Every day in a classroom is a roll of the dice. Educators and students alike have no idea what will happen when you put 20-30 teenagers in a room. Odds are it won't turn into a "Lord of the Flies" kind of situation. but on rare occasions you'll get an incredibly WTF moment that can be shared on the internet for all to see.
Reddit user, u/Not-Fluffy, wanted students to share the tea when they asked:
Students of reddit, what's your "well that happened" moment in the classroom?
Leaping To Conclusions
Giphy
At my school we sometimes have drug dogs come and check the lockers. They always announce it like "Teachers, please do not let students leave the classroom for the next bit of time" everyone knows what it means and one kid in my class grabbed his bag and jumped over 3 desks and ran out the classroom.
Turns out he was an entrepreneur of sorts.
I'm The Dummy This Time
When i fell asleep in the first row. And the professor and the other students started clapping to wake me up and when
i woke up i also started clapping like a moron.
The Class Won't Stop
A physics class in community college. Professor was explaining conservation of angular momentum and had a kid sit on a tall chair that spins. He then had the kid hold two books out with extended arms and then spin as fast as he can before telling the kid to pull the books in close to his chest. (think of a figure skater and how they spin really fast.)
The kid immediately turns into a blur and the stool/chair starts to tip slightly until it rockets from under him like it was shot from a slingshot. The kid slams into the floor as if he got choke slammed and his head hit the floor in a way that sounded like someone dropped an overly ripe melon. The look on the professor's face said, "well that was a good run. I guess I have to find a new career now."
Kid turned out ok and everyone got a laugh but it genuinely looked like I had just witnessed a death.
Worth It
In a full auditorium, a random guy from a higher year entered. He yelled 'LADIES, THIS ONE'S FOR YOU', and then proceeded to take off his shirt and trousers (his boxers still on luckily). He then flexed his biceps and did different poses in front of hundreds of students sitting there not knowing how to react.
He then left, saying 'sorry to bother you' to the lecturer. Oh well.
Apparently he bet with his friends to do this for 3 troughs of strong beer.
Was It In A Folder Called "Family"?
This wasn't my class but was the talk of the school for a while. A well-liked teacher gave her class a free-work day and offered to play some music.
Upon opening her iTunes, she found a file named "Transformers.MP4." Curious, she opened it. It turned out to be porn that blasted through the entire class at full volume.
Panicking, she couldn't figure out how to shut it off so she ran the laptop, open and still blasting at full volume down the hallway to the office to reduce exposure to students.
It turns out, the superintendent's son used one of the shared servers to browse and download the video so it was accessible by every computer connected to the school network. The superintendent resigned a couple years later.
A Breakdown For All To See
Had a teacher have a little bit of a mental meltdown in class when she realized that no one really cared about doing the homework and such. She was really sad, and I wish I was a better student for her, and I hope her life is going better nowadays.
In The House Of The Lord, Of All Places
One time during gym, one of my classmates dropped a condom on the floor while we were in line during a game of some sort. Me and another classmate noticed it before he picked it back up and put it in his pocket. Now this isn't much for normal schools, but this was during high school at a home schooling program done by a church (non-denominational as far as I know), so that's a big risk. I was even requested to stop saying 'oh may god' once by a teacher a year or two before this.
Speak Out To Be Heard
There's this one kid at my school (he's in 8th grade at a K-8, in the U.S.) and... let's just say that nobody really likes him. Like, *at all.* So, one day, for whatever reason, he decides to throw one of those tiny, fit-in-your-pocket kind of milk carton at one of the security guards that watches over the students having lunch.
The security guard then says, "Get over here." Immediately, and I swear I'm not lying, *every single person* in the cafeteria starts clapping. Some kids are standing on tables, yelling, it's an absolute free for all. And all because this one kid that nobody likes threw a milk carton and got in trouble for it. I love democracy.
