
Identical twins switching places is a concept that has fascinated storytellers for years. (For every story like The Parent Trap, there's something like Dead Ringers).
We feel many writers have found new inspiration thanks to Redditor pvakil, who asked: "Identical Twins: Have you ever gone inti work, school, or some other occasion to cover your twin? How did it work out?"
50. Keeping The Rotation Going
My dad is an identical twin. He and his brother regularly switched places in school. I can't remember the exact subjects but for clarity reasons I'll just say my dad was good at math and my uncle was good at English. The often switched when my dad had an English class and when my uncle had math. The teachers never noticed, but their friends knew the whole time.
49. Caught And Not Rewarded
No, but we did swap classes in primary school. Lasted half the day before the teachers caught us and made us swap back.
Then two weeks later some girls in the year above us got a merit award at assembly for managing the whole day without getting spotted.
48. Assumptions Presumptions
We never covered for each other or anything, but I was working at a casino as a dealer and my twin brother came in the general public entrance and played at a few tables. The floor manager spotted him and asked him "What the hell are you doing? Dealers can't come gamble. You could get fired for this. Get out of there before I report you myself"
Other than that, I've used his ID before to get into a bar because I forgot mine, but that's about it.
47. Close Call; Didn't Matter
My twin brother and I joined a research conference under different teams (my bro & another guy; me & another guy). We were required to make posters, and so we did.
So, day of the research conference comes, my partner and I basically messed up our concluding statement in the poster. We had to reprint our poster with the corrections.
That same morning, my partner and I met in the conference just to leave and reprint our poster. We didn't even register our team.
Luckily, my brother posed as me and registered my team, while his partner registered for his team. In that conference, we missed about 2-3 hours of what could've been the poster presentation or q&a about our respective researches. Sadly, we didn't win anything but thanks for that, twin bro.
46. Foul!
I am an identical twin! I haven't covered him for work or school or anything like that, but I used to play on his IM basketball team when he was sick and he did the same for me on occasion. No one knew, but I fouled an opponent hard on accident and my brother got dirty looks from that team for the rest of the season lol.
45. Saved By The Bell
We were in university and I was in a math class above his. He needed help on his final and just couldnt get a couple concepts so he asked me to take the final for him because he needed an A to get a B for the class. We are identical enough and all you needed was an ID so I thought why not??
Plus he would owe me big time.
I took the test and got him an A. The only hiccup was that his teacher asked me something about their class so I just laughed and walked away.
44. We're Good On The Tests
My identical twin brother has covered a few tests throughout my life, and I for him. The biggest occasion was when I was sick for my online final for a class I'd worked my butt off for, and he had already taken the final the week before. So when I got sick and obviously couldn't go take the test, the decision was pretty easy to offer him a $10 to go take the test again (which he did better on the 2nd time, thank god)
43. Off-Kilter
I went to college with a girl who had an identical twin sister (Let's call her Laura). We shared a design course and the way the desks were laid out had you facing toward each other. We weren't super close or anything but I saw her nearly every day. One day, she's acting a little different. I sort of stared at her for a sec and it clicked. I had never met Laura's sister before but I knew her name (let's call her Kelly), so I greeted her with it. She said "Damn it!" and went on to explain that her and Laura switched classes for a day just to see if they could get away with it. I advised her that she needed a better poker face but agreed to play along to see if anyone else would notice.
42. What Freaky Twin Thing?
My time to shine (kind of) So my brother and I aren't identical, but we look enough alike for people who don't know us to mistake us for twins. Anyways, we've switched our names up a bunch when substitute teachers or something are in class (because normal teachers would know we switched) and then tell them at the end of class. I also know a pair of identical twins who one of them was good at english while the other was good at math. So what did they do? One took both math classes and the other took both English classes. They were never caught. Being a twin has its perks even though you gotta share everything.
41. Charmed, I'm Sure.
I'm a twin. Not identical, but we still look the exact same. On multiple occasions I have gone to her classes to cover for her. One time my sister had an assignment to go see this play, and to prove she went, had to take a selfie in front of the venue. She was out of town, so I went instead and took a selfie of me in front of the place. Worked like a charm, always does.
40. Accidental Coverage
I'm a twin. We don't ever use this skill to cover one another, but it's a big perk when I go into the coffeeshop or the various other food places in the mall she works in. The staff assumes I'm her and they give me free coffee or discounts on meals.
39. Wasn't Me
Not even twins, but looked a lot like my older brother apparently, enough so the teachers who did not have our class could not tell us apart, he was a trouble maker and i took advantage those few times i did stuff i should not, like sneak into the computer room, and got caught. When the teachers asked who i was i said my brothers name and class and my brother, who is a little technophobic, did not remember sneaking into the computer room or why he would do it and why my classmates where there with him, but he soon realized it was me and not him, he did not rat though.
