
People Share Their Most Terrifying Run-Ins With Wild Animals
[rebelmouse-image 18359771 is_animated_gif=Nature is not always the most forgiving place, especially for human beings. Wild predatory animals who could easily take us down are roaming everywhere. If you survive those encounters, you're sure to be shaken for life.
Redditor nightmaregirl18 asked:
These were some of the answers.
See Ya Later, Alligator
[rebelmouse-image 18356911 is_animated_gif=I'm from Florida and I was volunteering at a local nature conservancy. One of our tasks was to remove fallen logs that were blocking up a creek after a big storm. The creek was about chest deep, 15 feet wide, and opaque brown (Many Florida freshwater ways are browns b/c of tannins leached into the river from trees).
As I'm moving logs I notice a ~12 ft. alligator on the embankment I hadn't noticed before. It then slid into the creek I was in. I was with a land manager who was moving logs with me, and a herpetologist (who was in the canoe). I asked them what to do and they responded,"Well, those logs aren't gonna move themselves, and that gator's probably just trying to get away from us."
Still, spending 30 minutes in a creek you can't see anything, knowing there's an alligator lurking near your feet, moving logs WHICH LOOK LIKE F***ING ALLIGATORS was one of the most nerve-wracking things I've ever done.
Bear-er of Bad News
[rebelmouse-image 18359772 is_animated_gif=I've been woken up by a bear sniffing my head once. Was cowboy camping (no tent) in Lyell Canyon in Yosemite once, when I hear something sniff right next to my head. My sleep addled brain thinks it's a ranger on a horse telling me to move my camp (had hiked about 20 miles that day. You have to be at least 4 miles into the canyon to camp, and I wasn't 100% sure I'd made it far enough since it was dark when I set up camp).
Anyways, I say "just one second", sit up, grope for my flashlight and turn it on to see a black bear a couple feet away.
I holler, he tears off, I get out and empty my bladder, and try to fall back asleep until I hear him coming around again. I make a bunch more noise, decide I'm not getting any more sleep, break camp and slowly night hike until the sun rises.
A Separate Peace
[rebelmouse-image 18359773 is_animated_gif=When I was 12 a young stallion decided he wanted to play with me and almost killed me. He kicked and bit me and tried to trample me. He was my pet and was only treating me the way he'd treat a peer. I even knew that while it was happening. I made a huge mistake by turning my back on him while he was playful. He bit me and pulled me down. Knocked me down a couple of more times with a forefoot when I tried to get up. Reared up over me to stamp me a couple of times too. Still have the scar on my leg and that was a LONG time ago.
My dad basically saved my life by chasing him off. His response was - that was close! What did you learn?
Interrupting?
[rebelmouse-image 18359774 is_animated_gif=At the time I was working until 1am so I wouldn't get home until 2 or so. I opened the door to the house and felt what I thought was a breeze come by my leg. I don't really pay attention, walk over to my desk, put my keys down and turn the light on. Right when I do so, there are two opossums in the act of mating in the middle of my kitchen. They screamed, I screamed and we began the three hour dance of getting them out of my house. I ended up trapping them in a dog cage and dumping them out in the middle of my back yard.
Jaws Part VI
[rebelmouse-image 18359775 is_animated_gif=When I was young, I went fishing with my dad and my best friend. We waded out through some deeper water to reach the shallow sandbar, where we fished for quite a while. The tide came in, and the water that had been just above my ankles was now above my waist.
Suddenly a large shark, about 7-8 feet, crashed through a school of mullet only a few feet away from me. Dad saw it, my best friend saw it, and for a second we all three just kind of froze with our mouths hanging open. Quietly, calmly, Dad told us to walk back to shore, splashing as little as possible. We did. But the tide had come in, and I wasn't as tall as the other two guys. The deeper water between the sandbar and shore reached their chests, but I could hardly keep my head above water while my feet barely bounced along the bottom, and I struggled to hold my fishing rod up out of the water. I was completely helpless, while we knew that a hungry shark was swimming somewhere in the area. It felt like a scene out of a nightmare, trying to run from an invisible monster, but my feet could barely touch the ground and I was hardly moving.
I know--- and even knew in that moment--- that I had little chance of being eaten by a shark, especially one who is focused on fish. Still, if I ever WERE to be attacked, that was the moment, and I was utterly defenseless. A few years later, a man was killed just a few miles away when he jumped off his dock and into the path of a large bull shark that was chasing mullet.
Complete Bull
[rebelmouse-image 18359776 is_animated_gif=When I was a kid, my brother and I were playing on our grandparents farm. We snuck underneath the electric fence by shimmying on the ground in grooves the truck tires made in the mud at the entrance of of the animal pen. We really wanted to play with the sheep. We also didn't know that they had let the bull out of the barn and it was also in the pen. All of a sudden we see, almost as soon as it sees us. We start to panic and run screaming, which gets our dad, uncle and grandpa's attention. We can't jump the fence yet because it's still electrified. So this is the scene my grandma has looking out her kitchen window into the back yard : My dad and uncle hauling ass towards the fence, yelling for us to run towards the fence. My grandpa, a man in his 50's by then, hauling ass towards the barn to flip the switch that electrifies the fence, and my brother and I losing our minds trying to find a way out of the mess we got into.
