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Identical Twins Who've Swapped Places As Adults Explain How It Played Out

Identical Twins Who've Swapped Places As Adults Explain How It Played Out
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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

Giphy

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.

CRMOwarrior

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.

BBCnich

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.

svenson_26

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.

Sheeparino

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.

DecentBagel

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.

BrandPlanner

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)

jnew119

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.

BewareNixonsGhost

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.

Luke11smith

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.

KTyo12

40. Accidental Coverage

Giphy

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.

la-noche-viene

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.

mvoigt

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.

MrRuby

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.

IsmaelH11

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.

U-GO-GURL-

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.

tonnellier

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.

Walrus_Onion

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

Dev1cer

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.

armadillana

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.

VeryFineDiary

30. Detention, Mr. Potter

Giphy

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.

Talkin2ya

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.

InternallyPuzzled

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!

Tekagee

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.

Fargibus

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.

juliajolina

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.

signemrk1

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.

GfordsMikeRoss

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.

DreaDreamer

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.

zacharysalexander

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.

Silver0000

20. Deliberately Misleading

Giphy

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

DigNitty

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.

sirgog

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.

plague-thyself

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.

huebnera214

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.

HasuHeart

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.

temptemp230

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!

FRIENDLY_CANADIAN

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.

DarthSamurai

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.

MysticYoYo

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.

timetest127

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.

C_Alan

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.

zapv01

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

fuzzyoctopus27

7. "My dad..."

Giphy

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.

justagirlfromdablock

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.

fave_no_more

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.

In_Suspencer

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.

idiosyncrassy

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.

blueberrygrayson

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.

Pilfered

1. "Me and my twin..."

Giphy

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.

EpicNations

Old Wives' Tales People Still Believe For Some Reason

"Reddit user the_spring_goddess asked: 'What is an old wives tale that people still believe?'"

Close up of an owl tilting their head to side, looking bewildered
Photo by Josh Mills

The old wives' tales.

They are the stories of legend.

I think we all need a big DEEP Google dive though.

Where did they originate?

WHO ARE THE OLD WIVES!

You don't hear about them as much anymore.

It's like science and logic are suddenly a thing.

But they sure are a good way to keep your kids and their behavior in line.

Redditor the_spring_goddess wanted to discuss the tall tales we've all been fed through life, so they asked:

"What is an old wives tale that people still believe?"

"Wait an hour to swim after eating."

What a crock!

So many summer hours wasted.

I want revenge for that one.

Say Nothing

Giphy

"An undercover cop has to tell you he's a cop if you ask him."

LonelyMail5115

"Pretty much most advice when it comes to cops are old wives tales. I’m not even a cop but most of the advice you hear is pretty off."

I_AM_AN_A**HOLE_AMA

Say Something

"That you have to wait 24 hours to report someone missing."

Severe_Airport1426

"I really think this one is important and should be the top regardless. As it’s a piece of advice that needs to be relearned and the only way to do that is through awareness."

crappycurtains

"This used to be true. I think they changed it after some guy named Brandon went missing back in the '80s or '70s. You used to have to wait 24 hours if the missing person was an adult because they had 'a right to be missing' and then everyone realized that was stupid and stopped doing it."

AlbinoShavedGorilla

Body Temps

"That drinking ice cold water after eating oily foods will solidify the oil and permanently remain in your body. I informed my coworker that if your body temperature ever reached that point, you’d have bigger problems than weight gain."

chriseo22

"Oh, I have a cousin who 100% believed this. One of those guys who believed every early 2000s internet rumor and old wives tale. One night I chugged a big glass of ice water after dinner and he started freaking out and saying my guts were gonna harden."

"I sarcastically told him to drive me to the hospital if that happened. Obviously, nothing happened and the next morning I said something like 'Thanks for being on standby in case my guts filled with hardened oil.' He just walked off muttering under his breath."

apocalypticradish

Arms Down

"When I was pregnant, I was told by young and old alike that I should NOT raise my arms above my head or exert myself in such a manner because it could cause cord strangulation to my unborn sons and daughters."

Fatmouse84

10 Years Actually

Unimpressed Uh Huh GIF by Brooklyn Nine-Nine Giphy

"Chewing gum stays in your stomach for 7 years."

REDDIT

"I remember accidentally swallowing a piece of gum when I was a kid in like 1995 and just accepting my fate like welp, gonna have this in my stomach til high school I guess."

Gecko-911

I was so afraid to sallow my gum when I was young.

This tale is haunting.

High/Low

Hungry Debra Messing GIF by Will & Grace Giphy

"You can tell the sex of the baby by how you carry."

