We are all living out the human journey together, through the good, the bad, and the scary.
Unfortunately, the scary can sometimes be a pretty big part of the whole thing. The world is a strange place. It can easily pit us against each other, and we can make the experience scary for each other. And these brave people have survived such situations.
u/BootsmaBoy asked:
What is the scariest encounter with another human you have ever experienced?
Here were some of those stories.

Adults Are Honestly The Worst
My cousin who was like 14 was babysitting us (9 year old me, 4 year old brother), her dad called coming down from I wanna say crack? Heroin? Idk something real bad, he called and screamed at her to tell him where her piggy bank was, she told him to f*ck off and hung up.
He called back, she didn't pick up, and he left a voice message which played as he was leaving it saying basically he was gonna come down there and f*cking murder all of us, with a knife
He was full of sh*t but we were terrified. Can you imagine the pure fear a 9 year old feels when a grown man who sounds crazy says he's going to murder her with a knife? So we prepared. We blocked out the windows, locked everything, put heavy furniture in front of the doors. My brother was asleep in his room, my cousin told me just leave him, but I couldnt stand the thought of him being alone in there so I covert style belly crawled, heart beating out of my chest, across the kitchen, through the living room to his room, scooped him up, and brought him back to my moms room, which we then barricaded ourselves into.
I got no sleep that night and my mom and my aunt came back the next morning like "What the f*ck did you kids do?!" But I was honestly just happy to be alive and that my mom was home again.
The worst part of the whole thing is when she got home her dad had sold all of her belongings. I mean everything, her bed, her dresser, tv, it was all gone. It was just an empty room.
He's clean now but I still hate his f*cking guts. F*ck you uncle donald.
I Could Die Today
When I was 15, I regularly was at home by myself since both of my parents worked full time and my brother had moved away to college. Well one day during the summer i was just relaxing at home, when all of a sudden someone knocks on the front door. I get up and check the peephole, and see two guys just standing in the driveway just off the porch. One of them wearing a suit, the other wearing sweatpants and a hoodie, but facing away from the house like he's playing lookout. I decide to ignore them, cause they'll go away, right?
Wrong.
They continue knocking, knocking, knocking but getting progressively louder and more aggressive. Finally, I decide to call the sheriff's department and ask for a non emergency check since they're trespassing. My dumbass decides to yell through the door that I had called, and before I can even realize how dumb it is, the guy starts kicking the front door. I freak the fuck out, run back toward the center of the house and realize that there's a third guy trying to kick in the back door as well. At this point I call 911 and start screaming about these three guys trying to break into my house.
Notoriously, it took the sheriff's deputies longer to get there than anyone would imagine, and they see the guys walking down the road later. Stopped them to question, but no arrest.
MYOB
I was driving through a somewhat rough neighborhood at night (late after a movie) and while sitting at a light we saw this guy in a beat up car take a bump of coke next to us. We make eye contact. As the light turns green he merged behind us and then proceeds to follow us around flashing his lights and honking his horn for several blocks. We pull up to another red light he pulls up next to us yelling at us to roll down the window.
Turns out he just wanted to let us know we had a tail light out and then drove away.
This Is What We Call Stranger Danger
When I was 13, I just got dropped off from the school bus, so I had a bit of ways to walk home. As I get close to the corner of my street, some guy in a dark blue car rolls up and asked where I was headed.
Told him I was going home. The guy the excruciatingly slowed his car down to match my walk and asked if I wanted a ride home. I told him no thanks I'm almost home. Then he continued to ask where I live and if I still wanted a ride home.
Luckily I had a phone at this age, and pulled out my Nokia phone (idk why I remember this) and pretend to call my mom (she wouldn't have picked up the phone and I was almost home).
The guy saw what I was doing and sped off like crazy.
From the age of 13, I started carrying pepper spray.
Bad Practices
Late 80s, was running errands in town with my mum and two sisters. Back then it wasn't uncommon to leave your kids in the car while you ran inside the store.
We are sitting in the car waiting, and then I see an older guy walking towards our car. I just get a really bad feeling and start yelling at my sisters to lock the doors, while I lock the two on my side.
He comes over and spends the next couple of minutes trying to open all the doors on the car while we are cowering in our seats. Eventually he gave up and left.
We were all 8 and under in age at the time. I just knew that if he got in the car he would take one of us.