Story ends fine enough. Grandpa got the electricity off and I was able to scramble up the fence to my dad. Then my grandpa and uncle went into the pen to distract the bull, who had locked his attention on him, long enough for my brother to escape as well. We were never left unsupervised on the farm after that.
Black Widow
[rebelmouse-image 18359777 is_animated_gif=I moved to Colorado. About a month in one night I had gone to bed, and woke up on severe pain hours later. I felt nausea, throbbing pain around my abdomen, my muscles and back ached. I turned on the lights, and I had in my sleep rolled over a black widow spider and crushed it to death, which at some point had bit me. It's carcass lay in my bed. I freaked out, called 911, and put it in a mason jar so they thought I wasn't crazy. I was brought to the hospital where they treated me with pain management medications. The venom continued to spread. Every muscle ached and felt as though my body was being crushed. It soon began to get hard to breath and my blood pressure became irregular. The morphine has me drifting in and out of sleep. I prayed to God, who hours earlier I wasn't even sure I believed in. 12 hours I discharged. The venom ran its course for about 4 days, and he bite site intermittently itched for weeks. For the next year or two I had anxiety trying to go to sleep and reoccurring nightmares of the experience.
Whoa-mbat
[rebelmouse-image 18359778 is_animated_gif=I was very drunk at a wedding on a large property in rural NSW. I like to wander and explore when I drink. I was alone and suddenly confronted with a wombat. Wombats are massive balls of muscle. Being the drunk idiot I was, I was all like "awww hello me wombat" and began to approach it. The wombat did not like this. It charged me. It was so fast. My heart stopped and I turned and ran as fast as I could. The little bugger nearly caught me. I sprinted back to the wedding in fear for my life.
Recognition Filters
[rebelmouse-image 18359779 is_animated_gif=Growing up, my grandma babysat me. She lived with my uncle. He had a Rottweiler, who was very friendly.
One day, when I was 9-10, I decided I wanted to pretend to be a wrestler. I did this by putting white masking tape on my hands and arms. I ended up fighting stuffed animals and all that. When I got tired, I just grabbed some action figures and went to the carport, which had deer stands. This was where the Rottweiler also slept.
So the dog was asleep when I got there. I started playing with the toys. A few minutes later I heard the dog stirring. I pay no mind to it. I then hear growling. I turn around and the dog is growling at me. I try to let her know it is me but she is still growling.
I then slowly back away and she lunges at me. Being the somewhat smart kid I was, I noticed immediately she was going for my arms. I rip off the masking tape, throw it at the dog, and run back into the house.
Avoided that dog for days until I was asked to feed her. She was friendly again.
Rats!
[rebelmouse-image 18359780 is_animated_gif=I lived in an old farmhouse that was set on an an overgrown market garden. The place was overrun by rats but I never saw them. You could just hear them rustling in the walls. I didn't want to poison them because I was afraid that one would die in the walls and stink the place out.
One night I went to bed and turned out the light. Immediately I realised I was thirsty and turned the light back on and stepped out to the kitchen. I interrupted a giant rat as he made his way across the kitchen floor. Obviously he had heard me go to bed and figured that I was down for the night and the coast was clear.
I don't know who was more startled - him or me! But I'll never forget the look of malevolent intelligence in his eyes. We bolted in opposite directions!! After that I set traps in the kitchen at night.
This Is War
[rebelmouse-image 18359781 is_animated_gif=I was stationed in Japan for 3 out of the 6 years I was in the Navy. During that time I leased a Japanese house, and the shower was its own room, full walk-in with a tub, bench, etc. (Amazing) So as the post says, I stumble into the shower one morning still half asleep, and out of my peripherals I see a black flash from behind me and hear a thud. Look into the tub and there is a huntsman spider the size of my hand staring back at me. Holy sh-t. My best guess is it was on the wall behind me and got scared when I walked in. So I go into attack mode immediately. Grab the shower head which was on a hose, take aim looking to drown this thing in the tub drain, and as soon as I turned the water on it jumped out of the tub onto the wall and ran into the window sill. Tactic then became opening the window fast and pinching to death in the sill. As soon as I touched the glass it jumped out onto the wall again and ran out the shower door. Now I'm cornered in the shower peering out into the "powder room" to see the huntsman on the cabinet door waiting for me. Sneak to the front door of the house and grab a flip flop, come back to the powder room and wing the flip flop at the spider. Hit it, wound several of the legs, but do not kill it. It runs out of the bathroom and underneath the stairs, much slower than it was moving prior. Feeling confident that spider is cornered under the stairs, I grab a can of bug spray and move in to finish it. Looking closely under the stairs (it was a hollow staircase where you could see through the gaps between steps) I see a black "tail" curled over the back lip of one of the stairs and assume it's the spider hiding on the back of the step. Hit it with the spray, enter f-cking mukade centipede. It dropped off the back of the stair and started charging at me. I immediately peed a little. Front half of its body was up off the floor and its mouth was visibly biting. It backed me up all the way to the front door as I emptied the entire can of bug spray on it. By the time we got to the door, it was obviously overcome by the chemicals and just writhing around, so I grabbed the other flip flop and smashed it. Didn't work. Hit it a few times and it would not die, so I turned the flip flop on its edge and used it like a saw to cut the thing in half. Then remembered the spider. It was still under the stairs, so I blew under there and it ran out wounded and I smashed it with the flip flop saw. Then I screamed at the top of my lungs for 30 seconds. The whole battle took probably 3 minutes but it felt like a f-cking lifetime. I think being naked cause an adrenaline rush a thousand times greater than if I were fully clothed. WhenI got to work I was frazzled enough for my co-workers to notice. Can't tell if it was the worst morning of my life or my biggest triumph, but man won that day.
