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Students Reveal How A Teacher Made Them Cry In Class

Students Reveal How A Teacher Made Them Cry In Class

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Dear Ms Jackson,

You made third grade terrible. You picked on me endlessly, called me "slower than Christmas" about a dozen times a day, told me I would never be anything, and made fun of me when I cried while I was being interviewed for the school news show. I was a scared shy little kid being interviewed about her dad suddenly being shipped off to war. Obviously I cried. You suck.

Love Always,

Me.

WHEW! That was therapeutic. So many kids have that "one" teacher, Ms. Jackson was one. One reddit user asked:

Has a Teacher ever made you cry in class? How/Why?

So of course we got a bunch of stories about terrible teachers, but there were also a few gems in the trash! Woo!

Stolen Homework

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When I was in 3rd grade, a boy stole my homework out of the turn in bin, erased my name and wrote his name on it.

The teacher gave me a zero and said I should have written my name on my paper if I wanted the grade.

You could still see my name under his :(

Professor

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My professor for Materials Science in college was notorious for being extremely hard on people that used cell phones and left early. One day a kid gets a call, answers it, gets really silent and then starts to leave. Our professor was livid, demanding that he come to the front of the class to apologize, and when the kid protests he practically started screaming. The kid is in tears at this point walking to the front and apologized to the silent classroom.

Yeah it turns out his grandma died and that's what the phone call was about....

A Dollar For Paper

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In 9th grade, I had this World History teacher, Mr. Wyatt, who had a big issue with spiral bound paper. All I had was spiral bound paper, my parents didn't have money for loose-leaf paper because we were dirt poor. He made this huge deal about "everyone has a DOLLAR for paper" in front of my class and pretty much called me a liar and I cried. He actually sent me to the in-house detention because I was lying and not following his rule about the stupid paper-every day for about a week. A nice office lady asked why I kept going to the office because I seemed like a "nice girl" so I told her and they gave me a stack of paper, a 3 ring binder and some pencils.

The Domino Effect

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My first grade teacher got a note from the office saying she was needed home. She was one of the first people who had a cell phone that I knew so she got it out during class and called home. An EMT answered, her husband had killed himself and her little boy had seen it. She started sobbing. When little kids see an adult crying, the domino effect kicks in. Most of our class started crying because we knew something really bad happened.

She ran out and our principal came in about a minute later and finished the day out for Mrs. S. She didn't come back for a few weeks. Our substitute teacher had all of us make cards for Mrs. S and I remember I tried to draw a rose and tell her how sorry I was.

Who Told You To Move

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5th grade PE teacher had a rule that we cannot play tag during lunch time because she did not like disheveled-looking prepubescent girls. Being the annoying kids that we were, we completely ignored the rule and played until the bell rang. When she called us to line up, she exploded. She shouted at us to tuck our shirts and wipe our faces. So, I did. She threw a chair at me, screaming who the hell told me to move. Metal part of the chair hit my legs and I wailed

I didn't want to tell my mom because I was afraid she'll blame it on me, but I could hardly walk because my left leg was swollen. Mom angrily talked to school admin the next day. Teacher got fired but I think my parents did not press charges.

Openly Mocking

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I had a teacher that would openly mock me in class regularly and then when I tried to hide behind my hair because I was crying would make me stand up and tie my hair back so everyone could see that I was crying.

Yep, f* that guy.

Senior Skip Day

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Yes, it happened to me in my senior year of highschool during english.

I've struggled with depression for a better part of my life, and my senior year it got extremely bad. I skipped school at least once a week, usually more. My grades all went to hell, despite always being relatively well off academically. I was going through a lot of different things, but didn't really feel like I was "worthy" of help. My English teacher that year was also my English teacher my sophomore year, so we were already on good terms. He noticed my poor attendance, bad grades, I'm sure the lack of effort in my appearance as well. Some days when I missed school he'd call me and ask where I was, he left a few voice mails, he was clearly disappointed in me and worried.

