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People Explain The Creepiest Experience They've Ever Had

People Explain The Creepiest Experience They've Ever Had

When we think about creepy experiences, we tend to imagine supernatural stuff.

This article is about to remind us that sometimes the creepiest things are very, very rooted in the real world.


Reddit user Salamanda0913 asked:

What is the creepiest thing you have experienced that you still think about to this day?

That's not to say there is no mention of potentially supernatural experiences - but most people responded with moments that were terrifying for them because they were all too real. We're talking about those moments when you realize your "safe place" isn't safe, when you suddenly understand just how close you were to something horrific...

All of us have creepy experiences, but these experiences have stuck with people so much that they felt compelled to share them. Read at your own risk, folks. Some of these might leave you thinking twice about a few things - like how much you actually like the song More Than A Feeling by Boston.

Two Rottweilers And A Mirror

"When I was about 8 or 9, my moms friends took us to see the puppy they were going to buy. The owner offered us to walk the parent-dogs (two Rottweilers, I remember their names til this day). They were super friendly and walked off leash with the two kids of my moms friend, and myself."

"When we arrived in a grassy area surrounded by trees, a tall guy approached us. The man was wearing one of those long, leather trench coats and had a very small mirror."

"He grabbed my shoulder and the dogs went completely nuts. I remember he tried shining light into the dogs eyes with the mirror. The mother dog stayed circling me while I ran to the house and the other dog chased after this guy until he was gone."

"It was terrifying, but what really stands by me is that those dogs didn't know me, from before yet they protected me and my friends as if their lives depended on it."

- quanide

A Visit From Dad

"So, I was about 12 at the time and it was around 2am one day and I was playing an online video game with my friends."

"We're in a call as I hear a door slam.It was quite a loud one, loud enough for me to hear through my headphones."

"I was freaked and just froze in my chair and took off my headphones. Then I heard footsteps. I was sure someone broke in or something, but I was to afraid to get out of my room. Everything was silence after a few seconds, and there was no one in our house. The door was locked as it was before, and it seemed like everything was back to normal, so I tell my friends I'm logging off and I tried to go to sleep. It took me ages before I could fall asleep, but eventually I did."

"The next morning, I tell my mom about what happened."


"Her face went white. She told me she had dreamed about my dad."

"In her dream he came to our house, slammed the door and woke her up with the sound of the slam. She was so excited to see him! She hugged him and kissed him and they went into my room where they saw me playing video games, and my dad told her that I grew up so much and was really happy to see me. He was the one who taught me how to play that video game when I was like 5~ish years old."

"My dad has passed away when I was 6. (Heart failure)"

"It's still creeping me out to this day."

- Lishayy

Old Curtains

"When me and my Mom moved to a new house. She had some re-decorating to do."

"One of the things she wanted to change was to get some new curtains for our bathroom, the curtains in there were torn, dirty, browned and just ugly as sin. So she bought some new curtains."

"As she is quite short, she can't reach our attic, which is where she wanted to store the old curtains (It was rented so we couldn't throw them away) so I put the curtains into a box then put the box into the attic. It was difficult since there is no light and even at 6'2" I had to stretch to reach, but I managed to toss the box onto a pile. The new curtains went up. All is good."

"The next day when I come home from school the horrible, dirty curtains are back up in the bathroom. New curtains are nowhere to be seen. I asked my Mom why she had changed the curtains back over. She was terrified. She hadn't changed them and had no idea how it happened."

"Still bothers me to this day."

- Fiesta_machine

Run, Forest, Run!

Giphy

"My brother had a party in college at his place on campus (they had trailers that were on campus and were a part of housing). There were a bunch of parties that night in that area. I was there for a little bit but was still in high school and had hockey practice in the morning, so had to get home early."

My brother and his buddy were on the porch late at night (like 3-4 AM) when in the distance, in the dark, they saw someone randomly running through the night with a football. My brothers buddy even yelled out "Run Forrest, run!"

""Next morning the police knocked on everyone's door to interview the people who lived in the area. Apparently a 13 year old girl was murdered and the body was found near the campus, but the head was missing. They believed a student may have killed her."

"There was a massive search and a few weeks later, they were looking at the track and field complex behind where my brother lived and they found the head when emptying a port-a-potty at the track... my brother is fairly certain the random guy in the dark running with the football was actually the guy running with the head."

- Seated_Heats

Catfish

"I got catfished by an old man on a dating app. I was in a lonely and quite vulnerable time within my life back then. I was around 20 years old, looking for a good time, and just wanted to be with someone. I was a bit shaken up for maybe a week after it happened, but I eventually got over it and moved on with my life."

"There was this young and really attractive dude, or so I thought, whose profile I came across on the app. We spoke and we exchanged pics and messages. We planned to meet up. He gave me an address and later in the day I took an uber to that address. I was standing around for hours, it was really dark and was getting late in the night. I had previously knocked on the door of the address, then resorted to standing around near the address to see if I'd get a message or response; nothing."

