Honest People Share The Moment They Realized They Needed To Get Their Life Under Control

Honest People Share The Moment They Realized They Needed To Get Their Life Under Control
[rebelmouse-image 18351123 is_animated_gif=Life can get away from you quickly if you're not paying attention. Like a small child in Disneyland or a dog with an open front door, it'll run fast and hard. Before you know it you find your life in dire straits, with choices and consequences that you never intended. It's usually those moments when you reflect and decide, "NO. MORE. Get your life together, Karen!" That's what Reddit user, u/itsclassified_, wanted to know when they asked:
Ok Reddit, what was your "holy sh-t, need to get my life together" moment?
When You Become The Prime Study Example
[rebelmouse-image 18351125 is_animated_gif=When I literally became a case study.
I was 18, and on my third stint in a refeeding clinic for anorexia. Every time I went in, I would be hypercompliant until they let me out and then immediately revert to my old behaviour. The third time I had a psychiatrist ask me if I could be a case study for their thesis on the rate of relapse and mortality in anorexic youth.
I was 32 kilos (70lb) at 5"4, I had the bone density of an astronaut, I have so many digestive problems now that were only worse then, and somehow the idea that I was going to be someone's case study was the moment I figured out I was going to die if I kept this up.
I am nearly a decade older now and I weigh a much healthier amount. No idea what it is because I don't own a scale and haven't in over a year. It's often still a struggle and likely will be for life, but I'm doing a lot better now.
When You're Too Much For The Study
[rebelmouse-image 18351126 is_animated_gif=Applied to participate in a study about depression at my school. The intake interviewer said I was too depressed for the depression study.
Good lord. Are you any better now?
Don't worry, I'm much better now! The interviewer lady set up an emergency psych appointment for me at student counseling, and I started doing therapy. A few months later I got on meds, and now, over a year after that rock bottom moment, I'm happy, well medicated, and haven't had a suicidal thought in many months.
When Your Movie Collection Becomes A Mirror
[rebelmouse-image 18351127 is_animated_gif=I once downloaded a movie that I owned. It was on a shelf across the room, but I was too lazy to get out of my chair and go get it. So I just downloaded it.
Then as I sat there watching the progress bar, I realized, "Geeze. I better get a f-cking life."
So I went out for a walk instead.
When Your Ice Creams Spurs You On
[rebelmouse-image 18351129 is_animated_gif=I am lactose intolerant. I was obese, and didn't care what I did with my body. I didn't work out, I didn't eat right, I didn't even maintain myself well.
I one day ate 3 pints of ice cream in one sitting. I got incredibly sick, I mean almost anyone would, but even moreso. After several days of feeling like absolute trash I decided enough was enough and started working out and eating healthy.
Within a year I was down 70 pounds, and by 18 months I was down 100+, and I've kept it off. that discipline helped me in other things in life, I got a better job and grew as a person, taking much more care of myself, relationships and my surroundings.
amazing what 3 pints of ice cream can do...
When It's A Good Start
[rebelmouse-image 18351130 is_animated_gif=I ended up in the hospital with pancreatitis and withdraw seizures due to my alcoholism.
This was on the 31st of May. I have since been researching programs and have talked to a social worker.
Haven't had a drink since the 30th so it's a start
When What You Hate Becomes Your Reason
[rebelmouse-image 18351131 is_animated_gif=Dropped out of college, moved my way up the managerial ladder at Lowes for the next three years. Was offered a promotion to department manager and saw myself working retail at 50, still taking crap from entitled customers.
Went back to college and am now doing what I really love.
No offense to retail workers, I just don't like people enough to make a career of that sh-t.
When Fan Fiction Turns You Around
[rebelmouse-image 18351132 is_animated_gif=I read a fan fic that made me realize I was in an abusive marriage.
When You Have One Of Those Nights
[rebelmouse-image 18351133 is_animated_gif=I got drunk off of whiskey by doing straight shots while I was alone. I then proceeded to black out, accidentally steal my neighbor's laundry out of the washing machine, and stuff the wet laundry into my drawers before passing out.
Edit: By "drawers" I mean the furniture and not my underwear.
When Your Summer Job Betrays You
[rebelmouse-image 18348993 is_animated_gif=I was 25 and subletting a sh-thole apartment from a coworker in this restaurant we both worked at for the summer. I didn't graduate high school and had worked these ball bustin' jobs since I was 17 and had really no future prospects.
