
Our gut feeling is really there as a means of survival. Sense of danger is one of our few evolutionary holdovers from when we were just surviving as animals in the wild, and it serves us well to this day.
If we heed its advice it will generally keep us safe. That's the whole point of a gut feeling, and sometimes, the accuracy with which gut feelings come to us is insane.
When u/No-Hovercraft-1788 asked:
When was your "gut feeling" actually right?
Plenty of people had stories to share.
Just A Psychic Stroke Of Good Luck
"It was 1995, I was 18, still living with my parents, and I was walking home from a friends house at about 2:00 am in the middle of the summer. He only lived 5 or 6 blocks away, and we often hung out watching movies after I got off work."
"Usually I would drive to his house because we'd been out with other friends, but this night I had parked at home and we walked to his place."
"There's not usually a lot of traffic between our houses, but this night I was about halfway home when a pickup truck drives by with 2 guys in the cab and 2 in the bed."
"I immediately felt like I was in danger. I saw the truck turn the corner, and I dove over some hedges in the closest yard I could find. I hid under them."
"I saw the truck come back around the corner and slowly drive down the street. When it got to where I was hiding, I heard one of the guys say, 'Where did he go?'"
"And another respond that he didn't know. They kept driving, and I didn't see them again. I stayed hidden for a good 15 minutes before getting up and running the rest of the way home."
"I'm certain they would have jumped me if they found me."-rhyza99
Final Destination 2 Eat Your Heart Out
"Driving in Pittsburgh. I stop at a red light. Hill goes up on my left, downhill on my right. Poor visibility to the left. The light turns green, but my brain tells me 'Hey bud wait a sec.'"
"I think this is a little weird, but I don't go yet. A millisecond later, a massive navy blue F-350 comes barreling downhill through the intersection from my left, blowing past the red light at about 45, then trundles down the hill."
"If I'd have gone, I would have been destroyed by 3 tons of Ford truck, for sure. Instead I trusted the spider-sense."-Cutter9792
It's best to listen to our gut feeling because it very well may keep us alive.
Why We Don't Envy Women
"I stopped at Home Depot to pick up an item so I knew it was going to be a quick trip. I'm in the store and notice I'm pretty much the only girl in there besides employees."
"I couldn't find what I was looking for and had to ask multiple employees before I found it."
"I check out and as I'm heading out to my car I notice a shady dude standing against a tree on one side of my car. On the other side of my car is another shady guy sticking his arm outside of his car window."
"When I walked out they both turned and stared at me. My heart dropped, I started to feel queasy, and my mind instantly knew to turn around and go inside."
"I stood there shaking at the front of the store until I could get the courage to ask an employee to walk me to my car."
"As soon as they saw me walking out with an employee, the guy standing by the tree walked around my car and into the drivers side of the car parked next to me. To this day I swear I was a short walk away from being kidnapped."-gracious-bodacious
The Worst Kind Of Gut Feeling
"Used to work in the ER. Had a man come in with ripping chest pain that started not but 30 minutes prior after he moved something heavy at his office."
"I knew he was going to die just by looking at him. Massive overwhelming dread just seemed to engulf me."
"I did his EKG and I hoped something would be wrong with it so we could get him a bed. His EKG was perfect. Not 5 minutes later he went into cardiac arrest on our waiting room floor."
"After running the code for 45 minutes, he didn't make it. He had a massive aortic dissection. There wasn't much hope."
"This was almost 3 years ago and I've seen more sh*t since then, but the memory is still burned in my mind, and it hurts knowing I was the last person to speak to him."-hannahatl
Made All The Difference
"Back when I was about 10 or 11 I asked my mother if we could take my grandmother out to lunch. She was kind of against it, but I kept insisting that I really wanted to see my grandmother and that she would want to go to lunch that day."
"While we were out at the mall after getting lunch with my grandmother, she started slurring her speech and became extremely confused. She was having a stroke."
"Luckily, my mom noticed what was going on and got her to the hospital within 20 or 30 minutes. Doctors said they were able to stop the stroke and she came out of it basically the same as she was before."