The day he made me cry was actually senior skip day. I wasn't having an awful day so I actually went to school, it was going to be an easy day so I might as well not have the absence on my record. When I got to English, I was the only student there, absolutely none of my classmates showed up. At first my English teacher started laughing, understandably. "Class" started, and I was studying for our final exam coming up, I would fail the class if I didn't do well, and it was an AP course. He came up to me and started talking to me, he said he noticed I haven't been myself lately and was concerned, and he knew I was a better student than that. We kept taking, about my depression, a recent split from a three year relationship, my home life, my struggle with drug abuse. He told me I was worth something, that he believed in me, at one point he said he wishes he could've adopted me and done more to help. I couldn't stop crying, I was so overwhelmed. Nobody had ever said things like this to me before, I'd never heard anyone tell me they were proud of me. When I went to walk across the stage at graduation, he was in the front row. He looked at me and gave me a thumbs up, and said something to the effect of "You got this, I'm proud of you." and I think about that everyday. He had more faith in me than anyone ever has and its something I'll never forget.

100 People Burst Into Applause

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I had a professor at law school on the verge of retirement. There was one class at the law school that was an introductory one that kind of stood in for orientation - it was pass/fail and it allowed the doe-eyed 1Ls to get the hang of reading casebooks without having to worry about real grades. It was nice.

My professor had written the textbook for this class and was largely responsible for the school assimilating this program. Everyone loved having this class, by the way. It was an awesome way to ease into the scariness of law school. The thing is, he was this scary, booming, large old man. VERY intimidating. At the time, he seemed to epitomize the type of professor you'd see in The Paper Chase. If he didn't hear you, he'd shout "USE YOUR DIAPHRAGM." There were moments he'd interrupt a student in the middle of talking and say "No, you're not understanding the question. I'm going to move on." We were generally really scared of him and most people were kind of resentful that he put so much pressure on us for a class that was intended to be chill.

On the last day of this class, though, he talked about how he was going to retire. Then he spoke about how this class was his baby, he cares about it so much, he's been so impressed with our performance, etc. At the very end, he choked up and said, "If only the school would let me, I would continue teaching this class until I die."

After speaking, he walked down the aisle of the lecture hall out the doors. There was a moment of silence, and the entire class of 100 people burst into applause.

I started sobbing. Idk, there's just something about a stately old intimidating man being that affectionate and vulnerable that just makes me feel this visceral sense of compassion. Damn.

Familial Hate

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My 10th grade teacher erased my name off of my midterm paper and wrote another students name on it. Then he called home to tell my parents I skipped and didn't hand in my mid term.

We went in, he handed me the pile of tests and told me to find it. 3 papers in I saw the name of a student who I knew wasn't in class (we were decent friends) looked closely and you could see the marks in the paper from my name. I have a heavy hand, you can't erase the chasms I dig into papers when I write. The teacher back-pedals and says he found that paper on the floor at the end of class and thought it was another students so that's why he wrote their name on it.

Thankfully, I didn't have to rewrite it. I was removed from his class and put into a different teachers class where I did decently better. But the teacher never got any trouble for the situation, and 2 years later was huge d!ck to my younger sister. We share a mutual last name and I guess we look alike. He took out his dislike of me on her until she requested to be removed from his class.

He still never saw any reprimand.

Graphing Calculators Change Lives

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She wouldn't let me go back to my locker to get my graphing calculator before a test. She had two on her desk and I couldn't use those either because I should have brought my own. She told me I had to take the test without it, but the problems on the test were impossible to do without a graphing calculator. The girl I sat next to saw me crying at my desk as the teacher passed out the test.

She went around to every kid in the class personally asking if they had an extra calculator I could use. She ended up getting one for me. She was one of the nicest, most popular people in school, and I was so shy that thinking about it later I wasn't sure I would have done that for another student. That one girl kind of inspired me, I have always tried to be nicer to people after that.

That teacher was always horrible though.

New Rule

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I'm the teacher. Student had missed the previous class when I handed back papers. It was a three-hour class: she asked me for her paper at the break. I gave it to her, and then had to watch her cry for an hour in class over her B+. New rule for myself: never ever give papers back until the end of class, so students can go cry over their B+ grades in private.

Brad

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I once watched a teacher lead a chant making fun of a kid in 6th grade. The kid had been surprised by a spider crawling on him and let out a high-pitched scream. The teacher made fun of him and then started chanting:

"Brad's A Girl! Brad's A Girl!"

He encouraged the class to join. Brad eventually started crying and sat in his seat.

The teacher was a real jerk.