I was sitting up one night on the computer and had the "I can't believe this is where I am and this is what I'm doing" intrusive thoughts. I really was at rock bottom. I looked at my local community college website that night and was signed up for classes the next day. Eventually, I got my GED as well so that I could transfer to university after my time was done there.
I'm getting ready to start my masters in education in 2 weeks. :)
When It's A High School Wake Up Call
[rebelmouse-image 18351134 is_animated_gif=When she told me she was pregnant - I was 17 years old. That was 28 years ago and we are still happily married (after a few bumps in the road along the way). But it was a cold dose of reality at 17 that I had a child on the way, and I needed to be prepared for that and get serious about my direction in life.
I'm happy to report our son, now 27, is doing great as well - lives with his girlfriend and about to embark on a culinary career.
When Your Vice Becomes A Crutch
[rebelmouse-image 18351135 is_animated_gif=When I had to sneak drinks at work to keep the shakes away
When You Talk Back To The Wrong Person
[rebelmouse-image 18345882 is_animated_gif=Long version, in the Air Force, first duty station was on Guam. I stayed drunk, and I mean a fifth a day drunk. Got too wild at the barracks and was taken in by the security police. A few hours later, locked in a room at the cop shop, and the duty chaplain walked in to talk to me. I asked him what it was like to be a virgin. He kind of laughed and told me he wasn't that kind of chaplain, pulled out his wallet and showed me pictures of his wife and kids. I don't remember what we talked about after that, but he got them to release me and took me back to my barracks.
I remembered what I said to him the night before, and it was like God slapped me upside my head. A chaplain gets out of bed in the middle of the night, leaving his family, to talk to a drunk that he doesn't even know, and the best I got is to ask him that. I wish I could say I never touched a drop after that, but it took a very hard year of trying to stay straight before I got. I've been clean and sober since November 8th, 1984.
The lasting lesson for me is that you never know when a few kind words can change someone's life forever. I don't know that mans name, but I thank God for him every day.
When You Have What Others Do
[rebelmouse-image 18351138 is_animated_gif=Just another alcohol related post here.
Drinking three pints of hundred proof smirnoff a day, I thought I was functional. I got sick with a virus, nothing serious, but I couldn't keep food or liquids down for 48 hours. I was throwing up & had a high fever.
Through all of this I was shaking in my bed and managed to still keep my vodka down, because the thought of an alcohol-withdrawal seizure scared the f-ck out of me.
Cleaned up a month later & now I'm at just over two months sober. Sh-t needed to change & it has gotten better.
When Your Best Friend Speaks Truth
[rebelmouse-image 18351140 is_animated_gif=When my best friend looked me in the eye and said "If you don't leave her, you will die."
It took that to make me realize that I had spent the last three months drinking myself to sleep every night because the girl I was engaged to spent most of her time alternating between telling me how worthless and useless I was and accusing me of cheating. She told me daily how pathetic I was and how I was wasting my time with writing because I would never be published.
It took three tries to finally get away from her, and then a wild couple of months where I tried to forget about all the sh-t she put me through while also swinging on a roller coaster of depression.
6 years later and I've had a short story published, a novel published, and I've been in therapy to fix the things she did to my brain.
When Your Best Friend Leaves you
[rebelmouse-image 18351142 is_animated_gif=When my best friend told me to get out of his apartment after I showed up there after a 3.5 day drug bender.
I must've said something to him but I can't remember for the life of me what it was. He's spoken to me exactly one time since.
I miss him but I've gotten sober and I got a new job and go to the gym every other day now.
When Those Who Are Silent Speak Up
[rebelmouse-image 18351144 is_animated_gif=Told my nonconfrontational dad that I thought I had a drinking problem.
Having him flat out tell me I really did have a drinking problem was the end of me drinking.
When It's Every Part Of Your Life
[rebelmouse-image 18351145 is_animated_gif=3 years of unemployment and realizing that every problem was because of my presentation, drug use & how I spoke.
I spent 3 months losing flab (370-340), sold my PC and gaming stuff and bought some new clothing and got a haircut, started NA for my meth addiction and shotgunned my pathetic resume and got hired at a call center for att. 5 years later I'm now making more than 3X as much as that call center (18k to 65k), married and traveled to Japan twice.
If you told me 5 years ago I'd be here I'd have called you and myself insane.
