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People Share Their 'If I'm Going Down, I'm Taking You With Me' Stories

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People Share Their 'If I'm Going Down, I'm Taking You With Me' Stories
Photo by Afif Kusuma on Unsplash

Nobody walks out of life unscathed. That fact is just a given. Now whether we're tarnished by our own hand or another is a different story. We all get ourselves into situations where we realize... "uh-oh, I'm screwed!" But then how many of us decide that going down alone is not an option. Often we tend to burn the building and it's inhabitants with us.

Redditor q6u8g2 wanted everyone to share shoot a warning to others in a 'just in case' scenario by asking...

People of Reddit what's your "If I'm going down I'm taking you with me." Story?

Into the Lake....

"Super simple, but I am notorious in my friend group of having a fear of water. I'm okay in pools since you can (hopefully) see the bottom but even shallow lakes rivers and oceans are a no go for me. Some friends ended up renting a boat and wanted to take it out on the lake and beeeeegged me to come out. I kept telling them no way in heck would I ever willingly go out and sit in the middle of a lake."

"Finally I caved because I dunno. They were friends and really wanted me to go. Someone said it could really help me face my fears. Even though I didn't plan on getting in the water, I'm not going to wear jeans to the sunny "beach" so I left my wallet, keys, and phone in the car. Within 10 minutes of getting to the middle of the lake, buddy who suggested I "face my fears" and I think his brother ask me if I got the time. I shrug and tell them I left my phone back in my car."

"They both lunge at me and start throwing me overboard. I latch on for dear life and fight as if the river is lava because to me it essentially is. I eventually realize I'm 100% going over and there is nothing I can do. Except let go of the railing I was gripping onto and instead grab them both as I pulled back and forced all three of us into the water."

"Getting back on the boat was easy, it had a little ramp and ladder for climbing in/out and you can bet your butt I was the first climbing back up. The brothers got mad at me because they had their phones in their pockets and I ruined them. But everyone quickly pointed out that they pushed me in the water knowing I hated it and that they deserved it. They argued that they intentionally tried to make sure I didn't have anything electronic on me but everyone shut them down."

"They were allowed back on the boat when they apologized. My friend apologized and I actually did chip in to help him get a new phone later, but his brother swam back to shore and got even more upset and demanded I help him with his new phone since I helped his brother. But he didn't feel bad or think he did anything wrong so forget that guy." RedditWhileWorking23

Bad Plumbing.

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"My next door neighbor kept picking my plum tree dry when I would go out of town so I cut it down out of frustration. No plum jelly for anyone." foxglovingly

Becky's Butt! 

"I had a group project I had to do with 4 other people. 3 out of the 4 were great, but there were roles each of us had to fill in the group for the project to work right. The final girl never once participated in the project, so her role was completely empty and it was dragging the rest of us down."

"(We couldn't just fill in for her either because she kept her specific instructions to herself)"

"The other 3 and I did the best we could, but our instructor didn't seem impressed. He had a few questions about how we came to our conclusion and who did what in the group."

"The other 3 were trying to keep focus on the roles they filled but the instructor was asking about the role that the one girl skipped out on."

"I answered that we didn't have anything from that role because what's her butt didn't come to any of the project sessions. We just did what we could without her."

"Until that point, the girl that didn't do shit was standing there acting like she deserved any of the grade we all got."

"Once I said something, the other 3 girls confirmed that yes, Becky's butt did 0% of the work. She tried to say she was just really busy but another girl shut her down by saying she saw her at several parties the past couple weeks."

"That girl got a 0 and the rest of us got like an 85 or around that number. I felt like a snitch, but forget that girl." Careless_Hellscape

 "they need a better seat to view the board."

"When you are in trouble at school, it helps that you're related to someone who works for the school district."

"I had a math teacher my junior year of high school who was also the cheerleading coach and she worshipped every student who was an athlete. And she hated theatre kids. She would make theatre kids (or basically any non-athlete) trade seats with a student athlete because "they need a better seat to view the board." She basically told us that student athletes' education was more important than ours."

"One day, the drama club was planning a field trip the same day of a really big math test. My math teacher was already fully aware of the field trip and said that the theatre kids are allowed to take the test at another time."

"Well, the day of the field trip comes, and she pretends she is unaware of the field trip. She called up our drama teacher and threw a tantrum that the theatre kids were missing. We then got in trouble with the drama teacher, and we received a zero on the math test."

"I told my aunt (a math teacher, AND the head of the math department for the whole entire school district) about this, and she looked into it. Teacher didn't get fired, but got in trouble. Well, she found out that it was my aunt that reported her, and now she was purposely failing me. I actually had no trouble in math especially since my aunt was tutoring me, and I was doing well, so there was no reason why I was failing except for the fact that the teacher wanted revenge on me for getting her in trouble."

