While the term "hero" might initially invoke characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe or tireless activists, everyday people are capable of being heroes in the least expected ways. Oftentimes, people show their true colors in times of emergency, and this is when the heroics have a chance to jump out.

Since the newscycle is currently rife with threats of war and widespread despair, it's encouraging to remember all the ways people can help each other individually. While it might not always feel that way, each person affects countless people through a ripple effect (for better or worse).

In a popular Reddit thread, people shared the most heroic thing they've seen someone else do, and it'll hopefully restore a glint of your faith in humanity.

1. NannySkeksis watched a man save a family in a flash.

Saw a car flip over on the highway. The second the car stopped sliding on the road a guy came out with a bat, broke the windows, and grabbed 2 children out of the backseat then got the adults out.

2. StellarView's mom saved a man's life.

It was when I was about 8 or 9 years old. and we were in London. Out of nowhere, this shabbily looking guy (I guess he was homeless) runs out into the middle of the road when a red bus was just turning. My mum, a pretty chubby lady, runs into the road before this guy's guts gets splattered across the road and pulls him back. He struggled for a bit but she started comforting him, telling him "It's gonna be okay."

She sat there for an hour or so with him and we cleaned him up and got him some food. I know it was the first meal he had in ages and he felt as if at the end of his wits. She hugged him goodbye and I still think about him sometimes.

Sometimes I want to be like my mother, even though she's a stubborn bitch.

TL;DR: My mum saved a guy from committing suicide.

3. jamholes watched a kid defend a smaller kid against the big bully.

There was a crowd outside my high school surrounding a very one-sided fight. A teacher came to break it up after what seemed like an extremely long minute. I found out later that this well known bully had been shoving one of the smallest kids in my grade trying to get him to fight back to no avail. This kid was doing his best to get away but the bully would just grab him and throw him to the ground.

Eventually this kid steps in between them and says, 'f*ck you, that's enough.' He was probably average sized, which was still smaller than the bully. The bully swings, the kid dodges and tackles him to the ground, starting the fight. The kid got the shit beat out of him, but he was at least able to break the bully's nose.

It takes major balls to willingly get into a fight you know you don't have a chance of winning. That kid became a hero in the school and damn did he deserve it.

4. nikkaaplz watched a stranger save someone's child.

I was once down town getting groceries for my mother, and when I got out the store, walking towards my bike, I see a mother crossing the street, with groceries in one hand, her 3 yearish old daughter in the other hand 5-6 yearish old son a bit further behind. Just as the mother has crossed the street she her son starts to cross the street as well. He didn't see the car comming towards him with about 50km/h.

A random stranger that is nearby turns his head and sees the car, and it doesn't seem to be slowing down, instinctively he just runs to the kid and grabs him, holds him tight with his back turned to wards the car, literaly half a second before impact. The windshield of the car gets smashed, and the guy holding the kid rolls over the car somehow managing to land on his back.

I run towards them to check if they're okay and the kid is crying as well as the mother. That was the first time I called 911. The kid said his arm was hurting but I don't know what actually happened to the guy and the kid, as I left after the ambulance came and I didn't really check up on it.

5. I_Love_All_Women watched their neighbor casually be a hero.

Watched a drunk guy speed down my block and hit a light pole. Car flipped upside down. Caught on fire. Guy is screaming bloody murder. My neighbor heard it from inside. She jogged over to the car while I called 911 and pulled the guy out. BOOM. Entire car engulfs in flames right after. She casually walks back inside after making sure the cops are on their way and he is alive. She was a very modest woman....Didn't want any attention for doing the "right" thing.

6. Gumshooo has nothing but respect for Marcus.

There was once a kid at high school who was constantly picked on. We'll call him Jacob. It was an almost all-black school, and this kid was a scrawny, white little nerd, who was often targeted by freshman (even though he was a junior at the time I think) so that they could prove that they were tough. This was totally unfair to Jacob, who kept his head down, and I don't think I ever heard him speak, even though I had many classes with him over the years.

One day, some young kids are shoving him in the hallway, and are quickly stopped by an AP. Then they start saying things like "we know bus you take" and "we're gonna get you tomorrow." Well, tomorrow comes, and word has gotten around that some kids were going to beat up some other kid after school (fights happened every day there, but it was rare that people knew the time and place, plus if it was after school, there was more of a chance for a spectacle), and people started to make plans to watch it happen. I had heard about it in first period.

So, after school, I'm walking down to go to basketball practice, and I see Jacob (who had no doubt heard about his impending fate) booking it down hall, just trying to get out of school and to the bus stop before anyone saw him. There were maybe 30 kids following him (not the bullies, just spectators). I also followed, curiously, with a few of my basketball teammates.

Jacob got outside, and was almost immediately shoved down a grassy slope right outside of the door by one of the bullies who had been waiting for him. The other bullies were waiting at the bottom. Then, suddenly, one of the forwards from the basketball team (a very popular, hulking Adonis named Marcus) is running down the hill, just as Jacob reaches the bullies. Some of the other athletes follow, and proceed to shove and intimidate the bullies, while a couple others pick up and dust off Jacob.

Marcus, as far as I knew, had never met Jacob, but after scaring the bullies away, offered Jacob a ride home. Marcus was late coming back to school to practice, but by then coaches had found out what had happened and didn't say a word about it. I saw the whole thing go down, and regret that I didn't get involved myself. This was an act of pure goodness on Marcus' part, and it inspired several others to do the right thing and help that poor kid. As far as I knew, nobody else ever f*cked with Jacob.

7. PEE_ALL_OVER_ME saw a dad of the year at work.

This guy's 9-year-old daughter had diarrhea in a swimming pool and he took the blame for it to protect her dignity.

8. phonetoilet knew a guy who took the blame so everyone else could go to the theme park.