"I sent him so many messages with no responses and I was disappointed, but I didn't give him trouble about it. More so disappointed about the wasted Uber money than I was with him because it wasn't exactly the cheapest ride there and back."

"The next day, on the dating app I was using, he sent me some story about something happening with someone in his family. I don't exactly remember it, but thinking back I'm shocked that I actually believed him when he told me. I felt so stupid. That same day as we're talking, all is forgiven and we chalk it up to "sometimes things just happen."

"We planned to meet up again at a much earlier time. I came to the same address."

"As I'm knocking on the door, I don't get a response and I look around. But this time, I see an old man sitting in a black car across the street from the house and he's just staring at me. He was staring as if I was candy that he just couldn't resist and he just had to have me. I waited around a bit longer. The old man is still there just staring at me and I get a little uncomfortable and worried."

"That's when it hit me, HE was the 'young and really attractive dude' that I'd been talking to this entire time. I didn't know what to do upon the realization, but I wasn't going to confront him. I remember being so angry, followed by deep sadness. I got an uber to go back and I blocked him on the app after sending him a nasty message (don't know if he saw it or not before I blocked him, but I didn't care.)"

"But he didn't stop there, HE FOLLOWED the uber that I was in. I kept a watchful eye out for his car. I was so damn terrified, but was relieved that he ended up losing us on the highway. I never saw him again after that, but I'll never forget the disgusting and snarky look that he had on his face as he was staring at me. Just seemingly so proud of what he did."

"I couldn't think straight for a solid week after that. The wasted money, the emotional trauma, and the pure anger. I learned an important lesson about being safer on dating apps and teaching myself that sometimes we're just vulnerable and we shouldn't get so caught up in that."

- Lanas-Pepsi-Pssy

More Than A Feeling

"I was in the Navy stationed inland because I was in a school. I had a friend drop me off at a store and when I was done started walking back to the base. I noticed this car driving slowly in the road keeping pace with me. Some weird guy was smiling at me. I am also a guy. More Than a Feeling was playing - loud."

"Eventually the car went ahead of me, but then there it was on a side street waiting for me to pass. Again, he drove next to me slowly with the same song playing. This scenario went on for about 7 or 8 blocks, same song playing over and over. I finally made it to a near by mall and went inside."

"I stayed in one place inside the mall to make sure I lost him, I was pretending to talk to someone on a payphone. Suddenly there he was inside the mall peeking around a corner. As soon as he turned around, I ran out of the mall through the closest exit and ran about another 2 blocks to the Navy base."

"I never saw him again but it creeped me out so much that every time I hear More Than a Feeling playing, it reminds me of the experience."

- [username deleted]

Call Some Hippie Chap!

"I had a house in London It was quite old, circa 1835. In the basement the plaster was cracking and falling off of the one wall. We had to remove it to treat it with a damp proof membrane. Removing the plaster to bare brick revealed a bricked up doorway. We opened it up to see what was behind it."

"It was a small room with a rough wooden bed all rotted away only the frame remaining and a upright chair.with the back broken and a kind of tailors dummy stood on a wooden frame. The dummy had the heart, liver, kidneys and other anatomical parts drawn on. They were stabbed multiple times."

"Mildewed newspaper cuttings where on the chair, most too badly rotted away, but the ones in the center could be read. They were ink pictures of women with names like. "Florrie Corrigan the Irish rose" and "Irene Atkins the Clapham nightingale" Some had their faces disfigured or slashed. Some had dripping wounds and cuts drawn on them. Most had a big furry vagina drawn on."

"My wife was fairly freaked and had a hippie chap come and pray / chant in the room to remove bad spirits."

- Lard_Baron

Storage

"So when I was 14 me and my mom moved to a new city. We moved in a flat and the storage was in a separate place in the building. Our storage space was just around a corner. One evening I went to the storage space around 11pm to get some old plushies and when I opened the door and went around the corner I saw an middle aged man dressed up as a clown just creepily standing there in the back, I swear he had this crazy look in his eyes."

"I bolted out there as fast as I could. I told my mom and she called the police. When they arrived the man was still standing in the corner and he didn't fight back when the police arrested him. Apparently he used a lot of drugs and was just spacing out. They never told me how he got in the storage space, but they changed the lock after that incident."

- hisoka_hoe

The Dog Sees

Giphy

"My grandma had Alzheimers and maybe dementia when she lived with us. Her room was also like right down the hallway from mine, so it was really common for me to be woken up in the night to her laughing, screaming, or talking. One night things where different, I could hear her talking and someone responding."

"I got up to take a close look and I noticed my dog looked like something was wrong, which was weird to me. I went up to the door to hear things better. She was paralyzed on her right side so I though this was just my mom coming to help her with something, but the responding voice was a male voice. My dad didn't live with us and I don't have any brothers, nor did this sound like her own voice at all."

"My first thought was that it was my uncle but why would my uncle be at my house? If he was then there was something wrong with my grandma because he would only come this late when there was an emergency. I also would have heard him coming through the front door. I put myself against the wall in a way that I could see into my grandmas room but anyone in the room couldn't see me unless they where at the room door. I couldn't see anyone or anything except my grandmas feet."