Words That Cut Like Ice
So in my science class about half way through the year there was this girl sitting near me who wasn't really paying attention to the teacher. Every so often the teacher would ask her questions and she wouldn't be able to answer, just stare at her blankly until she said something like "oh sorry I don't know". After the third or fourth question to her the teacher just sighed and told the class to get on with their work, she then approached the girl and said to her in a quiet voice: "Do you have a mental problem or are you just that dumb?".
The girl just stared at her not quite believing what she heard and then burst into tears and ran to the bathroom outside our class. The teacher followed her shortly after and we were left alone for a good 10 minutes not quite able to process what happened.
The thing is this teacher is a very good teacher and was liked by a lot of the more intellectual students however for the majority of the school after they heard what happened wanted her fired. Naturally she denied everything that happened and I was surprised by how lightly they let her off just because she was good at teaching.
Can't Turn It Off
Not technically a classroom, but some kid got caught vaping in the bathroom. The principal tool him out to talk to him about it. In the middle of their conversation, the kid took a nice big hit and then blew it all in the principal's face
Music Helps You Focus
Teacher started playing the explicit version of Get Low by Lil Jon...during a test.
How Dare You Be So Rude And So Accurate?
A little backstory: this happened in the last period of the day, so everyone is usually wound up by this point and always acting up. The teacher, I shall call her Mrs. J, was pretty cool with it. She expected it and usually rolled with the punches, even giving some students some doses of their own medicine at times. We were doing a "fun activity" to measure the mass of air or something.
So Mrs. J had a balloon, and she's starting to instruct us how to do the project. At first she blows it up to be roughly the size of a small cantaloupe. We had to measure the circumference. First part, done.
Then we had to take a deep breath of air, and blew as much (in one breath) into the balloon as possible. The balloon was now the size of a smaller watermelon. From the back of the class you hear this one girl pip up,
"You must make your husband very happy."
Causing Political Uproar In Gym Class
I went to an Indian school and it had ties with the Consulate General of India, so they used to have big patriotic celebrations. Now one day, some classes were taken to the auditorium to watch the prime minister of India address the students (projected on screens) and for some reason, the pe teachers were on the ground floor seats, leaving no one to mind students.
I don't remember his speech very well, but at one point a guy got up, threw something at the screen, and just yelled "RAHUL GANDHI" (India's opposition leader). He was never caught
Wrong Kind Of Ball
In high school physics, we were waiting for the teacher to show up, and another physics teacher from another class comes in with a bowling ball, and says "Do you guys think I can dribble this?" Everyone just kinda looks at him incredulously, and he begins to repeatedly and heavily strong-arm the bowling ball into the floor hard enough for it to rebound high enough that he can keep the momentum going.
People start to laugh, but then after about 5 or 6 bounces, the ball splits in half as it hits the floor. He quickly scoops up the halfs, holds a conspiratorial finger to his lips, and shuffles out the door.
About 15 seconds later, our physics teacher comes in, looks at the few dusty chips of bowling ball on the floor, and asks "What was all that noise? What's this mess on the floor?"
Eff Yeah
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Two things you need to know.
First: there was this guy at my school whom I've now known for 25 years. His thing is to scream "F-CK YEAH" at everything. Hes done it since I've known him. Anytime someone mentions Matt someone always adds a "f-ck yeah!" He is huge and very loud. When he comes in the bar he announces his presence with an exuberant "F-CK YEAH!!" If he calls you, you say hello and he yells "F-CK YEAH". You get the picture.
Second: my senior year it was a thing to sneak vodka into school in Cinnabon mugs. For some inexplicable reason plastic Cinnabon mugs were like a huge thing. Sashaying around flaunting your Cinnabon mug. rolls eyes
Anyway I'm in a post-lunch class one day and one of the Cinnabon Vodka girls up and starts puking bright, hot pink, fruity vomit out the window behind her. Then she stood up and screamed "WHOOO F-CK YEAH!!" at the top of her lungs with her face covered in puke. F-ck Yeah dude is also in this class so he immediately screams "F-CK YEAH!" back. Then she yells "F-CK YEAH" again and they go back and forth yelling "F-CK YEAH!!" getting progressively louder with each one until the teacher gets to her and ushers her out of the room.
