Be ahead of the curve.
That is a life motto.
Be like Madonna.... she has always been ahead of the curve.
So often many of us are onto what will be the next thing long before the people.
And the people will of course judge us.
But when we know, we know the cool, trust, you know it.
Look at all the vintage revivals.
The new generations will always judge.
Just be cool.
Redditor u/Toxic-Waffles wanted to know how they are psychic in the cool arena.
People of Reddit, what did you get to 'before it was cool?'"
The Big D!
Giphy"I got to have a bag of 50 empty Doritos locos tacos shells a month before they released because I knew someone who was up in the chain."
J4c3l33t
"Alright honestly THIS is some legit stuff. My brother and I were just wondering when they would start selling them in grocery stores."
persephone_cap
The Web.
"The internet. '93"
raarts
"Email 1978"
"Emailing FORTRAN homework to our professor."
"My father worked for a defense contractor. I remember him bringing home an "ASCII art" picture of Snoopy in the early 70s."
TVLL
Infinity....
"I got an infinity tattoo. This was before smart phones and during the early days of Google. I took a piece of paper and made a moebius strip to help explain what infinity was to the tattoo artist."
"Went to to library and tried to find an image of it online, paid a quarter to print it, and the artist ended up doing a really good job with very little knowledge of the symbol. I still love it, but am bummed at how cliche it has become."
lil_suprises
Lil Dicky.
"I discovered Lil Dicky early on when he released his first video... early enough I even got a DM reply from him after I reached out to tell him how much I enjoyed his work."
thevhspodcast420
"This happened with me but with Hopsin. I was playing MW2 and some random guy was playing some of his old stuff. We were pubstomping together and he's like yo you gotta listen to him he's gonna get huge."
Icy9kills
"(Was on a flight while reading GoT and happened to be sitting in the first coach seat on the aisle. Stephen King was on the flight, flying coach no less, and when he walked past me he checked out what I was reading. I was super psyched it was a good book!)"
Theseus44
Avril Forever.
"When I was 19 and going clubbing regularly, I started wearing a tie with a t-shirt. Everyone thought it was cool for some reason (this was in that post-grunge era of 2001), I just was doing it because I thought it was funny."
"Then 6 months later Avril Lavigne became a thing and people just thought I was copying her."
HappyTimeHollis
G1...
"I had a google G1 on launch day. Google basically dropped support for it within a year and I learnt to never be an early adopter again."
Itxi
"I even switched cell phone providers to get a G1. Man, those were the days."
Cookie-muensters
PSY.
Giphy"My cousin showed me Gangnam Style like two weeks before it exploded. I dismissed it as being "another stupid song with an even stupider music video."
ATotallyRandomGuy
"I actually got an email from YouTube congratulating me on being one of the first people to see Gangnam Style. A friend sent it to me, only watched it the once."
albertdunderhead
LEGOS.
"Being a fan of LEGO on social media long before the 2014 movie. I'm in my mid-30s and have been collecting since I was a small child, and I have tattoos on mini-figures on my right forearm that I got almost a decade ago. I've even had my stuff published in actual magazines like Nintendo Power and Official Nintendo Magazine UK a long, long time ago."
"Edit: since people asked, this is my YouTube channel for demos and animations, and here's my Flickr for high-res photos."
vonbrunk
2side-1brain.....
"2side-1brain, this Okinawan band I became friends with when I was stationed there during my time in the Air Force. Good times and me and my friends got to know them and played with them at the local rock bars on the island and had a great time singing Nirvana and Deftones covers on those small stage, and then after a while, they went on tour in the US and made three more studio albums after that."
64hitcombo
Webkinz.
Giphy"Webkinz. My mom randomly picked me up one for Christmas before anyone knew what they were."
"Two months later and everyone in my class had like 50."
orangecrushh99
Ebay Away.
"Ebay member since Aug 1998."
WilyWalloo
"I miss those days -- back when you knew who you were bidding against. I remember times I decided not to snipe someone because I'd already beat her/him out a couple times."
"It was, somewhat, more of a community feeling in some categories."
displaced_virginian
Champions.
"Wearing champion clothes. I used to get roasted for that crap in middle school cause they had it in Walmart and it was for broke ppl. Now it's like a designer brand and high quality? Get out of here 😂"
Thegib3
Eat avocado on toast.....