"So this time I tell my aunt, but in a different way. I say that my teacher's material is not making sense (which was actually true, she had no idea what she was doing) and my aunt called her up and asked her what she plans on teaching her students. My teacher was caught by surprise and didn't know how to exactly answer my aunt and kept giving bs answers. My aunt then looked into it some more, and confirmed that basically, the teacher had no idea what she was doing. And well, she got fired."

"I did have to take summer school since I still failed her class, but I basically ended her teaching career." kumquat_kutiekumquat_kutie

The Fourth Guy....

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"In a tech writing class I took there was a group project that saw all students separated into groups of four."

"We figured out what sort of assignment we were doing and decided up responsibilities. It became obvious from day one that our forth team member had no interest in contributing and planned to just skate by on whatever grade we got."

"Rather than accept that I went straight to the professor, told her what I thought was going on and asked to either be reassigned or even allowed to do the project solo rather than settle for a lesser grade due to one crappy team mate."

"She offered a better deal for me to bring back to the two contributing team mates: we do a three man presentation and if our lame duck fourth doesn't have anything to contribute he would be graded singularly."

"I tried throughout the duration of the project to get him on board and involved but he blew off every opportunity to contribute."

"Presentation day came and the three of us who worked got top marks... then the Professor came up and called out our forth guy in front of the entire class."

"I told you all on day one I don't tolerate free-loaders in my class. <Fourth Guy> contributed nothing to his team's project so he will not receive his team's grade. Provide nothing, get nothing."

"He never showed up for another class, but he also never withdrew. The fool ended up with an F in the course. Couple other folks in the class knew him, I learned later that he did this for multiple classes that semester and ended up getting kicked out the next semester." The5Virtues

Parents Explain Which Things Surprised Them Most When Their Child Moved Out | George Takei’s Oh Myyy

Being a Newbie....

"In one of my first jobs, a colleague who was threatened by me (the new worker, shy, inexperienced, learning little by little, just out of college), was slowly putting ideas in the head of my boss until I get fired."

"The day after I was fired there was a meeting with the boss and other important positions in which I had been working hard to make a good impression. I knew who would take all the credit, the lazy bastard who had stabbed me in the back."

"It turns out that one of the things that I knew how to do was synchronize the files on my personal computer to an internet cloud, in order to have my files available at home."

"I knew that my partner was too lazy and would not thoroughly review the documents, so from the comfort of my home I modified the presentation. Some information here and there, nothing excessive and like the icing on the cake a hidden message after a photograph on the last panel that would only be visible during the presentation:"

"Thank you for not paying attention to the erroneous data and not looking at the information that does not match in the least with what I exposed, I'm glad nobody will notice because they are not interested and will not ask any crap."

"I would like to have been there, but as far as I knew the whole floor hear the screams of my boss."

"I know, it wasn't very mature, but it was satisfying." CiusWarren

Out of Publix. 

"When I was a little kid, my mom made me hold her hand to cross the street out of Publix (ya know, as parents do). She slipped on a wet spot on the street, screamed "sucker!", and yanked me down with her. Then she had some kind of misfired reflex, and slapped her hand over my face to try to cushion my fall (I guess?). At the time, I thought my mom was randomly trying to assault me or smth right in the damn parking lot." TheWholeOfHell

Scissor Sisters. 

"Growing up my best friend and I got in trouble for cutting up brand new, expensive jeans to make shorts. Her mom was (rightfully) screaming at me, so I said, "what about [her daughter], she asked me to and handed me the scissors?" and got us both grounded so at least we could sit together in her room lol." Lockshala

Hospital Horror.

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"Had an absolutely terrible boss at a hospital. She had been there for almost 30 years and was almost omnipotent. She was an absolutely horrendous human being in every way shape and form. She liked to pick one person everyday at random that worked with her and pick on them until they cried. She would then fake false feelings about how sorry she was, that she didn't mean to do it, and so on. Our department ran the Toys for Tots drive at our hospital. She insisted that all toys were kept in her office."

"It didn't take me long to figure out she was stealing the toys. I took photographic evidence as well as writing down everything I could in the ensuing months about everything she was doing. I knew at this point she knew that I did not like her and that I had pretty much figured out what she was about so she turned her attention to me and made my life miserable. I finally did quit, however, I made it my mission to take her with me. Everyone in the hospital, including the CEO, we're somewhat afraid of her and we're just trying to get her to her 30 years so she could go out naturally."

"After I quit I sent photos and all of my written documentation to the CEO of the hospital who I had tried to talk about all of this stuff with before I left but could tell he was not listening. I then wrote if she was not dealt with I was going to notify the local news channels about what I knew was going on with her. Needless to say she was forced to retire immediately upon her 30th anniversary, which was a week away." Ande64

Try Me. 

