I love a good love story. I love an epic love story even more. And epic love stories are more common than we think. Often epicness happens in the details, the small moments and over a short period of time. I firmly believe that when you know... you know. Deep down you can feel it when it's happening. But we've all become so jaded by life and the crashing of so many dysfunctional relationships, we already knew were a disaster, we tend to be apprehensive about falling in love ourselves, especially when deemed "too quickly." But who can define "too quickly?"
Redditor u/1_1_0_0 wanted to hear all about the times that love led and everyone just knew by asking...
Married people of reddit , How long after you started dating, did you realize you were going to marry this person?
I've been in love a handful of times. And each time I fell, I fell fast and hard. And after each fallout I swore... SWORE... that next time, I'd take it slow and have a checklist to go through before an "I Love You." Cut to me falling faster each time that follows. Oh well. My heart is a mess. But, love has worked out for plenty of other people.
The Irritated
Come On Reaction GIFGiphy"I first met my wife when we were dating other people roughly, 11 years ago. She found me annoying. I knew it was meant to be when she confessed this a few years later."
fugly16
Getting Oriented
"Met my wife the first day of orientation week in college. Both of us were in long-term (multi-year) relationships already. Less than 3 hours later, I went back to my dorm room and told my roommate, 'That's the girl I'm going to marry.' Took over a year to start dating, but we've been together ever since (nearly a quarter century later)."
"She's the other half of me I didn't realize was missing until we met. DAMN I love that woman... I'm going to call her now to tell her!"
HellbendingSnototter
It's Easy
"I know this sounds early, but like, a week. I feel exactly the same now as I did about her then. I knew it then and obviously I was right."
BleedingRaindrops
"Same. Husband and I stopped dating on date 3. It was too much effort and we were far too comfortable with each other. You hear about "clicking" but you never think how easy it can be. You find someone that fits perfectly with you."
Shanisasha
A Quick 6...
married single ladies GIFGiphy"We dated for about 6 months before I started thinking about proposing, but we were together for almost a year before I finally popped the question. We were juniors in college and got married before we graduated. We've been married for 40 years."
schnozzberryflop
4 Years!
"My (now) wife and started talking about marriage pretty early on. I don't have a specific timeframe, but I'd say within the first few months. At that point it wasn't super serious and nothing planned out. Just like, 'oh, when we get married I want to have XYZ at the wedding.' or 'when we have kids let's do XYZ.' That kinda thing."
"We knew it was going to be a while before that happened, though. She was in her final year of college when we started dating, and I was only just starting my career. We both had things we wanted to do before marriage."
"Mostly she wanted to live in a place on her own, without roommates or anyone else supporting her, for a year just to prove to herself she was actually able to fully support herself. I wanted us to live together, just the two of us, for a year just to know that we were really able to cohabitate well."
"So I didn't propose until about 4 years after we started dating, but we pretty much knew at the start."
VVillyD
See that? Love is like a venomous snake that strikes silently and without warning. Once the poison is in you, it's over. So all you can do is succumb. Oh, that's a gloomy analogy. Whatever, y'all know what I mean. And so do a long list of lovers with a movie worthy tale to tell. Read on...
Happy New Year!!
"20 years ago we met in December for lunch after being set up by friends. Talked on the phone for a couple of weeks, went out for New Years. We moved in together a couple of weeks later, middle of January. Married on February 24th, 10 weeks after meeting. Somewhere in the first couple of weeks we just kind of decided to get married. Best casual decision I've ever made."
bustedaxles
Bling Discussion
"After dating for like three months he asked me what kind of engagement ring I wanted and proceeded to show me his favorites. It was so sweet and I realized there's no way in hell I could marry another man."
Schnucksworld
with the seasons...
just married love GIFGiphy"We met in June, were in engaged by October, and married by the following July. That was 17 years ago."
rburgundy69
Daddy Knows
"I learned that he can defuse my dad's political rants without my dad catching on to what he's doing. It's very sly. Forget romance, that's a necessary survival skill and I needed him on my team."
"Edit: diffuse vs. defuse..."
"Also it was one of many reasons, but my dad is legendary among my family as the man you don't want to introduce your SO to before they're nailed down. He's a wonderful person and dad but he is kind of a crap-head. My husband gets along with him effortlessly. When you marry someone, you also marry their family. It's important that you're able to maintain peace."
