As Valentine's Day approaches, we're going to be inundated with signs that tell us love is in the air.
Why is love elusive for so many of us?
Or is it perhaps right in front of us as we've seen in so many films and TV shows?
Redditor SpeedyMammoth wanted to discuss why love has been kept from so many, so they asked:
"What’s stopping you from being with the person you love?"
Sometimes... it's just not meant to be.
One Sided
Love Me Do Not Want GIF by MOODMANGiphy"The feelings are not mutual."
MrTumnus__
"Same. Been 5 years. Hurts much less but a lingering pain is always there. Especially since I've not been able to find love since."
NouveauQubecois
Happy 4 U
"Thought I met my soulmate actually. We met in college and were friends for three years. Always thought he might have a crush on me but he was in a really bad relationship and I would have never gotten involved. Then they broke up, we started hanging out more and things just felt right."
"When we did start dating, it was incredible! No relationship is perfect but I’d never been so happy and in love. First time a man has looked me in the eyes and said 'I can’t wait to marry you' and honestly I still think about that some times. Anyways, he cheated on me with his ex, got back with her and then they broke up after a week or so."
"A couple of his friends left him because he just changed into a really shi**y guy and I’m actually still friends with some of them myself. Now he’s doing what he loves and I’m happy for him! I just wish things had worked out, almost two years later and I’m still struggling not to think of him every day. I really hope I can get over him and find my own happiness again."
sadsporkyy
Closed
"She wanted us to be open. I wanted us to be exclusive. I was deeply in love with her and I really miss her. I ended up breaking up with her. Aside from that one incompatibility, I think we were a near-perfect fit. We had a wonderful relationship and it ended amicably, but it’s really hard to let go of someone you genuinely love when your relationship didn’t really have any problems. It took all the willpower I had to go through with it, and it was very painful."
CaptainTripper
Life pro tip...
"She’s with someone else."
MrOuija313
"We’re both with someone else and there are kids in the picture."
"Life pro tip: the person you are the most compatible with in your teens or twenties is not necessarily someone you will always be compatible with as you get older, especially once you both realize what it means to take care of kids all day every day."
persistentporpoise
Gone
Sad Rabbit GIF by Muffin & NutsGiphy"She died."
OrigamiApple
"Me too bro. Sorry for your loss. Sorry for all our losses."
Ba_Dum_Ba_Dum
"Same. I've tried again over the years. It's not the same. I'm sorry for your loss."
exactoctopus
Loss is always the one of the number one reasons.
Taylor Knows
Looking Around Music Video GIF by Taylor SwiftGiphy"Me. I am the problem."
hiyesgood
"I have a lot of trauma to deal with and I’m still trying to figure out who I am as a person. I didn’t think it was fair for him to ride along until I get to a point where I was mentally healthy. Could be months. Could be years. Thankfully I’ve been in therapy for 8 months now while changing my lifestyle. I don’t expect him to wait for me so I do my best to not reach out."
hiyesgood
In Time
"Bad timing. But we always find one another. Hopefully we get together before I'm too old to enjoy it."
moffettusprime
"Exactly this. She was my first and we were too young. It never worked out for us because of bad timing. Somehow I will always have this lingering hope that we will end up together. Even though I recently met a girl I am crazy in love with and this feeling has pretty much disappeared to the background."
GreenLurch
Issues
"She doesn't want to be with me. Part of it is her trauma, part of it is my trauma. Our traumas don't play well together. Her instinct is to avoid intimacy, my instinct is to seek it out. Really shi**y. I already have clinical depression, loneliness, and insomnia. What's your reasoning for breaking up? She's got an avoidant attachment style so when we got too intimate, she would pull away. I sought reassurance, got too needy, and pushed her away."
SomeDudeinCO3
What's to Be...
"Some people aren't meant to be loved, but you can't help it if you fall in love with them."
ForwardMountain2808
"You absolutely can help it if you fall in love with someone not 'meant to be loved.'"
"Boundaries, confidence, and self-respect will help you fall out of love with anyone that doesn’t want to be with you."
"Have a cry. Hit the bottle for a weekend. Then compose yourself and saddle the F up. There’s a whole world of people out there - good people - and you get one chance at this spinning rock."
