Being awkward in school was the norm for most of us, but some hid it better than others. There were definitely those that stood out of the crowd and marched to the beat of a different drum. These misfits and weirdos might have been teased, but at least they won't ever be forgotten.
u/mensaboy67 asks:
What is your 'weird classmate' story?
Her Favorite Class Is Purr-sian Hiss-tory
She thought she was a cat. She crawled around on the floor, meowed, and purred. Teacher allowed this, and I didn't really care because she was still "normal" besides the cat thing. It got really weird when my friend suddenly screamed "Ow, F---!" followed by the girl going "mew" from under the table . She bit his leg. AFAIK, she has no problems, just likes being a cat.
It's All Greek To Me
We had a guy at my high school who was...a little socially inept. He would walk through the hallway with a sharpened pencil extended in front of him like a spear and say "Make way, make way, mere mortals!" whenever he would walk to class. He also got in trouble for looking up "porn" on the library computer. Of course, actual porn sites were blocked, so he "researched" pictures of Roman and Greek statutes of nude women.
Hungry For...Knowledge
Dear god. I have a great story.
I moved to a new state my sophomore year of high school. I, obviously, didn't know anyone so I had no idea what kids were considered weird. In my first couple of weeks, the kid that sat behind me asked if I could get him a tissue. The box of tissues was on a window ledge right beside me, so I oblige and hand him one. Then I hear super loud "NOM NOM NOM NOM". And this guys straight up, DEVOURS, this tissue. He just looked at me and smiled, I looked around the room and everyone was staring at him...
Bee All That You Can Bee
This is actually less 'annoying-weird' and more 'I-am-in-awe-but-also-confused' kind of weird. In grade 4, there was this boy in my class, he was cool, he was obsessed with tanks, and loved to draw them from memory during class. I was a girl, and the other girls thought it was weird that I wanted to hang out with a boy, but the girls were jerks, so I didn't care.
Anyway, once during lunch time, he told me he was a bee whisperer, and told me to follow him. There was this big bush full of pink flowers in one corner of the school yard, and it was full of bees. He puts his finger near the bush, and one bee lands on his finger. He tells me the key is to be gentle, and make them trust you by not being afraid.
He then picks a flower that one bee was sitting on, and slowly folds the petals into the middle and pinches it between his fingers, essentially trapping the bee. He then puts the flower, with the bee, in his pocket, and we continue building stuff out of sticks.
Then recess is over, and in the middle of class, he taps me on the elbow, opens his pocket, and lets the bee crawl out. I just watch, as he lets the bee crawl over and between his fingers, until one girl nearby shrieks "James has a bee!"
The teacher looks up, and in a bit of a panic, demands he let the bee go outside. He does, just walks outside with the bee just sitting in the palm of his hand.
That was the first and last time he ever showed me the bee thing, and he moved away at the end of that year. I'm naturally skeptical, and maybe my childish wonder at that time distorted my memory somehow, but a part of me still believes that the King of the Bees is out there, somewhere.
Furry Weird, Indeed
A girl I went to elementary school with used to think she was a dog. She would act like a dog; panting, barking, licking her arms, etc. We were all kids and it wasn't frequent enough for it to be weird but one day she comes up to me as we're putting away our backpacks on the hooks and sticks her tongue out to reveal a glob of her own hair on her tongue. She then goes "shhhhh" and walks away. I will never forget this. We actually became closer acquaintances in high school later on but I was too embarrassed to ever bring it up, mostly for her.
