Redditor shafaatkhan007 wanted to hear about all the scary moments that have occurred:
"Redditors who work at remote places like forest officers, oil rig workers, etc, what creepy things have you noticed while at work?"
I don't even camp. No forest for me.
WARNING... Some of this thread is not for the faint of heart.
Big Cypress
gaboon viper earth GIFGiphy"I used to work out in the woods in Florida a lot. Creepiest thing would be this day we were working near Big Cypress, tromping thru the brush all day."
"At the end of the day my coworker and I do a quick drive thru of some of the property and realize the place was absolutely infested with water moccasins. We had been unknowingly essentially walking around a giant water moccasin pit all day. That one kinda f**ked me up."
A_sweet_boy
Liver maybe?
"I worked at a public forest. One day we had someone report a dead animal on the side of one of our trails. A few of us from the front desk hiked out to see what it was. It looked like a giant peice of... liver maybe? Just a pile of smooth red meat...no blood around. And it was wrapped up in a t shirt, with some coins scattered around it."
"We called our rangers to go check it out, and one of them was pretty sure it was a placenta. The weird part is, you have to check in thru a front desk. So someone either snuck a placenta/liver in or gave live birth/removed an organ on our trails. We never got an answer on what the pile of meat was, how it got there, or why."
WhiteOwlz
We felt pretty dumb...
"I do a lot of stream work so I spend time out in pretty rural areas walking streams and rivers. Once my coworker and I were working in a more urban environment and came across what we initially thought was a body - which of course triggered 'Oh sh*t!!' from us - but it ended up being a firefighter's dummy that had fallen down a hill. We felt pretty dumb."
"Other notable things include a small grave in the middle of nowhere for someone's dog (pretty sad), and a stuffed rabbit with shotgun shells placed where its eyes should be, a mannequin very purposely placed in a chair in the middle of the woods, and lots of little random alters."
"I also did work in Myrtle Beach (what a hell hole) and accidentally walked into an inhabited homeless camp. I was peering into a stormwater grate when I looked up and saw a homeless person standing in his shelter staring at us and saying nothing. I felt like I was trespassing so we quietly left."
RegularTeacher2
Built in China...
"On our drill ship that was built in China, we noticed on the drawings there was a room. We went to look at it and couldn't find an entrance but the spacing was obvious there was an extra room. It might not sound so creepy unless you've been in these shipyards where two things are known to happen: stowaways, although I doubt it in this case, but also hundreds of workers at any given time following orders blindly."
"So we confirmed that the room had all six sides, yet not a single weld on the outside. There is only one way this could've happened and I'm sure you're starting to get it now. They must have welded from the inside for this room and then realized they had no way out upon completion if the gasses didn't kill them first."
"Its' extremely heavy around that room. People say they hear things. I have definitely. This isn't some old ship either. I rode this ship from China to Amsterdam after completion and then the maiden voyage to America. I guess it happens quick."
JohnMayerCd
Scream
Scream GIF by OriginalsGiphy"I've been fishing out in the gulf of Mexico where they have some oil rigs. This rig wasn't being used (from what we knew) so we would get pretty close to it to fish for red snapper."
"While we were out there, we could have sworn we heard screams of a woman over and over. It was some crap but the explanation was the wind making the noises as it blew through the rig. Well, that's what we were told but it totally creeped us the f**k out."
Those oil rigs are dangerous. I couldn't handle that.
The Escort
polar bear penguin GIFGiphy"I work as a polar bear guard. As in, I escort people across tundra and mountains and protect them from polar bears. I once saw a snowman totem with reindeer antlers coming out of his head. It was deformed, full of bullet holes and rather creepy."
Jalsavrah
Cascades
"My mom used to live in a small town in the cascade mountains and worked as a forest ranger. The creepiest thing that happened was when the oldest male ranger kept hitting on her and trying to get her to come home with him, not very out of the ordinary, but many years later after she’d left the town she found out he had been convicted of manslaughter and had killed a young female ranger right before she got hired. She would have probably been his next target."