LeastFormal9366

"Pregnancy certainly wins awards for the most old wives tales. So much absolute BS was repeated to us by everyone we talked to."

IllIIIlIllIlIIlIllI

The Cursed

"If you’re a woman and you wear opal jewelry but opal is not your birthstone (October), you’ll never be able to have children, or will be widowed, or just generally have bad luck or something. You can counteract this by having a diamond in the same piece of jewelry as the opal, though."

"I have a nice opal ring that my parents gave me years ago, and I’ve had other women give me this 'advice' unprompted more than once when I’ve worn it. I have absolutely no idea where it started, but I’m pretty sure this little chunk of silicate rock has no concept of what month I was born in, let alone of how my reproductive organs work."

SmoreOfBabylon

Stay In

"Going outside with wet hair will make you get pneumonia. Or an earache. Or maybe arthritis. Depends on which old wife you listen to."

"Jokes on them - I haven't blow-dried my hair in decades and usually leave the house with wet hair in the morning. On winter mornings, the tips of my hair get frozen. No ear infections or pneumonia or arthritis yet."

worldbound0514

Dreams and Facts

"You never make anyone up in your dreams you've seen everyone in your dreams somewhere else before and never make anyone up entirely."

"How would you possibly prove that to be true? My partner adamantly believes this and tells me this 'fact' whenever I have a dream about someone I've never met before."

mattshonestreddit

"My late wife used to tell me that before she met me she would have dreams of standing at an alter on her wedding day but could never see the guy's face, no matter how hard she tried. After meeting me the face was filled in with mine. Don't know if it's true but one of those things I like thinking of every now and then when I miss her."

Darthdemented

Cracked

Getting Ready Episode 2 GIF by The Office Giphy

"Some people still believe cracking knuckles causes arthritis."

Choice-Grapefruit-44

"There's a doctor (Donald Unger) that cracked his knuckles a couple of times a day for 60 years, but only on one hand, just to prove it. Both hands remained exactly the same."

MacyTmcterry

I love my knuckles.

Do you have any tall tales to add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.

lottery tickets
Erik Mclean on Unsplash

A lot of workers daydream about some day winning the lottery and being able to say goodbye to their job.

Far too many workers are unhappy with their job duties, workplace dynamics or company culture.

But with a taste for luxuries like housing and food, they keep plugging away, year after year.

However not everyone feels that way about their job.

So what are these compelling careers?

Keep reading... Show less
Therapist talking during session
Photo by Mark Williams on Unsplash

Some people stand firmly stand behind their beliefs that everyone would benefit from therapy and that therapy is life-changing.

It's because of the totally life-changing truth bombs their therapist had dropped during their sessions.

Curious, Redditor anonymiss0018 asked:

"What is a little bombshell your therapist dropped in one of your sessions that completely changed your outlook?"

Communication Issues

"'If you don’t have these problems with any other person in your life, why do you think you’re the problematic person in this one?'"

- maggiebear

"I love this. I have a 'friend' who I always seem to run into misunderstandings with. Every time we had a conversation, it somehow turned into a debate even if it was me talking about my day. The conversations were never easy."

"I always evaluate myself first and take into consideration his critiques. He was very good at convincing me that I was contradicting myself or wasn't good at communicating my thoughts."

"I NEVER had this issue with ANYONE else in my life. I kept trying to figure out where the miscommunication was coming from. In the end, I just minimized contact and now I don't run into this issue."

- chobani_yo

"I read this quote somewhere once (and probably have it a bit wrong): 'It's a waste of time arguing with someone who is determined to misunderstand you.'"

- Reddit

Emotional Regulation

"'You can’t control your emotions, but you can control what you do with them.'"

"At the time, I was a young adult who had learned zero healthy emotional regulation skills (only suppression and shaming) growing up, so this blew my mind."

- lil_mermaid

Tough Relationships

"'It sounds to me like you are trying to convince yourself to stay with your girlfriend. I'm not so sure it should be so difficult.'"

"At the time he said this, I remember it was like he said, 'The earth is flat.' I thought he was crazy when he suggested relationships don't need to be difficult. But eventually, I started to realize I was trying to change myself to stay with this person rather than just being who I am."

"It took me three more months to finally break up with her but from that day on, I vowed to never again abandon myself just to be with someone I had convinced myself was better than me."

- metric88

High-Stress Situation

"I was at a high-stress time, and I asked her how people live like this."

"She replied, 'Oftentimes they have cardiac events.' She said it as an urging to care for myself as much as possible."

- KittenGr8r

The End of Alcohol

"I was struggling with my alcoholism, and we were discussing how I had been cutting back."

"She asked what I would consider success, with regard to my drinking."