When The Scale Speaks Truth
[rebelmouse-image 18351146 is_animated_gif=When I stepped on the scale and was within 15 lbs of hitting 300; my heaviest was 287 lbs.
Starting eating less, counting calories, switched to diet soda, going for long walks (I hate running/jogging).
Currently weighing in at 184 lbs!! (still a bit overweight BMI for my height but it's WAY healthier than being obese)
Edit to add: Thanks for the gold! Lots of support here too, which I didn't expect. I went to the doctor yesterday for a physical and weighed in at 183!!!
To anyone starting the journey: it's not easy, but it is worth it. It's also slow - and should be, rapid weight loss is usually gained back but steady loss indicates positive lifestyle adjustments. It took me just under 5 YEARS to drop ~100 lbs.
It's hard to describe just how much better life is at a more-normal weight. People treat you nicer (I was freaked out the first time someone checked me out because it had literally NEVER happened before), clothes are WAY easier to find, and airplane seats are much more comfortable.
When Your Cat Is Your Safety Rope
[rebelmouse-image 18351147 is_animated_gif=So this is a super downer so I apologize but it was the biggest wake up call of my life. 2013 was the worst year of my life. I was struggling with finishing my degree, I had just moved to a new city and I couldn't seem to find a good job. I have struggled with depression my whole life but that year was the worst. So I decided to kill myself. I took the screen out of my window and was planning jump. Since I lived on the 12th story I figured that would do it. I also had an elderly cat at the time and in my crazy, depression addled brain I decided that I should take her with me because she only liked me and no one else could love her like I did.
Almost as soon as I had that thought my rational brain went, "hey now" and I realized how off my view of things really was and that maybe I needed to reach out for some help. I realized that I didn't want to die I just didn't want to keep living the way I was living. So I put the screen back in the window and started to make some changes. I didn't happen over night but now I am happy most of the time and so glad that I am still here.
Edit: Thanks for all the well wishes, it really means a lot to me. And for my cat tax here is the kitty in question, Timshel. She passed away in June 2017 at age 17. She had a good life.
When The Intervention Is Almost Divine
[rebelmouse-image 18351148 is_animated_gif=I had just been left by my now ex-wife who left out of the blue to go be with her new thing in Hawaii (I hate Hawaii now). Through a complicated arrangement where I was living in an apartment owned by my ex's boss (this bridge got burned during the divorce), I was being kicked out and was in the process of sleeping in my car and trying to find a new place. I was extremely depressed and was drinking all day everyday, even while driving.
So, one day I was driving home from work, about a 90 minute commute wherein I would drink beer. A cop pulled behind me on the freeway and followed me for a good five minutes. He then put on the lights. I seriously almost s*** pants, I've never been so scared in my life. I knew there was no way to cover up. So I pull over, he walks up, and before he even reaches my window, a car rear ends another car at full speed about 50 feet behind us. The cop says something like, "get out of here safely," and then turned around running to go address the car accident.
I was seconds away from losing my license, my job, my whole life really. I didn't drink for a few months after that encounter and I've since gotten that under control, but damn it was the scariest moment ever but it sure kicked my a-- into gear.
H/T: Reddit
People Break Down Which Things About The Early Days Of The Internet Most Folks Have Forgotten
Oh, the beginning of the interwebs.
Those were the days.
We definitely did not see what was to come.
Maybe it should've stayed simple.
We'll never know.
Computers rule the world now.
Let's see where we are in another twenty years.
RedditorEzucraAaAa wanted to wax nostalgic about the good old days of technology and its humble beginnings.
"Redditors, what's something the internet was crazy about but is now forgotten?"
I miss the simplicity of not having a thousand apps. I'm simple.
Ah Memories...
"Search engines before Google existed. Alta Vista, Lycos, Web Crawler..."
deenali
Bad Downloads
"Downloading custom cursors for your computer. I gave my family computer so many viruses back in the '00s trying to click things with a lightsaber."
TW1103
"Amazing. I had totally forgotten about all the virusy stuff I downloaded to my home computer, purely so the cursor would disappear and reappear. My parents had zero knowhow with computers either, so likely had no idea wtf I was downloading. Cursors were cool though, despite all the malware."
