Just say NO! That's a famous 80's catchphrase about staying off drugs, but it is also one of the truest and most life-affirming mantras that many of us have come to appreciate. Saying no, putting one's well-being first, have become the new narrative for a society that was always over-extending itself. Sometimes you just have to decline an offer or decide that, no, this situation isn't healthy for me. And then the freedom you feel... there is nothing else like it.
Redditor u/SketchyByte wanted everyone to share the times in life they have never felt better by asking... What is the most satisfying "no" that you have ever said?"Just try..."
Go ahead, try it. NO! I love it. I can't tell you how many times I gave a yes out of fear, guilt, or shame. Then later all I had to ruminate on was regret. I don't enjoy the NO at the expense of others, but more often than not, I just have to recognize what a certain moment calls for and embrace it. I think the following people can explain.
Sorry Boo
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I got offered a lot of money to basically screw someone over in a court case. I said no and the satisfaction of telling a seriously spoiled rich kids dad no was the most satisfying day in recent memory.
Humans Suck
I work in an Animal Shelter. We had this very scared Cane Corso mix named Tae, who had the perfect look for the worst kind of dog owner: cropped ears and tail, muscular, beautiful grey coat. Tae needed a special low traffic home without any kids because he was very nervous and uncertain, likely due to his past, and we wrote an entire profile explaining this. A guy waltzes in, slams money on the table, and announces he's taking Tae (without ever meeting him, mind you.)
After finding out he had a three year old at home, I told him that wasn't an ideal situation for Tae and that we wanted to think about what was best for the dog. He gets nasty and says it's fine because Tae is going to be chained up outside. I was so satisfied to tell him we won't be adopting anything to him, as it is stated in our contract our dogs must be indoor pets.
No, he didn't like that.
Mother's House
Honestly, it would have to have been splitting up with my ex. He was at his mother's house at the time, and he said he missed me. I stared at the message for so long he sent another, "this is supposed to be where you say you miss me too." But i didn't miss him. Or walking on eggshells around him, having zero help with our newborn child, having so much trouble. So I said but I don't miss you. Easily the best no I've said, I only wish I had said it sooner.
"No, I'd prefer not."
Religious in-laws. Lots of holiday meals, they always stop before eating to Give a Blessing, taking turns, FIL assigns the leader of the prayer. For whatever reason, they do not single me out, and I certainly do not volunteer. FIL has a tendency to put people on the spot when he wants something done. After a decade, I assume it'll never happen.
Well.
Thanksgiving. About to eat, FIL turns to me "Will you lead the blessing." (note lack of question mark.)
"No, I'd prefer not." It came out of my mouth before I really thought about it, but it was the right answer. FIL looking at me like I just sprouted a new head. I repeat, very politely. "No, I'm sorry, I'd rather not." and that was it, the obligation was passed to one of my BILs.
I mean, I respect their faith, but I don't share it. The only meal blessing I know is the Grace* learned as a catholic kid, (took me a long time to understand the actual words) said at speed, which if I'd used that would have been mocking. And I'm not about to thank a heavenly father I don't believe in. I'll bow my head in silence, but this is not my faith, not my prayers.
My husband managed to stop himself from laughing, to his credit.
*blessesolord, antheezigfs, whicheeraboutoreceev, fromeyebuntytokrice, hourlower, AMEN.
Blocked
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Not exactly a no, but declining my ex-wife's friend request on Facebook felt pretty satisfying.
"Not Today"
See they get it. Are you envious enough yet to try it? Go ahead. NO. I'll wait. It can also be a silent NO. Just today this rude young lad tried to cut me off in the line at Target. Back in the day, I'd let that go. I'd wonder if it was worth the argument? What's the big deal? Then I said... NO. You do not get to treat me this way. So I informed him where the line began, and stretched to, so he could march his happy backside yon. Read on...
Rent Some Guys
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"so i see you have a truck"
"no... i will NOT help you move...."
"well damn."
LOL.
Yuck!
I said 'no' to a crappy job offer. They asked me if I was working already and I said I was unemployed but I wouldn't work for their company anyway.
There's one account that I won't accept projects on because of the way they abuse their vendors. I think my exact words were, "I'd rather eat cat food."
Dodged a Bullet
I got fired because the company panicked during covid and decided to fire me and another guy, they were genuine a-holes that didn't care about their employees. I could go into details but it would take way too long, so you'll just have to trust me on this one.
A few weeks later they call me back and asked me to join as they now realized that they actually needed me, he was almost certain that I would say yes.
