
Exhausted Teachers Reveal What Made Them Retire On The Spot
[rebelmouse-image 18348981 is_animated_gif=Teaching is one of the most noble, but also most difficult professions a person can go into. It literally shapes the future! There can be days, though, where it feels less like shaping the future and more like a slow descent into madness. On those days, it's perfectly natural to want to throw your hands in the air like you just don't care. One Reddit user was apparently feeling that funk, because they asked:
Teachers who quit, when was the moment you realized that it wasn't for you?
The answers they got were eye-opening, gut-wrenching, and thought-provoking. Some were even giggle-inducing. We picked 20 of the ones that hit us the hardest. So take your places, everyone. Class is officially in session.
Nobody Else Cared
[rebelmouse-image 18348982 is_animated_gif=No me but my wife. She was an engineer at a good company on the east coast. Left because she wanted more rewarding work. Soon after she is doing clinicals at a school on the rough side of our home town. She was the kind of student teacher who showed up early, ate lunch with the kids, stayed late, and followed up with parents. Anyway....
Some months in she has repeatedly had trouble with some students (they came from troubled homes and brought a lot with them into the class each day). She tried working with them one on one, working with the administration, and the parents. More than one set of parents said "Stop calling." And the administration told her to send them to the principal's office (where they could sit all day) and focus on the "good" kids.
Eventually, the futility set in.... She was the only one who cared. Not the kids, administration, other teachers, or even their parents. She finally wore herself out after a couple years with no support at work and no one appreciating her efforts (except me of course!).
She's back in aerospace now.
6 Weeks
[rebelmouse-image 18348983 is_animated_gif=I worked in a high needs behavior class. I got hit, punched, scratched and spat on daily, but every day I went back and did my best for those kids. It was sickening, but I loved my job and every one of those kids.
One day was called to the office to talk. It was Christmas time and things weren't great at home and as anyone with kids knows the holidays makes children especially high strung so things were also wild in the classroom. My boss said "you seem awfully stressed" and I thought how nice of her to notice so I agreed that yes I was struggling. She said "you have 6 weeks to sort it out or I'll have to let you go".
I was crushed. It literally broke me. 6 weeks to get less stressed...how does that even work? I found myself just showing up to show up and I realized that wasn't fair for me or for the kids.
6 weeks later I get a call back to the office. I am congratulated on the amazing turn around and sent back to class. I was baffled. I was more upset and stressed than ever and they congratulate me?
More and more I showed up to work just for the paycheck. One day I just decided screw it, I wasn't a teacher anymore I was a robot fearful of showing any negativity . I quit that week. Never went back to teaching.
Horrible Home Life
[rebelmouse-image 18348984 is_animated_gif=I had a behaviorally-difficult student, maybe 11 or 12, sitting with me and having pizza. I asked how her life was going and she says "Well, my dad's a drug dealer so he's always got people coming over to sell or buy drugs or play cards so I can't sleep. My mom's dying because she has a hole in her heart and they can't fix it. And I have a boyfriend but I'm afraid to tell my mom because she'll tell my dad" Just normal, like this was everyday stuff.
So, as a mandatory reporter I go to my Dean of Students and tell him all this, and he just gets irritated and goes "Yeah, but that doesn't excuse her behavior."
That's when I knew I was done.
Teaching Isn't Teaching Anymore
[rebelmouse-image 18348987 is_animated_gif=I taught high school English for ten years before finally quitting for the corporate sector. Honestly, it was a lot of small things that built and built until I realized it wasn't where I wanted to be. The largest of those "small things" is stifling focus on standardized testing. I lost weeks and weeks to test prep at every grade level. I couldn't teach novels I loved teaching because I ran out of time. And those standardized tests are useless, they prove nothing but offer schools a pat on the back for the high performance results. Which, mind you, do not transfer at all to college success. And too many public schools force the idea of college. Why? Is it because it's for the betterment of the kids? Hell no, it looks good on their graduation statistics. But, there is nothing wrong with not going to college. And I'd tell that to my AP students as much as my kids with the 12 average for the year. You have a 3.8 GPA and want to be a plumber? You go. You be a plumber. F*ck, you'll make more than the rest of us.
I was once told I shouldn't do so many lessons where discussion between students was required. No more Socratic seminars, there had to be more "material that could be graded." I can't encourage discussion in an English literature class because I can't grade the kids on it. And don't even get me started on quantitative vs. qualitative. Teachers are being held accountable for students who "don't improve" regardless of anything else. Jimmy doesn't come to school for three months because he's f_cking off and then shows back up and fails the midterm? That's on YOU buddy, should have taught him better for the two weeks you had him at the start of the year.
