People Who've Had A Close Encounter With A Murderer Share Their Experience
We throw around the word luck so flippantly. There are many moments in life fueled by luck and often we're so thrilled to experience it, we're just rejoicing. And that is perfectly fine. But life teaches us, we cannot afford to take luck or life for granted. Luck is an understatement when it comes to being unscathed by evil. True evil, walks among us and we interact with the worst of society on the daily and we never even fully comprehend how close to being snuffed out we are. We're all "almost" walking Dateline NBC episodes.
Redditor u/lolita-cake wanted to hear the chilling misconnections tales with life's most vile by asking who was willing to share the following.... People who had a close encounter with a murderer/serial killer, how did it go? How did you find out that person was dangerous?
****WARNING*****
Some of the following may not be suitable for younger readers. Trigger warnings below.
"holy crap, did you get the same creepy feeling from him I did?"
A childhood friend of mine had this boyfriend that nobody liked. She ran off and eloped with him. He cheated on her a bunch and there was constant drama (my wife worked with her, and we were some of her few childhood friends still in the area so we were pretty close). Like, she'd come spend the night on our couch occasionally and stuff. An obviously unhealthy and likely abusive marriage.
He seemed to mellow out when they had kids. At least there wasn't any more overt drama going on and we think he legitimately stopped cheating. He also got really religious. Something about this creeped my wife and me out and made us hate being around him even more than before. It's like when someone is pretending they're happy but you know it's not real.
Like all the overt anger and drama transformed into something more subtle. On the surface he's turned over a new leaf and is becoming a better person, but it just seems off in a way we can't quite articulate. We tried to be happy for them and supportive, but once they weren't around it was like "holy crap, did you get the same creepy feeling from him I did?"
Then one day he murdered her. Their kids were at a friend's house at the time. There was evidence that he'd been planning this for over a year. He's in prison for life now.
We learned not to ignore any red flags or intuitive creeped-out feelings about people after this. Especially about people married to someone we care about. frumpy_teapot
Do Math not Meth....
I was in high school with this dude who had a reputation for being very hyper and crazy. A lot of people didn't like him but he was not an outcast. For some reason he liked me, and would occasionally ask me to help him with math which I did.
He later moved to another school and I didn't think of him much again. Until he showed up on the news for beheading a dog and carrying its head around in public. Turns out he had also held an autistic man hostage in his apartment and tortured him, all of this was done on a meth fueled rampage. asap-curry
James.
Several years back, I used to work with a guy we'll call James. I never felt unsafe around him, but I don't think he was entirely there mentally. A few years after I quit working there, I ran into my old boss and was talking with him for a bit. Turns out, James had killed his wife, fled the scene, and barricaded himself in a barn. Police surrounded the barn, and he had no way of escaping. When police entered the barn, he pointed a gun at a officer, and the police opened fire on him, killing him. The gun he pointed at police didn't even have any bullets in it. thegreatestsnowman1
The Bully.
This one isn't as dramatic but still kinda freaky.
When I was in high school (uk) there was this guy who just hated me. So damn much. I don't even know why. He was the definition of roadman and just made my life hell whenever he saw me with his bullying. But whatever. He was just a bully with a stupid perm. I could deal.
Later on in year 10 he ended up getting arrested for attempted murder.
Wonder if killing me ever crossed his mind. colespot
The Stalker.
When I was in high school/early uni, I had a stalker. We had briefly worked together at a restaurant and he asked me out at one point when I was fifteen and he was twenty. I turned him down and for the next six years he would pop up intermittently to harass me and my then-boyfriend. He would message me to say he was jerking off to my pictures then immediately apologize and tell me he had changed, or would message my ex to meet him somewhere so they could fight (my ex who, for the record, had never met him and did not ever go fight).
Last year, my stalker made the news for committing the first murder of 2019 in our city. I don't know the details, but according to the news he stabbed a friend and then fled, only to be caught soon after waiting for public transit (he was never the sharpest). My ex and I were broken up by that point and boy was that a weird way to reconnect after ~4 months of little contact. It still freaks me out to know that he was capable of murder and that it could have been me or my ex. brighteyeswhitelies
It was 1989....
It was 1989, my dad was driving down a road late at night. He lived in Florida. As he was driving, he saw a woman on the side of the road trying to hitch hike. My dad, being kindhearted, slowed down to give her a ride.