38. Get Out Of Jail FREE
I know a set of twins that would have frequent run-ins with the law. Each twin would always say they're the other twin when arrested. And then that other twin would show up to court with a rock solid alibi.
37. Guyz It's Me
My twin brother and I are both EMTs but we worked at different companies in the same city at one point. For about a month after he started working I kept getting comments from his coworkers whenever I ran into them like "you're working over there now" or "don't you work with us". And I got so many confused looks from his coworkers and patients too whenever they would see me they'd just stare at me like didn't this guy just leave.
36. It Didn't Work
Back in the time when ATMs didn't exist, I sent my identical twin with my ID to the bank to cash a check. The sharp eyed tellers didn't go for it And made him come and get me to give me my ID back. Lucky I didn't get in more trouble than that.
35. This...Got Away From Me
So I'm not a twin, but...
I've pretended to be. When I get my haircut I would quite often amuse myself by telling interesting lies about my life in responses those questions the hairdresser asks.
'What am I doing at the weekend? Well, I'm going to the Orkney Islands as part of a team trying to re-introduce wolves into the wild...'
'What do I do for a living? Actually I've just got a new job posing the waxworks at Madame Tussaud's...'
I didn't have a regular barber at a regular barbers so I let it run away with me a bit. Eventually it seems I must have stood out a bit too much. I sit down to get my haircut and am asked how my project mapping the tunnels and sewers beneath Barcelona had gone.
So I blamed that on my (non existent) twin brother, and proceeded to describe my upcoming work trip to do specialist pest control at CERN.
34. New Practice Techniques
Not one myself, but i knew a pair on school.
They'd mess around a lot and switch places just for the fun of it. Gonna call them "Drake" and "Josh" for this. Josh was in the band and Drake wasn't, and Josh gets his leg injured a day before a concert, And he has a solo in the concert. Drake decided to go in Josh's place. Problem was, he had no clue how to play trumpet. He had 1 day to learn about 3 years of Trumpet.
No one saw Drake at school the day of the concert. Josh was not there either(obviously.) At the concert, Drake shows up dressed in Josh's concert outfit, nervous as hell. When Drake has to do the solo, he gets up there, and NAILS IT LIKE A PROFESSIONAL.
Turns out, Josh could've gone to school that day with crutches, but didn't because he stayed home to teach Drake how to play. They only stopped practicing to either eat lunch or when one of them had to use the bathroom.
33. Professional Level Fun
Not me but this reminded me of two NBA players who were twins and one game people started theorizing that one of them started illegally playing instead of the other mid game when the other one was hurt, they judged this by how at one quarter of the game the player played like one of the brothers, but the next he started playing the the other brother, they're called the Morris twins if you're wondering, Markieff and Marcus if I'm not mistaken
32. Even The Teachers
I remember one of my elementary school teachers was a twin. She'd tell us stories about how sometimes in school they'd switch classes to give speeches or presentations the other didn't want to do. She said it was fun but sometimes it was very nerve wrecking because they always felt like they were gonna get caught.
31. Nobody Is Looking
Not a twin story, though I have a lot of twins in my family:
My grandmother and my great-aunt (my grandfather's brother) have the same first name. Right after my grandparents got married (so now they have the same last name as well), my great-aunt wanted to go on vacation, but didn't have enough allowed-missed-classes in college to do so.
So my grandmother went and sat in all the lecture hall classes and answered "present" when attendance was taken. No professor ever caught on.
30. Detention, Mr. Potter
Identical twin.
Switched classes twice.
Caught instantly in first one. Teacher said nothing during class but given hour detention after.
Second, elderly, absent minded shop teacher took roll by lining everyone up on their "number" painted on the floor.
He walked along the line looking down for empty numbers marking his list.
Never noticed a thing.
But a few minutes later he walked over to me, Put his face close to mine and I was busted.
Apparently my brother who had switched into my class had been discovered and the office called the shop teacher saying the wrong twin was in his class.
Once, in Junior High, the girl sitting in front of me turned around and slapped me. "I think you're mean", she says.
When she saw the surprised look I had she realized she slapped the wrong twin. Some minor grievance she had had with him.
29. Peepers
I used my twin sisters license when I was pulled over by the cops. I was 16 and my sister had gotten her license before me. Technically I wasn't doing anything illegal because where I am from once you do the written test you can drive with any licensed driver. However, the police look for bribes and I should have been more careful about where I was driving. For context I was practicing in a school parking lot (on the weekend when nobody was there). The problem is this parking lot neighbors a police station and the fence is made of wire so the police probably just got curious and bored.