I straight up told him "no". He sounded sooo disappointed and shocked.
Now nearly a year later the company is going under, everybody left because they hated the boss, and I can't say I feel sorry for them.
Peace Out
Overworked at an underpaying job in a warehouse. 14 hr days. 9 bucks an hour in a 15 degree industrial freezer. 2 15 minute breaks. They hassle you for taking a crap in between. I felt sick that day and boss man comes up to me with ANOTHER stack of orders after we were already doing the biggest one that day. Says "Hey I need you back in the freezer and i need you to pick up the pace a little bit" I just said "no" and walked the hell out. Hitchhiked home. Sun was shining. Dude that picked me up was playing Radiohead. Twas magical as hell.
Worthless...
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After cheating on me, during our break up conversation, she said, "I wish you would have fought for me instead of giving up so easily.."
I said, "maybe if you were worth it."
Keep Your Job
I applied for a job, got it, was shown around the workplace, they explained how things worked etc. The day before I was to start they called me and said the guy changed his mind and was going to stay. A few weeks later they called me again and said the guy quit and I can now have the job. No.
The Voice
I used to work in an IT support call center. I eventually moved to a new job within the same company, but no longer doing support. Every time someone emailed me because I helped them previously, I really enjoyed telling them that I could no longer help them and they had to call the help desk. I love not having to use my "customer service voice" any more.
Bye Bye Bye
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I had an ex send me a text months after we had a horrible and frustrating break up. It just said "I love you." I did the same thing where I stared at it for a long time. He had tried everything to get me back and I was just so over it, so I replied "I don't care." That finally got him to leave me alone.
Not Worth It
I did this to my boss at my last review. I didn't get a raise and was told I had to do three certain things to be considered for a raise.
Boss: You do these three things and you'll get a raise. Are you interested?
Me: No
Boss: So, you're just happy where you are?
Me: Yep
Boss- That's disappointing.
To clarify he couldn't guarantee a raise amount and he has no real control over how much I make. If I did those three things the company could have said "here's your raise enjoy this quarter". If they even gave me a raise. An unspecified raise isn't worth all the extra work they wanted.
Shush...
A cheating and manipulating ex asked me to connect via FB to 'just talk.' According to his opinion the time that had passed from when I found out he is a back boneless cheater until that day was long enough to be 'friends.' I said NO... And lived happily ever after!
Risk Factor
I was made redundant from my old job before Christmas due to COVID and I'd been wrestling with it for a while as I hated the job for years.
In the redundancy meeting they said I'd need to do a load more work and be limited to 3 days a week and I just said no, I'll take the redundancy. Risky move but I had 2 months notice to work through and I figured I could get a job in time.
After the meeting I saw I has a missed call from a job wanting me to start in 2 months as a day rate contractor and that is now coming to an end. I was offered a new permanent position at a 33% salary bump than the job I was made redundant from. Risky, but worked out.
Fur baby first...
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When I was given an ultimatum in my first relationship:
She said, "Either you give up your cat (my furry buddy), or I won't move in with you."
(She wasn't allergic to cats - she just didn't like them.)
So when asked, "Is your cat going?" I said, "No . . . you are!"
Click
When I finally grew a pair and told my "ex" (if you can even call it that because that was clearly NOT a relationship) to hell off. I stopped giving in and believing any bull that came out of my ex's mouth, sent my final text and BLOCKED. That thing even had the nerve to call me from a landline but I was smart enough to immediately hang up. There was a voicemail but my old phone got stolen, and I never ended up listening to it. Thank God.
Tired but Free
A couple years after I bought my car, the dealership called me in to discuss some sort of deal involving my financing. For two hours, they tried to convince me to trade in my car for a newer model before I realized that I could just ask for my damn keys back and get the hell out of there. At that moment, I felt both exhausted and liberated.
Gotcha...
Went shopping for rings with my then fiancé (been married for 16 years now) and when we walked into the jewelry store my ex girlfriend was at the sales counter. We ended up finding some rings there that we really liked, but they had to order some more because they only had the floor model. When I went to pick them up a week later, my ex wanted to know if I would take her back.
I was polite, but said that I was happy with my new relationship and that we really were getting married. I'll never forget the look on her face as I tried on my ring. Guess she shouldn't have cheated on me when we were together.
Stay Back
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When the guy I had a crush on dumped me and made me feel like crap eventually came back to me asking me to hang out and I said NOPE.
"NOOOO!!!!"