Nasty Divorce

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In 1st Grade, I had a teacher, we'll call her Mrs. R, that became a royal b* halfway through the year. I can remember one time she refused to let me go use the restroom. I obeyed like a good boy and waited until I couldn't handle it anymore. I asked once more and she refused, resulting in me pissing myself in front of the whole class. When she found out what happened, she yelled at me, called me a baby and sent me to the principle. My parents became suspicious and complained to the school board (they had friends on the board). Turns out, Mrs. R was going through a nasty divorce at the time and was taking her anger out on us.

I was moved to a different class shortly after and never saw her again.

Violent Men

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My papers in my binders got disorganized so I was trying to organize them again. He got mad, picked up my binder, and threw it across the classroom. I was 7. My dad was violent with me too sometimes so my male teacher doing this to me at school overwhelmed me.

Do You Wanna Build A Snowman?

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Funny story, we had to decorate these paper snowmen in first grade and I wanted mine to be realistic so I unscrewed the cap of the glue bottle and poured it all over the snowman.

When the teacher saw what I had done, she ran over and this conversation ensued:

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!"

"I wanted to make snow..."

"NOOO!!!" accompanied by stare

I started crying. That moment is vividly burned into my memory.

Math Homework

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I was in my 6th grade math class, and the teacher had it out for me for whatever reason.

I was a really good kid, and I was quiet and pretty good at math, but I didn't like it. I did, however, love to draw.

So one day, my math teacher finishes the lesson and tells us all to work on homework. For context, in my language arts class we had been given an assignment to illustrate a chapter of the book we were reading.

I was sitting quietly and working on my drawing for my other class, and the teacher comes up behind me and asks me why I'm not working on homework. I tell her about the assignment from my other class, and she starts yelling at me in front of my whole class that she meant MATH HOMEWORK and how could a DRAWING POSSIBLY be HOMEWORK ANYWAYS?

Then she tore my drawing in half and I cried.

I went to the bathroom to continue crying. For context, I didn't have a ton of friends in the 6th grade but all the other kids thought that what the teacher did was so horrible that the other girls followed me into the bathroom to comfort me, which was really nice.

Then my dad went to a parent/teacher conference with her, and told her that every kid has "that teacher" and that she would forever be mine. And whaddaya know, he was right.

First Grade

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I was in first grade. My PE coach really did not like me, she was always putting me in time out for breaking the rules. Rules I didn't even know were rules, like sliding or swinging on your belly or picking up rocks off of the playground.

One day we were playing a game of Telephone in the cafeteria on a rainy day. The girl who whispered in my ear...well. I couldn't understand her. It just sounded like wet spitting in my ear. I asked her to repeat herself and she did. Wet spitting. At that point I was scrambling to make something up to pass along, and the coach was loudly pressing me to hurry up and think of something. I guess I thought about it too long, because she snapped at me that I'd ruined the game, and then she put my nose in the corner for the rest of PE time while everyone else played. I just sat there quietly crying, and I wasn't even allowed to look out the window at the rain because she'd tell me to turn my head back to the wall.

Valentine

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In first grade we were making Valentines out of folded construction paper. We were supposed to write a message on one section of the folded heart or whatever it was. I got confused somehow and wrote the message on the wrong section. When the teacher got to my desk she noticed my mistake. She lifted my hand from the desk and slammed it down hard on top of the Valentine. It hurt and I was so shocked I just sat there in stunned silence with tears rolling down my cheeks. Can you imagine doing that to a 6-y/o over something so insignificant as a paper heart? I still think about this 53 years later.

Early Injustice

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In 3rd grade, I got blamed for talking in line when it was the two kids in front and behind me. We all had to write a letter home to our parents (kinda overblown), and I just cried, partially cause I didn't know what to say. I remember thinking this was clearly an obvious mix up especially since I never so much as got called out by an adult for misbehaving, but I just collapsed underneath the towering figures that reprimanded me and couldn't vocalize my defense.

I did write a letter trying my best to explain this to my parents, but the teacher grabbed it, read it aloud ( ostensibly under her breath but knowingly loud enough for the entire class to hear) and said "NO! Try again". So like a torture victim I didn't protest, sobbed and just wrote a false confession about how I was misbehaving and goofing off. Surprisingly my parents believed me, when i broke down again at home which i guess made it better.