"I said I wanted to get to a point where it wasn't interfering with my daily life. I wanted to just be able to have a glass of wine at holiday dinners or family gatherings."

"She simply asked me why. Why was it important for me to drink at those times?"

"It was as if she'd turned on a light. Alcohol had always been a key ingredient in every family function, for my entire life. When I smell bourbon, I think of my uncle. When I smell vermouth, I think of my dad. Alcohol ran through almost every happy childhood memory."

"But, even more than that, I was very afraid of the explanation I'd have to give when family and friends asked why I wasn't having a drink. I had tried to quit before but failed. What if I admitted my problem, only to fall off the wagon?"

"When she asked why I didn't want to completely quit, it was the first time I saw that last part of the big picture. I'd be willing to drink myself to death in order to avoid being scrutinized, or judged for possible future failures."

"That was the day I quit. I've been sober since May 6th, 2017. 2,407 days."

- sophies_wish

Acceptance vs. Enjoyment

"'Accepting something doesn’t mean you have to like it.'"

"That took away a lot of my inner conflicts about situations because I could accept a situation without expending energy internally fighting against the injustice of it."

- alibelloc

Emotionally Immature Parents

"You are not responsible for your parents' emotional wellbeing. They are independent adults who have been on this earth for many more years than you."

- SmokedPears

Not So Lazy

"'Why do you think you're lazy?' Then she listed off all the things she knows I'm doing for my family, my job, and my life."

"It kind of blew my mind when I struggled to come up with an example."

"She also described family dysfunction as water. Some families are messed up in a way that everyone can see the huge waves across the surface. Others are better at hiding it, but there's still a riptide that you can't see unless you're also in the water."

"It made me realize that trying to keep the surface from ever rippling doesn't erase what is happening underneath."

- flybyknight665

The Harm in People-Pleasing

"'Why do you make people more comfortable when you are uncomfortable?' when talking about people pleasing and fawning."

- ERsandwich

Agree to Disagree

"'Stop trying to get everyone to agree. When you need everyone to agree, the least agreeable person has all the power.'"

This really changed my outlook on planning family events."

- freef

Grieve and Start Anew

"For context, I had a major TBI (traumatic brain injury), seizures, strokes, and all around not a fun brain time when I was 28."

"They said, 'You have to grieve the loss of yourself.'"

"Most people wanted me to go back to how I was. The f**ked up truth is that part of my brain is dead. The person everyone (including myself) knew died. I needed to grieve the loss of myself."

- squeaktoy_la

Multifaceted Identity

"They told me that my job and career is just a way to make money; it's not my life or identity. That took a lot of pressure off me."

- unfairpegasus

Breaking the Cycle

"They validated me."

"'You always talk about not wanting to do to your daughters what your mom did to you. You worry about it so much in every interaction you have ever had with them."

"But your children are 19 and 21 now. They are happy and healthy and they trust you because you’ve never abused them in any way. So I just want to validate for you that you really have broken that cycle of violence."

"You did that. And you should be proud of it. I’m proud of you for it.'"

- puppsmcgee74

The Grieving Process

"I was constantly bringing up how I felt like a completely different person after my mom died... like there was a marked difference between before and after her death."

"But once, she was asking about my hobbies, I got really into describing all the things I loved to do or at least used to do before I got into a deep depression."

"She was like, 'Wow, you seem very passionate.'"

"And I just sat there like, 'Well, I mean, I can't change what I like to do, they're still fun to do.'"

"And it's like she knew when to take a step back, because it was like, wow, I may be super depressed about my mom passing, but I'm still me. I'm still my passions and those don't go away."

"I don't know, maybe it only makes sense to be, but it really started getting me back on track."

- Hannibal680

Sharing the Load

"I've never really had friends. I've had colleagues and classmates and housemates and people who have hung out with me, but I never really felt close to any of them."

"And I did that thing you see on here sometimes; I stopped reaching out to see if I would be reached out to, and I wasn't, which I took as confirmation that they didn't really want me around, or at the very least, that they wouldn't mind my absence."

"I was talking to my therapist about people I'd been close to in college, and she told me to pick one and talk about him. So I did. After I shared some basic stuff like his name and his major etc., and a couple of anecdotes, she asked me what else I knew about him."

"And I couldn't answer. It wasn't really a broadly applicable bombshell, but she said, 'What else?' and I started crying because I realized that for as simple as the question was, my inability to answer spoke volumes."

"I've never had good friends because I've never been a good friend. I'm withdrawn and reserved and I always made others do the work to drag me out, without ever extending my own friendship in a meaningful way in return. If I wanted to have meaningful relationships with other people, I would have to build them."