Prophetic Dreams
In our mid twenties, my husband and I lived in a townhome without a yard in a pretty nice area of town. We knew we were purchasing a house soon, so we went ahead and got our first puppy! I'm a morning person, whilst my husband is not, so I would usually get up around 5am and take the puppy out to the little patch of grass across the street from out townhome (still inside the entire complex, mind you). Did this for several months, no big deal.
Well one morning while out waiting on the puppy, an old Ford van, all beat up with no windows, slowly drives by and goes back behind another building. A few minutes later as I'm getting ready to cross the street and go back inside, the van comes back up the road to where I was getting ready to cross, stops in the middle of the road and turns off its lights. I waved them on in front of me and at that point, both doors of the van started to open. All I remember was seeing someone start to get out before both the dog and I felt the undeniable urge to run across the street and inside as fast as possible. Once inside, the van sped off and disappeared.
The creepiest part of this whole thing was when I went upstairs to wake my husband, only to find out he was in the middle of a dream where I'd been kidnapped.....
To this day, I refuse to run outside or go on walks alone, even on our quiet country roads. And big old vans still creep me out.
Why Do People Be Like This
I was about 14/15. School had just ended so the bus home was packed with other school kids too. We were a couple stops away from where everyone got on when this guy with a huge jacket, hood up and mask on (we were in the middle of a heatwave so super odd) got on the bus, stormed upstairs past me and my friends and threw down this huge bag he was carrying. He screamed "THIS IS A BOMB" and ran off the bus.
It took everyone a few seconds to process what just happened, but after those few seconds I experienced the most crazy panic I've ever seen. Everyone bolted downstairs and tried to get out, but the doors were closed. I remember this huge black dude just punched the glass out of the door like it was nothing and people were just dragging themselves through it. When I got to the door I hit the emergency release to make it easier to jump off.
Once we were out we sprinted at least 500m down the road and crouched for the explosion. Except there was no explosion. It was just a hoax. Turns out that the guy that did it was someone from my school that had previously been expelled.
Close Call (TW: Blood)
Me and my boyfriend came back at like 2 am from a night out. We were both quite drunk and stumbled into the hallway to the elevator when we see drops of something on the floor. It definitely was blood. Fresh and wet. The elevator button and door were covered in bloody hand prints aswell.
My boyfriend called the elevator, pushing me aside not knowing what would be in it. Luckily nothing except for a puddle of blood.
The elevator came from the 5th floor. So we went investigating. The trail of blood ended at a door with huge hand smears of blood on the door.
It took all our courage to ring (not the nicest place to live, robbery??) But I am so glad we did. An elderly man opened the door. He looked like straight out of a horror movie. Covered in blood from head to toe. His grey sweater was red. His hair was wet. His shoes were filled with blood.
We immediately sobered up. I called an ambulance which arrived in 2 minutes. My bf went inside the flat helping the man sit down. There was so much blood I have never seen that in my life.
We didn't know what happened to him until we met him yesterday properly for the first time. Recognized my bfs glasses. He was drunk, wanted to ride his bike home, crashed somehow and got a huge cut on his head. He takes heart medicine which thins his blood that's why he lost so much.
If we wouldn't have rung the doorbell he would have bled to death.
He actually gifted us money and a super expensive bottle of champagne for something completely self explanatory
Campus Fear
Was walking through campus after a night class, around 9 or 9:30pm. It's a BIG campus (UCF) and pretty empty at this point. The shuttle I took was at the other end of campus so it was a pretty long walk. At one point I'm walking through a swampy area with a raised boardwalk. There are two girls a ways ahead of me walking together, I see them reach the end of the boardwalk and go into the next building.
As I reach the end of the boardwalk, this guy kinda hops up out of nowhere/the surrounding woods. Takes my hand and starts telling me how beautiful I am, what's my name, what year am I at uni, what am I doing tonight, where do I live? I ask him why he wants to know and he says "I'm taking a survey". I'm literally in such shock that it takes me a second to realize he's even touching me/has my hand. Everything he was asking me sounded really unauthentic and like it was scripted, like he was in a rush to get everything out. He also had this really weird, unsettling vibe that he was giving off that instantly freaked me out, but it was DARK outside, and I was ALL ALONE at this point.
