People Who've Seen Someone Ruin Their Entire Life In A Few Seconds Break Down What Happened
It's amazing how quickly someone's life can change. If you mess up big enough, you might see your life flash before your eyes. You may not be dead, but your reputation sure is. This is why you need to keep your wits about you--you truly never know when everything can come crashing down.
Here are some of the most extreme examples of people ruining their lives in an instant. Try not to cringe too hard.
Givemesomeluck asked: Have you ever seen someone ruin their life in just a few seconds? How did they do it?
Some people like to f*ck around a little too much, leaving them with some serious, life-altering injuries.
The dangers of doing musical theatre.
I had a friend in university, a student of jazz vocalist, who had an incredibly bright future ahead of her. Mid-way into her first year / freshman year, she was out with some friends in a theatre on stage and for fun, they were swinging her or just fooling around.
I believe they somehow dropped her or lost grip. She hit her head hard. Got a bad concussion. Had to drop-out of school.
She now has chronic head pain, and is living back at home. She tried to return back to school, but could barely last through two classes, if even, before her pain would get too bad.
I've lost touch with her so I'm not entirely sure what she's doing now. But, my gosh, just her life entirely derailed because of that one silly accident.
EDIT: she was sitting on a stage and go pulled from her ankles by her friends which led to her head hitting the edge of the stage and hyperextending her neck.
Should have known better.
One of my high school classmates (a kicker on the football team) was at a party at a friend's house on the very last day of school in his senior year. The house was on a lake, and he decided to run off the end of the pier and jump head-first into the lake.
The water was a foot deep.
He never walked again.
Ouch!
Kid in his teens tried jumping off a Leading Light at high tide to impress his mates and girlfriend, hit a concrete wave breaker back first. Shattered part of his spine and is now in a permanent vegetive state.
This is heartbreaking.
Camping trip with friends when we were around 17 y/o. One kid hammered in his tent pegs, then just tossed the hammer at someone else's tent for no apparent reason. A girl was in the tent and caught full power of the hammer toss to her mouth. Shattered several teeth in her mouth, which she then choked on. She died choking on her own shattered teeth while alone and bleeding out of her face in a tent, with no idea of what caused her injury.
Campsite in the middle of nowhere. It took over an hour for help to come. Kid got arrested and got suspended sentence for involuntary manslaughter.
People can be really stupid sometimes. Like.....REALLY stupid.
People should know by now to not be dumb on Zoom.
Un-muted zoom call. Trash talking a manager. HR posted a "thank you X for your years of service" email pretty much the next day.
This past fall, an attorney I know attended a Zoom meeting with video. You could see someone not entirely out of frame crawl under her desk and spend the duration of the meeting there. It was very obvious by her facial expressions and movements what was going on under the desk.
She lost her job, and from what I understand, the guy was not her husband, so her marriage may be lost as well.
This is called digging yourself into a hole.
A woman failed her drug test at a courthouse and I watched her run across a parking lot with 2 drug court employees on her heels. She hopped in someone's SUV and shoved the driver out of the vehicle.
The drug court employees stood in front of the SUV with their hands on the hood to stop her, and she revved the engine and then knocked them with the car before reversing and driving away over a sidewalk.
This was easily preventable.
Had a friend that thought he could jump over a bonfire, he almost made it but fell back into the fire, his arm going into the embers. Ended up with 3rd degree burns on over a fourth of his body. I think he's doing pretty okay now but that one dumb decision will affect the rest of his life.
It’s insane how quick everything can go wrong. Spoiler alert- it’s really freakin’ fast.
Yikessss.
Tweeted that they had hit a cyclist when driving to work. By the time she had got to work the company had sacked her for bringing the company into disrepute.
That’s just plain dumb.
Waiting outside a club one rainy night. Some young lady decided to take one of the cop cars out front for a spin after getting tossed out. She ended up crashing into one of those concrete barricade things blocking the side door.
There's a crazy NSFL video going around Twitter where two teen girls ruin their lives. They try to carjack an Uber driver and he holds onto the door and they speed off and end up flipping the car and killing him. It was in DC, they got charged with murder.
PLEASE don’t do this.
I knew a guy, he and his friends were into that trend of going to really high places and taking pictures of them hanging from them. The guy I knew got to the top of one of those massive crane things and while taking the picture he fell. He died upon impact with the ground and now whenever I see pictures like that on social media I want to cry and beg these people to stop before they lose their lives.
Circumstances just plain suck sometimes.
Oof.