Nature Is Scary
[rebelmouse-image 18359782 is_animated_gif=I did fieldwork back and forth between the US/UK and East and Southern Africa for ten years and in that time period, spent a good chunk of my life living at remote base camps so I have a few 'sh-t yourself' moments that I can list off the top off my head.
- I was chased by an elephant (it was worse as she had a calf)
- I know for a fact that I was stalked by at least two big cats twice (one being a leopard as it was the only large species around at the field site and the other was most likely a rogue male lion given that one was seen close by earlier and was known to hang out in the area).
- (this one occurred in Alaska). It was my day off and I was reading in the main tent as everyone went into town and I turned around only to find a moose cow and calf about five metres away from me.
- (this is the most recent event). We were having a party one night and I guess someone forgot to shut the kitchen door. I woke up in the morning hung over and decided to make coffee. The rubbish bag was undernearth the sink and I heard something in it (I was directly over it) and I saw coils within striking distance from a Mozambique spitting cobra.
- two spotted hyenas broke into our camp, killed a few dogs and then went over to a few tents (including mine) and pushed their muzzle through. The most surreal thing about that was, if you know anything about spotted hyenas, they actually make a noise every now and called a "whoop". Its insanely loud. One of them actually made that noise (it hurt my ears) but interestingly enough, it turns out that their is actually a growl that is always made directly after the whoop. So, really close up it sounds like "whoooop, grrrr" (and so on).
I have a few other stories but none of them were as terrifying as those or made me feel that my life was directly threatened.
Sheltie Fear
[rebelmouse-image 18359783 is_animated_gif=As a kid, I spent a lot of time with my babysitter's kids at their house and they had a sheltie dog. This is a smallish, friendly breed but my babysitter's son was a nightmare to it and would chase it around the with a nerf gun or tackle it and was basically just abusing this animal while his family did nothing.
I was 7 and couldn't do much and tbh the family had worse abuse going on than a kid terrorizing a dog, so I kept quiet about it. One day, a fly is just chilling over my head (very clean household lol) and the dog starts growling at it and ends up mauling me to get to it.
It ate part of my upper lip. I can't say 100% that it ate my lip but this dog's face was in my face and we never found the missing chunk of flesh it gauged out, so I always just say it bit me because that's the most sense I can make out of the blur of OH MY GOD DOG MOUTH AND TEETH AND FUR in my face. A triangular chunk of face and lip just... gone.
Worst part is I'm afraid of shelties now, which is embarrassing. Second worst part is I kept hanging out with the babysitter's kids after they gave up the dog and like a year later they revealed they just gave it to their cousins; they revealed this by taking me to said cousins' house where the "retrained" dog was.
Scotland, Eh?
[rebelmouse-image 18359784 is_animated_gif=I was cycling up a mountain in the Scottish Highlands (my gran lives there), and as I went round a corner, I came face to face with a huuuuge highland cow which was running down the mountain the opposite way. Instead of jumping off the path I thought the cow was be friendly and edge over to let me by: big mistake... it threw its head as I went by, almost impaling me and throwing me off the path and into a 20ft tumble down the mountain.
Bees?
[rebelmouse-image 18354072 is_animated_gif=I out ran a swarm of bees. I was young and in Straya, and we lived on the front of a farm. I went exploring a lot , it was really cool. I found a bees nest in a huge fallen tree. I had watched a lot of cartoons, and wanted to know if the bees would come out in an arrow and get me if I whacked it with a stick. So I did. They did not. I was disappointed and climbed around the fallen tree. The bees do attack, just not immediately. And not in an arrow. In a cloud. Suddenly they were all around me. I sprinted home, about 2k, and if I slowed down the bees caught up. I ran into our yard and shut he gate, thinking I was safe. I wasn't, obviously and got stung a few times. I deserved it though don't go beating up animal homes.