As he slowed down, he had a chill down his spine and had the worst feeling he ever felt. He did not pick up that woman.
That woman was named Aileen Wournos. She killed a man on that road later in the day.
My little brother exists today because my dad chose to not pick that woman up. Reddit
I'm in the medical field. A few years ago I was on a forensic psychiatry rotation and went with the psychiatrist to do an assessment at the prison. There was a man there who had been convicted with undeniable evidence that he had brutally raped and murdered a woman. We were there to try to determine whether or not he qualified as a "Dangerous Offender" - in the Canadian legal system this means someone at very high risk of re-offending. In practice this meant we were trying to determine whether he qualified as "psychopathic" - meaning someone who does not experience empathy.
Probably a Psychopath.....
So during the assessment he was friendly, extremely relaxed, casual, and even charming. When asked about specifics of the murder he would brush them off or just make very vague statements. At other times he would just smile or say things like "do you really think I could do something like that?" If I had just met him on the street he probably would have seemed like a very nice guy but being aware of his offense he came across as incredibly unnerving.
TL:DR - met man who was probably a psychopath. He was charming and superficially a nice guy but somehow creepy and unsettling. OGilligan
A Little Different.
I went to school (elementary - high school) with a guy who showed up at his sister's apartment and brutally murdered her for seemingly no reason at all. I believe he stabbed her multiple times.
In school he was always a little "different" but was always nice. I had even hung out with him on several occasions at my house, riding dirt bikes, etc. He was in the church youth group with me. He was really into punk music and heavy metal. I think he started smoking pot and drinking towards the end of high school. But that's all fairly normal. There was nothing about him that ever came across as someone who would one day snap and murder his closest family member.
His sister was a very sweet girl. The saddest part was that her 20 month old son was asleep in his crib in the other room.
Pretty sure he was the one that called the police and turned himself in. ExistentialCircus
A Bad Apple...
Many years ago I worked for a large corporation. I became friendly with a couple of the secretaries who were around my age and we would go out, have lunch, hang out on weekends occasionally. The one girl had tremendous self-confidence and was a go-getter and I really admired how unafraid she was to do anything. I wished I had only a tenth of her charisma and fearlessness.
At least twenty-ish years go by and in that time social media, (FaceBook), became a thing and she was living a great life. She was successful at her corporate career and then changed careers and was also successful there. Got married, had children, big house, got divorced, but still seemed to be doing really well.
One morning I'm watching the news and there's a story about a cop who was shot and killed by his (estranged) girlfriend and the guy was on his cell phone with his daughter when it happened. It was a headliner for a while however, it took a couple of days before I connected the dots and realized the woman who shot and killed her boyfriend, (the retired cop), was this girl from way back when whom I had admired and envied so much. purplesafehandle
Addiction.
I was an addict actively using in the area the Seminole Heights Serial killer was active in. I regularly popped into the McDonalds he worked at to use their ATM or bathroom, and one time he personally (with three other female employees) yelled at me to get out of their bathroom. It was less than 5 minutes from my drug dealers house and his MO at the time was to shoot randomly into cars. I regularly waited in mine 30+ minutes to pick up. He was caught and I saw it on the news while taking my meds at my rehab, told the nurses the whole story! Emma_Stoneddd
Twizzlers.
There was a time when kidnappings were happening in my home country. I encountered one of the kidnappers at 6 years old, who, true to the stereotype, offered me candy. Lucky for me, the only candy that has ever and can ever entice me to be stupid is Twizzlers. Lucky for me, he only had Nerds and Starburst. I ran off and told him no thanks.
He picked up another boy that night. He killed him. If he'd had Twizzlers, I'd have paused for at least more than the 15 seconds for him to close the distance. Would I have gone with him for a box? I don't know. Do I question my folks letting me walk home at 6? Kind of. It was 5 minutes from school and things were hard.
I think about it all the time. That poor kid who probably liked Starburst. RealDegeneracy
Too Interested.
It was my biological dad's 30th birthday and we decided to throw him a surprise party and invited a bunch of people from his work. My brother and I were in our room playing on the Sega Genesis because it was all adults and we just wanted to stay out of their way. While we were playing together, a dude comes in and sits on our bed to watch us play. He said his name was Danny and asked us a bunch of weird questions. "Do you take the bus to school? How old are you? What's your favorite food?" He gave us a bad vibe and just seemed off somehow.