NO is not a curse word, nor is it hate speech. Some may see it that way but as you have read... NO... is an imperative part of life. Take it from my experience, you don't have to be a yes man in order to be a good person, or solidify relationships. People will understand, and if they don't, then they aren't introducing the NO in their lives nearly enough.
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Typically, I would write an intro about my own experiences with the weird kids at school, but I WAS the weird kid in school. Not in a bad way, more like a “I had a John Waters phase” when I was 16 and everyone knew it. So like, cool-weird. At least I hope so.
Schools aren’t always so lucky to have the cool kinds of weird kids though. The spectrum of weird extends even further than that, and can sometimes end up very disasterous.
U/Imaginary_East5786 asked: What was the weirdest thing the weird kid did at school?
Let’s start with the grossest of the gross. Because why not.
Was it worth it?
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He heard that you'd automatically get suspended if you peed your pants at school. He wanted to find out if it was true, peed his pants, got suspended.
> Observation: 'I've heard that by peeing your pants you will be suspended'
> Hypothesis: If I pee my pants I will be suspended
> Experiment: I peed my pants and I got suspended
> Conclusion: If I pee my pants I get suspended
Uhhh what was the intention here?
He got mad that he didn't understand how to play a game at lunchtime so he started hitting and punching the nearest person to him, who happened to be me. When I shoved him away and asked him what the hell was he doing, he whipped his unit.out, charged at me and when I shoved him away from me again he started crying and ran away with his member still sticking out.
Next ones up are the lowkey (or even highkey) disturbing stories. These weird kids can get a little scary.
Boom theret.
At my middle school, someone decided to get a little attention with a good old fashioned bomb threat. Except they thought that a bomb threat meant literally writing "bomb threat" somewhere. Worse yet, they misspelled the f*ck out of it, and wrote "boom theret."
So we had to go on a brief, very awkward lockdown while the police checked the perimeter for booms.
I hope there was no overlap in the columns.
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She wrote a list of all the girls and boys she wanted to kiss and murder and then casually passed it out on the playground.
2 separate lists or just the 1?
Same list 2 columns lol.
Holy crap.
Had the weird kid in high school ask the teacher to use the bathroom. She said no and this dude legit stabbed his hand with a pencil. Went all the way through then asked if he could now...sh*t was wild.
This was Pearl High School in Mississippi. This was the school Luke Woodham shot and killed his girlfriend and her friend at the school. This kid stabbed himself with the pencil about 2 months after that happened. This was late 1997.
Most of the time, however, the weird kids are pretty d*mn funny.
Ok, but this takes a lot of skill.
Had a kid nicknamed "cheeseburger" in the grade ahead of me in high school. He got his nickname because when it was time for his class to go to lunch, he snuck into the roof and crawled his way into the cafeteria, dropped down and proceeded to steal all the cheeseburger put out for lunch. Unfortunately they caught him in the act and sent him to the principal's office.
A year later he was caught stealing a teacher's computer, and in the process of being arrested he bit the officers hand, getting him sent to juvi never to be heard of again.
Every school had the cat girl.
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The weird kid at my highschool tied a string around his pencil case and pulled out around the halls pretending it was a dog. He still lives in my hometown. I think unemployed.
Oh also weird girl in middle school acted like a cat. She would meow and hiss at people, lick the water fountain and rub her body on the teacher's legs. In 8th grade. I have no idea where she ended up.
Mood.
Weird kid in elementary was a self proclaimed alien. Once, while waiting for the bus, she told me "On my planet we eat people like you" and proceeded to bite me. We later became friends in high school and she used to give me massages during lunch break in the quad. Just realized now she was likely tenderizing me.
I was exactly this kind of weird.
He didn't say much, but if asked, he would go to the front of the class and perform Tip-Toe Through the Tulips with all of the emotion and volume of Tiny Tim, holding nothing back.
The last I heard, he became an energy trader, made a ton of money and married well.
I can definitely relate to that last one. In middle school, my English teacher would let me go to the front of the class and perform monologues or songs from Broadway musicals. Weird, but that’s what happens when schools cut funding for the arts and the theatre kids have no outlet.
As long as you’re not hurting anyone, I say let your freak flag fly, man
Those who work behind bars meet people from all walks of life and hear a variety of unusual anecdotes.
I never worked as a bartender, but I know they get an earful from babbling patrons who have had one too many to drink.
Curious to hear about the wild life stories shared at bars, Reddit xXSlimi_Gacha009 asked:
"Bartenders of reddit, what was the weirdest/craziest thing you have overheard while making someone's drink?"
