High school can leave an indelible mark on our lives, for better and for worse, which inspired today's burning question from Redditor onionslut, who asked the online community: "What was your high school's tragedy?"
"There was a girl in the year above me..."
There was a girl in the year above me. She was raped and murdered during school hours. She finished her exam and had one more before graduating and decided to take a walk in the forest as it was a hot day. The guy spotted her and bludgeoned her to death.
"A boy had a birthday..."
A boy had a birthday, and his friends dad was a pilot and offered to take him and his friends (3 kids total) flying through the mountains. They left and never came back.
It took search and rescue about 3 days to find them. Everyone hoped that they had just had to make an emergency landing and we're still alive. The plane had crashed, all 3 kids and the dad were dead.
Engine had suffered some sort of catastrophic failure, and he couldn't level the plane out in time.
Our entire school was so tense waiting for news. It came during my lunch period. (There were 2 lunch periods for different grades). The kids were pretty popular, and they had siblings at the school too. The teachers got the news and then shared it with students. I remember seeing kids bursting out of classrooms in tears. No class did anything for the rest of the day, and most of the rest of the week.
"We had a secretary..."
We had a secretary that everybody loved. She knew almost everyone's name. She got cancer. She defeated it and fell pregnant. When the cancer came back, she had to decide whether she wanted to keep the child or abort and do the cancer treatment. She chose to keep the baby and died 3 months after giving birth.
The school organised busses and excused students from lessons, so everyone was able to go to her funeral. There were so many people there, we didn't fit into the building and there weren't enough candles to light.
She was such a nice and cheerful person and supported me through some really hard times. I still cry when I think about her being gone.
"Our middle school principal..."
GiphyOur middle school principal had only been working with our school for a year but everyone absolutely loved him. And when I say that, I mean we all adored him. He had just arrived after a real hardass guy who not only was no nonsense but was also just mean. But anyways, this guy was the nicest dude and cared about everyone.
There were these few boys in my grade who were notorious trouble makers and instead of yelling at them and being mean or anything like that, this principal treated them like human beings and tried to get to the root of the problem. He looked at them as the children they were and recognized that these boys each came from really hard home lives and that's why they were acting out. So instead of giving them the usual disciplines during their detentions or suspensions, the principal would assign them household chore-like stuff. He also would sit down with them and make sure they were getting their homework done yet also having a father figure to play basketball with.
In the mornings before the bell rang for class, he would be out there with the entire middle school (small school, granted) and be chatting away. He took the time to get to know every single student and make sure all of our needs were being met. Unfortunately, at the end of his first year at our school, he was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor and was forced to resign. He is always remembered for his cheesy but lovable saying "Work Hard, Have Fun, Be Nice" and the impact transcends his time there. He sadly passed away in 2016.
RIP Mr. Driscoll , thank you for all you did.
"Back in high school we knew this girl..."
Back in high school we knew this girl, she wasn't vastly popular or anything but she was always around. Anyways, she was diagnosed with blood cancer and the whole school found out about it. We had a whole Facebook page with friendly letters and pictures and so on.
A few months pass and we all get the message that she has successfully beaten cancer. The whole school was happy for her, with word of mouth spreading her triumphant victory of beating cancer quicker by the day. Then, literally two days passed when she died from a heart attack due to a side effect from the medication she was taking. The whole high school was just miserable.
"There's a memorial garden..."
Years ago our high school had a French class, they planned a trip to France, the plane crashed in the ocean before they got there. There's a memorial garden and angel statue for the students, faculty and chaperones.
"A guy..."
A guy murdered a girl like 1 week before prom, spurred on by his gf. Small school to maybe 80 people in my year so everyone knew everyone.
"Well for the past 10 years..."
Well for the past 10 years or so there's been a really high incidence of students committing suicide by parking their car on the train tracks near the high school. It's not consistent, but ever few years one person will do it followed by a couple more.
"A pregnant girl..."
A pregnant girl got attacked at lunch by another girl. She was thrown to the ground and the girl stomped her stomach. She lost the child.
"In the 90s..."
In the 90s, we had a "Project Prom", a school organized event with the idea that students would go there instead of parties, and it would keep them safe.
A girl died at one.
At hot tob filter caught onto her leg, and the suction held her under water. At the time (this is over 20 years ago), there wasn't a law that the emergency shut off had to be nearby.
It was fairly big news, the New York Times did a story.
"2 seniors..."
2 seniors died in 3 days of totally unrelated causes 2 months before graduation. They were the best friends of a guy that road the same bus as me and I was sitting right behind him when he got the call about the second one, I've never heard someone scream like that before or since.
"Three seniors..."
Three seniors got hit by a car. One has a scar on her face for life and another was in a coma. The other girl who was in my dance troupe died.
