Secrets are heavy. Holding a problem or discomfort inside seems to have its own extra dose of gravity. It feels lonely and usually, the best and only way to lighten that load is to get out.
We tell someone we trust the secret and we feel a little less lonely, and suddenly it doesn't all seem so heavy on our shoulders anymore.
But we must choose that recipient wisely.
After all, a secret is heavy because it is so inundated with that defining characteristic: if the wrong people heard it, interpersonal strife would erupt.
So we have to choose somebody air tight. If we choose wrong and they have loose lips, the blow up after they spill the beans will make the pain of holding it in look like chump change in comparison.
Some folks on the internet were unfortunately well acquainted with how it goes when the wrong choice is made.
Shuena08 asked, "What made you wish you didn't trust a certain person a particular secret of yours / piece of personal information?"
Talking Shop Takes a Turn
"Talking sh** to a co-worker about how the job can be boring sometimes and the next day boss calls asking if I'm happy at the job. Learned my lesson." -- Zero1030
"Yeah, lesson learned here."
"Really gotta watch what you say and choose the wording you use very carefully in the workplace. It's sad that companies are this way, you give honest feedback about a job in passing or in a survey and now they have a reason to look at you differently..."
"Gotta love Corporate America tho." -- Jay_Heinz
BFF Blackmail
"Told my former best friend I was doubting whether I was straight or not."
"Fast forward two years where i'm in a position of use to her, she literally said 'if you don't do this thing for me I will tell everyone you are secretly gay.'"
"Needless to say I blocked the number and told my friends that she might tell them i'm gay."
Absolutely Not Therapeutic
"My parents divorced and I was sent to mandatory therapy. I was told that it would be a confidential thing (and there were no red flags about me, etc, it was just the part of the usual procedure)."
"The therapist told the court and my parents literally everything I ever told her, I obviously get into huge trouble with my dad. I have major trust issues since then."
Collateral Damage
"I told my dad when I was 17 that I wish I weren't gonna turn 18 because then I knew my aunt could use any excuse to kick me out."
"Him and my aunt's boyfriend got into a argument while he was drunk and he turns to me and was like 'Tell them what you told me the other day!' Then storms off somewhere."
"Was interrogated into telling them what I told dad. My aunt reassured that they wouldn't kick me out when I'm 18 and blah blah."
"Anyways, guess who got threatened to be kicked out a few weeks after turning 18 anyways!! I just knew that she'd use it as ammo!"
Tis the Season to Ransack Your Roommate
"I told my former roommate who was an addict that I used klonopin for my anxiety disorder. I didn't have any choice in roommates btw. I went to thanksgiving at my Grandma's house came back and my room had been broken into and a couple things stolen."
"They went through my top drawer of my dresser where I kept my medications, looking for my klonopin. Luckily I had taken everything valuable with me to my Grandma's, but I'll never tell another person about my medication."
-- gamerdude880
Subtle Traumas
"When I was in 3rd or 4th grade I had a huge crush on this girl in my class. It was the first time I had felt like that and told my parents."
"They teased me about and made it into a big joke (I can still hear my mom saying the girls name in an exaggerated sing-song voice). I never spoke to them about anything like that ever again."
"To this day I still subconsciously associate those feelings with shame, and as such struggle to express or deal with them. And my mom wonders why she doesn't have grand kids lol"
A Loose Interpretation
"I started a new job in a call centre and the group I started with had to do these team building games and one of them was to learn 3 interesting things about the person next to you."
"I can't remember what I told him for the first two of them but I remember telling the guy that my gf at the time had a blackbelt in a martial art. Pretty innocuous stuff, usual ice breaking games."
"When the trainer got to him, he said the first two fine, and then announced to this group of future colleagues, that my gf beats me up. Domestic abuse is not funny, but my friends had made that joke before. This guy was a complete stranger. The whole room were complete strangers."
"It was then I knew, before anyone else, that you don't confide in this guy. I learned it then and there, some of my colleagues learned the same lesson much later and with much worse consequences."
For the Likes
"She was a YouTuber."