The rest of us just sat there like WTF was that all about?
Intervention Required
Guy with anger issues started yelling at the teacher and then slapped her across the face. Keep in mind this fat kid was huge and the teacher was this old tiny asian woman.
The nicest guy in the class smokes the guy with a sucker right hand and just puts the guy out cold.
Most of my minor, well major miracles when you think about it, have been in cars. I've lost track of the amount of vehicle disasters I've averted, by the skin of my teeth.
Out Damn Spot!
GIF by Warner ArchiveGiphy"My wife dragged my butt to the dermatologist for a cyst I have had for years. While there, the doc noticed a mole on my ankle that he didn't like. Turned out to be melanoma. Would have never gone if my wife didn't force me." ~ TheDistric
Say "AHHHH!"
"24 years old, had a pesky sore on my tongue that was really bothering me. My boyfriend's dad was a dentist so when I was over at his house one night I asked him to take a look. He recommended I go see an oral surgeon the next day for him to check it out."
"The next day I decided it was feeling better so I tried to cancel my appt but my boyfriend's dad insisted I go. I went, and the oral surgeon pretty much diagnosed it as cancer on the spot. It was aggressive and by the time of my surgery to remove it it had already spread to multiple lymph nodes."
"They ended up removing over half my tongue followed by chemo and radiation. Given how aggressive it was, I often think that if I had put off the doctors visit any longer I probably wouldn't have survived. I'm coming up on my 10 year anniversary in January." ~ bobear2017
Flip Out!
"When driving in the upper peninsula in Michigan last summer a truck full of logs flipped and barrelled straight into my car. Completely demolished the car, someone else had to come open the door for me after the fact because they were all pinned shut by logs. I walked out of there without a scratch on my body." ~ Tman2588
Pit Stop
"On a road trip in college with 4 friends. We stopped halfway for a pit stop because I had explosive diarrhea and was getting more sick by the minute. Friends carried on to Vegas and left me with one of the guys who rented us a car to return home. The friends that carried on got into a roll over: 1 died, 2 will be injured for life." ~ 4fingertakedown
Stay Single
Samuel L Jackson Reaction GIF by Coming to AmericaGiphy"I was engaged to someone, but then came to my senses and broke it off. Nine months later I found out she got married to someone else, then about 1 year after that she killed her husband." ~ Green-Boysenberry396
Life is a minefield when you think about it. Sometimes the heartbreak of love is worth it in hindsight. You look back and realize you loved a psycho and just say... "thanks for looking out God."
Leaks
relief GIFGiphy"The second floor of the house I was renting collapsed a month after I moved out. ETA: apparently a water pipe sprung a leak shortly after we left. We weren't in any trouble." ~ RenaKunisaki
On Impact
"I was driving home from visiting my brother in Vermont when a snow storm started. I didn't have much experience driving in serious snow and I completely lost control. Car careened off the road and I was heading for a giant boulder at around 50 or 60 mph. I felt time slow down and I reflected on my life for a moment and then said goodbye to my body. Suddenly, I was jolted out of it by an abrupt impact, but I could see that the boulder was still 20 or 30 feet away."
"When I got out of the car, I saw that I had hit a little skinny tree that I could have easily grabbed with one hand. However, it had a giant root system that lifted the car off the ground and stopped me. Car was totaled, but I was completely fine because of that little tree. There is no way I would have survived the other impact." ~ senatorbolton
Winter Days
"Walking to work in the winter. Half way through a step forward under a skybridge when an icicle taller than me (6') and probably 2' around at the base crashes down right in front of my nose. If my bus had been a half second earlier, if I had walked even a tiny bit faster pace."