Thankfully, a minute or two later a guy walks out through the building , and I use that moment to break my hand away from the weirdo and tell him "I have to go". I've never walked so fast to my shuttle and looking over my shoulder the whole time. I couldn't stop shaking the whole ride home. Something about that guy was OFF and I was sure if that man hadn't have come out when he did that something bad would've happened to me. Exactly what, I don't want to think about. Keep in mind there had been a group of 2 girls walking ahead of me and he hadn't approached them. He was looking for a girl by herself.
The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions, Right?
My first apartment was part of a complex that was U shaped with a large grassy area in the middle. The neighborhood kids would run around and play in the grass a lot. One day I was sitting on my stoop talking on the phone when one of the kids fell over, grabbed his foot and started crying. He was maybe 5 or 6. He had stepped on a bottle cap and sliced open his foot. I took him inside, had him sit on the edge of the tub, washed his cut and put some neosporin on it and a bandaid and sent him on his way.
A few hours later there is a knock on my my door. When I answered, a massive skinhead with a tattoo of a pentagram on his neck was standing there with his chest out. The boy was peeking around one of his giant thighs pointing at me. He stuck his finger in my chest and yelled, "Did you take my boy in your f*ckin house? That's my son. Did you give him a f*ckin bath?"
"Look at his foot!" I shrieked. "He cut his foot. I washed the cut."
He inspected the kids foot then asked me.what exactly happened. I stumbled through the story. Then he just said, "Alright then." He shook my hand with a vice grip and I never saw him or his son again.
It's Always People In Vans
This happened when I was about 9 or 10. It was around 8:30 on a Tuesday or Thursday. My parents and I were watching TV when there was a knock at the door. My dad got up and answered it, to see a man standing there, with a white van behind him. He looked like he was in his early 30s. My dad went outside to talk to him as I hid behind the TV stand and waited for him to leave. It was hard for me to hear what they were saying but I could hear my dad say, "No thanks" and "We're good". When my dad got back inside, I saw the van leave and asked my dad what had happened. The had guy asked him if he could come inside to do a security system estimate, because he was a door to door salesman. My dad said he could see a bunch of other guys inside the van staring at them. When they left, my mom called the neighbor to ask her what was going on, apparently they had asked almost everyone on our street the same question. My neighbor called the police and started to follow the van. The guys caught on, and when my neighbor turned around to go home they started following her, she eventually lost them but the whole ordeal was still scary nonetheless.
note - I know about my neighbor following them/being followed because my mom was on the phone with her the whole time
Thank Goodness He Wasn't The Joker After All
I used to work as a cashier in a middle eastern restaurant and we'd get a lot of interesting people coming in.
One day while the manager and cooks are busy, a pretty "normal" looking guy comes in and asks for water. No biggie. Then he starts asking questions about what ethnicity the owner's are and if I'm related to them and while those questions aren't inherently threatening, he spoke the same way The Joker does. Like he's about to do something bad to you and you can't escape it because he's already set up a trap.
He leaves. He returns less than a minute later with a black duffel bag and another guy who looked homeless blocking the doorway.
I legitimately thought he was about to pull out a gun and try to rob the place or shoot me. Instead, he tells me to tell the owner exactly what he's been asking me and he leaves. Nothing bad really happened but I was terrified that he'd come back and I eventually left the place because of it.
A Hitch-yikes-er
I got a lift with a semi driver into the Rockies via the old 99. Once we got into the long stretches after Squamish he started talking about how his wife got a restraining order against him because of an ongoing murder investigation. It's okay though because he was acquitted of the last murder accusation. I was having serious flashbacks to Wolf Creek with this guy before he started with the small talk.
Neighbors Are No Help
I got chased down by the neighborhood delinquent teen with a gun when I was walking home from the bus stop with friends. I was 10, my friends were 10/11 years old too. We ran to a house for help, a middle aged woman answered and refused to let us in or help us. She said it could be a prank, we told her it wasn't but she was convinced we were trying to get in her house and rob her. We ran farther to my friends house, her mom happened to be off work early and was home. She called the police. I got to ride in a cop car and watch two cops take down this 17 year old piece of sh*t into the pavement.
I had a friend who seemed a really nice guy. He was my boss/friend's partner and was very supportive as her partner and of the people who worked for her. But as her friend, she started to tell me some of his less fine moments, such as his hitting her, and when they went "on a break" as a result he cheated on her. She told me that when he drank he turned into a completely different person, and she'd told him he should completely stop drinking.