28. Serving Size
Back in school, we found it absolutely hilarious to swap. We'd attend each other's classes and all but the teacher were in tears. More recently, I was working behind a bar and my brother walks in with my family. My manager, absolutely fuming, begins walking over to my brother and then looks at the bar to see me serving someone. He confronts me about it and instantly bursts into laughter, glad he took it well, but that could've gone badly!
27. Unnoticed Duplications
I have a good story. My history teacher senior year was a total jerk and was very full of himself. I had my identical twin come down from his study hall and sit in class, with me. Same period. He never noticed and we did it several times. We would both ask and answer questions right after each other and he somehow didn't notice! Absolutely hilarious everyone else in the period was really silent the whole time (very rare in his class) and were dropping hints to my teacher in their responses to his questions.
26. It's My Twin And I'll Switch If I Want To
I don't have a twin but a guy I went to school with (and had a huge crush on for years) has a twin brother. On the last day of school I wanted to tell him that I always had a crush on him just to get it out and see what he says but of course on that exact day they wanted to see whether their switch would work or not. The teacher didn't notice and handed him his degree but I did immediately. Never saw him again and never told him either.
25. The #Queen
My mom has a twin and once told me that her sister wanted to break up with her boyfriend, but did not know how to, so my mom went on a walk with him and pretended to be her sister, to break up for her.
On The walk he started to talk about how weird her sister (my mom) was, and my mom god mad and was like "yeah, she never liked you, she's breaking up. Btw, I'm (my moms name)."
He was totally baffled and had no idea, while my mom walked away like a queen.
Makes me laugh every time. Poor mom.
24. The Joke Sailed Over Our Heads
Managed to switch midway through a double period of English, he had his blazer on the back of his chair and I came in with mine on, people knew and were laughing but the teachers didn't cotton on. Which is a shame, because my brother proceeded to write a sexist piece on how women can't park for an advertising task, which didn't win me any favours with my female teacher.
23. There's Secretly Three Of Us
I'm a fraternal twin. The plot twist here is that my older sister looks exactly like my twin instead. So while my twin and I would never be able to do a switcheroo, they actually pulled it off once for an April Fool's Day prank. They switched for two class periods with one teacher's permission. I was in Chinese with my older sister (instead of my twin like usual) and halfway through the class my twin shows up because she couldn't do any conducting (my older sister was band president). My poor teacher was so confused.
22. You're Just Now Me Too
I'm an identical twin, my brother and I apparently are 'so identical' that people I went to school with and worked around sorta have up on telling us apart. It got to the point where I now just answer to his name as well as mine. Even though we have very different personalities we always got away with covering for each other when we weren't together. On the whole no real issues came up, probably because both of us are quite unassuming.
21.My Twin's Failures
My sister is older than me by 14 months and we would get mistaken for twins all the time. I was slightly shorter and skinnier than her but not by much.
When she was 5yo, she had a chance to get into this very prestigious competitive all girls' elementary school. To get in, they had a bunch of things you had to do: family interview with the school, an entrance exam, second set of interviews, so on.
My parents and my sister went to the first interview and it went well ; they had high hopes. But right before the written exam, in typical kid character, my sister fell sick. She could not go. Did my parents say, "oh, well. Sucks for us" ? Nope. They dressed me up, coached me to call myself by my sister's name and took me to the written test. I was 4. I could not write. I didn't even take a pencil to the test. I looked out the window almost the entire time, longing to go out and play at the playground below.
As soon as the test was over, the kids were expected to gather in a room for a play session type thing. The teacher remarked to my parents, "Your daughter looks smaller." I don't remember anything after that. Maybe my parents died of embarrassment and hauled me out?
Needless to say, I did not pass the test and my sister still jokingly whines about it.
20. Deliberately Misleading
I lived with twins and made the biggest fool of myself.
Enough time had passed that I was definitely expected to know the difference between them. Well, I didn't. One day I dropped by their work, a burger joint. One of the twins was there wearing a name tag, perfect. I said "hi Lydia!" And Lydia smiled and said Hi!!
Then I drove home and saw the other one. "Hey Steph how's it going?" -Uh, I'm Lydia...
"Haha nice try Lydia's working right now."
-Oh, no Steph's covering for me at work today.
UNFAIR
19. Punchéd
Had identical triplets at school. At the time Andrew was in my class, Richard and Simon were in other classes.
April 1st they swapped around and we had Simon in my class. Teacher had no idea so Simon deliberately got a detention for his brother.
Next day Andrew served the detention and Simon had a very conspicuous black eye.
18. Fred And George If They Were High School Girls
I'm not a twin myself, but I used to have identical twin step-sisters (Not anymore due to the calling off of an engagement and other complicated stuff). When we lived together, they were in high school and I was in fourth grade.