I'm nearly thirty and still sometimes think about my hot, teary, embarrassed face seated on the carpet as the teacher loudly mumbled my original letter to my parents in front of a class when I try to fall asleep...life's first injustice stings.

H/T: Reddit

People Reveal The Weirdest Thing About Themselves

Reddit user Isitjustmedownhere asked: 'Give an example; how weird are you really?'

Let's get one thing straight: no one is normal. We're all weird in our own ways, and that is actually normal.

Of course, that doesn't mean we don't all have that one strange trait or quirk that outweighs all the other weirdness we possess.

For me, it's the fact that I'm almost 30 years old, and I still have an imaginary friend. Her name is Sarah, she has red hair and green eyes, and I strongly believe that, since I lived in India when I created her and there were no actual people with red hair around, she was based on Daphne Blake from Scooby-Doo.

I also didn't know the name Sarah when I created her, so that came later. I know she's not really there, hence the term 'imaginary friend,' but she's kind of always been around. We all have conversations in our heads; mine are with Sarah. She keeps me on task and efficient.

My mom thinks I'm crazy that I still have an imaginary friend, and writing about her like this makes me think I may actually be crazy, but I don't mind. As I said, we're all weird, and we all have that one trait that outweighs all the other weirdness.

Redditors know this all too well and are eager to share their weird traits.

It all started when Redditor Isitjustmedownhere asked:

"Give an example; how weird are you really?"

Monsters Under My Bed

"My bed doesn't touch any wall."

"Edit: I guess i should clarify im not rich."

– Practical_Eye_3600

"Gosh the monsters can get you from any angle then."

– bikergirlr7

"At first I thought this was a flex on how big your bedroom is, but then I realized you're just a psycho 😁"

– zenOFiniquity8

Can You See Why?

"I bought one of those super-powerful fans to dry a basement carpet. Afterwards, I realized that it can point straight up and that it would be amazing to use on myself post-shower. Now I squeegee my body with my hands, step out of the shower and get blasted by a wide jet of room-temp air. I barely use my towel at all. Wife thinks I'm weird."

– KingBooRadley

Remember

"In 1990 when I was 8 years old and bored on a field trip, I saw a black Oldsmobile Cutlass driving down the street on a hot day to where you could see that mirage like distortion from the heat on the road. I took a “snapshot” by blinking my eyes and told myself “I wonder how long I can remember this image” ….well."

– AquamarineCheetah

"Even before smartphones, I always take "snapshots" by blinking my eyes hoping I'll remember every detail so I can draw it when I get home. Unfortunately, I may have taken so much snapshots that I can no longer remember every detail I want to draw."

"Makes me think my "memory is full.""

– Reasonable-Pirate902

Same, Same

"I have eaten the same lunch every day for the past 4 years and I'm not bored yet."

– OhhGoood

"How f**king big was this lunch when you started?"

– notmyrealnam3

Not Sure Who Was Weirder

"Had a line cook that worked for us for 6 months never said much. My sous chef once told him with no context, "Baw wit da baw daw bang daw bang diggy diggy." The guy smiled, left, and never came back."

– Frostygrunt

Imagination

"I pace around my house for hours listening to music imagining that I have done all the things I simply lack the brain capacity to do, or in some really bizarre scenarios, I can really get immersed in these imaginations sometimes I don't know if this is some form of schizophrenia or what."

– RandomSharinganUser

"I do the same exact thing, sometimes for hours. When I was young it would be a ridiculous amount of time and many years later it’s sort of trickled off into almost nothing (almost). It’s weird but I just thought it’s how my brain processes sh*t."

– Kolkeia

If Only

"Even as an adult I still think that if you are in a car that goes over a cliff; and right as you are about to hit the ground if you jump up you can avoid the damage and will land safely. I know I'm wrong. You shut up. I'm not crying."

– ShotCompetition2593

Pet Food

"As a kid I would snack on my dog's Milkbones."

– drummerskillit

"Haha, I have a clear memory of myself doing this as well. I was around 3 y/o. Needless to say no one was supervising me."

– Isitjustmedownhere

"When I was younger, one of my responsibilities was to feed the pet fish every day. Instead, I would hide under the futon in the spare bedroom and eat the fish food."