"Couple days after the fact, my mom told me I had basically saved my grandmother's life by making sure we went out to lunch with her that day."-DargoSun92
Creepfest Alert
"I had been living and working in Korea, and one day I was coming up out of a subway station and saw a man talking to another foreign woman."
"She had that polite, frozen smile on her face - the why-is-this-guy-talking-to-me smile. I walked up to her, linked my arm with hers, and said 'Hey, Sarah! There you are! Are you ready to go?' And just started walking."
"The guy followed us, but I sped up, and made an abrupt turn into a coffee shop. We hid, and I saw him walk past, still looking for her."
"We ended up getting coffee and chatting for a bit, and I found out that he had followed her off the train, and had been getting increasingly aggressive for the last ten minutes. I don't know what might have happened, but I'm really glad I interfered!!"-Alma_knack
Reddit Users Share Their Best 'It's A Small World After All' Experience
Saving The Day Again, Medical Heroes
"Helped a victim of human trafficking get to a shelter."
"Context: I was a medical student at the time (now a resident) and the city my school was in is a hub for human trafficking. I noticed a patient in the ER who had a pretty bad injury to her face was with a sketchy looking guy who was not related to her."
"She wasn't my patient, but I brought my gut feeling up to her doctor who then made up some excuse to talk to the patient alone and got her to help. I never talked to her myself, but I couldn't shake the vibe I got from looking at her and the man she was with."-PMME_ur_lovely_boobs
A Beautiful Coincidence
"When I was a kid, I was doing my first ever deep clean of my bedroom getting rid of old clothes and toys and such. While cleaning out my closet, I found an old picture cut out from the local newspaper of Lyndon Johnson visiting my parent's home town."
"The picture was taken outside with some locals in the background. I was going to throw the picture away, but suddenly got the strongest feeling not to do it, so I set it aside."
"Later I showed it to my mom and asked her about it. She freaked out and showed my grandma, who also freaked out."
"Turns out one of the locals in the background of the picture was my grandpa. He died when my mom was 12. That picture was one of only a handful we had of him."
"I had never seen a picture of him before this. I was so glad I didn't throw that clipping away."-Affectionate-Rush893
Bear In Mind
"Was with my mom in the woods in eastern Quebec. I heard something break a rather large branch just over the hill maybe 50m away."
"I told her we have to leave right away because I think it's a bear. She tells me how no bears been in area for 20 years."
"She listens to me anyways and we go back down the mountain and home. Next day a bear was hit by a car just on other side of mountain."-throwmeinthecanal
A Crash Course
"There was one day I panicked really hard about going to university. Not sure for what reason, nothing special happened. But it was correct, the bus did crash into another car, right before the station."
"Unfortunately I had been forced to go anyway by Mother. Hit my head in the bus' windshield, went to my Statistics Course with blood everywhere in my hair (and some poorly cleaned glass shards) because no one told me, until the Statistics teacher herself called the University's medical team on me (was sitting first rank because I don't see well from far away)."-Isotheis
Beware Of Men
"Two times with older guys when I was a teenager. Friend and I were with my family camping. There was this really cute older guy camping by himself."
"He invited us over to his campfire and we talked for a bit. Then he invited my friend and I into his camper. We were probably about 12 or 13 at the time. She wanted to go in but I started shaking uncontrollably and refused."
"I wouldn't leave until she came with me. I have no confirmation that he had bad intentions but looking back I can't imagine they were good."
"Then when I was 15 this cute older waiter asked me for my number. First time it ever happened to me so I was super geeked."
"He called and we talked a few times but he only wanted to see me again if he could come to my house with no one else home."
"I ended up going back up to the restaurant to see him again and I had another one of those uncontrollable shaking moments. Got so bad I just left."
"Turned out he was in my state working as a waiter because he fled his state due to legal troubles. Not to mention he clearly only wanted one thing and I was 15."-craponapoopstick
Working Conditions Matter
"Last time I was hired for a job. Had it during the final interview with my soon-to-be boss. My gut told me to gtfo even though everything about that job seemed great."
"To be fair, in the first few days is was, but then the reality of how poorly organized everything is came crashing down on me and my enthusiasm for working in a toxic environment that was being fueled by boss's incompetence was gone. Ended up quitting after two months."-papajohnny13
"Just A Friend"
"A few years back I was dating a girl who went camping with 'a friend' for a couple weeks, I didn't mind cause I trusted her. But I started to get a gut feeling she was cheating on me while she was gone."
