Everyday I have a daily hunt for items big and small. I've completely given up on owning sunglasses; that's why I only purchase them at the Dollar General now. So many things are simple to lose into the oblivion. However once and awhile a literal miracle occurs, when the ghost that moves my belongings gives them back. Or I happen upon the lost by sheer chance. Also, I actually have discovered needles in a haystack, and both are a great feeling.
Redditor u/Rushiilian wanted to help everyone revel in the times of great discovery by asking.... What's your " I found the needle in a haystack" moment?Blinded
scooby doo glasses GIFGiphyHaving a midnight bath in a lake while camping and the water I poured over my head to rinse my hair caused my glasses to fall off into the lake.
It was pitch black with the only light being from quad headlights and my vision being so bad I am legally blind without them. I searched for so long feeling around in the stirred up water, and just as I was going to give up and walk back to camp my foot brushed them.
Clovers
As a small child My mother had just explained what a four-leaf clover was and sent me outside to find one, probably to get me out of her hair for a few hours but I came back in 30 seconds later with one. She praised me and told me how special it was and to go see if I can find another one, obviously thinking I couldn't possibly find another one but I came right back in 2 minutes later with another so she stopped sending me out.
In the Picture
Not me but my mom: my grandma was a painter in her younger days and a reaaallly good one at that. She did a lot of landscape paintings but switched it up and did a simple flowers in a vase painting. We have it hanging in our dining room. Well my mom went to a flea market in her old hometown which has a huge population btw. And this is at least 40+ years since the painting. My mom found the vase. The same exact yellow vase with gold trim. Its so different and unique that there is no way it couldn't be the same one. The person selling it just gave it to my mom when she heard the story.
Trash
music video rings GIF by Jennifer LopezGiphyOnce I lost a ring I literally bought that day. Went out drinking with a friend and at some point realized it was gone searched all over the places we were and finally found it in the trashcan of a toilet I dug through out of pure frustration. Man was I happy.
Seconds Later
I'm a science teacher and just got married. Was putting some flasks away in the cabinet and banged my new ring on the cabinet and saw the diamond go flying across the room. The floors are white and the diamond is not big. Was on my hands and knees my entire prep period, found it like 15 seconds before the bell rang and kids came in.
Years Gone By
Did a fly-in fishing trip with my family for a day when I was a kid. Was playing in the mud waiting for our plane to come get us and found a spyderco (sp?) knife with my dad's initials in it that he lost some time 15 years prior.
Also. Was playing on a sandbar in Hawaii and found a Tiffany and Co band ring that was covered in barnacles. Reported it to HPD and no one claimed it after 30 days so they mailed it to me. Gave it to my mother.
After Boating
We had just come in from boating, and my mother banged her hand on the cabinet, and moments later realized the diamond from her engagement ring was gone (a one carat pear shaped stone). At first we were worried that it might have been lost while we were boating and would never be seen again. A couple minutes later we found it in a teacup in the cupboard.
Love at first Implant
dental teeth GIF by Katy Beveridge StudioGiphyFound my then-date's dental implant on the lake floor after it fell out. Took a good half hour of diving down and coming back up, making markers so I could tell where I'd searched.
We're married now, and had that thing replaced about ten years ago.
When at Chili's
When I was a kid at my first job, I found a customer's dental retainer in one of eight huge bags of plate scrapings and garbage from the dish-pit at the Chili's where I worked. It took over an hour, and I spent the time armpit deep in some of the nastiest soggy napkin slime and chewed-up rib bones that you could imagine.
At least the kid's father reached in his wallet and dug around for three crisp one-dollar bills for my time and effort. Everything about that job was terrible.
That was far from the last time a kid left his retainer on his plate and it ended up in the trash, but after that I learned that the correct response is "Oh wow, that really sucks, but I can show you to the dumpster if you're interested."
homer simpson GIFLocked for Good
I worked at a place and a woman flushed her keys down the toilet somehow and asked us if we could go get them somehow.
- Those sons of *itches are definitely in the sewer.
- Even if they aren't in the sewer there is no way my 7.35 makin' butt is gonna wade through poop to get your keys. fuzzyblackyeti
When eating BBQ
bbq GIFGiphyMy FIL once insisted on taking everyone to what I would consider to be the worst BBQ restaurant on the planet. It probably wasn't actually that bad, it was just the opposite of what I liked in BBQ and I couldn't eat much due to food sensitivities. He has a history of picking places I can't eat at and claiming their his favorite place ever. It's a family tradition at this point.