Mannagggia
Smells like Love
"A week or two after we started dating she met my parents and farted in front of them."
SmokedByJesus
I Know You
"I had known this person by acquaintance since 2014. Asked me out in March 2017 - said no for 4 months. In September 2017 dated. In December 2017 he proposed, and in January 2018 I said yes."
"TLDR - 4 months after 1st date, but knew him for a few years before dating."
Jadhar303
Me & My Bestie
"5 months. My now husband planned this amazing road trip for my birthday where we went from Los Angeles —> The Grand Canyon —> Monument Valley —> Las Vegas. We had such an amazing time and he was the first person I spent that much time alone in a car with and didn’t want to kill lol. No fights, no bickering (even when a 4 hour drive from Las Vegas back to Los Angeles took 9 hours due to a massive accident)."
"We just laughed, had great conversations, and enjoyed the same music. I knew then he was the one I was meant to marry. We just meshed too well to not be soulmates; 6.5 years later (2.5 married) we still mesh so well. We’ve had maybe 3 verbal fights total, all of which only lasted a couple hours. Lucky to be married to my best friend. :) "
Smoky-The-Beer
Be Mad
"Probably after about 2 months, We had our first big fight and I remember when she offered to leave and I told her 'I'd rather be mad at you with you here, Rather than you leave.' That is when I realized it was different. 2 Kids a house and beating cancer later and we are still going strong."
Gorcrow
"Engagement Ring"
"I think I knew after two months, but after five months, I opened a separate savings account where I'd deposit an amount off of each paycheque to the account labelled 'Engagement Ring.' We were both still in school and I was working part-time on the weekends, so the deposits were more symbolic than anything, but in the end, they certainly helped out financing a good portion of the ring. That was almost twenty years ago and we'll still together."
BroodingBryanAdams
Immediate
In Love Hearts GIF by SpongeBob SquarePantsGiphy"My wife says she knew on our first date. I'm a bit slower on the uptake. It took me about 6 months."
*ickMorningwood9
3 Year Rule
"I had a 3 year rule. All of my previous relationships ended prior to the 3 year mark. Either I realised they weren’t the one for me or they realised it, either way it always happened before 3 years. With my wife I proposed just after 3 years when I realised I had had no thoughts at all that she wasn’t for me."
Settledforthisone
She was there...
"Before we started dating. She was my best friend for a few years, and I realized it during that time. I just had to wait for her to break up with her boy-friend. Then we dated a couple of years. We've been married 34 years, and counting."
Trid1977
Scared
Biting Nails Reaction GIF by SpongeBob SquarePantsGiphy"5 years; I had a lot of anxiety, undiagnosed depression and OCD. It took a break up and some time apart to realize he was the one I wanted to marry. We've been together for 13 years and I could not be happier."
IsaacNoodles
'Of course she's in those plans.'
"I asked my Dad for advice on if I should propose to my girlfriend or not. We were about 2-3 years in, and I had plans to possibly travel, to leave Pennsylvania where both our families and us live, or get a job overseas. He said do these plans include my girlfriend or not? And that hit me pretty hard because I instantly said, 'Of course she's in those plans.' My Dad told me to marry her. The next day I got the ring."
ClemClementine12
Be Okay...
"Probably about 5 years. I had commitment issues like crazy, and he also had some maturing to do. We broke up for a year, then got back together when I realized that it IS okay to be content in a relationship."
xiaomantoubuns
Listen to your heart, that's not just a great song from the 80s/90s rock band Roxette. (Love them) It's also a mantra we should all embrace more. Just try to embrace it with your brain attached. Pay attention to red flags but don't ignore Cupid's arrow when you feel the sting. Life is too short. But take your time before you share you're bank account information.
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Reddit user FunChemical3182 asked:
"What is the weirdest animal fact you know?"
Like Perry
"Platypus glow blueish green under ultraviolet light."
"They also don’t have nipples, they just exude milk from glands under the skin and the baby’s lap it up."
~ WakingOwl1
"They have electrolocation in their bills that lets them detect their food under water."
~ DrPlatypus1
"And they lay eggs."
"The more I find out about them the more I understand why people first thought they were fake."
~ Reidroshdy
"After seeing all these platypus facts I am convinced these things are aliens that have been abandoned on Earth."
~ SeattleOne206
Kapow!