"I'm still working on this, but I'm trying to make more offers and extend more friendliness to others in my daily life."

- Backupusername

The discoveries in this thread were incredibly touching and profound; it's no wonder these were lasting concepts for these Redditors.

It's important to keep ourselves open to inspiration and insights from others, as we have no idea how their experiences could help us, or how we could help them.

Aerial view of a church in a small town
Sander Weeteling/Unsplash

There's something comforting about living in a small town.

It's characterized by close communities where neighbors know each other by name and there is an abundance of kindness extended to others.

Gift-giving is a commonality, as is the sharing of recipes, and people going out of their way to help each other in a time of need.

The pace of living in small towns is also a striking contradiction to city life, where crowds of people go about their busy lives without much interaction.

Curious to hear more examples of what small town living is like, Redditor official_biz asked:

"What's the most 'small town' thing you've witnessed?"

These are positive examples of a tight-knit community.

Live Updates

"We have a village Facebook page. Every time the ice cream man drives into the village, the entire page goes ballistic. People send live updates of where the van is and which direction he's heading. The ice cream man has started accepting DMs so he knows which streets to go down."

– PyrrhuraMolinae

Brush With The Law

"I’m from a town of less than 2,000 people. When I worked at the grocery store there people would often drop off stuff for my family members because they didn’t want to drive all the way down to our house. I no longer live there but recently got a call from my daughter. She had been stopped for speeding and handed over her license and insurance which happens to be in my mother’s name. The officer goes 'Hey, you’re Donnie’s granddaughter! I ain’t gonna write you a ticket but I’m telling Donnie when I see him tomorrow cause we’re going fishing.' She replied 'I think I’d rather have the ticket.'”

- Reddit

Roadside Catchup

"The traffic on the 'main street' of my town is so sparse, two drivers going opposite directions can stop and talk to each other for a few minutes without causing any problem."

– anon

When things go wrong, people take notice without incident.

Bank Robbery

"A guy robbed a bank and everyone knew immediately who he was and the teller got mad at him."

– AlexRyang

"A local bank was robbed and one of the tellers told the police to bring her a yearbook from about ten years earlier and she would be able to point the robber out. He had been in the grade before hers in school."

– Strict_Condition_632

Wise Woman

"When I worked at the bank in town there was an older lady that had worked there through 5 mergers."

"She knew everyone, there was a young guy yelling at me one day. She walked out of the back and he immediately quieted. She went off about telling his grandmother that he was treating young women like sh*t. She also said that if he didn’t straighten up not one girl in town would ever marry him she would make sure of it."

– ilurvekittens

Intoxicated Local

"Town drunk was paralyzed and used a motorized wheelchair to get around. I was driving home one Saturday night and said town drunk was passed out in his wheelchair doing circles almost directly in the town square. Had to call his brother who came and picked him up on a rollback truck. Strapped him down and drove off into the cold dark night."

– DoodooExplosion

Grazing Over To The Bar

"In my former small town, there was an older guy who'd lost his license after getting a few DUIs. Every day, he would ride his John Deere lawnmower to the corner bar around 3PM and sit around watching TV and sipping his beer well into the night. Then he'd head the couple miles back home on his mower. He even had a little canvass shell he put on when it rained or got too cold."

– brown_pleated_slacks

It's not surprising how small town people behave differently than those who are from metropolitan areas.

Welcoming Committee

"I lived in a small town. When I moved there, people would ask, 'Whose house did you buy?'"

–MoonieNine

"Move to a small town. 30 years later, you are still the new guy."

– impiousdrifter

"I lived in a small town for most of my childhood but I wasn't "from there" because my grandparents weren't from there."

– raisinghellwithtrees

"Worked with an older guy, relative of the owner of the business, he was 73. I asked him if he was a local, he said 'no his parents moved here when he was two.'"

– realneil

A Busy Day

"Lived in a town of about 5,000: A woman walked into the DMV on a Friday, saw that there were 3 people ahead of her and left to come back another time when they weren't so busy."

– KenmoreToast

Who Let The Dogs Out?

"My dogs got out while i was working. the police called my niece's elementary school (she was a 5th grader) to get her to round them up and take them back home."

– mediocrelpn

"There was a small kennel behind the police station for runaways. They called us saying they had our dog, and moments later our dog showed up home. He broke out of jail."

– Worried_Place_917

While life in a small town sounds appealing, I don't know if I can ever live in one.

I'm so used to life in big cities, I think it would be quite unnerving to adjust in a neighborhood where everyone literally knows your business.

I would be paranoid.

And I'm sure the same could be said of life in the big city.

Would you consider making the switch to life in a different setting?