I eventually got tired of the constant hurdles and stupid state requirements. People said "Yeah, but you get a pension! Unions! Summers off!" So the f*ck what? I'm in corporate now and I make 31K more than I did teaching with a yearly bonus and a matching 401k with profit sharing. And bitch, please, I never had a summer off. I worked two jobs to make ends meet from June to September. Most teachers do.
What kills me is that I loved teaching. I loved my students and I was good at what I did. I was good at encouraging kids to take risks with their learning and I didn't penalise them for making mistakes. That's how you learn. You don't learn shit from multiple choice and you never will. I miss my kids, I miss watching them go from hating a piece to being eager to discuss it. Even my lowest level students could show me something, even if it wasn't on paper.
It wasn't my students that killed my love for teaching. And I DID have kids throw chairs or get into fights or tell me to f*ck off, all of that? That was doable. And I did it. The stupid, useless requirements and the idiotic state testing, the abysmal pay for the hours and hours I put in. That killed my love for teaching. And it's killing plenty of other young, passionate educators. I miss my students. I miss everything about teaching, when I was allowed to teach. Now? It's not teaching. If you want to teach, get into higher education or a private school. Do yourself a favour and stay out of public education in the United States. It doesn't exist anymore.
Knife Fight
[rebelmouse-image 18348988 is_animated_gif=Two 16 year old kids were facing each other (I had the classroom seats in a U shape) and were silently challenging each other to fight while I was in the middle of a lesson. They suddenly jumped up from their chairs and came at each other with eight inch knives with me in between them.
I was pretty built, having been a stonemason's apprentice in college to help pay my way through, but these kids were both bigger than me. Without thinking I grabbed each by their collars and shouted SIT. DOWN.
I didn't start shaking until that evening. I was done a week later.
Pay Raise
[rebelmouse-image 18348989 is_animated_gif=When the corporate job offered me three times the salary AND a 12% annual bonus.
Now, my kids can afford to go to the college where dad used to teach.
Small Town Nepotism
[rebelmouse-image 18348990 is_animated_gif=Nepotism is a major problem in smaller school districts. Yes men, family members, and friends will get hired as the school system is one of the better paying jobs in the county. All of this is done in return for loyalty and not questioning if decisions are best for the kids.
One of the bigger nails in the coffin was when I was pepper sprayed by the school resource officer AFTER myself and another teacher had broken up a fight and were sending students back to class. He sprayed to "disperse the crowd" spraying myself and our female assistant principle in the face and causing three students to have asthma attacks. For as little as I was being paid, I could find a safer place to work where people were less incompetent.
Literally Illiterate
[rebelmouse-image 18348991 is_animated_gif=When I tested the reading level of a 19 year old girl, and it registered at 1st grade. Since she was on FRL and English Language services, she would ding the school in two "at risk" categories for our graduation rate. I told the administration "This girl is illiterate in English. We know this as a fact. She cannot graduate, no ifs, ands, or buts." Smash cut to 3 weeks later as she's walking across the stage in a cap and gown to receive a diploma she can't read. Sad. At that point, I knew my job wasn't serving at risk youths, it was playing a numbers game to bill taxpayer money to prop up a failing system. No thanks.
4 Days
[rebelmouse-image 18348993 is_animated_gif=- School started the Monday before Labor day. I was hired the Friday before Labor day.
- Not once did anybody talk to me about how I only had 3 days to start planning math lessons or offer to help get me on my feet.
- I had to drive 90 minutes one way, which meant leaving the house at 0500 and not getting home until 1800 and still having to make lesson plans for the next day.
- My 1st class was all ESL students. Administration determined that despite being present for all their other classes, an ESL teacher's presence was not necessary in my classroom.
- My 2nd class was 16-21 year old 8th graders.
- My 3rd class was 30 7th graders. I had 24 desks.
- I was never given so much as an orientation. I still could not find anything but my classroom.
- It was an inner city school with inner city school problems.
I lasted 4 days. I never got paid.
"Berlin's In GERMANY?!"
[rebelmouse-image 18348995 is_animated_gif=So a while back I was a permanent sub for a German teacher in the area I lived (she went on maternity leave). And in this German class I'd also talk about geography and what not. So anyway, near the end of the school year, I was talking about how Berlin...