Now That's A Plot Twist
I unenthusiastically attended my 5 year reunion because a few of my friends I hadn't seen in forever we're going. Several cocktails in, a bunch of people were sitting around swapping gossip about what had become of the oddballs from our year. This one guy says "I heard this one girl from our class got in to porn and is, like, a crackhead now". My interest was piqued, since hardly anyone from our small town ever did anything with their lives other than get married and have babies, so I asked for details. He told me that this girl had somehow gotten in to fetish bondage and stuff-and he knew it was true because someone sent him a link to a site once. I asked him if he could find it, and after some drunken phone searching he found the email and clicked the link. "Okay, well, I was close, it's just a picture not a link to the actual porn, but that's what he told me." I took the phone, enlarged the picture- a girl with an eyes-wide-shut style eye mask on, smoking a cigarette, wearing a leather corset and fishnet stockings, one stiletto heel placed in the back on a kneeling "slave". I sighed and gave him his phone back. "Josh, are you sure she's a crack whore porn star? And not just like, modeling in an essentially PG-13 fetish photo shoot? Maybe because she, I don't know, majored in Art like an idiot and couldn't get a real job right away???" He stared at me with dazed, drunk confusion...not connecting the dots. "Never mind. Cool story. Great seeing you!"
Forget Truth, Just Dare
This guys at my school would literally do anything you dared him to do. Slap a kid with a slice a pizza? Done. Take a dump in the urinal? No problem. Take his shirt off in the middle of the cafeteria, pour milk on himself while screaming? Easy.
I talked to him a couple times in classes that I had with him and he actually seemed fairly normal. He doesn't have any social media so idk how he is doing currently. He was a strange anomaly.
His Art Was A Stroke Of Genius
The weird kid in my graduating class always walked around with a sketchbook in his hand. He would draw graphic (yet very realistic) looking sketches of d*cks during class, and then somehow made them blend together into beautiful landscapes or works of art. It was like playing where's Waldo every time he showed you his sketches, except with d*cks. Other than that, he was quite a funny dude to be around and everyone in our grade liked him. Last I heard he got accepted into a well known arts school in the States, and is apparently flourishing there as an artist. I hope he's still walking the halls with his d*ckbook in hand and enjoying his little artistic life out there.
Nope, nope, nope.
I had just returned to public school after homeschooling for a few years (moved a lot during that time). First day in school and this skinny Grade 10 boy walks up to me and puts his finger on my arm, looking intently at me. I brushed his hand away, and he did it again, followed up by saying "I'm planting eggs in you". Nope. Nope. Nope.
Misunderstood But Still A Rock Star
I knew a guy who went to my college for a couple of years with Asperger's, who really liked rocks. He would occasionally approach me and start talking about them and I'd listen sometimes when I didn't need to go somewhere, but I also witnessed many times where people were unnecessarily mean to him.
There were some people that thought of him as a novelty and would feign friendship and feed him alcohol, just because they thought it was funny when he was drunk.
I wish I would've done more to help him out and stop them, especially right before he left. I went to the gym for a run and all the treadmills were taken, so I went to the indoor track that was hardly used. About 10 minutes into my run, he comes in with his mom and goes into the middle of the track with his mom. He starts showing her these various sword fighting techniques that he had learned, because apparently he was really into that too.
Then he notices me as I'm doing a lap and eagerly waves. I wave back and he motions me to come. So, I took out my earbuds and jogged over. He introduced me to his mom as his friend. I could tell it made her really happy to that he had a friend and he was really happy too. I had only briefly talked to him a few times, but I did my best to be as friendly as I could be. After a few minutes, I excused myself, saying that I had to get going, so I left.
That was pretty much the last time I saw him, because he left school shortly after. He was a really nice guy that most people just misunderstood and looking back I wish I had tried to get to know him better.
Eat It Up
He ate his vocabulary book at a rate of one or two pages a day throughout the school year.
The teacher sent him to the office so many times, but next class he was back at it again. He was so determined. I wish I'd asked why.
Not So Perfect Mrs. Darcy
Older lady, let's call her Darcy, in a lit class. Randomly assigned to do a group project with her and about three others. Our topic (given to us by the prof) was the Industrial Revolution.
We quickly realize we can't trust Darcy to do any actual work. She just twists herself in circles trying to (and not) understand the project.
At mandatory meeting with prof to discuss our progress, Darcy gets herself worked up because she "can't understand" the topic. Prof asks why.
"Because I don't even know which countries fought the industrial revolution! How can I present on it?"
