Oh, it's finally over, thank goodness. And you know what? That's the last time I will ever have to do this, and I could not be happier about it.
u/codenameZora asked:
What's your "thank god that's over with and I never have to do it again" thing in your life?
Here were some of the answers.
Never Again
Giphy
Working in a restaurant. I spent ten years of my life in that business both serving and managing. Fives years and 40k in debt later, I finally just started my new career. No offense to anyone that works in the industry or truly loves it, but I came to despise the hospitality business. I could feel it sucking the energy from my soul..
For everyone asking, my 40k in debt is from tuition costs after earning my engineering degree, not from working in restaurants. It's the best money I have ever spent.
What A Mess
I used to work in this absolute sh*t medical job. It was the absolute worst because there wasn't a single good thing about it. The people I worked with were sh*t, the people I interacted with were sh*t. You could go into that place at 5am happy as can be and leave the place after 6 failed bathroom noose'ings just to try again the next day.
When I put in my 2 weeks those feelings amped up to 11. It was like everyone who was sh*t the entire time I was there decided it wasn't enough and leaned into it. Like you got a heaven pass to leave hell and all the demons were pissed that you're getting out and they have to stay behind so they claw at you the whole way out in hopes that you die before you leave.
F*ck hospitals, man.
Keep Going
When I got in my accident I just wanted to be independent again. Had to move back home with my mom and stay in the main floor cause of my wheelchair. They said I'd never walk again. Lots of hard work later, I walk unaided most days. Five years later I'm fully independent and living in my own place with the love of my life!
Just for more info, I broke both my legs and dislocated both knees. Also had heart failure and was resuscitated at the hospital. Unfortunately the army didn't help much, but I had an excellent lawyer to help with the auto insurance company.
There's lots to be thankful for in this life, sometimes you just have to look harder, but you'll find many reasons to keep going.
Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring Ring
Giphy
I worked for two weeks in a call center and the entire time I spent staring at my desk. I did this for ten hours a day because the company president was out of the office and they refused to get me setup with a password or let me browse the web etc etc.
After two weeks, I came back the following Monday, started my day and then with nothing changing, I just walked out of the building and went home. My car was broken down at the time, so it took several hours to get home.
Glad that is over and done with. No way I'll ever work in another call center.
Exams Are The Worst
As of yesterday morning, I passed the most extensive and difficult of my three professional licensure exams, and I had this exact thought as I sat in my car outside of the testing center shedding tears of relief. I've been studying for my licensure exams in every free moment since January of this year, now all I have to do is submit the extensive documentation needed and wait for board approval! THANK GOD that's over with and I never have to do it again!
I'm in mental health counseling. I've now passed the NCE (National Counseling Exam) and the NCMHCE (National Clinical Mental Health Counseling Examination), and am set to become an LPC-MHSP (licensed professional counselor with a mental health service provider designation).
What Goes Around
Child custody court.
F*ck and run mother wanted a child and a check and didn't want me to see our kid.
Fortunately, the judge saw otherwise but the process took 2 years and lots of manipulation by the mother.
Now that he's grown, he wants nothing to do with his mother.
Pushing Through
Running a marathon. Mentally it messed with me and beat me down. I am a VERY slow runner and they had opened the roads back up and the course was no longer marked (they kept finish line up). I was heartbroken and embarrassed that I was literally last. I also didn't know the official course so I ended up running 27miles. I was determined to finish but I will never do that again. Checked off the bucket list!
Family Ties
Caring for an elderly then dying parent. My mom was relatively young when she developed liver cancer (58) and I would take my kids to school and then go to her house and care for her, buy her groceries and meds, take her to chemo and do housework. I'd go pick up my kids and depending on what shift my husband was working I'd either go back until her boyfriend got home or come back the next day. Eventually wound up changing her diapers and sponge bathing her. Read to her when she couldn't talk anymore. About 6 months after she died, my father in law went into the hospital and when he came out, moved into our house. He was a really difficult person to live with and an even more stubborn patient. He lived with us for almost 7 years (he passed at 90) getting more and more ornery and crazy.
I took care of him medically and emotionally, cleaned his room and fed him until he had a heart attack and didn't tell anyone about it for a couple of days. Came out of the hospital in hospice and the last couple of weeks I walked him around the house until he couldn't walk anymore, pushed him in his chair until he couldn't sit anymore, and then rolled him over every couple of hours. Changed his catheter bag, gave him his meds and took care of all the family and friends (and their kids) who came to visit him. I'm all out of parents/inlaws/grandparents and the one good thing is I don't have to do that again. Don't know if I could. It's so darn hard.