Like he was TOO interested in what we were doing. My mom comes in and sees him in there with us and tells us to go watch movies in her room so my brother and I say goodbye and go to her room instead. A couple months later, my parents were watching the news and Danny is on the TV. He ended up being Daniel Conohan Jr, The Hog Trail Killer. He killed over a dozen homosexual men in our area and had tortured them and left them tied to trees in the woods to die. Vaaca_Del_Muerte
In Class.
I took a class offered by my local municipality for unemployed young adults. They taught us Digital Marketing and basic web design, and at the end of the class, they were supposed to get us jobs. ANYWAY, a few weeks after that class finished, I saw one of the best students in that class on the TV, being held by police. He had killed his 2 yo by beating her to death for crying. I couldn't believe it! He was very calm and quiet and excelled at everything we did in that class. Never crossed my mind he would do something like that. aballofunicorns
Zodiac.
Not my own story but some family friends of ours had an experience with the zodiac killer. They were together in their car on lovers lane or whatever the spot was called where couples went to hook up. The wife got a weird feeling in her gut and begged the husband to leave. He was kind of upset because he was in town for one night from the military so this was their one night together. Finally she convinced him to leave. They told the only other couple at the spot that they were leaving because at the time the zodiac was known to be active so people kept an eye out for each other. Years later the zodiac wrote into the newspaper detailing one of his killings on lover lane.
He described the exact car and said there were two couples left and he was going to take both out before one of the couples went up to the other and gave them a heads up before leaving. Right when they left he killed the couple that stayed. Every detail of the night from the date to the cars to the time of night matched up perfectly so they knew it was them who left just in time. jmill0420
Mum's Friend.
Years ago I went with my Mum to visit a friend of hers. Sat bored out of my mind while they sipped their tea cups and waffled on all afternoon. The friend's rather weird adult son, quite a bit older than me was also there in the house but didn't really engage much, I barely spoke more than a few polite sentences to him.
My parents didn't tell me till years later but he started stalking me. They would hear all sorts of sounds at night. I had no idea, just carried on as usual. Biked to school, stayed after for gymnastics, biked to the pool for swimming, etc. I'm not sure how long it lasted.
FFWD a few years, a young girl in our town went missing after school. A week or so later they found her body dumped. You guessed it, it wound up being the son of my Mums' friend. That's when they told me what had happened. Apparently my Mum finally caught him and a word was had with his parents. MamaBear4485
The Ex.
When I was a kid my mom was stalked by an ex who eventually killed her, his own 3-year-old daughter, and himself. I knew this guy for 1.5-2 years prior to the murders, but I remember the first time something really struck me as 'off' about him.
I came home from school and found him in our house (he'd broken in, but I didn't know that at the time) going through things in my mom's bedroom. He was acting kind of manic, like he was ruffling through things but not actually doing anything particular and not looking or taking anything. He kept talking to me about how he thought of me as his daughter (news to me, we got along but weren't close) and blah blah emotional stuff. It was weird but he seemed volatile somehow, like he wasn't all there, so I just acted agreeable and started talking as normally as possible about the chores I needed to do before my mom got home from work and left him in the room alone. He left the house shortly after without another word.
I told my mom about it when she got home, and she was pretty disturbed. Turns out she had just broken up with him (and taken back his key to our house) earlier that day and hadn't told me yet. We realized he had broken into the house (through the garage, iirc), and at a time when he knew I would be there alone.
That was the beginning of nearly a year of stalking and several break-ins, eventually ending in him murdering her and his daughter before pulling the classic 'death by cop.' SteamboatMcGee
Kyle.
When I was a kid back in the 80's, a friend of mine and his friend up around the corner from me were offered money by a guy to go up the field with him. I can't remember the specifics as it's along time ago and I was very young, but I think he offered him money to pick blackberries.
My friend said no but the other boy said yes and went with him. His body was found the next day - he had been stabbed to death. He was only 8 years old. I remember the months that followed every parent was super weary about leaving any of us play on the streets.
The kids name was Kyle Curran. It happened in Waterford, Ireland. throwaway57373662
A Spree.
This isn't an exciting story, but I used to work at an on campus hotel for a Big 12 University. When classes weren't in session, the entire building would be locked down-- only the desk clerk could let you in or out.