"Shortly before she was supposed to come back into town she called and dumped me over the phone. (Bonus points since I had literally just had brain surgery that she didn't bother to come back into town for.) Edit: Should say dumped me for him."-scipio0421
The Worst Gut Feeling TO Be Right
"I was 11 and was in my primary school's after school care (it's a program kids would do after school when their parents couldn't pick them up straight after school finished)."
"We had been playing and I had suddenly gotten a sick feeling in my stomach that I had never experienced before in that way. Asked the workers to call my mum to pick me up earlier than usual."
"As she arrived at the door i remember looking at her as she received a phone call. It was a phone call to say my father had died."-kcalexx
So now you know-your gut always has good ideas. If you follow it, you will figure out what you need to do.
You may very well change the course of your live or someone else's life, as well.
Friendship is not something that can be forced.
As with any kind of relationship, it all depends on compatibility and chemistry, and thus must happen organically.
On the flip side though, it can be pretty clear when people will not end up being your friends, owing to a fundamental difference in personality or beliefs.
Redditor Chola_Bhatora was curious to hear the type of people the Reddit community would never become chummy with, leading them to ask:
"What kind of person would you never be friends with?"
Basically, people who aren't nice
"People who don't apologize for their mistakes, blame others for their problems, and generally complain without doing anything about their situation."
"Oh, and generally a**holes."- NerdyDadGuy1981
"People who are overly rude and constantly laugh it off and call themselves 'a**holes' as if it is an uncontrollable character trait."- Business_Grand7665
Don't you twist my words around!
"People that distort what you said."- Mystery_I
Just take some responsibility!
"People who can never admit they're wrong about anything."
"No matter how blatantly wrong."- Rachfo44
Say it to my face!
"The kind that talks behind your back."- 0breanna0
Are you sure about that?
"Someone who thinks they already know everything."- Fragrant-Crow-4513
Then why aren't I laughing?
"Someone that puts you down in front of your other friends.. 'as a joke'."- motherfugher
How well do you actually know them?
"People who abuse your trust and honesty to manipulate you, especially when they disguise it so well."
"Had it one too many times, thankfully gets easier to spot but some people are freakishly good at it."- nothingjustk
Yeah, well mine's better!
"One uppers."- BasedChickenTendie
Someone needs a lesson in self respect...
"I'm a woman."
"Had a classmate strike a conversation with me for the first time."
"2 minutes in said she doesn't have female friends because all women are b*tches."
"Why are you talking to me then?"
"What do you think you are?"- Minimum_Greedy
As Jane Austen famously explored in Pride and Prejudice, first impressions can often be misleading.
But every now and then, they can give a crystal clear depiction of who someone really is.
Which could easily be someone you do not want to be friends with.
Age is just a number.
We all hope to stay sexy until the end.
And even when we don't feel sexy, maybe there will be people who still think we are.
Redditor Debonair-Redditor21wanted to hear about famous crushes that enter into the "Harold & Maude" territory. They asked:
"Who is the oldest celebrity that you still find attractive?"
All Hail Dame Helen Mirren. Is there anything else to say?
How Old?
"Viggo Mortensen. Very handsome at 63."
Sidewalk_Tomato
"Damn, he is 63? Time flies."
2020UsernamesBeLike
Personas
"Elvira. Cassandra Peterson. Just turned 70 and still breaks out that amazing personality at every appearance."'
darkoath
"Omg. I saw the BEST suggestion for a movie ever. Elvira & Dolly Parton playing their stage personas as estranged sisters who must team up to fight evil."
ClothDiaperAddicts
Fatale
"Jane Seymour. 71 and still stunning."
MrWiggy89
"Live and Let Die. Incredible, and she'll always be in my mind as Elise McKenna, the woman so beautiful that Christopher Reeve's character went back to be with her in Somewhere in Time. I totally get the desire."
pcserenity
Hey Su...
"Susanna Hoffs (63)."
analogtapes
"Plot twist: She sang 'Walk Like an Egyptian' because she's immortal and actually lived in Ancient Egypt."