"I got close enough to make out what they were saying now, but what made this weirder is that my grandma wasn't speaking English and neither was the person she was talking to. They where speaking Farsi, her native language. This was the conversation I heard."

"Voice- They have been treating you well?"

"Grandma- Yes they have been treating me very well"

"Voice- Who is the guy in the hallway?"

"Grandma- That is my grandson, he's a good kid.

"Voice- I think the dog sees me."

"At this point I freaked out and made my way back to my room. I thought I was in a nightmare or something and I wanted to wake up. My first though was that I could pinch myself, that didn't work so I tried to poke myself with my knife. I did it pretty hard because it left a mark in my hand that stayed for a few days. I tried to go back to sleep but I couldn't.

"I watched the sun light come up through my window with this very uneasy feeling that I was being watched. My grandma lived for another 5 years with us and a few more minor weird things happened but this one always stuck with me."

- The_Saweed

Nosebleed

"I've told this before on here but years ago, me and my family went camping. At this campground, you could rent golf carts as it was rather large and had a lot of trails. So it's late and me and my sister (probably aged 13 (me) and 16(sis) around the time) are driving down one of the trails, our parents and other siblings back at the camp site, and we come to a fork in the path. To the right, is the obviously clear trail, to the left it looks like a trail but there's still quite a bit of brush. We take the left trail."

"After about a minute or two down the trail we both started getting a very uneasy feeling. Like that chilling feeling of when something completely shocks you. Out of nowhere, we both hear the unmistakable voice of our mother say "Honey, why is your nose bleeding?"

"My sister whipped the cart around and we sped back to the main trail. When we got back to the trail my sister's nose dripped 3-4 drops of blood and stopped. We went back to our camp site and called it a night."

"To this day neither of us have any kind of logical explanation as to what possibly happened."

- CarsenAF

The Light

"Went out to a secluded camping spot years ago. A buddy had this secret site up in the mountains that he used in high school. Literally middle of nowhere in the mountains, about an hour off main roads with no gps. We got out, lit up a joint and started setting up, when I saw a single light through the trees about 100 yards away. It was moving as if it was a headlamp of some sort. When I pointed it out, my high buddy shouted hello towards it and the movement stopped abruptly with no reply."

"I wasn't that nervous until my friend who's spot this was said he'd never saw another soul in this area for all the years he'd camped there."

"We called out again, but the light remained motionless. We were all getting a creepy feeling, why it wasn't moving anymore and I casually/jokingly commented that if it was me and I wished us harm, I'd have strapped the headlight to a tree and then snuck around behind us...

"Literally at that moment a branch snapped about 30 feet to our left. We immediately threw everything back into the truck without a word and hightailed it out of there without looking back."

- iamjacksragingupvote

Something From The Forest

"I was about 17 or 18 at the time and me and my friends (2M 2F) and I decided to go camping. One of my friends knew a guy who had this large territory with a nice house by the lake and the guy was away that day, so he let us use the property. He had a dog as well, who he left at the property since he knew we were gonna be coming to keep him some company. The entrance to the property was fenced off, but the rest was just surrounded by forests and a lake. We decided to set up our tents in a small open field next to the forest."

"Fast forward a few hours to after some of the classic camping activities."

"We went to bed around 1-2 am and the girls were staying in one tent while me and my friend stayed in the other. Me and my friend BOTH woke up at the same time around 3-4am since we heard some twigs and branches breaking as something was slowly approaching our tent. The footsteps were really heavy so it could not have been the dog."

"You could tell that whoever or whatever it was, was very careful about approaching and tried placing their steps carefully so we wouldn't hear the twigs snapping, At this point me and my friend were absolutely terrified. Right before it reached the tent, the dog started barking in the distance and came SPRINTING to our tent."

"We heard the mysterious thing run away into the forest and about 5-10 seconds later I poked my head out of the tent and tried to see anything running away, but I only saw the dog coming out of the forest back to us. In the morning we asked the girls if they had heard anything and they said no. God bless dogs. Might've saved us."

- TonijsB

Time Loops

"My friend experienced these prolonged deja vu experiences that would last days at a time. He referred to them as time loops, and they worried him heavily. I suspected it was just deja vu, being a misfire in the brain that just feels like you've already experienced something when you in fact hadn't."

"One day we were talking about it, and as we did I walked towards my piano to play for a while. As I did so he said plainly "Hold me closer tiny dancer"

"I hadn't yet pushed a key but that was what I wanted to play. I decided then not to and went towards the tv that had switched to commercial. We sat and as soon as we did, a commercial came on that played Tiny Dancer."

"He seemed worried and so did I. There were a bunch of similar instances that occurred after this one. He died in 2017, and we never did figure out what that was."