"I would have been impaled from brains to testicles. I was frozen in place for a minute, quietly surveying my near-death. There was another pedestrian nearby who witnessed it and the wide-eyed, ashen look on his face as he stared at me confirmed just how narrowly fortunate I was that day." ~ MoridinXP
where I had just been...
"This happened before cellphones existed. I had a long commute home and on a rare occasion my husband drove into the city to meet me. I started for home about fifteen minutes before he did. On the stretch of Highway 101 that I needed to be on for about twenty miles, there was a big rig in front of me that seemed to be driving erratically."
"I got this weird feeling and just moved over to the next lane and accelerated past him. In my rear view mirror, I saw the big rig run over the car in front of him, flip to its side crushing the cars in the next lane (where I had just been). My husband was behind the accident and as the police were letting cars file past in single file."
"He saw one of the crushed cars had a red bumper. He got home a couple of hours after me and said he'd never been so happy to see my red car in the driveway. That he'd been holding his breath as he turned down our street because he really expected me to be under the big rig." ~ susgrigs
The Rising
Water Douse GIFGiphy"My wife and I were prepared to buy a nice riverfront property in 2019, but the owners ( her dad and uncle) were dragging their feet. We had our down payment, we were approved for the mortgage, and we had even been living there paying rent."
"Then the river rose 30ft/10m and we had to evacuate. The water kept rising. The house was destroyed before we bought it. So we didn't buy it." ~ Idiot_Savant_Tinker
And these are just the disasters we know about. The truth is, we probably survive near-death experiences with every breath we take. God speed everyone.
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Reddit user UWigsOfficial asked:
"What historical facts sound fake but aren't?"
Guess It Wasn't Meant To Happen
"The fact that two times the Mongols attempted to invade Japan and both times a storm sunk the invasion fleet."
"Same happened both times caesar went to Britain."
Even Kings Draw Phalluses, Apparently
"King Karl XIII of Sweden doodled penises all over his private diaries in 1785, when he was 37 years old."
"Clearly he was the inspiration for Superbad."
Christmas Spirit
"The Christmas Truce of WW1."
"It honestly sounds to good to be true, so I'm glad that it was real. It just goes to show you that deep down none of them were the 'bad guys' in the war, no matter what flag or country they fought for. They were all just soldier's that had to follow orders from their COs. It really sucks that it only lasted once & has become banned ever since."
Prime Ministers Don't Just Disappear, Do They?
"An Australian Prime Minister went missing while swimming at a beach."
"In his honour the US named a warship after him while in Australia his local electorate named a swim centre after him."
"There's a few Harold Holt memorial swimming pools around. I laugh every time I see one."
Operation Acoustic Kitty
Game Forum GIFGiphy"Operation Acoustic Kitty. A $20 million CIA project in the 1960s which implanted a microphone, radio transmitter, and wire into a cat, for the purpose of spying."
"The first mission involved releasing the cat near a Soviet compound in Washington to spy on two men. The cat was released and hit by a taxi almost immediately, and the project was discontinued."
"Sounds about right for a government project"
Wojtek
"There was a corporal in the Polish army during world war 2 who was a beer drinking, cigarette smoking bear."
"He didn't smoke he ate the damn lit cigarettes."
Who Needs An Enemy?
"Legend has it that the army of the Habsburg Empire lost about 10,000 people in the battle of Karánsebes in 1788 before the enemy (the Ottomans) even arrived. Basically they were drunk and thought the enemy had arrived and started fighting between themselves."
"The legend part is just the casualties. The event itself did actually happen, it's just debated whether it was anywhere close to 10,000 people lost or just a few hundreds killed and thousands injured."
But How Did They Open Them?
Hungry Lets Eat GIFGiphy"The can opener (1858) was patented 48 years after the tin can (1810)"
"Did they just squeeze em til the tops popped open before that?"