"Mantis Shrimp have 16 different sets of cones. Rods and cones are in your eyes. Cones see color, rods see light and motion."
"Dogs have 2 sets of cones—green and blue. Humans have 3 sets of cones—green, blue and red."
"Mantis Shrimp are seeing colors we can't comprehend and explains why they're very colorful."
"That’s not even the strangest thing about them."
"They can also punch as fast as a .22 bullet which cause a cavitation bubble which boils the water around them at temperatures of several thousand Kelvins."
~ RigzDigz
GiphyTerrible Twos
"Cats have the mental capacity of a 2-year-old which makes a lot of sense."
~ Alive_Ad823
Cats Dragging GIFGiphyLike Tinder
"When a female sloth wants a mate she'll hang onto a tree branch and just scream."
~ Remarkable_Sink2542
GiphyGood Thing They're So Small
"Dragonflies are the most successful predators on Earth."
"When lions choose prey they have like a 10% chance of catching it."
"African painted dogs—who hunt in packs—have the highest kill rate of any mammal, successfully catching 51% of their prey."
"When a dragonfly locks onto a target, it has a 99.9% success rate!"
~ PurpleInevitable2103
GiphyOn A Swivel
"Owls have really long necks, but it's hard to notice that because their feathers are so fluffy."
~ ergonaut
GiphyWhat About Cousin It?
"Sea otters are the most densely furred animal with 600,000 to 1,000,000 hair follicles per square inch."
"Dogs have about 15,000 per square inch, humans on average are between 800 to 1,290 hairs per square inch."
~ atom1129
Giphy
Sucker Punchers
"Octopus punch other fish for no reason—so, for fun."
~ Samanthalynn8915
"There's a direct correlation between species' intelligence and dickish behavior."
~ TheDesktopNinja
Looks Are Deceiving
"Polar bear fur isn't white—it's translucent (for most frequencies of light). And they have black skin underneath."
"So polar bear fur lets all the light through to their black skin to warm them—except for a few visible frequencies to keep them camouflaged as white."
~ seedanrun
GiphyWho's Going To Attack One‽‽
"Honey badgers can turn their a**holes inside out and use the smell to deter attackers."
"Not sure what exactly has the guts to attack a honey badger, but if they have the courage to do so, the badger sure as hell isn’t gonna make it easy."
~ nonexistantauthor
GiphyBig Momma
"The Blanket Octopus exhibits the highest degree of sexual dimorphism known."
"Females: About 6 feet across."
"Males: About one inch."
~ Fabulous-Pause4154
High Times
"Dolphins will intentionally use puffer fish to get high."
~ altkaldra
"They upset blowfish so they inflate, and therefore emit poison. It gets the dolphins high. Then they pass it around, literally."
~ smack4u
"Not just the dolphins. I recently saw a video about 10 animals that like to get high. Very interesting."
~ s137leo__
"Lemurs do that with giant centipedes/millipedes too."
~ chubbyknuckles420
Fabrizio Frigeni on Unsplash
Better Than Bike Helmets
"Woodpeckers' tongues wrap around their brains to cushion them from the vibrations of slamming their face into trees all day."
~ we_made_yewww
"Their tongues also have barbs to grab bugs out of the holes."
"Their brains have additional cushioning because, you know, they spend their days smashing their face as hard as possible into trees."
~ RhynoD
Detachable Organs
"Argonauts [paper nautili] are small octopuses that are too lazy to have intercourse."
"They detach their penises and toss them into the open sea to mate with female argonauts."
"The detachable 'd*ck' is a tiny tentacle, complete with suckers and sperm, that develops in a cavity under the eye of a male argonaut [paper nautilus]."
"When it's time to mate, the tentacle explodes out of the cavity, instantly killing the male argonaut. The tentacle then swims towards a female argonaut to insert itself."
"Sexy, huh?"
~ Schwarzes__Loch
What's your favorite weird animal fact?
Tough guys put on a facade that indicates to others that they always know what's going on.
But their confidence doesn't always match their intellect, which is probably why they cover their insecurities by walking around and trying to show everyone who's really the boss.
If that's the case, they should keep their mouths shut because not everything that comes out of their mouth needs to be heard.
Yet, it can be amusing to everyone else.
Curious to hear examples of these, Redditor PrototypeShadowBlitz asked:
"Reddit, what is the stupidest thing you've heard from the 'alpha male' community?"