One year for April Fool's Day, they decided to switch schedules with each other and see if their teachers and classmates would notice that they switched out. They were good students, and before they went through with it got an okay from the principal. If I remember right, it went pretty well and nobody really noticed.
They were also on the basketball team together and were known for tricking the other team and giving the announcer a really hard job. They had the same theater class too, and would work on scenes together, switching parts if they ever needed to.
17. Setting Identifiers
We've never covered for each other since we're in health care and that could be bad but we have switched places at school before. The teacher didnt believe we would do that to him even though the whole class told him we did it. We told him after and he got a good chuckle out of it.
Currently we work at the same place and the first thing I do when meeting new people is warn them I have a twin. She wears glasses now so we can't switch like we used to. Some of the Residents still get confused.
16. I Wasn't Distant; I Just Wasn't
My sister had to go to my chemistry class because it was required that I attend both a chemistry class and a nursing school meeting at the same time. Obviously couldn't been in two places at once so I said something to both colleges about my predicament and both stated I'd have to choose and face the consequences.
So I had her attend my horrible chemistry class. In the end no one really knew the difference except my friends in chemistry ended up asking why I acted weird last time, and didn't talk to them. When I told them its because it wasn't me they were SHOOK.
15. No Driving
My brother took my driving test for me and passed. HOWEVER, i live in Vanocouver Canada which is like 80% asian and they previously cought a asian guy doing over 100 tests for people if you paid him and they installed some crazy face recognition cameras and 3 weeks after my brother passed... we were called in by a police detective looking at identity fraud. We managed to convince him we did identity sharing at best lol
I had to give back my license. ( i must also specify i had been driving for 3 years prior, never had a crash, i only had my brother do it because it was convenient to me as i was out of the city )
i've had many other twin situations that did pay off though.
14. A Cute Little Crush
My Grandmother was a twin and told me this story, she passed now unfortunately.
Back when they were younger, she had a crush on a boy in school, but the boy had a class with her twin, and actually asked her twin out.
Her twin knew my grandmother had a crush on the boy, so she said yes to the date, and they switched for the date... Apparently it worked, and she still smiled thinking back about that date.
I loved how innocent and cute she was when she told that story. They also tried switching classes one day but the teacher caught them. The principal just laughed and told then not to do it again!
13. Seeing Double--That's Why I'm At The Doctor's
This reminds me of my old boss and his identical twin. This was in a small, doctors office (most days just me and the doc working) and his twin came in and was sitting in the waiting/reception area talking with me. A patient walked in and said "hey doc, slow day?" his twin says "yep so I'm just chatting with Darth". They start chatting and then real doc comes out, patient does a double take, and both doc and his brother start laughing. It was great.
12. Playing The System
There is a set of identical twins who share a house next-door, 28 year old guys, and we get each other mail all the time. Just today I was checking for mail and one had a Costco flyer delivered (Costco is like a religion in California and practically everyone has a membership) and I thought, "How brilliant! Bryan has the membership and he can say he lost his card, get a replacement and give it to Steven to use!" (Costco membership cards have the member's photo on it.) An hour or so later later I remembered that the membership is for two people per household and Steven probably has a legit card.
11. Excuses, Excuses
I'm a somewhat fan of Rami Malek (he played Freddie Mercury in the movie bohemian rhapsody) and he tells of a story with his identical twin, Sami. His brother Sami needed to recite a Greek or Roman — I forget —monologue to pass a class. Rami, who was in some sort of theater school had recently worked on this exact type of thing and Sami took advantage of that. Rami agreed and they met outside of Sami's class.
Sami told Rami what to wear so Rami would look like Sami. Rami preformed the monologue and got a standing ovation from the class. The teacher took him outside (Sami was in his car at this time) and questioned him about when he learned that, and why. Rami told her it was a hobby of his. She studied his face, and asked if he "could come in tomorrow and do this again" for her other class. He asked if he "had passed the class", and she said "yes".
He said "no I'm busy tomorrow" and left. He just walked out.
10. "My dad..."
My dad is an identical twin... He has some stories.
He did tell me of the time when he was in college that he asked his brother to cover for him in a Friday afternoon class so my dad could leave town early to get back to his girlfriend. My dad and my uncle were majoring in the same subject so that helped, but they had different electives. I did help that most of the students in the class knew both my uncle and my dad, so they helped my uncle out when he got cornered by a question every once in a while. The prof never caught on.
9. "I was working..."
I was working in a department store, and my twin came in to grab something. As he was walking though the store my manager mistook him for me and proceeded to chew him out for being out of uniform and leaving the electric section empty. He let her yell for a bit and then told her he was my twin. Now I don't tell people that I'm a twin (too many stupid questions) so even when he told her she didn't believe him. I happened to be walking nearby when i heard the interaction and finally put it to rest.
