There's an old philosophical discussion about humans having no control over our lives. No matter how well you plan, you can always step out onto the street tomorrow morning and get hit by a bust. No muss, no fuss, and no control. However, on the rare moments when you do avoid the bus, you're left with a feeling of "Well...I survived." The people below know exactly what that feeling's like.
Reddit user, u/scissormytimbers, wanted to know what situation you aren't sure how you made it out of when they asked:
What is your "I survived" story?
"Killing Zone"
Giphy
I am a flight instructor. The first 500 hours of flight is called the "killing zone".
However, many flight instructors are hired right out of flight school (190 hours to 250 hours depending on the path). I had maybe 200 hours at the time.
I flew into a small dark cloud that was obviously a thunderstorm. Completely dumb thing to do. Within seconds, ice built up on my wings and propeller.
Next thing I knew, I was falling out of the sky. Wings with ice on them no longer fly, nor did my propeller offer any power. My attitude indicator had tumbled, I had no idea of attitude, and my turn coordinator was beyond standard rate turn. Altimeter was circling fast, like 500 feet per second.
We broke out of the clouds maybe 500 feet above the ground, nose down, and I was able to recover within 100 feet of crashing into the ground.
I was training Chinese students at the time, and after that, they were scared of any weather.
100MPH To Hell
When I was 6, my mom, brother, neighbor, and her son all took a trip to the beach. On our way back, we were driving on the highway at about 75 MPH. I was in the car with my neighbor and her son. My mom was in the car behind her with my brother and his friend. (Side note, my mom and my neighbor were having an affair. My mom had filed for divorce 6 months prior to this event). My neighbor turns around to ask us what kind of ice cream we wanted at the next stop. Two 16 year olds were driving drunk on the opposite side of the highway. They came flying across the median and hit our car head on, going over 100 MPH.
Our SUV flipped over and over and over again- it was a crunched up mess by the time it came to a stop. My mom watched the whole thing. Both of the boys who hit us were killed on impact. My neighbor died. My neighbor's son had a fractured skull, broken ribs, broken arms, both broken legs.. he had to use a wheelchair and had pins in his legs for over a year. Apparently, my mom pulled over and pulled me out of the car. I was knocked out, and had blood ALL OVER me. She thought I was dead. Then I woke up and started crying hysterically.
I was fine. I wore my seatbelt because I wanted them to think I was responsible. Since I was so small, and wore my seatbelt, all that happened to me was a fracture in my skull, by my eye.
On August 4th 20 years had passed since the crash. My mom texted me and said that today marks 20 years since I was given back to her.
Motorcycle vs. SUV
This happened to me and my wife 2 weeks ago. We're on my motorcycle (wearing helmets) stopped with our signal on and displaying hand signals to turn left into our neighborhood.
We had sat there for about 10 seconds when an SUV (driver texting) plowed through us at 55mph.
Spent a week in the hospital an another week in rehab. I'm tied to a walker and the wife is wheelchair bound and will be for some time. It's amazing to consider how we survived. Very thankful to be here. We're finally home and it's going to be a long road. Luckily I work from home.
No Way To Breathe
I was swimming and got caught in an underwater cave/tunnel, had no clue where I was in relation to the entrance or exit, zero visibility, and no way I was getting out, my buddy luckily saw me struggling and somehow dragged me out just in time, 5 years ago and I still get heart palpitations when I think about it.
Yeah, I'll Go Ahead And Push That Tree. Why Not?
Was out hiking in my woods. Saw a dead tree that looked rotten and ready to fall across the trail. So I gave it a shove so that it would fall away from the trail.
It started falling, the trunk shattered on the side, and it was suddenly falling sideways. Hit another tree, bounced directly back at me.
Had just enough time to take a single step to the side as several hundred pounds of tree slammed into the ground right next to me, enough that I felt the ground shake.
Would have squished me like a grape had it hit.
Who Caused This Problem?
Giphy
December, 1979, Cincinnati, Ohio, the Who concert. Myself and my friends were in the front waiting for the doors to open. In the background you could hear music playing, the crowd behind us started to rush to the door, I was literally picked up off of my feet. I'm in the air about 3 feet off the ground wedged between 2 bigger guys when my left leg got caught on the hand rails spreading me apart, I yelled once the pain became too much and a guy behind me lifted my leg over freeing me. Once inside the arena we settled down and smoked.
Then, when I went to relieve myself is when I saw the bodies covered up in sheets. Very thankful I was in front and not the middle. That concert is the reason we now have reserved seating vs. festival seating.
What Was In The Acid??
I fell sick for about a week. Couldn't eat or drink anything without it coming back up. Unbearable cramps to the point i couldn't walk. My mom thought it was menstral things until one night i was vomiting acid and things just stopped. Like everything stopped hurting and i felt this ease come over me. My mom comes in and immediately panics (i guess i was white, and my eyes were lifeless) but i felt so at peace. We rush to the hospital.