"When our friendship ended (you know, because all youtubers and narcissistic a**holes that'll do anything for attention) she made a video about my childhood trauma as if she was some kind of saint that had a friend with PTSD that she selflessly befriended regardless of how unstable they were..."
"...even though I was the only one with a job that supported a family while being in a long term relationship."
D & D Disapproval
"Told a friend of mine about how I was getting into D&D, but that my mom hated it and I was scared of her finding out. We had her over on Christmas day and she spilled the beans loudly and without a hint of shame."
"I had to have a chat with my mom, who said that wasn't even the first time this woman had told her—she'd come to my mom with the whole 'concerned friend' shtick going to tell her that she was worried this was taking over my life."
"Merry Christmas."
Telephone
"In high school I told a friend after I'd lost my virginity, just one, but they told someone who told someone else who told the whole school."
"The next day my gf's friend called her a sl*t and refused to talk to her for ages, my gf was understandably very upset with me."
Not KEITH
"When I was in 9th grade, I told Matt that Keith had a big mouth. Matt told Keith that I said he had a big mouth."
"Lesson learned."
-- -917-
Deflation
"Told my mom I was pregnant early on, then had a miscarriage. When I got pregnant again, I waited until I was 12ish weeks to tell her. She assumed I was telling her super early again and basically said I shouldn't tell anyone because 'Look what happened last time.'"
"The one person I should be able to trust cruelly threw my miscarriage in my face during what should have been a happy moment."
"Lesson learned: I'm never telling her anything ever again."
-- RwbyRose20
Loose Interpretation
"There was a teacher I thought I could trust in middle school because she seemed like a cool adult, so in a random conversation I told her I liked anime, or that I was watching an anime or something (this was about 15 years ago, I don't remember exactly)."
"Next day I was called over to the student counselor and reprimanded because apparently she told them I had been staying up late watching satanic cartoons or some sh**."
"I know it sounds stupid, but that made me loose a lot of confidence trusting other people."
-- iesvy
Confronted
"I told someone why a guy they were weirdly interested in was dangerous."
"They told their partner, who told a person who they wanted to get with who told the person it was about."
"They spent half an hour grilling me about it."
"At night. By a river in the woods. Alone."
PUBLIC Speaking
"Heard a person use our private conversation as an example in a public speech. He didn't mention my name, but it doesn't matter."
"A private conversation is private, not something you quote without even asking. Now I feel like I can't trust him at all anymore and never should have told him anything at all."
-- Vyvonea
Leave the Human Body Out of It
"I have a cousin my same age and and we were close growing up but grew apart when she got engaged. I mentioned my endometriosis to her and expressed concerns."
"A few days later he fiance asked about it."
"Super uncomfortable conversation I was like??? Don't tell this guy that I barely know about the status of my reproductive organs."
Some Parting Wisdom
"One thing you have to watch out for: if someone talks badly about someone to you, what's to say they won't talk badly about you to someone else?"
"I'm always wary of these people and they always prove me right."
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It's highly believed that it is important to learn history as a means to improve our future.
What is often overlooked is that what is taught in history class is going to be very different depending on where you went to school.
And this isn't just internationally, even different regions of the United states will likely have very different lessons on American history.
This frequently results in our learning fascinating, heartbreaking and horrifying historical facts which our middle or high school history teachers neglected to teach us.
Redditor Acherontia_atropos91 was curious to learn things people either wished they had learned, or believe they should have learned, in their school history class, leading them to ask:
What isn’t taught in history class but should be?
The Irish Troubles
"The troubles."
"Too many people in America do not understand why a wall straight through Ireland would be a BAD idea."
"I’m referring to the Brexit referendum and possible outcomes."
"If people were wondering why we were talking about walls through Ireland in the first place."- CLCVS.
Forgotten elements of World War II
"What the Japanese did to the Chinese during WW2."
"Unit 731."- CaptainMcBoogerJew.
"Japan gets off easy for their war crimes in WW2."
"They killed an estimated 16mil Chinese civilians and another 8mil soldiers"
"Also, Pol Pot."
"Didn't know who he was until I was like 25."
"Worst dictator all time (in terms of percentage of population he decimated)".
The truth about the American Revolution
"That the American Revolution was part of a wider cold war type of conflict with France."