"I worked for a corrupt business owner for a business that had a reputation for being bad."

"Anyway, I had to work for him because I didn't have another job."

"After years of watching him rip off his clients, I finally caught him in the act."

"I quit. He threatened to sue me for breach of contract and stealing clients (I hadn't stolen anyone). He went so far as to have papers served on me and my new employer."

"I called his attorney and reminded him I knew what boss had done and would love to have the opportunity to ask him a few questions about his billing practices."

"Lawyer said he'd call back. Half an hour later, the lawyer told me it was over." SouthernBoundandDown

Squad Pics....

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"When I was stationed in Korea my sergeant threatened to tell command I was drinking underage. Fortunately I had pictures of our squad drinking and he was present so I told I would show them to command if he told on me." Careaga57

Chewed Up/Spit Out! 

"I was rock climbing and this guy who was my belayer for the day was kind of a fool. Well no surprise, this fool spends most of his time flirting with a cute girl who is friendly but seriously not into him. He gets chewed out by our lead for not paying attention, which means he continues to not pay attention as he is incapable of picking up cues. Well, there's me, twenty five feet or so off the ground with my rope slack and feeling my hands slipping because I'm just running out of steam."

"Now having told him three times to pick up the slack, I look down and see he's completely ignoring me to chat with this girl again. My mistake was looking down, as I reach to re-adjust my weakening hold and slip. The rope shoots out of his limp, sausage like fingers and I began to fall (I know a properly tied off rope shouldn't do that. I don't know how he f---ed that up too). My only thought is if I'm going to fall, I'll damn well land on him."

"Well I did. I landed straight on his cushy body. I was barely injured. He was taken to hospital after having 80 odd kilos land on him from two stories up. I never happened to see him at that rock climbing club again." BlazingBeagle

Labor & Industry....

"I once worked for a startup company, and they missed one of my paychecks. It wasn't a gigantic deal to me because they were a bit strapped for cash and we had a big release coming soon, and I was decently paid anyway, so I just said "forget it."

"They then fired me two days before release, making it sound like I had been inadequate despite zero indication from them that I was such before that day."

"So I made the proper legal arrangements to recoup my missing paycheck and told them I'd be going to Labor & Industry (I had already filed a complaint) because if they were going to fire me after I worked 70 hours a week for over a month to try and meet their deadline, out of nowhere, I sure as heck wasn't going to cut them the slack of an entire paycheck. I got my paycheck, they went out of business because they were corrupt and had been misusing investor funds for years before this unbeknownst to me, and I laughed my way to the bank." minigunman123

Go Figure!

"When I was in University I did a six month exchange program in Spain. I took 4 classes while I was there and all had an equivalent credit at my university in Canada. I was getting As in all of my classes except one class where I was really struggling and getting a failing grade on an assignment in that class finally broke me. The prof for this class was the worst. It was an intermediate Spanish class and he was marking us like he thought we should all be writing Shakespeare. Not only that but how he told us to complete assignments vs how he marked them would be completely incongruent. He expected us to be doing things that he never taught us and he should not have been expecting in the first place from an intermediate Spanish class."

"I realized it wasn't just my problem when the girl from France, whose Spanish was far better than anyone else in the class, started crying one day after she got an assignment back and begging to understand why she was marked so poorly. He just pointed at her assignment like that was the only explanation required and then ignored her after that. There was no way to drop the class or switch into another because of the way it was built into the exchange program so I decided I would start emailing the teacher constantly after he gave us assignments, clarifying every little point, coming back with follow up questions to try and figure out what the heck it was he actually wanted from us, spending way more time on assignments than they deserved. That way if I failed I would have this record showing how hard I was working in the class to bring to administration if I needed to fight it and all the discrepancies between how he provided assignments vs how he marked them."

"A couple of days before the final exam teacher evaluation forms came around and I could tell by how long it took all of us to turn them in that I wasn't the only one in the class unloading on this guy. This was his first semester teaching at the university so if his teacher evaluations didn't go well he wouldn't be invited back. If I failed this class then at least that ahole wouldn't be doing this to someone else next semester."

"We get our final marks a week later and I've managed to pull a C- out of my butt. Great, just squeaked by. Then with final marks dispersed he's allowed to see his teacher evaluations. He sent an email to the entire class that night and lost his friggin' mind. We're talking sections with all caps, multiple exclamation marks, telling us how stupid we all are and how we don't know what we're talking about. He's the greatest teacher alive and we're all just bad students. Complete meltdown. The next morning I found another email, from the university this time, stating that professor fool is no longer with the university and will not be welcome back again followed by numerous apologies regarding his behavior. I inquired about our grades in light of what happened but I guess they weren't that apologetic because they refused to change them. Go figure." FantasmaEnLaMaquina

"Not a chance, she's royally screwed."

