People Break Down The Best Instances Of Foreshadowing They've Ever Seen In Real Life
I've occasionally had dreams that seemed to signal something would happen in the future. Now, I'm not at all calling myself psychic. (I think that's silly.) But consider: When was the last time you had a certain feeling only to be proven right? We've all been there.
After Redditor blueechohawk asked the online community, "What is some foreshadowing you saw in real life?" people shared their stories.
"A couple hours later..."
At work, we have some private Facebook groups for internal communications. Me and a co-worker show up for the early shift, we sit down to get to work, and find we've been locked out of the Facebook groups.
"This is not good," I say. "Something big's coming down, and they don't want us talking to each other, spilling the beans."
"You're just being paranoid," said my co-worker. "It's probably just a computer glitch."
A couple hours later, the higher-ups started handing out the layoff notices.
"A lot of those jobs..."
I got kicked out of a supervisor meeting since I was merely a permanent-contractor-supervisor. I immediately called my boss and said "something big is happening."
They laid off half their employees. It's known as "black Monday." A lot of those jobs were eliminated and consolidated, so a lot of really good paying, non college jobs simply ceased to exist because f*ck young people, I guess. If boomers can't have them, nobody can.
"Since Covid..."
At our office, you can reserve meeting rooms through Outlook.
You can also see who has meeting rooms reserved, and their attendees.
When I see upper management having vague meetings with titles like, "Continuing our Talk" or "chat," I know that layoffs/firings are coming.
Since Covid, I've correctly warned everyone of two rounds of layoffs, one forced retirement, and one upper manager's pending retirement. I've earned the nickname 'The Prophet.'
"My wife and I..."
My wife and I went to one of those New Year's Eve parties at an Embassy Suites. Embassy Suites have a layout of four or five floors of rooms along the outside of the building and a giant concourse open area in the middle. They had a balloon drop strung up across the open area. The previous times we had been there, the balloon drop went off without a hitch at midnight.
This year, 2020, the balloons refused to drop, other than a minor trickle where the mesh was able to open. It was set up wrong or something. Eventually, people had to go up to the 4th floor railings that the mesh balloon holder was strung across and shake it from each side to get all of the balloons out of the one small opening. It took ten minutes. Ten sad, sad minutes.
As this was happening, I said to my wife, "Nope. That's it. Let's just cancel 2020. This is not a good sign."
Additional punchline: Our divorce hearing is scheduled for later this month.
"Two months into college..."
A classmate in high school told me the name of the college she was going to. I said the first thing that popped into my head which for some reason was "Are you ready to be a Wolf?" She laughed and told me that was really random and that their mascot was a Knight or something.
Two months into college she texted me and told me that the school was changing their mascot to a wolf.
"I figured he would win..."
When Trump got elected in 2016. I figured he would win but not because I'm into politics or even cared to be honest. I drove cross country to visit family and all's I saw were Trump signs everywhere and very few for Clinton. It was so many I pointed it out to my wife. I said if this is a sign of his support I think he's going to win. Then he did. Sometimes it's better to be wrong.
"When I was six years old..."
When I was 6 years old, we lived in an apartment building that had a tight knit community. I befriended a lot of the elderly residents because I was curious and they were lonely.
There was an old war veteran (I live in finland and we haven't had a war since the 40's so veterans are rare and very old) named Bruno whom I also befriended. He got around with a walker and we often talked in the porch swing in the yard.
One night I had a dream: I was in the staircase in our apartment building, and there was Bruno with his walker. He greeted me and told me he was going. Then we both fell down the shaft of the staircase and I had a really distinct feeling of "one of us is going to get badly hurt". It was a feeling unlike I had ever had in a dream.
The next morning mom was looking a bit pale so I asked what was wrong and she took me to the staircase to look out the window. The flag was in half mast. I asked her if bruno had died. She, freaked out by how I knew this, affirmed my suspicion.
"She finished the sentence..."
My father's sister had come for a visit to our place. She was going back by train. My mother was unwell and I was really young so my father decided that he'd go aline to drop my aunt at the station. Nope
My mum put her foot down that she was going. father tried to dissuade her, but to no avail. He finally gave in.
While coming back from the station, my mum told my father that she'd dreamt the previous night that we had met with an accident while coming back from the station. So she'd been desperate to come or she'd be uneasy the entire time.