It was our last year in primary school and there was a trip to a newly opened theme park organised for the year (no-ones parents would bring them because it was ridiculously expensive normally but the principal knew the guy who owned and we got a good deal). Everyone was delighted about this and we were all looking forward to it until about a week before we were messing in the computer room and while we were having a pile on accidentally knocked over one of the tables and we all watched in horror as about five brand new computers fell over.

We were then brought to the office where we were told there wasn't a chance we were going to the park and we were lucky to not be expelled. We were all devastated until one of the quieter guys marched into the principal's office a day before the trip and announced he alone had pulled down the table. We all thanked him the morning of the trip but felt a bit sorry for him as he had to spend the day with the younger classes.

With his legend status secure, we bizarrely never saw him again as he moved to Australia and that was his last day in the school.

9. The_Dead_See saw grandma take matters into her own hands.

I was sitting at the window seat in a restaurant once and outside I saw this big guy in the crowded high street start wailing on his gf. Full on head punches. Everyone was standing around watching - bystander effect I guess. But this Granny - had to be going on 85 - looks around in disbelief at all the gawping onlookers then hobbles over to him and starts beating him around the head with her handbag.

The guy was just stunned. I think he knew he couldn't fight the old lady back because she'd broken the bystander effect and the crowd would lynch him. So he just fended off as many blows from the handbag as he could then ran away.

10. superjennifer's very short aunt gave heimlich to their very tall cousin.

Last Christmas my 6' tall cousin started choking on a piece of turkey and his 4'11" stepmom who is a birthing nurse gave him the Heimlich after she walked into the room & found him passed out. she was lifting him off the ground, she was thrusting so hard & finally the piece came flying out his mouth.

It was her first time ever have to give the Heimlich to anyone outside of certification/training classes & it saved my cousin's life because she was the only one in the room when he passed out from it. The sheer size difference between them is what makes it amazing.

11. singleusethro's brother saved their life.

One day my father got drunk and decided he needed to have some attention. He got his gun out and held my mother and I hostage, threatening to shoot us and/or himself. I called my brother who is a police officer. My brother arrives at the house, looked at the situation for a split second and attacked my father, wrestling for the gun. I sat there in shock, it was like watching a movie.

I could not move or act, wondering if my brother or my father would die in this struggle. It lasted about 25 seconds or so but seemed a lifetime. Thankfully my brother had been trained for this situation, and he had placed his thumb between the hammer of the gun that cocks back and firing pin so the gun would not go off. Thanks for the memories dad and the PTSD (there were more incidents later of gun violence also).

We had him committed several times, but to no avail. Years later my father killed himself because he realized that he was hurting his family and he was powerless to stop or accept help.

12. HootnHoller's mom is a hero.

My mom for sure. when I was a child I walked out in the back yard to find my brother choking on a lolipop that came off the stick. I ran back in the house and yelled "Billy is choking!!" My mom came running out, picked him up, threw him over her arm and started pounding on his back. She was hysteric because of the gurgling noises he was making. She turned him upside down and started lifting him up and down with a bouncing motion as she ran to the neighbor's house for help. I followed her. We entered the neighbor's house where the neighbor lady and my mom both tried everything possible to get the chunk of hard candy to dislodge from my brother's throat.

He was blue and unconscious and my mom kept yelling we're losing him. They were both crying. My job was to run out in the street and flag the ambulance. I was waving my arms as the ambulance came but the drove right past me for about 30 yards and then backed up. I was screaming at them that my brother was choking and they followed me up the stairs to the house. Just as we came in the door I heard my mom say "He's breathing!". Most intense thing I've ever experienced.

He's fine now and has become very successful in life. Thanks Mom!!.

13. MedicGirl watched their mom save a woman's life.

My mother, who is probably the quietest and most unassuming person I know, stepped up into the middle of a domestic assault. We were doing some shopping and we came out of a store to see this huge guy take a swing at this girl while calling her all sorts of filthy names. He knocked the girl down and she stood up to get away, but he grabbed her and started shaking her and hitting her. The guy was easily 6' tall or taller and built like a brick shit house. My mother calmly told me to call 911 and she walked up to the guy, telling him, "If you don't put her down, I'll beat your a*s like your mother should have."

I'm on the phone with the cops and I run over to help, as I'm afraid this guy is going to make short work of my mother. The guy threatens to beat my mother up and before I can say anything, he raises his fist to hit her and she slugged him so hard in the solar plexus that he just crumpled to the ground wheezing. At this point, several other bystanders who were just standing around came over and held the guy down until the cops got there.

My mother, who was all of 5'2" and nearly sixty years old stepped into the middle of a fight to keep a girl from getting hurt or killed. I've done absolutely nothing in my life that can compare to what she did.

14. makevelito watched the whole lunch room stand up against the bully.

I was having lunch in school when suddenly a fight broke down. It was between a bully and a weak and small boy. As I got up a pretty average-sized boy comes running behind the bully and hits him with a chair. As he is stunned his friends come behind him and attack the chair boy. As they approach a few more guys come charging with chairs and pretty much destroy the bad guys. It happened for maybe 10 seconds. After that the principal rebuked almost every guy and that was it.

15. kenjimasuda's dad was a hero on a daily basis.

Watching my Father get up and go to work with 13 herniated disks in his back every day until the pain meds literally killed him (Cancer). This was about a 10 year process and he never once complained, he was doing what his family needed regardless.

16. lunchylady's son figured out a whole system to help his classmate during lunch time.

While it may sound mild to you, and maybe even bias, I watched my son do something that by today's standards is rare and wonderful.

There is a little girl in his class (he's in 7th, so they have lunch together) that was born without arms or legs. She spends her days in an electric wheelchair, so it's really difficult for her to get a tray, her food, etc and get back to her table in time to be able to eat. She refuses to let her aide help now because she feels like it only singles her out more and only serves to call attention to her disability. She wanted to do it herself, and while it killed everyone, she was allowed her to do her thing without interference.