Jelly
[rebelmouse-image 18359785 is_animated_gif=Went swimming at the beach and decided to race my mate out to the shark net buoys. I'm 5 metres away, giving it my all when I slap my hand down into the water for my next stroke and hit something real squishy. I stopped and looked up to find I'd booped a box jellyfish square on the top of the thing. Noped out of there so hard. The worst bit was I didn't even win the race.
Koala Tea
[rebelmouse-image 18359786 is_animated_gif=Scene: late night back dirt road, with steep drop on one side, mountain wall on other. Big fat koala in the middle of the road, scratching its butt with one death claw, while the other shoved leaves into its mouth and glared at me with its beady eyes as it willfully ignored my horn.
I was tired and grumpy so got out and started yelling it at and flapping my arms. Big mistake. The damn thing growled and lunged towards me. Now koala arms are longer than you realize, and they are tipped with death claws that can plunge into hardwood. So I ran back to my car, but wasn't going to make the door. Instead I lunged at the bullbar and climbed onto the bonnet. Deathclaws Mcgee followed, swinging up like a monkey, still growling like the spawn of satans most std ridden teddy. I scrambled backwards and up the windscreen, drawing my legs back just in time to see the claws scratch down my windshield. Luckily they couldn't grip. Scream/growling in frustration, the fat fluffy terror sat on my bonnet and hooked both windshield wipers back and out while it grumbled and grunted, not 4 feet below me.
Needless to say I escaped. A passing milk tanker stopped and the guy used a prod to get the evil scratchy creature off my car and march it back into the bush and whatever hellish portal it escaped from. Trucker then proceeds to double over in laughter as he helps me down and surveys the damage. So, so many scratches on the bonnet and glass. Trucker tells everyone that day, and the next about saving me from the rabid beastie. I am both mocked and revered.
Not A Dessert
[rebelmouse-image 18359787 is_animated_gif=F-cking magpies. I was riding my bike to primary school one day and two streets away out of nowhere I feel the flap of wings on my shoulder and it flys by in front of me. It was quite large, probably an adult and it came back but I saw it and ducked. After that it flew by a few more times (repeatedly actually) and it actually hit me a few times hard and left a few beak dents in my helmet. I could only peg my bike as fast as possible to school until I was through it's "territory".
Quite a few other instances being swooped by the black and white death birds but another time with friends I gave myself a bleeding nose after ducking and slamming my face on my own bikes handlebars...
My friends thought that was funny.
The Kangaroo Mafia
[rebelmouse-image 18359788 is_animated_gif=This isn't from me but from my mate. Once on a school camp for 21 days in Alpine Australia, we were forced to sleep alone for 48 hours. So at around 2am on the second night, I heard a shout from where he was sleeping. He told me the next morning that a kangaroo stole his hiking pack and that in panic, he threw a water jug at it.
Low and behold, the kangaroo regrouped after a short time and surrounded him in a circle. All he remembered were like five pairs of eyes staring back at him in the night. I have yet to ask him how he managed to fend them off. But yeah, that's Australia for you.
Awoooooo
[rebelmouse-image 18345516 is_animated_gif=UP of Michigan. I was bow hunting for whitetail, sitting in full camo on a downed tree, leaning against another tree, in a dark, thick cedar swamp. I dozed off for a while and woke to the crunching sound of footsteps. I darted my eyes around and saw the back end of a canine as it stalked through the trees within about 20 yards, going from my right to my left. From the reddish in the fur I assumed it was a coyote and not a wolf, although I didn't see it long, and it was a BIG coyote. As it got far enough to the left I lost sight completely behind the tree I was leaning against and could only hear it.
I sat there with an arrow nocked, just listening when suddenly I heard and felt a thud of this animal jumping up on the log I was sitting on. I sat there and listened to sniffing sounds at the back of my head for a few seconds. It then jumped back down and I heard it trot away, as calmly as it had approached. My heart was racing the whole time, but it wasn't "terrifying" since coyotes/wolves pose literally zero threat to humans.
Sometimes everyone needs to hush up.
Wouldn't that be nice?
If people could catch onto social queues and actually engage in conversation with another human, maybe then we'd be able to triumph at the basic art of communication.
But humans seem to be failing in this department.
So who among us hasn't been trapped in a nonsensical splattering of words we'd give limbs to escape from?
Redditor Isingsongstomycats wanted to hear about what can completely make us regret speaking to another person, so they asked:
"What instantly ruins a conversation for you?"
I'm ornery. Anything and everything can turn me off.
Blocked
"Getting their phone out for no reason mid conversation."
Expensive_Pie_6943
"Sometimes I want to look up something pertinent to the conversation but I don't want to interrupt them to say that. Now when someone checks their notification mid conversation, that really burns me."
cutelyaware
Up & Up
"When someone feels the need to one up you on everything you say."
