Sometimes all we need is a hug, a kind word, or just a simple smile. And no matter how much love and support we have from our inner circles it can be easier to find comfort in a stranger. With strangers there is no expectation. They don't know how to help you because they don't know you so all they can do is just be there. On the lighter side, life is filled with moments we all share just as humans. We connect in a dance, in a laugh or a wink to commemorate just living in one particular moment... and it's beautiful.
Redditor u/Pielef wanted everyone to share the moments they've experienced with people they've only just met by asking.... What's the most intimate moment you've had with a complete stranger?
The Eyes.
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When I was about 14, I was at a road-stop restaurant with my family, and from the moment we entered I started meeting the eyes of this girl about my age at another table.
Our eyes just kept meeting while we were eating, and I couldn't really focus on what any of my family was saying. When we left the place, I looked over my shoulder outside, and met her eyes again. Held it for a good 10-15 seconds before my mother called me over to the car.
I still think of her sometimes. BuguOst
I love your dress.
My year 11 inter school dance. I had what I can now say was a panic attack and retreated to the bathroom. My best friend tried to talk me out but I wouldn't leave. I told her to go back out and I would be fine.
A girl from another school came in and saw I was obviously distressed. She didn't ask me what was wrong or if I was okay. She said she loved my dress and asked me about it. She then told me about hers and we started talking about school and what we wanted to do when we graduated. Her friends eventually came in and found her and she said goodbye. I felt so much better that I went out and joined my friends.
I never got her name and don't remember which school she went to now but I am so incredibly grateful to her and I hope she is having a wonderful life. punkynomie
Flying Together.
Sat next to a middle aged lady on an airplane. It was her first time flying and she was freaking out. I held her hand and arm through takeoff, landing, and during the slight turbulence during the flight. Normally I'm not a touchy person, but this felt natural. cheezydan
Um. Okay I guess.
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A woman wearing completely white makeup with black lipstick gently caressed my arm as I passed her on the street. Not sure if I should be freaked out or simply ok with it. LOL Goatqdon
Christmas Together.
I used to live abroad a couple of years ago and when I came back to my "new" country after being home for Christmas I was waiting for the airport bus to go into town.
While I was waiting there a woman my age (~20) comes up and asks me if I know the way to the airport bus and as I did we ended up waiting together there and then sat next to each other on the bus. She was so easy to talk to. The bus was about 50 minutes and we got talking really deep and it felt super natural.
Then we got to the main station in town and we looked each other in the eyes and kissed before wishing each other well and going on our separate ways. I'm thinking of her quite often still, years later and it pains me that I didn't take her number or anything - just her name, Katja.
However I feel that maybe this is what made it so special, 2 strangers in a random country sharing 1 hour by destiny while sharing intimate stories and feeling connected in a way that I have not experienced before or after. Maybe she was my soul mate but in that case I'm sure we will meet again. sqarin1
We can be friends....
I got into a car with a stranger who was asking for directions, so i could show him the way (I know that was dangerous and stupid) Then he offered me coffee, we spent the whole day together, he offered me dinner. I started to think he was into me, but i still don't know. I talked about all of my problems to him and my inferiority complex. He had a degree in psychology so he gave me some useful tips. Afterwards we became kind of friends. It's crazy how a complete stranger can care about you more than your "friends." Still, I was naive for getting in a car with a stranger. Tramelo
Let's dance.
I was fairly intoxicated and had been dancing with some girls and on the way to the bathroom I passed one of them and as I walked by her I put my hand on the side of her face, looked into her eyes and smiled... she seemed to be really into it but right after I realized that wasn't the same girl and I just did that to a total stranger. WesternEuropeanDude
Taxes Together.
Today is the 24th anniversary of forgetting my taxes until late in the afternoon. I ran with my documents downtown (Denver) and found a crowd of equal irresponsible people. We were moving through the IRS building like a pack and the employees expected this. It was mostly closed up with a stack of booklets and a stack of E-Z forms on another floor.
Once the mob and acquired both we sort of just scattered. I found myself with a young woman sharing a pen and doing our taxes together on the hood of her car. We helped each other line by line through our pathetic financial documents. We parted ways and I never talked to her again. DarrenEdwards
Kinko's Connection.
I was living in Houston and working at a FedEx Kinko's (Copy & Print shop) when Hurricane Katrina happened. An older women came in a with photo of her son who was missing that she wanted to post online. She has no idea how to really use a computer and certainly no idea how to scan and upload a photo. We were way backed up in the in-house side of things, so I set her up at a self service computer and did it all myself. Scanned and burned her a copy of the photo. Uploaded online to where she wanted and walked her through everything I did in case she found other places to post the photo. She was immensely grateful. Roughly 2 months later she came in and brought her son because he wanted to thank me for helping his mom find him. We hugged. I cried. Most intimate stranger moment of my life. mizmac85
Braid Away...