- envy_313

Static

Giphy

"After watching "The Ring" in theaters for the first time around 13 years of age, I was incredibly freaked out. Later that night I was up late watching Even Stevens reruns because I couldn't sleep. I shit you not, all of a sudden my tv went to the black and white fuzzy screen like in the movie, with the same noise. I quickly ran to unplug the tv and turn on the light (and my change underwear). This had never happened on this tv before, and never happened again."

- Tvaughan37

Real Estate Photos

""This happened when I was younger, I'd say 13 or 14. I was going for my usual walk around the neighborhood when a man in a pickup truck stopped at the corner in front of me, he rolled his window down, pulled out a camera, and took a picture of me."

"Royally creeped out, I rushed back home, sneaking through a back yard hoping he wouldn't see me. I went into the garage to tell my parents (they were having a garage sale). They didn't think much of it and told me to go inside if I was so worried about it.

"The dude did show up again. This time he was taking pictures of the house across the street from us. The house was for sale so I assumed he was a real estate agent or something... but why would a real estate agent need pictures of a little girl?"

- MoonDoggos

Legs, legs,legs

"Once I went to a conference with my sister. She is much much younger than me, but we look very alike. There was a "photographer" there who approached us and took a couple of shots. I didn't mind, he looked ok. But then, he became really annoying, photographing us at any point, going after us wherever we went."

"At some point, I casually asked to look at the pictures he took from the day, in case i can use one or two. And holy crap. All I see is just a few pictures of attendees at the conference and the two of us from all the angles: our legs photographed from behind, me separately, my sister separately, legs, legs, legs, top. I got so spooked and started to delete everything as far as I could go and just tried to avoid him as much as possible."

"My sister was 14 at the time."

- Holi_Canoly

Voices

"I have an old amp for my guitar in my room. It's pretty messed up and kind of broken. Sometimes the amp will hiss and pop until you shake the input jack to just the right spot."

"A couple of times while I was home alone and was playing guitar, I'd hear voices, which freaked me out. I would do a quick run around the house to make sure it was empty and return, by then, the amp would be hissing and popping once more. Another time when I heard the voices of sounded like it was coming from the corner of my room where the amp is, so I put my ear up to the amp and what do I hear: a commercial for some sort of medicine."

"Turns out my amp sometimes can pick up radio signals. Moral of the story, check your electronics."

- FlaredCell

The Top Of The Stairs

"This happened back when I was 9 years old. My parents were going out to dinner with friends for the night and hired a babysitter to watch over me while they were gone. We'll call her "Sarah" for the purposes of this story. She was in the 8th grade at the time and just so happened to be the daughter of my 3rd grade teacher. (I was in 4th grade when this happened.) We were in my basement with most of the lights off watching a taped documentary about the 9/11 attacks, which had occurred only about a month or so before this. At some point Sarah said she had to use the bathroom so I paused the tape. While I was waiting for her, I decided to get us a couple of those push-popsicles from the freezer located in the large unfinished storage room in our basement."

"The entrance to the storage room was located immediately at the bottom of the steps leading upstairs, so you had to walk right past them in order to get in. For some reason it didn't hit me right away, but as soon as I opened the door to the freezer I remember getting this extremely eerie feeling that I saw something out of the corner of my eye at the top of the steps. As I walked out of the storage room I looked up at the top of the stairs leading to the basement."

"I didn't see anything, but I remained standing there looking up at the same spot for a few more seconds. It was dark up there due to the lights being off, but there was still enough light to see what happened next."

"I saw a head slowly poke its way out of the left side of the door frame at the top of the steps. The expression on the face looking down at me was something so disturbing and so terrifying there's no way I can fully convey it with words. Their eyes were opened so wide with their upper lip sort of tucked under itself exposing their top teeth with their mouth partially opened, creating this horrifyingly insane face that I can never get out of my mind. I know it's such a cliche, but I really did feel completely frozen with terror."

"After a few seconds, still with only their head poking out of the side of the door frame, they screamed at me so f*cking loud with this high pitched (almost feminine) scream. I was so terrified I felt like I was going to pass out."

"Then I heard the bathroom door fly open and hit the wall from the other side of the basement. Sarah began frantically calling my name and started running over to me. The head looking down at me was gone. I told her what happened and we turned on all the lights in the basement. Sarah grabbed the phone and called the police."

"My basement had a sliding glass door and several windows which all had thin blinds. But a person outside would still be able to see the silhouette of someone standing in front of them if the lights were on. So we sat with our backs up against the back wall so nobody would be able to see us from the backyard."

"While Sarah was on the phone with the police we could fear footsteps and crunching leafs coming from outside. Then we heard what sounded like a person with sweaty hands putting her hands on the sliding glass door and rubbing them up and down creating that squeaky "rubbing on glass" noise. Then they started making these moaning noises in an unmistakably sexual way."

"I looked at Sarah and she was beginning to breakdown and cry while still trying not to make too much noise. It seemed like forever until we heard the sound of heavy boots coming from upstairs, then the sound of a walkie-talkie. We heard someone yell "(such and such) county police!". We yelled that we were downstairs and two police officers came down."