Anyways, I eat a bread roll, dinner ends. Suddenly youngest BIL realizes that his retainer is missing. He had wrapped it up in a napkin and the waitress had picked it up while clearing the table. This lead to all of us huddled around bags of garbage outside looking for the lost retainer. Except everyone else is too squeamish, so in reality it was me and BIL digging through the garbage looking for the retainer with everyone else watching.
We didn't find it.
In a Snowbank
Dropped my passport in the parking lot after a massive snow storm. When I went back the next morning to look, the entire parking lot had been plowed. Had to find the thing cause I was leaving to Mexico in like 3 days and there was no option of replacing it in time.
Drove around the parking lot looking for the freshest snow bank that the plow had formed. Picked one out and starting digging using the golf club I had in my trunk.
Couple hours in I noticed the snowy grave I was digging myself cause my gf would have killed me if I messed this trip up.
I ended up finding the freaking thing in the middle of the snowbank somehow. Screamed and did a snow angel in celebration, froze my unit off but it was all good as I was enjoying margaritas on the beach a few days later.
Mouth Issues
God, one time in my teens, I was at the store with my grandma, I dropped the box holding my clear plastic retainers (vacuum form retainers is the technical name). I was chewing gum at the moment so they were in the box.
Well once I got back home, I threw away the gum and was going to put my retainers back on, when the box was empty.
I realized they must have fallen out of the box when it fell on the store's floor, so my grandma called the store (she knew one of the cashiers well since she'd been going to that store for decades) and they said they'd found them on the floor and put them in a safe spot. The next day we got them back.
So yeah, saving someone's retainers from the trash is definitely a life saver, you're really nice to have done that for them!
When at Chic-Fil-A
I was working at Chic-fil-A we had a guy say he thinks he left his phone on the tray and it must've got thrown away, my friend and I realize the trash was already taken out, so we go out to the dumpster and start digging through a bag we thought was it and end up dumping it on the ground, everything slimy from being coated in sauce. We can't find the phone so we throw it back in, and as we're about to get another bag out, another coworker comes and tells us the guy had dropped it in his boot. Never have I wanted to smack a customer so hard before.
Funny Stuff
tina fey wow GIF by SistersGiphyLate one night about 8 years ago, I heard this really funny bit from a stand-up on Comedy Central.
I tried to find this bit as I thought about it periodically, but I could never do it.
Then over quarantine, I found a new comedian I like and started watching all of his stuff. Sure enough, he did that bit many years ago. I screamed when it came up in his special and tried desperately to explain it to my roommate who was not as impressed as I was.
Happily Ever After
On a camping trip I lost my wedding ring. A year later, I specifically went on the same route. Instead of two days, I walked the route for a week and looked under each bush, but I could not find the ring. Frustrated, I returned home and began to pull out all the things from the backpack, in the very last little pocket I found my wedding ring.
With friends....
I was hiking up a mountain with a group of friends. The last couple hundred meters were deeply covered in snow so we had crampons on and were tied together with one piece of rope. When he got to the top I realized I had dropped my phone (which has a white case btw lmao) at some point. Even though we could retrace back down the line we took up fairly easily, I had no idea when I lost it and it was still knee-height snow so was no easy feat. At one point otw down one of us fell and we stopped to all catch our breath as we were tied together.
My mate at this moment happened to drop his hand into the snow and miraculously emerge with my phone in hand. It had been in there for for probably 20-30 mins and was still working fine. This all happened when I was traveling on a tight budget in a foreign country too 😭 So having that phone was honestly kinda essential and not just a luxury. Typing this comment on that same phone now - still in complete disbelief a year later.... ahahha....
For Paw Paw
When I was a pre-teen, I was walking around my grandparents' property and found Paw Paw's wedding ring that he had lost 20 years before. It was just there on the ground. Paw Paw was astounded and then sent me out in the field to find something else he had lost years ago but I only found a snake...
Sitting Upright
trailer sledding GIF by The Yeti AdventuresGiphyA group of us were sledding and my cousin's glasses lens popped out into the snow. We all thought there is no way someone will find it but let's do a quick look before we go back inside. Somehow I found the lens sitting upright in the snow.
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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.