"Wait wait wait... Berlin's in Germany?! I thought it was in Europe!"
It was at that moment, that I realized I failed as a teacher.
Well, Honesty Is Everything
[rebelmouse-image 18348996 is_animated_gif=When I realized getting drunk and cooking epic meals was way more enjoyable.
"I Think Grades Are Stupid"
[rebelmouse-image 18348997 is_animated_gif=I went to a national teaching conference and nearly every single speaker was an excellent and passionate educator. AND nearly every single speaker talked about how their administration impeded progress, innovation, and generally sucked. I had been hoping it was only my school.
I also realized that I think grades are stupid. I had liked them as a student because I was good at things, but watching students struggle when they lacked the aptitude to excel in the same way some of their peers could, but still busted their butts hoping for that A made me sad.
I think learning should be more student led than test driven, and more interdisciplinary in nature. Basically, I think our educational system goes against research and kills intrinsic motivation and curiosity.
Film Studies
[rebelmouse-image 18348998 is_animated_gif=I was written up by the principal for "always showing movies in my class."
It was a Film Studies elective.
Oh.
[rebelmouse-image 18348999 is_animated_gif=When it would have taken 43 years to pay off my degree at a teachers salary.
Changing Grades
[rebelmouse-image 18349000 is_animated_gif=When the principal said she would change my grade book. I had several fights with her and the master teacher on how to run my class. They wanted someone to do handouts everyday, which I wasn't going to do since I had to buy my own paper, and give out grades based only on worksheets. I told her I was there to teach and that's what I did. It's not my fault some of the students didn't want to try or turn anything in. The funny part was that my standardized test score and benchmark scores had the highest growth rate but my grade book had the most students getting Cs and Ds. I was planning to curve but once she said she was changing the grades I was done.
Well, Better To Find Out Now
[rebelmouse-image 18349002 is_animated_gif=I didn't even make it to being a teacher. During my final segment of student teacher in a urban High School I got my tires slashed after placing the school star running back into ISS and was not able to play in the next game.
Confessions Of A Bad Teacher
[rebelmouse-image 18349002 is_animated_gif=I only taught for one year. The moment I knew it wasn't for me was my second day.
I was hired by a failing school district taken over by the state board of education. I thought I was hired for high school biology, but I was placed as the 7th and 8th grade science teacher. It was a rural school (7th-12th grade) with 200 students.
My first class decided to have a riot on my second day. They picked up books and threw them, knocked over the desks, and ran around the class laughing and having a grand time. No disciplinary action was taken. I was told I needed better classroom management skills. This only increased the problems throughout the year.
I really became an expensive baby sitter the whole year. Most of my students didn't care to learn. I couldn't find a way to teach them so I gave up on teaching right before Christmas break.
After the holidays, I stopped turning in my weekly lesson plans. I found a write up form in my box every week for a few weeks, but no one ever came to me and asked why I didn't. Eventually, I stopped getting them.
I would just print work sheets for the kids to do. I think I had the only students who were tired of watching bill nye.
I was a sh_tty teacher in a sh_tty school. I should of been fired. The sad part was I was offered another contract for the following year. I declined. I now am in restaurant management making $25k more a year than I would in education.
Grading A Kid Who Wasn't There
[rebelmouse-image 18345581 is_animated_gif=To me, it wasn't the students. It was seeing the caliber of teachers that surrounded them. Four months into one school year, I finally found out that the kid that wasn't in my roster was suppose to be in English class with another teacher. When I asked the other teacher about it, he showed me his attendance and grade books showing that the student was present most days. The student also somehow had an average grade of 78. In short, the 7th grade English teacher was making up attendance and grades.
Kids can't succeed if teachers don't care enough to see if they're actually there. I then thought I could catalyze more impactful change by working in tech.
Useless Knowledge
[rebelmouse-image 18349003 is_animated_gif=When a kid asked me "why do I gotta know what a verb is?", and I couldn't think of a good answer.
H/T: Reddit
Be it a sports team, movie star, or book series, just about everything has its fan base.
Though some fanbases are much more "fanatical" than others.
In some cases, one fanbase leads to another, such as Twilight internet fan fiction leading to the Fifty Shades Of Grey trilogy.
Sadly, there are also fan bases that don't simply celebrate the person, series, or team they idolize, but sometimes make an effort to take down their rivals and competition.