You might find these guys at a bar.
The Dude Must Be Hungry
"Had a run in once with a group of young lads about something in a bar and one of them said we are top of the food chain bro and you will be the prey."
– insertitherenow
"'Whatever, mall ninja" -proper response."
– TheEighthLord
If The Shoe Fits
"That they were an alpha male."
– I_Have_A_Name37654
"The use of 'Alpha Male,' unironically is every indication that you're dealing with a child's understanding of manhood."
– 88Dubs
Brat Pack
"Me and my bros are all alpha males."
– SonOfDadOfSam
"I was skiing one time and rode the lift with a guy that said, 'I don't feel no pain. I live with 5 roommates and none of us feel any pain.' Okay, bud. That's a really interesting coincidence."
– NicPizzaLatte
They sure thrive on making sexist comments.
Contagious Femininity
"A coworker said, 'I don't spend too much time with my girlfriend because I'll become too feminine.'"
– Lazy_Natural6154
"FELLAS IS IT GAY?!"
– aliebabadegrote
Sexist Categorization
"I have been called a beta for saying that my wife makes more money than I do. She works in a more lucrative field and is more educated than I am, so it makes perfect sense that she makes more than I do."
"So I came back, and this post has really blown up. There's just a few things I want to clarify."
"1- I have only ever been called a beta online."
"2- I work full-time in project management. I have a master's degree. I have a 6 figure salary."
"3- My wife has a PhD and works in finance. She also has a 6 figure salary, it's just a higher salary than my own."
"4- I'm sorry to anyone who might feel as though my original post misled them."
– ExaminationDouble240
It's Teamwork
"A real man would be proud of his wife for achieving success, and not fall for that sort of insecure bullsh*t."
"It's not a contest, that's the real joke here. Good on you for seeing the big picture."
– Mrbeardoesthethings
Do these roles about parenting sound familiar?
Childish Things Are Too Girly
"Real men don't take their kids trick or treating is one that I heard recently."
– constructionguy89
"Related. Guys who brag about not changing diapers, not playing 'girly' games, etc. Essentially guys who brag that their only contribution to fatherhood is money and masculine things like fishing or football. Even then some of them brag about not paying a lot of child support to prove they didn't let the system take advantage of them."
"I can't imagine a life so empty my only accomplishment worth bragging about was being a terrible parent."
– Green7000
This Woman's Work
"I was told that taking care of my kids is woman's work. Apparently it's concerning that I try to spend so much of my free time with them. Oddly enough the meatheads at my grappling club think it's sweet I occasionally have my daughters' hair clips on and nails painted."
– MrFunktasticc
People discussed rules in the bedroom.
Never Submissive
"That a man is turned off when their wife/girlfriend seduces them, because if she wants sex and shows it she is a sl*t, also making the man the submissive one…"
– kamalaophelia
Stifling Emotions
"Not the whole community, but was cuddling with a guy once and could tell he was trying not to get emotional over something that was bothering him. He said, quite literally, 'it's not alpha male behaviour.' I told him that I liked that he showed emotions sometimes, and he looked disgusted by the fact that I pointed it out."
– LambLifts
In high school, a classmate who was on the football team said I was a "sissy" for listening to classical music.
The other classmates laughed at me, which was hardly surprising since all of the guys on our unbeatable football team were considered stars on campus.
This kind of mockery was a typical day for me.
I can laugh at their idiotic comments now but back then, I don't know why I ever let them get under my skin.
We've all done things, or in some cases, regularly do things that others might consider weird.
Even so, we often feel no shame or embarrassment and embrace how unusual these habits are, and take our friends teasing or laughing at us for doing so in stride.
Sometimes, however, we might not like to advertise some of our unusual habits or actions and make every effort to keep them a well-guarded secret.
As raised eyebrows are much easier to take than blatant judgment from friends and peers.
Redditor Key_Nectarine_1969 was curious to hear all the weird things people have done which they still keep under lock and key, leading them to ask:
"What’s the weirdest thing you’ve done that you could only tell people anonymously?"
The Devil [Dogs] Is In The Detail...
"All throughout middle school, there was someone who tucked unwrapped Hostess Devil Dogs into the toilet paper dispensers in the bathrooms, so that when you pulled some toilet paper out, the devil dog would fall out into your hand."