"Don’t you rob the world of your love and don’t rob yourself of the experience of receiving love just because it didn’t happen with the person you thought it should."
HamburgerJames
Be Strong
Screaming Season 4 GIF by Broad CityGiphy"Fear of rejection, I don't know if she is even willing to have ANY relationship at all."
Meme_Lord_E
Love is a battlefield, as they say, so keep your armor and wits about you when you fall... and maybe you'll be caught off guard in the best of ways.
Content warning: suicide.
Cherish every moment.
That is a saying we just keep taking for granted.
Another second is never promised.
Sometimes we check ourselves when the death of the young happens.
The unfairness of it all is almost too much to handle.
Let's share some stories.
And maybe learn to appreciate life a little more.
Redditordeadmoby5wanted to see who would be willing to share about the not-so-great days in school. They asked:
"Has anyone ever died at your school/college/university? What happened to them?"
Death is inevitable, but it's intended to be much later in life.These stories are so sad.
Fallen
"Yes, in front of the whole school. I was maybe 10 yo or younger. The girl was 6 or 7. Everybody was gathering for the national anthem. She just fell on the floor dead. I think it was something on her brain, I'm not sure."
Fun_Computer_8401
"Probably a brain aneurysm."
dndaresilly
Very messed up...
"Someone jumped in front of a train. He had a horrible home situation where his dad died and the mom was on the verge of dying. He was really close with the teachers so they were crying all the time. Very messed up. My mom had a friend that got driven over by a truck. They were waiting for the light and this truck backed up with them in the blindspot. My mom doesn't like trucks anymore."
onixdog
broken cable...
"A guy I know was working on a dredge when a cable broke, cut the top of his head off and his brain popped in the water just before him. It took 4 days to find his body."
"P.S. always wear a hard hat when in a construction site."
WokeUp2
"Hard hat might not have saved him. I have seen countless pics of fatalities from motorcycle accidents where the helmet just prevented brain spillage. The brain still came out of the skull."
Nairbfs79
'tripped'
"When I was a sophomore in high school a girl who I only slightly knew dropped dead during a soccer game. While I wasn’t in attendance I knew a few who were. She was on the team and running when she 'tripped' with a hard fall. She didn’t move at all or try to pick herself up so the ref, coach and medics came to her aid."
"She was stone cold dead, her parents weren’t at the game as she was a junior and had her own car. I can only imagine that phone call. We learned later that she had a brain aneurysm and was likely dead before she hit the ground. She was a very promising student, in a lot of clubs and very friendly. It’s crazy to think at any point that can happen to anyone."
GellertsEyes
Behind the Wheel
"A senior girl died in a car accident my freshman year, fell asleep behind the wheel. The school made it a whole thing. A friend of mine died in car accident (he had a heart attack while driving) our junior year and he got ignored."
carmelacorleone
Well this is a lot to take in. So young. So much sadness.
Oh Lord
"My class administrator of my electrician course. It was a TIFU because when I entered class, everyone looked very sad."
"I asked 'Gee, who died?'"
"The answer was 'Mr. CA.'"
"My answer was 'F***, I was only kidding.'"
Khaos_Gorvin
babies
"A set of twin boys died from leukemia. I was probably about 8 when the first one passed and then 10. Idk what specific one it was because I was young myself."
fauxfomo
"I remember we had a set of identical twins at my school they were teenagers girls and both had leukaemia as well, both died in the same year. It was really really sad for our community."
Any-Difficulty-8694
Not Sure
"In my elementary school this girl died in first grade and I don’t actually know what happened but there are two memorials for her: one is three trees, two benches, and two places to play chess that no one uses to play chess, and a statue of her old dog. Yeah, idk either."
"There was another girl who was my best friend at the time who died when she was in first grade and she died by falling off a tree and cracking her head open. She was put under a medically induced coma and never woke up. She didn’t get a memorial."
unicornGenocide12334
Lies?