They'd been together a long time but as they got serious thinking about marriage and babies she realised she couldnt deal wtih his lying, cheating and drinking. She realised she couldn't marry him, and dumped him. We went out with some other friends for a drink, to a pub we never usually went for safety. He got drunk somewhere and phoned to say he was coming to "get" us.
In his culture, she was practically considered his. They'd been together long enough to be considered husband and wife despite never marrying. So he and the other men in the city viewed her as his property pretty much. She couldn't just dump him and find a new man, that would be cheating and only men can get away with cheating. So men who knew them and saw which pub she'd gone to, told him where we were.
He turned up with a machete and attacked her date, luckily he hit first with his hand before drawing the machete, but he still did a lot of damage with just that one hit to the ear. Her date and the rest of our friends managed to escape, I've never seen anyone run so fast. He attacked her new car when he couldn't get her new man. When we tried to talk to him he threatened me with the machete.
So my friend pepper sprayed him which incapacitated him (and got me too ouch). When the police arrived my friend got in trouble for using pepper spray. No charges were brought against her ex.
There Is No Justifiable Amount Of Nope
At a party when I was in my late teens. Friend of a friend is there and he's kind of strange. Whatever. No big. I know lots of strange people. We ended up alone in a room next to each other on a couch. He says "you look nice tonight" and I notice he has a knife in his hand. I immediately freeze in terror. At that very moment my friend comes in, and i use the distraction to get up and get out of the room immediately and leave the party.
I have no idea what would have happened if my friend hadn't come into the room.
When I next talked to my friend he "explained" that the guy was on heart medication. Ah okay. Yeah. That explains it. Except. You know. Not at all. I stopped associating with that friend.
Sometimes you only need to experience something once, to know it's a never again situation.
I always say, try everything once.
Well, now that I'm older, a caveat to that is... try it all within reason.
How many things have we all walked away from saying the one time experience will suffice?
In fact, knowing when to say no is one of life's wisest choices.
Redditor Croakied wanted to discuss the times we've all said... "once was enough!" They asked:
"What is one thing that you will NEVER do again?"
Love. Did it. A few times. Moving on.
Stay Still
"Jump off a moving train."
DenseDriver6477
"My dad used to jump on a train when he was little to go to school. He broke his nose like twice doing it. He also would not recommend."
Darphon
“vaportini”
"Smoke alcohol. Me and my friends bought something called a 'vaportini' in college where you could pour alcohol into a bulb and after low heat separated the alcohol from the liquid, you could inhale it thru the glass straw you inserted into the bulb. Basically you got drunk directly into your bloodstream/brain and it never hit your stomach."
"If you did too much, your body wouldn’t make you vomit or something, there wouldn’t be a simple self regulation/safety measure. You’d just get alcohol poisoning. Felt very dangerous, the drunk wasn’t a regular drunk feeling. We used it once and were like okay, never again. I’d be surprised if you could still buy it, although it would be incredibly easy to replicate at home."
michelangelho
It’s heartbreaking...
"Fall in love with a drug addict."
Rains_Lee
"Good call, don’t do it. The drugs will always come first. Can’t go out unless their 'ok' with how much drugs they have and money left over if any, cant make love unless they have their fix for the night and even still it never feels normal, can’t trust them after the lies to get drugs and the manipulation they put you through, and you can’t change them no matter how much you try and wish they would. It’s heartbreaking."
Cvilla411
More me time...
"Give up my life for work. F**k going the extra mile for a place that doesn't value you and pays you crap even though you go the extra mile for them. You have 1 life with only so much precious time to enjoy it and slaving away at some job is not worth it. Do what you can to reduce your workload and find better employment, or hell try to change the working conditions at your current job to improve things for everyone if you can."
Mrhappytrigers
Well Obvi...
"Donate a kidney."
ToffieMonster
"Well, you could donate the remaining one. You just won’t be around to say anything about it."
shavemejesus
This is definitely list I can relate to. No thank you on a lot of this!
I Quit
"Smoke cigarettes, it's been two years since I quit."
SuvenPan
Forget It
"Climb mount Kilimanjaro. Toughest thing I've done and it's not worth it. I'm all about tough treks and camping but to put yourself under tough conditions and suspectable to altitude sickness only to get to the top for 10 minutes for a picture. No thank you."
Monks_
"I agree, it was memorable. Once was enough for my husband and I. Thankfully we stayed at American style hotel run by the US Navy with a hot tub and bar. Alcohol was definitely needed after all that."
Whatsherface112
I'm living alone!