"Girl got decapitated..."
Girl got decapitated on her birthday in a car crash....we averaged a death a year.
"Coworkers that couldn’t handle the sexual tension anymore and went for it. How’d it turn out?"
A Very Costly Mistake
"Really poorly tbh."
"Extremely drunk sex and ended up losing our friendship."
"We were 24 and worked at a bank together, we used to be best friends."
"But now we haven’t talked in years."- sarruhgirl·
Nope
"I have been rejected respectfully each time."- kingspooky93·
There Can Be Too Much Of A Good Thing
"Not great."
"Dated for just over a year (on and off), but now that we’re not together, it sucks having to see her almost every day."-StellarSandDweller·
It Happened...
"After years of sexual tension we did it."
"It wasn't anything close of what we expected, never talked about it again and we went back to just being friends."-dimensionsanalyst
Lucky For Him, Less So For Her...
"She's been suffering my snoring for 20 years now."- get_off_my_lawn_n0w
Didn't Go Unnoticed
"HR all of a sudden wanted a 'friendly chat'."- DiggingUpTheCorpses
Ups And Downs...
"Made out in the walk-in fridge."
"Went out for a while, got engaged, moved in together, got married, started drifting apart, realized we were growing into different people with very different long term goals, got divorced, haven’t really spoken since."
"Together for close to 11 years total."
"Main issue was kids."
"We both wanted them at first, then she no longer did."
"We cared enough for each other to not want to see the other unhappy long term, and we had an amicable split."
"We did not get married in the walk-in, nor spend a tremendous amount of time in it."
"We DID have an ice sculpture at the wedding however."
"It was not a Netflix & Chill deal, it was years and years ago, so more like Blockbuster & Chill."
"I’m good now, thanks."- gn0xious
No Issue Here...
"I run a sole proprietorship, so I 'go for it' about twice a day."
"Don't think it will last, though; I'm not really my type."- MyNSFWside
Got Out When The Getting Was Good
"It was great."
"Good sex, and then I left the job before it got weird."- TIMBURWOLF·
No Regrets Whatsoever
"It was the hottest sex I ever had."
"We are still in touch, but we are continents apart."
"I haven't met him since 2013."
"Pretty sure if we meet again, we will not waste time talking."- SingingBull
"Had sex with him two months into my employment there."
"Nineteen years later we have a mortgage in the suburbs and two children."- Extra-Simple9711·
I Love You Episode 20 GIF by The OfficeGiphyNothing But Regrets
"Terrible."
"'Don’t f**k your boss."- oyofmidmidworld
A Bit Of Good Luck?
"Been together for 5 years now and still working in the same company (different departments)."
"Both of us had multiple promotions since we got together."
"Great sex and great on saving gas and food expense as we live together now lol."- crapuccino4
You Can't Make This Stuff Up
"Not great."
"He would flirt with me and come over to hang out."
"Told how he was trying to evict his ex girlfriend from the apartment because she wouldn't leave before the lease was up (which was true btw she confirmed that)."
"He told me he liked me alot and wanted to get to know me."
"Then he decided that He wanted to convert to Mormonism."
"He became panicked about going to hell and after we would hang out (nothing sexual) he would sob."
"Full on sob."
"Begging God to forgive him."
"He and the rest of the people I worked with were tight and he would go through these depressive episodes and crash at their houses."
"I started getting bullied and harassed HARD at work."
"One day he invites me to his house to watch a movie."
"We watch the movie."
"He tries to kiss me but not really."
"I am confused as f*ck at this point and ask him to take me home."
"On the way he asks me if I like him, I said yes I really liked him."
"He asked me if I would consider dating him and maybe have a sexual relationship with him."
"I said yes because I really liked him."
"HE LAUGHED AND SAID I WAS NOTHING BUT A NYMPHO WH*RE BROUGHT TO HIM BY SATAN TO MAKE HIM STUBLE IN HIS WALK WITH GOD!"
"He said there was no way he would ever consider me because I was not A Good Mormon Girl."
"He dropped me at my car after bursting into sobs AGAIN and yelled he has to pray for his soul I sh*t you not."
"Turns out he was telling EVERYONE that I was 'forcing myself onto him' and he was uncomfortable with me."
"The bullying got worse."
"I quit with no notice."
"I WAS ONLY THERE FOR 45 DAYS."- PwrtopUltimate
Samuel L Jackson Reaction GIF by Coming to AmericaGiphyYou never know when love might hit you, and sometimes it might be on an elevator to your office.
Even so, always proceed with caution.
After all, think about how awkward it is to run into an ex or a one-night stand on the street, then think about what that would be like 8 hours a day, five days a week...