8. "I'm a twin..."
I'm a twin, we aren't identical, my cousins are though! They would switch spots to take tests for each other in different classes when they were in high school, because one was usually better at certain subjects, it never failed, except a single time, they got suspended, but they managed to convince everyone that it was the first time and they only wanted to see if it would work, even though they'd been doing it all throughout high school, so they didn't get in too much trouble. They still talk about it proudly and we all still laugh about how they managed it, their mother still scolds them whenever they bring it up because even she believed their lie back then
7. "My dad..."
My dad is an identical twin. Legend has it that on their 16th birthday my dad's twin was sick. My father went and passed his own driver's test, went home to change clothes, and then went back and passed his brother's test for him.
6. "My aunts..."
My aunts are identical twins, they used to swap places on test days in school. One would take a math test twice, the other would take an English test twice. Since they often dressed the same anyway, it wasn't obvious. Yes they were successful.
5. "Identical mirror..."
Identical mirror twin here. It never worked out well for us, we look similar but personality wise we're pretty easy to tell apart. The face would get you in the door but 5 minutes later it's straight to the principal's office.
4. "No..."
No, but there were a few times where she's gone into my work when I wasn't there and people mistook her for me. I suppose she's lucky they didn't try to get her to cover for me, haha.
3. "One day I was sick..."
One day I was sick in high school but my mom made me still go to school. I had an in-class essay that was 25% of my grade that day, and since my sister had that class earlier in the day and got to see the prompt, I convinced her to do it for me. We have different clothing styles so we switched clothes and she wrote my essay, which I got a B+ on (I was happy with that considering I was pretty sick and couldn't have done that). We decided to just go the whole day like that and no teachers caught on.
Another time that kinda sucked though was also in high school when my twin fell in front of everyone at lunch. It got around that I was the one who fell. My boyfriend even came to me making sure I was okay. I was so embarrassed because literally the whole school was laughing about it. Obviously my sister didn't do much to make it clear it wasn't me lol.
There were times when I have also done embarrassing things and said it was my twin. Comes in handy
Now I have bleach blonde hair and people can easily tell who is who! But we live in different cities so we can't switch much anyways.
2. "Identical twin..."
Identical twin: The issue that a lot of people overlook about this whole swap is that even though you might look like someone, you're behavior is different and there's a ton of detailed information you would need to know to pull it off.
When my brother and I did it in 3rd grade I didn't even bother to ask him what desk was his.
1. "Me and my twin..."
Me and my twin have a thing where when we're not together, and someone mistakes us for the other, we just pretend to be the other. I've actually had lunches with people I don't know, because at that point I'm in too deep... and it's scary.
What's also weird is when the person/ people recognizes us, so we play along, but then it ends up that neither of us even knew them.
When looking at a resume, it's easy to understand how prospective employers will assume someone is very intelligent based on their education and past experience.
But one shouldn't only assume someone's intelligence based on what they read.
More often than not, one can tell rather quickly that someone possesses above-average intelligence, based on how they speak, how they behave, or other telling details.
Redditor PadWanKenobi was curious to hear what people felt were the tell tale signs they were in the company of a possible genius, leading them to ask:
"What’s a sign of extremely high intelligence?"
Instant adapability
"Ability to intuitively and quickly understand complex systems and how lots of parts relate in a coherent whole."
"Like I work with some people who just keep tons of concepts in their head and easily integrate new information into their understanding of those concepts."
"They immediately know what questions they should be asking to better understand."
"And these are things they're currently working on, not like things they spent time studying in school over years."
"They just have a very strong ability to synthesize new information into their understanding."
"I sit in meetings distracted and confused having forgotten what we talked about in the previous meetings, and these folks just consistently have a solid handle on everything."- Ok-Control-787
Innate Problem Solvers
"They know when not to solve a problem."
"This took me a while to understand but the smartest people I know do this."
"It could be a really simple thing like ignoring emails from people asking for help."
"The supervisor or boss might have a quick and easy solution for the situation but instead of just handing it to the person that asked they let them figure it out on their own."
"They know who they can do this with and when to do it."
"If they did that with all of their underlings it would just create a mess."
"Another example that I can think of is planned chaos."
"Some people can predict exactly where things will go wrong and they could fix it before it creates a problem."
"They don't because nobody ever notices what's going on in the background when things are working perfectly."
"Once things fails then everybody notices and if you are the one person that fixed it you become the hero."
"They can also use then chaos to reach a goal they couldn't get before if things were working correctly."