She finished the sentence and a truck hit our vehicle. Both my parents were seriously injured but I was safe.
"One time..."
One time I was taking a shower and I happened to look over at the toilet paper and noticed the roll had no toilet paper. I thought to myself "that's unfortunate," but didn't give it another thought. A few minutes later, I got the urge to take a sh!t, climbed out of the shower, dried myself off, and did what needed to be done. Then I realized what I had gotten myself into.
"He's pulled through..."
In February, I randomly started crying because I was suddenly worried about my dad, who had told me he had a mild flu. I even told my boyfriend I was worried he would die - I'm not usually stressed out by medical stuff, and my dad was in excellent shape for his age.
My sister called the next day and we were in the ER with him within a half hour. He had a massive stroke.
He's pulled through, with some complications but he's still mostly here. I take my intuition more seriously now.
"Probably when..."
Probably when the Supreme Court overturned voting protections because "voter suppression against minorities doesn't happen anymore" and then states immediately took action to suppress the voting rights of minorities.
"I woke up..."
When I was early into university I kept a dream journal and would write down my dreams as soon as I woke up to retain as much detail as I possibly could.
I woke up one January morning and wrote down the details of the dream before. In my dream, it was one of those blisteringly cold winter days where the sun is behind a thick gray haze. I was walking along a very rocky shoreline which was familiar in feeling but I couldn't place it.
In the distance, I saw a casket sitting where the broad rocks of the shore flattened out. I approached it and lifted up the lid and looked in. There was an old man inside and he was dead with his skin discoloured. He looked familiar but for some reason I couldn't recognize him exactly in the dream.
After writing this down, I get dressed and leave for school because I had a chemistry lab to attend at 8:30 in the morning. I get into my lab and as soon as I am seated my phone rings. It's a friend from far away:
"Are you sitting down? I have to tell you something."
He explains that an elderly man we both knew had gone missing the evening before and that a search had been going on all night. That morning they found his body wedges between some rocks along the cliffs about a half-mile away from the enormous mansion he had lived in for half a century. I was in shock and had to go home for the remainder of the day and also the next.
The official story is that he went for a walk unattended and slipped and fell off of the pathway along the shore. I have reason to suspect he was pushed.
After university I actually went to live at that mansion and help out his widow, who was a great friend of mine. There were many strange experiences there which I have written about before.
"Being sleepy and dumb..."
Several years back I was listening to music and my left ear phone broke. Being sleepy and dumb my immediate thought was that I had become deaf in my left ear. A few months later I crashed my bike and dislocated my middle ear and I became partially deaf in my left ear.
"Our laws kicked in..."
Boss was giving a presentation. Email notification popped up. "Termination of employee X". It was a second, boss did not see it. Employee X was there. Employee X was under a lot of stress a!ready.
He left. Called in sick.
Our laws kicked in and after TWO YEARS of paid sick leave they paid him to leave.
"Back in November..."
Back in November or December when the US had a very very low number of documented covid cases, I had texted my group chat that covid was in our state. One of them said, very matter of factly, "I'm not worried about Covid at all."
In the back of my head I was thinking...hmm... that statement's probably gonna bite him in the @ss
I think my peers tend to think I obsess over things that don't matter or worry too much and kind of brush it off. This is one of those situations where I really didn't want to say I told you so, but...
"A guy I was working with..."
A guy I was working with used to work for the Minneapolis police force. He was talking about how a lot of older cops don't get off of street work and still use procedures they used when they first started. He said the new guys knew about them but were to intimidated by the the older guys and let them do them.
2 weeks later George Floyd's death happens.
"I knew Trump won..."
I knew Trump won the election when the news casters suddenly started frantically trying to find some non openly racist trump supporters 2 hours or so before the announcement.
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As much as we always hop for our dating efforts to be worth it and for every relationship to work out, we all know that some relationships are not destined to work out.
But sometimes relationships end for totally valid reasons, and sometimes the reasons are painful, if not devastating.
Redditor overIorded asked:
"What went wrong with your last partner?"
History Repeating Itself
"He cheated on me. And I was glad because that was finally reason enough to allow myself to leave."