Clogging up social media, message boards and online comments sections with their unpleasant rhetoric.
"What are the most toxic fandoms on the internet?"
Always Remember, They Work For Us!
"Fans of politicians."
"Too many people have forgotten that politicians are public servants and not celebrities."
"We elect them to serve, not to be worshipped."- Kedosto
Fine To Be Fascinated, Admiring Them However...
"All those crazy fans who support serial killers just because they think they're hot."
"Ted Bundy fanatics etc."- Oiaosq
"Jefferey Dahmer fans."- saturnwrites17
You Can't Pick And Choose...
'There's a very prevalent group of metal fans that claim that nobody listens to metal anymore but then proceed to hate every metal band that isn't from the 80s or earlier."- NeutralityTsar
... Are There Any Fans Left?...
"Idk how they are anymore, but 10 years ago the 'Glee' fandom was the worst."- meganmicheles
Always Best To Leave It To The Professionals
"I wouldn't class my contribution as a fandom but it's definitely a toxic internet-inspired community."
'Armchair detectives and true crime obsessives."
"I don't mean people who like to listen to TC podcasts or documentaries."
"I mean the people who actively try and solve a missing person/murder case and just end up getting things wrong, making very serious and often false allegations, disrupting an investigation or hurting family members."
"Helping catch Gabby Petito's killer was an exception."
"Just look at the Nicola Bulley case in the UK right now, sad case YouTubers traipsing thru people's gardens at night, accusing house owners of criminality for daring to leave a light on late at night."
"Overall, just a horrible community who do more harm than good."
"Reddit enables a lot of this type of thing too, I must add."- KrippendorfsAlfalfa
Good Sportsmanship Doesn't Just Apply To The Players
"Sport Fans who gets into fist fights over a damn game they aren’t even playing themselves." -Reddit
Everyone Is Entitled To Privacy
"'The Heartstopper' fandom forced Kit Connor to come out of the closet, at the age of 18."
"That's pretty toxic."- FireFlinger
Sometimes Fandom Comes With Cognitive Dissonance
"'Rick and Morty Fandom', especially if individuals belonging to the fandom, decided to defend Justin Roiland."
"Don't get me wrong, I like 'Rick and Morty', but I can also take a step back and analyze the creators, the content, and the fan culture."
"Everybody I've met who is a die-hard 'Rick and Morty' fan usually thinks they're just like Rick."
"If you watch the show, you should know that he's not an ideal role model."
"Not a huge fan of that behavior."- Bubbly-Substance-112
Calm Down Now...
"There is a very specific set of 'The Legend of Korra' fans that are incredibly toxic and horrible."- ApathicSaint
Always Important To Get Back To Reality
"Genshin impact Twitter."- BenWinnin
Taste Is Subjective, Especially In Music
"Kpop."
"I’ve been called racist for saying I don’t like it."- Top_Buy2467
Be it for their local sports team or their favorite book, fans have every right to show their enthusiasm.
But when they begin to demean others, and their fandom ceases to be a celebration, they might want to think more carefully about their actions.
The start of love is always such a fascinating topic.
How do you all find each other?
The meet-up is such a thing for so many.
But apparently, it can be magic.
Redditors wanted to share how they find their partners in the most unlikely ways.
Redditor William3356 asked:
"How did you and your SO meet?"
I love the beginning of a love story.
Make me believe it's possible.
Looking Good
"I was drunk, walking in the road on the way to a pub, dressed as a clown. He was sober and on his way home from work. (It was Halloween)."
SlowDevice420
"My favorite part of this is the clarification that it was Halloween as if it’s there are other times you may be dressed as a clown. but this is so cute!"
NoFlounder90
And there she was...
"Totally random. I was jetskiing at a lake with a buddy. There was a big group next to us that was having an office party. They invited us over to share some shade and food. My wife showed up a bit later. She was nice and I invited her and her friend to go mountain biking with a big group of my friends the following weekend."
"I was not looking for a girlfriend at the time, but that is how things work. We started dating a few weeks later and our 21st anniversary is next month. I was 35 and she was 36 when we got married and neither of us had been married before."
Caspers_Shadow
Hair Issues
"Worked at the same prison together. I hated him. He hated me. We worked separate shifts then we got put on the same shift together. One day I showed up with a super short new haircut and he asked me 'Wtf did you do to your hair?' And I said 'Me? Wtf did you do to YOUR hair?'"