Apprehensive_Gap_368
"Had a coworker like this once, his one upping was so bad we would test it. Best one was a guy talking about catching a shark on a pole at the beach. He interrupted with the time he swam out a mile and got attacked by a shark and beat it and swam back with it."
Mess_Bubbly
Rude
"When they start saying nasty things about people they barely know."
WeirdShyKitten
"I have family like this. I once heard them go on on this rant about how the new waitress at their local coffee shop is fat and ugly. They made a thousands assumptions about this woman that included criticism to her service."
18062022
"Or start sh*t talking someone the second they leave the room. My dad's sisters do that, I was stuck in my parents house alone with them and I would get so paranoid every time I left the room. If they do that to each other, I can’t image the crap they talk about me."
vicki_chicki
War of Words
"When they ask for your opinion or talking about something fully subjective and then tell you how you are objectively wrong or get offended by you nor agreeing."
Prize_Interaction931
"Similar, but not quite the same: my old roommate would correct me on things that were objective, and not like facts."
"Like I mentioned it was hard for my folks to get a mortgage because they were self employed and he correct me that it wasn't. He wouldn't believe the story i was telling and told me what he thought might have happened with no knowledge on the subject."
"Needless to say I moved out."
SFXBTPD
Blah Blah
"When it feels like you're engaging a combination lock just to get responses to simple innocent pieces of a conversation. People who small talk you to death."
I swear small talk people should be arrested for attempted murder.
Useless
"When someone drags a story out with useless details. Like something that happened on the drive to work but they start the story at the point when they first woke up and what they had for breakfast. Just get to the point!"
ticklemebits
Paused
"When they interrupt me mid sentence."
HelpMeSweetJesus
"If it sometimes happens on accident whenever they think of something and get over-excited it’s whatevs. Now when they constantly step over you it’s like your opinion merely feels like filler at best and they ain’t even listening. Not even worth the energy to continue at that point."
BAKED_TATER_
"One of my coworkers only listens long enough to figure out what she's going to say next, and then she interrupts. I guess we're only there to feed her lines."
Witty_Commentator
Do Better
"When someone gives you completely useless advice you didn't ask for. A couple weeks ago I mentioned to a coworker that I was glad to be going home because I didn't get more than a couple hours of sleep."
"Dude first of all had the audacity to say 'Well, you need to do better.' When I said I have medication resistant insomnia he looks at me like I'm an idiot and asks if I've tried melatonin."
errant_night
Duh
"Think of how stupid the average person is, and then realize half of them are stupider than that. And it doesn’t take you very long to spot one of them, does it. Take you about eight seconds. You’ll be listening to some guy, and say, this guy is f**king stupid. Then, then there are some people, they’re not stupid. They’re full of crap."
"Huh, that doesn’t take very long to spot, either, does it. Take you about the same amount of time. You’ll be listening to some guy, saying, well, he’s fairly intelligent. Ah, he’s full of s**t. Then there are some people, they’re not stupid, they’re not full of s**t, they’re freaking nuts."
teaching-man
Gross...
"Sexualization. We're talking about a new video game and suddenly I get asked if I play naked, or if I'm turned on by a game mechanic or some such nonsense. Yuck."
GreenAppleLady
Good conversation is hard to keep these days.
Do you have any conversational red flags to add? Let us know in the comments below.
Moments of distress where you think your life is on the line are unshakable.
Many people have at one point experienced situations where they thought they wouldn't come out the other side alive but are somehow spared through some miracle.
They are lucky enough to tell their stories.
From mild to wild, strangers online shared their most humbling experiences when Redditor Intelligent_Role_675 asked:
"What was the most intense moment of your life?"
Traffic accidents were a common example in which Redditors feared for their lives.
The Universe Had Other Plans
"My ancient, used car randomly decided to stop working while I was doing about 70mph on the freeway. I skidded out, couldn't gain control of the skid, and slammed straight into a metal guardrail. I crashed through the guardrail, flew off the side of the freeway, and impaled my car halfway through a tree. I was perfectly fine afterwards, but my car was a smoking wreck. It was virtually unrecognizable as an automobile, it was so messed up. But I was ok. Not a scratch on my body."
"The moment my car spun out of control, and I knew I was going over the edge at that speed, I assumed I was going to die. I gripped the wheel, closed my eyes, and made my peace with the universe."
"For some reason, the universe decided it wasn't done with me. I was shocked to open my eyes and find myself alive and unharmed. Truly shocked. I thought for sure I was going to die."
"To this day, I'm always a little bit shook whenever I drive past that section of the freeway. For years, you could see the skid marks on the road. They cleared them off eventually, but it took a long-a** time."
– EllyHodl
Reclaiming Loose Articles
"I had a wreck years ago. A semi clipped the front passenger side with its trailer and sent me spinning, then started to flip when my car got caught by those metal cable barriers. I was going backwards down the interstate as the cables just shredded the passenger side of my car. The trunk busted open and I saw a tote bag that was holding my hair stuff and makeup fly in front of me as my car was trying to stop. When it started to flip, my head bounced off the driver's side window."