"Now I know somebody who's in the same situation. They're trapped. And she's such a gentle and fun person who's afraid to leave him because 'well, it's always been like this, I'm used to it,' and 'I deserve it.'"
"She wants to leave him, she knows she should leave him, but it's so hard to do it, and I know that feeling."
"I'm thinking I should give her my phone number like when the day comes you've had enough, I'll gladly come to help you move out from that s**thole."
- NmlsFool
Mental Health Struggles
"I'm lost in my own trauma and mental illness and he deserves better than anything I have to offer right now."
- Last-Celery7146
"I’ve been on the receiving end of this, and mildly said, it absolutely ruined me. Her trauma and mental problems were BAD, but I still wanted to be with them. So if you ask me, as long as they can give you the space and support you need, and want to be with you, let them make the decision."
- emilersen
"It's also fair and mature to care very much about someone but realize that you only have the emotional bandwidth to take care of yourself right now."
"I'm sure it was very hard for both of you to come to terms with that decision. I don't think it's that he deserves better, I think it's that your attention needs to be on guiding yourself through this thicket of trauma and mental illness before you can be someone else's partner. You can love each other very much but also acknowledge that you don't have the tools to spare for a relationship right now."
"I'm proud of you for focusing on your own mental health and someday, when you have more emotional stability and energy, I hope you find a wonderful partner."
- SpoonAtKnifeFight
Relationship Styles
"We disagreed on how many women he was allowed to date. I’m very strong on monogamy and have no interest in someone (in a supposedly committed relationship) that isn’t."
- Altrano
At Least There's That
"Her psychotic brother tried to kill me. Thankfully he has a Stormtrooper's aim..."
- Active-Plate7939
"Hate the attempted murder, love the 'Star Wars' reference."
- letmetellyousom
Childfree Living
"He wanted a big family, like, six kids, all-natural. Obviously, he wouldn't be birthing them. This was very important to him while I was pretty ambivalent about kids, and the further into my adulthood I've gotten, the more I've realized I just don't want to be pregnant."
"I broke it off so we could both get the lives we wanted. He was also quite a bit more conservative than me, and at the time closeted pansexual person, and some stuff he believed just didn't line up with what I believed. It hurt, but it was amicable."
"Now he has a wife and kids like he wanted, and I am happily partnered and childfree. It worked out for the best."
- Free-Government5162
Family Ties
"She hated that I had a healthy relationship with my family and was trying to find ways to sabotage it."
- Cobra-Serpentress
"Similar aspect to mine, she hated my sister and mother because she had a bad relationship with her sister and mother. She would get mad at me whenever I brought my family up."
- letmetellyousom
Quality Time
"My last boyfriend dumped me because I got mad that he was coming to Dallas after I hadn't seen him for two months, but didn't want to see me."
"He was going to meet up with some friends of his he hadn't seen in a few months. I told him that was fine with me, but I felt he should make time to see me too since we hadn't seen each other in two months and we were supposed to be a couple."
"He responded to my anger by ghosting me. That was two years ago."
- dallasmysterylover
Distracted with a Punch
"A girl contacted me about him talking to her. I asked him what was going on, and he sucker-punched me in the face."
- Brilliant-Victory128
Projecting Insecurities
"He cheated on me for all six years we were together and then accused me of cheating on him, even though I wasn't allowed to leave the house."
"I'm also pretty sure he slept with my sister-in-law when my brother and I went to pick up dinner."
- Affectionate_Egg1252
Children Come First
"He was and still is no father to his kids, has anger issues, and probably has other mental health issues. I tried for years to help him and help the relationship, but he wasn't having it. After seeing how my oldest suffered under him, I had to leave."
- rintan13
Poor Communication
"I communicated how I felt about many things in the relationship. He never communicated about anything."
- aj_oof0323
"Oh look, it's the last 14 years of my life..."
- empathetic111
"I'm guilty of this, and boy, do I regret not being able to open up about my feelings. It cost me my marriage. But now I'm trying to be more open and share my thoughts and feelings. Just wished I could've done this earlier than later."
Deserving Better
"I started drinking again and became a miserable a**hole due to my own depression and my s**tty job. As such, she didn't get the attention she deserved, and had to put up with my s**tty mood all the time... so she left. I don't blame her."