She and my son share a lunch together and sit at tables near each other. He's known her since 1st grade and talks to her pretty often. He noticed that she'd been struggling pretty bad and not really finding the time to finish her meals, so he asked her a couple of weeks ago if maybe he could help her through line and she politely declined.

It was really bothering him that she wasn't getting through fast enough (she's quite social and school is one of her few chances to get that side of her out), so he came up with another solution and proposed it to one of the lunch ladies at his school. (I work at another school)

He actually took the time to figure out what time she usually arrived in the cafe. Then, because there are two lines with different meals, he spoke with one of the lunch ladies to see if they knew what she usually gets on certain days. Unfortunately, she's a finicky eater and wasn't very predictable on that front. But, since they knew he was doing something nice, worked with him (and called me to make sure somebody was paying for the extras if need be-of course) and we worked it out that they would prepare her food in a way that she would have everything they offered without having to go through line with another adult (or by herself).

Right before she was due to come in, he would get her tray and meet her outside the cafeteria with it, keeping her on time and sparing her any distress she felt by taking so long. Even better, they sit very near the door, so we were hoping it would be less noticeable she'd come IN with a tray.

Since I know those woman, and they were so touched, they called me to come watch it unfold for the first time. We were all nervous that she'd be offended that we'd done this and end up feeling worse. So, myself, a bunch of lunch ladies, the principal, the vice principal, her aide and a teacher who just so happened to be there were hiding out, fingers crossed, hoping like hell it wouldn't go wrong.

Fortunately, she rolled into that cafeteria, went straight to her table without even a notice from anyone else and her smile was just beautiful. We all just sat watching, crying like babies. An entire grade's lunch halted because the lunch ladies had gone spastic! My son walked back in and spotted me, rolled his eyes a little because he thinks I'm a nerd....but gave me a discreet thumbs up and went back to his own business.

I have never been prouder. My son was a hero that day, not just to his mom, but to another kid and a whole bunch of adults. It's the little things, ya know? And to go out of your way for anyone is just an awesome thing in and of itself...and that day, it was my boy.

-edit- Thank you for all the kind words and the not entirely deserved parenting praise. He's a good kid, and I'd love to claim all the good things, but he's surrounded by good family and friends and they've all been positive people in his life. I won't tell you he's an angel, because I don't know a 12 year old that is. Not twenty minutes before I wrote this I was giving him a lecture about why tossing his socks at his moving ceiling fan is not a good idea.

As for how she eats (maybe I should have clarified this in some way), she has a very small part of her right arm left that she uses for just about everything she possibly can, including working her wheelchair. From what I can understand, she eats perfectly fine by herself via the use of some kind of thing that straps on that one part of her right arm. And as for how she 'carries' her tray, she uses a small table that is attached to her wheelchair and it sits on that.

Her parents are pretty phenomenal people, and she's one of the most delightful young girls I've ever met despite what she deals with on a daily basis. I think, somewhere in that 12 year old head of his, my son recognizes that. As most parents will know, you're never sure you're doing the right things with your kids or teaching them the right kind of lessons. I'm constantly second guessing myself. I'll admit, it was a damn good feeling to see that somewhere, somehow, something had gone right in his world.

17. OwnageWalrus's friends saved a drunk man.

It was my 21st birthday and friends and I decided to go to Rockville Centre (Long Island) to go to some bars. The night was winding down when my girlfriend and I decided to go the train station to get on the train home. When we got on the platform I ran into two kids that I went to highschool, both of them are life guards and we got to talking. Out of the corner of my eye i see an extremely drunk kid stumble over the platform and land face first (5ft down) on the tracks.

This kid was around 6ft 200+ lbs and completely wasted. He was laying lifeless on the tracks when my two friends jumped down and attempted to rescue him. In the distance the train starts blaring its horn realizing that someone is on the tracks. My friends attempt to haul him up but he is resisting them and throwing punches. When the train is around 50 feet away one of the kids jumps back on the platform and hauls the drunk kid up. With literally 1 second to spare the one who was pushing the drunk kid from the tracks gets on the platform, barely getting his feet up in time. This was so amazing heroic and these two kids are amazing, while I, was beta.

TLDR: Two friends rescue unconscious drunk man from getting run over by a train.

18. rokstaar's friend saved a life.

I was at a small music festival in east TN 5 years ago that was being hosted on a small local campground. The parking area for all of the guests camped at the festival was located accross a two-lane highway which split the property (camping on one side, road, parking) there was a fence which I guess was designed to prevent people from accidentally entering the roadway. Either way, inevitably, people would need access to their cars at some point over the weekend. The roadway was a small country highway so traffic was light if at all, and the continuous flow of people going to and from their car lead to a lighter sense of the situation.

`Around dusk on the second afternoon, my girlfriend and buddy were at our campsite which happened to be located adjacent to the fence I mentioned earlier. As we were sitting around talking, we hear a loud screeching noise and crash sound. A woman yelled out from a few campsites away "Oh my God! That boy has just been hit by a truck!" We immediately jump up and run over to the fence in time to see a man, about my age laying on the pavement with various broken bones, seizuring on his back as blood sprayed into the air in a fine mist.

My buddy, unbeknownst to me, was a fireman and ended up vaulting the fence and running down to the injured man. As he ran up to the man lying in the street, my buddy rips his t-shirt off splitting it at the neck down across his chest. Holding the tattered fabric in his mouth he pulls the wounded man off of the road into the grass between himself and the campground and ties off the area spraying blood out of this poor guys leg. It took about 10 minutes for paramedics to respond, and the injured man was unconscious as I'm guessing he was in a state of shock.