They took 9 hours to see me. At this point nurses and doctors kept trying to keep me awake but i just wanted to sleep. They ended putting me under and next thing you know im awake. And i woke up screaming. They said it was impossible for me to have made it as far as i did. This was 11 years ago.
**it was my appendix. It had ruptured the final night when things felt peaceful. And i was experiencing sepsis at that point.
For starters, lying on a resume and exaggerating the details to appear more qualified is not the answer.
The truth will eventually expose you and you'll find yourself back in a familiar position – being jobless.
Curious to hear about the lengths job applicants have gone through to stand out from the rest, Redditor Indianfattie asked:
"Recruiters and HR : what red flags do you find in a resume which means the interviewee is not what they seem?"
Mistakes
Everyone makes mistakes. But while one missed out over an unfortunate misunderstanding, another was given the benefit of the doubt.
The Maybe Felon
"A finalist applicant for a senior software developer position checked the box for 'yes' next to 'have you ever been convicted of a felony?' Our workplace does not automatically count out felons so I looked him up, only to find out his charges were from 10 years prior and had been lowered to a misdemeanor. This guy had been checking 'yes' on those boxes for 10 years and had never actually been convicted of a felony."
– Save_Bandit-
Taking A Chance
"Five years worth of graphic design experience, but no portfolio because of a crashed hard drive. This was before cloud backups were much a thing."
"Rest of the story - I rolled the dice, gave them a chance because all of the other applicants were terrible, and they were one of my best hires."
– NewMexicoJoe
Lies, All Lies
As these potential employees discovered, fibbing was just a waste of time.
Not Bilingual
"Had a buddy put that he could speak Japanese fluently on his resume and applied to a Japanese manufacturing company in the US. During the interview, the hiring manager asked him about it and he promptly responded 'hai, nihongo ga wakarimashita'. So they went and got one of the Japanese QE's and was like 'Ok Mr. Honda, have a conversation with this guy'. Needles to say all my buddy could say was 'hai' and it was very awkward for everyone involved. He is a dumba**"
Expired Certification
"Along the same lines: A candidate put 'SPHR 2007" on his resume. SPHR is Senior Professional in Human Resources, a well-recognized certification for HR-related positions. To be valid, it has to be recertified every three years. So I asked, 'You've had an SPHR since 2007?' He started to hem and haw, so I pressed him. He finally admitted that his SPHR credential had lapsed in 2010."
The "Lazy Liar"
"I had a resume once where a guy had obviously just copy and pasted job descriptions as his work history. It was blatantly obvious because everything was in third person, guy didn't even take the time to edit it. 'Candidate will be able to' type wording. I gave him an interview and asked him tough questions based off of his supposed work experience. I was morbidly curious if he was just bad at writing resumes or just a lazy liar. Turns out he was the latter. When I interview someone I usually try and ease up on questions when it's obvious the candidate doesn't have the required experience. I don't want someone leaving totally demoralized etc. I didn't let up on this guy though and when he couldn't answer a question I would comment that he had it listed in his resume... Hopefully he learned a lesson."
– Nothing_
Pages And Pages
Some applicants thought a lengthy resume or curriculum vitae would be their ticket in.
What's the "1" For?
"Dude put on his resume 'CCNA -1' under certifications. The CCNA is a Cisco network certification. During the interview I asked what the -1 meant. He said 'oh I missed the certification by only one question'. I asked how we could verify that, he sort of shrugged."
– nickram81
All About Length
"A NINE page long resume for someone who has 3 years of work experience."
– cssmythe3
"If it's more than 2 pages I'm becoming skeptical that they aren't capable of simplifying."
– Scorch2002
An Extensive CV
"A lady I know was looking for a job and asked me to see if my work had anything available. The hiring manager said I could send through their details to the lady and they would have a look."
"The woman sent them a 13 page CV listing every class she took in high school and college (and she had changed majors, so that was 6 years worth of college classes). She listed every job she had ever done, and apparently had a thing for dropping jobs after a few weeks. The hiring manager asked me to pass on a message to the lady about how a CV should be no more than 2 pages and to maybe give her some pointers. I send the lady a text and she replied 'Lol'."
Make 'Em Squirm
"I once read one of someone who claimed to have a Sicology degree from the university I had attended. Since it was several states away, this stuck out. Since he didn't know how to spell Psychology, I obviously knew he was lying but it was open panel interviews so I spoke with him face to face anyway. The look of shock and terror in his eyes when I said I was thrilled to see that we were alums from the same place and started discussing details of campus was kind of fun to witness."
– Chiyogbar
Scared 30 Rock GIF by HULUGiphyKeeping Up With Charades
"This is my nightmare when people have given me advice on 'fake it till you make it' and was told to put a skill on my resume that i did not have."