Giphy

"Current job, previous manager. I was on a team of 2, and when the lady I worked alongside with quit, they decided not to replace her. I have a young child, who as children so often do, gets sick a lot. Being the only person on my team (and the most important role for our office to function since it is literally the first step in all our processes), I had a very hard time whenever I used my PTO with short notice. I had given my manager multiple ways to fix the issue, but she never would hear any of it."

"She also was in a remote office so she had 0 clue what I did with my day. She finally sent me a very angry email basically telling me I could not use my PTO for emergencies all the time when my son got sick. I wrote back a long, detailed list of every method I suggested to fix the issue, along with the fact that I was the only person in my position for months, and that our company policy states in bold letters that using PTO because you or your loved one is sick is not only acceptable, but encouraged. My manager responded to my email by stating she would forward my concerns to HR and that I should probably polish up my resume."

"But HR was in our office that day. For the first time in 6 months. Great coincidence, right? So I went in, asked if I could speak about an issue concerning my manager, and explained everything as it happened. The HR rep had this look on her face like she was going to murder someone. She asked me to forward the entire email chain to her, which I did. Then she called me back to talk to her. A few people I talked to were aware that the manager and I had issues, and the lead of every team in our office basically told the HR rep that the entire office can't function without me and that I've been doing the work of 3 people for 9 months."

"Later that day, my manager sent me a very angry message over email basically saying I was fired and that I was to pack my things immediately for failing to do my job and because I was causing a hostile work environment. I forwarded this to HR rep, and then walked to her office and asked if I should pack my stuff. She looked at me, and in a single, sweet sentence said "Not a chance, she's royally screwed." And that's basically how my manager went from making $80k a year to being fired on a Wednesday with no compensation, no benefits, and no way to collect unemployment. All around a productive day." tysquirt

Back in the 8th.....

"When I was in 8th grade, we had to create a presentation on a book we had just read, including a skit from one of the scenes. Here's the best part- we were forced to work in groups. Being an introvert, I hate group work. What I hate even more is when your group mates don't do their work. The day we were assigned the project, we decided to divvy up the slides equally. It was a Google Slides, so we could all contribute to the same document. The class ended, and I had already finished one of my slides. One boy only changed the color of the title, and the other two didn't do anything. Two days later, I had finished all of my slides. Nobody else had done anything. I offered to start the script for the skit since I had finished, and asked for the others to contribute. Nothing. A couple more days passed, I had finished the skit as well, and all of the other slides were still empty."

"Finally, the night before the assignment was due came. I had hoped that even a title had been added. The slides were still empty. I finally decided to just finish it myself. I was up until about midnight, and the slides were not the best quality. Finally, presentation day comes. Of course, my group mates felt absolutely no remorse for doing no work. It was our turn to present, and my group mates nominated me to present. I finally decided to show them the consequences of their actions. I told them that we were all to present the slides we were supposed to work on. They obviously didn't know what they were doing and were extremely unprepared. My grade went down, but theirs went down even more." bmay1310

SPLAT!! 

"My Grandma lived on a main road in Miami, she had grapefruit tress in her yard that grew HUGE grapefruits. When I was little, my older brothers taught me to roll the grapefruits out into traffic and watch them splat as the cars drove by. They couldn't see where the fruits were coming from because we hid behind the bushes to launch them. It was kinda like reverse frogger; the goal was to get a good splat."

"When I was 15, grandma's health was declining, so my family stayed at her house for a couple days to get it cleaned out and ready to sell. I decided it would be fun to take my younger brothers out and show them grapefruit splat. After about 10 minutes of us hurling double digit grapefruits out into traffic, One of us rolled a big, fat grapefruit right in front of a cop car without paying attention. We all ran to the backyard, but when I looked out front, my youngest brother Barry was still out there. Apparently he froze up."

"I come walking up hurriedly to the police officers and tried to play it off... "what seems to be the problem, officer?" I asked. "Who are you and where are this boy's parents?" he asked. I replied "I'm his older brother. My parents are at the grocery store, so I'm babysitting until they get back." The cop was super chill and goes "OK, well, your brother was rolling grapefruits out into traffic, so we just stopped to explain to him why that's dangerous." I looked over to Barry and winked to let him know that we were about to be off the hook and I said to the cop "I'm so sorry, I'll make sure to have a talk with him and it won't happen again." Well, Barry misread my wink as a taunt, so he looks up at the cops and goes "HE'S the one who showed us how to do it! He ran away when you stopped. And my dad's not gone, he's inside!"

"The cop looks down at me with a huge grin and says "let's go see dad." I proceeded to get a huge butt-kicking for bringing my brothers into something dangerous, then grounded for lying to the cops." jerk-ohjerk-oh

"Wait! Yams is in the corner under the cart!"