I side eye the professor thinking, look what we've been dealing with for weeks. I've never seen such a perfect deer in the headlights look. Prof talks us through breaking down assignment and we agree Darcy should just do the intro--easy peasy, right?
Apparently not. Another partner made the mistake of giving out her phone number and Darcy calls her at about 2 am complaining about how hard the project is and she doesn't understand. She ranted for over an hour, Classmate thinks she was drunk--now in my mind I call her "Drunk Darcy."
Day of the presentation comes and we're ready to be done with stupid topic and Darcy. Her intro is about five minutes worth of information about how only Europe had the industrial revolution because only white people were smart enough to invent it. We were mortified, and we still had to get up and present our info. That presentation was the lowest grade I got in the class, but the prof stopped doing group presentations after that.
For as long as Darcy was on campus, if she saw anyone in the group she'd corral them and complain about the group presentation topic. I learned to stare at the ground if I saw her walking around so we wouldn't have to talk. I'm glad she was trying to get an education, but oh boy did she always seem confused and overwhelmed
Albert
I use to go to school with this really big. strong, ugly looking kid, we will call him Albert, who would just go into rage mode in the middle of class for no particular reason and also was just a general weirdo even for my standards. His problems included
Choking a kid out in middle school for calling him fat
Bringing weird bagged food that stunk up the entire cafeteria
Screaming at a girl in high school who didn't say a word to him accusing her of saying he smelled and telling the entire class what a whore she was while throwing and punching things
Wearing a dog collar and exclaiming he was a furry to the entire school on multiply occasions (no seriously)
Explaining what BDSM is in graphic detail
and asking me many times uncomfortable questions about what I preferred sexually and if I ever wanted him to tie me up (I politely declined)
Albert was bi and loved announcing it to everyone he met
All By Myself
We had a weird girl who would walk around talking to herself. When we were 8/9 and asked what we wanted to be when we grew up she always said she wanted to be an astrophycisist when the rest of us couldn't even pronounce that. In high school she was definitely more of an outcast. Super nice, on good terms with everyone, but always always talking to herself. It was a little unsettling, because we were a super tiny town and sheltered school so we all thought she was mentally ill. Like, she was having full own conversations with herself but muttered so you just couldn't hear what was being said, but her face was extremely serious.
Turns out she was learning Mandarin in her spare time out side of school. So all those times she was talking to herself she was really just practicing conversational Mandarin. She's going to a top university right now and just a few months away from completing her PhD, after which I believe she's neurosurgeon. She's still nice as hell.
It's highly believed that it is important to learn history as a means to improve our future.
What is often overlooked is that what is taught in history class is going to be very different depending on where you went to school.
And this isn't just internationally, even different regions of the United states will likely have very different lessons on American history.
This frequently results in our learning fascinating, heartbreaking and horrifying historical facts which our middle or high school history teachers neglected to teach us.
Redditor Acherontia_atropos91 was curious to learn things people either wished they had learned, or believe they should have learned, in their school history class, leading them to ask:
What isn’t taught in history class but should be?
The Irish Troubles
"The troubles."
"Too many people in America do not understand why a wall straight through Ireland would be a BAD idea."
"I’m referring to the Brexit referendum and possible outcomes."
"If people were wondering why we were talking about walls through Ireland in the first place."- CLCVS.
Forgotten elements of World War II
"What the Japanese did to the Chinese during WW2."
"Unit 731."- CaptainMcBoogerJew.
"Japan gets off easy for their war crimes in WW2."
"They killed an estimated 16mil Chinese civilians and another 8mil soldiers"
"Also, Pol Pot."
"Didn't know who he was until I was like 25."
"Worst dictator all time (in terms of percentage of population he decimated)".
The truth about the American Revolution
"That the American Revolution was part of a wider cold war type of conflict with France."
"The American Revolution was basically the UK's equivalent of the US version of Vietnam."- vinsant7.
The Dark side of Swedish history.
"As a Swede, I'd like to know more of all the horrible sh*t my country has done throughout history."
"It's a damn shame we're trying to hide our history."
