a run, put on her shorts without underwear and would f'k her side piece in the apartment parking lot. So then she would come back inside sweaty 30 mins later and needed to shower and it all made sense to her boyfriend, he never questioned it. She was an awful human."
– rashawah
It Made Scents
"A friend caught her husband cheating because he kept coming home smelling like ferrets."
"Hard to play off 'long day at work' and explain that."
"When she found out at a holiday party that one of the young female coworkers owned ferrets, it all made sense."
– benloe7
Special Delivery
"I used to go to a comic shop. And the comic shop owner knew all of the gossip in the area. Nice dude. Remembers all of his regulars and asks about you if he hasn’t seen you in awhile to check in on people. Lot of people in the area grew up with his shop. So he’s got stories."
"Anyways he told us about this story from some years back about this regular. Who disappeared for a few months. Comes back one day. And the shop owner asks him, 'hey, man. Haven’t seen you in awhile?' Kind of like where have you been. The regular was like oh I’ve been getting divorced. I had to move it was a whole thing."
"So naturally the shop owner asks. 'Why are you divorcing your wife?' The regular caught his wife cheating."
"He had picked up a 2nd part time job as pizza delivery man because he was trying to fund to take his wife on her dream vacation. All of the money he earned from that job was supposed to go into that vacation. He had been working this job for like 6 months. It was a whole secret. She didn’t know he was doing that for her. Because he was trying to surprise her."
"He was the pizza delivery man at the motel. She was cheating at him with. The dude she was cheating on him with answered the door with her right next to him."
"He apparently didn’t even go back to the pizza place. He quit on the spot. Went home. Packed his sh*t and left town."
– TheMysticalPlatypus
Those who are unfaithful in their relationships may think they're good enough for more than one person, but they're usually not.
And while you may not believe in it, there's something called karma, and watching it enact justice can be extremely gratifying.
If you were the one being cheated on, know that the person with whom you've fallen in love is not the kind of person you want to spend the rest of your life with and there will always be a better human who will respect you and love you.
And if you were the cheater, watch your back. Because whether you believe in it or not, karma's coming for ya.
Food trends are not so very different from fashion trends, constantly evolving and quickly becoming outdated or passé.
Can you think of the last time you were served ambrosia at a dinner party?
Or have you noticed how anything featuring kale is now met with an eye roll rather than excitement?
Of course, some food trends tend to last longer than others.
Even if many people wish that they would also become extinct... the sooner the better!
Redditor Prestigious-Humor872 was eager to hear all the food trends people wished would die out, and fast, leading them to ask:
"What modern food trend can you not wait to die?"
Less Isn't Always More...
"2 ingredient desserts (with 7 'optional' ingredients that appear once you read the actual recipe)."- strawberry-emma
You Pay For The Experience
"Food trucks that charge the same price as a premium restaurant but serve half the size on a floppy plate that I have to stand up to eat."- thorn_10
"Food trucks."
"Weren’t they supposed to serve cheaper food because of lower overhead?"
"No brick and mortar?"
"We have a lobster roll truck-pulled by a Range Rover- that shows up for lunch and charges $22 for one entree."
"Ridiculous."- tizzymyers·
GiphyChoice Of Words...
"Calling a slight alteration to a recipe a 'hack'."
"Adding parmesan cheese to your grilled cheese sandwich is not a 'hack'."
"It's a minor recipe change."- No_Pear_2326
Jumping The Gun A Bit...
"If I'm on a website I'm only there to look at your menu."
"I'm not interested in starting an order before I've looked at the menu."
"No, I don't want to give you my zip code."
"Just give me your menu and some food pictures."- DueRest
Staying Humble?
"Fancy restaurants that say they serve 'street tacos' and proceed to charge $18 for three."- Chipwich75
T-Bell Yes GIF by Taco BellGiphyThere's A Reason We're Told Not To Play With Our Food...
"The stupid food wasting trends on YouTube and TikTok etc."- fluffernuttersndwch
Presentation Is Key...
"For some reason putting food in wine glasses."- Ralphroberts603
"Restaurants serving food on cutting boards, shovels, paper, shells, or anything that is not an actual plate."- Funny_Disaster1002
meat grill GIF by Gifs LabGiphyRemember The Golden Arches And The Red Roofs?
"Making all fast food buildings look like cookie-cutter beige/grey boxes."
"They all used to have their own distinct personalities."- mattnotis
There's Economizing, And Then There's Jusy Poor Hygeine...
"The videos of people making food in sinks."
"Gross."- h20rabbit
Is It Even Still A Secret After 100 Thousand Views?
"Any TikTok/IG trend that makes life more difficult for fast-food workers with overly complex orders or ordering stuff not on the menu or trying to 'one up' each others orders etc."- HiThisIsMichael
bored fast food GIF by Zaxby'sGiphyMaybe It Gives Them Incentive?
"Tipping as an option BEFORE receiving good service."- mytimeis2044
Sweet Tooth? Or Cavity Express?
"Sweets on top of sweets."
"A milkshake with a donut, lollipop, and cupcake attached."- Marleygem
Technology Slowly Taking Our Jobs...
"I just went to a restaurant, not a fast food place, a sit-down restaurant where you have to scan the QR code for the menu, then a screen pops up where you have to place your own order."
"No one comes to the table to answer questions, nothing."
"You place your order, a person comes by and throws your drinks at you. "
"Then they swing by a while later and throw your food at you."
"That’s all you see of them."
"You pay your bill on your phone, and are still expected to tip."- Megmuffin102
Saint Urbain Website GIF by Front of HouseGiphyBe it in presentation, cooking style, or flavor profile, people will likely always try to make food "cool" in truly bizarre ways.
Sometimes ignoring that the only thing that should truly matter is whether or not it tastes good.
At least people have finally realized that kale doesn't need to be added to everything!
For now, at least...