"Our teacher always told us that a girl fell and got run over by other students while a fire drill happened. We never figured out if she was lying or not but she looked a little bit too serious for my taste."
thatwasmyfoota**hole
Wild Days
"My school was wild. None legit in school but in general. Someone my age died in... kindergarten? Idk who they were but a seat was left open at graduation for her. In high school someone a year younger had cancer. Someone in my grade committed suicide over the summer. Some guy was chopped up by a boat (idk boat parts but it was the back thing). A dad went crazy with his wife and middle school daughter."
"Then every year in high school we had a safety week for the last week of school and one major part was a girl who was killed by a drunk driver in 2012 when I was 12. Since I graduated in 2018 I think there's been 3 or 4 deaths of people I knew and 1 or 2 current students."
ItsNowDaisy
This was back in 1998...
"This girl who was my friend in my primary school (In UK ages 5 - 11) class died one weekend when she went to the local fairground. The roller-coaster she went on had a faulty safety bar. Going round the track it came loose and she fell out. This was back in 1998. She was only 8 years old."
"I actually happened to accidentally visit her grave in my home village where the school is located just the other week. (we were taking a walk as it was a lovely day and came upon the graveyard) so I went and said hello. Was quite emotional as I had my 2 year old daughter with me."
ZPM89
One Weekend
"A PhD student in our department went water skiing one weekend. The tether he was on became tangled, and he was pulled under the boat, where he drowned. I'll admit, I didn't know this guy particularly well, so I didn't feel overly sad from this, but it was still a shocker."
"It was also strange seeing everyone with whom you work, including professors, suddenly switch from being professional to being upset. I honestly didn't know how to respond to it."
deadmoby5
Everyime
"A girl in my high school committed accidental suicide. Sort of. Every time her bf broke up with her she overdosed and told him she was trying to kill herself, and every time he called an ambulance and got back with her. But the last time they broke up he told her he was actually done and not to do anything stupid because he wasn't going to answer his phone."
"And he shut his phone off, and the next day he found out she overdosed. She had texted him after she took the pills like she always did but his phone had been off and he didn't get the text. Her family blamed him and put him through hell."
TRANSparent-Ink
first year of university...
"When I was in my first year of university, a kid committed suicide in his room in the student dorms. He was at a party with his friend and left saying 'I'm away guys, I'll see you all later' (or something to that effect) and no one knew what he meant. In the same year, a kid I went to school with when I was a bit younger died after some internal bleeding in his head."
"He had walked into a shop when there was an armed robbery happening, got his nose broke when the guy hit his face with the handle of the gun. He avoided going to hospital because he didn't want to be put on painkillers since he was preparing to go to the navy. The nose break caused bleeding from the brain and he died alone in his flat a few days later."
Cyanide_Revolver
"going places"
"There was a guy I went to school with who was very bright, funny, and was one of the ones you could tell was really 'going places.' We spent an afternoon chatting in an abandoned auditorium once and he was just a nice guy. Had an aneurism and now needs constant care and is severely mentally disabled. Just out of nowhere. He was healthy. Terrifying."
sylvanwhisper
Tragic
"I'm a senior in HS right now, and every school year (without fail) at least one of the our teachers will commit suicide. Every year. None of us know the reasoning behind any of their passings, for the most part. One of the teachers that committed suicide was an AP World History/European history teacher who was exposed (for lack of a better word) as being a pedophile."
"And having inappropriate relationships with students. The same day everyone found out about the investigation is the same day it’s reported that he committed suicide. But, other than that, we don’t know why our teachers keep killing themselves. It is very tragic."
kai-lan
Falling Back
"A girl at my high school. She was ripped apart and eaten by dogs. She went round to a friends house, which was a proper council estate death trap. Her friend wasn’t in so she decided to let herself in and go sit in the garden. She was eating a pie at the time and her friends 5 dangerous dogs were in the garden."
"One of them jumped to get the pie out of her hand, knocking her over in the process. Once she fell on the ground pack instinct kicked in and they all dived on her and ripped her throat out. The neighbors were the first to see the remains and call the police. The dogs were all shot on sight."
dave-505
In the Trunk
"This kid I knew in high school was murdered by his girlfriend's ex boyfriend. He beat him, put him in a trunk and drove him to a cave, he then pointed a gun at him and told him he would kill him unless he swore to never see her again. This guy, was much older maybe 21 and the kid was only 15, the girl, 14."