Keira-k-is-gay
Catfish
"Some friends and I were fishing a small pond just after dark for catfish. We started to hear sounds coming off the water like someone throwing softball sized rocks, but they were coming from all over the pond. We thought someone was messing with us and we called out a few times for them to stop, but we eventually got freaked out and left."
"Cut to a few years later, I’m fishing a different pond and hear the same sound. Turns out it was a beaver slapping it’s tail on the water to drive me from it’s territory. When beavers become problems in rivers, they relocate them to ponds in town."
solidgoldberg
When in the Gulf
"I used to work in the Gulf of Mexico on oil rigs for years, and it may not exactly be creepy, but I found it really unsettling. In deep, open water, the water itself is really clear, so everyone can plainly see all the tuna and barracudas hanging around the rig waiting for the onboard cook to throw off whatever food waste he needs to. Every once in a while a huge great white shark would swim up from underneath and snatch a tuna and it really took like less than a second. They're really scary."
DONOTENGAGEWITHME
Being Watched
Wait Goodbye GIF by Silicon ValleyGiphy"I work off a secluded/Wooded area here in Texas."
"Every now and again when I finish with a job site, I’ll pop into the head office. It’s the creepiest feeling at night, mostly no light and I’ve seen a bobcat a couple of times. The kicker is... the walls are all glass, so when I have the light on inside... I know I’m being watched by someone or something."
Am_I_Outside
Still Shook
"I work for a power company restoring power after a storm. Was working when a lady came up complaining that her power went out. We explained to her thats why we were there and she should have power back soon. She said, 'oh good, my son went down in the basement and now I can't find him.' I went with her with a flashlight down the road to a run down house that was partially caved in. She walked inside and I went to follow."
"As soon as I walked into the door she disappeared from my sight and I called for her multiple times. No one responded so I ran back to our work truck to call for help. A man that was living on her street called to me asking whats wrong and I told him the situation. He looked at me with a cold stare and said a mom and her son died in that house 4 years ago. I'm still shook to this day."
YouFulfillMyMemes
ZAMBONI
"Used to be a supervisor for a janitorial company and a couple times a week I had to go to a middle school and clean their hallway floors and gymnasium with a zamboni type vehicle that mopped and scrubbed the floor. When I was there I had the whole school to myself. Used to get finished quickly and go to the library and read while eating my dinner."
"Well, one morning after being there, I get a call from school security and they want me to come in. When I get there I see a police car too. Uh oh, I think. They ask me a few questions like 'did you notice anything out of the ordinary or strange while you were here last night?' No, I hadn’t (usually have headphones in)."
"Security then shows me camera footage of someone breaking into one of the classrooms WHILE I WAS RIDING THE ZAMBONI not far away. I was there for another two hours. Nothing was stolen. But the worst part was they didn’t have footage of the person leaving, they didn’t go out the way they came in, and police had to sweep the entire school. Never did find out what happened with that one."
TheDaveHimself
uphill on a fairway...
"My oldest brother used to work the overnight sprinklers on a golf course. He took me out one time just for fun and as we were driving uphill on a fairway, a figure of a lady appeared in the headlights at the top of the hill. My brother steered a little to the left of her and kept driving right on by. I stared right into her eyes as we drove by and she stared back. Her eyes glowed like a cat in the night."
"As soon as we were out of voice range I asked my brother 'What the hell was that?!' He calmly responded, 'Yea, she lives on the golf course and likes to terrorize the workers from time to time. I usually see her out here once a week.'"
"Alright. Cool. Coolcoolcool."
ArtshowSkittles
Passages
Surprised Night Time GIFGiphy"I work on large ships. If you get a clear view of a hall or passage that runs the whole length, you can actually see the whole ship warp and twist with the sea. If the passage isn’t very well lit it can look like a scene from a horror movie."
DannyR2078
ALICE
"I’m not sure this counts but I’m a teacher at an urban public school and was at work late grading and getting ready for the next day. Time had kind of flown by and before I knew it, it was 7pm. I start packing up to leave in a building that is, in theory, locked and empty besides me, when our ALICE alarm goes off, indicating an armed intruder in the building. I am 1. Alone 2. Young 3. Freaked AF because I am absolutely not ready to fight a gunman over my lesson plans."