"And suddenly he found me attractive and the more I was mean to him, the more he liked me. Eventually, some hardships happened and he was the first to immediately extend a hand and help me and I saw the soft sweet side of him and I came around."
Chemical_Reality4606
8 years later...
"Online cos I don't have any friends and he had no luck with women in bars/clubs. Put him off for 3 weeks, asked my mom to check him out to see if she approved of him, she did, told my dad gently (just got out a baaaad relationship) and we met in a park and sat and chatted under cherry Blossom trees for 2 hours. 8 years later still kicking and can't imagine life without him now."
deandraws26
Cherish
"Just moved to a new part of town, had no friends but saw a group of people at the skatepark. I decided to sit near them with hopes that they might talk to me (I always had a hard time meeting people/making friends)."
"I was 15 at the time and my now wife saw me alone and invited me to hangout with her group. I made great friends and gained years of incredible memories that I cherish to this day. I'm 23 now, we just celebrated our 4th anniversary, and just got married a week ago and couldn't be happier."
PapaPunk17
The Tag Along
"My cousin's wedding. She was a friend of another cousin who tagged along. We had 15 good years together before she passed away unexpectedly from a heart defect."
allen_idaho
"I met my boyfriend at a my cousin's wedding as well. I am sorry for your loss. May you find comfort in the memories."
wrapped-in-rainbows
Weddings are always a love match breeding ground.
Bountiful...
"Technically a blind date! We met on Plenty of Fish but neither of us had a profile picture for one reason or another. We decided to meet up less than 24 hours after first chatting but without sending each other a photo first. We fell in love as soon as we saw the other that first time and we've never left each others side since!"
Gothic_Chaotic
When in Honky Tonk
"20 + years ago in a Honky Tonk back in Texas her cousin was talking to my best friend I asked her to dance she told me no. This is how our conversation started and we talked all night long I asked her to dance again she said yes and the Lights came on. I never got to dance with her that night but I did get her number. I knew the minute I met her I was going to marry her. I had never felt like that before. We are still married and she is my best friend."
txbbqdude
The Greatest
"Met through mutual friends on a camping trip, her smile was the greatest thing I had ever seen. New life goal: make this girl laugh and smile as much as possible. Now I have a picture at my desk of her doing both, while smashing a piece of our wedding cake into my face."
Ioapqjz
In Motion
"She saw me dancing and decided to get a piece of that action. 30 years later we still go dancing."
scalzi
Dancing is always the way to a heart.
Do you have any amazing "meet cute" moments with your significant other? Let us know in the comments below.
In the jungle, the lion sleeps tonight.
And apparently, he ain't all that bad.
Well, if you listen to that song and ignore Scar in 'The Lion King,' then I guess they're well-meaning beasts.
But a lot of nature does get a bad reputation.
Most animals only attack in fear.
And Lord knows we humans give them reasons to fear.
Redditor Puzzleheaded_1377 wanted to discuss the creatures we need to be more accepting about, so they asked:
"What's an animal that is not as dangerous as people think?"
Dog breeds are important to discuss with this issue.
Save the pit bulls.
Be Firm
"Cheetahs. Don't run. They are skittish. They don't expect the prey not to run. No documented case of a cheetah attacking a human in the wild ever. Just stand your ground and look big. The only big cat that will work with."
TheClayroo
Too Close
"I’m from Zimbabwe and 98% of the time the people that are killed by wild animals are almost always the tourists or people from rich countries, locals are mostly killed by hippos while crossing rivers random animal attacks are rare but the tourists almost always walk into the danger to take pictures."
"Or they think the animal is cute and doesn’t look dangerous, opening car windows to feed animals etc."
"I think they should publicize the statistics of how many are getting killed but they won’t do it to boost tourism; If I had a choice whether to run through a herd of buffalo vs a pride of lions, I would choose to run through the lions."
trixqo
Just Scary to Look At...
"Y’all ever seen a potter wasp? It’s a hornish bugger with a needle-thin abdomen, flies around looking like it packs a nastier sting than five yellowjackets combined. Turns out, more docile and less painful than a yellowjacket. It just has a frightening appearance."
a7o3
"Check out the ichneumon wasp. Looks like the cursed child not of the forbidden love affair between a wasp and a scorpion. Actually doesn't sting. Their super long 'stinger' is actually an ovipositor that it uses to lay eggs underneath tree bark. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megarhyssa_macrurus"
zorggalacticus
They are herbivores...