"Cans used to be thicker. They were opened using a chisel and hammer"
"Also cans were significantly less common than jarring"
"Australian troops during ww1 went into no-man's land and dug out/recovered an abandoned german tank that was stuck in mud, pretty much because they were bored and the tank was there."
"The A7V Mephisto. Went and visited it a few months ago."
"As of 2020 at least, President John Tyler's grandson was still alive. That's 10th President if the US, John Tyler, who was born in 1790."
"I haven't seen any stories about his grandson dying so I assume he's still alive. It would be an interesting enough story that it'd be one of the top stories for a day or two."
It's commonly said that studying history will sometimes make you upset or uncomfortable, but most folks probably don't expect it to make them incredulous. Sometimes, though, fact really is stranger than fiction.
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In a perfect world, most of us would only feel it if we wanted to in controlled environments like haunted houses. But we don't live in a perfect world and sometimes life gets ... terrifying.
Reddit user the-70s-kid asked people to talk about it when they posed this question to Reddit:
"What is Your Most Terrifying 'We Need to Leave, NOW!' Rush of Fear You've Felt?"
So you know how sometimes you almost wish people were LESS open and honest? Yeah...
What Happens On Tour Stays On Tour
scott hoying wtf GIF by SuperfruitGiphy"I'm a touring musician. At one point in time my tour vehicle broke down in bumf*ck Mississippi. We were able to pull into a gas station, but had thrown a belt and needed to get it replaced."
"Cue a bunch of hicks helping us work on our car. A couple of band members rode with a random do-gooder to go get a replacement belt forty-five minutes away."
"The local sheriff pulled up and bought us all coca-cola. At this point we're stressed because we don't want to miss our next show in Arkansas, but not worried about safety... YET."
"Time stretched, and through trial and error we ended up getting things close to finished up. Then our lead guitarist pulls out his iPhone. He said he had an airdrop request, but we all kinda ignored it until the job was finished."
"Then, just as we're getting into the car to pull away, he opens the airdrop."
"There were seven pictures of dead bodies, although they appeared to be cleaned up like in a morgue or something. Among the corpse pictures was a picture of one woman sitting up and smiling at the camera, the next shot she was dead."
"The last two pictures were of us repairing the car in the gas station parking lot."
"After that we lost it. I don't know whether we were just freaked or it was genuine danger, but the car behind us followed us for almost twenty miles until we got to a major highway and gunned it."
"Once we got home (2 days later) the guitarist went to the local police department."
"They basically said since it was a different state they wouldn't do anything, and since we had absolutely no info about who airdropped it, he had nothing he could 'call in' to the sheriff of the small Mississippi town."
"They also insinuated that it was probably just someone who was a mortuary or something because all the pictures had posed bodies."
"Could be someone's sick joke (and if so, I guess they got us), but I don't see how someone fat-fingers an airdrop of corpses."
"No context, no explanation, no answers. It still freaks all of us out to this day."
- Kylar21
Following A Blood Trail
Penn Badgley Joe Goldberg GIF by YOUGiphy"I was walking home one night, head down because I was dumbly looking at my phone. I almost stepped into what looked like barbeque sauce."
"Turned on the flashlight function for my phone - it was blood. Every step, there was a small blood splatter - less than a teaspoon. I followed it along the entire long street while walking home."
"Maybe eight blocks. It was hard to tell, in the dark, but the trail seemed to end at a residential facility in my neighbourhood."
"I'm not sure what type of facility it is, but I've often met people with intellectual disabilities in the area - I've helped them with how to order a train ticket, counting cash for groceries, etc."
"There were two people in the fenced off yard, talking low. I could only see their lit cigarettes in the dark."
"Suddenly I was filled with a sensation of wrongness. All the hairs stood up on the back of my neck and I felt cold. I kept walking, and did some loops before going back home and calling the cops about the blood trail."
"My partner felt I overreacted, and it was probably just an animal or someone with a bloody nose."