RealisticDelusions77
"She was my first crush. As a child, I used to watch MTV for hours just for that moment when she cut her eyes in the 'Walk Like an Egyptian' video."
3lon_Mu5k
I am loving this list. I didn't think I would.
Maddy
"Mads Mikkelsen."
Valuable-Mango368
"You mean my daddy issues? Damn I love that guy. Death Stranding really nailed how he can come through a medium without much hassle."
This_User_Said
My Biological Clock
"Marisa Tomei."
LiveShowOneNightOnly
"Jesus, I was so confused watching the new Spider-Man movies with Marisa as Aunt May. Marisa Tomei is perpetually the hot 80s chick in my head, also Jennifer Connelly. I was watching Morbius and seeing Requiem for a Dream and Career Opportunities. I AM OLD, I GUESS."
Forge64
Oh Captain
"Christopher Plummer, right up until the day he died at 92."
amodernjunecleaver
"I first saw ‘The Sound of Music’ as a child, watched in many times, know if off by heart etc. I didn’t watch for many years."
"Then as an adult I wanted to introduce a friend’s kid to it, put it on, and spent the next couple of hours absolutely dumbstruck by how hot Christopher Plummer was. It had never struck me before that time but go**amn have I never forgotten. No wonder Maria chose the Captain, if I had to choose between him and God I know who my pick would be."
niconiconeko
Hey Tim!
"Timothy Olyphant. Idk what it is about him. He's so funny, charming, and handsome that I don't care how much older than me he is."
throwaway-getaway122
"I do NOT get tired of watching him; he is so expressive. In Catch and Release there's a scene where he and Jennifer Garner are having a conversation that consists entirely of gestures and facial expressions. Hilarious!"
BugsRatty
"He is amazing in Justified and Deadwood... hell, pretty much everything. I think I just found out I may have a man-crush on the dude lol."
Captain-Hornblower
Yeoh
"Michelle Yeoh."
ThinkIGotHacked
"Ugh she was a vision in Everything Everywhere All at Once. And if she doesn't win all the awards then there is something really wrong with the voting system."
HoaryPuffleg
YUM YUM
"Oof that's kind of a hard one. Without looking up a bunch of older actors I think I'd have to go with Ken Watanabe. I think he's in his early 60s now and the last time I saw a recent pic of him he was still looking fine AF. And an honorable mention is Steve Carell... I don't know what it is but he keeps getting hotter with age. I was never attracted to him until he did that silver fox photo shoot with the paint brush 'n shi*t."
total class act...
"Stanley Tucci. As my mom says about handsome men, he just looks like he smells good."
vonye25
"He visited our hotel a few weeks ago. As the Restaurant Manager I was specifically told that my team and I were not to treat him any different to other guests, which we don't."
"The guy was a total class act polite, courteous, and always keen for a chat. Never mentioned his movies, his career, but was there to enjoy time with his family, and they themselves were also a joy to be around. Can confirm he always had a slight aroma of warm cinnamon."
valdezverdun
Well that is a long list of sexy. Cheers to growing sexy with age.
We all have our likes and dislikes when it comes to food.
While some people might not be able to stop eating certain foods, the very thought of that same food is enough to make others gag.
Then there are the foods which are universally considered to be delicious delicacies, the foods so revered that it is assumed that everyone must find them delicious.
Only, not everyone does.
Redditor jamboamericano was curious to hear which foods the Reddit community couldn't quite grasp the appeal of, leading them to ask:
"What a food in your opinion that quite simply sucks and you don’t understand the hype behind it?"
How do you make a bland food even more bland?
"As someone from the UK I don't get why so many people here love mushy peas."
"I find peas relatively tasteless and gross as they are, mushing them just makes the texture gross as well."- MHC1905
More healthy, less tasty...
"Zucchini pasta."-- dannyboyhou
Who knew fish eggs would be so popular?
"Caviar."
"I feel like whoever buys that sh*t doesn't actually like it and uses it to flaunt their money."- WapplesAreDelish
Hold the guac!
"The early 2010s was a difficult time for me."