"We had to have an assembly about it."
"That person... Was me."- bejeweled_sky
Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time
"Was drunk at an escape room with coworkers."
"It was an extreme one where you are handcuffed the entire time."
"I decided in my drunken state that it would be bada** to dislocated my thumb and slip off the cuffs like the movies."
"It wasn't."
"We got kicked out, my coworkers were weirded out and I had to go to the hospital."
"I quit a few weeks later."
"White collar wasn't for me."- Grotesque-penguin
The Bread Of Heaven
"Stole over 1,000 wafers from church because I really liked the communion wafers & didn’t know where else to get them."
"I felt really blessed & cursed for a long time."- hALLIEcinate
catholic the exorcist GIFGiphyRetracing Steps...
"Once I got off the subway in NYC and I was super early for an appointment."
"So I picked a random guy and just followed him on foot for like 30 minutes, pretending I was like a private detective or something."
"Always kept about a half block behind."
"He turned this way and that, and eventually went into a building I had lived in 9 years earlier."
"It was weird, and so was I."- OKsurewhynotyep
Hygeine Be Damned...
"I found a dead rat in a field when i was younger and kissed it bc I wanted to say goodbye."- qeleia
exercise push up GIFGiphyBad Decisions Have A Way Of Getting Back To You...
"We got super drunk and ate a ton of spicy food in New Orleans."
"Back at the B&B, the food started to come out the back side."
"I was sitting on the toilet sh*tting bricks of fire."
"At that moment, the booze decided to hang a u-turn."
"The trash can was out of reach and I couldn't risk standing up from the toilet for even 5 seconds."
"The closest receptacle was the bathtub."
"I managed to turn in such a way that I could keep shi*ting in the toilet while projectile vomiting into the tub."
"Both ended up clogged, and there was no plunger."
"I had to call the owner to explain that I had destroyed both their toilet and their tub simultaneously."- HoopOnPoop
Things Best Left To Professionals...
"My partner is weirdly prone to cysts."
"I had to drain a 3 inch cyst on her back (thankfully she had a dr's appt the next week), then multiple other little cysts on her legs and chest."
"I never told her to her face but that first giant cyst literally haunted me, the amount of pus and blood I saw....good heavens."- SleepyBiologist
uruguay spot GIF by sargentoPezGiphyAt Least A Lesson Was Learned...
"When I was walking to school one morning, I saw a kid (7-8 yo?) kicking a dog."
"I ran over & kicked the kid and asked him how it felt."
"He ran off and no one saw."
"Still not sorry."- sneezyailurophile
All Creatures Deserve Love
"I was extremely socially isolated as a child and tried to make friends with the coyotes who lived in the woods by our home."
'I caught one in a snare and fed and kept her."
"I wanted a friend."- letthetreeburn
That's What Friends Are For...
"My wife and her best friend pick me up from a frat party black out drunk."
"Then they helped me take a sh*t on the toilet, wiped my a** and then gave me a shower and put me to bed naked."
"Don’t remember any of it."- nc3100
Party Love GIF by Chris CiminoGiphyNot The Right Kind Of Manure...
"One time I went outside at like 2AM and put the garden hose nozzle into my butthole and sprayed some water into it, then farted it out onto the lawn."
"Basically gave myself an enema with a garden hose."
"I did this because I was bored."
"My neighbour saw me and told my dad (lived at home at the time)."- WaspsInMyGoatse
A Little Fantasy Now And Then...
"When I was younger I joined an international dating site that I figured was a scam."
"Put a black square as my picture and gave myself a fake name, and then looked through their users."
"And after about 10 minutes I had like a 100 messages."
"Most of them were messages telling me how handsome I was or how these women fell in love with me at first site."
"Now I knew it was a scam but when ever I felt down or got rejected for a while I would pop back on the site and read a few messages."
'Yeah it’s kinda cringy and probably pathetic but it made me feel better."
"I would just turn off that logical part of my brain that knew it was a scam for awhile and just pretend I was this popular and desirable guy."
"And it honestly got me through the day sometimes."- Demonking3343
dating app GIFGiphyIf anyone says they've never done anything they're ashamed, or at the very least less-than-proud of, in all likelihood, they are lying.
Or, more likely, they understandably want to pretend that it never happened.
Which might be a little easier than harboring a secret.