"The American Revolution was basically the UK's equivalent of the US version of Vietnam."- vinsant7.
The Dark side of Swedish history.
"As a Swede, I'd like to know more of all the horrible sh*t my country has done throughout history."
"It's a damn shame we're trying to hide our history."
"For example, Swedes killed a metric sh*t ton of all Polish people when we were at our strongest."
"That's the kinda sh*t we don't get to learn."- mogwandayy.
Colonization
"Basically what Belgium did to the Congo."
"A lot of people are telling me that they are taught about this actually."
"I'm glad to hear it because I wasn't taught about this in the USA during my public school days (1995-2008)."- EconArch.
The truth about "heroes".
"While teaching about historical Heroes they should also tell students about the unspeakable things some of them did."
"Many famous figures throughout history who are pillars of morality actually did many terrible things." - User Deleted
Intolerance for Mental Illness
"The dark history of mental illness treatments."
"I think it's worth learning about."- 7dayexcerpt.
Slavic Mythology
"Slavic mythology in Slavic countries."
"Don't get me wrong, I love both Greek & Roman mythology and as a person from the Balkans both of those cultures are part of my country's history and had great influence over not only my region but the entirety of the continent & the western world but I wouldn't mind knowing more about Slavic mythology as well."- ShorsShezzarine.
The truth about the CIA
"How the CIA was made and all the shady things they did over the years."- ALargeChip.
There is a lot about the history of our world, not to mention our own country which shouldn't be ignored.
And it's from learning from our mistakes that we really improve our future.
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So apparently we are in the endemic phase of this nonsense.
We have light at the end of the tunnel.
So what now?
Where do we go from here?
Normal seems like an outdated word.
How do we get back to normal though?
Is it even possible?
What are reaching back to?
Life pre-Covid.
Those were the days.
If only we could bring them back.
Redditor hetravelingsong wanted to discuss our new normal in this hopeful "endemic" phase. So they asked:
"What’s something random you miss about pre-COVID times?"
I miss people being sane. Though that maybe election cycle issues not COVID. We'll never know.
I thought I was Alone...
"Being able to grocery shop after 11 pm."
Reading_Rainboner
"Hell yes. I miss the days where the Walmart across the street was open 24 hours."
Small_Tax_9432
let's just go...
"I miss spontaneity... everything now seems to have a barrier of difficulty."
iidosee
"I live very close to Disneyland so I have an annual pass. My friends and I would just go there after work and hang out and grab a bite to eat."
"Now, we have to reserve a day to go. And most of the time, the days are at 'full' capacity so we couldn't even reserve. I don't want to schedule to hang out at Disneyland for a couple hours for July. So yeah, I definitely miss the 'lets go eat at Disneyland tonight?' texts."
mymymissmai
Not til 24-25
"Functioning global supply chains. Ah, the product you want has got microchips in it? 9 month wait."
richard-king
"Minimum, I'd been saying for a while now that I wouldn't expect a true return to normalcy in terms of electronics prices till 2024-2025. Although Crypto crashing through the floor really took some of the pressure off graphics cards which I really appreciate."
statiiic
WTF?!?!
"How affordable everything was!"
Disastrous_Hour_6776
"Yep. Today I was bagging up my things at the grocery store and I heard the cashier say to the lady behind me 'thats $78.12.' She had -- 2 boxes of Kellogg's corn flakes, a carton of 12 eggs, milk, strawberries, raspberries, blue berries, a small cheese cake, English muffins, coffee, and a small whole frozen chicken that could maybe feed 3 people if the meat portioning was small."
SnowyInuk
Sushi
"My favorite sushi place. It was good quality, close by, kid-friendly, and not too expensive."
InannasPocket
All of this... it was a simpler time.
NASTY
"As a retail worker, just how f**king NASTY some people have gotten."
DmitriPetrov*itch
"They applauded you for being an essential worker but won’t vote for policies that’ll raise minimum wage while insisting a wage cap for heavily paid employees."
sketchysketchist
CHANGES your DNA...
"Some of the people closest to me became very bitter and petty over the last 2 years. So many people have the 'crazy eyes' now."