"There's many examples of this in every day life that I didn't see before until I realized what was happening."- atapes
You know what they say about people with small hands
"If your hand is smaller than your face."- FallofTheKnight
The all knowing glow.
"When someone asks you a question and you push your glasses up while light comes out of it and covers your eyes for some reason."- JonEregor
Those giveaway behavioral quirks
"Wearing glasses and saying things like 'ah yes', and 'I see' while you pensively rub your chin."- iuytrefdgh436yujhe2
Encouraging others
"When they explain something they make the people around them feel smarter, not dumber."- redkat85
Being one step ahead.
"The capacity to understand complex things, see patterns where regular people don't."- Ostepop234
"They have this tendency to make you go 'Ohhh, why didn't I think of that?' when listening to them talk."- did_it_forthelulz
An endless love of learning
"A passion for knowledge and expanding understanding of complex concepts."
"The plumber can be just as insightful as the scholar."- KatatoniK94
Of course, one shouldn't always be fooled by what they see.
As many people are masters at appearing much smarter than they are.
In fact, one important sign of super intelligence is being able to separate those who appear smart, from those who actually are.
With each passing year of a marriage, couples will often discover that while they don't love each other any less than they once did, that spark their relationship used to carry has faded.
This will often lead these couples to look for ways to spice things up a bit.
Among the more popular experiments is inviting a third member to their bedroom.
Enticing as this prospect is, however, it's also easy to be intimidated by the reality of it, or even the mere suggestion of it.
"Men, what advice do you have for men whose wives want to bring a third into the bedroom?"
Make sure you want to do it.
"You need to be completely honest with yourself, ask if this is something you want and could live with."- Dame87
Proceed with caution
"It’s like frolicking in a mine field."
"You both better be SUPER into the idea, you can’t have one person who’s reluctantly agreed to go along with it."
"And established rules."
"A threesome sounds like fun and games until you’re watching your partner make faces and sounds that you only thought were for you in your most intimate moments together, and a burning jealousy comes out of nowhere and breaks your heart."
"I’m not saying it’s automatically a bad idea and I know people do polyamory successfully, but dear god be careful."- coleosis1414
Make sure you're an active participant
"I had an ex that was adamant that she wanted to be a swinger or whatever."
"The one time I decided to roll with it, I hit it off immediately with the other dude's girlfriend and had a blast hanging out with her all night."
"The other dude was a total creep, though."
"Also, my ex could not handle the fact that someone else was giving me the slightest bit of attention."
"So, needless to say, that didn't go anywhere."
"Turns out she didn't want to be a swinger, she just wanted to have sex with other people behind my back, which she had no problems whatsoever with."- Ted_Denslow
Look out for ulterior motives
"Just remember that if you bring this up and your husband is against it, that could be the beginning of the end of your marriage."
"For a lot of people their partner saying 'I am seriously considering having sex with other people and I'm checking with you if it is ok', is a deal breaker."- gamerplays
Consider a test run?
"Go to a bar together separately."
"Watch them flirt/interact with someone else."
"If you get jealous, it's probably a bad idea to bring in a third."
"If it turns you on, go for it."- SinSlayer
Query people with experience.
"It’s something my wife and I have talked about."
"We both agreed that opening the Pandora’s box is not the way we want our relationship to go."
"While it sounds fun, we have seen way to many relationships derailed because of it."- DarthDujo
Consider going whole hog.
"Bring a 4th."- xxemrgmi
Evaluate your relationship first.
"Make sure you and your partner are secure in your own relationship before having another person join."
"Have boundaries, and no secrets."
"From my experience it doesn't usually work out in the end."- Thick-Procedure455
Just don't!
"Don't do it."
"For a long time, my ex harbored a fantasy of watching me have sex with another woman."
"Hey, who knows why any of us are wired the way we are?"
"After contemplating the idea together for a while, we decided to approach one of her more attractive co-workers, who had made a series of flattering comments along the lines of "you're so lucky" and "he's so good-looking'."
"She enthusiastically agreed."
"Our first meet-up was of course awkward, but the second, third and following were pretty good."
"In fact they got progressively hotter, as we all got more comfortable with each other's boundaries, erotic likes and dislikes."
"However, over a few months these occasional kinky weekends transitioned into the co-worker asking more frequently and aggressively to be invited over."
"We tried to explain that we had intended these threesomes to be rare and exotic highlights in our sex life, not regular occurrences, but she didn't take the message to heart and instead became increasingly insistent, bordering on smothering."
"After being turned down one Friday, that night she unexpectedly showed up at our door anyway, carrying a weekend bag and wearing nothing but a raincoat, stay-ups and heels."
"While that was quite a sight, it definitely creeped us out, as it made us finally realize the whole arrangement was descending into 'play Misty for me' territory."