"Finally, when it was over, I was sitting there just stunned. Then, my stupid brain decided I needed to walk out on the interstate to go find my flatiron. Because apparently I thought, hey, I have head trauma, but I can still look good🤦♀️."
– mgulley08
There are heroes around us.
Trapped In A Burning Car
"Driving to work one morning. Icky, rainy day, lots of highway traffic. I assume a car hydroplaned in front of me but it was far enough ahead that I couldn’t tell exactly what happened. Took out several other cars with him. Highway was basically completely blocked."
"I was essentially the first car to pull up on the wreck and one of the more badly damaged cars was already on fire. Myself and a couple strangers run up to the car and realize his door is jammed. One of the guys starts kicking the window. I’m not sure how much time has passed (probably not much) but you can feel the heat and making eye contact with this dude you can see the fear in his eyes."
"I ran to the passenger side and as I’m pulling on the handle the driver is kicking on the door from the inside. It popped open enough that I was able to grab a portion of the door itself and we were able to pull it open and pull him out."
"I went to work but I shook for hours from the adrenaline."
– Mikeastuto
The River Wild
"Saving a woman from drowning. We were River tubing in a river that was way way more aggressive than normal. Long story short a woman got dumped off her tube and pinned under a log next to me. I had to bail on my tube and fight to get to her and pull her up, she was under for a few minutes. I was shaking for hours after. Two teenagers died there the next day."
"Moral of the story, if you’re going river tubing and the tubing company that normally runs there isn’t operating it’s probably because it’s unsafe."
– Puzzleheaded-Mood689
These Redditors didn't know what hit them.
The Human Body Is Unpredictable
"Two and a half yrs ago I woke up halfway on my way to work with blurry sight and an immobile body. I assume it was on a sidewalk. I remember I wondered if I had died, but quickly shifted to a theory of suddenly gotten drunk on a tuesday morning. But that didn’t make any sense. Couldn’t grasp what was going on, really. Suddenly an older man rushed to me and asked if I was ok. I said yeah. He told me to lie still. Looked concerned. An ambulance came and took me to the nearest ER - about 1 km down the road. It was a stroke. Still puts me off a bit when I think about it. Occasional aphasia, but pretty much fine now."
– KoalaCola-notPepsi
The Wrong Shot
"Had a severe allergic reaction and collapsed in the stairs of the cultural history museum. I had been prescribed penicillin a few days earlier. It turns out that this particular type of penicillin can cause me to die."
– Ashtar-the-Squid
Murder Survivor
"Took four 9mm rounds to the chest while delivering pizza."
"Was delivering to a party, and some kids jumped out and pointed a gun at me. When I first saw the gun I thought it was some kids trying to prank me with a bb gun or something. I heard 4 loud bangs. Next thing I know I was on the ground and I felt them tugging on my keys that I had clipped to a belt loop."
"I remember one of them actually crying, and I remember him saying sorry over and over."
"Don't know how long I was there but that party I was supposed to deliver too emptied out and I remember hearing a lot of crying and screaming. I just remember some guy saying, 'don't close your eyes dude, stay with me.'"
"Ambulance got there and picked me up, and from there it was going in and out, felt like I was just a passenger in my own body."
"The kids who mugged me and stole my car got picked up like 20 mins later at a gas station trying to use my card to fill the car. They all ended up going away for several years, and I got 4 scars that raise eyebrows everytime I go to the beach."
– Unyielding_Cactus
Part Of The Atmosphere
"Probably jumping out of a plane. Unfortunately I don't remember the first few seconds, which was exactly what they warned us would happen. You go from a somewhat known environment into an entirely new one and I guess it's literally just too much to process. Next thing I knew, I was under canopy, and I knew what to do with that."
– cutelyaware
The Big Tremor
"I was stationed in South Korea in 2015-2016. This was when the north had been initiating a wave of nuclear tests. It was a Monday evening, me and some of the guys from my shop were taking a Korean language class on base after hours (basic sh*t like how to tell a cab driver where you were going, etc)"
"The heightened tensions because of the nuclear test had everyone pretty on edge. The classroom we were in had no windows, and we couldn't see outside. The building started shaking, violently. We all thought it had happened, and the world was about to end."
"In reality, A 5.8 earthquake hit not far from base."
"Once we walked outside, didnt see a mushroom cloud, and realized we hadn't become the ww3 rapid response force, we all had a good laugh about it. But for about 2 minutes, it was the opposite of funny."
– cat_daddylambo
Almost losing a loved one can be the scariest thing in life.
A Father's Worst Nightmare
"When my son was 2.5yo he had a febrile (fever-induced) seizure in my arms. I thought he was dying - scariest, most intense moment of my life."