"Sign a lease with a stranger without hanging out with them a few times beforehand. My past roommate experiences in college were terrible. Roommates either ignored me, hosted parties til 3 AM on weeknights, made the house the hangout and drug-den for them and their buddies. Meet up once and they'll put on an act for you. If you can, try to see how they act drunk or frustrated."
"Try to hang out with their buddies too so you can see the type of people who could be coming into your future place of residence. As soon as I can afford it, I'm living alone! Now, I investigate a potential roommate's social media and hang out at least twice before signing a lease with them."
fleursdefer
Stay Away
"Take back a cheater. Know your worth my brothers and sisters."
santichrist
"Ughhhhh going back and forth on this one. My boyfriend of 5 years has cheated on me. Several times, actually but says he’s really changed and is ready to settle down and wants me to move in with him. I’m on the fence. So they never change???"
madlecroy
Sleeptime
"Take a laxative and sleeping pill at the same time."
karmaredemption
Once, twice, three times... I'm out. Bye.
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People Imagine How They'd React If Their Significant Other Wanted To Sleep With Other People
There is an age old question that has been getting more traction surrounding sex for partners the last decade or so.
And that is... "is just one enough?"
Were we really meant to only be with one person forever?
There are so many flavors to taste.
What if your partner wants more cookie dough with your strawberry?
Redditor Pineapple-Status wanted to hear everyone's thoughts on opening the bedroom to others. They asked:
"What would you do if your long term SO suddenly wants to have sex with other people?"
I say I'd be ok with it, but I'm remembering my last relationship and I feel like I'm not a "put my $ where my mouth is type" on this issue.
Bye
"Wish her well and spend the next 2 years getting myself back to a place where I am ready to get hurt again."
wickedblight
It's Time to Roll On...
"Personally I would leave them."
"I think they're the ones leaving you. I don't think the relationship changes at that point; I think it ends. If you have a monogamous relationship, they are telling you they want to end that. They might be suggesting starting a new, non-monogamous relationship, but that is a separate thing. The original relationship is over."
octopoddle
ethical non-monogamy...
"OP, it's no different than anything else they want: you either agree and stay together, disagree but stay together, disagree and break up, or even agree and break up. What you're talking about is called 'ethical non-monogamy.'" The seminal book to read is called The Ethical Sl*t."
"It basically boils down to be whatever you want, just don't lie about it. The tricky thing is that this is something that was not present before, but is present now. So it's a potential fork in your road. If you're against it, it's up to your SO to decide if sex with other people is more important to them than a life with you."
Tokugawa
a different story...
"I think it depends too how intently they're interested. If it's a thing they bring up because they're curious but it's not a dealbreaker for them, I'm fine with that even if I don't want to proceed. A solid relationship involves open communication, and it'd make me happy if my partner trusted us and our bond enough to voice that curiosity with me."
"If it's something their heart's absolutely set on, then it's a different story. Either way, it's kind of strange to me how these posts always assume simply asking your partner how they feel about opening the relationship means they're now wholey invested in the poly lifestyle and they'll resent you or cheat if you say no."
donkeynique
Others
"Happy that we have common interest, sad that it's different 'other people."
i_lick_icicles
Sex is always an issue. Remember when it was just fun?
Mine
"Leave her. I’m far too possessive and jealous to be able to mentally accept polyamory. If she has a desire to be with other people I’m not going to stand in her way but I’m not going to be there when she gets home either."
Thiek
Not Me...
"Break up. My parents were poly and it's just not for me. I've been honest with every relationship I've been in that I'm not interested in any type of open relationship. If they want to be with someone else that's fine but we'll be over. My husband is aware of this and on board (and has been for over twenty years!). So if he came to me with this yes I would be heartbroken but I'm not willing to budge on this and it would be the end of our relationship."
GoldDustWitchQueen
Let's Talk
"Counseling time! We're married. I'm chronically ill (stage 4 breast cancer) and have no libido. We try to make intimacy work, and obviously in that case it wouldn't be working. So. Time for a pro to sort out the marriage, and possibly a sex therapist for me."
insertcaffeine
Awkward Positions
"I’ll put myself hypothetically in this position. My partner and I only want each other. We’ve made this abundantly clear to each other. However, if she came to me with desire to open our bedroom and she wanted to sleep with people outside our marriage."