"But that was a lot of blood in total, over eight blocks. And something felt deeply wrong. I didn't sleep well that night."
Heading Home
Dance Music Dancing GIF by DEEPSYSTEMGiphy"I was overseas at a competition and my friends and I left the after party. We part ways with me going my own way."
"Almost immediately I see a few men on the other side of the road, out the front of a bar look up, nudge each other and say something between them. As I walked past I see them cross the road to walk behind me."
"Mentally I'm thinking 'oh sh*t' - the rest of my walk would be down a not well lit, and sometimes very quiet, stretch of road."
"I turn down a shorter street and pick up my pace a bit, and sure enough the men follow but I've put some more distance between us. I make the turn I was dreading and just bolt."
"There were a few houses here with decent gardens and I just needed to make it to one before the guys turn the corner."
"I make it to one of the houses, it has a giant hedge surrounding a small gate so I lean right back into the gate and hedge. I'm in total darkness, peering through the hedge when the men turn the corner, take a few steps and stop."
"They talk to each other, then turn around and leave. I wait a few more minutes to be sure then jog the rest of the way checking behind me."
- Grieie
Air BnB
red dead redemption 2 rdr2 GIF by Rockstar GamesGiphy"Several years ago, 6 of my friends and I were out of state for a wedding. We rented an Air BnB for the group."
"Immediately after getting there we learned that the guy who rented out his house had a roommate who was almost never home, but happened to be there for the first time in weeks, and didn't realize the house was going to be occupied."
"The owner insisted that he spoke with him and he was planning to pack up and stay at his girlfriends so we could have the home to ourselves as planned. Sure enough, he was gone that afternoon."
"We went out that night and came home intoxicated, as 20-something's do from time to time. One of our guy friends came up from the basement looking shocked."
"Apparently the roommate was back... and based on him being asleep, it was clear he planned to stay."
"We quieted down and rearranged where we'd all planned to sleep. But this was only the beginning."
"The next morning we were woken up by excruciatingly loud death metal blaring from the common living area/dining room upstairs. Two of the people who'd slept in the living room came down immediately and told us we needed to pack our things and get out FAST."
"We didn't ask many questions. Just sort of grabbed all our stuff, tries to clean up, and piled into an uber XL to head to the closest hotel."
"Apparently before the music started earlier that morning they woke up to a bunch of clank/banging only to open their eyes and see this dude sitting at the table cleaning a shot gun and a hand gun."
"Needless to say, I don't think he wanted us in the house."
"I wasn't the one who had rented the Air BnB. But yes, my friend was able to get a full refund and a big ol' apology from the owner. He said he didn't really know the roommate very well and hardly saw him, like he just sort of paid rent and stopped in only now and then."
"In retrospect the whole thing just seems mind boggling."
- jillaaa
We Could All See His Face
fast food robbery GIFGiphy"It was more of a gut feeling than a rush of fear, but I was 12 or 13 with a friend in a corner store and a guy walked in. He didn't look like a criminal, he looked a bit shady but not too too off."
"But for whatever reason I just felt weird, and I whispered to my friend that I wanted to leave. so we quickly pay for our stuff, which was just a pack of gum 2 sodas and a large bag of chips and we leave."
"A couple seconds after we leave we hear 'Open up the drawer! I will shoot!' and we both book it."
"I don't know what this guy was thinking, his face was visible, I don't know if he put a mask on while he was somewhere in the store but either way the cashier, me and my friend all saw his face when he entered."
"Anyways he did get arrested, and the police found that his gun was in fact loaded, the cashier was not shot nor harmed, nothing too serious happened but it scared me that I was in a store with a man with a loaded gun."
Bill
Get Out Leave GIF by Filthy RichGiphy"A few years back coworkers and I went to another coworkers house. The house was owned by an owner of the company but this one coworker, we will call him Bill, had a key and 'permission' to use it following a company Christmas party."