"In 7th grade my teacher decided to use process drama to teach about the Holocaust. He told us we can hide anywhere in the building and if we successfully evade him looking for us, we will get a bunch of extra credit. Conversely, if we are caught, we will get 5 points for each other classmate we rat out. I hid successfully in the computer class under a spare tv cart that barely fit me."

"My soon-to-be-not-friend had chosen poorly in the same room and was easily found. Upon walking out I very clearly remember him yelling, "Wait! Yams is in the corner under the cart!" I can't remember being so mad at someone. Ratted out for a mere 5 points?! I yelled at him and def overreacted. The lesson being a process drama, that was kind of the point... To experience the fear and potential rage at your neighbors for ratting you out."

"(For those of you who don't know, this lesson style is to give the student first-hand emotional connection to whichever content you'd like to teach. It's incredibly effective)." Yams_Garnett

You're Not Gonna Do It! 

"My uncle used to own a hardware store in our crappy little town. He wanted to put up a cover between two buildings that he owned but the town council wouldn't let him. They never gave any real reason like, "we need to leave the area uncovered because of XYZ building codes." They just went on a power trip and said, "you're not gonna do it!"

"Eventually due to some other power trips my uncle threatened to move his shop a few towns over. Town council went all, "you're not gonna do it!" in a "I dare you" way. So my uncle did just that."

"If I remember correctly he paid the most in taxes so all the money the town was getting from him disappeared. Most of his employees were in high school and couldn't drive. When he moved the kids went with him. Since the parents had to drive their kids to their job they decided they would also pick up groceries and other things they needed while they were in the new town. So the cloth shop and grocery store went out out business. Since no one could get what they needed in our small town just about everyone moved."

"Now the town is run down and there's barely anything here. My dad said it used to be a nice little town. Now hardly anyone lives here and everything is falling in. My uncle even warned the council, "if I leave I will take this town with me." But they didn't listen." iamliterallyinsane

Dive Deep!

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"Dad pushed me into the pool but before I fell in I grabbed his arm. 😎" DreamGirl3

Well some of these certainly took a turn!

Do you have similar stories to share? Let us know in the comment section below.

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Old Wives' Tales People Still Believe For Some Reason

"Reddit user the_spring_goddess asked: 'What is an old wives tale that people still believe?'"

Close up of an owl tilting their head to side, looking bewildered
Photo by Josh Mills

The old wives' tales.

They are the stories of legend.

I think we all need a big DEEP Google dive though.

Where did they originate?

WHO ARE THE OLD WIVES!

You don't hear about them as much anymore.

It's like science and logic are suddenly a thing.

But they sure are a good way to keep your kids and their behavior in line.

Redditor the_spring_goddess wanted to discuss the tall tales we've all been fed through life, so they asked:

"What is an old wives tale that people still believe?"

"Wait an hour to swim after eating."

What a crock!

So many summer hours wasted.

I want revenge for that one.

Say Nothing

Giphy

"An undercover cop has to tell you he's a cop if you ask him."

LonelyMail5115

"Pretty much most advice when it comes to cops are old wives tales. I’m not even a cop but most of the advice you hear is pretty off."

I_AM_AN_A**HOLE_AMA

Say Something

"That you have to wait 24 hours to report someone missing."

Severe_Airport1426

"I really think this one is important and should be the top regardless. As it’s a piece of advice that needs to be relearned and the only way to do that is through awareness."

crappycurtains

"This used to be true. I think they changed it after some guy named Brandon went missing back in the '80s or '70s. You used to have to wait 24 hours if the missing person was an adult because they had 'a right to be missing' and then everyone realized that was stupid and stopped doing it."

AlbinoShavedGorilla

Body Temps

"That drinking ice cold water after eating oily foods will solidify the oil and permanently remain in your body. I informed my coworker that if your body temperature ever reached that point, you’d have bigger problems than weight gain."

chriseo22

"Oh, I have a cousin who 100% believed this. One of those guys who believed every early 2000s internet rumor and old wives tale. One night I chugged a big glass of ice water after dinner and he started freaking out and saying my guts were gonna harden."

"I sarcastically told him to drive me to the hospital if that happened. Obviously, nothing happened and the next morning I said something like 'Thanks for being on standby in case my guts filled with hardened oil.' He just walked off muttering under his breath."

apocalypticradish

Arms Down

"When I was pregnant, I was told by young and old alike that I should NOT raise my arms above my head or exert myself in such a manner because it could cause cord strangulation to my unborn sons and daughters."

Fatmouse84

10 Years Actually

Unimpressed Uh Huh GIF by Brooklyn Nine-Nine Giphy

"Chewing gum stays in your stomach for 7 years."

