People Explain Which Things They Wish They Started Doing Earlier In Life
| Image by Jose Antonio Alba from Pixabay |
Time flies... before you know it, it's gone. Suppose there are things you really want to do: Getting into certain habits is a lot easier to do when you're younger. It's a lot easier to go to the gym and exercise on a regular basis, for example, when you're in 20s than when you're in your 30s, 40s, or 50s.
But there's nothing wrong with starting nowāāyou'll notice the benefits eventually.
After Redditor Tr0az asked the online community, "What do you wish you started doing from a young age?" people shared their stories.
"I should have saved more..."
Saving money, and spending responsibly. I should have saved more when I lived at home and had no commitments.
"The kind of thing..."
Being kinder. I'm talking habitual kindness. The kind of thing where you do it so much you get a reputation for it and it comes more naturally than being disinterested/a d!ck.
"It's weird because..."
Making friends.
I can talk to large congregations with ease, participate in debates and discussions and shine.
I, however, do not have friends.
It's weird because you'd expect me to have great social skills and all. I have no idea how to make small talk, or just talk to anyone normally. I can't understand what their responses are and make an appropriate response to it. I can talk about Math, Harry Potter, Earthsea, Stalin, Yuval Noah Harari and a lot more. I can't talk with people. I don't feel lonely, but my parents are upset and I wish for their sake, I'd learn to appear more normal.
"Within a month..."
Taking medication for my OCD.
I started on medication when I was 12, which sounds relatively young, but I wish my parents had out me on medication sooner. I missed out on most of my childhood. I had so much psychotherapy as a child, which did basically nothing. Within a month on medication, I had essentially no symptoms. I suffered for years when a pill a day could have alleviated it.
"I tried learning..."
Studying music. I tried learning how to read music as a teen (privately, not school) and hated every second of it. KodƔly can kiss my arse with his idiotic overcomplicated system. Notes have fixed names! Use those!
"I was politely asked..."
Yoga! I was politely asked to leave my youth gymnastics club as a little kid because I didn't have the attention span but I wish I'd carried on with some form of bendy, stretchy exercise. I get by alright as I'm only 29, but I think if I'd done yoga I'd feel a lot fitter and more youthful.
"There is nothing in this world..."
Learn about investments. Not just financial investments, but personal commitments as well. There is nothing in this world worth having that will come to you without some time and money invested.
"Being open-minded..."
Being open-minded about food. I was a very picky eater and now I'm mad at myself for missing out on so many delicious foods for so long.
"In general..."
In general, I wished that I had developed the idea that discipline is important for everything early on. A new language, an instrument, your studies. It does not matter. By sticking to it you will get better. And if you stick to it long enough, you will get some nice skills later on.
Nothing is stopping me to start these things now, tho. I am really excited for this year.
"I'm tall..."
Ballet. I'm tall and naturally graceful and I always always wanted to do it. Being one of four children of blue-collar parents it just wasn't in the cards for me. I tried a 100 level course in college and loved it but I was so far behind I get really self-conscious and dropped it.
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TV enthusiasts could argue that shows on television are a more compelling and superior form for media entertainment.
A story arc can be played out to its fullest potential without shortchanging the audience with a two-and-a-half hour duration of a film.
While movies are in their own category, TV showsāincluding short miniseriesācan engage an audience over a span of seasons as long as there is more stories to tell.
Some TV shows break away from the formula and can feature anthologyāor standaloneāepisodes that are impressive in their own right.
Whether it's a featured independent storyline or a memorable moment within a show's season, Redditor stevenpost asked:
"What's the greatest episode of a tv show ever made?"
These comedic shows offered up plenty of memorable laughs.
From "The Simpsons"
"Marge v. the Monorail"
ā bloom_picayune
That Dark Mockumentary
"What we do in the shadows - 'On the Run' (the Jackie Daytona episode)"
ā Bakedalaska1
Such A Snakehole
"The snake juice episode of Parks and Rec."
ā GuinessForDinner
Touching Cameo
"The scrubs episode with Brendan Frasier. I didn't know a 22 min show could make me cry."
ā metarinka
This classic TV show still resonates with newer viewers.
It's Hard To Choose
"The twilight zone episode monsters are due on maple street"
"The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices... to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill... and suspicion can destroy... and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its ownāfor the children and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined to the Twilight Zone."
"Will the real Martian please stand up is also a classic"
"Incident on a small island, to be believed or disbelieved. However, if a sour-faced dandy named Ross or a big, good-natured counterman who handles a spatula as if he'd been born with one in his mouth, ā if either of these two entities walk onto your premises, you'd better hold their hands ā all three of them ā or check the color of their eyes ā all three of them. The gentlemen in question might try to pull you in ā to The Twilight Zone."
ā theMothman1966
Here are some hauntingly compelling examples.