"So, it was me. I don't know if I trust myself with a relationship again, but aside from the shame of knowing I hurt someone who I loved, and loved me back, but I was too self-absorbed and selfish, I am trying to be a better human to everyone."
"And to my ex: You'll find someone again... someone better."
- cracksintheegg
Big Moves
"He wanted to move to Alaska to be with some girl he was 'friends' with before me."
- dont_be_trash
Alzheimer's Disease
"My ex's early-onset Alzheimers (at the age of 50) and the resulting violence, paranoia, and irrational thinking. I tried to honor my vows, but he was so far out there, I feared for my life."
- No_Transportation258
Different Definitions of Marriage
"She cheated on me after five years total together, the last one of which was while we were engaged. She cheated on me for months, all while I was planning the wedding, working part-time, and going to graduate school so I can support us comfortably in the future."
"I planned on giving her everything I could and sharing the rest of my life with her, and apparently she didn’t care."
- Mountaingoat1001
This conversation just goes to show that relationships can end for all kinds of reasons. Even in relationships where there is still a lot of love and committment, the relationship can still end, just like how the relationship can end suddenly because of a surprising and devastating realization.
We all had our aspirations about becoming a certain type of person or accomplishing different goals when looking towards the future.
But the goals we have for ourselves can drastically change once we're adults, and that's partly due to the influence of different life experiences.
Sometimes, despite our best intentions and respective strategies to achieve something by a certain age, we can never imagine experiencing different outcomes.
Curious to hear from strangers online who never saw themselves in their current positions in life, Redditor graces-taylor12 asked:
"What about becoming an adult caught you completely off guard?"
The following Redditors were not ready to process the inevitable when it came to their parents.
A Role Reversal
"Watching your parents becoming old and frail."
– Mrbusybaconandeggs
"Dealing with this yesterday and it is an eye-opener. Its hard seeing someone you’ve known as a pillar of strength for 30+ years in a position of such weakness, and knowing that he might improve but generally the decline is coming."
– Rook1872
Age-Defying
"I've had a weird atypical experience. My dad was pretty old when I was born and always had a bad knee he could never afford to get fixed. He could barely walk and has never been able to run since I could remember. It got so bad that he couldn't even walk up or down the stairs in our house."
"Well he eventually got a knee replacement and he's now more agile at 73 than he was at 53. It's weird to see."
– Downtown_Skill
Sad Epiphany
"I'll never forget when I first realized how frail they actually were. I went over to their house to help out with some chores, and they couldn't even clean out any of the pens by themselves. They ended up selling most of their animals that year because they couldn't look after them."
– thecanadiancowboy
Life Can Be Cruel
"It’s slowly beginning with my parents, small hints here and there, they’re in their mid 50s.The big freak out for me has been watching my grandparents slowly declining over the last 3ish years. One set of grandparents have been gone since I was a kid, so these two are all I’ve got now. My Pap’s arthritis and sciatica is to the point now where it’s a process for him just to stand up. 2020 I saved him from a fall, if I wasn’t there to catch him, he would’ve easily been in the hospital for quite a while. That was the first 'Oh sh*t, he’s not immortal' moment."
– NoinePiecesOfVinyl
These Redditors discovered older doesn't always mean wiser.
Wake-Up Call
"I can do whatever the f'k I want. But I don't really want to do anything..."
– IcarusWax
"Yup, the idea of doing whatever you want as an adult was the biggest scam cartoons sold us."
"Yeah, you can do anything you want but you're gonna need money. So you get a job, there goes most of your day to your job."
"So now you have money but that'll go to bills first and by the time you can do what you want you don't have the energy or funds. Then the loop continues.."
– JimmyJackJericho
Fake It Til You Make It
"How clueless other adults are. I really thought adults had their sh*t in order while in reality most people are winging it."
–= xepci0
"Maturity is a skill. Some people learn it quickly. Others never do."
"Children are limited by their youth. Their brains aren't fully developed. But adults are not guaranteed to get more mature without working for it."
"Some people never grow up. They just get old."
– snapwillow
Being Independent
"I'm surprised by the amount of people who genuinely couldn't live by themselves if they had to. They somehow never learned basic life skills like simple cooking or cleaning and always had someone else to do it for them."
– CliffExcellent123
People became more aware of time.