"Gorillas. Many people seem to think that they are aggressive animals who if you were to find yourself standing in front of, you are about to get torn apart or bludgeoned to death. They are herbivores. They have been studied extensively to be inherently peaceful animals that avoid violence unless of course all other options are exhausted."
"People literally go on walking tours up in to mountains in the heart of gorilla territories and sit around families of them with the silverback present. There is an art to approaching the silver back initially which the local guides are well aware of, in order to clarify that there is no threat to his family."
"Once that has been established, people can sometimes get lucky enough to even play with the gorilla babies, all in the presence of the parents. How many large mammals can you think of with that level of tolerance?"
"It's chimpanzees that absolutely terrify me. Arguably the absolute last animal alongside hyenas and African painted dogs that I would want to be stuck anywhere with."
Hefty-Quantity9073
One bad egg...
"Stingrays. They usually swim away from you. That thing that killed Steve Irwin was huge and was probably having a bad day and attacked."
Neltrix
If it killed Steve, it's a no for me.
A Sting
"Tarantulas. They are depicted as deadly in so many movies, but like bees and wasp, their bite while painful isn’t generally harmful to humans unless you’re allergic."
TreyRyan3
Unappreciated
"Bats, harmless critters. Only maybe possibly starting Coronavirus but we ignore that. They maintain eco systems and play important roles in our diets. They are soooooooooooooo unappreciated."
Terrosis
"Bats do carry rabies though. Knew a guy who woke up in his summer cottage with a bat hanging directly above his face, had to get the full 9 yard rabies treatment. Very unpleasant."
"That being said I love bats, and as you mentioned they play a huge role in the ecosystem. Just keep them away from your face. :) "
NAlaxbro
Geography Issues
"Fishers. If you live in the right part of the country, you'll hear people blame all kinds of things on fishers, massacred chickens and missing cats and so on. Even if they've never seen a fisher in their lives. If not fishers, then owls."
"It's probably usually raccoons. Raccoons are active at night, and male raccoons will absolutely go after a housecat -- and they can chase it up a tree, etc. Male raccoons are much bigger than most people think (they get up to 60 lb in the wild) and much more aggressive."
"Fishers are mustelids (weasels, basically) and cat-sized, and they do occasionally kill prey larger than themselves, even including bobcats. But not often, mostly because they don't need to. And they're not super-common in the contiguous U.S. And there are owls big enough to take housecats, but, again not that common. Whereas raccoons... yeah. Everywhere."
MostBotsAreBad
Woof...
"Wolves..."
"Leave them alone and they'll leave you alone. Hell, the chances of actually seeing a wolf in the wild randomly are slim to none."
"You are not prey shaped, so they won't treat you like prey. You're more of a curiosity or, at worst, an annoyance that is to be avoided."
Sharp_Emergency_4932
Keep Them
"Opossums. They’re super-timid, and very RARELY carry rabies. You want them in your yard."
stillcore
I don't care what you say... Opossums are a NO!
Do you have anything we should add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.
People Explain Which Activities They Did Wrong For Years Until Someone Showed Them What To Do
As humans, it's impossible for us to know everything, including the most efficient ways to do things.
But while we may know that, it's still frustrating when we discover there may have been an easier way to do something all along.
Even on TikTok, one of the top trends features users who discover a simpler, more efficient way to do something in their thirties or forties, before they robustly claim that they "learn more on TikTok than they ever did in school."
Fortunately for those who may not use the app, Redditors were ready to share their favorite finds in the thread.
Eager to learn more, Redditor slart_n asked:
"What everyday activity did you do wrong for years, before someone finally showed you an important trick?"
Restock Issues
"Not every day for everyone, but it WAS every cashier at my job... we had cigarette cases at the self-checkout that we could unlock and get packs out of for customers, so we didn't have to walk all the way to the big register to get them every time."
"Restocking them was a pain in the *ss, one pack at a time, pushing the little spring loader thing back with each one, squeezing them in next to each other..."
"We did it this way for years. It was how I had been shown how to restock them. YEARS. At least seven!! SEVEN. YEARS."
"And then one day I was pulling the price tags off to change them out, and one was a little stubborn. I gave it a little yank upwards and suddenly THE ENTIRE SHELF SLID RIGHT OUT ON ROLLERS."
"The way my jaw dropped. I think I actually swore out loud. It was SO MUCH EASIER to restock them. I ended up showing every single one of the other self-checkout cashiers, and every single one was blown away. Even the ones who had been there way longer than me."