– Justaflywhiteguy
"Never put down a skill you don't know anything about, but you can exaggerate proficiency in a skill. That's kinda expected at this point."
– Miss_Thang2077
​Irrelevant Websites
"I got a 6 page one for an internship, 9-10 point font, basically no spacing. It included 4 self-made websites. 2 were down, 1 was from when this person was like 14 (roughly 8-10 years prior to this application), and one was just an 'under construction' image. The internship had nothing to do with making websites, but why would you include those (as well as like 95% of the other nonsense included) if theyre just unused."
– Fadnn6
Redditor SewerSleuth74 mentioned that too many jobs on an applicant's resume within a short amount of time was a big red flag.
However, with the pandemic upending many workers' loves in the past year, job recruiters have changed their perspective.
The Redditor also noted:
"Red flag doesn't mean they're out or have no chance, it means I will dig deeper. Could be circumstances or it could be you. Depends on your qualifications and skills, not experience, that dictate my actions."
The bottom line is, think twice about faking your resume.
No matter how hard anyone tries, sending naughty pictures over the internet or doing the nasty with someone you're not supposed to, could be witnessed by anyone just inconveniently stumbling upon the scene.
Curious to hear about accidental sightings of stealth happenings, Redditor PMForDickGraysonPics asked:
"What did you see that you definitely weren't supposed to see?"
Nudies
These Redditors happened upon some revealing images involving scantily-clad women.
What Mom Did
"One time I was up late at night scrolling Facebook at the same time as my drunk married mother who was an entire timezone away at the time. She was messaging an old fling from high school while her husband was away at work and was sending him close up pictures of her vagina. How I know this is because she didn't send them via messenger, SHE POSTED THEM ON HER ACTUAL FACEBOOK PAGE. I had to call her in the middle of the night in her zonked out stupor to get her password to delete pictures off her own Facebook page."
– BreesGOAT
Retrospective Look
"Was fixing an elderly neighbor's laptop that had nudes of his wife on the desktop with the thumbnails at maximum size. It's like he wanted me to see them. I will say though, she had a bangin' bod for a woman in her 70s. I think it's safe to say he thought the same."
– monkey_scandal
The Moaning Woman
"In my high school Spanish class, our teacher had taped (VHS) a telenovela for us to watch. When she put the VHS tape in, there was about .25 seconds of a porno that played...a topless woman moaning. Out of a class of around 30 kids, only about 5 of us looked around at each other and locked eyes with a 'did anyone else just see that?! look. Our teacher must have taped over an old porno VHS of hers."
Cheaters And Sex
Spotted: People seeking intimacy with people they aren't supposed to – or in one case, where they shouldn't.
No-So Clandestine Meeting
"Was working at a hotel during college and saw my lab partner get a room with the professor."
– Nav_the_gamer
The Secret
"My dad gave me a piece of furniture one time. When I got it home, a post-it note which had been stuck to the bottom floated down to the floor. I picked it up, and in my dad's unmistakable handwriting were various notes about gay personal ads he'd been responding to -- details about the other guys. Their names and ages and sexual interests, the status of their conversations, etc. My dad was, at least I thought, very straight. I put two and two together and realized this piece of furniture was from an apartment he kept briefly while he and my stepmom were on the outs for about a year. None of this bothered me one bit, but I got the distinct impression that my stepmom (an older, very conservative lady) would have NOT been cool with any of this... I let him go to his grave without ever telling him."
– knife_hits
Revealing Correspondence
"When I was still married, my (then) wife had left her phone on to run to the bathroom while I was in bed, I looked at it for the time, and found it was left open to a secret Gmail account she was using for sending literally hundreds of nudes back and forth between many many dudes. For years. Up to that night while she was fully 6 months pregnant. Mostly original stuff too. I think that hurt more."
Unfaithful Girlfriend
"The night I learned my ex gf was cheating, she just got up from the couch to kill a bug and left her phone face up on the couch with Snapchat open. The chat had a picture of her boobs and some sexting replies from the guy. My heart dropped down to my butt. Man, cheaters suck"
Nature Love
"I was hiking in a forest with some friends, and as we continued on the trail, the mound of rocks on our right side opened up to more forest. Myself and one of my friends were leading the other two by a couple of yards, and we both briefly saw a couple having sex several hundred feet into the forest on that right side. My friend and I gave each other that 'did you see that sh*t too?' look. By the time my other friends caught up the couple had split and we couldn't see them anymore. It was like 2pm in broad daylight off of a main road, which was the weirdest part."
– ajcasta10
Grim Sightings
The following Redditors shared the things they saw not involving nudity.
Eternal Slumber
"Bout 5 years old woke up to the snow finally starting to melt. Notice a girl 'asleep' in the garden. Went a told my dad, he took one look and told me to go play in my room. Turns out girl had been 'asleep' in our front garden for about 2 weeks buried and frozen under the snow."