The paramedics said that an injury like that unattended would have let the victim bleed out in a matter of moments and dude no doubt saved his life. The guy driving the pearl escalade fled the scene at the time of the accident, but the group hosting the event made an announcement the next day stating that he had in fact been caught by local authorities, and also let everyone know that the man who had been struck was in stable condition- although was now facing criminal charges for some illegal stuff found in his bloody shorts.

“Nobody looks stupid when they’re having fun.”

-Amy Poehler

Ladies, ladies, ladies! These stupid funny memes will absolutely make you laugh today. Let's face it, we could all use some more giggles in our life.

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Celebs might be "just like us" in the sense that they occasionally go to Starbucks or walk around in public. But unlike us, when celebs enter a public space, it can cause the people around them to lose their minds. Because as hard as us normies try, it's hard not to act like a complete fool when meeting or bumping into your idols—or even just a famous person you feel ambivalent about. I once met John Mayer while waitressing at a restaurant in NYC and lost the ability to speak—and I don't even like John Mayer.

A guy recently asked Twitter to share their "most awkward or interesting" interactions with celebrities.

Here are 23 stories from people who encountered a famous person and things got WEIRD:

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"Thirty was so strange for me. I've really had to come to terms with the fact that I am now a walking and talking adult."

-C. S. Lewis

Adulting sucks, but what other choice do we have? There are some perks. At least you can buy alcohol whenever you want, eat candy for dinner, and you're just the right age to find these memes super funny and relatable. Let's do this!

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My world's on fire, how 'bout yours?

As living things on earth continue to feel the devastating effects of climate change, everyone from heads of state to corporate CEOs to your uncle on Facebook refuse to accept the scientific facts.

While the fight for a livable planet may seem overwhelming, people are going to battle, one comeback to an ignoramus at a time.

Here are 15 great retorts to science deniers to help you win your next Facebook fight. A lot of them feature grown adults freaking out about the existence of 16-year-old activist Greta Thunberg, and only a few of the anti-science people are the president.

1. There's still global warming where the sun don't shine.

2. Don't try to use a technical term on the guy who came up with the term.

3. Incredibly satisfying.

4. Very fine science on both sides.

5. God is green.

6. Overkill.

7. Ok boomer.

8. It's the guy from Jersey Shore vs. the guy from The Apprentice, one of whom is president.

9. Cite your sources, ignorant fool.

10. Albie with a burn for all seasons.

11. Don't spoil the ending for old Tommen.

12. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

13. How does the dictionary define "oooh burn!"

14. Teachers school people for a living.

15. Way to put it in terms he'll understand.

Rihanna is not your average celebrity.

When you think she's gonna zig (release new music), she zags (starts a slew of successful retail companies). And you can never, ever predict how she'll respond to trolls and criticism.

The elusive chanteuse/actress/cosmetics and lingerie empress can pretty much do no wrong in the eyes of the general public, which may be why she's the world's richest female musician.

And it turns out, even her response to zit-shaming is legendary.

To celebrate the new year, Badgalriri put up this selfie:

"First selfie of the year doe," she captioned it.

Because she's makeup-free, people wondered if the selfie was a hint: is Rihanna bringing us skincare this year?

Or will she just continue to hoard her un-released music?

But one eagle-eyed follower looked past Rihanna's glowing skin and enviable bone structure to spot a little red dot on her chin.

"Let me pop your pimple," he wrote.

Rihanna somehow saw it — and graced him with a response.

Did she freak out and accuse him of cyber-bullying?

Did she #bodyposi him to death?

No, she actually responded by personifying her pimp.

Yes, Rihanna joked about her zit!

The Comments by Celebs account took notice and re-posted the exchange.

People are loving Rihanna's approach.

RiRi's "my pimple is here and it doesn't care about your opinion" attitude is really inspiring the masses.

Celebs, more of this energy in 2020 please!

There's a rumor/joke that Leonardo DiCaprio dumps his girlfriends when they turn 25. And a new graph proves that irrespective of whether he's the one who ends thing, he really does always stop dating women when they're 25.

The gen-Y Oscar winner's preference for millennials (and now gen-Zers, thanks to current bae Camila Morrone, 22) is a constant topic of discussion and jokes. Leo himself is 45.

Ricky Gervais joked during the Golden Globes on Sunday night that Leo's recent film "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood" was so long that by the time it was over, his girlfriend was too old for him to date. It got a big laugh from Leo, FWIW.

This joke inspired a Reddit user to whip out the graph, which they created a few years ago, and re-post it to the platform:

The chart is posted under the title "Leonardo DiCaprio Refuses to Date Women His Own Age" (hey, maybe they don't hit on him! Okay, not likely) and it shows some pretty damning statistics.

It starts with Gisele Bundchen, who Leo was publicly seen with from 1998 through 2003. When they started dating, he was 24 and she was 18. Not that wild of an age gap! But when she turned 23, they stopped being seen together.

Next, he dated Bar Refaeli, starting when she was 20 and he was 30. Ten years is a big gap, but not unheard of. But when she was 25 and she was 35, they split.

The graph goes on to show the same pattern happening over and over: Leo starts dating women in their early or earlyish 20s, only for the couples to split when the woman hits 25.

It really is wild to see his narrow, narrow age range visually represented on the chart, all while his age goes up. It also must be noted that all of the women pictured look like clones of each other.

So it turns out the rumor that Leo's hard out is 25... might be true? Either that, or blonde model/actresses are suddenly repulsed by Leo when they reach their 25th year — which honestly wouldn't be unheard of. Many of us wake up one day in our mid- or late-20s and think, "Oh my god, this guy? What was/am I thinking?"

Reddit is having a field day with this new intel, and analyzing the graph like it's the Pentagon Papers.