A friend of mine in college was sitting for campus placements, it's a rigorous step process and companies come in day in and out to select candidates for their role. This guy sat through all the rounds of X company and cleared them as he went on. The last round of interviews went on till 5 in the morning and he'd been sitting since 9 in the morning trying to get a job. After all the hardwork he got placed in the company and got a great offer letter.
He was on cloud nine and the happiest guy out there, after a while the HR casually asked him his plans after he joined the company and he went on to say that the job is just temporary and he wanted work ex before he went for his masters the next year as he'd already gotten accepted from a university of his liking. The HR immediately tore the offer letter in front of him and told him that the offer has been retracted. He sat in the hallway crying for messing up in the last moment.
This is really sad.
A few days ago.
A 15 year old kid from my town stole his mom's car at 4 in the morning. Picks up 2 of his friends (they were boyfriend and girlfriend), and goes joyriding. Decides to go 90 down a road with no streetlights and that has many sharp curves.
Runs off the road, slams into a tree at full speed. Front seat passenger (15 m) thrown from the car and crushed underneath it. Pronounced dead at the scene. Back seat passenger (15 f) Thrown through the windshield. Alive at the scene, taken to the hospital and placed in a medically induced coma. Pronounced dead 3 days later.
The driver walked away with a few scratches. His life is over, he hasn't been sentenced yet, but last I heard he's going to be tried as an adult for 2 counts of vehicular manslaughter while under the influence (the kid was drunk). One stupid decision that night ruined 3 young lives.
One bad night is all it takes.
Guy from work went to strip club, got drunk af, and spent like 14k. Managed to get some strippers in his car, which ended up in them stealing it. His wife found out, which led to a fight that got physical. He went to jail, got divorced, lost his job and his kids because of one drunk night out with some coworkers.
At least she had a fallback job.
Less than a year ago I was a manager at a retail store. We hired a new manager, and she was one of the coolest people I'd met - around my age (early 20s), a pilot, married with a stepdaughter and three dogs, and a pole dancer.
I asked her why she was working at our little old retail store. We sell lots of band merchandise, gifts, and general pop culture items, so she said she wanted the employee discount to use in the upcoming holidays. Fair enough, not the first new hire who said that to me. She was a good manager too, so no reason to suspect.
Well, she got arrested in the middle of her shift less than a month into the job. Turned out she'd been going into the register, reprinting 1-2 week old customer receipts, and using them to generate fraudulent returns so she could pocket the cash. This is incredibly stupid because when I trained her, I explained how LP monitors all the registers throughout the day and how we organize our papers to prepare for monthly audits. This very system is what got her caught.
The craziest part? She only stole around $2,000. She was charged with a felony and most definitely can't be a pilot anymore. I haven't heard from her since her arrest, but it's likely she's in jail. I don't know how she'll get another job when she's out, but good thing she's an exceptional pole dancer.
A deadly mistake.
Third grade a friend of mine was chewing on a rubber ball you can get out of the machine for 25 cents. It popped into the back of his mouth. Startled, he gasped, which pulled it down into his esophagus. He suffocated on that little rubber ball. His mother was a substitute teacher at the school. The year he would have graduated, his parents did a full page memorial in our yearbook.
Stop doing dumb sh*t, people! Most of these things would've been easily preventable. It's so easy to get yourself hurt.
Be safe, friends. And think before you steal a cop car
Comedy is in a very tricky place right now.
There is so much to NOT laugh about in this world.
In truth, many of us have forgotten how to laugh.
And certain jokes that are told, make people afraid to laugh.
So what do we do?
We tell inappropriate jokes apparently.
Let's hear some...
Redditor CrewCreation wanted to hear some "risky" comedy. So they asked:
"What’s the best morbid joke you know?"
***WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SENSITIVE MATERIAL. PROCEED WITH CAUTION!***
I can't think of anything hilarious at the moment. Make us LOL.
Lady
"I have this friend, love him to bits, but his wife has a tendency of just constantly showing everyone pictures of their son at every social event. At the start it was understandable, but now I'm just like 'Lady, it's been two years; they're not going to find him.'"
UnoriginalUse
at 9am...
"Not the most morbid but I love Anthony Jeselnik’s story about his neighbor who has Alzheimer’s. 'One of my next door neighbors is a 90 year old man suffering from Alzheimer’s. And every single morning at 9am he knocks on my door and asks me if I have seen his wife.'"
"'Which means that every single morning at 9am I have to explain to a 90 year old man suffering from Alzheimer’s that his wife has been dead for quite some time. Now I’ve thought about moving. I have thought about just not answering my door in the morning. But to be honest, it’s worth it… just to see the smile on his face.”
dreagan021
Comedy?
