When miracles or dèjá vu happen to others on just an ordinary day why are we so keen to dismiss it? When we tell people we came in contact with someone famous or describe how we single handedly saved a school bus chuck full of nun's from a fall off a cliff it seems impossible to believe. Strange and fantastical things happen every so often. They are rare moments witnessed by few. We can't all be everywhere at once to solidify a story. Soon in the future we'll all live in state controlled surveillance so it'll get easier to prove one's wild tales.
Redditor u/fourtaco wanted to hear some personal tea spillage and we'll see what's real by asking..... What is something about yourself that is completely true but that nobody would believe?
KABOOM!!
homer simpson boom GIFGiphyI was parked in a space and left ten minutes before a car with a bomb parked there and blew up.
What's in a Name?
Both of my parents have a twin sister named Jenny.
My mom has 4 sisters and 3 brothers-in-law named Jeffrey. (My "Uncle Jeffrey", "Uncle Jeff", and "Uncle Skip".)
The fourth sister was dating a guy called "Ben" for a while until she got a good look at his license... Geoffrey Benjamin! Probably the dumbest reason to end a relationship, but I can't say that I blame her.
Liking your Sound
Peter Gabriel complimented me on my guitar playing when I was 5.
Art Garfunkle told me I have a lovely way about me. I did just get him a big glass full of vodka though. I was about 14 and first got him a big glass of water but guess I was wrong bout that one.
Good Company
steve buscemi flirting GIFGiphyWhen I (24M) was 7 my parents were housing some young film makers and they had Steve Buscemi over for dinner. Really really nice guy, just as everyone says.
Jump!
I jumped out from a moving bus to escape kidnapping.
I asked a dazed and scared looking young woman at a fast food restaurant if she needed help and she said yes, she wanted to know where she was. She'd just been dumped in the parking lot by some guy who'd kept her against her will for the past day.
Luckily my teenage daughters were with me. They helped make her feel safe going with us to the police station (offered hospital, too, but she refused).
I did not doubt her but any question of her story was erased when we got to the station, which was closed. I called 911 and before I could even explain the situation to dispatch, several police cars pulled up, surrounding my car.
Turns out she had been reported missing and in danger so the cops had been trying to triangulate where her phone was. The phone was dead, so while we were driving to the station, I let the young woman borrow my car charger. She kept trying to turn it on, but the charger was so slow her phone kept shutting off again. The cops were following the pings each time the phone turned on.
Steve and Mindy
I never forget names or faces. Like ever. I realized this nearly two decades ago working at a telemarketing company. I never forgot a name and to this day can think of several names I encountered that stood out. Later I worked at a nightclub and one day this couple came in - we'll call them Steve and Mindy. We chatted for about a minute or two, three years later Mindy runs into the bar hollering that someone assaulted her boyfriend. I said "O no! Is Steve okay?" She looked at me like she's seen a ghost and I did think O, she's probably surprised I remember them.
Later she asked how I could remember them and I just said that I never forget anyone I meet and have any substantial interaction with. I just don't forget names or faces ever. Almost 100% of the time they are permanently etched into my memory. Don't remember birthday or what day of the week it is and after six years still don't have my plates memorized but forget it, if we met one time for five minutes twenty years ago, I still remember you. Weird but true.
The Middle
All my family has pretty cool middle names and when people are like what's your full I get to my middle name which is thunderstorm and they just don't believe me until I get someone in my family to back me up.
Edit 1: since a lot of you want the other middle names are: Morningstar, firefly, honeybee, and still water.
Edit 2: I forgot to mention I actually have two middle names the other one is Liam.
Edit 3: thank you for my first awards kind strangers.
Wes Craven Help GIF by filmeditorLive and in Person
In 1982 I met and had a long conversation with Joe Perry the guitarist for Aerosmith in a bar. I told him what kind of guitar I was playing at the time. He said he had one somewhere up north at a girlfriends house but never played it. I told him he should find it. A few months later his new album came out and he was holding the guitar. In 1996 I jammed onstage with Tommy Chong.
Finding Sight
jean claude van damme eye contact GIFGiphyWhen I was younger I was river tubing with some family. Stupid me forgot to bring eye drops for my contacts, and one popped out into the water.
Later we come to a shallow end, and this little girl FINDS MY CONTACT!!! Like, what are the odds?!
In case you're wondering, yes I popped it back in.
Looking back I don't know what the bigger miracle is,
Losing a contact in a river, and finding it again.
OR
Not getting my eye infected when I put it back in.
"We should be friends!"