AdderWibble
Collections
"During the early days of the web, when most websites weren't plastered with advertising... Website view counters."
over_clox
"Back in the day of counters, one day I went to my website and the counter was in the thousands. I just thought it malfunctioned and ignored it. Years later I learned that my website, which had a MIDI collection, was published in a newspaper in another country. I couldn't say for sure if that was true and whether it aligned with the counter change."
pupeno
The Look
"Yea the internet was simpler too, layout style I mean. I like old style HTML webpage layouts. I personally don’t like hyper modern logos and designs on interfaces. Something about old slightly pixelated designs about them home screens and app logos really made them satisfying. I’ve even went as far as seeing if I could install some extensions that could change the layout of sites, make them feel older, give them that 2000’s html look."
Original_Ad_1103
Found It
"Stumbleupon.com"
idont*uckwithstupid
"I used to waste so much time with stumble upon."
lilbroccoli13
What a strange and crazy place the internet was.
notification
"Poking on Facebook."
lamspartacus
"I had a friend that poked me and I never noticed the notification. He died. I now have this unreturned poke as a reminder that I’ll never be able to poke them back."
Klaus0225
Playtime
"Flash games."
mc_mike810
"Many flash games are not dead. BEHOLD! The flashpoint project. They have saved thousands of the old flash games in a playable format. Go forth and relive your childhood Also paging u/The_Middler_is_Here"
Jayccob
I will find you...
"There was a rhythm game that I don't remember the name of that me and some friends would challenge each other in, and it had the song Guitar vs Piano 2 which introduced me to Envy, who was a pretty big newgrounds artist at the time. I wanna go check out their stuff again now, I'd completely forgot about them till now."
Silvervirage
GroupMeet
"Forums. There used to be so many, incredibly active and dedicated forums."
FromJavatoCeylon
"A lot of the forums I visited were ruined by photobucket when they decided they wanted paid a lot of money from their users. So many build threads and tutorials ruined."
jus_like_at
"IMDb had the best message boards back in the day. Chatting with your internet friends around the globe about every nuance in your fave movie. Man I miss that. Reddit is close, but nothing beats the olden days."
FeFiFoMums
Fun
"Do you guys remember those egg things that hatched little creatures after a while? You'd put one on your website and then the artist would update the source url with images of it hatching? There were all kinds of little fun things like that."
Sapiencia6
Those were the days!
Do you have something you'd like to share? Let us know in the comments below.
Not all television and movies are loved by all.
A story and its characters have to appeal to you in order for you to be engaged.
It can take next to nothing for us to lose interest and let the screen go black.
Redditor BarooTangClan wanted to compare notes on all the entertainment we've said "that's enough" to.
"What will make you instantly stop watching a movie or show and why?"
I hate bad acting, writing, storytelling... I hate bad anything.
Stop Jumping
"Fight scenes with a million visual cuts. Gives me motion sickness. Contrast the absolutely masterful work in John Wick. long cuts, realistic use of weapons (mostly), 100% skill."
StabbyPants
Louder
"When the actors whisper the whole movie and you have to crank the volume to hear what's being said - but the soundtrack or some other misc noise starts blaring at a higher volume directly after."
Blaze*itch
"I basically had to watch Stranger Things up in my attic with the windows and doors closed. I was worried the neighbors would think something was wrong or be annoyed if I watched it downstairs in my single family home. It was ridiculous."
ForecastForFourCats
"spice things up"
"Love triangles out of no where in a second or third season to 'spice things up' because studio writers are hacks and their idea of relationship drama is 'potential infidelity' at all times. It's the most tired trope on the go**amn planet and the second I see it rear its head I dip right the hell out."
amalgamas
"The whole concept of a love triangle to begin with an incredibly juvenile. Any healthy functioning adult who found themselves in a love triangle would soon choose to find themselves single."
Ouch_i_fell_down
Save your lips...
"When couples in a movie/show have a fight and one of them instantly goes to a friend and end up kissing her/him after talking for 5 minutes. I cringe so hard i turn it off and never watch it again."
Dry-Mycologist3966
"This pissed me off so much in Manifest. Girl is desperate to get back her ex-fiancé, he finally breaks up with his wife to get back with her and she's like 'nah, it's not fair to your wife, let me do this other dude I just met through a calling and be pissed at you for being jealous.' Michaela was the worst and everyone acted as if she were a saint the entire time."
gingerisla
Talk to Me
"Shows where a single polite conversation could fix everything."
Horror_Librarian_133
We are going overboard with the witty repartee. Talk normal...