"We must have look absolutely terrified, because they looked at us like they'd seen a ghost. As we all walked back upstairs together there were several other police officers there. One of them was on his hands and knees at the stop of the steps putting his noise towards a puddle of liquid on the floor as if to smell it, and I heard him say "urine". This fucking lunatic pissed himself on my floor."

"The police took our statements and stayed with us until my parents arrived. They searched our entire house top to bottom as well as our entire neighborhood and the nearby area, but they never caught the person, and that's what scares me the most. To this day I'm left with more questions than answers. It was all just so fucking bizarre. I'm now 27 years old, and to this day I still can't help but feel severely traumatized by this experience. I still talk to Sarah from time to time, and she tells me she feels the same way."

- Lefty092

Red Square

Giphy

"Once, I was visiting a friend at her university. We spent the day chilling and hanging out, then for the night, she had invited a couple of her friends from other dorms to meet me and have a drink. I had bought a bottle of vodka, so we were all happily drinking that. Once we were nicely drunk, we realized we had a problem. We had run out of vodka. We scoured the kitchen all together, everywhere- in cupboards, in fridges, on the surfaces..... before the others had the idea of going back to their dorm to pick up an old bottle they had from the night before."

"They brought it in, and it was called Red Square vodka (I remember making a point that I'd never seem that brand of vodka before). We drank a bunch of it, and half was left when we started winding down. After a while, we all decided to go to sleep, as we were all very drunk and very tired."

"The two friends left, leaving their vodka. I grabbed it off the table, ran after them, and gave it to them, before returning. Me and my mate cleaned up, and sat talking for 10 or so minutes. Suddenly, just when I was about to go to sleep, I look at the table, and see the bottle of vodka. Red square, with the exact amount of vodka we had left, in the exact spot it had been before I picked it up to give it to them. I pointed it out, and we sat there in shock."

"There was no way we hadn't seen it. We had scoured the entire room before going to get that bottle, and had sat in the room for hours after, and there it was, smack in the middle of the table. The same bottle. We called up the others to confirm that I had in fact given them back the bottle they brought. I had. And yet, it was sitting here, right informer of me. The same brand, the same amount, the same place."

"Sometimes I wonder about that. As soon as I do, everything I think I understand is called into question."

- _AnonOp

These are some deeply creepy stories.

Do you have similar experiences to share? Let us know in the comments below.

Jobs That Seem Easy But Are Actually Incredibly Challenging

Reddit user CeleryLover4U asked: 'What's a job or profession that seems easy, but is incredibly challenging?'

Woman stressed at work
Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash

When we hear about other people's jobs, we've surely all done that thing where we make assumptions about the work they do and maybe even judge them for having such an easy or unimportant job.

But some jobs are much harder than they look.

Redditor CeleryLover4U asked:

"What's a job or profession that seems easy but is incredibly challenging?"

Customer Service

"Anything customer-facing. The public is dumb and horrendous."

- gwarrior5

"My go-to explanation is, 'Anyone can do it, but few can do it for long.'"

- Conscious_Camel4830

"The further I get in my corporate career, the less I believe I will ever again be capable of working a public-facing job. I don’t know how I did it in the past. I couldn’t handle it in the present."

"I know people are only getting worse about how they treat workers. It is disturbing, embarrassing, and draining for everyone."

- First-Combination-12

High Stakes

"A pharmacist."

"You face the public. Your mistake can literally kill someone."

- VaeSapiens

"Yes, Pharmacist. So many people think their job is essentially the same as any other kind of retail worker and they just prepare prescriptions written by a doctor without having to know anything about them."

"They are very highly trained in, well, pharmacology; and it's not uncommon for a pharmacist to notice things like potentially dangerous drug interactions that the doctor hadn't."

- Worth_University_884

Teaching Woes

"Two nuggets of wisdom from my mentor teacher when I was younger:"

"'Teaching is the easiest job to do poorly and the hardest job to do well,' and 'You get to choose two of the following three: Friends, family, or being a good teacher. You don't have enough time to do all three.'"

"We all know colleagues or remember teachers who were lazy and chose the easy route, but any teacher who is trying to be a good teacher has probably sacrificed their friends and their sleep for little pay and a stressful work environment. There's a reason something like half quit the profession within the first five years."

- bq87

Creativity Is "Easy"

"Some creative professions, such as designers, are often perceived as 'easy' due to their creative nature. However, they may face the constant need to find inspiration, deal with criticism, and meet deadlines."

- rubberduckyis

"EVERYBODY thinks they are a designer, up until the point of having to do the work. But come critique time, mysteriously, EVERYBODY IS A F**KING DESIGNER AGAIN."

"The most important skill to have as a designer is THICK SKIN."

- whitepepper

Care Fatigue Is Real

"Care work."

"I wish it could be taken for granted that no one thinks it's easy. But unfortunately, many people still see it as an unskilled job and have no idea of the many emotional complexities, or of how much empathy, all the time, is needed to form the sorts of relationships with service users that they really need."