"He ended up killing him and then killing himself. The 15 year old boy lived just long enough to say what happened. So, he didn’t die AT the school, but he was beat up and put in the trunk at the school."
AccomplishedAd6025
Head first...
"Yeah. Um- This kid- middle school- we had a two story middle school which the second story was a inside balcony if you could call it… Group of boys went Up to him and cornered him and told him to jump. They even went as far as giving him a lift. I guess the poor boys hand slipped and he fell over. Head first. At least 40 feet. There was a crack in the tile downstairs where he landed. May him and his beautiful soul rest. God bless that boy and his family."
Altenalo
DOA
"Girl living in a house off-campus was shot by police, who were responding to an armed break in at that same house. I almost lived in that house, but chose a different one up the street. My house too was robbed at gun point, though the perps got away before police arrived."
Mitch_from_Boston
That is a lot of tragedy. I'm sorry for everyone's loss.
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
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People Divulge The Most Horrific Event They Ever Personally Witnessed
WARNING: the following article contains discussion of suicide/self-harm, descriptions of violence and death
We see tragic news stories all the time, but we never think we will encounter or witness the horrors of violence, whether the acts were intended or not.
People came forward and opened up about their personal experiences when Redditor CosmicLlama9908 asked:
"What is the most horrific thing you've ever personally witnessed?"
Redditors witnessed death before their eyes.
The Boating Nightmare
"When I was 17 I went on a boat trip on the lake with 2 of my aunts, and 4 of my cousins. My aunts' boyfriend was driving the boat back after an awesome day. It was dark."
"Out of nowhere, another speed boat plowed into the side of ours at full speed, killing one of my aunts and my 9 year old cousin instantly and sending another aunt into the water to be found the next day dead. "
"After I realized what happened I heard screams from the dark water. It was the driver of our boat with my other baby cousin in his hands trying to swim back. He said he couldn't feel his legs so I jumped in without thinking giving him a life jacket and swam back to the boat with my baby cousin who was alive but bit her tongue in half."
"She was 4 or 5. When the driver finally made his way back to the boat I pulled him up and noticed both of his legs were shattered, bones sticking out, and bleeding. I didn't even get a scratch on me. Worse night of my life."
– cole3987
"A guy committing suicide by jumping in front of a train."
– Neon_W0lf
The ATV Accident
"On a calm early morning in my small town, I walked a couple of my friends home after my party. We live near the arctic circle so it was sunny at 3am. Beautiful weather. As I was making my way back home, I witnessed an ATV accident on a treacherous hilly intersection."
"A woman and her child with no helmet flipped and tumbled 30 feet into the ditch. The 6 year old was crying when I came up to the scene, 911 on the phone. The mother was unconscious but still breathing, faced down."
"I was on the call with EMS while giving cpr to the woman, but when I rolled her over, I noticed her head was caved in and blood gushing out and pooling on the ground beside her. I had to reassure the daughter with a broken arm that everything is fine and the ambulance is coming. The mother died in my arms."
– tundrabuddies
A Physical Response
"A popped cranium after the person’s head was run over by a bus. It’s not a pretty scene, even for the morbidly curious. The twitching is a traumatic watch."
– leaveyourcousinalone
Public Safety Message
"Guy slammed his car into mine and literally died mangled in front of me on the hood of my car. Wear your seatbelt people."
– Translationerr0r
These Redditors stumbled upon scenes they would like to soon forget.
Lifeless
"I found a dead body under a highway underpass walking home from a bad party at 3am and the guy had what I assume was an overdose in the middle of the sidewalk while kneeling/sitting on his feet, looking straight up with his arms hanging down and his palms were up."
"The way he positioned himself was just very surreal for some reason and I'd also never seen a dead body outside of deathbed/coffin scenario."
– wastelandho
Fallen Climber
"About 10 years ago, I used to volunteer with search and rescue in Ravalli County. Most of the time it was just people getting lost, or somebody with a broken leg that needed to be carried out. Every once in a while though, there would be something really horrific."
"One time, we spent several days searching for a missing climber. The individual had gone climbing solo, so nobody actually knew where he was at other than they were in Blodget Canyon somewhere. Eventually, some team members spotted a pair of black bears feeding on something in a small ravine."