"Why can't orphans play baseball? They don't know where home is."
GW2RNGR
"Why can't orphans play tennis? They get confused when they hear love."
JayDub506
People who make comedy are evil. LOL.
The Darkness
"Dark humor is like food; not everyone gets it."
storm_the_castle
God Laughs?
"A Holocaust survivor dies and goes to heaven, where she meets God. To break the tension she tells God a joke about the Holocaust, but God doesn’t laugh. The lady shrugs and says 'I guess you had to be there.'"
“'I guess you had to be there' is a common expression used when someone doesn’t laugh at a joke. It means that the comedy may not translate without the context of the situation."
"In this case the Holocaust survivor is saying it, meaning that during the Holocaust God was nowhere to be found. It’s not really a joke about the Holocaust, but the absurdity of belief in a benevolent God. Hilarious right?"
semimillennial
Oh Baby
"How many dead babies does it take to fix a light bulb? More than 3 cause my garage is still dark."
sirnibs3
I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Because I don't know what it says about us as people if we laugh. Oye.
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Life can change in an instant.
It can always change for the better.
Just ask any lottery winner.
Sadly, life can also take a turn for the worst and leave people shattered beyond repair.
Watching someone's life fall apart in a short amount of time is difficult.
You have to wonder if there really is such a thing as karma, bad luck, or Voodoo.
Redditor OkImagination5852 wanted to hear about the times we've been witness to personal disaster. They asked:
"People who witness a person's life crumble in a single day, what happened?"
I have lived through a lot of bad days. But thankfully they've been one disaster at a time days. So I guess I'm lucky.
Horror
"A friend of a friend had his entire family killed overnight. He was from my college and was home visiting his family. His parents, siblings, and extended family were all there together. One night, while they were all asleep, his father got up, took out a gun, and went on a shooting spree. He then killed himself."
"Everyone except this guy died on the spot. When my friend visited him at the hospital, the guy was still in shock. He had no idea why his father did that. This was more than a decade ago, and I have no idea how he's doing now."
DeadOnDeparture98
The IRS Called
"Knew a guy who had a nice house, wife, 3 kids. Machine shop in his garage, Snap On tool truck, sign out front, great mechanic. Never incorporated, didn't pay taxes on his business, cash only. Took nice vacations, bought a boat, then a camper. Five years later, the IRS came. I don't know what they estimated he owed but they seized everything. He lives alone in a trailer now."
Nobody_Wins_13
2 at Once
"My mom’s dad and dad’s mom both died on the same day. Completely unrelated. We were pretty messed up for awhile. It was 2010. Mom's dad had emphysema (lifetime smoker) and was pretty sick for a few weeks. I was in college at the time and came home to be with him, because we knew he was about to pass. Dad's mom was in the nursing home, as she had had a stroke and also had dementia (she often thought I was my dad, she thought we were in the 70s, etc.)."
"She took a turn for the worst, and so my dad left the hospice my grandpa was at and went to be with her. The towns they were in were about an hour apart, so I stayed behind with my mom to comfort her when her dad passed. A few hours go by, and he passes peacefully (huge thanks to the hospice workers for their respect and grace during this time)."
"Within an hour or so of his passing, we get a call from my dad saying that his mother had passed as well. It was a terribly dark day in our family, and the next couple years for me in college were pretty much a blur. Thankfully, things got better in time and we are all doing well now."
She lost everything...
"Her husband left her after previously persuading her to remortgage their house to save his business and he's already made her take multiple credit cards out in her name. She lost everything. He did it the week after their youngest turned 18 so he wouldn't have to pay child support. He'd obviously been planning for years."
Ieatclowns
a black sheep...
"My cousin was in a motorcycle accident with her boyfriend. Her boyfriend died. She broke her back. When she was in the hospital she learned she was pregnant. It's been 16 years and we're still trying our best, she took an all too familiar path of drugs, burning bridges and more pregnancies."
"At this point she's fairly stable and clean as far as I know but a bit of a black sheep. Her mother has custody of all one of her kids. She has her youngest and seems to be doing good by her, but who knows. It's been hard on everyone, especially her mother and her brother."
Paradigm6790
Well this is the stuff of nightmares. I'm grateful for every moment I have alive.
Several lawsuits are filed...
"Here is multiple lives ruined in an instant. A friend was over at some other people house, drugs were involved. They had been playing with a gun. My friend points the gun at a girl, pulls the trigger and shoots her in the head. Girl dies, friend gets locked up until he turns 18. Parents at the house get arrested because they knew what the kids were doing. Friends mom goes into a depression and ends up getting evicted from her house. Several lawsuits are filed."
sentondan
Gone Forever
"It was me... got in a car accident and suffered a traumatic spinal and brain injury that I had no chance of surviving... a 7 vertebrae spinal fusion, yrs of physical and mental therapy... 18 yrs later and the pieces, though many forever gone, are finally coming back together."