Based On The Tragic Event
"Chernobyl- Vichnaya Pamyat"
ā hambone10
'... they mistakenly sent the one good man. For God's sakes Boris, you were the one who mattered the most.'
"Not the best line of that episode, but definitely in the top."
ā LysWritesNow
Shoutout To Firefighters
"Itās difficult for me to pick a 'best episode' from Chernobyl because in my mind itās possibly the best television ever made from start to finish. Pacing is fast and thereās literally not a wasted shot in the entire series."
"Open Wide, O Earth is my honorable mention episode just for the inclusion of the firefighters. Full-blown body horror that hits even harder because itās based on stuff that actually happened. The show has lots of excellent horror sequences but the firefighters arc definitely stands out as the most memorable to me."
ā Hefty_Tendy
Picard's Wakeup Call
"The Inner Light - Star Trek TNG"
ā Doit2it42
The Gripping Tracking Shot
"'Who goes there' of True Detective is a serious adrenaline ride. Great episode from a fantastic show."
ā Smoque_
The Face Off
"Better Call Saul - Chicanery."
ā earhere
One of the best episodes I've seen recently was from the penultimate episode of This Is Us.
After taking a break from watching the show after being overwhelmed with being behind, I was encouraged to keep watching it. I'm glad I did.
Not only did this particular episode profoundly give the beautiful show a worthy send-off, but it also helped me process a lot of emotions as I continue to struggle to deal with a family member living with a cruel mental illness.
Everyone has insecurities.
Be it speaking in public, wearing beach attire, or even one's profession, very few people don't have at least one topic of conversation that is bound to make them red in the face.
Some people are pretty adept at hiding their discomfort and can manage to persevere through their phobias with their dignity intact.
Others are not so lucky and often go to great lengths to hide their insecurities, only to make them even more apparent.
"What screams 'Iām insecure'?"
The Wisest People Are Those Always Willing To Learn
"When people are unable to admit that they donāt know something."- slimytoads
not listening no way GIFGiphyOther People's Success Are Not Your Failures
"Mocking someone else's achievement."- SuvenPan
Never Pick Yourself Up By Taking Others Down
"Belittling others."- Term-Haunting
"Always talking badly about others and trying to make them look weak/bad."- Pildith
The Simpsons GIF by MOODMANGiphyMaybe Honesty Isn't Always The Best Policy...
"When you're quick to be 'brutally honest' with others, but have a meltdown when someone does it back to you."-eF240uKX52hp
Not As Funny As They Think...
"People who tear other people down as a joke but then get mad when they get it handed back to them."
"Clearly they either arenāt joking or are too sensitive to be dishing out sh*t."- babythrottlepop
Being On Top Adds More Possibilities Of Falling Down...
"Trying to one-up people in every conversation."- Flanky_Bwai
"One upping people in conversation."
"If I tell you I had a great trip to X place, I donāt need to hear about your better trip to someplace else thatās ostensibly 'better'."- I_Am_The_Grapevine
kristen wiig television GIF by Saturday Night LiveGiphySome Things Speak For Themselves...
"Constantly saying what kind of person you are."
"If you were, you wouldnāt have to tell us."- ubereddit
A Little Contrition Goes A Long Way...
"Never apologizing."
"Making excuses and even twisting the facts but never apologize."- SuvenPan
But Enough About Me, What Do You Think Of Me?
"Constant projection and self-serving compliments."- nhabz
Look At Me Kiki GIF by The Bachelor AustraliaGiphyWhat Are They Even Trying To Prove?
"Revving your vehicle loudly every time you pass another person."- msnmck
Superior By Association
ā'You will address me by my husbandās rank!'ā- Psychological-Stay16
PDA Much?
"Elaborate Instagram and Facebook posts declaring love for oneās significant other over and over and over."- jbmaun
Happy Married At First Sight GIF by LifetimeGiphyAlways Needing Validation
"People who canāt think or feel anything without being told that itās okay to do so."- Diesel07012012
It's sad that so many people think the only way to overcome something which makes them embarrassed or afraid is by embarrassing or demeaning others.
When being open and honest about your insecurities might, instead, result in your finding common ground with others.
And making new, lifelong friends in the process.
People Confess Which Things From Their Childhood They Thought Were Normal Until They Were An Adult
Every family has customs or traditions which are unique to them.
Be it all gathering together to watch The Muppet Christmas Carol every Christmas eve or an annual fried chicken picnic with dark and stormies every fourth of July. They are well aware not everyone does this, which makes it all the more special.
However, depending on the way it was introduced to them, some children are raised to think certain customs or habits done by their family are, indeed, normal.
Only to grow up and realize that theirs might have been the only family in the world which partook in them.
In some cases, this discovery is met with laughs and maybe the tiniest bit of embarrassment.
Other times, it's no laughing matter.