"I book it out of the school and dive into my car, hearing the alarm blaring the entire time. I peel out the parking lot, and can see in my rear view the alarm lights still flashing and debate never going back, cause f**k that lmao. Turns out they were doing 'routine maintenance' and didn’t send out an email to the teachers."
msdoublenegative
The Head
"My parents live pretty far back in the country and have 1 neighboring house."
"The neighbors would let their Basset Hound outside for about 10 minutes to use the bathroom every morning."
"One morning they let him out, and he didn’t come back inside."
"After a couple minutes they walked out to his favorite bathroom spot, and found... his head."
"Judging from the tracks, a mountain lion had ambushed him and apparently torn his head off before carrying the body away."
"What I thought was the creepiest part was that the family hadn’t heard a sound."
schoonerw
The Rollout
Horror Reaction GIF by SpongeBob SquarePantsGiphy"I worked at a state park for a few years, one day a coworker was doing trail maintenance and a human skull rolled out of the woods onto the trail in front of him. Turns out it was a man who had been on the run from the police and was living in our woods. Evidently it was a good hiding place because they hadn’t found him until then."
ylilk
20 Years Ago...
"We have a PTO pump spot that comes out of a canal for our rice fields. When I was like 12 years old my uncle found two bodies dumped in the little sump area where our pump sat. Both of the ladies that were dumped there had the same tattoos so they think it was gang related but it was 45 minutes away from where that 'gang' operated. I still look in the hole every time I go by there and that was 20 years ago."
TxJoker88
Rituals
"In my brief stint as a rural health nurse, I was quite unnerved by how many of the families I worked with still practiced ritual animal sacrifice, even though on paper they identify as Catholic."
Lorac1134
Don't work in the quiet places.
Or at least be near cell reception.
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/
On a 10 Speed....
Our town Bank got robbed twice by a guy on a bicycle. Twice. Thru the drive thru. The suspect was never found.....
Meth
Meth. There's about two meth busts a year in a population of about 11,000 people, half of which are federal prisoners.
Edit: The state is Michigan.
I am in the central Michigan area too. It's like every rural community has a meth factory. Hope it gets better where you are. Ionia has so many gorgeous houses that it is a real shame some people are literally poisoning them.
The Popular Guy
A guy was murdered on the main street of my small town and from what I'm told everyone knew who did it but one of the police officers mishandled almost all of the evidence and the guy who supposedly did it fled the country. The cop who mishandled the evidence was apparently friends with the suspects parents and many of the other cops accused him of purposely mishandling the evidence and he was forced to retire early.
Edit: just figured I would give more information on what kind of happened. The guy who was killed was very popular within the community, he was a great football player and was genuinely well liked, when he was murdered we had two days off from school. It was believed that the man who is suspected of murdering him killed him as a case of mistaken identity.
The police officer who mishandled the evidence was not a normal patrolman but a detective and he had been one for awhile, when the other police officers began to voice their concerns with his work and his mishandling of evidence he was immediately demoted and then was forced to resign/retire. That is all they could do as there was no legitimate evidence that he had purposely disrupted the investigation other than the fact he knew the suspects parents and the other cops did not trust him anymore.
Everyone in the town was surprised by these rumors because much like most of my town's police force he had never been involved in any use of force incidents or any type of controversy for that matter. After all of this he was pretty much banished by the police force and many of the other officers families stopped associating with his. I believe this case actually ended up on a dateline episode a few years back but I'm not completely sure, of course the police department didn't want any further controversy so I'm pretty sure they neglected to tell of the mishandled evidence. It was a very messed up situation all around.
The UC
Think Law And Order Svu GIF by SVUGiphyIn 2008, our City's police department pressured a 23-year old woman to act as a confidential informant in exchange for not being charged on drug charges. She was executed by the dealers while 20 police officers (and some DEA agents) were supposedly supervising the buy. City had to pay out $2.3 million to the family in the civil suit.