"For example, Swedes killed a metric sh*t ton of all Polish people when we were at our strongest."
"That's the kinda sh*t we don't get to learn."- mogwandayy.
Colonization
"Basically what Belgium did to the Congo."
"A lot of people are telling me that they are taught about this actually."
"I'm glad to hear it because I wasn't taught about this in the USA during my public school days (1995-2008)."- EconArch.
The truth about "heroes".
"While teaching about historical Heroes they should also tell students about the unspeakable things some of them did."
"Many famous figures throughout history who are pillars of morality actually did many terrible things." - User Deleted
Intolerance for Mental Illness
"The dark history of mental illness treatments."
"I think it's worth learning about."- 7dayexcerpt.
Slavic Mythology
"Slavic mythology in Slavic countries."
"Don't get me wrong, I love both Greek & Roman mythology and as a person from the Balkans both of those cultures are part of my country's history and had great influence over not only my region but the entirety of the continent & the western world but I wouldn't mind knowing more about Slavic mythology as well."- ShorsShezzarine.
The truth about the CIA
"How the CIA was made and all the shady things they did over the years."- ALargeChip.
There is a lot about the history of our world, not to mention our own country which shouldn't be ignored.
And it's from learning from our mistakes that we really improve our future.
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So apparently we are in the endemic phase of this nonsense.
We have light at the end of the tunnel.
So what now?
Where do we go from here?
Normal seems like an outdated word.
How do we get back to normal though?
Is it even possible?
What are reaching back to?
Life pre-Covid.
Those were the days.
If only we could bring them back.
Redditor hetravelingsong wanted to discuss our new normal in this hopeful "endemic" phase. So they asked:
"What’s something random you miss about pre-COVID times?"
I miss people being sane. Though that maybe election cycle issues not COVID. We'll never know.
I thought I was Alone...
"Being able to grocery shop after 11 pm."
Reading_Rainboner
"Hell yes. I miss the days where the Walmart across the street was open 24 hours."
Small_Tax_9432
let's just go...
"I miss spontaneity... everything now seems to have a barrier of difficulty."
iidosee
"I live very close to Disneyland so I have an annual pass. My friends and I would just go there after work and hang out and grab a bite to eat."
"Now, we have to reserve a day to go. And most of the time, the days are at 'full' capacity so we couldn't even reserve. I don't want to schedule to hang out at Disneyland for a couple hours for July. So yeah, I definitely miss the 'lets go eat at Disneyland tonight?' texts."
mymymissmai
Not til 24-25
"Functioning global supply chains. Ah, the product you want has got microchips in it? 9 month wait."
richard-king
"Minimum, I'd been saying for a while now that I wouldn't expect a true return to normalcy in terms of electronics prices till 2024-2025. Although Crypto crashing through the floor really took some of the pressure off graphics cards which I really appreciate."
statiiic
WTF?!?!
"How affordable everything was!"
Disastrous_Hour_6776
"Yep. Today I was bagging up my things at the grocery store and I heard the cashier say to the lady behind me 'thats $78.12.' She had -- 2 boxes of Kellogg's corn flakes, a carton of 12 eggs, milk, strawberries, raspberries, blue berries, a small cheese cake, English muffins, coffee, and a small whole frozen chicken that could maybe feed 3 people if the meat portioning was small."
SnowyInuk
Sushi
"My favorite sushi place. It was good quality, close by, kid-friendly, and not too expensive."
InannasPocket
All of this... it was a simpler time.
NASTY
"As a retail worker, just how f**king NASTY some people have gotten."
DmitriPetrov*itch
"They applauded you for being an essential worker but won’t vote for policies that’ll raise minimum wage while insisting a wage cap for heavily paid employees."
sketchysketchist
CHANGES your DNA...
"Some of the people closest to me became very bitter and petty over the last 2 years. So many people have the 'crazy eyes' now."
__--__7
"So true and holidays with the family is like who has the biggest tinfoil hat building contest. How many jumps does your brain have to go through to think that the Covid vaccine CHANGES your DNA into the patented DNA so that the government now controls your body."