"It's interesting. Every 6-7 years, the girlfriend age plateaus and either steadily or precipitously declines to a "reset" of ~20 years old," user mavajo said.

One user lamented that poor Cammie only has a few years left in her, but tw231116 issued a correction:

More like he's got 3 more years. Typically it's the younger woman in the age-gap relationship who matures and realises her older boyfriend is not good relationship material after all.

And innergamedude busted out a fact that will make any millennial feel like an old maid (or just... a person who's too smart to want to date a movie star):

So if you were a 13-year-old teenybopper lusting after 23-year-old Leo when Titanic came out, you became too old for him over a decade ago. Camila Morrone was born the year that movie came out.

And Autski came out with another wild interpretation of the data:

When Leo started dating Gisele Bundchen (also known as Tom Brady's wife since 2009) his current girlfriend was 1 year old.

Either way, the arrangement seems to be working for all involved. Mazel tov!

“From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere.”

–Dr. Seuss

Funny things really are everywhere: in nature, on TV, and especially in this awesome meme list. Get ready to start your day off with a big laugh. You will be glad you did.

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We're all just basically living in "The Twilight Zone."

While fantasy and science fiction stories are always interesting, the cold hard truth can often make for a far more entertaining tale. The best art is always a reflection of real life and our existence is already so complex that we don't even need to make anything up. Unexplained phenomenons happen every day and now that we have the wonderful world of the internet, wild stories can spread beyond the last call at the local bar...

When writer Aiden Moher asked people on Twitter to share a story that is so unbelievable, wild or unheard of that it's hard to believe it's actually true, it instantly went viral. Between ghost stories, kidnappings, and funny coincidences--this thread is a journey.

1. This is INSANE.

2. Damn.

3. Love at first sight!

4. Oops.

5. Just stay home.

6. Magic!

7. They were having a work meeting.

8. Yikes.

9. No thanks.

10. Oh my god!

11. Amazing.

12. Obviously witchcraft.

13. Learn to drive, Pence.

14. No Jay-Z for peasants.

15. Anything for Bey!

16. This is spooky indeed.

17. Oh no!

18. This is different.

19. A Christmas miracle!

20. *Chills*

21. Cats are angels.

22. Wow.

23. Aw.

24. No choice but to quit.

25. Of course he is.

26. *Crying*

27. YES.

28. The dream!

We all know the movie trope: a happy family dynamic is quickly unraveled when a gorgeous nanny enters the picture. Maybe the marriage was already on the rocks, but neither partner was ready to admit it until there was another effortlessly beautiful woman connecting with their children, and being exposed to their truth.

In other cases, the nanny herself isn't interested but the husband's wandering eye is hard to hide, and the wife sees it and takes note. While these scenarios are reductive in the ways they pit women against each other, assume the worst of straight men, and undermine the fact that nannying is a career women do for money - not the male gaze, the stereotype in pop culture still informs how some people make their decisions in real life.

In a recent post on the Am I The A*shole subreddit, a mom asked if she's wrong for feeling uncomfortable hiring an attractive younger nanny.

My husband and I are pregnant with our third child we were looking to get a nanny to help out for the first two years. I am planning on returning to work in two months after I deliver.

OP shared that she's planning to return to work two months after giving birth to her third child, so she's been looking with her husband for a good nanny.

I am a bit uncomfortable having another woman in the house to be honest especially someone younger and more attractive than me. I trust my husband I just don’t want to invite that risk to my home.

However, OP admits she feels uncomfortable hiring a younger, more attractive nanny (despite trusting her husband), and turned down two of the potential nannies for that reason.

When we were interviewing candidates I rejected two of the nannies despite them being qualified in everything we were looking for.

While OP's husband agrees they should hire someone she's comfortable with, he pointed out that it's sexist to deny women the position just because they're young and pretty.

My husband told me that he doesn’t want to pick anyone that we aren’t both comfortable with around our children. But if I am rejecting them just based on their age and attractiveness that it’s sexist.

OP agrees in theory, but thinks the situation is different given the fact the nanny will be in their home.

I agree with my husband, in that if I was applying for a job and I got turned down for my age or level of attractiveness it would be upsetting but I feel that there should be an exception for someone that will be in our house all day. In his words that it shows that I am a sexist when I am the employer or the one in power. I don’t know.

hopsandhorns pointed out the contradictions in OP's logic.

"I trust my husband I just don’t want to invite that risk to my home."

YTA - you don't trust him. Why would it be a risk if you do trust him?

emmmmme_in_wien thinks OP is TA for letting her insecurities rule the hiring process.

YTA and I feel bad for the woman who passes your unreasonable standard of being ugly enough to be hired. Work on your own insecurities first. Either you trust your husband or you don’t.

MercyMain97 thinks it's more complex than that, and that OP is just being honest about her post-partum insecurities.

NAH -

I made an account just to post on the because I was surprised at all of the YTA replies. If people want to argue that it's sexist and ageist, that's a "sure I guess" from me. So the husband isn't wrong here other than maybe his approach by just calling her sexist and not trying to see if there is an underlying issue.

Anyway,

I feel like majority of her discomfort does not come from distrust of her husband but the inevitable self esteem issues that pregnant and post-pregnancy women face. Their bodies haven't been their own for months. These women may feel fatter, un-sexy, old, etc. And lets get real if we think that women don't compare themselves to other women. Even if someone is trying to have a positive outlook and not compare themselves, things happen. And while feeling all of these negative emotions and being very vulnerable you see this beautiful woman being the perfect nanny (mother-like figure) to your children?

Being everything you may be unable to bring yourself to be? That's just asking for trouble. If she isn't comfortable with a nanny for age and attractiveness it's fine. She is going to be the one going through body and hormone changes and if she doesn't want a "pretty little thing" making her feel less than. I applaud her for being so honest about her discomfort. I only wish she would explain to her husband why she has this discomfort. Maybe I'm incorrect and it is a cheating thing and she is TA. But if it's a confidence thing it's OK and she has every right to feel this way.