- MangoMatiLemonMelon

Physical Labor Generally Wins

"I’m going to say most types of unskilled labor and that’s because there’s such little (visible) reward and such a huge amount of bulls**t. I’ve done customer service, barista, sales, serving, etc; and it was all much harder than my cushy desk job that actually can be considered life or death."

- anachronistika

Their Memory Banks Must Be Wild

"I don't know if I'd call it incredibly challenging, but being one of those old school taxi drivers who know the city like the back of his hand and can literally just drive wherever being told nothing but an address is pretty impressively skilled."

"Not sure if it's still like this, but British cabbies used to be legendary for this. I'm 40 and I don't think most young people appreciate how much the quality of cab service has gone down since the advent of things like Uber."

"Nowadays it's just kind of expected that a rideshare/cab driver doesn't know exactly where you're trying to get and has to rely on GPS directions that they often f up. Back when I was in college, cabbies were complete experts on their city."

"More even than knowing how to get somewhere, they could also give you advice. You could just generally describe a type of bar/club/business you're looking for, and they'll take you right to one that was spot on. Especially in really big cities like NYC."

- Yak-Mak-5000

Professional Cooking

"Being a chef."

- Canadian_bro7

"I would love to meet the person who thinks being a chef is easy! I cook my own food and it’s not only OK to eat but I make a batch of it so I have some for later. So, to make food that is above good and portion it correctly many times a day and do it consistently with minimal wastage (so they make a profit), strikes me as extremely difficult."

- ChuckDeBongo

Team Leading, Oof

"Anything that involves a lot of people skills and socializing. I thought these positions were just the bulls**t of sitting in meetings all day and not a lot of work happening but having to be the one leading those meetings and doing public speaking is taxing in a way I didn’t realize."

- Counterboudd

Not a Pet Sitter At All

"Veterinary Technician."

"Do the job of an RN, anesthesiology tech, dental hygienist, radiology tech, phlebotomist, lab tech, and CNA, but probably don’t make a living wage and have people undervalue your career because you 'play with puppies and kittens all day.'"

- forthegoddessathena

Harder Than It Looks!

"Sometimes, when my brain is fried from thinking and my ego is shot from not fixing the problem, I want to be a garbage man... not a ton of thinking, just put the trash in the truck, and a lot of them have trucks that do it for you!"

"But if the robot either doesn't work or you don't have one on your truck, it smells really bad, the pay isn't what it used to be, you might find a dead body and certainly find dead animal carcasses... and people are id**ts, overfilling their bags, just to have them fall apart before you get to the truck, not putting their trash out and then blaming you, making you come back out."

"Your body probably is sore every day, and you have to take two baths before you can kiss your wife..."

"Ehh, maybe things are not so bad where I am."

- Joebroni1414

Twiddling Thumbs and Listening

"Therapist here. I’ve always said that it’s pretty easy to be an okay therapist—as in, it’s not that hard to listen to people’s problems and say, 'Oh wow, that’s so hard, poor you.'"

"But to be a good therapist? To know when your client is getting stuck in the same patterns, or to notice what your client isn’t saying? To realize that they’re only ever saying how amazing their spouse is, and to think, 'Hmm, nobody’s marriage is perfect, something’s going on there'?"

"To be able to ask questions like, 'Hey, we’ve been talking a lot about your job, but what’s going on with your family?' And then to be able to call them on their s**t, but with kindness and empathy? Balancing that s**t is hard."

"Anybody can have empathy, but knowing when to use empathy and when and how to challenge someone is so much harder. And that’s only one dimension of what makes being a therapist challenging."

- mylovelanguageiswine

Constant Updates

​"For the most part, my job is really easy (marketing tech). But having to constantly stay on top of new platforms, new tech, updates, etc etc is exhausting and overwhelming and I really hate it."

"Also, the constant responsibility to locate and execute opportunities to optimize things and increase value for higher-ups. Nobody in corporate roles can ever just reach a point of being 'good enough.' More and better is always required."

"Just some of the big reasons I’m considering a career change."

- GlizzyMcGuire_

Performing Is Not Easy

"Performing arts and other types of art. People think it’s a cakewalk or 'not a real job,' not realizing the literal lifetime of training, rejection, and perseverance that it takes to reach a professional level and how insanely competitive those spaces are."

- ThrowRA1r3a5

All About Perception

"I suspect everything fits this. Consider that someone whose job is stacking boxes in a warehouse has to know how to lift boxes, how many can be stacked, know if certain ones must be easily accessible, know how to use any equipment that is used to move boxes around."

"Not to mention if some have hazardous or fragile materials inside, if some HAVE to be stacked on the bottom, if a mistake is made and all the boxes have to be restacked, etc."

"But everyone else is like, 'They're just stacking boxes.'"

- DrHugh

It's easy to make assumptions about someone else's work and responsibilities when we haven't lived with performing those tasks ourselves.

This gave us some things to think about, and it certainly reminded us that nothing good comes of making assumptions, especially when it minimizes someone else's experiences.