Erskineville....
The neighboring suburb I used to live in in Sydney had been renamed Erskineville. It was interesting as all the addresses or shops would be considered to be Erskineville, but the train station was still called Macdonaldtown Station.
I did a little digging online and it turns out that in 1800s, we had "baby farmers" who, for a weekly or monthly fee, would raise babies that were born from affairs or illegitimate marriages.
A few years down the track, workers are digging up a yard in Macdonaldtown (as it was still called then) to clear a drain, and they found two dead babies in the drain. They investigated it further and ended up finding like 15 more. The baby farmers were living off the weekly and monthly fees they were given to take care of these babies, and they were killing them and disposing of them.
As a result of these horrible events, they renamed the suburb so it wouldn't be associated with some gruesome history. I don't know why they never changed the station though?
The Missing...
A local chinese restaurant was owned by a married couple. They had 2 young girls. Most of their time was spent there as a family. One day a news report went out about one of the girls who "went missing." We were asked to check sheds/outbuildings & check for footprints on our property. Police were searching everywhere, based on details given by the couple.
A couple days later (if I'm remembering correctly), they finally searched the restaurant and found the missing girl in the freezer, beaten to death. Husband blamed the wife, wife took the blame. Husband escaped the police van escorting him to jail but didn't get far.
Restaurant is now closed, and nothing has taken its place. I believe they just painted the windows/made it look like an extension of the other stores in that plaza.
Under the House
The small town I grew up in was once home to a serial killer- a woman who may have killed at least 42 people (though only 14 bodies were actually found)- about a hundred years ago. She may have died there but it was suspected that she staged her own death and left town. They dug up bodies around her house afterwards, including those of her children.
God Better Have My $$$$....
jesus deal with it GIFGiphythe christian book store on one side of my street is used to launder money from the illegal gambling joint on the other side of my street.
they get raided at least twice a year by the sheriff but they are still operating.
The Squad....
In 2003 a commando squad attacked my city's prison with AK47, blasted the door with C4 and an helico landed to exfiltrate the inmate that ordered rescue mission. We live a bit more than a km away from the prison and got woken up in the night by the assault. It's otherwise a quiet neighbourhood lmao, I was too young to really remember anything though. My parents do full well
Edit : Link to the story
"IT"
pennywise it 2017 GIFGiphyFamous Serial Killer here liked to dress up as a Clown.
Though it couldn't be proven, it's suspected he had accomplices that helped him. They may have gone out on their own.
"Closed doors"
This woman was my supervisor at my second job right before she killed her entire family.
It's, of course, no longer a secret. But at the time I knew her, her children were begging neighbors for food, and she'd show up to work like nothing was happening at home.
I work in social services now, and I've taken that lesson with me. You just don't know what's happening behind closed doors. People who seem ok, may not be. You literally cannot know what's going through people's minds, so always be cautious, always be vigilant. Especially in my line of work.
I'll just never get over how normal she seemed. So boringly normal.
"Still missing"
Not really a secret but goddamn dark, about 60 years ago a couple spent two years snatching children off the streets, murdering them and burying them on the nearby moors. They killed 5 children, and one body is still missing.
It happened in 2008 I think. I was a little child when I heard the news about it. There was a little restaurant/trattoria near the town I grow up in Peru. The dishes were mostly traditional, but it was popular because of its "chicharron" which is basically fried pork skin or pork rinds, really tasty. It was a family business...turns out the main's chef husband cheated on her, and she killed him, and instantly chopped the body and mixed many parts with the pre seasoned pork meat.
"Thankfully we didn't during these months it happened"
All this happened while the restaurant was working normally, the woman (killer) called the police some days later saying his husband never returned from the nearest city, but she got caught after some interrogation made by the police. She admitted it and told them where the rest of the body was, they would only bones and the hard parts like feets, head, etc.. she used mostly the ribs and all the fatty parts. She said it would taste exactly like pork after seasoned. If I remember correctly she is in a mental hospital now. Ps: we used to eat there many times, because it was in the middle of the road to go to the nearest zoo park, thankfully we didn't during these months it happened.