__--__7
"So true and holidays with the family is like who has the biggest tinfoil hat building contest. How many jumps does your brain have to go through to think that the Covid vaccine CHANGES your DNA into the patented DNA so that the government now controls your body."
"So like vaccinated people now have a singular DNA set. I feel like I still have a chunk of my brain just broken off due to that comment alone. I was also told by same family member that I could never donate blood again due to the vaccine. I guess it is so my patented DNA doesn't affect people?? FYI my vaccinated butt just donated today fine and multiple other times after the vaccine."
tyreka13
Homeward Bound
"House prices."
adrianinked
"I'm resigned to never thinking I have a chance on owning property where I live. I'm 30 and just can't imagine it anymore. And I don't want to live anywhere else so, whatever."
Osdab2daf
"That didn’t happen because of the pandemic. That was already happening regardless."
CH11DW
Oh Mickey
"All Day Breakfast at McDonalds."
hutch2522
"It was honestly hell to do, and not very popular. ITs margins aren't anywhere dinner and lunch specials. ON top of that, the temperatures are such that They require its own grill, meaning that if you have 2 grills in shop, you are down 50% of lunch capacity."
Freyas_Follower
Way back when...
"Hanging out with friends. And I mean waaaaaay before Covid. Like 2006 back when I had some friends."
LoocsinatasYT
I miss the old days. Maybe we'll get back there.
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What do you believe?
Is there a GOD in the sky?
Is he guiding us and helping us?
Life is really hard. Why is that is a big entity is up there loving us?
Atheists have taken a lot of heat for what feels like shunning GOD.
What if they've been right all along?
Maybe let's take a listen and see what they really think.
Redditor __Jacob______ wanted to hear from the people who don't really believe all that "God" stuff. They asked:
"Atheists, what do you believe in?"
I'm waffling between G-O-D and nothing. So please give me some education.
911
"We need to look out for each other because help isn't coming."
cknipe
Peace Out
"More than 2 decades ago, a priest was giving a sermon in my church and he said 'our faith requires you to believe without question. Why call it faith if you have to ask questions?' I haven't returned to church. Not until my wedding day but you know what I mean."
asiangontear
Delusion
"When I was young I used to think that after death you would have access to a PC that you could see absolutely anything about your life. Stats, any question you had no matter how obscure, replays of moments, perspectives of others in relation to you. No matter what you wanted to know, if it was relatable to you, you could see it. I know it's silly, but as time goes on I just want it to be real, and I don't think I'd have any issue allowing myself to fall into that delusion."
eggwardpenisglands
I think nothing happens...
"Realistically, I think nothing happens. We literally experience nothing after death. Same thing that we experience before birth. We don't exist, so it's nothing. I think the tenant that we should follow while living is to try to be happy and healthy while minimizing the damage we do to each other."
"What I would LIKE to happen after death is whatever you believe in, exists. I think Christians should get to go to heaven if they truly believe in it, Hindus and Buddhists get reincarnated, and everyone else also gets to experience what they believe they will experience."
"'I would still experience Nothing. Maybe it's one of those things where at the moment of death their brain makes them experience what feels like an infinitely long moment in time where they experience their afterlife. I just think it would be neat for everybody."
Better_Meat_
Shrug
"Best advice I received from a dear senior on their way out. 'You win some, you lose some' shrug. Nothing divine, life is that simple and wonderful, accept it and move on."
Tune_Kindly
It all sounds pretty simple. Why are people so up in arms about Atheists?
Whatever
"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people that do."
imCIK
Cool with Empty
"Nothing. [Serious]."
rumblingtummy29
"I feel this way about death. When I was 5, my grandfather died and my cousin simple said, he is dead, that means you are gone forever. Everything ends up dying, even plants and animals. I'm now in my 40's and still have this simplistic view of life and death. People think I'm ambivalent to life and death but it's just what it is."
thepigfish82
puppet-masters...
"I think a lot of religious people struggle with the fact that we are all just swirling units of chaos. There is no grand plan or great orchestrator. I think that’s why people who are prone to religion are also susceptible to things like Q anon and the Cabal and all that. They REALLY want to believe that there is some almighty puppet-master who determines all of humanity’s fate."