"He’s fine now. Never re-occurred, but we went after any fever hard with alternating Tylenol and Advil for both him and his brother after that."
– wembley
Unpredictable Seizures
"My special needs son had his first seizure when he was 1. My wife was in Mexico for a wedding and I heard him breathing funny, like snoring. I looked at him and he was grey and unresponsive. I was terrified, I didn't know whether to do CPR or what. I called my mother in law who is a nurse but I couldn't reach her. He came out of it after about 2 minutes and I just held him and held him. He's had like 50 seizures since then, some of them lasting upwards of 20 mins. He had one this morning, actually. Every time it happens we think it might be his last. The scariest part to me is that I know it will start as any normal day then my life will change forever."
– Alamander81
These moments shared by Redditors are a reminder that tomorrow is never guaranteed.
And whenever we encounter a life-threatening situation and end up living long enough to tell the story, each day following is a blessed day to be alive.
We can't ever prepare for the worst, but we can embrace the present with every fiber of our being.
Everyone has their own opinion about what qualifies as a good read, whether based on literary merit or the joy of reading it.
But there are some titles that people can pretty easily agree took a turn that really didn't do the book any favors.
Redditor 2D_brain asked:
"What's the worst book you've ever read?"
50 Shades of Grey
"'50 Shades of Grey.' It's just the worst. Not remotely interesting. There is way better erotica out there. Way better. This is just the worst."
- joanne122597
The Darksword Trilogy
"'The Darksword Trilogy' by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. It started out as a decent enough swords and sorcery series. Nothing special, but an amusing time-waster."
"Then, towards the end of the last book, a wormhole opens up, and the US Army invaded their fantasy realm."
- Catlenfell
Mein Kampf
"I’ve read 'Mein Kampf' for a history project and it definitely is the worst piece of literature I've ever read."
"Not only by the message, which already would make it the worst, but it’s just horrible writing. Feels more like an angry social media comment than a book."
- IceClimbers_Main
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
"I want to tack on 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas,' as well. It's not literal Nazi propaganda, but it basically perpetuates Nazi myths like the Clean Wehrmacht and has you sympathize with the Nazis. In fact, not any Nazi, but an SS and leader of the Auschwitz camp."
"But even ignoring the plot itself, the book is so awful. It's full of historical inaccuracies. It claims to aim to bring awareness of the Holocaust to a young audience, but there are so many better literary works including those written by actual children as they went through the experience. But nope, let's go with the historically inaccurate book written by someone with basically no connection to the Holocaust (like, not Jewish, minority, researcher, that kind of thing) stupid drivel."
"So, of course, it made millions and got a movie out of it. There are now millions of children who think this story is true and might have become more sympathetic to Nazis as a result as well. None of that money (last time I checked, has admittedly been a while) went towards anything relating to education (or awareness...) regarding the Holocaust or anything else related or tangentially related to the Holocaust."
"I hate this book. It's nonsense and it is insidious."
- HabitatGreen
Go Ask Alice
"'Go Ask Alice' when you’re old enough to realize it’s just propaganda to scare kids and not an actually found diary of a drug user."
- sketchysketchist
Go Set a Watchman
"'Go Set a Watchman.'"
"'To Kill a Mockingbird' is a masterpiece. Her first book, it won the Pulitzer and then Harper Lee lived the rest of her life a recluse, never publishing another work. UNTIL… her caretaker/grifter sister came forward right before Harper passed away and announced to the world that there actually was another book, a sequel to TKAM."
"It was awful. Poorly written, boring story, rehashed characters…except for Atticus Finch. In Mockingbird, he was one of the greatest characters in american literature. In Watchman, he was a dime-a-dozen redneck racist. There was clearly a reason she never published it."
- Igotthesilver
Wicked
"'Wicked.' My wife and I listened to the audiobook on a road trip because friends had invited us to see the play. It was way too long and I remember it seeming like it was written by several different writers who didn't really communicate with each other."
"One was a totally nuts conspiracy theorist, another was on a really bad acid trip, and another was a child from a strict household who'd been told they could use no-no words and say naughty things all they wanted."
"We came super close to making up an excuse to not see the play but luckily we didn't. The play was actually terrific! If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend going. Just skip the book."
- Tangent_
Maximum Ride
"Everything after Book Three of the 'Maximum Ride' series. I use them as my go-to examples of bad writing and they are what made me entirely lose faith in James Patterson. The last book especially cost me so many brain cells."
"I wish I'd had the foresight to stop with Book Three, but I finished the whole thing. The last book was... interesting. The whole thing had the most self-contradicting plot and conflict stuffed with a hasty attempt to wrap up loose ends by just killing everyone and just as the cherry on top, the sky explodes in the end? I don't know, it was kind of unclear."
- ParkityParkPark
The Divergent Trilogy
"I loved that series so much until that ending..."
- PurpleMermaid16
The Dune Prequels
"'The Dune' prequel books written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. Talk about missing the point of the original series! They read like a YA fan fiction based in the Dune universe."