"So like vaccinated people now have a singular DNA set. I feel like I still have a chunk of my brain just broken off due to that comment alone. I was also told by same family member that I could never donate blood again due to the vaccine. I guess it is so my patented DNA doesn't affect people?? FYI my vaccinated butt just donated today fine and multiple other times after the vaccine."
tyreka13
Homeward Bound
"House prices."
adrianinked
"I'm resigned to never thinking I have a chance on owning property where I live. I'm 30 and just can't imagine it anymore. And I don't want to live anywhere else so, whatever."
Osdab2daf
"That didn’t happen because of the pandemic. That was already happening regardless."
CH11DW
Oh Mickey
"All Day Breakfast at McDonalds."
hutch2522
"It was honestly hell to do, and not very popular. ITs margins aren't anywhere dinner and lunch specials. ON top of that, the temperatures are such that They require its own grill, meaning that if you have 2 grills in shop, you are down 50% of lunch capacity."
Freyas_Follower
Way back when...
"Hanging out with friends. And I mean waaaaaay before Covid. Like 2006 back when I had some friends."
LoocsinatasYT
I miss the old days. Maybe we'll get back there.
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What do you believe?
Is there a GOD in the sky?
Is he guiding us and helping us?
Life is really hard. Why is that is a big entity is up there loving us?
Atheists have taken a lot of heat for what feels like shunning GOD.
What if they've been right all along?
Maybe let's take a listen and see what they really think.
Redditor __Jacob______ wanted to hear from the people who don't really believe all that "God" stuff. They asked:
"Atheists, what do you believe in?"
I'm waffling between G-O-D and nothing. So please give me some education.
911
"We need to look out for each other because help isn't coming."
cknipe
Peace Out
"More than 2 decades ago, a priest was giving a sermon in my church and he said 'our faith requires you to believe without question. Why call it faith if you have to ask questions?' I haven't returned to church. Not until my wedding day but you know what I mean."
asiangontear
Delusion
"When I was young I used to think that after death you would have access to a PC that you could see absolutely anything about your life. Stats, any question you had no matter how obscure, replays of moments, perspectives of others in relation to you. No matter what you wanted to know, if it was relatable to you, you could see it. I know it's silly, but as time goes on I just want it to be real, and I don't think I'd have any issue allowing myself to fall into that delusion."
eggwardpenisglands
I think nothing happens...
"Realistically, I think nothing happens. We literally experience nothing after death. Same thing that we experience before birth. We don't exist, so it's nothing. I think the tenant that we should follow while living is to try to be happy and healthy while minimizing the damage we do to each other."
"What I would LIKE to happen after death is whatever you believe in, exists. I think Christians should get to go to heaven if they truly believe in it, Hindus and Buddhists get reincarnated, and everyone else also gets to experience what they believe they will experience."
"'I would still experience Nothing. Maybe it's one of those things where at the moment of death their brain makes them experience what feels like an infinitely long moment in time where they experience their afterlife. I just think it would be neat for everybody."
Better_Meat_
Shrug
"Best advice I received from a dear senior on their way out. 'You win some, you lose some' shrug. Nothing divine, life is that simple and wonderful, accept it and move on."
Tune_Kindly
It all sounds pretty simple. Why are people so up in arms about Atheists?
Whatever
"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people that do."
imCIK
Cool with Empty
"Nothing. [Serious]."
rumblingtummy29
"I feel this way about death. When I was 5, my grandfather died and my cousin simple said, he is dead, that means you are gone forever. Everything ends up dying, even plants and animals. I'm now in my 40's and still have this simplistic view of life and death. People think I'm ambivalent to life and death but it's just what it is."
thepigfish82
puppet-masters...
"I think a lot of religious people struggle with the fact that we are all just swirling units of chaos. There is no grand plan or great orchestrator. I think that’s why people who are prone to religion are also susceptible to things like Q anon and the Cabal and all that. They REALLY want to believe that there is some almighty puppet-master who determines all of humanity’s fate."
Lngtmelrker
“we’re living in a society!”