"I did NOT vote for him"
Our scumbag MP went to the Caribbean for Christmas and prerecorded a bunch of videos to look like he was at home. Wore sweaters and had a green screen in cabinet meetings. Our province is on lockdown at the moment due to covid. We were all told to isolate and not celebrate with members outside our household and this dude is on a beach. We are the embarrassment of the country. I did NOT vote for him. His office is in my town.
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8 Years Later....
dirty dancing love GIF by Lionsgate Home EntertainmentGiphyAt a mutual friend's birthday party (about 10ish people present).
So a year later, when our mutual friend had her next birthday party and I'd had enough time to think of an opening line, I started to talk to her. Cue four months of emailing back and forth later, and we were a couple. Eight years and counting now!
So yeah, we took our time.
Cheeky...
I'll answer for him. We were in high school. I had just developed epilepsy. He saw me seizing in the hallway and helped me. When I woke up I found a note in my bag saying "you owe me one. How about homecoming?". I've been with that cheeky bastard for 11 years.
She Loves Me
She met me. We were camping with a youth group of roundabout 30 kids and several adults who managed everything. After roughly one week and doing some stuff together, we were sitting in one of the makeshift cooking tents and just talked about something. She asked me if I had ever kissed a girl before. A little bit confused I said no. She than asked me, if she could kiss me. I don't know why I said yes, but I did. And then we kissed. From that point forth we were in a relationship and a happy one indeed.
Swords at CVS
Shopping Checkout GIF by Winnetka Bowling LeagueGiphyA regular walked into the CVS I was cashiering dressed incredibly well as a fairy. After inquiring, that was just singular event and she really taught sword choreography and built performances for a troupe of pirates. She invited me out to play with swords that Saturday.
The Neighbor Girl
About 2 years ago I moved to a new house. There was this beautiful neighbor girl who caught me eyes. Me being an introvert was scared to tell her that I had a crush on her. Then after a few months my best friend told me that they were kinda friends before a few years. So then this friend texted her and told her that i,the neighbor guy had a crush on her. She texted me immediately and the first conversation was incredibly awkward and I thought I just blew my chance. The conversation was painful as I just was the lame @ss awkward guy.
She told me that she was not into relationships and she told me that we could be friends and the talk ended. But later that day she texted me to check if I was ok with the whole awkward talk. This really saved everything as we vibed like crazy and we discovered that we had many mutual interests. We became friends and then became best friends and this friendship basically progressed into us liking each other and then we fell in love without knowing what was happening. Easily the best thing that has ever happened to me.
Let's Laugh....
Funny story.
I got hired to deal poker at a local Native American casino. I started on day shift and she worked graveyard, so she'd be leaving while I was coming in. I assumed she was way out of my league and never even made eye contact as we crossed paths.
My buddy got hired as well and was working grave with her, so they became friends. So, through their friendship, we were on speaking terms, but I still never imagined she'd give the time of day.
So, one night I'm drinking with my buddy and we're being totally awesome playing Guitar Hero at my apartment.
She randomly texts him asking what he's up to, and he said we were playing video games and drinking at my place.
Just randomly, and with liquid courage, I joked to ask her if she wanted to be my groupie, because I was shredding Guitar Hero. She said yes and asked if she could have a poster of me in her room. Turned out she liked nerds!
That broke the ice and here we are nearly 15 years later with a 9 and 7 year old, as happy as we could possibly be. We've never had a fight or even a heated argument. It's been perfect.
The Friends....
I liked her for awhile, and then one of my "friends" at the time (who knew I liked her) started dating her my freshmen year of high school. I kinda got over her slowly thinking I never stood a chance, and eventually became friends with her since they were dating. Yeah then he cheated on her and I was the one who was there for her and I ended up asking her out later. We've been together 7 and a half years later.
The Latina Way
jennifer lopez judging you GIF by NBCGiphyI'm quite lucky that in my culture Latina women aren't raised to be passive and sit on their hands and wait for a guy. Every Latina girl I've been with initiated and told me they liked me.