P.S. This probably has poor grammar, I don't care enough to change it. Also, I'm a woman in case that matters for the context of my answer.

Edit: Thank you kind strangers for the Gold, Silvers and the credit gift. First reddit comment and I get A gold and some silvers lucky me!

NotTheRocket thinks OP's reaction belies a more sinister marital issue.

YTA. Yes you should feel comfortable with the person caring for your child, but if you're seriously this worried about having an attractive woman in your home there are serious issues at play.

redditpokemon11 is a young nanny and thinks OP is wrong, but has some comforting words.

YTA but also i understand. Just a piece of comforting advice as a young nanny myself- we get to see the dad everyday. We see the bad side of him as much as you do. It’s not like we see him at work or out socially when people put on their best personality. We see him when he tells us the kid had diarrhea all night or that the teen stuck a pen up their nose and it’s stuck. Also, young nannies usually don’t want to date a married guy with 3 kids. Hope some of that comforts you.

Regardless of what decision OP and her husband make moving forward, it sounds like a long and honest talk about their marriage and insecurities is much needed.

You should have to take a sanity test to be a parent. But you don't. If the parts work, literally anyone can bring a child into this world and name it whatever the heck they want (with a few exceptions). For example, my mom wanted to name me Willa. This would've made my full name Willa Wilkerson, which would've given me no choice but to run my own chocolate factory. But it could've been much, much worse.

People are sharing the most "horrible and ridiculous" names they've ever heard parents choose for their children. Here are 31 stories of kids with names so absurd and terrible that their parents should probably be locked up.

Good luck out there to all of these kids. Stay strong. And remember at 18, you can legally change your name. Yes, Queeth. I'm talking to you.

1.) From MmeGrey:

I went to high school with a guy named John John John. Yes, his first name, middle name and last name were all “John”.

2.) From Idonediditdonedidit:

An ex had friends who named their kids Haight and Rayge (hate and rage). Good luck kids.

3.) From Boxboy7:

I work at a college and often go through the new applications to process them, I've seen all kinds.

Most ridiculous name I've seen thus far though:

Starscream Anakin as his first and middle names. He has a normal last name. When I first saw it, I was certain that it was a kid fucking with our application system. Then I met him in person, and he showed me his ID.

His name is legally Starscream Anakin. I get the Anakin part, but of all the Transformers to name your kid after, why on Earth make it Starscream? He was just awful.

4.) From MelyssaRave:

My neighbor was the 12th kid. His parents named him Twelver. That’s gotta be the worst I’ve ever seen.

5.) From TheSanityInspector:

I once encountered a plump young woman whose name, according to her ID, was Rotunda.

6.) From happykitty05:

When I was pregnant my now exMIL wanted me to name our son "Rock" which is stupid as it is but the last name is Bowler so my son's name would be Rock Bowler and I couldn't do that to the poor kid. My ex thought it would be funny to name him Rocky with the middle name Bal so his name would be Rocky Bal Bowler...

7.) From mrsrariden:

Had a little boy in my program named Rowdy. Eh... kind of rednecky but, whatever.

Then I found out his older brother is named Howdy! WTF?

Found out later that the older boys legal name is Howard. That's less ridiculous, at least.

8.) From SilentDoggo:

Baby girl

Yes this was their legal name

9.) From fijiloo:

queeth

10.) From maggggy:

My mother is a genealogist and discovered that my great great great something grandparents were named Lettuce and Nimrod. A power couple.

Update: I spoke with my mom and she said that her name was Lettice with an i so y’all were right. And it probably wasn’t pronounced “lettuce” like I imagined but rather latitia or something. They were married around the 1840’s! The joys of genealogy!

11.) From cdgal38382:

Lihburtee

12.) From Nikkus430:

Some friends of mine in high school knew a girl named Cash Money. Met her once and she said her name with some made up accent.

One recently I ran into was Kaideynse.

13.) From betterannamac:

Had a boy in our school named Avonté. Pronounced Avont. Mother insisted the accent made the e silent. She would come completely unglued when anyone said his name wrong. Lady, that’s “Avontay”

Update: IKR?! I have no idea why she didn’t just leave off the e altogether. The sad thing is, she really really thought it would make it silent. She was really angry about it. If she were a nicer person I would have felt sorry for her as I’m sure no one really challenged it until he got to school and people saw it written versus just hearing it. It got to be where after pre-K we’d warn each teacher about how to pronounce it so spare them the wrath and the incorrect grammar lesson from mom but no one could help it.

14.) From the_eric:

I went to high school with a guy named Zip Daub.

His middle name was Adydo.

They named that motherfucker Zip Adydo Daub.

15.) From Emebust:

Okay Arthur Doak. We called him Okay. He was the youngest of 5 kids.

Fancy (named after the Reba song) and her sister Truly (named after Truly Scrumptious from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang)

Secretlove. She was a kid my mom met when my mom worked at a pediatrician’s office. Secretlove’s mom laid out the whole story to my mom about the name.

16.) From paintedbyfailure:

My friend went to high school with Richard Noggin.

17.) From yongf:

The neighbour of my dad's ex had a son and daughter called Blaiyz (blaze) and Ainjayl (angel). I don't understand the strange spelling.

18.) From shorthodur17:

Wednesday Passion. That was a little girl i use to babysit.

19.) From PurpleMerple:

The kid’s name was William. Unfortunately for the kid, he had a nickname that was spelled “Liam.” That doesn’t sound so bad until you hear the pronunciation: “Yum.” Like, “Will-Yum.” They called their child “Yum” and spelled it “Liam.” No teacher in my classes with him could ever say his name correctly, so he eventually gave up and we all called him the normal-sounding Liam.