"Everyone was enjoying some drinks and some smoke. About 30 minutes into us partying, Bill started acting strange."
"Basically he started aggressively hitting on the girls at the party in disgusting ways. 'If I guess your age and you're older than me or younger than me you have to sleep with me' was a common thing he repeated to more than one girl that night."
"He started trying to separate other coworkers from their dates and got aggressive about it. When I say he got aggressive about separating other coworkers from their dates, he was taking dominoes and throwing them on the floor in front of coworkers and telling them they needed to help him pick them up."
"The first time he did this he got help from our coworker, at that moment Bill stood up and started trying to get our coworkers date to go into the next room with him. He was unsuccessful but about 10 minutes later he tried it with a coworker I was pretty close with, we will call him Dan."
"He threw a deck of cards and kept telling Dan to pick them up but Dan knew what Bill was up to. After a minute of Bill trying this sh*t I walked over started grabbing cards and stuffed them in his pockets."
"I was pissed, I kept repeating 'Come on Bill let's pick up some f*cking cards.' With a plain face and monotones voice Bill simply said 'I can clean it up myself.' "
"Bill was aggressively hitting on the girls at the party but Dan later told me that Bill told him 'You're hot, I can see why so-and-so wants to f*ck you.' Nothing against anyone sexual preferences but clearly Bill was going through some sh*t."
"Right around this time I started smelling gas."
"I walked through the house and realized he had turned the stove burners on but never ignited the flame. I turned them off but the smell kept building. I realized he had done this with the fireplace as well."
"As I turned off the fireplace gas I notice Bill messing with the stove again. At that point I lost it, I made a scene."
"Bill looked shocked when I yelled 'Yeah f*ck this. Everyone out, Bill is doing some weird sh*t. Out everyone out!' "
"He rushed to the door and tried calming everyone down. I'm telling you all it was weird."
"We had to push through Bill, who was blocking the front door telling us we were being crazy. 9 of us crammed into a friends Chrysler 300 as Bill tried blocking us in with a golf cart."
"He ended up moving it and saying we were all over reacting. I have no doubt Bill was up to some nefarious stuff and to this day I believe I saved a few lives."
"People reported it and Bill was fired not long after. A few months back I was doing some home improvements and while at Home Depot I hear Bill shout 'Hey!' "
"I turned around and had a few words with him. He works there, apparently loving life. I now shop at Lowe's."
BBQ Bummer
zac efron bbq GIF by NEIGHBORSGiphy"I had just moved to South East Georgia. I moved into a predominantly black neighborhood which was totally fine by me. My neighbors were so welcoming and accepting."
"About 2 weeks in, I'm approached by a few white men in suits at work, asking me if I was new. I said I was."
"They said they were from the Chamber of Commerce. They wanted to invite me to a BBQ that weekend."
"Free BBQ? Sold!"
"... It was a Klan Rally. Many of them were wearing black shirts with the distinct symbol of the cross and flame."
"They introduced themselves as such eventually, though growing up in Portland, I was already pretty familiar with the symbols."
"Yeah, I wasn't keen to find out what was going to happen if they found out I was gay."
The Mall
Fast Food Mall GIF by Billie EilishGiphy"A friend dragged me to a mall (her old workplace) to visit her old coworkers. After arriving, I suddenly started feeling ill but not normal ill."
"Like really ill accompanied by a really bad gut feeling."
"I kept trying to get my friend to leave and she kept saying 10 more minutes but wouldn't leave."
"Something in my gut felt like something was really wrong and we HAD to leave and I was so panicked that I finally decided I'd leave without her if she wouldn't leave this time even though I'd have to walk over 5 miles to get home since she drove."
"She finally agreed to go and when I got home and flipped on the computer to do homework I saw that there had been a shooting at the mall after we'd left and it started at the store we were in."
Welp. We'll be doing a LOT more trusting out gut from now on.
What sorts of "near danger" experiences can you recall? Sound off in the comments.
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