"What's something about your childhood that you thought was normal at the time but realiszd as an adult that it wasn't?"
Seemed Like A Good Idea, Until You Read Why...
"Having a cooler in the car."
"My parents always packed one, there were cokes and waters in it."
"The weird part was there was also always beer in it."
"Didn't matter if we were going 12 hours or 1 hour, they packed a cooler."
"Didn't realize how much my mom was drinking until years later when she become a non-functioning alcoholic."- IslandsOnTheCoastĀ·
Dad Of The Year!
"When i was a kid I thought that all the Korean candy stores were free."
"Like you could go in, take what you wanted and leave."
"I would make friends with other Korean kids, take them to my favorite candy stores and tell them to help themselves. which they did."
"So apparently, whenever we'd visit my family in Korea, my dad would talk to all the candy shop owners in the neighborhood and tell them to put anything me or my friends took, on a tab."
"Maybe it was because i barely even spoke korean, but that whole situation just seemed perfectly f*ckin normal to my oblivious little self."- yaybunz
Boundaries Exist For A Reason
"In hind sight I realize that what I thought was 'freedom' was actually neglect."
"Kids aren't supposed to be left to themselves in such a degree that they end up raising themselves."
"From personal experience doing so leads to a lot of misunderstandings on how things are supposed to be."- HattkakeĀ·
A Little Sensitivity Does Go A Long Way
"Being really sensitive to people's emotions because you never know if they could be in a bad mood."
"Turns out I learned that from my dad to make sure I don't make it worse."- UpstairsDifficult966
Think Carefully If You Have What It Takes To Be A Parent...
"Parents aren't supposed to make fun of their kids, complain about what they have to do for their children, and break down when they don't feel validated by their own child."- Doobledorf
"My mom never cooked, and there would be a lot of nights where I went without food because she didn't buy any."
"I thought it was normal for a mom to sleep the majority of the day."
"In reality she was always f*cked up on painkillers."
"Then, with my grandmother, she was controlling over whatever clothes, shoes, and how my hair looked."
"I always had to look like a good Christian boy."- Additional-Soup3853
Wait, what?
"I was in college before I learned that you don't have to get your mother a gift for your birthday because 'she's the one that did all the work that day'."- lylertila
Kind Of Sad To Think Self-Sufficiency Is So Rare...
"Being able to fix things myself."
"My dad is an engineer and throughout my childhood we'd come up with random creative projects to build stuff, he'd show me how to fix things and what safety precautions to look out for."
"Now if something happens at my flat I know how to fix it (or I call my dad and he'll guide me)."
"My boyfriend and friends have no idea how I know this stuff or how to do these things themselves, I always thank my Dad!"
"It's great because I get to save a lot of money, and I've saved money for my friends too!"
"Also, it means a lot to me because at the time and the town I was in girls weren't encouraged to do engineering, but my dad didn't care."
'I was little girl and thought it was essential for me to know how to do these things myself."
'I think he also hoped I'd one day become an engineer!"- imhere2913
Sadly, Not As Common As You Thiink...
"My parents were happily married and our home was happy and loving."- IllChampionship5
"Actually liking your parents/siblings/family."
"Almost everyone I know can't stand the people they grew up with, which I find strange."- ThatDukeGuy
Making A Custom Even More Meaningful
"Every Christmas my parents would buy me and my siblings one Christmas ornament to decorate the tree, which typically highlighted a special event or something important or a topic we were highly interested in that year."
"The tree started off rather bare at first, but after five kids and twenty-five years, that thing was filled from top to bottom, and shows a history of our lives."
"I thought it was how everyone decorated family home Christmas trees for awhile, but apparently itās pretty unique to us."- RummelNation
Leading To A Massive Vocabulary No Doubt...
"Having a room full of dictionaries."
"I was baffled when I met kids in secondary school (as an adult doing a teacher training course at the time) who didn't even understand the basics of how to use one in their own language, let alone a two-language one."
"My dad was a translator so growing up it was just a normal thing, and I would sometimes just take one and look up random words in different languages for fun."- MrLuxarina
Unbelievable That This Isn't Normal
"Being taught to care about everybody, regardless of race, religion, or politics."
"We were lower middle-class farmers and we played with everyone."
"Everybody was welcome in my parents home."
"We had a ginormous garden and my parents gave our neighbors food out of it."
"My parents taught if you give out love, itās returned 10 fold."
"Needless to say that bit us in the butt some times."
"But my parents died living and believing that."- SCGranny64
Not Exactly Normal, But Far too Commonplace
"When it would rain we would put pots and pans down to catch the drips."
'I would be sent to go have a slumber party with cousins whenever the electricity would get cut off due to nonpayment."
"I thought it was commonplace for people to go thru stuff like that."- RacksDiciprine
Ultimately, everyone's childhood is unique.
Many are grateful to learn just how unusual or special their childhood is.