2boneskuLL
A Bad Night
"He trashed his fathers vacation house with an axe before setting it on fire, stabbed the neighbor nearly to death, stole their car and then crashed it into a cop car so bad the cops were injured. He also got his girl pregnant, so once he is out of prison they're gonna start a family."
Dumbing_It_Down
"dangerous"
"Pregnant friend found out husband (43) was having an affair with young woman (19) who was a volunteer at their ecolodge. Friend had 'dangerous' pregnancy and had to spend a lot of time in bed. This betrayal destroyed their marriage, split the little town where they lived and caused two employees to quit because witnessing the affair going on was just too painful."
"She had a beautiful baby girl (to go with her other two girls, lol) and after the breakup was clinically depressed. Worked hard and got a divorce (she had a great lawyer); got the business back on track; beat her depression and now is planning a great vacation trip with her girls."
"Meantime, Dad has generous visitation but just 'hasn't gotten around to' buying a car seat so he can pick up the baby and for a long time asked my friend, 'Can you drop the girls off at my Mom's?'"
NoBSforGma
Lost it All...
"Recently, I know of a guy that had borrowed all his family’s life savings for the most part to participate in the whole game stop stock thing happening… he lost every penny of his money (credit card advances), and his parents retirement, and every other dime he could get… it makes me sick to even think of it."
Bangbangsmashsmash
Well those are A LOT of bad days. Good luck to all of you.
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/
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Those who are wealthy have the luxury of acquiring the best of the best–whether it's dinner at a Michelin-starred restaurant or status-identifying clothing from Chanel or Yves Saint Laurent.
But even the rich have their limits when it comes to frivolous spending before casting judgment on friends or colleagues.
Curious to hear examples of this, Redditor Sasquatchfl asked:
"Rich people of Reddit, what's the craziest/most unethical thing you've seen people in your circle spend money on?"
Expensive experiences were a priority over prized possessions.
Live Sushi
"An ex worked for Dell in the late 90s/early 2000s. He was pretty high up and there were lots of partiers in his work circle. Went to a party hosted by one of the dellionaires and there was a body sushi girl. I don’t know what was paid to her, but it was one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever seen."
– 5hrs4hrs3hrs2hrs1mor
Pissing Contest
"Paid a group of homeless guys to only use the bathroom on a competitors business. Eventually bought that place for a massive discount."
– Haboobalub
Let's Work Out
"My mother woke up one morning and said she felt she was way too fat and she wanted to get a treadmill. The treadmill wouldn’t be a problem, but then she saw where it would be and didn’t like the lighting. Fast forward 2 months later there’s a 40k outdoor gym built and connected to the house. She hasn’t used it once."
– Herrera5449_
Taking A Leap
"Travelled with a bunch of ex 'friends' all fairly wealthy."
"First trip to SE Asia together and as an ex-local I was a de-facto tour guide (despite not being there in over a decade)"
"They somehow found and offered a bunch of kids diving off cliffs to jump for spare change."
"They increasingly challenged each other to land their coins as close to the cliff base and small surrounding rocks for the kids to dive for."
– Satakans
It's about the finer things in life.
Expensive Party Gag
"A 3k ouija board from Gwen Paltrow's store. I didn't even know it was a thing until the dude brought it out. I really wanted to cut it up and see what it was made from. Looked nice don't get me wrong but the thing is basically a party gag. For 3 grand, it better summon a demon that's all I'm saying."
– con_this
Slow Burn
"$600 USD for a candle."
– Jeffranks
It's not always about the things you acquire.
Minor Inconvenience
"I know a guy who went to get a new drivers license and had to pay ~$100k in back parking tickets, then joked about it after."
"Apparently he couldn't get a permit to park in front of his house, so he just did anyway, and accepted like a $200 fine everyday."
– melodyze
For A Successful Election
"Not me, but I know a guy who crowd funded (read: threw a bunch of money into, then solicited more at a flea market) $80,000 toward his friend's DA election campaign. The guy won. So far, this has paid back at least $120K in avoided legal fees. I know some rich people. Most of them are more boring than you think. Hell, most of them drive Hondas, Toyotas, and Nissans."
– KP_Wrath
The Lance Corporal
"I was stationed with a Lance Corporal who was wealthy beyond means after selling some of his patents. He owned and piloted four helicopters. Lived in a palatial waterfront house in Jacksonville, NC."