"I would simply express how I vehemently do not an open bedroom and that it would kill any desire I have to want her, be with her, love her, etc. Our couple dynamic has been working well through our ups and downs. Involving some stranger in the ONE thing I find most sacred with my partner is the best way for me to lose any interest or passion for the relationship."
RedFlaim
Farewell
"Break it off, because they definitely already have someone in mind and you telling them no won't change the fact that they were only one step away from following through with it."
Caressticles
Well it feels like a lot of people still believe in one partner, happily ever after. Good for y'all. But big props to these couples who have open and honest conversations about their wants and needs.
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Many of us sometimes fantasize about what we would do to our worst enemies, especially in the moments when they're actively making our lives worse.
While most of us would never actually do any of the things that we contemplate instead of screaming at that super annoying person at the office, we do get pretty creative with the ideas.
Redditor take_me_there_ asked:
"What WOULD you wish on your worst enemy?"
This One Would Hurt
"A conscience. Let her realize the horrific things she’s done."
- Jenny010137
"Seriously. Introspection, self awareness, and empathy are traits that would improve a lot of sh*tty people."
- el_muerte17
"Oh I wish I had thought of this one. If my enemy had a conscience, wow life would be much different."
- Shelbysouth43
No Pearly Whites For You
"I’d like all their teeth to turn really yellow and stay yellow no matter what they do."
- toothfixingfiend
"What did I ever do to you?"
- Spideredd
"I don't even know you! Give me back my enamel!"
- AngryMustache9
Everything You Own Is Orange Now
"Permanent Cheeto fingers. Just orange cheese dust getting on everything."
- cocoapuff1721
"This has to be one of the most evil things I ever heard, yet absolutely hilarious."
-Merk0411
"The Midas Touch: Snack Edition"
- MaryVenetia
Ouch, But Forever
"Stubbing and breaking their toe and right as it’s about to be done healing it happens again over and over for the rest of their pitiful time on this hell we call earth."
- No-Bee-2971
"Sisyphoot"
- Alpha_6
"More of a Toemetheus imo"
- PykeTheDrowned
Self Reflection
"For them to realize how big of an a-hole they are."
- mayhemanaged
"Same for me. The trouble is mine probably knows what a tremendous a-hole he is, and just doesn't care (it's what defines him, is his outlook more than likely), so, give mine a conscience as well, he undeniably lacks one."
- RhoadsOfRock
"a crushing moment of self realization is something that can destroy you mentally. I wish that on them."
- chancetodream
Bury Them Under A Mountain Of Minor Inconveniences
"Always being hungry two hours after eating no matter how large the meal. Slow internet. Traffic jams no matter the location. Self doubt. Allergies. Favorite shows spoiled."
"Nothing major enough to be life altering but constant, low grade inconveniences that wear on your soul every day."
- I_Love_Small_Br**sts
"Every bite of food they eat/drink they drink being slightly the wrong temperature."
"Coffee? Warm but not hot. Cola? Cool, but not cold. Muffin? Ever so slightly frozen."
"Not enough to ruin their life, but just enough to not quite have full enjoyment of anything.."
- HappiHappiHappi
They'll Never Be Able To Use Their Computer Again
"Quick scan with McAfee on their computer."
- halflife_3
"You f**king monster."
- Orion_2kTC
"The constant pop-ups from McAfee is too far."
- _Land_Rover_Series_3
That's A New Level Of Evil
"Bed bugs."
- thrawn1825
"Currently dealing with bed bugs, and I can absolutely confirm this is the kind of thing I would wish upon my worst enemy. It is miserable and painful, and I've tried everything to get rid of them at this point."
"I would easily wish this upon my worst enemy, x10."
- ArbitrarilyStagnant
"Oh hell no, you went there... Hopefully they aren't living in an apartment complex or you've cursed everyone in the building."
- expect_less
Well of course I know him. He’s me.
"$100,000. I sure could use it."
- Sparklesperson
"'It’s no surprise to me I am my own worst enemy'"
- FishyVonFishenHymer
"Lol I thought this was that deep sh*t like 'pray for those you resent to have all the things you want in life….' Then I realized."
- No-Chipmunk9527
Forever Constipated
"That they can never have a satisfying poop. They always feel like they have to go to the bathroom and when they do nothing comes."
- [User Deleted]
"Wow. That's evil. Always feeling the need to pee would be good (as in horrific) too."
- ipakookapi
We definitely don't recommend implementing any of these plans (not that most would actually be possible), but here's some new ideas for the next time you're stuck in a meeting with your most annoying coworker and need a little fantastical escape.