"None of us knew the shelves pulled out. Not even the manager! She actually said, 'Are you f**king kidding me?!' when I showed her."
"I can't believe we all went that freaking long without knowing the shelves pulled out. Years of stocking those things one pack at a time. Then again, if we had known and been using it, they probably would have been broken like everything else in that place."
- TinyCatCrafts
Physical Gains
"I never thought I needed a workout routine as long as I worked different parts of my body on days until I watched an Arnold Schwarzenegger video on how he makes sure every single muscle gets hit in a three-day period. Since then I noticed more gains than I had made all year."
- NeverMindWait
Chopsticks and Pens
"Someone told me I used chopsticks wrong. I put the second one on the side of my ring finger, with my index and middle fingers on top of it. The person told me to just hold it like I would hold a pen, and I was like, what the f**k, this is how I hold a pen."
"Then I realized I hold a pen differently from most people."
"I've since retrained myself to hold chopsticks correctly, but I'm not even going to try to change how I write because it's just ingrained so deeply (and also, it doesn't really matter anyway)."
- Wegzuwerfendes_Konto
Remaking Beds
"Put on pillow covers. I used to shove the pillow in there and struggle with it until my wife showed me how to flip the pillowcase inside out and cover the pillow while flipping right side out."
- Immediate_Papayas
Hanging a Picture the First Time
"If you’re mounting something to the wall that has pre-designed holes on the back, rather than measure between the holes and try to space the nails/screws accordingly, stretch a single piece of painter's tape (blue tape) across the back of the piece from just before the beginning of the first hole to just after the last one."
"Mark each hole with a pencil/pen on the painter's tape, then place the tape on the wall and voila, you have a perfect mounting template. I suggest you do a quick check with a laser level on the wall just to make sure your marks are level before drilling."
"I work as a freelance handyman, and when my Dad showed me this trick it blew my mind. Seriously, ask a usually quiet and reserved Dad if he has any DIY hot tips and you’re bound to get some solid gold advice.
- darthva
How Was That, Now?
"Opening a beverage can."
"I keep my fingernails very short and sometimes it would be a bit finicky to open the tab on a can."
"I was d**n near 40 years old when my buddy showed me you’re supposed to push down on the hinge portion of the tab (the little dot toward the middle) with your thumb to raise the other edge of the tab so you can get your finger under it. I felt like an id**t."
- funklab
Text Editing Made Easy
"When texting, sliding your thumb on the spacebar of your phone will move the cursor."
- UnfairMicrowave
Goth Life
"Boots first, then corset."
- Ellesworth
Tomato Paste Push-Pops
"Those tiny, obnoxious cans of tomato paste. You can take both ends off with the can opener, and use a wooden spoon to push on the top. It comes out clean like a push-pop!"
- knittybitty123
Gift Card Identity
"Whenever a 'free' service asks for a credit card, I input the information from the back of a gift card. Trust no one on the internet."
- II_Confused
The Last of the Soap
"When the soap bar gets to the last sliver, you can just stick it onto the new bar to use it up completely."
- finlyboo
New Deoderant
"Taking the safety cap off of deodorant."
"I used to try to get my fingernails under it and pop it off. They were quite a pain in the a** to get off."
"In my late 20s, my roommate was talking to me while unpacking her groceries and she opened her deodorant and just twisted up the stick so that the cap came off. I was shocked."
- dinosarahsaurus
In-Kitchen Gardens
"Leek will continue to grow when put in water. When you have used all the green parts, and only the boring white stuff is left, put its roots in water for a few days and the green parts will grow back."
- scutterpikk
Wasted Produce
"Not an everyday activity, but someone showed me I'd been wasting celery for years. When it goes limp and loses its crunch, you can just soak it in water overnight, and it makes it crisp again."
"When celery goes limp, it's only because the water content has been reduced over time. Same with some other crunchy vegetables. I use the same trick with daikon radishes to make them fresh again."
- joec_95123
Dishwashing Efficiency
"You can take the silverware basket out of the dishwasher when unloading it."
"You can also set it on the counter next to the sink when you’re loading to keep from having to bend over to put things in the basket over and over."
- 877-Cash-Meow
While all of these lessons are pretty simple in and of themselves, they could make a big difference in someone's life if they've been taking a much more complicated route all this time, especially if they're in their thirties or later.