REDDIT

"I remember accidentally swallowing a piece of gum when I was a kid in like 1995 and just accepting my fate like welp, gonna have this in my stomach til high school I guess."

Gecko-911

I was so afraid to sallow my gum when I was young.

This tale is haunting.

High/Low

Hungry Debra Messing GIF by Will & Grace Giphy

"You can tell the sex of the baby by how you carry."

LeastFormal9366

"Pregnancy certainly wins awards for the most old wives tales. So much absolute BS was repeated to us by everyone we talked to."

IllIIIlIllIlIIlIllI

The Cursed

"If you’re a woman and you wear opal jewelry but opal is not your birthstone (October), you’ll never be able to have children, or will be widowed, or just generally have bad luck or something. You can counteract this by having a diamond in the same piece of jewelry as the opal, though."

"I have a nice opal ring that my parents gave me years ago, and I’ve had other women give me this 'advice' unprompted more than once when I’ve worn it. I have absolutely no idea where it started, but I’m pretty sure this little chunk of silicate rock has no concept of what month I was born in, let alone of how my reproductive organs work."

SmoreOfBabylon

Stay In

"Going outside with wet hair will make you get pneumonia. Or an earache. Or maybe arthritis. Depends on which old wife you listen to."

"Jokes on them - I haven't blow-dried my hair in decades and usually leave the house with wet hair in the morning. On winter mornings, the tips of my hair get frozen. No ear infections or pneumonia or arthritis yet."

worldbound0514

Dreams and Facts

"You never make anyone up in your dreams you've seen everyone in your dreams somewhere else before and never make anyone up entirely."

"How would you possibly prove that to be true? My partner adamantly believes this and tells me this 'fact' whenever I have a dream about someone I've never met before."

mattshonestreddit

"My late wife used to tell me that before she met me she would have dreams of standing at an alter on her wedding day but could never see the guy's face, no matter how hard she tried. After meeting me the face was filled in with mine. Don't know if it's true but one of those things I like thinking of every now and then when I miss her."

Darthdemented

Cracked

Getting Ready Episode 2 GIF by The Office Giphy

"Some people still believe cracking knuckles causes arthritis."

Choice-Grapefruit-44

"There's a doctor (Donald Unger) that cracked his knuckles a couple of times a day for 60 years, but only on one hand, just to prove it. Both hands remained exactly the same."

MacyTmcterry

I love my knuckles.

Do you have any tall tales to add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.

lottery tickets
Erik Mclean on Unsplash

A lot of workers daydream about some day winning the lottery and being able to say goodbye to their job.

Far too many workers are unhappy with their job duties, workplace dynamics or company culture.

But with a taste for luxuries like housing and food, they keep plugging away, year after year.

However not everyone feels that way about their job.

So what are these compelling careers?

Keep reading... Show less
Therapist talking during session
Photo by Mark Williams on Unsplash

Some people stand firmly stand behind their beliefs that everyone would benefit from therapy and that therapy is life-changing.

It's because of the totally life-changing truth bombs their therapist had dropped during their sessions.

Curious, Redditor anonymiss0018 asked:

"What is a little bombshell your therapist dropped in one of your sessions that completely changed your outlook?"

Communication Issues

"'If you don’t have these problems with any other person in your life, why do you think you’re the problematic person in this one?'"

- maggiebear

"I love this. I have a 'friend' who I always seem to run into misunderstandings with. Every time we had a conversation, it somehow turned into a debate even if it was me talking about my day. The conversations were never easy."

"I always evaluate myself first and take into consideration his critiques. He was very good at convincing me that I was contradicting myself or wasn't good at communicating my thoughts."

"I NEVER had this issue with ANYONE else in my life. I kept trying to figure out where the miscommunication was coming from. In the end, I just minimized contact and now I don't run into this issue."

- chobani_yo

"I read this quote somewhere once (and probably have it a bit wrong): 'It's a waste of time arguing with someone who is determined to misunderstand you.'"

- Reddit

Emotional Regulation

"'You can’t control your emotions, but you can control what you do with them.'"

"At the time, I was a young adult who had learned zero healthy emotional regulation skills (only suppression and shaming) growing up, so this blew my mind."

- lil_mermaid

Tough Relationships

"'It sounds to me like you are trying to convince yourself to stay with your girlfriend. I'm not so sure it should be so difficult.'"

"At the time he said this, I remember it was like he said, 'The earth is flat.' I thought he was crazy when he suggested relationships don't need to be difficult. But eventually, I started to realize I was trying to change myself to stay with this person rather than just being who I am."

"It took me three more months to finally break up with her but from that day on, I vowed to never again abandon myself just to be with someone I had convinced myself was better than me."

- metric88

High-Stress Situation

"I was at a high-stress time, and I asked her how people live like this."

