I'm all for people wearing their hearts on their sleeves and crying from watching emotional movies.
I was never that person. Maybe for the longest time, I thought crying was a sign of weakness and I didn't give in.
That is until I watched The Color Purple and sobbed after witnessing Nettie and Celie reuniting after 30 years.
Still gets me every time.
Curious to hear from strangers online and of their most vulnerable moments, Redditor CSCW asked:
"What never fails to make you tear up or cry?"
Death
Whether it's a family member or a hospital staff, witnessing a person's last breath is something that can stay with you forever.
The Note
"My late partner passed away from leukemia at 38 years old. He hid a letter for me in our room in case he didn't make it. It's the most beautiful and eloquent thing I've ever read."
"He talks about regretting not being able to see my hair turn Grey, or seeing me accomplish my dreams. He gives me permission to fall in love again, be messy, and move forward. The level of support is so encouraging. It's also a heartbreaking read and I've only read it 3 times. I will read it again on the 2 year date of his passing at the end of this month."
The Son
"Thinking about how poorly I treated my dad when he was still alive. He was always trying to find things in common with me to connect with me. When I found out he liked something I also liked, I just changed my mind and found it uncool. I looked down on the tv shows he liked and didn't realize until later that he had an awesome taste for quality campy television like The Adventures of Brisco County Junior and other classics from that era of 90s syndicated television. If I knew him now he'd be my best friend. I did try to connect with him in the last few years of his life but he had dementia by then and couldn't follow things I knew he would have found interesting before."
"His last words to me were 'It hurts' while I held his hand during catheterization on his last trip to the hospital. I was too embarrassed from seeing his penis to offer any true comfort."
The Patient
"One particular patient I had working in a trauma center. 19 year old girl I'd never seen before, and didn't know at all. She was ejected from a vehicle and then crushed because her boyfriend was trying to show off. I was training new staff, and they were at the end of their training so I was only in the room to provide supervision and step in if necessary and I spent the entire trauma holding her hand (on her request) and trying to comfort her and keep her mind off of the injuries to both of her legs."
"Her last words were spoken directly to me: 'this really hurts. Can I go to sleep?'"
"I cried for days after. I've never had a patient's death hit me as hard before or after."
Pets
Losing a pet can cause as much grief as losing a family member.
Dog's Last Day
"Thinking about my dogs last day. She was 17 years old and her organs were shutting down. Before we took her to get put down she was in the backyard eating her food. She walked slowly to us while wagging her tail and we took her. When we got home to bury her I looked over at her dog bowl and there was still a bit of food in it. Kills me every time I think of it."
Irreplaceable
"When my dog died I thought of taking her to get put down but she was so scared of the vet that I couldn't let her last moments be full of fear. I sat with her all night, she stopped eating, she couldn't move much, she couldn't control her bladder, but I still sat with her. I kissed her on the head and told her I'd be okay and not too lonely, it was ok for her to go when she was ready. A few minutes later she let out a little yelp and that was it. That was 5 years ago and I haven't been able to get another pet since because I don't know if I can go through that again."
Goodbye, Mortimer
"Thinking of that abandoned little kitten I found. I called him Mortimer. Tried to keep him alive. Bottle feeding him. Keeping him warm, skin to skin. Staying awake through most of the night. Calling in sick day after day to stay with kitty. Emergency vet scheduling with them saying he probably won't make it."
"Kitty didn't make it. It's when my oldest cat slowly stalked up to the cat, nudging her nose against Mortimer's head. Mortimer didn't move. Didn't react. I put him in a shoebox with his blanket... So he would not be cold."
"Buried him and left a little pebble for a tombstone."
"That was twenty years ago."
"I'm sorry, Mortimer. I couldn't save you."
Movies And Music
People connect to songs and films because it resonates on a certain level.
"Cant help falling in love - elvis"
"Was supposed to be the song my sister and her fiancee danced to at her wedding. Instead it was played walking into the church, at his funeral, after he took his own life."
"My poor sis was so strong that day, but that song still gets us both."
Moving Monologue
"The ending monologue of movie The Shawshank Redemption. 'I find I'm so excited I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.'"
Emotional Ending
"The end of Homeward Bound."
"Especially when Shadow says 'Peter! You're ok!'"
"Like, they went through all of that and almost died multiple times and Shadow was just glad to know Peter was ok."
"Get's me every time."
"I Could Have Got More..." – Schindler's List
"As a grandchild of Holocaust survivors, I'm fairly desensitized to the more graphic imagery, but that is absolutely the toughest part to watch. What is the value of a human life? A ring, a watch, a meager everyday object is all that the life of a family member may be worth."
– codisinc
Effects Of Aging
"Strategically placed albums from my youth."
"If I am half drunk and someone begins to play the album 'Four Cornered Night' by Jets to Brazil, I will become uncharacteristically nostalgic, and then openly sob at the idea of how good I was at being 18 years old, vs how sh**ty I am at being 38 years old."
"Getting old is weird."
Reading about pet-owners losing their beloved furry companion is exactly the reason why I have never owned a cat or a dog.
I'm afraid of getting too emotionally attached to them to the point where I suffer a grief comparable to losing family or a close friend.
But then I think about how much I'm missing out on the rewards and constant love that comes with being a pet owner.
Maybe it's worth making a trip to the local shelter.
An unwillingness to learn
"I feel like the classic example is being unable to change your opinion or idea when you are presented with new information."