Attention Seekers
Patrons say the darnedest things.
Bobby
"The first restaurant/bar i worked in I was only serving but I frequently was in the section right next to the bar. One day I was busy serving a large group, but the restaurant was mostly empty and a guy behind me at the bar said 'you wanna pet my parrot?' my initial reaction was the same as if a stranger had just come up behind me and touched my shoulders but when I turned around... It really was a guy with a parrot on his shoulder. The parrots name was Bobby and yes both me and the bartender pet him 😂"
– Midiblye
Sales Pitch
"I was tending bar during an extremely busy happy hour. The place was mobbed and super noisy. Suddenly, a guy sitting at the bar stands up and announces 'Ladies and gentlemen of the bar, I represent the Acme meat company and we carry a full line of high quality...'. The entire bar goes silent while he continues to do his sales pitch at full volume. For some reason he decided that this was a great time and place to hustle up some business. My manager sprinted over to him and told him knock it off and that kind of thing wasn't allowed in here. So he sat down and resumed drinking."
Favorite A**hole Bartender
"Regular of mine who I hadn't seen in awhile was sitting at the bar when I came in for a shift change."
"I came in the back way and noticed he had crutches leaning against the bar."
"Recently in the news someone hadn't had their shotgun properly secured in their truck and it went off..."
"So I jokingly say, 'you're that f'king idiot who blew off his leg arent you?'"
"The whole bar gets quiet and everyone is mean mugging me."
"My regular starts laughing..."
"Yeah, it was him. I had no idea. I didn't apologize, because as his favorite a**hole bartender those comments were expected of me."
"Poor guy was only 20 couple and blew his leg off close to the hip. No idea how he survived."
Murder Plot
"I was a bartender for about two weeks (filling in for a relative who owned a bar and went on his honeymoon)."
"I heard a guy talking to a woman about murdering her husband. I called the cops, but these patrons were gone before they showed up. This was before cameras, so I just gave my story and that was it."
"Not long after, my uncle calls me saying the cops are looking for me. They interview me about the couple. Apparently, the guy was a hitman for hire and the woman was trying to get some insurance money. She got busted."
"It was actually an episode of 'Forensic Files' back when that was on TV. I remember watching the episode and they said something like 'the couple was overheard discussing the murder in a bar.' I was kind of upset that they didn't mention me. Lol. I was hoping for, 'The awesome bartender overheard them, but couldn't really tell us much. He also pointed at the male in the photo lineup and asked 'Is this him?' as if he was unsure. What a f"king dope.'"
"Edit 1: I spent half of the day reading the descriptions of every episode that's streaming on Netflix and watching the ones that seemed relevant. I didn't figure it out and I'm sorry, but I just don't know which episode it was. I recorded it on a VHS tape years ago, but don't know where that is either. I'm moving, so if I come across it, I'll edit this and let everyone know which one it was."
"Edit 2: As I recall, the hitman wasn't a professional by any means. I think the episode said he was just a local junkie who'd pretty much do anything for his next fix."
– Myzyri
Extremely Random
The following conversations were undoubtedly head-turners.
Poop-Blocked
"From a woman to her friend, 'I don't know about you but I just can't poop in a pink bathroom.'"
Proud Pecker
"Someone was boasting about his 'Very small penis! VERY TINY! LIKE MICRO!' he proceeds to lower his pants and show it to his friend 🤷♀️"
Couples
Passions are inflamed where alcohol is in the mix.
Ferris Wheel Payment
"A married couple in their fifties arguing how they were going to explain the fact they couldn't pay the remainder of the 3 million euro bill for a Ferris wheel they'd ordered 18 months ago, already put a million deposit on, and who's collection was due at 8am the following morning."
That's Amore
"Man and woman is sitting at the bar. She starts crying and says 'I just want us to have something special'. The guy looked her dead in the eyes and said 'we do have something special, we have sex. We are both married'. 10 minutes later they are making out and she's rubbing him over his pants. I loved slow Wednesdays."
I'm a cheap date.
So whenever I'm halfway through my first – and usually ONLY – glass of cab sav at a bar, I know I'm talking in a stream of consciousness and volunteering embarrassing personal information.
Once, I confided to all the patrons and staff at a bar in Barcelona, France, about my embarrassing college experience. And I apparently gave a wild performance when the DJ played Prince's "Kiss."
I'm still searching this subReddit to see if any of the comments might be referring to me.