Not Enough Me Time
"How little free time you have. You have to work, you have to prepare for work, drive to work, drive home from work. You also have to do household chores. You have to take care of kids if you have some. When do I get to enjoy my hobbies?"
– lllSnowmanlll
Point Of Exhaustion
"Most of the time I'm so tired from the day, I just don't have the mental capacity to do anything but go right to bed and watch tv ;_;"
– WitherWithout
Never Going Back
"Transitioning from college student + part time worker to full time worker I gained a bunch of time back. I was shocked that I could just decide to do laundry tomorrow if I didn't feel like it. Every evening I had this huge chunk of time that was just open."
"But then, moving from an apartment to a house, now there's a bunch more chores to do. Then introducing kids, now there's all that. But still, I wouldn't go back to the hectic college life."
– civilwarcorpses
Marking Time
"How it just goes on endlessly."
"When you're a kid, there's a summer break every year, and a new school to go to in a couple of years. Whatever part of your life you are in is clearly delimited and there is something new to look forward to after it."
"Once you're an adult, it's just 5 days of work and 2 days of weekend over and over and over until you die."
– Suitable_Mistake2208
After having a decent, long run in the entertainment business as a dancer, I've long held the belief I was invincible.
I was physically stronger, more agile, and foolish enough to think I could perpetually live in such a state.
All of a sudden, reality smacked me in the face one morning when I woke up and heard and felt various parts of my body crackle and pop like when milk hits a bowl of Rice Krispies.
My tired body had the audacity to inform me:
"Not today and from this day forward."
We're currently not on speaking terms.
Not much good can come from dwelling on the past.
Even so, no matter how hard we try to avoid doing so, we can't help but look back on things we've done in our lives which we regret.
In some cases, it's nothing which had any sort of lasting effect, like wishing we thought more carefully about where we had a birthday or spending more than we could afford on an outfit that didn't end up paying off.
In sadder cases though, we often wonder what our lives might have been like if he had made a different, and smarter decision.
If we didn't say certain things to certain people, not spoken up when someone needed us to or rushed too hastily into a life we weren't ready for.
"What is one thing you regret doing in life?"
Giving People Attention Who Didn't Deserve It
"Wasting time worrying about people that never spared me a single thought."- Eborys
Getting In With The Wrong Crowd
"I regret making friends with people who I knew were bad for me just because it was easier than becoming friends with good people."
"Now I don't have many solid friends."- misswallflowerr
Staying In, When They Should Have Gotten Out
"Not ending bad/unhealthy/unfulfilling relationships sooner."- Superseriouslyguys
"Hanging on to a relationship for too long."
"I should have up and disappeared the first time he was disrespectful."- Mirrorflute88
Not Taking Enough Risks
"Not putting myself out there enough."
"I probably missed out on a lot of opportunities because I'm so self-conscious."
"Working on this though!"- Fife_Flyer
"Not following my dreams and ended up sitting behind a desk for 30 years."
"Of course, I'm currently on Reddit sitting behind my desk."
"So, there's that."- CatOnTheHill
"Overthinking my way out of potentially rewarding choices."- mmmmike1590
Rushing Into Things
"Going to college before I had the slightest idea what I wanted to do with my life."- Mysterious_Shake2894
Taking Things For Granted
"Not spending more time with my mom."
"I visited her 2-3 times a week but still, there were other times she'd call and I'd ignore the call or tell her I didn't have time to talk."
"Would give anything to go back and take every one of those calls."- Fruitjustlistens
Putting Their Health At Risk
"Most of 2019–addiction bottom."
"Sober now for 432 days and counting."- CommunicationTop5231
"Smoking."
"20 years spent on expensive, self-fed poison."
"Biggest regret of my life, by far."- Itsprobablysarcasm
Undervaluing Self-Worth
"Mentally exhausting myself at work for companies that turned out to not give a sh*t about me or value my work."- fpuni107
"Being too nice to tell undeserving people to f*ck off when I should've been putting myself first."
"Lessons learned."- MrsHppy
Not Having Enough Fun
"So, this is gonna sound kinda dumb, but I kinda wish I had acted out a bit more."
"Taken more risks, gotten in trouble more, explored and pushed my boundaries."
"I was pretty sheltered growing up and really wanted to be this good person."