"You don’t have to set everything you believe in stone."- Rusty_of_Shackleford
"I think a key thing that separates the intelligent from the less intelligent is curiosity and how far you actually go to learn."- TuxedoWolf07
When even they don't know what they're talking about.
"Maybe not unintelligence but ignorance."
"People getting angry when I ask them to explain what they just meant as I want to understand them and not misunderstand."- smokinstuff·
"Getting angry when someone ask them to explain their point."- SuvenPan
Working Julie Andrews GIFGiphyIt's never attractive to gloat
"Obsessively telling everybody how intelligent you are."- terribleUsername18
It's ok to admit defeat every now and then...
"Playing 'last word' in an argument you've lost."- LennonMcCartney65
"Being defensive when corrected instead of just accepting it."- Marthstewart123
"Claiming they are always right but not being able to argument why or have a serious debate about it."- GReatChinook
Drop The Mic GIF by In Real LifeGiphyAre you sure about that?
"Constantly saying 'facts' that are extremely false."
"Gets on my nerves."- Sharkifish
Read the instructions!!!
"I just started driving for UberXL."
"The amount of people who think they can fit 8 people with all their luggage into a midsize SUV is astonishing."
"You can see which car comes to pick you up and it says fits 5 people."
"If you have a piece of luggage each then it's more like 3 people."
"I had one group sit there and stare me down like they didn't understand."
"I swear some people just have a mental limit for figuring things out and they all find each other and never get anywhere."- predict_irrational
One should always reserve judgment, as one never knows for sure what lurks beneath the surface.
Even if more often and not, you are left with little to nothing which encourages you to see what's there.
Overprotective parents tend to be evasive about discussing the birds and the bees with their kids because they feel it's not up to them to have that conversation.
Remember Carrie White's religious mom who refused to talk about intimacy with her 16-year-old?
We all know how that turned out in the classic Stephen King novel.
Anyway, parents turning down an opportunity to have the uncomfortable convo or having their kids miss out on sex education can lead a child to potentially develop damaging misunderstandings about their body and puberty.
The effects of which were explored when Redditor sparklingshanaya asked:
"What’s a sexual misconception you had for way too long?"
It helps to have an earlier understanding about your body when you're younger.
Sex Education
"As a girl, I had no real idea of where/what the vagina was until I was like 11 or 12. My mom didn't give me a real sex talk, just a puberty/body book that said 'the vagina is between the woman's legs' and just had a full frontal diagram (legs closed) of a woman with an arrow pointing to her pelvic region. I also didn't know a period lasted longer than a day until I got mine at 14, and then wondered why it was still going on the next day."
"When my mom realized how abysmal my sex education was, her solution was to rent a video from the library about it and make me watch it on the big family TV in the living room at like 3pm. Granted— it was a very educational video but I won't ever forget one of the educators (a 50 year old woman) talking about how to give a satisfactory blow job."
– ash-on-fire
Hard Epiphany
"Ok so I grew up in a VERY conservative household. Was not allowed to take sex ed in middle school and they helicoptered in high school. Any internet access they had access to view so I never watched porn/looked at pics. Absolutely nothing. So for a long time I thought penises were shaped like a smaller pringles can. I thought it was just like...a straight up cylinder. Moved out at 17 and googled some things and man I had men's anatomy SO wrong."
– WholeLottaIntrovert
Wrong End Of The Stick
"Friend of mine has a similar background and I just about lost my mind when she said the balls are the END of the penis. Like she had seen those doodles and had it upside down so they just dangle off the end of the shaft lmaooo."
– xchakrumx
Let's get verbal about getting oral.
Satisfy A Woman
"Learn to go down on a woman, like become a master at it. Do this."
– ecallawsamoht
Excuse For Supper
"I second this. Been married for 20 years and it's something I'm happy to do."
"Get involved, people."
"Edit: thanks for the medals and upvotes, people! Be assured that I'll be celebrating tonight."
– AhabVanCleef
Semantics
"Friend of a friend thought it meant kissing. And they were like 19. So glad they found out through a conversation and not through a dude asking for it, or her talking about it. That would've been extremely confusing for everyone."
– SilverWaters793
Pucker Up
"My friend back in middle school thought a blowjob meant to literally blow on it. I still tease her about it to this day."
– Ashurii_desu
Failed Expectations
"Man, I thought I was gonna get so many blow jobs. That’s just not true."
– Studying_Politics
As young adolescents, these Redditors got these terminologies mixed up.
Dirty Talk
"When I was around middle school age I thought that oral sex meant talking dirty :’)"
– strawbrykat
"I used to sext with my girlfriend in high school. When we broke up, she just went crazy and told everyone in our grade that I was great at 'oral sex' (she meant sexting💀) School hasn’t been the same since then."
– Particular-Ad4356
Learning By Example
"I was kind of sheltered growing up, and like most sheltered kids, I learned a lot about sex through porn. I kept seeing 'blowjob' videos, and (i had no idea what a blowjob) assumed it was some kind of sex blooper. Like, something got messed up and the director said 'Oh darn, you blew it! Let’s take it from the top.'”
– Danny_my_boy
I had sex education in sixth grade after my parents gave the school permission for me to attend the special assembly centering on the topic.
But I remember how vague the instructor was. By the time I eventually had my first nocturnal emission, I remember being terrified, yet simultaneously elated. It was very confusing, and I didn't know what happened.
I remember reflecting back to sixth grade and thinking the school must've skipped that part in sex ed.