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I was in a long line at a 7/11 and and old black lady behind me started braiding my hair and humming. When she was done, I said thank you and left with my purchase. throwitallawayyy2016
Paws Away....
Once, when my dog was just a few months old, we were out for a walk and we passed this guy on the street who was just leaning against a wall. She stopped, and refused to budge. She looked at me, looked up at the guy, then looked back at me and just wagged her tail a little. So I said, "Do you want to say hello?" And she turns to the guy and puts her paws on his knee. Just for the record, my dog doesn't like people - she's really shy and doesn't approach strangers, so I was kind of surprised that she wanted to interact.
The guy bends down and pets her for a minute or two. Then he stands up, and he looks at me and says thank you, and the look on his face was so vulnerable, like he was about to cry. That was over a year ago and I think about that guy once in a while. He was so grateful to just pet a cute puppy for a few minutes, and my dog just seemed to know that he needed it. So, I guess my dog had an intimate moment with a stranger, and I just witnessed it. particularshadeofblu
Farewell....
Former EMT here. Crying with a family who's grandfather got his pulse back after 5 mins of me giving him CPR when he was essentially dead. Unfortunately he didn't survive the brain damage but they were so grateful to me for giving them a chance to say goodbye. Skavis18
A Needed Lift....
I got on a ski lift at one point with just me and a total stranger. For whatever reason we started talking about our respective faiths almost immediately, but in a totally chill kind of fashion without any weirdness or awkwardness. The dude then admitted he was going through a pretty rough patch and doing some soul searching as a result. I offered my consolations and encouraged him to open up if he wanted to.
This was really bizarre for me as I'm usually an introvert. So then this dude, who I had just met as we sat down on a ski lift, opens up and tells me all about it. I won't repeat what he said, as almost all of it is deeply personal, but he really did have it rough. Some of it was his fault, he acknowledged, but most of it was out of his control. He started tearing up at the end and had to remove his ski goggles just to wipe away the tears. As we neared the top he thanked me for listening and gave me a coupon for a free hot chocolate from a restaurant on the slopes.
I wished him the best of luck with what he was going through and told him he seemed like an outstanding guy who had it in him to make it through this. He thanked me again, then we both parted ways. I never saw him again, but I truly hope things got better for him. Willshaper_Asher
Having fun IS winning....
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I had a man pull me aside at an agility dog show (I was a 'leash runner' volunteer) and asked me if I would run his dog, as he had an injured knee, and felt bad that his dog wasn't able to run to its content. His willingness to throw the competition to make sure his dog could have fun, and a newbie could get some experience melted my heart. We were only one point away from qualifying :3 Febe_Fox
Call me Dan....
At a free improv class, a warmup exercise where you had to add on to a chain of sound effects and hand shakes with your partner repeatedly, in rhythm. Required a lot of eye contact, and a surprising amount of vulnerability, because it was rather silly. Also a ton of laughs.
Dancing Dan. If you're out there, I wish I knew your real name. unchi_post_desu
Flying Keys....
I dropped my keys on the way to my car once. I had just begun to retrace my steps when a dude walked by on the sidewalk. He gives me a small "hey" to get my attention and without hesitation sends the keys flying through the air a good 20 feet over to me. Mid flight I say thank you and in one fluid motion catch the keys and sit down into the driver's seat. It was so smooth and effortless. Good on that guy, my hero. kissLarryBirdsbelly
Hugs make a difference....
On a cold winter day, there was a homeless man sitting on the front steps of the church where I was music director.
As I unlocked the door to enter the building for practice, I noticed the man was shivering and looked especially destitute. So I invited him inside and fixed food for him in the parish hall kitchen.
Feeding him nourishing food (and some hot coffee with cookies) made a profound difference. Plus, the church's rummage sale had a heavy winter coat and hat that fit him perfectly.
As he departed, the man gave me a warm smile, followed by a "bear hug" - a moment I'll never forget. Back2Bach
Slumber Party!
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Literally sharing a hotel room with 3 other strangers. When i was in law school and flying back to New Orleans, our flight got diverted to Birmingham for fog. We had to stay overnight so everyone was just like wtf do we do??