"My ex and I agreed that her unexpected and unwelcome appearance signaled the end of future three-ways, at least until we were able to cool our own selves down, reassess, and perhaps later find a less demanding and insistent third."
"Things subsequently got very sticky at work for my wife, as her co-worker, with whom she had to interact closely, strongly resented being permabanned, and kept demanding to know 'what she'd done that was so awful'."
"Coworker eventually asked to be transferred to another office, but by the time that process was over and done, the discomfort / guilt / pressure / confusion my ex was suffering both at home and at work had begun to take its psychological toll."
"I must confess it didn't help that our own sex life was simultaneously going through a rough patch."
"Long story short, we ended our decade-long relationship less than a year after breaking off the threesomes, chiefly due to trust issues and growing sexual incompatibility, both perhaps triggered by our experimentation."
"Ever since, I've regretted agreeing to that first three-way."
"If I hadn't been so damned eager to take a bite of forbidden fruit, we might have kept our relationship intact."
"But I guess this can also be put down as what sometimes happens when you ignore that old advice, 'don't sh*t where you sleep'."- theartfulcodger
When venturing into the unknown, it's always wise to gain some first hand experience, to hear a variety of pros and cons of what you're possibly getting yourself into.
That way, deciding whether or not it's for you will become increasingly clear.
It's also important to remember, that it is always ok to say "no".
People Share Their Best 'You Either Die The Hero Or Live Long Enough To Become The Villain' Experiences
"You either die the hero or live long enough to become the villain."
Though not necessarily a universal truth, all of us have witnessed unfortunate moments in our lives where we've seen this saying become a reality.
Be it seeing our favorite public figures take a serious fall from grace, someone we know and admire eventually disappointing us in a devastating manner, or even seeing ourselves turn into someone we promised we'd never become.
One Redditor was curious to hear people's examples of this saying coming to light, either from a personal experience or seeing it happen to a well-known, public figure, leading them to ask:
"Who is your example of 'you either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain'?"
Jim Jones
"Jim Jones."
"He originally stood up for civil rights when it was really unpopular."
"Was hospitalized and accidentally placed in the black ward."
"When the doctors found out, they tried to move him, but he refused."
"Then he became a cult leader and used his power and influence to end the lives of a thousand people."- Crvsby
Earning a position of power
"Working in restaurant kitchens."
"You either burn out young, or become the boss that everyone hates."
"There's exceptions, but that's the rule."- grandpas_old_crow
Henry Heimlich
"Henry Heimlich, inventor of the Heimlich Maneuver."
"Made up a bunch of untested uses for it, treating people having asthma attacks, and drowning victims were the two I remember that he publicly talked up."
"Later, he funded an experiment that involved injecting people with Malaria to see if it would treat other conditions.
"The experiment was found to be unethical by American review boards, so he conducted them in Ethiopia." - User Deleted
Philippe Petain
"Philippe Petain."
"In WW1 he led the French to victory at Verdun, one of the worst battles in human history."
"In WW2, after France was beaten, Petain was the head of state of Vichy France."
"Guy went from the Lion of Verdun to the biggest Nazi collaborator in France."- arthuranymoredonuts
Our bodies
"Every organ until it gets cancer."- SuperBaconjam
Conor McGregor
"Conor McGregor."
"He had the whole country behind him here in Ireland at one point bar people who thought combat sport is grotesque."
"He was witty, original, backing himself up and having a Hollywood like rise to stardom."
"Now he's someone who the whole country is ashamed of, goes punching old men, clearly sleeps around on his wife while she's at home with the kids, just a walking caricature of himself."
"He didn't listen to his own advice."
"Get in."
"Get rich."
"Get out."- StephenPigot2020
Turning into our parents
"My dad used to annoy me by calling my Pokemon cards 'Pokey-Mans'."
"Now my kids have them and I do the same thing and it annoys the sh*t out of them."
"Thanks for the (Pokeyman) gold!"- rumpel4skinOU
Benedict Arnold
"Benedict Arnold."
"Almost died during the revolutionary way, if I recall correctly, and if he had he would have been remembered a huge hero, and a martyr."
"Instead he lived and changed sides, and is remembered only for his being a traitor."- uniqueperson22
Be it someone we knew quite intimately, or someone we admired from a far, it is always heartbreaking to see someone evolve from someone we love, to someone we utterly hate.
Sometimes we do things that have to be done.
And some of those things live in life's gray area of right and wrong.
What comes as a surprise to some is when we don't care if we're wrong.
We may still technically be in the right.
But morally and ethically, there may be some issues.
But still, many people don't care.
Redditor BirdyPizzawanted to see who would fess up about some of the worst things we're responsible for but have no shame.
"What is the darkest thing you have ever done and don’t regret?"