I think the thought that made kept me going the most was how I was going to feel about myself when they were gone, did I act in a way that I could live with and not feel guilty. I have absolutely zero regrets in how I treated my parents and that's probably the most freeing thing about their passing. Another coping mechanism was swearing, loudly and creatively where nobody could hear me, and an overly dramatic double middle finger flip off to a closed door. Thank you again for all the nice thoughts and I hope everyone who has to care for compromised loved ones makes it through relatively unscathed. <3
I Did NOT Peak
Giphy
Middle school, and to some extent, high school. Rarely, there are days when I fantasize in becoming a kid again, but then I quickly remember the amount of BS and pain I had to go through during middle school and high school and I immediately tell myself, "You know what, adulthood isn't so bad after all."
Not A Proper Bakery
Working in a bakery at a grocery store. I was basically doing 3 people's worth of work and going back and forth between the -20°f freezer that I could end up being inside of for up to an hour if circumstances decided to screw me and our two 400-600°f ovens that were 7ft tall and caused a fairly sizable gust of air that was so hot I couldn't look into the oven while it was open because it felt like the liquids in my eyes would boil.
The excuses people use to dismiss behavior range from mundane and meaningless to the sort of leaps normally reserved for kangaroos and Olympians. It's sometimes amazing that these excuses work - but they do.
Some of them work so well that they're just sort of "accepted." That, obviously, kind of sucks and is something we should avoid - so let's talk about 'em.
Can't swerve around what you don't see, ya know?
Reddit user TMTtasmachine asked:
What's the biggest excuse used for a-hole behavior that shouldn't be accepted as much as it is?
... and away we go.
Jerk Privileges
" 'That's just how they are.' "
"One of the biggest enablers for tantrum throwing, bullying, etc. is that they get treated with kid gloves to avoid dealing with them." - alexrt87
"Oh my God you hit the nail on the head. Whenever someone says 'that's just the way they are' I say:"
" 'Yes, that's the point! Glad you noticed too! Now is it okey-doke for them to be jerks they have special jerk privileges? Or maybe they are just people and should treat everyone else as such?' " - notatrumpchump
"It depends on how it's said."
"People are the way that they are, and you shouldn't be surprised when they continue to be that way."
"This, obviously, doesn't excuse it - but people also shouldn't be surprised when a bad person continues to make bad decisions. Neither should we waste space in our minds being bothered by it." - unlawfulfoxy
Harassment Isn't Humor
season 2 lol GIF by ShamelessGiphy" 'It's just a joke, bro.' Harassing people isn't humor." - loading__99
"Schrödinger's Douchebag"
"A guy who says/does offensive things and decides whether he was joking based on the reaction of people around him." - Eatsleeptren
"Dude, legit had someone come up to me and start shouting in my face, calling me Madison, pretending I was cheating on him. Literally the most crowded location outside a theater, everyone staring at us, looking at me like I was some horrible cheater while I was out with my then fiancé."
"I started hyperventilating, my fiancé nearly decked the dude, and then someone shouts 'CUT' like this is some big 'YOU'RE ON CANDID CAMERA' moment and everything's supposed to be okay."
"I burst into tears."
"It was the most humiliating moment of my life, and thank god my then fiancé, now husband is not the type to overreact or jump to conclusions, or be abusive. Imagine how bad that could have been for someone with an angry or abusive partner."
"Prank videos are a plague on the internet and there is a REASON so many of them are fake, or involve actors." - Darkovika
Stay Sober, Then!
Drunk Drinking Beer GIFGiphy" 'I was drunk / high / etc.' "
"Then don't drink?! Stay sober if you can't NOT be an a**hole!" - BasedBenjamin
"Alternately, I hear a lot of 'I'm a happy drunk!' "
"Yeah, according to your drunk a$s. That doesn't mean you're not an ahole. Not remembering is not an excuse either." - PepeBabinski
"I was that guy. I swore I was a 'happy drunk' - and I was. It was everyone ELSE who was miserable while I was happy."
"I was also loud, obnoxious, and I wouldn't remember sh*t the next day."