Shut Up
"Annoying main character, especially if it's a kid."
abananation
"Kids who have a quippy, sassy retort to everything, and everyone just kind of crumbles before their wit."
CarpetPure7924
Speak Good
"Shows where kids in high school talk like they are 30 years olds who have done everything, been everywhere, know it all and use a ridiculously flowery and extensive vocabulary in every conversation. Like, have any of these writers ever been to high school? Literally no one talks like that. Even worse is when, in addition to this, all the adults talk normal or are just plain stupid, like so weird parallel universe."
StretchArmstrong74
Nonsense
"If the movie is too dark. Not graphic, just literally dark. I lose all sense of intensity in dark scenes and I'm not straining my damn eyes trying to figure out what the hell is going on."
TheShadowOfKaos
"I've seen about 10 percent of all DC movies recently. I've seen all of the individual films in full, just actually saw 10% of each of them."
Mortlach78
"Movies in the late 80s had a lot of dark but you could see the depth because of different shooting techniques. Now you cant see crap because its a CGI fest drowned in black color so you can't see crap because you have no depth in a scene. Compare night scenes in dark alleys in 80's movies and movies now. Utter crap show in the new ones."
Bombzey
Pay Attention Storytellers
"Bad editing would be a big one. A lot of modern horror movies can't help but edit the movies like they're trailers, with added noises to scare the audience because they are afraid the script alone isn't enough to keep people watching."
ThisIsCreation
"I remember this is where the first transformers movie lost me. When the transformers are fighting at the end, it's all a big, jumbled mess of metal and I can barely tell what's going on or who is who."
1840_NO
Drama
"When they go straight to relationship drama right away when it wasn't the selling point of the show."
LightInthewater
Do better, Hollywood. It's not that hard.
I fear death.
I wake up in cold sweats dreaming about it.
I think about it in my waking hours.
It's an obsession and clearly, I'm not alone.
But there are more preferred ways to exit.
All we can do is hope to be lucky enough to skip the mercilessly awful.
Please just let me go quick and in my sleep.
RedditorCallMehRiverwanted to hear about all the ways none of us what to leave this life.
"What Do You Think Would Be The Worst Death Imaginable?"
My list of the worst deaths is long. My imagination runs amok.
Trapped
"For me? Being trapped in a small tube or cave (like the ones you have to wiggle through) and getting stuck to where you can’t move your arms. And all you can do is wait to die. I’m getting chills just thinking about it."
Stuck
"The more I hear about cavers that get stuck, the more I think that's a crap way to go."
- braydenmaine
"There’s a great YouTube channel called Ask a Mortician and this was her #1 worse way to die. I can’t remember the exact details or their names, but two well-known divers went into an underwater cave."
"One of them became entangled and died. Years later, his friend dives back down there to try and retrieve his body, the body itself is rotten and his head comes off and the other guy also becomes tangled and dies. Really sad."
- melancholybuzzard
A Long Process
"Believed to be in a coma but coherent through the whole 20 year process until they pull the plug."
weebeardedman
"Oh man this just reminded me of a story I read on here about a guy who lost the ability to move and speak but was completely conscious. Had to just lay there and be awake but trapped in a useless body. His family thought he was brain dead or something and he couldn’t communicate to them that he was 'all there.' Crazy"
habeeb51
Slow & Steady
"Being slowly impaled by a growing bamboo. It was a form of torture probably used by the japanese during WW2 against Allied prisoners."
JazzySocrate
"My uncle who served back in the day said that people would have the bamboo slipped under their fingernails because it would continue to grow still. It would just continue growing into the body."
Payness0826
Excruciating
"Rabies."
Santolmo
"The scariest part is that once you have symptoms, you 100% will die. A 100% mortality rate has to be a psychological torture in itself."
RonaldRawdog
"Not only that, you feel irrational fear. Your brain is literally being eaten apart by the virus and it fu*ks up everything on it. You can't drink water because it hurts you. You feel dizzy, present a fever, excessively salivate, everything hurts and it only gets worse. I'd rather take a bullet and die when the symptoms are still tolerable."
Santolmo
Why can't we all just go engulfed in calm and quiet?
Suspended
"Some pulpy sci-fi book I read a while back had one of the best deaths of this real piece of crap bad guy. Left to die in a drowning sea lab under the Antarctic ice, he freezes himself in a state of the art suspended animation pod with some kind cold fusion power source that would keep it running for millions of years."