"When we were able to access the scene, it turned out that the missing climber had fallen from the face they were climbing and most likely died on impact, or shortly thereafter. Then, the bears had found the body and fed on it. The body had been ripped apart and scattered over a significant area. We had to pick up what we could, put it in a body bag and pack it out."
– deadmanxing
What The Hospital Worker Saw
"I used to work on a respiratory unit at a hospital, an old lady who was chronically trached, she’d been on one for maybe around a year and with her age, delicate skin and lack of good care at the previous hospital…the trach site had decayed and sloughed enough to create a hole in the front of her neck I could have fit my adult sized fist in."
"And she was still alive. First and thankfully only time I’ve seen the throat/windpipe/esophagus of a still living person. It was horrific."
– BoyITellYa
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Have you ever worked one of those jobs that paid you to kinda sit there? If you have, you know the joy that comes with watching the entirety of Breaking Bad ...The Violent Intruder
"We had a home invasion a few years back. The perp shot my husband multiple times in front of me then ran off. I had to put pressure on his chest with a towel to keep him from bleeding out until the police got here."
"I remember the blood pouring out of his chest like a damn water hose and him just gasping for air. I don't know how he's alive. I think about it every day. Every now and then we still find some of our things with blood stains, and always just go, 'Jesus Christ.'"
"We moved & we’re safe, but unfortunately, they never caught the person."
– WeArePerkisizing
Human Cruelty
"I used to work in adult protection; guy was keeping his 75-year-old mom in horrific conditions, hooked on meth and pills, had dementia. Dude was collecting her social security."
"Also worked child protection; had to respond to an 18-month old child brought to the ER beaten to death by his dad."
– Jonpaddy
Motorcycle Wreck
"In Jr high. During a gym class, (I wasn't feeling well so I wasn't taking part in the class) they were doing relay races, a girl tripped and fell down. She broke her leg so badly, it looked like an extra knee. She was in traction for nearly 6mo."
"More recently we were out doing errands, and we drove by a motorcycle accident. One person was sitting on the curb, and he was rocking back and forth, the other was nothing but a lump of meat, laying in the middle of the road. Thankfully someone had covered her with a large coat. I couldent get that image out of my head, for almost 6mo. It still pops up in my, every now and then."
– MorgainofAvalon
The Epileptic Student
"I was doing relay races in gym class in highschool and as my friend was running to me I saw his eyes roll up into his head and he fell back into an absolutely massive seizure about 10ft from me."
"Turns out he was severely epileptic, didn't inform anyone, and had stopped taking his seizure meds for whatever reason."
"The image of him seizing up mid stride has stuck with me 15 years later."
– GregorZeeMountain
The following tragedies were not accidents.
Family Tragedy
"I walked in on my dad moments after he had stabbed and killed my step mom. He was calmly sitting on their sofa without a shirt on, covered in blood."
"...he had been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer about 6 months prior, the cancer had spread from lungs to his brain and unbeknownst to us, 2 tumors had developed and were pressing on some vital areas in his brain. He was having hallucinations and a bit of a psychotic episode when it happened."
"He didn't know what he had done until days later. While he was in custody they treated the inflamed tumors with an oral steroid and his mental state returned to his normal self, and that's when he learned what he had done."
"He was so distraught, he just wanted to die. They were married for 35 years. He died 3 months later in custody, but we were lucky enough to be able to visit him a few times before he passed."
– notbuildingrockets
Baby Blackbirds
"Compared to some of the comments this is pretty tame, but it's been stuck in my head since I was about 8."
"We had a pair of blackbirds nest in our garage. Dad stopped parking his car in it, kept the door closed and the window open, and would occasionally take my brother (then 5) and I in and lift us up to see the chicks. We were so excited to see them growing."
"The day they fledged, our neighbours - grumpy old bastards at the best of times - set mousetraps baited with bread, caught every single one of our baby blackbirds and gave them to their dog to finish off. My brother and I were standing the other side of the fence screaming and crying; Mum came out, but just shepherded us indoors because she was scared of the neighbours too."
"Oh, and they were doing this to entertain their grandchildren."