"It created a lot of conflicting feelings for me."
"It also contributed to me avoiding doing some stuff cause I thought it'd be bad for me."
"Now that I'm older and worked through some of those issues, I feel like I missed out on a lot of stuff other people got in their teens and 20s."
"I'm now at a point where I'm exploring that, but most people my age have already gone through it."
"I just feel like I'm trying to 'catch up' with everybody."- animewhitewolf
It's only human to look back on things we regret, or wish we had done differently.
But living in the past will only keep us in the past.
The only way to move forward and make progress is to accept the present for what it is: a present.
Serving in the military is not for the faint of heart.
There are so many dangerous aspects to the job.
When people discuss it, we think about war and the sacrifice people make with their lives.
But there is a ton of scandal involved with the military.
Over the years, so much information has leaked about bad behavior and just everyday nonsense.
Just because a person becomes a soldier doesn't mean they're perfect.
Redditor AdRealistic03 wanted to discuss the shocking things we've all learned about our armed forces, so they asked:
"What are some NSFW secrets about the military?"
The military is littered with secrets, and I love secrets. Tell me more...
Hey Girl
Fight Dance GIF by tv2norgeGiphy"Been in for a long while now, the most apt descriptor I've heard:"
"'Gayest bunch of straight dudes you'll ever meet.'"
Tak_Jaehon
Baby Guards
"Our Air Force’s most critical asset, nuclear weapons, are primarily guarded by a bunch of really bored teenagers."
it_helper
"Navy is the same. The guy that Naruto runs to the galley is the same one that stands watch over the nuclear reactor."
satanyourdarklord
"Lowest ranks pull guard duties more often."
"Who's the lowest rank? That baby faced 18 year old who just joined up."
"Guard duties are up there as one of the most bone taskings going."
Daewoo40
The Side Hustle
"Sometimes the guy that administers the drug test is the same one that you get the drugs from."
Lazy-Plum-19
"I was our unit's drug test guy. I smoked weed every day because I obviously would not drug test myself. I was also really good at it so they wouldn't give the job to someone else. I could get our tests done and completed without mistakes in like 1/5 of the time of my predecessor. Didn't sell drugs, but I've given plenty away."
Changnesia_survivor
Oh My
"Swingers exist on every single base in the world, in Sigonella, they would use different boxes of detergent in the windows to show what they were into and what age range they were looking for. Patrolling the housing area became much more interesting when you see who lives in the houses and what they’re into."
catfartzz
Multi-Purpose
Hungry Labor Day GIF by BounceGiphy"The food boxes that come in literally say 'For prison and military use only.'"
BlackLotus8888
"My husband was watching a documentary with people in prison and was like hey we have the same blankets on the ship."
PricklyPix
No matter who eats it, it's been said nobody thinks any of that food tastes good.
How many?
Oh My Reaction GIF by Saturday Night LiveGiphy"I was selected 6 times in a row to be a urinalysis checker. Have seen over 2000 penises involuntarily."
Jarhead-Coffee
Bad Intentions
"The number of people who get sick and tired of being in the service who will go out and do some drug or another to get kicked out. During our Iraq/Afghanistan years, you wouldn't believe how many people would purposely pee hot or, females would intentionally get pregnant to get out of going."
Blackhawk-388
Not Sexy
"A friend of mine in the special forces told me since they are out in the field a lot, they get plenty of ticks. And while you can inspect yourself fairly well, you can’t inspect everything, so they pair up and spread their cheeks, and your mate has to stare into your anus to check you for ticks in there. Not very glamorous."
Litenpes
Health Issues
Okaay What GIF by ABC NetworkGiphy"Looooooottttts of chlamydia."
Triatomine
"My unit in Okinawa had the highest STD rate for the island. I was so glad I wasn't a part of any of that."
FightingNymph
Trashed
"Our oceans are loaded with garbage. LOADED."
"I would watch the long trail of garbage follow my ship, in the wake, as crew dumped the s**t off the fantail. Every single day. Miles and miles of trash. And this was just one ship. This was just one nation. Our oceans are full of garbage that will take centuries to erode. Our waters are littered with sh*t that fish are eating and dying on."
eyehate
Sounds like there is A LOT of fraternization in our Armed services.
Be careful out there.