The Nerdy Guy
My bf is super introverted and nerdy. We met in college because we were in the same science club together. I was dating someone else at the time, but we friended each other on social media since he had keys to our club advisors office (he was a TA as well). We lost touch for about a year (I broke up with my then bf) and then ran into each other at a bar in our college town. He had graduated and started working out of state but just happened to be in town for his brothers bachelor party. I was stuck at the bar because I was designated driver for my roommate and her friends.
We're both super shy and introverted so we ran into each other in the quietest corner of the bar. We recognized each other and started chatting for like 5 minutes until we both got quiet and awkward and we parted ways. But after that we started messaging on fb. We were both a lot more brave and conversational online. We talked for like 6 months (he was working out of state) and got to know each other super well. He visited me for a date and we've been a couple ever since.
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Salty Salt...
Happy Hour Drinking GIFGiphyWorked 70+ hours a week from March through May to put 3000 student's classes online at the beginning of the pandemic. The president of the university I work for regularly thanked literally everyone else under the sun in the weekly campus updates.
Not salty at all.
My Wife's Betrayal
I got one for my wife. My wife and her coworker (both have doctorates in the medical field) were asked to be part of an official task force to help manage the Covid epidemic in our area. They both agreed and their employer let them keep their jobs for when they return. She was tasked with tracking patients waiting on test results, also tracking any that tested positive and who they came in contact with, and then organizing all the data coming from all the separate teams into safety guidelines for the public.
She was working 7-6 for 4 months straight, and some weekends.
Her work has annual, and quarterly awards that comes with a lot of great perks. This quarter they wanted to award it to one of the people who were removed to work on the Covid teams. Everyone knew my wife would get it, all their coworkers knew what my wife has been doing. In the end, the administration picked her coworker instead.
What was his role you ask? He worked 3 days a week, answered phones, and gave a 45 second briefing to public officials every other day using the data my wife and others gathered. He simply got it because he was more visible.
My wife is still really salty about it.
HIM?!
I wrote a poem for a "Why my mom deserves a diamond" contest which the class bully promptly took from me. He ended up winning with it out of the entire county and I didn't say a thing.
How proud his mom and our teachers were of "his" accomplishment was what pissed me off the most.
The 4th....
I placed 4th in state at a high school FBLA convention and they called the wrong name. I got to watch someone who didn't even compete in the competition I was in go up on stage in front of thousands and get my award.
Some New Girl...
Pretty small compared to other in this thread but at my work we have essentially an employee of the quarter award (given out every 3 months) that comes with some nice benefits: extra annual leave days, stay at a nice hotel on the company's dime, free lunch with the higher ups at a fancy restaurant, etc.
One quarter the company was falling apart and I did a bunch of overtime, held my team together, trained new employees, and had to do my bosses job too when he left the job. i'm usually pretty humble but this one time I was certain I had worked harder than anyone else at work and that i'd win the award (this was a large workforce too like 500+ people) and everyone that saw how hard I was working was telling me how much everyone appreciated it and my hard work wasn't going unnoticed.
Anyway they gave some new girl the award the award because she always walked around with a smile and kept everyone's spirits up in during a difficult time (the boss's words not mine) a bunch of the higher up talked to me afterward and told me that I had actually won the award after they voted on who should win but I was vetoed because the big boss liked the new girl (she was way more popular than me) and didn't even know who I was.
That's when I learned not to break my back for my company because forget the little guy right?
In the Nick of Time....
Saving a friend's life. We were in a car together, I was the passenger. Had a rollover accident into deep snow. She was thrown through the windshield, I was still in the car. I crawled through the window, found her trapped under the car, she couldn't breath and was in extreme panic. I pulled her out. After ambulance ride, police reports etc. not one mention ever about how she was still alive. I had nightmares for months.
"that sounds like a lot"
As a child I took care of my mom who was a wheelchair user with MS. From 10-16 years old, I would lift her out of bed, into bed, toileting, dressing, each year she got less mobile. No one in my life told me how much work I was putting in. I'm real tall and was pretty strong, but it was a big job on top of school. The first time I was told "that sounds like a lot" was by my therapist this year now that I'm 25.