– batty_61
The Shooting
"A kid getting his brains blowed out for crossing out a tag in a rival neighborhood."
– -skeemin-
Trauma can linger, as evidenced by the events witnessed by the Redditors.
But seeking trauma therapy can be a very useful tool to move forward, and there are plenty of online resources to help you cope.
Websites like TalkSpaceand BetterHelp are good places to start in finding a therapist who is right for you.
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
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People Break Down Which Of Their High School Classmates Had The Worst Life After School Ended
Life and the Universe is eternally unfair. That is a fact none of us will ever escape. It is often unfathomable to comprehend the cruel twists of fate many suffer. I often think about my favorite Alanis Morissette song "Ironic" when I think about life's dirty tricks. That song says it all.
I also often wonder about the people I went to school with. Thanks to social media we can all find one another and see how everyone turned out, well for the most part, who knows what everyone is lying about on social media. One of the worst discoveries is finding out how much sadness and tragedy struck so many. Car accidents, cancer, murder, alcoholism, it's enough to make you want to hide.
So let's hear some stories...
Redditor u/ajchann123wanted to chat about the people we leave behind in youth by asking:
Who in your high school graduating class had the most tragic adult life?
In high school I had an acquaintance named Katy. Katy was so sweet. She was popular but still had a heart and never looked down upon us second and tier mates. She would often stand up other people's bullies. I always thought, she's going to live a great life and she deserves it...
Life is Unfair
"I am old so my graduating class will be on average 43 now. There are many deaths, tragic divorces etc. The following is the most tragic story among my friends. A girl that I was close to from kindergarten through graduation and stayed in touch with afterward. She married in her 30's and had trouble conceiving children."
"She spent 8 years and thousands and thousands of dollars in order to get pregnant. She was told it wasn't going to happen. One week after the doctor confirmed her only pregnancy in all that time - she was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumor. She died 3 weeks after her beautiful son was born."
- gogomom
30
"The wild child girl that ended up married with 2 beautiful kids and set in life only to be killed in an accident with a street racer at 30. The racer hit her doing over 100 miles an hour on a neighbourhood street. Got a minimal sentence. 9 months."
Bad Brain
"Kid from my school was an amazing musician. He won every possible award for music at the regional/state level, then got a full scholarship to a prestigious music school. Freshman year, he died of a brain aneurysm in his sleep."
"Just be happy he didn't suffer. That's all you can wish for with a brain aneurysm."
9 Months
"Mine is a chillingly story:"
"A high school classmate of mine, married late, struggled to get pregnant, had her first child at 40, was diagnosed with late stage lung cancer 9 months later and died a week before her daughter's 1st birthday."
Farewell Friends
"I'm mid-40s and at primary school (ages 4-11) was very friendly with a group of other girls, called D, T, and A. As well as our time together at school we spent our evenings and weekends together, and I have happy memories of long summer holidays playing at each other's homes. D became very sick aged 11 and died of leukaemia a year later. T died aged 21 in a car crash with her fiancé. He was driving them home late one night when he lost control of the car and it left the road."
"All four occupants of the car were killed. My poor, beautiful friends. I feel so sad for the suffering each of them has endured. I occasionally see D's dad and I can't begin to describe the pain in his eyes, knowing that D never got the chance to grow up."
"universe has no justice"
"My friend finished university, was about to earn his PhD, got out of an abusive relationship, but finally found a nice girl. And then they died together in a car crash."
"Nothing in this thread really got to me. It all kinda struck as the usual "universe has no justice" fare. but, for some reason, posts like this always get to me. It's so nice they found each other and got to be together, but they still died. Like. That sucks. I don't know."
The Diffuser
"A guy I graduated high school with. He went to U of Iowa. One of the nicest guys I've ever known. Was outside of a bar and some guy was yelling at and pushing another guy. He went over to diffuse the situation and the guy starting everything popped him hard in the face, then smacked his head against a brick wall. Went unconscious, and when he came to his friends took him home (bad idea)."
"Next day he was unconscious and taken to the hospital. Died a week later. The guy got 10 years for voluntary manslaughter, $1,000 fine and $150,000 to the guy's estate. The father reached settlement of $1.7mil from lawsuits against the two bars serving the attacker."