I have been dreaming of a girl since I was a small child. She would appear in any dream I was having at the time and talk to me/play games. This happened almost daily for years until I was 12. I thought maybe she had been my wife in another life.
One day I told her that we couldn't see each other anymore and that I needed to move on with my life. She cried and I felt horrible as I said goodbye. I stopped dreaming of her after that and regretted it badly for the next 23 years.
3 years ago a woman that looks just like her walked up to me and said "We should be friends!" I don't think I have ever had anyone just tell me to be their friend out of the blue like this.
She is now currently my best friend and I look forward to every conversation we have. I have never met anyone that has mentally changed my outlook on life as much as her and I am so grateful to have met her.
Old Al
GiphyMy family ended up on the West coast because Al Capone was rubbed the wrong way by my grand uncle. He was murdered while visiting my great grandpa's farm.
Beach Days
A whale hit me with her tail and broke my rib while i was trying to save her and her pod. (50+ pilot whales beached themselves on a beach i lifeguarded). I doubt anyone would believe me had there not been witnesses (the beach patrons helping with the whales with the lifeguards).
13 Years Later
I've died once, I was hit by a car and was left in the street for 20+ minutes, my pancreas liver and small intestines were ruptured, I broke my left elbow, left shoulder, left collar bone, right wrist, pelvis in 6-8 places and my skull. They declared me legally dead for about 10 minutes in the ambulance but were able to resuscitate me. I had Amnesia for a month, and lost the majority of my memories before the age of 13. This year was my 13 year anniversary of it happening. I'm mostly fine now but I have a limp when I get tired most people believe I did in fact get hit they just believe the part of me dying.
Edit: I was also in a coma for a month.
Running from Evil
I married really young and my ex husband ended up killing several people during our marriage. I had to separate from my daughter for our protection because he was still at large. After nine years, I finally reconnected with her. People think I abandoned her but as long as she knows differently, that's all that matters. We're safe and out of his reach now, and I couldn't be happier.
Edit to add: He was finally apprehended two years ago, and immediately after I was reunited with my daughter. I didn't abandon her, we were forced to separate for our protection and had to move far away from our little house.
I didn't know where she was and she couldn't know where I went. I honestly never thought I'd get to see her again, so just having her in my life again is a miracle. I don't know why he did the things he's done, but I take comfort in the fact he is now in prison and his appeals have been denied. May he rot in there for every single life he's destroyed, including the childhood my daughter should've had.
Early Bird
Broke Payday GIF by MaxisGiphyI had a house with an indoor pool at age 25. Made 15k on the weekends playing blackjack in Vegas. I was retired at 26, and then homeless and bankrupt from divorce at 28.
Once on this Island
I grew up on a tiny island, unrelated to Africa.
Nelson Mandela held my hand and walked me to school as his plane refueled there.
** Edit **
Lots of questions on where this island was. It was cocos islands in the Indian Ocean back in the 90's
Lots of people calling fake. I wouldn't believe a stranger on the internet either, but I do have photos of me as an oblivious little kid trotting next to him like it's no big deal. Kid me had no idea that my life had peaked at that moment.
You're Cool
Gang members tried to rob me and I told them no.
I was alone in downtown Minneapolis and two Bloods tried to rob me but I laughed and said "I don't have money on me because so many people see a skinny white guy and try to rob me." (I was lying and I don't know why I reacted that way).
One of them stared at me for like 5 seconds then said "Ok, you're cool" and they walked away. Minneapolis doesn't have (nearly as much of) a gang problem now, but definitely did then.
This happened when there was a parking lot across 7th St from First Ave (the club where Purple Rain was partly filmed).
More detail if you want it: the first one asked for money and I said I didn't have cash. The 2nd appeared out of nowhere, like suddenly his face was right next to mine and he said "I don't think you heard him. He said he wants your money."
Broken
Broke my neck, didn't know until a nurse was helping me with physio after surgery for a punctured lung.
More info in the small chance people see this. Punctured the lung spontaneously, they call it a spontaneous pneumothorax. I have no idea how I screwed up a vertebrae in my neck, had a hairline fracture.
Edit: Huh, I guess some people did notice this. The worst part for me now is not the neck which they fixed promptly, it's the fact that in the back of mind I am still aware the other lung could go at any time. It's been a decade and I am still all to well of that fact. The comments below will explain how possible that is because both lungs are often susceptible, these blebs are a ticking time bomb.
I can't Recall
will smith memory GIF by STARZGiphyI can barely remember details past a few months ago, I have essentially no recollection of what things look like. Big events and things like that work fine, but details are gone and half the time I cant tell if I actually remember something or I remember someone telling me about something.
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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.