"But he forgot to inject himself with the drug that would put him to sleep. So basically he is in suspended animation at the bottom of the Antarctic ocean while his mind is perfectly awake and conscious in a near unbreakable machine that won't run out of power for millions of years and nobody knows about it."
DubiousAlibi
No Cure
"As an RN I have always thought that the worst way to die (natural process) is ALS. Lou Gehrig's Disease."
randymn1963
"My mom and grandmother have Huntington's disease, which is essentially ALS, Alzheimer's, and Dementia combined into one really messed up genetic disease. I have a 50% chance of inheriting it and if I hit 40 and there's still no cure I can't promise I'll feel like continuing on with my life because that disease is absolutely freaking miserable."
DevTheDummy
Agony...
"Radiation poisoning."
binhan123ad
"The fact your chromosomes can be so destroyed your body basically lost it's genetic code and with it the ability to make any new cells. It's literally a 'dead man walking' and you slowly rot away in agony. Stuff is so unimaginably f**ked up."
yea_nah448
"What's also bad about radiation is that it affects your nerves and brain cells last, so you have everything in place to feel all the pain of the rest of your cells being destroyed."
nosmelc
Goo
"I want to believe anything that slowly kills you painfully to be the worst. Such as slowly being crushed or something where the pain is beyond compare and yet not enough to throw you into shock or unconsciousness."
Beardless_Man
"Alternatively, being rapidly crushed into goo would probably be the least painful. I'm talking one of those massive industrial hammers they use for large steel work. Basically smooshed before the nerve signals make it to the brain."
Bannon9k
Now I'll never sleep again without nightmares of death.
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/
Foreigners Explain Which Stereotypically American Things They've Always Wanted To Try
Most Americans think nothing of their humdrum daily activities or amenities available to them.
However, others with a different perspective might romanticize the things that are otherwise commonplace ideas and concepts for US citizens, like going to a diner or riding the school bus.
One Redditor looked to foreigners to hear of their American desires to respond to the following:
"Non-Americans of Reddit: what is an American thing you have always wanted to try?"
The things depicted in film really captivated foreign audiences.
Casual Dining
"To visit a diner like in the movies. In the middle of the night, it’s raining and just a few people there with great music from a jukebox."
– TotalAd6225
Iconic Student Transport
"Ride a yellow school bus even if I'm too old. Growing up I always loved seeing them on TV."
– infiresemo
Just Like The Ones We Used To Know
"A white Christmas."
"Living in an Australian state where I've never even seen snow in our winter, let alone experiencing that classic Hallmark movie moment of waking up to a street full of it and sitting around a fireplace while opening gifts/preparing a feast."
"Guess it's not strictly American, but the imagery and trope is something I've only really seen from American Films."
– Stoibs
They may be ubiquitous for us, but they sure seem to be novel ideas to foreigners.
Let's Be Frank
"One of the hotdogs from those little street cart things."
– Who_is_lost
Kitchen Marvel
"A friend of mine from Indonesia said, 'the food chewer in the sink.'"
"Garbage disposal."
– Mnemonic22
American Pie
"Apple Pie made by white-haired grandma, placed near window, who says 'oh dear...' as I levitate towards it."
– MegaJoltik
Pre-Game Ritual
"Proper tailgating before a ball game, the kind where there's ribs and stuff."
– SpiralToNowhere
Fried Delicacies
"Deep fried foods at a state fair. I'm from Scotland and we love to deep fry everything and I wanna know if it's just as good or better."
– fenrisulfr94
There are places to see!
Places To See
"National parks."
– nhungoc1508
"America’s greatest invention!"
– nhungoc1508
Backpacking In Nature
"I always wanted to hike The Appalachian Trail if that counts. Or see Yellowstone."
– EphemeralRemedy
New Chapters
"Being able to start a whole new life 'elsewhere' without having to leave my country and going through an arduous immigration process."
– Gmtfoegy
My cousin told me she looks forward to visiting a Trader Joe's someday when she visits America for the first time.
Her bucket list option was hardly surprising. My parents used to bring treats from TJs as a novelty souvenir gift item, and my relatives ate it up. Literally.
Let's face it. The snacks at TJs rocks.
Even store locations in New York City would have ridiculously long lines during busy hours because the West-coast-based grocer was a novelty on the East Coast.