– asrielrising84
Fatal Accident
"Saw a man crash his motorcycle into the back of a parked car. He flipped over the car hitting his head on the pavement and dying on scene. Firefighters showed up and sprayed his brains and blood down the storm drain. Later found out it was a girls father who I went to middle school with. I was 12."
– Top_Tier_Rattata
Watery Grave
"Human bones in the bottom of a cenote in the yucatan of Mexico. Dad told me to stfu and not swim in that area anymore."
I didn't necessarily see it with my own eyes but I heard two of my friends going at it behind the backs of their respective significant others.
They probably thought I was passed out. News flash: I wasn't.
I, unfortunately, was sharing a room with them and another friend. He and I woke up to sounds moaning in the bed next to us, and I'm pretty sure our friend wasn't giving her a massage.
All my ladies will tell you... "Just be respectful!" How hard is that? Don't be handsy, and be able to read the room. And most of all? NO. Is no! It's literally that easy. Everybody likes to flirt. Flirting is fun. Let's see how...
The Tub
Happy Ice Cream GIF by GIPHY Studios OriginalsGiphyHe brought me a huge tub of my favorite ice cream flavor after hearing that I was having a bad day.
Kombat
When I was 10 I received a love letter from a boy. It contained a flower inside, and at the bottom of the letter he wrote some cheat codes for Mortal Kombat for me. He knew I was always playing that game on my Sega.
13 Years In
I'm British, and I came over to the States on a temporary work visa, to do "one" ski season with Vail Resorts. I was bartending at an on mountain restaurant, and a couple of snowboarders come in and start talking to me. It came up that I was only there for the season, then one of them says "I'll marry you so you can stay... but we have to go on a date first".
... we just celebrated our 13 year anniversary, and I'm still in Colorado.
Rotted Fruit
fruit of the loom GIF by NBAGiphy"Hey do you want to help me throw fruit at my friends?" - 16 year old boy at summer camp, holding a bunch of oranges, who wanted to meet me. I was also 16 at the time.
Years Later...
The third time we hung out I went to his house. We were both in grad school and were talking in his room but I was exhausted from school and my 2 jobs. I was sitting on his bed and fell asleep. When I woke up he had put a blanket on me and was playing beautifully on the piano. I was so embarrassed cause I had drooled all over his pillow and surprised that he was so kind about the drool and not creepy about me being passed out on his bed.
We've been married for almost 4 years now and been together 8.
Bonus fun fact, his brother didn't believe I existed and accused him of making it up till I met him a year later. I was his first real girlfriend at like 25.
Oh I am feeling butterflies. I thought love was dead. So far, I've been given hope. Love can be born with trust. Tell me more...
Thanks to the Migraine
I was in Chicago on business, got a horrible migraine, and had to cancel a meeting with a man I had met with (for work) the day before. I get really bad migraines, really, really bad. After it was over I had to get a bit of food and something to drink, but it was very late and there was no way I would survive any kind of car/cab ride.
He was the only person I knew in town, so I sent him a text to see if he knew of anything in my area that would be safe/open that late within walking distance. He drove 30 min across town in the middle of the night to walk me to a 24hr restaurant and buy me dinner. I've been with him for 11 years now.
the corny...
Was riding home with the friends group back in 2008. We stopped to drop off the one guy, and I got out to stretch. I mentioned that the stars were so much more visible up there in the mountains and he said, "Yeah, they're really pretty. Wish I had someone to watch em with."
I'm a sucker for corny guys. We got married the next year and are celebrating 12 years this June.
Happy Halloween
Hocus Pocus Wtf GIF by FreeformGiphyWe met at a Halloween house party and when I was going to leave he walked me to the room with all the coats which also happened to be a kids room and he asked me "what color crayon would you like to write your phone number with?" I married him. Celebrated 20 years.
The First
My first boyfriend came into the store where I was working and just straight up told me he had seen me through the window and needed to run home to clean up/put on something nice so he could come back and ask me on a date. It was super endearing :)
Edit to add: he didn't WATCH me through the window lol, just saw me in passing and wanted to ask me out.
This was well before dating apps where you basically had to ask in person. He was within my age range, nice smile and just had a good energy.
Also his secondary flirting technique worked just as well, he brought me a book on our second date because I had mentioned in passing that I loved to read :) he was good at making me feel heard.
Silence
deaf sign language GIFGiphyNot me but my mum. My mum and dad were set up by a friend of theirs.
My mum is completely deaf, upon being told this before he met her my dad went out and learnt as much sign language as he could before he met her.... my mum doesn't know sign language... adorable and hilarious.
Women are so much better at this. And there is a lot to learn in this thread. I hope y'all gents took some notes. Willing gestures speak far more volumes than money, attitude or status. If you like then put a ring on it!
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