I've stolen from department stores that overcharged. I was arrested. I didn't care. So there...
The Grief
"Five years ago my dad suffered a catastrophic stroke. Left paralyzed and robbed of his speech and ability to communicate he was a shell of the once vibrant, charismatic man he once was. He was moved into skilled nursing where he lived for nearly two years, he was miserable."
"On my last visit I told him it was okay if he wanted to leave us, that we would miss him but he should go. A week later I received the call that he had passed. Instead of immediate grief I felt relief. Relief that he was finally free. The grief came later and I still miss him every single day."
theroadtoeverywhere
Things Missing
"Got into a car accident and had to stay with my mom for a couple days to figure out what to do. Went back to my apartment (I had two roommates) and everything was missing from my room. Long story short one of my roommates had everything hidden in her room."
"I called and told her the things were missing from my room and she came up with a lie that a couple girls came to look at my room (I was moving out bc of the accident, long story) and that they must have taken my things. She had everything I owned. Including my grandmothers perfume bottles, stuffed to the back of her closet, under her bed, behind her dresser etc."
"So I packed all of my stuff up. Then took a giant black garbage bag and stuffed as much of her closet in it as I could. Took it to the middle of nowhere, dug a hole and burnt it. She called screaming at me that her stuff was missing. I told her the two girls must have come by and taken her stuff too."
udntsay
Violence
"I hit my uncle left right and center when he was trying to choke my father to death. I was 16 years old at that time, a very skinny girl. I beat his face neck and every part of him that I could target with so much intensity that my knuckles turned blue the next day. I had an animalistic rage that day trying to help my father get away from his death grip. I hate my uncle even today."
"I got anger issues because of growing up around him. And I don't regret beating him that day at all. He was physically abusive to his wife as well. One fine day, his wife retaliated by beating him blue with a stick. And he stopped being physically violent towards her post that."
avadakebakra
Danger
"A neighbor like 10 years ago was neglecting their dog badly in the heat. The dog escaped often and ended up at the shelter a lot. One day she jumped the fence and got her tie-out cable stuck on the fence. (She was not in danger of choking.) Neighbor put her on a 3-foot-long cable tied to a doorknob, no water, 90 degree day. I let some kind folks steal her, watched the whole thing and said nothing to stop them."
Oh-Oh-Ophelia
Goodbye
"When my father was dying and in pain I was the one who told the doctors he had been through enough and we couldn't see him suffer anymore. Doctor injected him with something, I assume a morphine mega dose and he passed peacefully moments after. Euthanasia may not be legal in UK but compassionate doctors know what's what. I don't regret it because my pa made me promise I would have his back when he got sick or old. I'm sad he got sick and never got to get old."
Express_Evidence_23
That is a lot of mess. But sometimes we have to do what we have to do.
Toxic
"One of my ex best friends in high school was a real narcissistic lunatic. Had so many egotistical fantasies about what he deserved but I remained his friend because we met through my close friend (his girlfriend). As I started realizing what a terrible person he was I convinced him to go after his fantasy of a harem by asking to add a 3rd to their relationship, that led to a fight between his gf."
"I called her about it and asked how she felt about him adding someone to their relationship and about him sleeping with her. She said she knew nothing about that and started crying because he cheated on her. I basically helped orchestrate their breakup and have no regrets. She is happy with her first child now and he is in a toxic af relationship with 3 kids, 2 of which aren't his and his partner is 8 years older than him."
skijeng
My Buddy
"Had to make the choice to take my dad off of life support after he got Covid this year. He was sedated for a couple of weeks and one of his lungs collapsed and I couldn't watch him fall apart anymore. My dad was a bulky dude. Constantly did a lot of outdoor work and to see him bone skinny and have no muscle left killed me and I knew even if he somehow got through it, he would have been so miserable and depressed in that state he was in. I don’t regret it. I think it was the right thing to do by him. I’ll never not miss him though. That was my buddy."
CarterS20884
The Ruin
"Turned a close friend into the fish and game. He would poach mountain lions and bears. His whole family would literally shoot them and leave them. He would brag about it. I couldn’t stand it and felt that I needed to stop him. He’s in prison and so is his uncle. I know I ruined his life but he was literally killing so many mountain lions and bears."
Donkey-Puncherr
School Daze
"In middle school, there was this group of boys that would corner me in the hallway and try to scare me. I was the perfect target for these little b**tards. I was short, skinny, and had (and still have) and anxiety disorder. One day I just had enough, and asked a friend if I could have an extra pencil, sharpened it as much as I could, and when I saw one of them in the hallway, I stabbed the hell out of his leg. Sh**head got what he deserved."
leserolith3
Wow... we really are a dark and secretive people.