My mom tried her best to minimize the work and eventually got homecare, and she tried to keep me smiling and laughing, normalizing it to keep me afloat. Looking back everybody, teachers, friends parents, my mom's friends tried to take care of me, but nobody would admit to me how big of a deal that was, because if they did, I'd probably stop smiling.
And that woulda been okay. I'm grateful either way. They were doing their best. And so was I.
Edit: I'm a woman, just cuz it's becoming relevant in replies. Sadly my username having lady in it isn't the quickest give away!
Covert Ops....
George Clooney Reaction GIFGiphyCovertly provided information to the EPA that contributed to enforcement actions resulting in a substantial reduction in industrial sulfur dioxide pollution.
Underwater....
Saved a family friend's daughter from drowning. I almost went under as well as I was only a few years older than her. I am not looking to get a celebration every year or anything but quite literally what I got in response was "She should have known better."
Meh not the biggest thing but the first thing that popped into my mind.
Intersections
knock knock door GIFGiphyI sent a 265-signature petition to my city council at the age of 14. I went door-to-door instead of online. It resulted in a set of city ordinances which added flashing stop signs at 3 intersections in town.
A Childhood Lost
That I took over the role as mom to my 10 yo brother, 5 yo sister, and 10 month old brother at age 11. My mom was really sick and in the hospital. When she wasn't, she was in bed. I still went to middle school everyday, while a family friend would watch the two younger siblings, and then I'd take over after I got home. This included watching my siblings, making dinner, doing homework with my brother, and putting everyone to bed. My dad worked and was at the hospital a lot, and I know he tried to be home more, but he almost lost his job.
Our extended family (my dads siblings, grandparents,etc) never reached out, and to this day, I am still dumbfounded how no adult stepped in. It was terrible and it made me grow up really fast. After 13, I still served as a mom, but I was bumped to second mom when my mom would just disappear and ignore her responsibilities. She was never mentally herself again and was very negligent when she was physically well again.
Now I am 30 and those days still haunt me. I think it's because my mother and father never acknowledged my lost childhood. I've tried explaining what I went through to my mom, that I don't blame her for being sick, but that it was really hard and I need/needed therapy. My 5yo sister used to cry at night asking if my mom was going to die. My mom refuses to listen until this day, so I stopped trying.
Thanks for letting me rant and reading my story. I really needed this.
weight loss GIF
College Daze
Studying broadcasting in college. The program ran the college radio station, and we were all given shifts that changed on a weekly basis. All to give us that real world experience, they ran it as close to a real radio station as possible.
It was Friday night. I was the last shift for the week. On the weekends, the station is on autopilot... runs nothing but a playlist fed into the computer. Now the person in charge of playlists that week was the class screw-up. As I was getting ready to leave, I thought, "I wonder if they remembered to make playlists for the weekend."
I checked the computer and they didn't. This was bad. No playlists in the computer meant the station would be dead on Saturday and Sunday. And since it was Friday night and just me left, I sat down and cranked out some playlists for Saturday and Sunday.
Station ran smoothly all weekend, the class screw-up still passed, and I haven't told anyone until now.
YA Days....
I was offered then given a job by a publishing company in New York to read YA novels and give my opinion. I'm not even into YA, my dad was just at their office for business and I was there for a tour and you know how sales ladies are. She was like, "Yo, you're a young adult! How would you like a job?!" And I, a jobless teen, was absolutely willing to read some shitty ass YA for a couple bucks.
So I do what I gotta do to get the job, and as a dumb fool teen I ignore the big butt red flag "So, we're a little backed up with all of our readers information, but we'll definitely send you the forms to get payment set up soon!" Several months later, they owe me like 130 bucks at this point (I know, crap for pay. What do you do) and I'm just... Exhausted. I'm reading these freaking things all the time, and they are just crap. So crap. I wanna die, they are so crap. But I keep thinking, if I just stick it out a bit more, I'm gonna get my money.