'"I f*cking hate avocado."- drunky_crowette
No matter where it came from...
"Liver."
"Just......no."- Efficient-Bee-1855
You mean it's supposed to burn my tongue?!?
"I don't get the appeal of chili that is made to be as hot and spicy as humanly possible, to the point that it hurts to eat it."
"'I make my chili with the five hottest peppers known to man and a dash of snake venom to kick it up a notch'."
"Why?"
"That, and tofu."- MiddleAgedGamer71
Brand names can never beat homemade!
"Industrial ice cream."
"The taste is WAAAY worse than the handmade one."- pensodiforse
Disgusting AND dirty...
"Beets."
"My wife tried to convince me to like them by saying 'they taste like dirt!'"
"Needless to say, this was an ineffective approach."- Neilpuck
Just because it's healthy, doesn't mean it's good...
"Kale."
"I don’t care how it’s prepared, there’s just no point to it."- protogens
Butter makes everything taste better... or does it?
"Lobster."
"I uh, I don't get it.'
"It always tastes a bit flavorless and just alright to me."
"Then I see people dip it in butter and yea thats fine and all and it tastes great, but then I get the feeling I'm just tasting the butter and what the f*ck is the point of this $30 dish exactly?"- Sonder332
Some might accuse those who dislike the above-mentioned foods of not having a distinguished palette.
But maybe their palette's are so distinguished, that they know when they're tasting a fraud?
Either way, to each their own.
Happiness is one of those abstract and amorphous things that nobody can quite pinpoint, but everyone knows when they feel it.
It can be triggered by lots of things - a great meal, an old friend, your favorite episode of your favorite show...
Happy looks different for us all, but maybe that's whyReddit user MyForever_NameNow asked:
"What’s the happiest you’ve ever felt?"
The same situation might make one person miserable while making another elated ... so let's see where Reddit finds their joy.
Time Traveling
"Once I was driving from Philly to Las Vegas. On one leg of the trip, I got a bit of a late start and I really wanted McDonalds breakfast (this was before they served it all day)."
"My clock said 10:22, and I was about 15 miles from the next exit, so I knew I would never make it. Then I crossed over a time zone and my clock changed."
- lump77777
"incredible"
- BennyJO_
"Not gonna lie, best story I've read in awhile. I'm now happy for you."
- McAvoy4Potus
"It’s like the world willed you into having breakfast that morning , like the earth moved in order to give you what you needed … kind of epic"
- Avatorn01
A Poetic Mishap
"This might be weird but I keep thinking back to this and how I will never have this experience again: I was 13, nerdy, loved to draw, grew up rural. My Grandma lived close to a big city."
"Went to visit her in the Summer and then went to an Japanese culture fest in said city. I was overwhelmed by the experience. Bought two super sweet Neon Genisis Evangelion artbooks."
"When I went back to Grandma's place by train, I missed the stop and got off one stop later. It was quite late already, but a warm summer night. Next train back would come in 2hrs. These two hours, alone during a summer night with two artbooks at a tiny, rural train stop surrounded by trees and absolutely nobody else around were pure bliss. A weird feeling of peaceful, 'liminal' joy that I can't properly explain. Different happiness than love, etc."
"I haven't really told this story to many people because I know nobody would truly understand the feeling, and that would kinda ruin my memory."
- SkyPirateVyse
"That’s dope. Sometimes we forget to just stop and really enjoy the moment"
- PalaSS9
Endless Young Love
"I remember being in 8th grade watching a movie at my girlfriends house and we were giggling and commentating on the movie the whole time and just remember thinking I would marry her someday."
"I’m now 29 and we still giggle and commentate on every movie just like we did when we were kids, but that “young love” feeling is a very happy feeling for the first time, I’m just so lucky to still have those feelings 15+ years later"
- Lets_Huff_Paint
"Ok, but seriously, my spouse and I are also several years into our honeymoon and it's quite nice."
- HugeMisfit
"Marriage goals."
- bjcm5891
It Was A Good Day
"Oh gosh"
"Most recently,"
"Trying to keep up with my dog and boyfriend as they ran along the beach chasing the dolphins that were in the water. I was laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe. It was a sunny March day so nobody up and down for miles, just us. The bright blue sky and glimmer coming off the ocean - the salty mist while the waves crashed and the cold ocean at our feet."