For others, the discovery proves to be far too little too late.
Do you have something to add? Let us know in the comments.
It might be super easy to find the lyrics to a song now that we've all got the entirety of the internet in our pockets, but it didn't used to be so simple. Unless you owned the album, and it was one that actually came with the lyrics on the sleeve/in the case, you just kind of had to guess if the words were unclear.
This led to some extremely amusing, and sometimes mortifyingly embarrassing, misheard lyrics.
Redditor 23andrewb asked:
"What's the your favorite example of misheard lyrics?"
Purple Haze
"Jimi Hendix Purple Haze: ''scuse me while I kiss this guy'"
- Alone_Employment7914
"Roommate back in the day, who would have been about 18 in 1970, told me that Hendrix was aware of the alternate interpretation, and he would gesture at Noel Redding and say ''scuse me while I kiss this guy.'"
- corvid_booster
Bad Moon Rising
"CCR - bad mood rising 'There's a bathroom on the right.'"
- revs201
"That's what I thought as a kid. Still say it now because it's funny."
- br1zzle11
What A Wonderful World
"I see skies of blue And clouds of white The bright blessed day The dogs say goodnight"
- twoferrets
"I woke up my dog laughing at this one."
- UnfaithfulMilitant
"Did the dog say good night?"
- The_Orphanage_42
Why Is Everyone Singing About Lorain?
"I want to know, have you ever seen Lorain."
- Tolbitzironside
"I can see Clearly now, Lorain is gone!"
- AtheneSchmidt
"And I wonder, still I wonder. Who'll stop Lorain."
- legoman_86
"I can't stand Lorain, on my window..."
- Reindeer-Street
"As a child I used to sing 'I can see clearly now Lorraine has gone' and always wondered what poor Lorraine did that was so bad."
- PheonixKernow
Gimme The Beach Boys
"Give me The Beach Boys and free my soul, I wanna get lost in your Rock and Rollā¦"
- ChicagoSly
"Wait thatās not the actual lyric?"
- Guilty-Ad-2762
"Hahah. Nope! Beat Boys"
-ChicagoSly
Moves Like Jagger
"'remove my jacket' Instead of 'moves like jagger' Boy I felt dumb."
- wesleybg
"Moobs like Jagger."
- SheitelMacher
"Iāve got the moose vagina! I got that moose vagina! I got that moOose vagina"
- lilfrostgiant
Africa
"I guess it rains down in Africa?"
- walkingtalkingdread
"Iām still somewhat embarrassed to say that I thought it was 'god bless the maids down in Africa'. Thought it was some sort of weird political statement."
- StoopidTumbleweeds
"I wept the drains down in aaafrica isn't right then?"
- enava
"I always heard it as 'I miss the rains down in Africa' and thought that sounded so lovely and melancholic. I was so disappointed by the real lyric lmao"
- milkpen
Hit Me With Your Best Shot
"Hit me with a wet sock, FIRE AWAY!!!!!"
- SpaceTroutCat
Sweet Dreams
"Sweet dreams are made of cheese, who am i to disagree"
- __botulism__
"Can't argue that!"
- ATGF
Applause ... or Applesauce?
"When I was 14 my dad was driving me to my boyfriends house. On the way over āApplauseā by Lady Gaga came on & my dad sang 'I live for the applesauce applesauce applesauce.' I busted out laughing and mocking him."
"Laughed so hard he turned the car around and took me home."
- Dependent_Border9912
Regulate
"Regulate - Nate Dogg + Warren G. "I can't believe, they're taking Lawrence Welk".
"I used to hear this song and wonder 'Why is a smooth Gangsta like Warren G listening to Lawrence Welk, and why are these thugs stealing his Lawrence Welk records specifically?'"
"Then someone corrected me. 'They're taking Warren's wealth.'"
- ConansMonorail
Here I Go Again
"Song: "Here I Go Again" by Whitesnake. Lyric: 'Like a drifter I was born to wear cologne'"
- Intensity_In10Cities
Tiny Dancer
"My favorite misheard lyric is 'Hold me closer, Tony Danza' instead of 'Hold me closer, tiny dancer' by Elton John."
- Queasy_Bus_9388
"Count the head lice on the highway."
- spavolka
Reelin' In The Years
"Steely Dan, instead of 'Are you reelin' in the years?', got 'Are you really into yeast?'"
- snitterisagooddog
"I always heard 'reelin' in the East' but like your version better, lol"
- FarNet2606
You Oughta Know
"'It's not fair, to deny me Of the crosseyed bear that you gave to me You, you, you oughta know' -Alanis Morissette"
"How could you take her crosseyed bear Dave Coulier"
- lindsasaurusreks
Have you ever embarrassingly misheard the lyrics to a song? How long did it take for you to realize, or for someone to correct you? Let us know in the comments.