Anyone with even a passing interst in poetry knows of the Robert Frost poem, "The Path Less Traveled." What might be less common is how many people actually took the poem's message to heart, choosing to walk a path less traveled by others. Whether it;s in career, love, or personal choices, choosing a less traveled path can seem exciting...
...until you read these stories.
Reddit user, u/PiXXa_RaiXE, wanted to hear about:
People of Reddit, what terrible path in life no one should ever take? [SERIOUS]
Get Those Answers
don't answer homer simpson GIF
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A life of asking questions without making an effort to find out.
"Does he secretly hate me? Will she be disgusted if I asked her out? Would I be wasting my time if I studied to be a professional ice cream maker? Will I be happy if I leave him? Is this lump going to be a problem?" Etc...
Worse still, some people make up their own pessimistic, dismissive answers.
"Of course he hates me, I'm a piece of sh!t. Of course she won't go out with me, she probably likes that @sshole Chad. Of course I'll never make money making custom ice cream, that's a stupid dream. Of course I'm not going to be happy, he beats me but who else is going to love me? This lump is probably nothing, and if it is cancer I don't want to confirm it."
Have a question? Find out the answer.
Don't Blink, But Also Don't Take An Eye Off the Horizon
Living only for the moment, and not planning for your future. This will screw you up over time if you have no clear goals in mind.
You'll Have To Trust Again Someday
Thinking everyone has bad intentions.
Always think people have good intentions/a reason to do what they did/are doing. I started doing this and it has actually made me a happier person. Note: This does NOT mean put yourself in dangerous situations, trust you gut
Always Try
I have two:
Don't go to schools just because your friends/Boyfriend/Girlfriend are going there because people are changing all the time and you don't want a career path forced on you from following someone only to break up with them a couple months in.
And try in school. It may subject you to ridicule but an education can get you anywhere and will open up so many doors. Poor test scores due to not trying or generally not caring may set you back a while with jobs and opportunities.
So Much Sugar
Drinking soda or really any bad carbonated beverage. I'm 22 years old and have drank them continuously since I was like 6. Everyday I have a liter of coke. It's freaking addicting and you don't realize it much when you're drinking them how bad it actually is.
I ran cross country in highschool and competitively swam. This was the only time when I didn't drink any soda of any kind, just water and natural fruit juice. If I drank a soda even just a small can I felt it when exercising mainly because all of my sports were heavy on lung capacity and endurance. You find out very quickly how much harder it is to breathe while drinking soda then without.
I breathed so clear and my lungs felt great when I ran but the second I had a soda i felt it. I miss those times when all I drank was water. Sodas really mess you up.
Your Mental Health Should Take Priority
Not treating your depression from the start with a professional and trying to overcome it alone. 6 years later down the road, diagnosed with severe depression and anhedonia.
Currently on medication. Life changed drastically, it is like taking off a pair of grey and dark glasses. Mental health is no joke and should be a priority in everyones life!
You Can't Make Everyone Happy
People pleasing!
As a wise man once said, you can't make everyone happy, you're not pizza.
There's Always More To Learn
Never take the path of "I know better than everyone else."
Even the absolute dumbest person can teach you something. Same goes for a person a lot younger than you or someone you can't respect.
Always be willing to learn and grow.
Figure It Out
Don't self medicate with booze and/or drugs (the former being my problem for years),find out the reason why you want to self medicate in the first place and get the appropriate help/guidance.
Also don't self medicate with food.
I'll Do It...Later
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Not the worst, but procrastination. It becomes a habit really fast (from my experience).
"I'll start exercising tomorrow." "I'll clean up later."
I started saying these things years ago and only recently started running again.
Edit: I used to be able to do 300 sit ups almost everyday. Now, I can barely 35 (but that's progress from when I could only do 10).
Stand On Your Own
Trying to ride on other's coattails when you're young, doing this will make you too dependent on others and you will have a tough time when you move away from your parents/guardians. Also, if you're older and have children, don't let their heads get too inflated, what I mean is don't let their ego get too large because when they realize they are like all the rest of us, their life can turn upside down.
Choose Your Own Life
Perusing a career path and choosing a major that your parents want you to do, but you don't actually have any interest in.
Also, going to college without knowing what career you want, accumulating massive student loan debt and being left with no viable career opportunities.
Being Overtaken By Fear
Letting Anxiety/Fear stop you from living your life or doing things you could potentially love. Or being too afraid to find help for mental health issues (anxiety/depression) No one should ever feel alone or without options.
It's Not Just You, It Affects Other People
Be aware of how much you drink and what it does to your family.
Someone in my family is an alcoholic. This person thinks because they quit drinking whiskey that they have quit drinking. Not how that works! This person drinks wine from about 3pm until they go to sleep. I can't even imaging how much they go through in a week. They've gotten physically, emotionally and mentally abusive with people in the family. This person was always an obnoxious bully, but the alcohol has magnified these qualities. No one in the neighborhood they live in will speak to this person since they assaulted me. And this person can't figure out why!
