Ah the good ole days of yore. The time when we believed the world was against us and education was a prison. Lord we knew nothing. Those days were the best we had. Ok, well maybe for many school wasn't a picnic but, there had to be some moments of joy. We all hold memories that last and bring a smile. Don't we?
Redditor u/hellohuman122 wanted everyone to share the best days of their lives, even though we didn't know it by asking.... What was a good memory you had when you were in school?The Loft
read suicide squad GIFGiphyMy 3rd grade class had a "reading loft". It was a pretty good sized "fort" (probably taking up 1/3 of the classroom) covered in carpet and had lots of cool places to hang out if you wanted to read. The teacher incentivized us to finish work early so we could grab a book and head to the "reading loft" so we didn't have to hang out at our desks being bored.
One day in math.....
I got bullied a lot in middle school. One day in math I'd just been overwhelmed and couldn't take anymore so I called my dad and begged him to pick me up. He told me I'd be alright and just ignore it. 20 minutes later I got called to the office for check out and he took me to get my favorite food and spent the afternoon in the park with me. RIP old man, that was one of the best days of my entire life.
Being Strange....
In third grade, it was some reading appreciation week, and we decided as a class to visit a cemetery. Granted it's a pretty famous cemetery with a couple of really important people buried there, and we had a scavenger hunt to find them. Along with like the oldest grave we could find, the biggest, and we had to make a rubbing of one of our choosing. As a strange child, it was the best field trip I had ever been on.
Can you hear me now?
can you hear me now GIF by BET AwardsGiphyWhen I was in second grade, I got bullied because my whole family was deaf. One kid kept picking on me everyday. Well one day he came up to me and started screaming, saying can your mom hear me, and this tall girl stepped in and punched him in the face. She got suspended, but no one ever made fun of me again. We became best friends after that.
You're Exiled.
I got banned from reading in class because I'd finish my work early and pull out a book. The teachers would always say I wouldn't pay attention.
So I started writing and doodling. Then the teachers started confiscating my pencil and paper, saying I wouldn't pay attention.
So I'd read ahead in the textbook instead. Then the teachers started holding my textbooks when I didn't immediately need them, saying I wouldn't pay attention.
So when I'd finish my classwork I'd just dissociate and spend the rest of the hour staring at empty space. It was not particularly healthy, and it definitely has had a permanent effect on me.
Hey Ho! Let's Go!
I was always a shy introvert and when I went off to high school I made it a goal to do one thing during my 4 years there that would force me out of my comfort zone. I ended up trying out for the cheerleading team. I was definitely not the type to get up in front of a crowd and cheer. The tryouts involved performing a personally choreographed dance which was no issue as I had some dance background.
They allowed those who wanted to try out to perform their dances in groups, but since I had no friends I did it alone. I was so damn nervous but I did it and I made the team! The rest of my high school experience pretty much sucked but that one thing made me really proud of myself.
Ask Dave...
I had a young teacher who was maybe a year or two out of school himself. He asked if he set his own car on fire at a Dave Matthew concert, would it be illegal. I told him that it would be. He thought since it was his property he could destroy it. I had to point out, yes, but it is disorderly conduct. Then I had one teacher who played minor league baseball for years. He was very good looking.
It was a private, Catholic school and they paid crap. I know because another math teacher wrote a problem on the board and muttered the people in the problem with a lemonade stand were finally people who made less than him. High school was a strange time!
Gossip Queen...
shocked new girl GIFGiphyA math teacher paused a class because he got a message from his brother. His brother met a girl at a party and had a crush on her, but he found a week later that she was lesbian and got a heartbreak. He went outside to call his brother and came back and told us the story.
Safe from Chocolate....
Every morning my teacher will ask us questions about history if we get it right he would give us a snicker bar. But this the funny part, he would throw the snickers bar at us real hard. So if get the question right you would had to dodge the fast moving snickers.
Straight Up!
stand up 80s GIFGiphyWatching my mother rip the principal a new one because a typing teacher failed me for poor posture despite my having 100% on every assignment plus bonus marks.
Mom ranked up that day.
The Jump
In high school we had a group project and this class was 90% girls so the other 10% guys (including me) were in a group. This teacher used to kinda gang up on us with the girls and one day she was preoccupied and we were talking about how we didn't want to be there and we should just jump out the window.
This one guy scopes out the window, sticks his feet out first, give us a wink and just jumps out. Dropped probably 7-10 feet onto the grass and just waltzes back into class like he just came from the bathroom or something. Teacher didn't even notice.