"Quitting drinking has been one of my best choices of my life." - TTungsteNN
"Help"
new girl coach GIFGiphy" 'I'm just trying to help you' " - Miserable-Air1234
"Every time I've heard this, they're manipulating me while helping only themselves." - mykittenfarts
"My Mom to a T. Everything she does is better than anyone else's and she always gets pissed that people don't praise her for 'helping.' "
"She's now a certified (by herself) psychic and I have come to the conclusion that she's not a covert narcissist but an obvious one. I really wish I was joking." - Silent_Discussion657
Parenting Problems
Leave Me Alone Run GIF by TLC EuropeGiphy"Any variation of 'I'm a Mother/parent.' "
"Had some lady cut me in line at a coffee shop and she hit me with 'I'm a single Mom of 3!' as her excuse."
"Ok? And? I was still here first." - maid-for-hire
"I'm a single mom and I f*cking haaaate when other single moms/parents pull that sh*t to get special treatment."
"Last week, I was having a rough morning, my kid was being difficult, and I was running late. I was rude to a cashier over a minor inconvenience."
"Not only did I apologize for my shitty behavior, I wrote corporate to let them know how professional and patient she was while I acted like a f*cking toddler."
"Was being a parent part of the reason I was frustrated? Absolutely. Was it an excuse for that behavior? HELL no."
"I acted like a b*tch, and I called myself out, and I apologized. I still feel bad about that - I rarely let things get to me to the point I snap at others." - ClusterfckyShtshow
"Wow. I'm a Mom as well and tired but it doesn't give anyone a right to use it as some sort of ploy to get away with stuff."
"Like, mice become Moms about 12 times a year. You're not special 🤣" - SpoonLoops
Believing Your Boss
The Office Monday GIF by 20th Century Fox Home EntertainmentGiphy"I had a boss say some really racist sh*t around me one day and the next day, out of nowhere, he says:"
" 'Don't believe half the things that come out of my mouth!' "
"It was not really an excuse, more like trying to cover for himself after the fact, but still stuck with me." - sirlongbottom441
"Report them to HR. Seriously." - kokichi--ouma
"Looking past the racist stuff for a bit, that's not a very encouraging thing to hear from a boss…" - WonderfulBlackberry9
Bad Day Again
Bad Day Reaction GIF by Schitt's CreekGiphy" 'I'm having a bad day/week' "
"Okay, so you decide everybody that you interact with deserves the same fate? Get out of here, dude." - myordinaryexistence
"We all got stress, don't take it out on me. I get some people have stress bad enough for it to be passable every once and a while (family member passing, etc) but general, stress should not lead to you being a jerk to me." - willsimpforfree
"Damn, I'm definitely guilty of this. Usually I remember to apologize after but at this point I've learned to just avoid the situation in the first place by minimizing my interaction with people if I'm in a shitty mood." - nozzzrul
"Reminds me of when that White boy went on a murder rampage and killed a bunch of Asian women & that a-hole sheriff gave a press conference telling the media that the 'poor boy had a bad day.' "
"My idea of a bad day involves going home after a rough day at work and just staying in the house."
"Apparently, I should change my ethnicity from Asian to White and go on a murder rampage, see if my @ss gets a sympathetic sheriff to say on my behalf that I had 'a bad day.' " - kingkazul400
It's Not An Excuse
Season 2 Reaction GIF by FriendsGiphy"This won't go down well, but using depression as an excuse. As someone who suffers from it, it's still not ok to treat others like sh*t" - Rainbowwallstickers
"Could not agree enough. My partner has a 'friend' who treats everyone like sh*t all the time, has no consideration for others and openly mocks people in public."
"She gets so much grace from those around her under the guise of her 'mental health.' It's so infuriating watching an adult woman never have to take responsibility for her actions." - 34boor
"I get there are some things you can't control, but you are still responsible for keeping that sh*t in check and if you're aware of your mental illness, you should be aware of how you approach people and situations."
"I'll admit I used to be guilty of using my mental illness to be an @ss, but now I'm trying to better myself" - VeeSquibbles
Florida Gonna Florida
Looney Tunes Florida GIFGiphy"People are letting Florida off the hook way too damn much. And I live in Florida."
"Just because it's hilarious doesn't mean it isn't still completely f*cked up." - AlphaWhiskeyOscar
"The phrase 'Florida Man' is almost always followed some heinous way a Floridian is being an a$$hole." - PepeBabinski
"I'm also originally from Florida, and that state has serious problems. We need to pay attention to it." - [Reddit]
Moment of honesty ... as a Floridian ... yeaaaah, I'm gonna have to agree with that last one.