We had a spree killer stay with us for almost a week. I was interviewed by the police to see if I had any information that would help them. I said he used doors like a normal person. Barflyerdammit
The Phony.
My dad and step mom at the time allowed a guy to move in with them after he got out of prison for a non violent crime. At first, he seemed grateful to them and would help them out by doing chores or helping my dad in his shop. After being around awhile the guy seemed to like me and would flirt occasionally. He had this fake persona of a Christian trying to turn his life around and after awhile I caught on to his crap.
After months of my parents treating him as one of their own, he left them with debts and moved out while they were at work one day. After hearing of this and other inappropriate things he said about me and our family in general, I'd had enough and took it upon myself to message him and tell him what exactly I thought and I did not mince words. Two months later, he shot a man at point blank range in the face and walked away as if nothing had happened. I still think about that from time to time and how lucky my family and I are. jadednicole
Neighbors.
A neighbor during my childhood was convicted over a triple murder. She had been in an argument with some people about a horse she owned. My sister had had sleep-overs with her daughter up until her dogs had killed and eaten another neighbors dog. Her partner, also convicted, intimidated the family who's dog was killed and my parents banned us from going to their house. One day they didn't live there anymore and soon after the murders came to light. AussieArlenBales
People Describe The Times They've Seen A Normally Calm Personal Absolutely Snap On Someone
Everyone has a breaking point.
Even the person who seems to be the calmest has that moment when their patience has run thin, and all it takes is a little more prodding and antagonizing to set them off.
Curious to hear examples of when strangers online were surprised by what they witnessed, Redditor Specktakles88 asked:
"Have you ever seen a normally calm person completely lose their sh*t? What happened?"

A triggering moment unleashed wild behavior.
The Dude Who Had It Coming
"I was chilling at a friend’s house as a kid. His dad was the chillest, nicest guy. That day, my friend’s mom (also super nice) was across the street talking to the neighbor about something that I can no longer recall. Neighbor was one of those guys who never respected common etiquette: music blaring, parking his sh**ty boat in front of other people’s house, cars parked on the lawn. The neighbor started screaming at the mom and we all went out on the stoop to see what was happening. As soon as we got outside, the guy called my friend’s mom a c*nt. Well, my friend’s dad heard that and went full Hulk mode. He ran SCREAMING across the street and just f'king decked the guy and crouched over him shouting warnings and threats. Took a while for his wife to calm him down. I don’t think any of them had ever seen him react to something in that way, maybe even the dad himself."
– Corporation_tshirt
Hot Kitchen
"I worked as a line cook with a chef who I became really good friends with. Really chill dude, easy going, and actually super fun to cook with. He taught me most of what I know about cooking and I owe him a lot for my success. Never really saw him get mad until one day, we were getting slammed during busy night and one of the servers said something that really ticked him off, not sure if I ever heard what it was, but next thing I knew he had sent the deep fryer basket flying at Mach 1 across the kitchen, nearly missing the dish kid and shattering a light bulb. He stormed off and 5 minutes later after a smoke break, came back and casually continued cooking as if nothing had happened."
"He apologized about it the next day and we never talked about it again. The restaurant industry is a stressful place."
– Nexteri
Thing About Grandpa
"When I was in my late teens I was financially irresponsible and borrowed money from my grandparents to move out of my mom's house. We made a plan on how I would pay it back in installments and I only missed two payments, with each one I called my granddad and asked if it was okay. He was always cool about it. One day I got a call from him and he was LIVID. Screaming at me on the phone and I could hear my grandmother crying in the background. He was the angriest I’ve ever heard anyone in my life and I was terrified. He wanted to know why I hadn’t made the payment that month, but I was sure I had. It turns out I had accidentally set the automated payment to be drawn from the wrong account and it hadn’t done it. It was an honest mistake on my part, and I explained that to him. I transferred the money immediately and he instantly calmed down. I later found out he had become an alcoholic after he quit smoking, and he would talk to my grandmother like that regularly when no one was around."
– kamaikaja
Awakening The Beast
"This is not my story but my dads. Growing up his best friend Leif was a quiet, shy guy that was a bit socially awkward. In school he wasn't physically bullied but this one kid teased him constantly. This would have been late 50's, early 60's so kids were expected to just tough it out. My dad would usually confront the kid but one day a girl runs up to him and says that Leif and the kid are fighting."