"sex equals fun"
Sexy Jessica Alba GIFGiphyOne of my math teachers in high school was a bit on the crazy side in a very good way.
He'd scoot around the room on his desk chair, rolling over backpacks and the like. He'd punctuate talks with weird sayings like "but, but, but, he said, which is tub spelled backwards." He generally made the class time entertaining for everyone.
One day, he decided to show us the derivation of a mathematical formula. Nowadays, showing this particular formulation to a bunch of high school students would likely get him kicked out.
I don't remember the exact derivation, but the end result was "the integral of e to the x power equals some function of u to the nth power." Written out, it looks like this:
Sex = f(u)n
Yes, he went through a whole mathematical derivation just to tell a group of high school students "sex equals fun."
C-
I was a terrible student and a huge baseball fan growing up. In 6th grade I had an English teacher who knew I wasn't dumb, just hard to motivate. She privately offered me an extra credit assignment, all I had to do was write a 2 page essay on any topic I liked at all explaining why I liked it so much. I straight up turned down her offer, being content with my C- grade.
So she flipped it around on me and publicly told another guy in my class that since HE was the biggest Red Sox fan in the class, he should write a 2 page essay about the Red Sox and present it to the class. I practically jumped out of my seat and said I was a way bigger Red Sox fan than Mike and I should be the one writing that essay. She let us both write one. She was a really good teacher.
Miss you Mr Pitchford.
Reminds me of my history teacher in my first 2 years at secondary school. He hummed and spoke in rhyme and called the class his 'little chickadees'. He was a fun teacher who I only saw genuinely angry twice. He had kinder egg toys on his desk.
He grew his beard every 5 years and shaved it off for charity.
He had a heart attack and fell down the stairs in our last year at school and supposedly had another not long after we left. No idea if that awesome teacher is still alive, he wasn't that old, if alive I expect he would be around 60-70 now.
Miss you Mr Pitchford.
Wizards & Turtles....
Nickelodeon took over my school when I was in the 2nd grade. We were the first school to win and it was because a girl at my school who was a few grades older entered the contest. All the Nickelodeon celebrities were there - Mr. Wizard did cool science experiments, Barth did gross stuff with food, Marc Sommers had the super sloppy double dare obstacle course we could go through, teachers got slimed, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles put on a concert. It was literally a dream come true. And then at the end we all got free backpacks filled with Nickelodeon swag. I still think about that day.
The Journey...
Going to an inter school sports competition. Our school would participate every year and we would come last without fail!
I took part for 8 years during which we never won ANYTHING (just got a participation certificate).
While going to the competition we would play games on the bus, listen to songs, eat at fast food joints.
Looking back I don't remember the many losses that our team endured but the time that we spent together is still crystal clear.
It was never about the destination.... it is all about the sweet journey.
Thanks Dad....
fathers day dad GIFGiphyWatching my stepdad call the principal of my school in 4th grade out on his bullcrap right in front of me. Because it was the first time I had a father figure in my life who cared enough about me to stand up for me.
Detention Rocks!
I got in trouble for calling my English teacher out on an incorrect Harry Potter fact she was spouting one day. (Granted, I was a little fool and was also refusing to do the work she assigned, but I was done with her BS.) Principal decided to give me detention as punishment.
Thing is, detention involved an hour or so of homework/reading time before a period where we were to help the host teacher with whatever tasks they needed. I was a book nerd, and the host teachers were both science teachers who I got along with swimmingly. Plus, they wanted help with cleaning the fish tank.
Needless to say, those days of detention were AWESOME.
I just remember the principal's face when he asked me how detention was going. Apparently, being excited to go back was not what he expected.
Middle of the winter.
Oh boy it was a few months before corona. Middle of the winter. It was so cold that I guess the morning due froze and so the floor was kind of frosted over. I'm late to school riding my bike as fast as I could. I arrived but my class was kinds far. So I run for it determined to make it on time. I go up the stairs of the 800 building which is outside of the building and run to my class.
I'm running. Then I notice I'm about to run right past the class who were all outside. I make an abrupt stop, but the frosted floor has other plans. I slide about a good six ft while still standing. Everybody's watching me in awe. I didn't fall down. It was epic.
Edit: btw I made it on time
Fill it Up....
patrick eating GIF by SpongeBob SquarePantsGiphyWatching a freshman attempting to deepthroat 7 cheese sticks at once.
The record for most milk cartons drank before throwing up was 26 by the time I graduated. They started suspending anyone who tried to break the record because they were cleaning up milk puke so often.
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Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.