If we have a family function and the host asks if this person would like something to drink, this person thinks they mean alcohol. Even though they knows none of the rest of the family drinks! They've embarrassed their spouse by being stupid drunk when they've had people over. It's aggravating watching this happen. I'm so angry with this person!! I'm not even sure if I love this person any more. I hate having to be in his presence. They are drinking themselves to death.
More Than 20 Seconds, Everyone
Brush your teeth. Can't begin to understand why I let mine rot. But while dentures may be easier to look after they will never be as comfortable or as functional as my original set.
This needs to be way higher up, I can't stress how important it is to brush atleast twice a day, especially before bed.
Visit The Doctor, Everyone!
Neglecting your own health. Used to think I'm damn near invincible because I'm still young. Worked about 70hours a week just for that damn raise. Neglected health check ups just because I can.
Got diagnosed with Glaucoma and my left eye is quite f*cked up. Not sure what the future holds for me but I'm damn sure taking care of my body now.
Don't Do It Just BECAUSE
A relationship for the sake of having a relationship
Or getting married because you want to be married
Or getting married/having a kid because you think it will fix your currently rocky relationship!
Do It For Yourself
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Picking a career path to fulfill your parents' dream.
It almost ruined my self-identity. Currently I am doing a course I like at a university of my choice. I might have destroyed my relationship with my mother but for the sake of my own sanity it was worth it.
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Of course, most of the time, it was “just a phase". And looking back, those phases are regrettable, to say the least. Here are some prime examples of that.
SirGergoyFriendman asked:
What was your biggest/most regrettable "It's not a phase, mom. It's my life." that, in fact, turned out to be just a phase and not your life?
The enthusiasm of a young person can lead to some unexpected changes that parents are just not ready for.
Hi, Wheeljack!
I was VERY into The Transformers when I was a wee lad in the 1980s. One day, I decided to change my name to the name of my favorite Autobot. My name was lame, and I wanted an awesome Transformer name. And I was VERY insistent that my parents only call me by my new name. Calling me by my 'old' name would cause a big fat tantrum on my part.
So for the better part of a week, my poor parents had to call me Wheeljack.
Very 2008.
Ariana Grande Shrug GIFGiphyMy cat-ear phase. I wore cat ears every single day. Everywhere. I had like 20 pairs of them. Now everyone thinks I'm a furry.
I find that very cute and wouldn't have thought you'd be furry. Even if you'd had cat mittens. I think my suspicions would have started if you moved a bit like a cat, displayed catlike grooming habits or got a cat mask.
Not gonna lie, that car sounds cool.
I went to a car show once as a teen, and the only newer car there was some chick's PT cruiser. It was hot glittery pink, and at the time I was obsessed. I insisted that one day I would have a hot pink car, with pink seats, pink dash, pink carpets, etc. I was pretty heavily goth at the time, so my parents just rolled their eyes.
These phases can often lead to some very strange fashion choices.
That’s commitment.
When I was a teenager (early 00s), I was waiting for my mother to pick me up and was wearing one of those sh!tty sports wristwatches. It was itching me so I took it off for a second, but then she arrived and because I was struggling to get it back on my wrist, I looped it around the equally sh!tty chain I had around my neck in a rush to get out the door.
My mom asked me about it in the car, and I told her this was my new style and I planned to wear it like that every day. She rolled her eyes.
I wore that watch on a chain around my neck every single day for 3 years or so. There are even professional family photos where I'm wearing it because I refused to take it off.
One day, the chain broke and I lost the watch. I was in high school at that point anyway and it was a major lady repellent, so... phase over.
Not everyone can be Eminem.
slim shady eminem GIFGiphyBaggy pants, being a rapper someday and being a professional skater.
When I was about 14 and Eminem was starting to blow up I bought myself a keyboard with a synthesizer. It cost like $200 which was all the money I had saved up. It finally came (this was way before amazon prime and such) and I tried rapping.
My sister told me "you're effing horrible" and I gave up right then and there.
This should be a sin.
I used to button the top buttons of polo shirts.
I must say, this is probably the worst one I've read.
Looking back at our regrettable choices, all we can do is cringe.
An optimistic look at bad tattoos.
check me out season 3 GIF by PortlandiaGiphyBeing a tattooer. Regrettable because of those poor people who have my awful doodles on their bodies.
Take heart! My favorite tattoo is the one I drunkenly got my buddy to do in his living room one year during March Madness! It's dumb and frankly mediocre? But such a good story and has such good associations I smile every time I see it.
RIP Fredro’s.
My friend and I decided we were going to open a bar in Jamaica with exotic snakes in glass cages in the walls at each booth. We convinced ourselves it would be amazing for at least two years in college. It was going to be called Fredro's.