Left-handed person holding a Sharpie
Kelly Sikkema/Unsplash

Many of us who are right-handed never even think about how the world is designed to cater to us.

It probably doesn't even cross your mind that 10% of the world's population is left-handed.

Because of this, there tends to be a stigma for being left-handed since society tends to associate the left with negative things.

For example, the phrase "two left feet" applies to those who are clumsy and therefore, incapable of dancing.

Curious to hear more about the challenges facing those with the other dominant hand, Redditor johnnyportillo95 asked:

"What’s something left-handed people have to deal with that right-handed people wouldn’t even think about?"

If only manufacturers appealed to an ambidextrous world.

Furniture Obstacle

"Those desks or couch chairs that have a small desk attached. They do make left handed/sided ones but they are few and far between."

– Prussian__Princess

"And they’re only on one side of the lecture hall, and it’s never a good seat. There is ONE front row, lefty desk in the entire room and it’s in the far corner, obscured by an ancient overhead projector."

– earwighoney

Everyday Objects For Everyday People

"as a left-handed person myself, one thing we often deal with is finding left-handed tools or equipment. many everyday objects, like scissors or can openers, are designed with right-handed people in mind, which can make certain tasks a bit more challenging for us lefties. we also have to adapt to a right-handed world when it comes to writing on whiteboards or using certain computer mice."

– J0rdan_24

Dangerous Tools

"The biggest risk is power tools. I taught myself to use all power tools right handed because of risks using them left handed."

"Trivial, I love dry boards but they are super hard to write on."

– diegojones4

It's hard to play when you're born with a physical disadvantage.

Sports Disadvantage

"Allright, Sports when you are young. Every demonstration from PE teachers are right handed. You cant just copy the movements they teach you you need to flip them and your tiny brain struggoes to process it. As well, 98% of the cheap sports equipment the school uses is right handed."

– AjCheeze

No Future In Softball

"I tried to bat right handed for so long in gym class growing up because the gym teacher never asked me what my dominant side was and the thought never occurred to me as a child to mention it! Needless to say I never became a softball star."

– Leftover-Cheese

Find A Glove That Fits

"In softball and baseball we need a specific glove for our right hand that's often impossible to find unless you own one, and we have to bat on the other side of the plate."

– BowlerSea1569

"I was one of two left-handers in a 4-team Little League in the 1980s. Nobody could pitch to me. I got a lot of "hit by pitch" walks out of it."

– Jef_Wheaton

These examples are understandably annoying.

Shocking Observation

"Having right handed people make comments whenever they see us write, like we’re some kind of alien."

– UsefulIdiot85

"'Woah! You're left-handed????'"

"I find myself noticing when someone is a lefty, and sometimes I comment on it, but I try not to. I'm primarily left-handed (im a right handed wroter but do everything else left), and every single time I go to eat with my family, someone says, "Oh hey, give SilverGladiolus22 the left hand spot, they're left-handed," and inevitably someone says, 'Wait, really?' Lol."

– SilverGladiolus22

Can't Admire The Mug

"We never get to look at the cute graphics on coffee mugs while we’re drinking from them."

– vanetti

"I just realized…I always thought the graphics were made so someone else could read them while you drink. Hmmm."

– Bubbly-Anteater7345

"I'm right-handed and I often wondered why the graphics were turned towards the drinker instead of out for others to see."

– Material-Imagination

The Writing On The Wall

"Writing on whiteboards is a nightmare. I have to float my hand, which tires out my arm quickly, and I can't see what I've already written to keep the line straight."

– darkjedi39

"Also as a teacher, it means I'm standing to the left of where I'm writing, so I'm blocking everything I write. I have to frequently finish writing, then step out of the way so people can see, instead of just being able to stand on the right side the whole time."

– dancingbanana123

Immeasurable

"Rulers."

"How the f'k is no one talking about rulers? It's from 30cm to 0 cm to me, or I have to twist my arms to know the measure I want to trace over it."

– fourangers

Just Can't Win

"EVERYTHING. The world has always been based around people being right handed. As a Chef, my knife skills SUCKED until I worked with a Left Handed Chef. Then it all made sense."

"Literally, everything we do must be observed, then flipped around in our heads, then executed. This is why Lefties die sooner, on average, than Righties."

"I had to learn how to be ambidextrous, just to complete basic tasks (sports, driving a manual, using scissors, etc). I am used to it now, and do many things right handed out of necessity, as wall as parents and teachers 'forcing' it upon me."

"But, at least we are not put to death anymore, simply for using the wrong hand (look it up, it happened)."

"Ole Righty, always keeping us down."

– igenus44

The world doesn't need another demographic to feel "othered" for being different.

But if you're right-handed and tend to make assumptions about left-handed people, you may want to observe the following.

Ronald Yeo, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Texas-Austin told CNN:

"We shouldn’t assume much about people’s personalities or health just because of the hand they write with."
"And we certainly shouldn’t worry about lefties’ chances of success: After all (as of 2015), five of our last seven U.S. presidents have been either left- or mixed-handed."