I find myself in the hotel lobby with three other student aged people (two guys, 1 other girl) and we decided to bunk together to save money. It wound up being a fun night as we got booze and food and stayed up talking and we all went to sleep innocently enough. The next morning we got on our flight and exchanged info, made plans to go to parties and shit together. I even gave one of the guys a ride home. Never heard from anyone ever again. carlieweasley
Pump Up the Volume!
I'm a dude of mid-20s,and I drive for Uber/Lyft and one really busy night someone got in my car when I had my "Guardians of the Galaxy Soundtrack" Pandora station playing. I can't recommend it highly enough, all sorts of great older music. Anyways, young woman hops in the car, we exchange a brief hi, how are you, and then American Pie comes on. Now I don't really sing along with my passengers, I'm not good at singing at all, and I don't really enjoy singing along with the music.
It just doesn't add much to it for me. But this young woman my age just starts singing. After a verse or two, I decide to join in too. And she starts to harmonize with my off-pitch singing on her own. The song ends like right as I pull up to the hotel, and we exchange minimal pleasantries again, and go on our separate ways. I don't even remember her name or face, but I definitely remember the random jam session that was good enough to join in on. tmos540
Baby on the Way....
In a public bathroom, a very pregnant lady was there with her two young daughters. Neither could reach the sink to was their hands, and mom was too pregnant to be lifting them. I'm a mom, so I offered. I held the girls up (one at a time) while they each washed and dried their hands and then sent them back with mom. bubblegum1286
- People Break Down The Most Intimate Things In A Relationship That Aren't Sexual - George Takei ›
- People Share The Exact Moment They Knew They Needed To End A Romantic Relationship - George Takei ›
For many childhood memories are overrun by living nightmares.
Yes, children are resilient, but that doesn't mean that the things we see as babes don't follow us forever.
The horrors of the world are no stranger to the young.
Redditor -2sweetcaramel- wanted to see who was willing to share about the worst things we've seen as kids, so they asked:
"What’s the creepiest thing you saw as a kid?"
Serious Danger
"Me and my best friend would explore the drainage tunnels under the Vegas area where we grew up. These were miles long and it was always really cool down there so it was a good way to escape the heat of our scorching hot summers. We went into this one that goes under the Fiesta casino and found a camp with a bunch of homeless people."
"Mind you we are like 11 years old lol. And we just kept going like it was nothing. It wasn’t scary then but when I look back at it we could have been in some serious danger. Our parents had no idea we did this or where we were and we had no cellphones. We could have been kidnapped and never have been found."
oofboof2020
Waiting for Food
"I was at a portillos once when I was 12 and I was waiting with my little brother at a booth while my parents got our food. This guy was standing with his tray kind of watching me then after a couple of minutes he started to walk over really fast not breaking eye contact with me."
"He was 2 feet from the table and my dad came out of nowhere and scared the s**t out of him. He looked so surprised and just said he wanted to see if I’d get scared or not. He left his tray full of food near the door and left. My folks reported him but we never went to that location again since we found a better one closer to home."
nowhereboy1964
Captain Hobo to the Rescue
"When I was a pretty young teen, my friends and I were horsing around in San Francisco and started hanging out to smoke with some homeless guys. Another homeless dude came up and began aggressively trying to shake us down for anything (money, smokes, a ride, drugs- all of it) and wouldn’t take no for an answer."
"We got in over our heads and could tell this guy was now riling the other 2 guys up and they were acting like they wanted to jump us. Some grandfather-looking old homeless man appeared out of nowhere and yelled at us to get the f**k out of here- nice kids like us don’t belong down here at this hour!!"
"Captain Hobo saved our lives that night. My parents sincerely thought we were at a mall all day lol."
FartAttack911
Survival
tsunami GIF
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"I was 7 and survived the 2004 tsunami in Thailand. Witnessed the wave rise way above the already massive palm trees (approx. 40ft?) and my family and I watched/heard the wave crash into the ground from a rooftop."
faithfulpoo
These Tsunami stories are just tragic.
On the Sand
Scared The Launch GIF by CTV
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"We were a group of kids who went to swim in a local lake. And there was a dead body on the beach with their hands raised and their legs bent unnaturally that local police just took out of the same lake. I've never put my foot in these waters again."
oyloff
Be Clever
"I was walking to school and I was about 5 or 6 years old and some guy pulled up beside me in his car and asked if I would get in. He also offered me sweets to do so. I said no. The creepy bit was when he calmly said ‘clever boy’ to me, then drove off. I’ve never even told my parents or anyone else about this as it would most likely freak them out."