"My dad runs over to save Leif but when he breaks through the circle he finds the bully flat on his back, Leif sitting on his chest, holding him by the ears and smashing his head into the pavement over and over. My dad tackles him, wrestles him to the ground and screams at him, asking what he's doing. The thing that stayed with me from that story was how he described it, 'it was like there was nothing in there, I felt like I could see the back of his skull through his eyes.'"
"Luckily they were kids so the damage was serious but limited, the bully escaped with stitches and a concussion and Leif had to talk to the school psychologist. My dad and Leif stayed best friends and when I met him as an adult he was still quiet but less shy and awkward."
– Kenail_Rintoon
Work-related stresses really brought out the fury in these people.
The Beginning
"I had a friend who was in his 60's, a functioning alcoholic but he was the most calm and composed guy I have ever known. He never used to raise his voice or swear. Everything was done with meticulous precision."
"He once explained to me that if you use vulgar language and shout all the time, then you will have nowhere to go when you really do get angry."
"I had worked with him for about 3 years, never heard him raise his voice or swear before. The week before he had been shafted on his pay and the manager promised to get it sorted by Friday. Friday rolled around and it had not been sorted. So when my friend walked up to the manager in the open office and declared loudly 'Where the f'k is my money? You promised this would be resolved.' The whole office went silent and the look of dread on the manager's face was haunting. The money was in his account by the end of the day."
"That was him losing his sh*t."
– LinktoApop
Parting Words
"I used to see this woman in my building every day. Very friendly. We always checked on each other’s lives. We had lunch a few times over the years. It was friendly to a certain degree. A couple years passed. She was much older than me. One day, riding the elevator, she told me that she was saying goodbye. I said I was sorry to see her go and asked why. She said she was retiring that day. I asked if her office was throwing a party or if she was celebrated. She turned to me and her face contorted into an image of rage. She clenched her teeth and said she didn’t tell anyone in her office, including her bosses. She only told the HR person last week. This was her last day and she was never returning to see or talk to anyone in her office again."
– darthsnakeeyes
The Gentle Giant
"I used to do seasonal work sorting tax returns. Like, 500 people in a warehouse size room sorting through returns, stacking them in boxes, etc. This one guy on my team, huge dude, a gentle giant, really nice. Suddenly one day he smashes the table he's working at, then flips a big box full of paperwork. It flew over my head and twenty feet away. He threw the table out of his way them stormed out. Turns out he was getting his paycheck garnished for something or other."
– TheBelhade
Rambunctious behavior really set these people off, but it also restored peace.
The Teacher Who Had Enough
"One of my teachers in high school was THE calmest dude. Never yelled, never told kids off, would just laugh and smile and wait for us all to calm down and then continue with his teaching. One day we must have been particularly rowdy and we weren’t calming down like we usually did. He couldn’t get a word in edge ways. I could see him getting increasingly frustrated and eventually he just bellowed SHUUUUTTT UPPPPP And the entire class was shocked into silence. He never had to do it again lmao"
– shyaussiegirl26
Too Angry To Hold A Knife
"It takes a lot to make my mom yell. On the rare occasion she did yell, it still felt like she had self control. Like she yelled on purpose, because there was a reason to yell (like she needed to be that loud for us to hear us, or one of the kids needed to learn to never run into traffic again.)"
"But one morning when we were teenagers, my brother was being really, really difficult."
"And my very sweet, soft-spoken mother yelled 'GOD DAMN IT SHAWN' and threw a butter knife down so hard it stuck, 1/4 inch deep, in oak hardwood floor. Against the grain. I can still hear the noise it made."
"We were all very, very well behaved for the rest of the day."
"I did eventually ask my mom why she did that. Her explanation was that she felt she was too angry to hold a knife, even a butter knife, and was trying to get it out of her hand before she did something stupid."
– _Green_Kyanite_
Granny's Mean Streak
"Man my grandma has a similar thing. This boy was a couple years older than she was and he was constantly picking on her. He's riding his bike home from school one day and he rides past her and he's shouting at her and she knocks him right off his bike and beat the sh*t out of him. My sweet lil granny. The neighbor that saw it said he was proud as sh*t that she beat the snot out of this shitty kid lol. I think it was the start of my grandma's bad b*tch streak because not much later, she started street racing. She was allegedly a sweet little girl, but man I think she must have had a mean streak in her."