My entire family made fun of me for it. Once we got out of college, we realized it was not feasible and joined the office grind. We're also two white guys with no ties to Jamaica.
Talk about cringey.
I wore a top hat with an anime pin on it for around a year. Met one of my current best friends while wearing it, idk how he could bear to speak to me after that.
My weirdest phase was probably when I insisted on wearing knee-high rainbow socks to school every day. But honestly, I don't regret it. I rocked those socks, and I wish I still have a pair.
To all the people out there cringing over their past selves, remember that you were just a kid, and to be easy on yourselves. After all, we've all been there
Yet, too often, manufacturers who oversell their products fail to deliver what is promised and are inevitably left with angry customers who want their money back.
Whether the merchandise was defective or ridiculously overpriced, strangers online shared some of their worst purchases when Redditor BooksMcGee asked:
"What is the worst product you ever paid money for?"
Short Life Span
"This NERF gun that's supposed to shoot tennis balls for your dog. I bought it cause I thought you could load 3 at a time and shoot them far, but it's just one and it's super loud and the gun broke after like 4 shots (reading reviews later, this was a common issue)."
Lame Pets
"There were these toys called squiggles when I was a kid and the commercials made it seem like the toy was alive. It looked like you would get this crazy little fuzzy worms as pets that would follow you around an so sick tricks and listen to your every command. It was really just a piece of fluffy string tied to another piece of string with googly eyes on it. People may say that it was supposed to be a magic trick but they should also explain that to a 5 year old who really wanted a pet."
Card Value
"Not their fault, but I paid $70 for a Yugioh card hours before it was limited to one copy. Probably dropped to $20 by the end of the day."
These purchases were bad for your bum.
"A bicycle that literally fell apart before I made it out of the parking lot."
Not Worth Sitting On
"Joybird brand couch. Was so terrible, we returned it. Still hard to believe, we returned a freaking couch."
Going Nowhere Fast
"A 2000 VW Beetle (used)."
"Biggest piece of sh*t that literally had to have just about everything replaced before 100k miles and would still break down every time you left the driveway to the point where the tow-truck driver knew us on a first-name basis."
Expensive Lemon
"An Oldsmobile Achieva from one of those buy here pay here places. I should have known better, but I was young and thought I was getting a good deal. I had the thing for about 5 months, I drove it for maybe 3 weeks. The rest of the time it was either in the shop, or in my driveway waiting until pay day so I could afford to fix whatever broke on it this week. Eventually told the dealer just take it, I'm not paying for it any more. He said nope, and I will make sure your credit is ruined. I said well you sold me a lemon, do you really want to go this route? He came and took it. Never reported anything to credit. I heard he got sued by several other people who sold sh**ty cars too and eventually went out of business."
"Always amazes me when I see them driving around still, I can only assume there's enthusiasts who just love repairing horribly designed cars."
– zerbey
These Redditors were not convinced what they ingested was edible.
Bad Cereal
"A box of plain Cheerios. Thought they were honey nut, poured a bowl, was very disappointed."
"If I wanted to taste cardboard, I'd just eat the box."
– gor8884
Space Pizza
"A burnt frozen pizza at the air and space museum cafe in DC. I Don't wish that experience on anyone. There are some amazing restaurants in DC, don't settle."
– Alseids
The following electronics just gave off a bad charge.
"Asus Transformer Pad TF700"
"This was one of those early 'high end' Android tablets that was grossly underpowered, and it showed. Thing was slow as sh!t in no time flat. Rookie mistake investing into shiny new tech while they were still working all the bugs out. Think I paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $350-400 for it..."
– Luke5119
Bad Apple
"macbook pro 2018 13" touchbar. 2 years old and dead (battery). they're asking $300-$400 to change the battery. malfunctioning keyboard with double presses and missing presses. that's a lot of money for bad design."
Chilly Reception
"Past winter my old room heater broke down and I had to buy a new one. Went to a store nearby and somehow got convinced to buy a very costly heating device.. It's also my fault, since there were some sligthly cheaper options around, but nope. I wanted the expensive one thinking it will make my small room a volcano with little to no effort/cost (that's also what the seller told me). Long story short the device wasn't doing ANYTHING. No significant temperature changes, too much space, a weird noise, and was doubling my previous device in utility cost. I still gloom over those 80 euros.."
Some of my disappointing purchases was clothing, but only because I purchased them online. Unless they are a brand I'm familiar with, I'm usually fine with buying new jeans off of their websites.
But when it comes to graphic tees only available on specialty shops, an M-size shirt is not necessarily the same size as those found in other reputable stores.
I bought a medium sized T-shirt from a boutique store online because I loved the look of the design. But when it arrived, the supposed medium fit me like an XL.
At least I gained a fierce cleaning rag from this impulsive purchase.