Finding a corpse is not something that just happens every day. This unique brand of horror is ridiculously traumatic, and it leaves you in a very unwanted situation. What would you do if this happened to you?
u/NiqPat: People who have happened upon dead corpses randomly, what happened?
That's a hard thing to deal with.
On a drive to work early one morning I came down a hill to see a vehicle off in a field to my right. It was upside down and on fire so I immediately stopped and called 9-1-1.
As I was running up to the vehicle, I could see the driver still strapped in. He wasn't moving or screaming, so I could only assume he was already dead. I couldn't get to him because of the fire... I really struggled with that for a while.
That's awful.
Giphy
When I was living in San Francisco there is a homeless person sprawled on the ground. I asked some passerby if we should call an ambulance and the guy at the store we were near said the homeless person did this all the time to get tips.
I got what I needed from down the street and on my way back I saw him being zipped up in a body bag by some paramedics.
A very crazy first day of work.
As a teenager in 1987 - I found a dead prostitute on my first day of work at a McDonalds. She had hung herself on the tall fence surrounding our dumpster / compactor area. I freaked and got my manager.
Horrible.
Happened at my elementary school party back around 1998. We were having a party at this teachers house with about 30 other kids and 4 other chaperones. There was a pool in the back that was about 8 feet deep. We were all jumping in and out of the pool and it was dark out. Eventually the teachers told us all to come inside because it was almost time to go home.
As were all getting out of the pool there was still someone at the bottom and wasn't moving. One of the chaperones jumped in and grabbed him. He was already dead. The whole school had a memorial for him and it was all honestly just a horrible time.
Always make sure to pay attention.
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A guy at my university was walking to class with his earbuds in and his hood over his head - he walked right across train tracks lost in thought while other people were screaming at him that the train was coming. I was about two minutes behind and saw the immediate results of this guy not paying attention.
It's a weird feeling, the matter-of-fact nature of seeing a dead person. It's not like anything else changes. The train stopped, the people who saw it were horrified, and the police came. But before the end of the week, no one at the school was even talking about it.
Don't beat yourself up.
In my second year at university, my good friend at the time went missing for two days and after getting the warden to come with me and check his room, we found him dead, he had committed suicide in the two days I hadn't seen him.
What still haunts me is that me last message to him was "hey man, you still alive" in a joking way...safe to say I've never sent anyone a message like that again.
Terrifying.
As a teenager I went on a walk through the green belt behind my house. The woods had a peculiar smell but I was used to stumbling across dead animals on rare occasion so I didn't think anything of it. Clambered over a log and looked down to find I'd stepped in her hair. She'd been left on the hidden side of the log wrapped in a tarp and was well into the process of decomposition. No lips, eyes, etc.
Went home and called my mom in a fog of shock and she called the police. They didn't really believe me and were super casual while they walked me out to the spot so I could show them where she was. Their demeanors changed the instant they saw her and from there it was all a whirlwind.
She was my age. Murdered and dumped by one of my high school teachers. I testified as a witness to finding her (never really understood why they needed that) He went to prison but I think he might be out by now. I feel terrible for her family.
It didn't traumatize me but it gave me a lot to think about in regards to the value and shortness of life. I started saying "I love you" to my family members a lot more afterward.
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I have been kayaking and found a man whose decomposition was at the burst stage.
Another time I was part of the recovery of a scuba diver who had been lost inside USS San Diego for about a month at approx 120fsw, his mask came off and eyeballs fell out as he was pushed through to me.
What an awful thing to see.
In my Junior year of high school my best friend and I were skipping school and walking around the woods by Murphy park in Park forest/Chicago Heights.
There was an older man sitting on a bench on the trail, briefcase, suit, etc.. He reached into the briefcase when he saw us, pulled out a revolver, shoved it in his mouth, and ended himself.
My friend and I sat there and freaked before we ran to his house over on Dogwood, and called the cops.
I don't know the story, all I know is I have never forgotten that smell since then.
Also, we didn't end up getting in trouble for skipping. So we had that going for us, which was nice.
Strange coincidence that this all culminated on Halloween 2017. A friend of mine living in East London noticed that a man from the flat overlooking her balcony was looking straight at her late at night. She brushed it off and finished her cigarette and went to bed.
The next evening when she was out there again she noticed the man still staring at her in the same spot. She told her housemate and they decided he was just some weirdo who liked looking out of his window. You get a lot of strange folk in London.
On the third day the man was still there, but his colour had changed and his lower jaw had dropped open. That's when they decided to call the police. The police entered the apartment block and broke into the flat. Turns out the man had rented the flat recently and had hung himself by the window by crouching with a thin rope around his neck.
The police commented to them how strange it was that he didn't leave a note behind and that he had done his laundry/neatly folded it up before killing himself.
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/
Seriously, looking back, how did we not start questioning the origins of these sayings long before we tried to implement them? Or at least when we reached ages when we should know better. Cue the gaslight...
I'll take an Orange!
apples caities classroom GIF by Super SimpleGiphy"An apple a day keeps the doctor away! Damn, the older I get, the more I wish it were that simple."
Dumb Love
"Love is never having to say you're sorry." I think from the movie, Love Story. Stupid and ridiculous."
"Said to Ryan O'Neil in "Love Story." In "What's up Doc?" Barbara Streisand quotes the line to Ryan at the end and he replies: "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard"
Separate Ways!
The past year it has been "We're in this together."
"If anything it's been one of the most "every man for himself" times I've ever witnessed."
"Hey, can I have one of your 30 packs of toilet paper in your cart? I have 3 kids and no toilet paper. We're using cacti to wipe with."