- ImInJeopardy
Slammed
"I was hoping someone would mention Colleen Hoover, if only to talk about how absolutely terrible and hilarious her book 'Slammed' is. Reading it was honestly just such a ridiculous experience that I may never find again in another book."
- Leedamu
The Necronomicon
"'The Necronomicon.' I found it pretty boring and repetitive after the first five pages. Got halfway and said f**k this and read 'Good Omens' again."
- raidakens
Darling Girl
"'Darling Girl' by Liz Michalski. It’s a Peter Pan spinoff where Peter Pan impregnates Holly Darling, Wendy’s daughter, and then abandons them, and when the girl is a teenager, Peter tries to take the daughter back."
"I couldn’t stomach the idea of Peter Pan, a childlike figure, impregnating someone and all that ick. Peter Pan is 'the boy who never grew up.' But he’s a father now? No thanks. I got about 30 pages in, and literally gave up."
- MPD1987
The Fountainhead
"'The Fountainhead.' I was going to put 'Atlas Shrugged' down until I remembered how much worse 'The Fountainhead' was. And yes, I read both; any suffering inflicted by 'Atlas Shrugged' was something I deserved."
- ditchdiggergirl
Everyone has a right to their own opinion, and they should not be ashamed to read what they love to read. But they also should not feel bad about wasting time on a book they are not enjoying, when there are hundreds and thousands of books out there that they'll love that they could read instead.
Some people don't take in information as quickly as others.
Which is absolutely nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed about, nor does it necessarily reflect on one's intelligence.
Even so, we all can't help but feel the tiniest embarrassed when we've found ourselves a little slow on the uptake regarding certain pieces of information.
Be it a random fact of trivia that everyone knows, or even realizing there's a reason your parents were trying to instill a life lesson in you.
Being hit by a ton of bricks might actually be a welcome relief to the embarrassment that will run through your body.
"What did you learn embarrassingly late in life?"
It's Hard To Love Others If You Don't Love Yourself
"Trying to treat myself as I would others."
"The ol' reverse golden-rule."- kageroshajima
Hey, It Worked!
"My grandmother had a clock that would break if anyone touched or tried to move it."
"I always found that curious."
"Then some time in my 30s my wife and I were talking and it came up."
"I was wondering how they moved it out of their house after they passed."
"As I was explaining, 'I think it must have had some delicately balanced mechanism or something that would be disrupted if moved...'
" My wife’s face made me quickly realize it was just a lie told to young me to keep my dirty clumsy hands off of it."
"Also, I’m an engineer."- P-eh-triot
Do We Ever Really Grow Up?
"There's no such thing as 'feeling like an adult'."
"I'm 34 and still forget I'm an adult sometimes lol."- scelestai
Hey, It's Not For Everyone...
"Riding a bike at 15."- Graehaus
Naturally Imposing
"That my height shapes how people perceive what I say."
"I'm a 6'4 male with a deep voice."
"I learned it at 40 when I had a boss who was 6'6."
"I was suddenly aware of my own height and the power position, looking up to him."
"I realized pretty much everyone is looking up at me, and I began smiling more and asking people questions about themselves to reduce the power implications of my height."- ClydePincusp
Easy To Get Tripped Up On Exotic Spellings
"How to say the last name Nguyen."- TD-Eagles
Though It Wouldn't Surprise Many If She Did...
"Martha Stewart does not own Martha's Vineyard...."- valhalla-at-your-grl
Shouldn't Be The Case... But Sadly Often Is...
"Hr is there to protect the company, not you."
"Hr is not your friend."- Puzzleheaded-Mood689
Just Focused On The Wrong Possibilities
"It never made sense to me that we would go under tables during an earthquake, because wouldn't the ground crack open?"
"The table wouldn't do anything then?"
"Wasn't until last year I realized that it was to stop debris from falling on us."
"Smh."- whats_yesterday
Easy To Get Tripped Up On Math...
"4% of 25 is the same as 25% of 4."- cdn_gooner
A Penny Saved...
"The importance of saving money or buying property early."- wetpickle_antichrist
Too Many People Need Reminding Of This Every Day...
"Who I am is more important than how I look."- Lazy-Thanks8244
Oral Hygiene Is Tougher Than You Think
"How to brush my teeth."
"I was super neglected as a child so that is something I've always struggled with and even after going to a dentist for 2 years and having exams every 4 months I only learned last month that you need to brush your gums."- HersheySquirtz2014·
"I learned that we're supposed to brush both sides of our teeth."
"The inner side needs to be brushed as well."
"I saw all of the commercials just showing them brushing the outer portion so I assumed that this is the way."- FaTes-EnD
Your Life Is Yours To Live!
"That I don't have to become a mother if I don't want to."- detective_kiara
Needless to say, should you find yourself making this realization in certain company, you might be met with jeers and laughter.
But as the saying goes, "slow and steady wins the race".