"She replied, 'Oftentimes they have cardiac events.' She said it as an urging to care for myself as much as possible."

- KittenGr8r

The End of Alcohol

"I was struggling with my alcoholism, and we were discussing how I had been cutting back."

"She asked what I would consider success, with regard to my drinking."

"I said I wanted to get to a point where it wasn't interfering with my daily life. I wanted to just be able to have a glass of wine at holiday dinners or family gatherings."

"She simply asked me why. Why was it important for me to drink at those times?"

"It was as if she'd turned on a light. Alcohol had always been a key ingredient in every family function, for my entire life. When I smell bourbon, I think of my uncle. When I smell vermouth, I think of my dad. Alcohol ran through almost every happy childhood memory."

"But, even more than that, I was very afraid of the explanation I'd have to give when family and friends asked why I wasn't having a drink. I had tried to quit before but failed. What if I admitted my problem, only to fall off the wagon?"

"When she asked why I didn't want to completely quit, it was the first time I saw that last part of the big picture. I'd be willing to drink myself to death in order to avoid being scrutinized, or judged for possible future failures."

"That was the day I quit. I've been sober since May 6th, 2017. 2,407 days."

- sophies_wish

Acceptance vs. Enjoyment

"'Accepting something doesn’t mean you have to like it.'"

"That took away a lot of my inner conflicts about situations because I could accept a situation without expending energy internally fighting against the injustice of it."

- alibelloc

Emotionally Immature Parents

"You are not responsible for your parents' emotional wellbeing. They are independent adults who have been on this earth for many more years than you."

- SmokedPears

Not So Lazy

"'Why do you think you're lazy?' Then she listed off all the things she knows I'm doing for my family, my job, and my life."

"It kind of blew my mind when I struggled to come up with an example."

"She also described family dysfunction as water. Some families are messed up in a way that everyone can see the huge waves across the surface. Others are better at hiding it, but there's still a riptide that you can't see unless you're also in the water."

"It made me realize that trying to keep the surface from ever rippling doesn't erase what is happening underneath."

- flybyknight665

The Harm in People-Pleasing

"'Why do you make people more comfortable when you are uncomfortable?' when talking about people pleasing and fawning."

- ERsandwich

Agree to Disagree

"'Stop trying to get everyone to agree. When you need everyone to agree, the least agreeable person has all the power.'"

This really changed my outlook on planning family events."

- freef

Grieve and Start Anew

"For context, I had a major TBI (traumatic brain injury), seizures, strokes, and all around not a fun brain time when I was 28."

"They said, 'You have to grieve the loss of yourself.'"

"Most people wanted me to go back to how I was. The f**ked up truth is that part of my brain is dead. The person everyone (including myself) knew died. I needed to grieve the loss of myself."

- squeaktoy_la

Multifaceted Identity

"They told me that my job and career is just a way to make money; it's not my life or identity. That took a lot of pressure off me."

- unfairpegasus

Breaking the Cycle

"They validated me."

"'You always talk about not wanting to do to your daughters what your mom did to you. You worry about it so much in every interaction you have ever had with them."

"But your children are 19 and 21 now. They are happy and healthy and they trust you because you’ve never abused them in any way. So I just want to validate for you that you really have broken that cycle of violence."

"You did that. And you should be proud of it. I’m proud of you for it.'"

- puppsmcgee74

The Grieving Process

"I was constantly bringing up how I felt like a completely different person after my mom died... like there was a marked difference between before and after her death."

"But once, she was asking about my hobbies, I got really into describing all the things I loved to do or at least used to do before I got into a deep depression."

"She was like, 'Wow, you seem very passionate.'"

"And I just sat there like, 'Well, I mean, I can't change what I like to do, they're still fun to do.'"

"And it's like she knew when to take a step back, because it was like, wow, I may be super depressed about my mom passing, but I'm still me. I'm still my passions and those don't go away."

"I don't know, maybe it only makes sense to be, but it really started getting me back on track."

- Hannibal680

Sharing the Load

"I've never really had friends. I've had colleagues and classmates and housemates and people who have hung out with me, but I never really felt close to any of them."

"And I did that thing you see on here sometimes; I stopped reaching out to see if I would be reached out to, and I wasn't, which I took as confirmation that they didn't really want me around, or at the very least, that they wouldn't mind my absence."

"I was talking to my therapist about people I'd been close to in college, and she told me to pick one and talk about him. So I did. After I shared some basic stuff like his name and his major etc., and a couple of anecdotes, she asked me what else I knew about him."

"And I couldn't answer. It wasn't really a broadly applicable bombshell, but she said, 'What else?' and I started crying because I realized that for as simple as the question was, my inability to answer spoke volumes."