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I grew up poor, and I remember the little things that made me smile when we just happened to have enough that week.
The little things that a truly rich person would not think twice about.
Ah, the luxury of it.
What spells luxury for you?
Redditor ConAir161057 wanted to compare notes about the things in life that feel like items only money can buy. They asked:
"For people who grew up with little money, what always felt like a luxury?"
New clothes. I had so many hand me downs and thrift store clothes... new seemed like a dream.
Anxiety
"After growing up in a home where every unexpected problem was a financial emergency, my idea of wealthy became 'I just want enough money that if something breaks I don't get anxiety about how to deal with it.'"
Obiwan_ca_bl**me
Literature
"Getting to buy something from the scholastic book fair."
Rich*itch3232
"My school, at the end of it a bunch of books were 'donated' and then spread out on a table in the library. We all got to go pick one book. So even if kids didn’t get to purchase a book, in the end they had a chance to still get a book. It’s actually how I got my first Harry Potter book. Was a cool idea for any school staff or parents active in their kids’ schools."
glass_pillow
Christmas
"Getting new clothes at Christmas from relatives. I don't know if that is exactly a luxury or the kind of answer you are looking for, but we never had a lot of money when I was in middle school. I went an entire year wearing the same pants everyday. The funny thing was my parents didn't even buy them for me."
"I got them for Christmas from my Grandparents. All the kids use to give me so much sh*t for wearing the same pants everyday. I always told them that I had 5 of the same pair which made me feel good inside and kind of made them ease off even though I know they didn't believe me."
"I remember I fell on the school bus one day and the jagged floor cut a hole right in the knee cap and the panic that went over me was just insane. It was one of the worst feelings of my whole life because I knew that I didn't have any other pants to wear and that now all of the kids in my school were going to know that I only had 1 pair. Needless to say I could not wait for the last month of school to end."
themagicman_1231
I'm Away
"Summer camp, or basically any school trips that had to be paid for. At my school the kids who couldn't afford to go on trips that happened during school hours still had to come to the school, we just sat in a room and did extra work like it was detention."
Helpful_Yams
"I was lucky. If you taught at the day camp your kid could go for free. That was just day camp though not sleepaway camp. My mom found a camp teacher who had no kids of his own and he signed me up as his kid so I could get free day camp. Did that all through elementary school."
randtcouple
Big Deals
"Going out for pizza was a big deal. Those free mini pizzas for reading books were huge."
Shroom4Yoshi
Food is always an issue when you're broke.
Damage
"Being able to turn on the heat in the cold and pay a professional to fix damaged appliances, plumbing, and other issues."
Liggettef
Spoiled
"When my grandma would come pick me up and spoil me. My parents didn't have much money and were addicts so when my grandma would come get me I would come back with new clothes, video games, toys, etc. I used to think my grandma was rich but she actually just had a stable income."
nawlepen
"I was in this position when I was younger. I always thought my grandma had SO much money… but all she did was go to work everyday. Always made sure I had clothes and all my school supplies. I miss her pretty bad."
Keywork29
Water
"I am from a small island in the Pacific. While I mostly still take cold showers, I have always felt that a hot shower is the finest luxury one can experience. I had my first hot shower when I was 22 years old and I can never forget it."
FSMPIO
"This is the kind of luxury I think people take for granted, I always avoided showers in the winter as a kid since most of the time they where cold showers and the temperature here was around 12c° during those times."
PowerfullDio
Showerware
"Towels. Honestly, I was almost 10 When I realized people didn’t just put back on their dirty clothes after a shower because my family was so large (12 kids total including myself) and extremely poor. I thought towels were just for hotels or were maybe a prop on television. I went to a friends house and she asked for my help folding her towels. I remember laughing and thinking she must be rich."
"Long story short, I wasn’t sure which way to fold the towels, and begged my mom to buy them after I revealed that my friend, Simone, had them. She bought a box of used ones from a local auction and I walked around with them on my head feeling like a frigging empress after that, even though—-let’s be clear… these were second hand towels!"
shakezula1025
Or BK...
"Grew up poor and when I was a kid I used to think you were rich if you had a dishwasher and a millionaire if you had one of those refrigerators that have a button for ice. McDonalds was also a luxury, a couple times a year on our birthdays."
chinderellab*tch
Everyone should have access to all of these things. Why is life unfair?
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