Until my mom just said no more. I was doing poorly in school, and the disappointment that my very first job was a bust was eating me alive. So I stopped sending them in. And a few weeks after my last assignment was due, I get an email for my freaking forms to be paid. And I never filled them out. And those buttheads made out with like 15 of my freaking essays. Which I know was my own fault, but I was a kid.
To the Grape
Will Grace Megan Mullally GIFGiphy2 majors and 2 minors in 4 years of college while working 3 jobs. Family was late and missed my graduation and drank all the wine they bought me as a present.
I just want help.....
I'm currently taking care of my 96 year old grandma. She has 4 living children, 10 grandchildren and a number of great grandchildren. With the exception of one of my cousins, none of them give any care or are geographically close enough to her to do anything but call her on the phone once a week. When I was 22, I took care of my mom for years, while she was ill, prior to her passing and got shit on by her family before and after she died. Now my moms mom needs help and again no one can be bothered to show up. It's infuriating. I don't even want recognition, I just want help.
Damn Covid
Finished my sophomore year taking both high school and college classes (I go to an early college and this is pretty much known to be the hardest year at my school). At the same time COVID-19 had just hit and no one else is home but me. My grandmother who has been bedridden for five months at that point needed a full-time care service. We could not afford having a specialized caregiver around the house, so there was no question that I would do it. Both of my parents are working and I'm 16 years old, doing online classes at home.
The transition was rough and I'm hit with new assignments with strict deadlines everyday. School is hard enough online, and it's harder when you have to look out for someone who is paralyzed from their third stroke. Everything from feeding, changing, and giving her a bath. I did it alone.
This went on for at least two months. At one point, I didn't do my assignments for three days and fell extremely behind. My mental state was terrible. I thought I wouldn't make it. I wanted to end it all but I couldn't. I wasn't going to leave before my grandmother did.
After the school year ended in May, I never heard from any of my teachers or classmates again. It all ended so quickly, even though each day was hell for me. As silly as it sounds, I didn't get a pat on the back or anything. With all those sleepless nights, I managed to end the school year with straight A's. Everyone expected me to do it and I somehow... did it.
We'll call him Dave....
I was offered a significant promotion before someone else who had seniority, we'll call him Dave. Dave and I had already discussed his desire for this promotion and he was pretty excited about it, and he was certain he was going to get it. I declined the offer and directed my boss to Dave who of course happily took the offer. It just felt morally wrong to take it when I knew he wanted it, and the large factor of him having more job knowledge and experience than I did. The defining qualities as a worker that made my boss choose me was reliability and dependability.
I never, ever let my boss down and was willing to learn anything.
I was offered another promotion and I took it this time. Dave became distant with me, my new coworkers were buttholes and clearly didn't want me there, and my old coworkers (some of whom I've fed because they couldn't feed themselves and their children at the same time) started to drift away and no longer would stop to chat. I found out that Dave was spreading rumors about me.
About how I only got the promotion because upper management needs something young and pretty to look at, and that someone else deserved it more than I did. I spent an entire year working directly with this guy and we used to have a fantastic work relationship.
He still has no idea that his new position was because of me.
'Indiana meets Japan'
I designed an 'Indiana meets Japan' wall mural for the hall leading to the library of my high school. Had a bridge, plants, and the Indiana state tree on one side and a cherry blossom tree on the other. Flower petals from both drifting on the wind and everything.
I didn't get to sign my name on the mural after it was all done since I didn't put the pencil work and paint on the wall. Even though the kids who painted it had to bring me out there to help them figure out a spacing issue the teacher hadn't foreseen.
This wasn't a tiny thing either. We're talking floor to ceiling design in your average 'entrance' hallway from one section of the building to another. If that makes sense?
It's been ten years and I'm still moderately pissed over it.
Homeward Bound
Home Sweet Home GIF by swerkGiphyI paid the down payment on my best friend's house but never told anyone. She has 5 kids and they all needed stability and something to really call their own. Had just cashed out on an investment when she told me she's found a house but didn't have cash for the down payment. It was like serendipity. I had the cash so I gave it to her. I really love her and would do it again.
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