"Eat avocado on toast without some idiot commenting on it. My dad ate that for breakfast all the time as an adult so I grew up watching him do it and eventually I liked it to and so now i do. I appreciate I can get it on a menu but really people? It's just avocado on toast calm down."
justhewayouare
Hey hey Coachella....
Giphy"I was wearing crop top belly shirts as a 5 year-old boy before any of these Coachella fools started wearing them. And yes, looking back I have no idea how my parents didn't suspect that I was gay."
throwawayd4326
Back in the '80s.....
"If you bicycle-commute in San Francisco from the Richmond District to downtown, you can go quite a ways east through the park and down the panhandle. Then you face a maze of streets between you and Market Street, to the south. There's a route through those streets called the Wiggle, or the 'Duboce Wiggle,"'that takes you through without going up or down any steep slopes. And then you are a block from Market and, in my day, anyway, could make a speed run downtown -- you had no choice, or the trucks would eat you."
"Back in the '80s, a few of us worked it out by trial and error. I maybe saw one other bike on the route during commute hours, usually. Now The Wiggle has its own Wikipedia entry, direction lines painted on the pavement to guide you through, and I'm told is fairly heavily used."
Tall_Mickey
Tuck It.
"About 25 years ago in PE I realized the plain white t-shirt I was wearing (part of the uniform) had a pretty big ketchup stain on the left side over my hip. So I tucked that part into my shorts so nobody saw (since tucking the whole thing in would look lame, right?). 5 minutes later I looked around and saw all the other boys in my class had tucked in their t-shirts in one side."
"For that one hour of PE I felt like a fashion god. I've never been cool and have worn odd shoes several times, but this one time, 25 years ago, I got to make something cool."
finzaz
Ooops....
"A friend of mine played My Chemical Romance's debut album for me when it first came out. I thought, well these guys sound pretty good, but I'm sure they're just another one of the indie bands he likes that will have some small underground success but no commercial breakthrough or fame."
helix274
Mo Bamba?
"You know that song Mo Bamba? Well I heard it on SoundCloud about a year before it blew up and I showed it to my friends. They all told me it was trash. A year later one of my friends says 'you guys here that new song mo bamba?' And they all told him it was great and it was the most popular song for a good 3 months."
"It's not that I loved the song but every time I hear it I'm reminded of how all my friends only liked it once it was cool and popular."
lafleurricky
La Croix....
Giphy"I started drinking La Croix 15 years ago, back when it only came in glass bottles of lemon or lime."
StanzoBrandFedoras
All the Rage...
"Flight of the Concords A friend of mine saw them play at a small venue while she was out of the country and played me their music one night. I tried for awhile to get other friends into them, but their humor was too dry for a lot of people. A few years later they were all the rage. I still listen to the original CD I burned of their music sometimes."
morbidnerd
Talking Bobbles
"Grew up listening to the Talking Heads, so I liked them before they became a meme with 'Once in a Lifetime.' In her college days, my mom also saw the band perform in places like tiny cafes before they made it big. She went to a lot of concerts and got to witness the entire new-wave explosion first hand which is pretty cool."
Taman_Should
Yuck Inducing
spicy bill hader GIFGiphy"Sriracha. We always had a bottle of that crap at my office a looooong time ago. I was actually pretty sick of it by the time everyone else started discovering it."
lupuscapabilis
Puff Away
"Vaping. I started vaping when they were first coming out. Before any vape stores. Before it was called vaping (just called electronic cigarettes back then). Before the good flavors, good vape production, etc. It didn't last long because it was expensive and not that great but I was still one of the pioneers!"
"Vaped on and off for years, alternating with real smoking and finally quit smoking completely like 3 years ago and just quit vaping completely 2 months ago. I feel so much freeer now!"
jetteh22
Straps
"Backpacks. To the best of my knowledge, I'm the innovator of the use of a backpack for school. I'm old. In the early 70s I was in college with a very book intensive major. I went to an army surplus store and bought a backpack. To my detriment, I was a one-strapper."
RonSwansonsOldMan
These people really knew how to set a trend.
Do you have similar experiences? Let us know in the comments below.
Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.