OstneyPiz
Bad Jokes
"Dad's side of the family pranked me by burying a fake body on our back property and had me dig it up to find valuables. Was only allowed to use a lantern for light. They stuffed old clothes with chicken bones. Sheetrock mud where the head was... Random fake jewelry as the treasures... I was like maybe 10 or 11.. I remember digging up the boot first and started gagging because it became real at that point."
Alegan239
YOU
Who Are You Reaction GIF by MOODMAN
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"Woke up to find my little brother staring at me in the dark, asking, Are you really you?"
PrettyLola2004
Siblings can really be a bunch of creepers.
No one should talk to others in the dark though.
Not all pet owners have the same relationship with their pets.
While anyone who decides to become a pet owner, or pet parent as some say, love their pets equally, some never ever let them leave their side.
Taking their pet with them to work, running errands, even on vacations.
Many pet parents even allow their pets to share their bed with them when going to sleep.
For others though, this is where a line is finally drawn.
Redditor Piggythelavasurfer was curious to hear whether pet owners allowed their pets to share their bed with them, as well as the reasons why they do/don't, leading them to ask:
"Do you let your pet sleep in your bed? Why/why not?"
The Tiny Issue Of Water...
"Absolutely not."
"I have fish."- Senior-Meal3649
Everyone Gets Lonely Eventually...
"I adopted an eleven year old cat the day before Halloween."
"She has mostly lived in my closet since I got her, and she hasn’t been too interested in coming out."
"Last night, she came out of my closet and jumped up on my bed, and crawled under my covers and curled up by my feet to sleep."
"I was so happy!"- YellowBeastJeep
The Comforting Reminder That You're Not Alone...
"I recently lost my Greyhound but I used to let him sleep on my bed with me."
"The company was nice and he was no trouble to have on my bed."- HoodedMenace3
Hungry Cookie GIF by De Graafschap Dierenartsen
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What Do You Mean Allow?
"I have no choice."
"She is a cat, cats do whatever they want."- Small_cat1412
"He lets me sleep in my bed."- Poorly-Drawn-Beagle
Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way
"I carry my old boy upstairs to bed every night."- worst_in_show
Hug GIF by The BarkPost
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Who Needs An Alarm Clock?
"I let my two cats sleep with me."
"They're so full of love and just want cuddles all the time."
"And so do I."
"We've all developed a lil routine."
"Get to bed, oldest sleeps on my feet to keep them warm, youngest lies in my arm while I lie on my side (she the little spoon), then when I snooze my alarm for work in the morning the youngest paws at my face and meeps loudly to wake me up."- GhostofaFlea_
Whose Bed Is It Anyway?
"Yes."
"They're also kind enough to let me squeeze into whatever space they've left for me."
"Although I do get a few dirty looks off them."- Therealkaylor
"I found this tiny kitten screaming her head off under a car."
"Would not come out."
"Got some food and some water in dishes."
"I stood by the tire so she couldn't see my feet."
"She got curious about the food and water and started gobbling it down."
"I thought she would bolt when I squatted down."
"She was too busy eating."
"I grabbed her by the nape of the neck and all four legs went straight out and she tried to scratch me to death."
"I got her in the door and tossed her toward the couch."
"She ricocheted off the couch as if she was a ping pong off a table and I lost sight of her."
"I put out food and water and a sandbox and did not see that kitten for three days."
"On the third day, I came home and she was on my bed pillow."
"I thought she would bolt when I came near, but she didn't."
"I wanted to sleep so I tried to scoot her little butt off my pillow."
"She would not go."
"I put my head down to sleep and that is the way it was from then on."
"She ran the roost."- Logical_Cherry_7588
sleepy kitten GIF
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Sleeping Is A Prerequisite...
"No, he's a cat and he cannot keep still during the night."
"He walks across the headboard, opens the closet doors, jumps into the windows and rustles the blinds, etc."
"If he would sleep he could stay, but alas, he's a ramblin' man."- Spong_Durnflungle
Saying No Just Isn't An Option...
"'Let'."
"Lol."
"It's a cat's world and I'm happy to be on her good side."- milaren
Felines Only!
"The cat does, the dog doesn't and the horse certainly does not either."- Xcrowzz
Angry Tom And Jerry GIF by Boomerang Official
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Is That My Hair On That Pillow?
"My dog is perfect."
"She comes up, cuddles til we start to fall asleep, then gets down to sleep on her bed so she doesn't get too hot."
"Jumps back up in the early morning for wake up cuddles."
"The hair everywhere is the only downside but she is so cozy, what can you do."- HoodieWinchester
It is easy to understand how some people are able to fall asleep more easily knowing their friend and protector is there, in bed, with them.
Though we can't blame others who don't want to run the risk of being scratched or bitten in the middle of the night either...