Word.

Dog lying down on a bed
Photo by Conner Baker on Unsplash

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 Giphy

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 Giphy

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 Giphy

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 Giphy

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...


Close up of an owl tilting their head to side, looking bewildered
Photo by Josh Mills

The old wives' tales.

They are the stories of legend.

I think we all need a big DEEP Google dive though.

Where did they originate?

WHO ARE THE OLD WIVES!

You don't hear about them as much anymore.

It's like science and logic are suddenly a thing.

But they sure are a good way to keep your kids and their behavior in line.

Redditor the_spring_goddess wanted to discuss the tall tales we've all been fed through life, so they asked:

"What is an old wives tale that people still believe?"

"Wait an hour to swim after eating."

What a crock!

So many summer hours wasted.

I want revenge for that one.

Say Nothing

Giphy

"An undercover cop has to tell you he's a cop if you ask him."

LonelyMail5115

"Pretty much most advice when it comes to cops are old wives tales. I’m not even a cop but most of the advice you hear is pretty off."

I_AM_AN_A**HOLE_AMA

Say Something

"That you have to wait 24 hours to report someone missing."

Severe_Airport1426

"I really think this one is important and should be the top regardless. As it’s a piece of advice that needs to be relearned and the only way to do that is through awareness."

crappycurtains

"This used to be true. I think they changed it after some guy named Brandon went missing back in the '80s or '70s. You used to have to wait 24 hours if the missing person was an adult because they had 'a right to be missing' and then everyone realized that was stupid and stopped doing it."

AlbinoShavedGorilla

Body Temps

"That drinking ice cold water after eating oily foods will solidify the oil and permanently remain in your body. I informed my coworker that if your body temperature ever reached that point, you’d have bigger problems than weight gain."

chriseo22

"Oh, I have a cousin who 100% believed this. One of those guys who believed every early 2000s internet rumor and old wives tale. One night I chugged a big glass of ice water after dinner and he started freaking out and saying my guts were gonna harden."

"I sarcastically told him to drive me to the hospital if that happened. Obviously, nothing happened and the next morning I said something like 'Thanks for being on standby in case my guts filled with hardened oil.' He just walked off muttering under his breath."

apocalypticradish

Arms Down

"When I was pregnant, I was told by young and old alike that I should NOT raise my arms above my head or exert myself in such a manner because it could cause cord strangulation to my unborn sons and daughters."

Fatmouse84

10 Years Actually

Unimpressed Uh Huh GIF by Brooklyn Nine-Nine Giphy

"Chewing gum stays in your stomach for 7 years."

REDDIT

"I remember accidentally swallowing a piece of gum when I was a kid in like 1995 and just accepting my fate like welp, gonna have this in my stomach til high school I guess."

Gecko-911

I was so afraid to sallow my gum when I was young.

This tale is haunting.

High/Low

Hungry Debra Messing GIF by Will & Grace Giphy

"You can tell the sex of the baby by how you carry."

LeastFormal9366

"Pregnancy certainly wins awards for the most old wives tales. So much absolute BS was repeated to us by everyone we talked to."

IllIIIlIllIlIIlIllI

The Cursed

"If you’re a woman and you wear opal jewelry but opal is not your birthstone (October), you’ll never be able to have children, or will be widowed, or just generally have bad luck or something. You can counteract this by having a diamond in the same piece of jewelry as the opal, though."

"I have a nice opal ring that my parents gave me years ago, and I’ve had other women give me this 'advice' unprompted more than once when I’ve worn it. I have absolutely no idea where it started, but I’m pretty sure this little chunk of silicate rock has no concept of what month I was born in, let alone of how my reproductive organs work."

SmoreOfBabylon

Stay In

"Going outside with wet hair will make you get pneumonia. Or an earache. Or maybe arthritis. Depends on which old wife you listen to."

"Jokes on them - I haven't blow-dried my hair in decades and usually leave the house with wet hair in the morning. On winter mornings, the tips of my hair get frozen. No ear infections or pneumonia or arthritis yet."

worldbound0514

Dreams and Facts

"You never make anyone up in your dreams you've seen everyone in your dreams somewhere else before and never make anyone up entirely."

"How would you possibly prove that to be true? My partner adamantly believes this and tells me this 'fact' whenever I have a dream about someone I've never met before."

mattshonestreddit

"My late wife used to tell me that before she met me she would have dreams of standing at an alter on her wedding day but could never see the guy's face, no matter how hard she tried. After meeting me the face was filled in with mine. Don't know if it's true but one of those things I like thinking of every now and then when I miss her."

Darthdemented

Cracked

Getting Ready Episode 2 GIF by The Office Giphy

"Some people still believe cracking knuckles causes arthritis."

Choice-Grapefruit-44

"There's a doctor (Donald Unger) that cracked his knuckles a couple of times a day for 60 years, but only on one hand, just to prove it. Both hands remained exactly the same."

MacyTmcterry

I love my knuckles.

Do you have any tall tales to add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.