– Unsd
"Jerry Springer Christmas"
"My mom. We had what we now refer to as the 'Jerry Springer Christmas' when I was 7 or so. One aunt hated her sister in law and started screaming at her, then shoving started, husband's got involved, then it just continued to devolve from there. My mom went straight into mediator mode and tried to calm everyone down but it wasn't working. She decided to come check on us kids and found my cousin and me holding each other and sobbing because we were scared. The next thing I hear is her scary mom voice screaming over everyone 'listen here you motherf'kers. My kid is in there crying on Christmas because her family can't keep their sh*t together for one the one day a year we all see each other. You're gonna march your a**es into that room single file and apologize to each kid individually, then you're going to shut the hell up until I get them out of here. We're going to go find look at lights and this family better be the picture of goddam Christmas joy by the time we get back.' My mom never really cussed in front of me and only ever used gd when things were really bad. That side of the family didn't celebrate Christmas for a few years after that."
"Edit: thank you for the awards and kind words! Ma is tickled pink at all of the comments about how wonderful she is. I tell her every day how lucky I am to have her."
– thatspookyb*tch
Rage is something that exists in all of us.
Some people are good at letting small things run off their back, while others have no patience for the smallest of grievances.
The lesson to be learned here is, never underestimate the calmest people. They might be the ones to really look out for. You don't want to be the reason for them to break their patience streak and unleash all of their built-up fury on you.
Be kind to others, and just don't be a prick.
Songwriters base many of their songs on love because the relatable emotion makes it easier for artists to connect with their audiences.
Whether that applies or doesn't apply in our own lives, we listen to the songs conveying these experiences to take us back so we may relive these affirmative moments from the past.
Curious to hear what's on the moody playlist of strangers online, Redditor udontknowmegurl asked:
"What is the saddest song you've ever heard?"

These iconic artists really touched the hearts of many people through their music.
Dolly's Love Anthem
"I will Always Love You by Dolly Parton, you can really tell she f'king lived that song."
– scruntyboon
When Mom Went To Heaven
"The night my mama died, my dad sang Elvis' Can't Help Falling in Love to her in the back seat of the car on the way to the ER. She died of fully metastitized pancreatic cancer 18 days after diagnosis."
– AmazonEllie
It Gets Deeper With Age
“'Landslide' by Fleetwood Mac I find that the older I get, the more meaning this song has."
– Rare_Matter
Leave it to Disney to have us reaching for the tissue box.
Touching Score
"That song from UP makes me cry every time and it doesn’t even have lyrics."
– TheDaughterOfFlynn
When She Loved Me
"That one Jesse sings in Toy Story 2"
– TheWholeEffinJoe
And let's not forget these emotional tunes that resonated with many Redditors.
Irish Folk Song
"‘Danny boy’ at a friends funeral 10 years ago. He, his sister and his gf all passed away in a house fire all in their early 20s. It was an Irish wake and the mix of grief and whiskey joy was something else."
– Flamingoez88
When Love Moves On
"Into Dust by Mazzy Star gets me."
– d*ckem52
When You Want To "Disappear"
"How to disappear completely by Radiohead. Haunting instrumental, depression dripping through everyline of lyrics 'im not here, this isnt happening.'"
– Bradyceneme
Ray Of Light In The Darkness
"You Are My Sunshine"
"Everything but the chorus is heartbreaking. Few people know anything but the chorus though."
– lolly_lolly_lolly
From A Powerful Album
"Sylvia - The Antlers"
"Actually that whole album, Hospice, breaks me but this song in particular just leaves me in a mess every time."
– recoverelapse
When Love Fades
"The Night We Met by Lord Huron."
"No matter where I am, if I’m happy, who I’m with, etc. I’ll bawl my eyes out if that song plays. It’s so painful and true because one day they’re there and they’re your everything and then they start slipping until they’re gone and you wished you could go back to before you met them so you wouldn’t have to go through the pain of losing them. Just the lyrics 'I had all and then most of you, some and now none of you' hit this. People falling out of love in relationships, growing apart with friends, family members passing, etc. is what this hits for me and it hits hard."
