People Explain Which Grave Mistakes They Almost Were On The Verge Of Committing

They say hindsight is 20/20. We can always look back and see what we should have done, but in the moment, it's really kind of impossible to see whether or not we are making a big mistake.

However, sometimes we mercifully get flashes of the consequences and stop ourselves from making the mistakes in the first place.

That simple action can dodge months or even years of difficult and strenuous personal trauma.

u/FsX023 asked:

What's a grave mistake you were in the verge of committing?

Here were some of those answers.

Not The Van

I got stopped by my mom who found something in my room and grounded me seconds before I was about to go get my tongue pierced in the back of a van. She didn't know about the van.

catalinados

That's why I pierce people's tongues in my basement, professionals have standards.

Thanks_I_Hate_You

Crisis Averted

One time, this POS who I grew up with asked me to give him my dad's gun so that he could use it to get back at somebody who robbed him in a drug deal.

I was stupid, and he was older and manipulative so I thought it was okay. He kept telling me to stop being a b*tch, and that he didn't even need bullets, he just wanted to scare somebody. Went home, looked for my dad's pistol, and by the grace of God, I couldn't find it in its usual spot. He convinced my other friend, we can call him "Steve", to take HIS dad's pistol when I couldn't find mine.

This idiot runs a stop sign while in possession of steve's dad's pistol, and he gets pulled over. Cops find the gun, Steve's dad almost lost his government job, and I live with horrible regret that I almost sacrificed my freedom and my dad's job for the approval of some ahole who wanted to use me.

notdomsorrynodomhere

We can definitely look back and see all of our mistakes on full display.

Narrowly Avoided

I was about to quit my job at the end of March 2020. Did not have anything else lined up, but had the letter written and everything. I was tired of the atmosphere of the workplace, my boss, going in to the office for the same job every day.

Ended up going to full time work-from-home 1 week before I was about to quit. Been that way ever since. Setting my own hours. Very little interference from my boss. Still a lot I don't like about the work, but I can see how it's a lot better than being jobless!

zcmini

One Crisis Or Another Will Go Away

I almost broke up with my wife when we first started dating. I didn't and it was a really great choice because we are still doing good 17 years later.

miketrance

That was a mistake I did make, but the other way around. I almost broke up with a guy after two years because sh*t was toxic but he convinced me to stay. Proceeded to abuse me for the next decade.

The upside is I got out a decade ago and have spent seven awesome years with my husband, who is also the closest friend I've ever had. I still got my happy ending, but waffling on that one decision altered my life greatly.

giskardwasright

Forced Fatherhood????

I almost had a one night stand with with an ex. I backed out at the last moment because my gut was telling me something was off. Found out later that she was trying to get pregnant. The next guy wasn't so lucky

Sachiel_3rd

This Ain't Cropdusting

I used to fly small airplanes. Departing a mountain airport with no internet access, I didn't have a clear picture of the thunderstorm activity I knew was ahead. The air traffic controller directing my flight suggested a route that would take me through some precipitation but outside the warned thunderstorm area I was in. Since I was blind and I assumed they could see the intensity of the precipitation on their scope, I nearly followed their directions. At the last minute my onboard weather system painted the precipitation which I recognized as a severe thunderstorm.

Upon querying the controller he said he could see if precipitation was present, but not the intensity. I had nearly flown straight into a thunderstorm. Thunderstorms can be powerful enough to break up small aircraft, and had I not observed that radar image, I might not be here today.

Lessons were learned. I started asking about intensities and for more information when controllers offered alternates. Never made that mistake twice.

brandonsavage020

And some of us may only be here today because we avoided making those mistakes.

Karma Comes Back To Bite You

Almost got pregnant with my partner of eleven years/fiancé of three years. We got together when I was 18 and he was 19.

Got my period, realized I hadn't conceived. He then left me the next day for a 35 y/o Instagram model and moved in with her the next day. He'd been cheating on me with her whilst we were trying to conceive. He's now living out of his car and I have a new partner. Karma.

pushupsandpencils

Ended Or Changed--It's Good It Didn't Happen

Me and a small group of other Marines. This was about 15 years ago and legitimately could have turned into a life changing international incident. We're Marines attached to a small detail in Kuwait City during OIF. We were allowed to go out into town to the US Embassy. Kuwait is a dry country but we can drink at the embassy. I'm only 19 at the time, so I couldn't drink.

Naturally, I was the DD. We're in this crappy Kuwaiti Nissan passenger van/ bus thing. We're lost trying to get back to "base" and I accidentally cut off a local in their car. It's late at night so the streets are mostly empty. It quickly turns into a full-blown road rage thing, and the locals are mad.


They're swerving at our bus, trying to get us to pull over to fight and we're screaming back at them through the windows. Then, one of the locals brandishes a handgun - our cars are driving side by side. We're all carrying too - M9's and M16's. We have flak and kevlar. A drunk corporal suggests that we need to escalate force.

All the other drunk people onboard think that's a good idea too and they hatch a plan to show them our rifles. If locals escalate then we'd fire on their car. Thank God, when we show them our rifles, (pointed rifles at their car) the Kuwaitis back off and pull over--we drive on. Looking back, that incident easily could have ruined my life and it's shocking how close it was.

Tristawn

Got To Keep Me Kitty

Selling all my stuff, giving up my cat and moving to a different country to live with my emotionally manipulative crazy ex.

Thankfully I came to my senses and put the breaks on before I lost everything, only after therapy did I come to realise how bad she actually was.

Richard_Howe

NINE Times?

Almost married a guy that love bombed me. Thank God I listened to my gut feeling that something wasn't quite right. I paid for a background search on him and found out he had been married NINE times! Yes! Nine. F**king. Times. To say I dodged a bullet is an understatement.

DGAFADRC

At the end of the day, we have to learn, and mistakes are how we do so--but some mistakes are not worth making. The consequences of those mistakes can literally swallow up our lives and our well-being.

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I can't imagine doing that. Why?! We truly treat this planet as if we have somewhere else to go. And yes, it says a lot about people who do that.

Turns out I'm not the only one with strongly held opinions. People shared their thoughts after Redditor Acrobatic_Western_67 asked the online community,

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