– -GateKeep-

My Favorite Subject

"I'm autistic and have always had a thing for insects. My neurotypical best friend and I used to hang out at this local bar to talk to girls, back in the late 90s. One time he claimed that my tendency to circle conversations back to insects was hurting my game. The next time we went to that bar (with a few other friends), he turned and said sternly "No talking about bugs. Or space, or statistics or other bullsh*t but mainly no bugs." I felt like he was losing his mind over nothing."

"It was summer, the bar had its windows open. Our group hit it off with a group of young ladies, We were all chatting and having a good time. I was talking to one of these girls, my buddy was behind her facing away from me talking to a few other people."

"A cloudless sulphur flies in and lands on little thing that holds coasters."

"Cue Jordan Peele sweating gif."

"The girl notices my tension, and asks if I am looking at the leaf. "Actually, that's a lepidoptera called..." I looked at the back of my friend's head, he wasn't looking, "I mean a butterfly..." I poked it and it spread its wings the girl says "oh that's a BUG?!" and I still remember my friend turning around slowly to look at me with chastisement. The ONE thing he told me not to do."

"I was 21, and was completely not aware that I already had a rep for being an oddball. It got worse from there."

– Phormicidae

*Teeth Chatter*

"I bite ice cream sometimes."

RedditbOiiiiiiiiii

"That's how I am with popsicles. My wife shudders every single time."

monobarreller

Never Speak Of This

"I put ice in my milk."

– GTFOakaFOD

"You should keep that kind of thing to yourself. Even when asked."

– We-R-Doomed

"There's some disturbing sh*t in this thread, but this one takes the cake."

– RatonaMuffin

More Than Super Hearing

"I can hear the television while it's on mute."

– Tira13e

"What does it say to you, child?"

– Mama_Skip

Yikes!

"I put mustard on my omelettes."

– Deleted User

"Oh."

– NotCrustOr-filling

Evened Up

"Whenever I say a word and feel like I used a half of my mouth more than the other half, I have to even it out by saying the word again using the other half of my mouth more. If I don't do it correctly, that can go on forever until I feel it's ok."

"I do it silently so I don't creep people out."

– LesPaltaX

"That sounds like a symptom of OCD (I have it myself). Some people with OCD feel like certain actions have to be balanced (like counting or making sure physical movements are even). You should find a therapist who specializes in OCD, because they can help you."

– MoonlightKayla

I totally have the same need for things to be balanced! Guess I'm weird and a little OCD!

Close up face of a woman in bed, staring into the camera
Photo by Jen Theodore

Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.

Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?

But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.

It would be so great to be sure there is something else.

But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.

Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:

"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"

Sensations

Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy

"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."

PeachesnPain

Recovery

"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."

"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."

"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."

good_golly99

Take Me Back

"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."

"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."

rayrayrayray

Free

The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy

"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."

TooReDTooHigh

This is why I hate surgery.

You just never know.

Shocked

Giphy

"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."

Admirable_Buyer6528

The SOB

"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."

"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”

1-cupcake-at-a-time

Colors

"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"

Hannah_LL7

"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"

huntokarrr

The Fog

"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."

"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."

Fluffy-Hotel-5184

Through the Walls

"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."

"She's quite alive and well today."

Hot-Refrigerator6583

Well let's all be happy to be alive.

It seems to be all we have.

Man's waist line
Santhosh Vaithiyanathan/Unsplash

Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.

The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.

Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.

Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:

"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"

Redditors didn't see these coming.

Shiver Me Timbers

"I’m always cold now!"

– Telrom_1

"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."

– r7ndom

"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."

– mr_remy

Drawing Concern

"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."

– dee-fondy

"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"

"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."

– LizardofDeath

Unleashing Insults

"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”

"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."

– alanamablamaspama

Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight

"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."

– KeltarCentauri

"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."

– KatMagic1977

"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."

– Jaew96

These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.

Shopping

"I can buy clothes in any store I want."

– WaySavvyD

"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."

– ganache98012

No More Symptoms

"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."

– colleennicole93

Expanding Capabilities

"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."

– Ramblonius

People Change Their Tune

"How much nicer people are to you."

"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"

– LiZZygsu

"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"

"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"

– awholedamngarden

It's gonna take some getting used to.

Bones Everywhere

"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."

– Princess-Pancake-97

"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."

– bekastrange

Knee Pillow

"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."

– snic2030

"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."

– Strongbad23

More Mobility

"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."

"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."

– dma1965

People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.

But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.

That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.