Lngtmelrker
“we’re living in a society!”
"Just be a kind and empathetic person not because you’re worried about some cosmic justice, but because it’s the right thing to do. If there is some being that created us there’s no way they actually care about believing in it or adhering to some rules from over 2000 years ago."
"Also a big thing for me is that I find the idea that you need religion or the Bible in order to have morals and ethics pretty dumb. It’s pretty f**king clear that most evangelicals have neither. But my main thing is being a good person simply because, as George Costanza once said we’re living in a society!' If you’re only a good person in order to make it to heaven you probably aren’t actually a good and moral person."
conservative_genius
That's All
"You're born. You live. You die. That's it. After you die you cease to exist, the same as before you were born."
serefina
Believe what you want. We're all here together. So let's focus there.
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The list of what irritates me is endless.
I mean... breathing too loud or dust can set me off.
I'm a bit unstable, yes.
But I'm not alone.
So let's discuss.
Redditor Aburntbagel6 wanted to hear about all the times many of us just couldn't control our disdain. They asked:
"What never fails to piss you off?"
I feel like this article can go on forever. Let's get some highlights.
Wasted Time
"Meetings that could and should have been an email."
Sirena609
Lotto People
"Getting stuck behind people playing the lottery at a corner store."
thenuggetlover
"I also used to work in a gas station and you’re SO right. I f**king hated the lottery people. Especially since my store had a small staff and there was usually only one of us working at a time, which meant that I couldn’t get any of my other work done as long as they were there."
"And you’re right, it’s also pretty sad to watch. I had one lady who used to come in every day and spent hundreds and HUNDREDS of dollars on scratch tickets. One day, she won $200 after spending probably around $600 and she was so excited and saying she can 'finally pay her bills.'"
i-am-your-god-now
Aware...
"No situational awareness. Job, home, shopping, driving. Think for one minute and go about. OBSERVE!!"
Dizzy-Foundation8122
"My mom is one of those people who leave the shopping cart in the middle of the damn aisle and proceed to walk twenty feet away. After correcting her a million times to no effect I just walk away now so people don’t know I’m with her."
OutrageousEvent
Shut Up!
"Endless barking in the middle of the night, I love animals but that sh*t I can't stand."
Acceptable-Lemon2924
"Endless barking in general drives me up a wall. One of my friends dogs was barking almost an entire gaming session the other day. I wanted to reach through the computer and smack him for letting it go on."
bangersnmash13
Kindness
"People being mean to service workers, especially if the workers are very young."'
scaryboilednoodles
All of these things. I hate them all.
Admit It
"People who never accept fault when they mess something up. Like, why blame a million people when it was clearly you who did it???"
Quirky-Area-8978
From Above
"My upstairs neighbors."
lutzow89
"I had terrible neighbors at my previous apartment. It was a one person studio for students, but her boyfriend was clearly living with her illegally and he was loud."
"One night we knocked n the door at 3 AM because of the loud music and an unknown girl opened the door. I just thought they were having a little party. But the next door I saw the girl living there come home with a suitcase after having been away for the weekend... Her BF was cheating on her in her own apartment."
Th3_Accountant
Move Away
"People who sit directly next to me at the airport, movie theater, any other place where you can choose a seat when there is PLENTY of other seating."
BacardiPardy33
"I can’t YES this enough and the ones who can’t park for crap so they park so close you can’t open doors on one side of the car or the ones who park directly behind when you pulled through so the door won’t open to load groceries."
BacardiPardy33
It's Over
"People who try to restart old drama. Like I'm done with you, just leave me alone."
Tired_Potatos
"Yep, half the reason I've basically quit playing one of my favorite online video games. People keep bringing old crap up or sh*tting on on someone who used to be our friend. I got tired of it so I just ejected the game out of me."
CaucasianHumus
AHHHHH!!!
"People walking too slow in front of me with no way to get around them. It’s even worse if it’s a couple or group taking up the whole sidewalk. HAVE SOME SPATIAL AWARENESS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!"
_-v0x-_
Life in general pisses me off. I'm easy.
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