"I've never had good friends because I've never been a good friend. I'm withdrawn and reserved and I always made others do the work to drag me out, without ever extending my own friendship in a meaningful way in return. If I wanted to have meaningful relationships with other people, I would have to build them."

"I'm still working on this, but I'm trying to make more offers and extend more friendliness to others in my daily life."

- Backupusername

The discoveries in this thread were incredibly touching and profound; it's no wonder these were lasting concepts for these Redditors.

It's important to keep ourselves open to inspiration and insights from others, as we have no idea how their experiences could help us, or how we could help them.

Aerial view of a church in a small town
Sander Weeteling/Unsplash

There's something comforting about living in a small town.

It's characterized by close communities where neighbors know each other by name and there is an abundance of kindness extended to others.

Gift-giving is a commonality, as is the sharing of recipes, and people going out of their way to help each other in a time of need.

The pace of living in small towns is also a striking contradiction to city life, where crowds of people go about their busy lives without much interaction.

Curious to hear more examples of what small town living is like, Redditor official_biz asked:

"What's the most 'small town' thing you've witnessed?"

These are positive examples of a tight-knit community.

Live Updates

"We have a village Facebook page. Every time the ice cream man drives into the village, the entire page goes ballistic. People send live updates of where the van is and which direction he's heading. The ice cream man has started accepting DMs so he knows which streets to go down."

– PyrrhuraMolinae

Brush With The Law

"I’m from a town of less than 2,000 people. When I worked at the grocery store there people would often drop off stuff for my family members because they didn’t want to drive all the way down to our house. I no longer live there but recently got a call from my daughter. She had been stopped for speeding and handed over her license and insurance which happens to be in my mother’s name. The officer goes 'Hey, you’re Donnie’s granddaughter! I ain’t gonna write you a ticket but I’m telling Donnie when I see him tomorrow cause we’re going fishing.' She replied 'I think I’d rather have the ticket.'”

- Reddit

Roadside Catchup

"The traffic on the 'main street' of my town is so sparse, two drivers going opposite directions can stop and talk to each other for a few minutes without causing any problem."

– anon

When things go wrong, people take notice without incident.

Bank Robbery

"A guy robbed a bank and everyone knew immediately who he was and the teller got mad at him."

– AlexRyang

"A local bank was robbed and one of the tellers told the police to bring her a yearbook from about ten years earlier and she would be able to point the robber out. He had been in the grade before hers in school."

– Strict_Condition_632

Wise Woman

"When I worked at the bank in town there was an older lady that had worked there through 5 mergers."

"She knew everyone, there was a young guy yelling at me one day. She walked out of the back and he immediately quieted. She went off about telling his grandmother that he was treating young women like sh*t. She also said that if he didn’t straighten up not one girl in town would ever marry him she would make sure of it."

– ilurvekittens

Intoxicated Local

"Town drunk was paralyzed and used a motorized wheelchair to get around. I was driving home one Saturday night and said town drunk was passed out in his wheelchair doing circles almost directly in the town square. Had to call his brother who came and picked him up on a rollback truck. Strapped him down and drove off into the cold dark night."

– DoodooExplosion

Grazing Over To The Bar

"In my former small town, there was an older guy who'd lost his license after getting a few DUIs. Every day, he would ride his John Deere lawnmower to the corner bar around 3PM and sit around watching TV and sipping his beer well into the night. Then he'd head the couple miles back home on his mower. He even had a little canvass shell he put on when it rained or got too cold."

– brown_pleated_slacks

It's not surprising how small town people behave differently than those who are from metropolitan areas.

Welcoming Committee

"I lived in a small town. When I moved there, people would ask, 'Whose house did you buy?'"

–MoonieNine

"Move to a small town. 30 years later, you are still the new guy."

– impiousdrifter

"I lived in a small town for most of my childhood but I wasn't "from there" because my grandparents weren't from there."

– raisinghellwithtrees

"Worked with an older guy, relative of the owner of the business, he was 73. I asked him if he was a local, he said 'no his parents moved here when he was two.'"

– realneil

A Busy Day

"Lived in a town of about 5,000: A woman walked into the DMV on a Friday, saw that there were 3 people ahead of her and left to come back another time when they weren't so busy."

– KenmoreToast

Who Let The Dogs Out?

"My dogs got out while i was working. the police called my niece's elementary school (she was a 5th grader) to get her to round them up and take them back home."

– mediocrelpn

"There was a small kennel behind the police station for runaways. They called us saying they had our dog, and moments later our dog showed up home. He broke out of jail."

– Worried_Place_917

While life in a small town sounds appealing, I don't know if I can ever live in one.

I'm so used to life in big cities, I think it would be quite unnerving to adjust in a neighborhood where everyone literally knows your business.

I would be paranoid.

And I'm sure the same could be said of life in the big city.

Would you consider making the switch to life in a different setting?