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Lionheart
"Kid had cancer all his young life. Was at death's door numerous times, but always rebounded. Had the heart of a lion, never gave up, never surrendered. He was declared cancer free on his 18th birthday, and got hit and killed by a drunk driver after his senior prom."
- Adddicus
the bully
"My lifelong bully, from early childhood till she dropped out of high school ended up living a very short, tragic life. She made my life a living hell. She would jump me and harass me and terrorize me on a daily basis for years. She died of a gastro bleed in her apartment. She was there, alone, dead, for about 6 weeks."
"The apartment manager finally broke in and found her and her 3 month old baby dead on the floor when she wouldn't answer the phone calls about rent being so late. She bled out. She died of internal bleeding. Her baby starved. No one heard/smelled anything due to the way the flats were set up. No one came looking for her except her landlord."
Nick
"Nick Adenhart. Hell of a ball player. Works his butt off all his life to realize his dream of becoming a Major League pitcher. Finally realizes that dream, starts his first game, and is killed by a drunk driver a few hours later."
"Rest in peace, Nick."
- MrFuxIt
After grade 9
"Dude I actually went to public school with in the first place, met his one love in grade 9. They near-immediately started dating, attended university near one another, lived together, the works. They get married, have two kids, great jobs, everything just lined up perfectly - until he died suddenly of heart failure. Not sure which is more tragic: his passing, or her moving on with two kids under five without him."
Dying Rich
"Our valedictorian dropped out of college due to his rich parents dying in a tragic accident and through a series of lawsuits (on the estate by business partners), had pretty much nothing left to him. So he moved to Northern Rural Illinois and works at a factory or a warehouse place. I hear about him through my sister. He has a stable life but is still incredibly depressed."
3 hours later...
"My school had a guy die like 3 hours after graduation. They were drunk, stoned and who knows what else. Somehow they ended up with a gun and were trying to spin it on their fingers or some crap and the gun ended up firing. Hit the guy right in the head."
- Revircs
Complications
"One girl had hydrocephalus. She was a nice girl, quiet, and always seemed to be sick. I was kind of friends with her past graduation, and whenever I was on AIM we would chat a little bit. She always seemed to be getting ready for another surgery, or just had one."
"On top of that, her personal life was rough -- around five relatives of hers died within a span of three years. She died age 22 from complications. I wanted to go to the funeral, but it happened while I was across the country. What a sad, crappy way to go."
She was spared...
"One of mine (year below though) had her entire family (including extended family) murdered by one of her cousins. For whatever reason she stayed at a friend's house the night they were all murdered at her house."
Check to Check
"A bit different than the death ones. Almost my entire graduating class. Attended an evangelical Christian high school (no alternate schools in the area) and most of them wound-up married young, uneducated, living paycheque-to-paycheque, unhappy because they aren't the same people at 35 they were at 18 and are stuck with partners who have nothing in common with them. Consequently, I don't attend reunions."
Where to begin?
"Our most likely to succeed has 4 kids with two different women, has been arrested for domestic violence, is on his second marriage and left his first bride to be at the alter, lost his house to foreclosure, lives in a trailer, and cannot hold down a job for more than 2 years."
No Justice
"A girl I knew, super sweet and very motivated to help others. She became a counselor for people in need and drug addicts. Then died of ridiculously rare cancer in her mid 20s. She was better than most of us, and her death is proof there is no justice in the universe."
So Young
"The guy that used to bully me in elementary school ended up getting testicular cancer. I think he's still alive but last I heard he wasn't doing well at all. We're only 25."
Five years after school, while on the way to her wedding dress appointment a car jumped a median and landed on Katy's car, crushing and killing her instantly. They were driving in different directions. Now I get head-on collisions, in fact, we look out for those, they're often easy to avoid...
But how in the world can we prepare for a schmuck, who was going too fast, to accidentally jump a median? Awful. Poor Katy. She deserved better. And so did a lot of these people. I hope they all find or found peace eventually.
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Image by Wokandapix from Pixabay |
School is a dangerous place. That is a tragic fact. Back in my day, school was a safe place.