"The cheapest one cost 400K. That's the one he trained on. The most expensive was about 1.2 million. That's 1.2 million 1981 dollars. The two he's got now are about 5 million each."
"Had a floating landing pad out back moored to his dock and another landing pad in the back yard. Kept two helicopters and a Rolls inside his custom-built hangar at Norfolk International Airport."
"He drove a pair of Rolls-Royces. He also toyed with a 900K Miami-Vice type speedboat. He also housed and transported his squad to Camp Lejeune and back in a custom mini-bus."
– ApplicationConnect55
The dude was very giving and lived a very clean life. He'd fly us to Norfolk, pickup the car and we'd do our shopping and eating. Hop in a chopper and return home. He'd fly his fire team down to Miami on weekends. He kept a Limo there and wore a chauffer's outfit and did all the driving.
He bought a full-service and licensed pub in Northern Ireland. He lives there with his wife. Does a lot of charity work there. We still keep in touch."
– ApplicationConnect55
When there's plenty of money going around, there's no need to worry about a single thing.
That peace of mind is a luxury in itself.
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When marriages or relationships fall apart, infidelity is not always the cause.
Curious to hear from strangers online, Redditor Liam_Tang asked:
"People who've divorced, aside from adultery, what were the irreconcilable differences that ended the marriage?"

You think you know a person when you walk down the aisle.
These Redditors were in for a rude awakening.
Pet Neglect
"My wife divorced her ex for many reasons, but the final straw was when she went out of town for a few days, and when she got back he had not fed or given water to the dog. The dog lived a long and happy life after that."
– StrangeCrimes
Obsessed With A Crush
"Not me, but I had an old coworker that divorced his wife for spending their entire savings on candy crush and games of the same type."
– Hexis40
Compatibility Musts
"ITT: Intimacy (sex/romance), beliefs (religion/spirituality/politics), kids, and I haven’t seen it yet but it’s coming: finances."
"The big four. You REALLY need to discuss these things in detail BEFORE getting married."
– rabbiskittles
Physical violence is a legit reason for people to peace out of a relationship.
The Flattening
"She threatened to hit me with a hammer."
– michaelrohansmith
Hitting The Bottle
"She became an abusive alcoholic. It was sad but I had to get out."
– diegojones4
Emotional pain is too damaging to recover from.
Truth Hurts
"She told me as we stood in front of the judge ending our 7 year marriage, 'I never loved you, I just wanted kids.'"
– Pinch_Dogs
Can't Fix Angry
"She was beautiful/smart but an angry angry person. I thought I could be sweet to her and 'fix' that. Heh. She kicked the crap out of me emotionally. Wife II has been a walk in the roses for 32 years now :)"
– lowlandr
A change of heart is worthless if comes too late.
"We Could've Had A Nice Marriage
"He could not understand that my wants and needs were as important as his wants and needs. We tried to make it work for 7 years. During that time, for things that were really important to me, I tried explaining logically, asking nicely, begging, crying, yelling, passive aggressiveness... cycled back through all of these options multiple times."
"(If I knew something was important to him, I would do that. For example, he was really into sports, so I went to all his events, even though that is not at all my thing.) When I finally threw up my hands and told him it was time to get a divorce, he suddenly panicked and said 'What can I do? Do you want me to do half the chores? I'll do it! Do you want me to get a job? I'll do it! Do you want me to buy you presents for your birthday? I'll do it!'"
"So, in other words, he could have been doing that all along, but just couldn't be bothered. That made me so angry. We could have had a nice marriage that we both enjoyed, but no, by the time he saw the light, that ship had sailed."
"We are both happily remarried now (to different people) and I joke that his new wife owes me a thank you note. It was his experience with me that taught him to listen to her and take her needs seriously."
– Bluebird-True
"What Can I Do?"
"My ex was exactly like this. I didn't marry him but when I told him let's break up, he went all like, what can I do? Let's get engaged, let's look at houses, etc. Basically all the pre-marriage topics that we should be discussing about after being together for 7 years."
"I got so angry and straight up told him it's too late... I don't need you anymore."
– gudetarako
As much as a couple wants to stay together, unforeseen circumstances can eventually tear people apart.
Very few people can maintain healthy long-distance relationships.
When a new job opportunity takes a significant other away, would you begrudge them for wanting a better position to earn more money? Or is it better for them to reluctantly turn down the opportunity so they could stay with you? Do either scenarios breed resentment?
These were questions I've often asked myself with past relationships, and my answers varied depending on the person I was with.
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