"NO F YOU!"
- DC4MVP
More than Twice
"The lightning never strikes twice in the same spot." Yes, it does. Especially if that spot is a high metal structure, it will be struck twice, even more than just two times."
- ATF0
"The Empire State Building gets struck by lightning between 25 and 100 times every year."
"Without a lightning rod, these strikes would ground themselves through the building's wiring, or through the people working on one of its 103 floors, causing untold amounts of damage."
Snuff
Which Way Flex GIF by HollyoaksGiphy"That'll buff right out."
"I say that ironically these days, for anything that clearly can't be buffed out."
I do love apples. And I don't have to see the doctor often, so maybe there is merit there. Plus that one is easy, somebody just wanted somebody else to eat healthier. Just say that! And I like to focus on a different kind of buff.
like an adult...
cry baby GIFGiphy"Sleep like a baby. A more accurate description for it would be pissed the bed twice and woke up screaming."
I'm Sinking...
"We're all in the same storm together. But most of us are in rowboats, a bunch are treading water in the waves without so much as a life jacket. Meanwhile a handful are in their mega yachts looking down on everyone else, talking about how terrible the storm is."
It's Over
"Finish what you started. No, sometimes the thing I started was a bad idea and maybe I should do something I like better."
"I heard another quote from someone which I like better, the gist of which was "Don't cling to a mistake just because you spent a long time making it."
"It's actually more efficient to quit bad thoughts/processes in the beginning, you'll waste less time. I learned that during projects in my apprenticeship."
- xzplayer
Everyday
"Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life. Well, I do what I love and I'm an unemployed alcoholic. Somehow, I don't think whoever said that first had this in mind."
"Do you really love it if it involves a lot of tasks you hate? I feel like that's just a job you don't love if you're not enjoying the bulk of it. Sounds just like you love the results of it, love the impact, not that you enjoy the day to day. Then you're just not doing what you love on a day to day basis."
"I've had a lot of jobs I hated and loved, currently love. It makes a HUGE difference, between being depressed and not. I knew my life would be way better when I found a good job I loved. Now I'm getting over alcoholism and cut way the heck down, and don't feel like I need to drink to cope."
"The "never work a day in your life" just means you'll never feel that stress of hating your job every day like many do. It doesn't literally mean you won't work, just that those stresses of work will be so unimportant and not make you feel like crap."
At Capacity
brain power GIF by nogGiphy"Teacher of mine have a good metaphor to illustrate the non sense. He said "areas of the brain not being all stimulated at the same time might sound like a non optimal way of using a machine."
"But now take a traffic light, we can say I works 1/3 of its capacity at time (one color represents a signal) and if it worked 100% all the time, putting all the colors at once, you agree it could be very dangerous for the traffic right?"
- Lacet19
That baby one is so true. I never thought about that one. And now I'm going to stockpile a list of sayings and begin origin research. Expose the lies! And just use common sense.
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Because of this, fellow customers often peg me as an employee and always ask me questions like where the bathroom is, or if the store has certain sizes left in stock.
Umm, no, I don't work here. I'm just a responsible customer. As you were.
Many of us make assumptions about other people just by looking at them. Who knew we were so presumptuous?
Curious to hear the experiences of strangers online, Redditor lilmizzvalz asked:
"What do people assume about you, based on your appearance?"
People often misinterpret moods based on how someone looks. That's unfair, wouldn't you say?
Assuming Expressions
"That I'm caring and supportive. I have a resting nice face."
Perpetually Angry
"That I am always mad. Nope just dissociating and staring off into space."
– AeBS1978
Not Meaning To Be Mean
"That I'm mean. I have a resting mean face for a dude I guess. Also lately it's worse because I'm bigger now. I don't really notice how my face appears but apparently, I seem angry when I'm looking at stuff."
"'You should smile' and 'are you ok?' comments followed me from busboy, waiter, bartender my whole career."
When it comes to measuring intelligence of others, some people are just way off.
Hard To Live Up To Expectations
"That I'm clever. People keep saying it to me, but I'm dumb and that sh*t is hard to live up to."
"I have glasses."
Eyes Full Of Wisdom
"I apparently have something similar going on mixed with looking like I know sh*t, because people come up to me in public and ask about directions, bus schedules and stuff all the time. Like, they'll deliberately avoid other people to ask me. Including when I'm abroad and should look a bit out of place."
Intellectual Disability
"They assume I have an intellectual disability. (And also that I'm deaf, since I'm not able to speak.)"
"No, I am a person with two university degrees who happen to need a wheelchair because of a nasty neurological illness."
– JRL1981
People don't always look their age. Some don't even act their age. But these Redditors have gotten their fair share of wrong guesses for their ages.
Opposite Impression
"This thread was depressing to read as I am 38 but often get mistaken for 50. I hate y'all and your youthful beauty."
– YazzGawd
Some people are typed out as certain types of people with just one look.
Watch Your Tone
"That I have a southern accent. Not one stranger has ever suspected that I have a 'New Jersey' accent (Born and raised in New Jersey before moving south)"
Not A Biker
"That I ride a Harley and/or work on them. I'm bald with a long goatee and tons of tattoos, but I'm in IT for a living and don't ride motorcycles at all."
– osborns
Like others have expressed in the thread, I've also been accused of having "resting b*tch face."
You know, that neutral expression where you're not smiling the one time you're not in a situation where you have to be "on" for other people?
Yeah, that one.
If someone's resting face comes across as unfriendly, well, perhaps it's best not to upset them by asking them what's wrong all the time. Just sayin'.