We all gathered to learn and build a foundation as people. Now, no matter where you attend school, in a fancy schmancy neighborhood or in a more challenging area, no one is safe.
Horror, tragedy and violence has struck everywhere. And those who are there to witness it carry those scars all through life.
So how do we fix this issue? Or is it just a human error problem that is never going to get better? Why is education saddled with danger? If I was school age now, I'd definitely choose homeschooling.
Redditoru/Mariothemaster245wanted to hear about legacies of schools. Who is still haunted and why? They asked:
What is the worst thing that happened at your school?
My schools weren't perfect. We had bullies and fights broke out often, but nobody ever pulled out a knife or a gun. And all of our teachers and students survived. Well most, the one's that didn't, succumb to natural causes. How do we get back there?
Eyes Closed
Confused Daily Show GIF by CTV Comedy ChannelGiphy"Kid streaked (fully naked) across campus, hiding his face using a condom. He passed out about a minute into the run."
DOA
"My classmates dad had a heart attack at graduation and died. He was just yelling at his wife and keeled over."
"A similar thing happened at my girlfriends graduation. It was a hit packed gym And all of a sudden in the middle of the ceremony people start moving away from a spot in the bleachers near me, turns out one of the graduating student's aunt was having a heart attack. She lived though because literally every first responder was there (small town 1500 people 80 in graduating class) and the fire station was a block away."
Awful People
"There was a girl in my school who was being bullied and basically chased into the busy street in front of the school. She got hit by a few cars. The next morning people were making fun of the situation because her shoes flew off after she was hit. My school was filled with a**holes."
"Edit: She did end up dying. I think she may have died on impact. But the memory is fuzzy. She didn't die in the hospital that I know for sure."
For Cred?
"At one of the schools I went to, some kid stabbed a disabled kid to get into a gang."
"And I'm sure that "street cred" will buy him a lot of ramen when he's sitting in prison for the next few decades."
Fake Out
New Girl Facepalm GIF by HULUGiphy"We had somebody plant fake bombs and call in a bomb threat at the high school so the police would all be focused at the high school. Was really just a distraction for a double homicide/suicide across town."
Oh see there, that's all a bit much. School is stressful enough already. Our class clowns only exhibited foolish behavior, like spitballs, fake bombs? We've lost control...
In the heart
Facepalm Smh GIFGiphy"A teacher went to break up a fight, and she got stabbed in the chest. Teachers were not allowed to break up fights after that. She survived but she quit teaching."
Alarms...
"The seniors planned their senior prank to have a bunch of alarm clocks go off in lockers all over the school throughout the day. The idea was that by the time one locker was unlocked to turn off the alarm another would be going off. Unfortunately for the seniors, the day they planned this happened to be the same day Obama was campaigning at the fair grounds less than a mile away. The alarm clocks got mistaken as bomb threats and just about every senior in the school was questioned by either police or teachers. Basically it was just a huge misunderstanding that lead to a whole bunch of crap."
Assassins...
"Someone tried to assassinate the physics teacher. Our high school was 3 stories. The math and science rooms were on the 3rd floor. During parent-teacher interviews someone turned on all the natural gas taps in his classroom and left a lit candle on the floor."
"The idea being that since natural gas rises. It would fill the room and explode when it touched the candle. Teacher found it only a few minutes after the would be assassin left the room and was able to put out the candle. They never figured out who did it, to the best of my knowledge."
My Brother's Ex
"My brother dated a girl briefly in 8th grade who later snapped in high school. She had convinced a group of 5 other people to commit to a plan to weld the high school doors shut and burn people with a home made flamethrower and shoot people."
"The morning of the planned day someone was tipped off and the cops called. The school went on lockdown for 6-7 hours and they found the girl's parents taped up and stabbed a crazy number of times in their closet of their home. This was 3 years after my brother dated her."
- JoeZMar
Idiot
Idiot Reaction GIFGiphy"Nothing as brutal as some of the other storied but about half way through the day once a guy was spotted walking across our sports field with a rifle, Everyone was kept in classes for about an hour? Turns out it was some idiot looking for the nearby shooting range and accidentally stumbled onto school grounds."
Clearly, we need therapists and guards in school around the clock. And a grief counselor for life would probably do everyone a world of good.
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