"God I haven’t ever felt so alive in my whole life. It was one of those moments where I wished I could have it burned into my memory. Like I could tuck it away and live in it forever."
"That was a good f*cking day."
- Paisleymypup
"That’s so wholesome, it sounds like a scene right out of a movie"
- modestmandrakeman
"I feel happy reading this"
- Barcelona539
Mutual Crushes
"Me and my crush were hanging out one time, and all I could say was. “I like you… a lot.” And she just smiled and said “Me too.” Has to be the happiest day of my life so far."
- Mrcoolguy900
"I live near a popular district in Kansas City and I once bumped into a young man who'd just professed his love for someone, and he was so overjoyed I couldn't help but ask him what had happened."
"It made me really happy to see how happy he was."
- FearGunner
"Same thing happened to me, she told me she liked me and it took me about 3 minutes to fully process what she had said and how to respond. I ended up saying "same bro". Well we're together now but that was a pretty stupid response."
- Sir_Thiccness_69
" 'So far' I like your attitude"
- Homerpaintbucket
Sobriety
"now"
"5 years sober"
- Feels2old
"Mad respect, I'm very proud of you internet stranger!"
- therealfakechips
"I'm right behind you with 4 years. Congrats Feels great to be me again"
- m3x_aries
"Respect"
- MyForever_NameNow
That First Cry
"When my youngest was born, she really wanted out and my wife made it to the bathtub, and she came out with my help, she had the umbilical cord around her neck and I managed to get my finger under that and free her, that first cry made me so happy."
"She's eleven now and sitting on the couch right now eating chocolate and watching TV..."
- agent_fuzzyboots
"Kid's first cry was mine was well."
- vsmack
"Wow that's insane! Great job! When the umbilical cord wraps around the neck it's called a nucal. It can be pretty dangerous, especially in an emergency labor setting."
"I always thought I would never want to deliver a baby. And then we learned about emergency labor situations in the EMT course I took and I fell in love. Once again, great job! That must've been scary."
- boo_boo_technician
Being Present
"I was taking a walk in December last year when everything around me in my personal life was hell. A feeling of calm washed over me, and I started to look at how beautiful the sky was. I was crystalline in that perfect moment, and cried a few happy tears."
"I realized that being "present" is the only way to truly live... The past and the future are illusions and robbers of life. Ever since then I am extremely committed to finding beauty in every day things. I frequently feel very happy now, because I never run out of things to marvel at."
- cobraCL
"Dude I feel that. I lost my mom and several other family members in the last few years, went through a major breakup, had to move a bunch, plus all the COVID stress. I'm stressed a lot, mostly tired, but sometimes a moment washes over me and I'm just so grateful to be alive, looking at a sunset or a tree or the Christmas lights in my living room. Something about going through hell really makes you appreciate life."
- crunchypnwtrash
Vacay
"Grew up kind of poor, didn't go on my first vacation until I met the woman who'd become my wife. We went to Tennessee and got a cabin with a hot tub and some good muscadine wine."
"It was night time, gently thundering and raining, little bit of a mist coming in to the high rise porch we were on where the hot tub was, just relaxing, buzzing. To me it felt like the perfect setting, perfect feeling."
"Tied with that, she's the first person I saw the ocean with. Took over 6 hours to drive there, we unpacked, walked out to the ocean about knee deep, holding hands. The sound of the waves and the seagulls. The look of happiness on her face as she stared out."
- IROBotNeverDies
Frogging Around
"My ex, who loves frogs to death, asked me to go frogging with her early unto our relationship, not to kill them, just to catch and identify them. Its one of my happiest memories and without a doubt the most attracted I've ever been to someone."
"Its actually when I started to realize how strong and how smart of a person she was which combined with everything else made be fall head over heels."
- SplitttySplat
"Thats awesome man. I'd be happy to have had a unique experience like that too. No dinner and a movie, Frogging!"
- EmseMCE
Y'all ... that got unexpectedly emotional, didn't it?
Turns out that for most of us, the thing that makes us happiest is one another.
Humans are adorable sometimes.