– beepbeepboopbop2
One of the saddest songs I've heard is not connected to a personal experience, but the story being told is heartbreaking.
It's called "The Queen and the Soldier" by Suzanne Vega. The song is basically about a lonely, repressed virgin queen who keeps her heart closely guarded.
When a soldier enters her domain and challenges her internalized emotions, it's too much for her and has the soldier executed.
The song has continued haunting me ever since I first heard it.
An almost guaranteed phase of entering adulthood is unintentionally making it clear how much older you are than some present company.
This could be by the way you dress, talking about seeing a movie in its initial release when the person you're talking to wasn't born yet, or more than likely, by the way you talk.
When you say a slang term or phrase which was common place when you were a child, but today would likely be met by looks of confusion, or even disgust, should you use a term which is not only outdated but now considered offensive.
But then, shaking these old fashioned, or just plain old, terms and phrases might be a difficult task, so engrained are they in our vocabulary.
Redditor InfiniteDrafts was curious to hear what phrases people continue to use, despite knowing how quickly it will date them, leading them to ask:
What slang do you use regularly that is totally outdated?
Maybe rethink alternative words for "awesome"...
"I called a taco 'the Shizznit' a few days ago."
"I instantly felt 90 years old."- fattydad075
Not as "radical" as it once was...
"Rad."- AvatarofBro
Language is eternal!
"None of MY slang is outdated, it's today's youth that are wrong!"- hotasphalt
How long have you got?
"I say things are the bees knees on the regular."
"Is 'on the regular' dated?"
"I also call the ocean 'the drink' for whatever reason."
"Picked that up at some point."- Paradigm6790
"This sub is making me extremely paranoid about my words now bc I say pretty much all of these words still."- jjjjjjj30
Charming once, vulgar now...
"HAULIN’ A**."- f*ck_korean_air
Nah, come closer.
"Far out."- PaulClifford
A bit off
"Right on."- bombaderogato
Does anyone still even eat popsicles?
"When I'm ready to leave I say 'Let's blow this Popsicle stand."
"To be honest I'm not even sure what a posicle stand is."- B-Sdetector69
It's hard not to feel self conscious around the younger generations who might laugh at your dated vocabulary.
But one should just remember, in 10 years or so, they'll likely find themselves in the exact same position.
And won't feel as "groovy" as they once did.
Who doesn't love a theme party?
When you not only get to dress up in something completely over the top, but also get to bear witness to everyone else's zany outfits in-keeping with the party's theme.
Be it Regency era, glam rock, or fairy tale villains.
Or what if the challenge is just to be blatantly inappropriate?
A theme which got the imagination of Redditor StockD0ctorStockD0ctor running wild, resulting in their taking to Reddit to ask:
"You are going to a party. The theme is dress inappropriately. Who or what do you dress as?"
And not on your foot, one imagines...
"Nothing but a tube sock."- Sanguiniutron
Reverse Psychology
"Dress normally, because if the theme is to dress inappropriately, and you dress appropriately, technically you're the one being inappropriate for the occasion."- GoAwayImHereForMemes
"I've actually been in a completely opposite situation."
"Was invited to a art exhibition, came in well dressed. It was basically porn but the person I went with forgot to mention that."
"I felt very malplace standing around people wearing next to nothing."
"So I would probably do that again because what's more inappropriate than being appropriate at an inappropriate event?"- cccantyousee
"I mean, if dressing inappropriately is the appropriate attire, then dressing appropriately would be inappropriate for the party, thus, making it appropriate."
"Now that I think about it, it's an unsolvable paradox."
"You could never appropriately dress inappropriately."- MUNKIESS
It's all in the details
"A suit."
"With the pants cuffs rolled up, wearing tevas with gym socks."- BitPoet
And they say you can only wear it once...
"Bridal gown."- fromhelley
Depends on your surroundings...
"Imma wear a parka."
"In South Texas."
"In August."- Ahshalon_Tenisk
The question is, what aren't you wearing...
"Nothing I'd just show up in lingerie."- cloboehobo
Wrong on so many levels...
"A two sizes to small wrestling singlet, and crocs."- thirdtimer_2020
There's little more fun than facing the challenge of dressing to impress.
Or, in this instance, un-dressing to impress.
And if you are greeted by a round of shocked expressions, you know your choice of outfit was a success.