"Just be a kind and empathetic person not because you’re worried about some cosmic justice, but because it’s the right thing to do. If there is some being that created us there’s no way they actually care about believing in it or adhering to some rules from over 2000 years ago."
"Also a big thing for me is that I find the idea that you need religion or the Bible in order to have morals and ethics pretty dumb. It’s pretty f**king clear that most evangelicals have neither. But my main thing is being a good person simply because, as George Costanza once said we’re living in a society!' If you’re only a good person in order to make it to heaven you probably aren’t actually a good and moral person."
conservative_genius
That's All
"You're born. You live. You die. That's it. After you die you cease to exist, the same as before you were born."
serefina
Believe what you want. We're all here together. So let's focus there.
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The list of what irritates me is endless.
I mean... breathing too loud or dust can set me off.
I'm a bit unstable, yes.
But I'm not alone.
So let's discuss.
Redditor Aburntbagel6 wanted to hear about all the times many of us just couldn't control our disdain. They asked:
"What never fails to piss you off?"
I feel like this article can go on forever. Let's get some highlights.
Wasted Time
"Meetings that could and should have been an email."
Sirena609
Lotto People
"Getting stuck behind people playing the lottery at a corner store."
thenuggetlover
"I also used to work in a gas station and you’re SO right. I f**king hated the lottery people. Especially since my store had a small staff and there was usually only one of us working at a time, which meant that I couldn’t get any of my other work done as long as they were there."
"And you’re right, it’s also pretty sad to watch. I had one lady who used to come in every day and spent hundreds and HUNDREDS of dollars on scratch tickets. One day, she won $200 after spending probably around $600 and she was so excited and saying she can 'finally pay her bills.'"
i-am-your-god-now
Aware...
"No situational awareness. Job, home, shopping, driving. Think for one minute and go about. OBSERVE!!"
Dizzy-Foundation8122
"My mom is one of those people who leave the shopping cart in the middle of the damn aisle and proceed to walk twenty feet away. After correcting her a million times to no effect I just walk away now so people don’t know I’m with her."
OutrageousEvent
Shut Up!
"Endless barking in the middle of the night, I love animals but that sh*t I can't stand."
Acceptable-Lemon2924
"Endless barking in general drives me up a wall. One of my friends dogs was barking almost an entire gaming session the other day. I wanted to reach through the computer and smack him for letting it go on."
bangersnmash13
Kindness
"People being mean to service workers, especially if the workers are very young."'
scaryboilednoodles
All of these things. I hate them all.
Admit It
"People who never accept fault when they mess something up. Like, why blame a million people when it was clearly you who did it???"
Quirky-Area-8978
From Above
"My upstairs neighbors."
lutzow89
"I had terrible neighbors at my previous apartment. It was a one person studio for students, but her boyfriend was clearly living with her illegally and he was loud."
"One night we knocked n the door at 3 AM because of the loud music and an unknown girl opened the door. I just thought they were having a little party. But the next door I saw the girl living there come home with a suitcase after having been away for the weekend... Her BF was cheating on her in her own apartment."
Th3_Accountant
Move Away
"People who sit directly next to me at the airport, movie theater, any other place where you can choose a seat when there is PLENTY of other seating."
BacardiPardy33
"I can’t YES this enough and the ones who can’t park for crap so they park so close you can’t open doors on one side of the car or the ones who park directly behind when you pulled through so the door won’t open to load groceries."
BacardiPardy33
It's Over
"People who try to restart old drama. Like I'm done with you, just leave me alone."
Tired_Potatos
"Yep, half the reason I've basically quit playing one of my favorite online video games. People keep bringing old crap up or sh*tting on on someone who used to be our friend. I got tired of it so I just ejected the game out of me."
CaucasianHumus
AHHHHH!!!
"People walking too slow in front of me with no way to get around them. It’s even worse if it’s a couple or group taking up the whole sidewalk. HAVE SOME SPATIAL AWARENESS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!"
_-v0x-_
Life in general pisses me off. I'm easy.
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