20.) From PoignantUltimatum:

Well... let's just say that the state I live in doesn't have a significant english-speaking population, especially in the rural regions, despite the official language of the country ( India) being English and most of the urban population being educated. However; I have friends whose parents gave them names like "Benadryl", "Goodbye", "Very helpful" and the absolute worst "Dishwasher". This, however is because people from the rural regions ( especially in the North-East) come to the cities, and see words in ads and billboards that they find pretty and innocently name their children after a variety of brands. I don't always blame them, I had a family friend who came off as very posh and educated, spoke perfect English... but named his daughter Darth Vader. Some of them are just trolling. Do not underestimate people of the hills; they don't take your bullshit, educated or otherwise.

21.) From InRustWeTrust:

Saw a mother at the grocery store with two annoying rowdy kids named Dillinger and Maverick. They drove away in a lifted pickup truck, I imagine the father is a total dicknose.

22.) From Viiibrations:

A family friend named his son "Sir" and it's pretty cringe. Honorable mention goes to the former coworker who named his daughter Khaleesi.

Edit : also knew a stripper whose real name was Curiosity. Her parents doomed her.

23.) From luscious_j:

My mom worked in a maternity ward and a family with the last name "Dollar" named thier infant child "Needa"...poor kid

24.) ​​​​​​​From aliyvonne:

Chevy, because he was conceived in the bed of a Chevy truck.

25.) From Sovtek95:

My favorite I saw while working as a banker was...

Subway Club Allah Is Supreme Middle Name (last name)

His parents named him this and he wanted a loan to open a weed store in a state where it is illegal.

To clarify his middle name is Middle Name, i forgot the last name, but it was just a normal last name

26.) ​​​​​​​From _incredigirl_:

Met a kid named Beau once. Learned later he had a twin brother named Arrow.

27.) From Who_is_lost:

Neighbours kid is called Exodus, I thought that was weird. Then again his mothers name is peaches

(TBH I think both Exodus and Peaches are awesome names)

28.) From lubodogg:

A girl I went to high school was named martini and her last name was Pitts. She also had a brother named Harold. Guess what they called him..

Harry! Harry Pitts!

29.) From Exciting-Shirt:

Gaylord

30.) From HiJane72:

Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii. Yes that really was her name - her parents lost custody of her (yes way!) so her name could be legally changed. In NZ we are not allowed to name children after royalty (e.g. no King, Count, Earl etc) but sure go ahead and name your kid Number 16 Bus Shelter....Proof - http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/546018/Court-orders-name-change and https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10523288

31.) From sisof2:

I know a girl named Random. While at an Easter egg hunt years ago (eggs were labeled for each kid), I took the eggs labeled Random thinking they were up for grabs. Random’s parents were unamused to say the least. Maybe they should have considered the consequences before picking that dreadful name.

LOCK THEM UP! LOCK THEM UP!

Nobody wants to get caught watching porn.

It's bad enough to be an adult and have to deal with a walk-in during any private time but if you're teenager exploring the adult side of the internet in your parent's house with your parent's devices...it's a recipe for a truly embarrassing, red-faced, back-sweating disaster.

At the end of the day, porn has been around since humans could draw naked people and it's probably not going to go anywhere. When a recent Reddit user asked, "What’s the most embarrassing story of you getting caught watching porn?" people everywhere were ready to absolve their shame and share their cringe-inducing tale for others to laugh. If you experience secondhand embarrassment, it might be best to skip this one...

1. Oh my god, "Mannibal_Lecter."

When my dad asked me why BIG TITS was on the Google search history. I was 11 and I told him I saw those words in a book and wanted to know what they meant.

2. NOOOOOOOO, "the_riddler_30."

Actually chromecasted it to my downstairs tv. That feeling of ooh shit when you don't hear the volume is the absolute worst

3. Oops, "mlg_AsteriiX_"

I blew the family monthly data usage (we had like 30gb between 6 people) and I costed the family like an extra $100, they found out when they checked my data breakdown which had pornhub network at like 19gb.

4. Yikes, "RandomSubbing."

In college: Roommate’s boyfriend came into my room while I was masturbating. I had panicked and lied that I was doing homework when he knocked so he thought it was safe to come in. Unfortunately I forgot I didn’t lock it. He saw me basically half naked laying with my legs open on my bed next to my laptop. He stared briefly and then he left and never mentioned it again.

5. Not a fun talk, "zedgeroni."

Had a tablet I used for porn and other innocent things, but I thought it would be funny to go into my history and instead of deleting the porn as you typically do, I deleted everything but the porn hub searches, leaving a catalog, a list, a Necronomicon of different video titles such as lesbian sex, not big boobs and so on. Eventually my parents looked through my tablet history and found all of what I collected over perhaps a year or so. Had a 'talk' later that day.

6. AHHHHHH, "n0nf1cti0n."

Not me, but at my old job it was just me and my boss and for a week out of every month the job required us to go out of town. He'd always buy all my meals and pay for my own separate hotel room. He also was the sole driver of the truck as i didn't have my cdl. Anyway he always played music from his phone and it was the first thing he'd set up before we started driving. So one day we got up in the morning and headed out to the truck where he plugged his phone in and immediately it started playing the video he must have been watching the night before. All i heard was moaning and demands to 'fuck me harder daddy' before he quickly shut it off and switched over to iTunes. Needless to say we drove in silence for the next couple hundred miles lol.

7. Nothing good happens at fishing, "insanity_of_cain."

my mother walked in when i was 13 and i pressed the back page button to hide it but i was too obvious so she pressed back page again and it was more porn, my father then tried to give me the talk on our next fishing trip and i have never been fishing with him again.

8. NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE, "salesman_jordan."

My friend had his in-laws and whole family in town and jerked off in the shower to porn but his phone was connected to the Bluetooth speaker downstairs... everyone heard the porn play throughout the whole house.

9. Sorry, bro..."nootnoot9001."

I was 8 years old and decided to look up naked girls on the computer I used. Which was my teenager brothers computer. Which he was given to him by his school. I forgot to close the tab afterwards so when my brother went to school the next morning he got a surprise. I got a lot of confrontation about it and got in a lot a trouble. I never touched that computer again.

10. Wow, "northernsticks_boy."

I think I was 17 at the time, I was in my room and tried casting my porn to my TV. Accidentally cast it to my dads TV in his bedroom and he was in there, so I turned it off quickly then walked up to play it off like it was a joke but I'm pretty sure he was already tugging it before I even walked up there. Oh what irony, lol.

11. God is probably chill with porn? "TuxedoCatSupremacist."

Not me, but in college, I used to be part of a Christian fellowship. We had worship nights once a week, and I was in part of the music team. We were using one of the guys' iPhone to play background music while our director was talking about the Gospel. When I hit play on the home screen (the phone was locked), it started playing bunch of sex noises.

Turns out the owner of the iPhone was watching porn and didn't close out of Safari/Chrome, and he thought the music playlist was ready to go for the evening.

12. *Cringe,* "YouPooDude."

I almost got caught. My mom came downstairs for some reason, I was still naked after a J/O sesh, but I had a blanket on. So I put my clothes back on.

She didn't say it, but she undeniably knew. She knocked from then on.

13. Sorry, Uncle. "illuminati_hottie0."

I was very young and stupid. I got a virus on my phone and i asked my uncle if he could help me because hes good with phones and stuff. He fixed the virus but then saw all of the porn videos i have been watching. I still cringe to this day and feel embarrassed anytime I see him. Im 19 now this happened when i was about 12

14. Terrible, "Johnny_Politics."

My roommate freshman year of college walked into the dorm room right after I passed the point of no return. I'm laying in my bed (thankfully under the covers) and had to shut my laptop while simultaneously cumming and trying to answer his "what's up?"

15. Ok! "imvital."

My mom walked into me watching an interracial gangbang.

I tore the plug out of the computer, then grabbed my shit and bolted out of the house.

I hid in my friend's shed for the rest of the day. I came back much later in the evening. We both pretended like nothing happened.

Dating is weird. It's basically a job interview where you're both interviewing the other for the position of long-term (or short-term) boning. And, similar to a job interview, there are questions that are appropriate to ask and questions that aren't. "Where are you from?" and "what do you do for work?" and "do you own a MAGA hat?" are pretty standard for a first date. But then there are questions that are straight-up inappropriate for someone you've only just met. Questions like "how much money do you make?" and "oh, you make six figures and regularly donate to Planned Parenthood—will you marry me?" should be avoided, as difficult as that may be. There are rules about first date etiquette. But not everyone follows them.

Someone asked Reddit: "What was the weirdest question you got asked on a first date?" These 27 people share stories of going on dates with people who blatantly overstepped the lines with their questions, probably at the expense of a second date.

Let these first date faux pas be a lesson to us alll.

1.) From i_am-batman_:

“So what do you want to do next, Steve?”

My name is not Steve.

2.) From hokeyWB:

"Do you want to come back to my place and play my Mandolin?"

And then she meant it. I got a 45 minute Mandolin lesson at no charge.

3.) From valerianfox:

Dude kind of awkwardly leaned forward after some hours of talking and sort of half-whispered "you're not... a furry... right?"

He was incredibly relieved when I told him I wasn't.

4.) From Megling1285:

This dude told me I had a good wife aura whatever the fuck that means and then he asked me if Id consider making him my husband. And it wasn’t like a cute quirky joke or anything he was very serious and very odd and it’s probably the most uncomfortable I’ve ever been. This guy also tried to tell my my severe allergies were all in my head.

5.) From agisshi:

“If we have a son, would he have a small dick because you’re asian?”

I didn’t even answer the guy...I just left the restaurant and went home.

6.) From Dontdothatfucker:

“Depending on your political views, this might not last very long because I’m super opinionated”

“Oh, well ok. What are your political views?”

“I don’t wanna talk politics on a first date.”

“????????????”

7.) From Sofargonept2:

Have you masturbated to my pictures on Instagram before?

8.) From PotatoSaladMaster:

I’m not sure if it counts as a date but we went and picked up pizza to bring back with us to his dorm. While we were in the restaurant waiting for our order, he seemed very eager to show me photos of his roommates and wanted me to rate them based on their appearances. I was thrown off a bit but whatever, I played along.

On the walk back to campus he finally admitted why he was being so weird. He told his roommates I was open to having group sex and was trying to get me interested before I got to their dorm. I was very clearly not interested but he still asked after a few awkward minutes, “So do you think you’d be down if it’s just 3 guys? They keep texting me asking.” Took the pizza from him and walked myself back to my dorm instead.

9.) From mukino:

I once went on a date that turned out to be a recruitment for a cult. So I guess being asked to join a cult would be the weird question.

10.) From atikiin:

A dude once asked me how many fingers I could fit inside myself within the first ten minutes of meeting up.

11.) From wherethebicenroam:

"Are you broke?"

While I understand they're probably searching for a stable future, but like, girl... we just met and I'm paying for your food and drinks tonight. Don't pry into my wallet that much yet.

12.) From godbullseye:

This was a few years ago but I once took a girl out who asked me to buy her an iPhone and when I laughed it off she told me she was serious. When I said no she asked if I would buy her a 12 pack of Mike’s Hard Lemonade and at this point I was done. Turns out she lied about her age and was only 19. Took her home immediately and blocked her across the board.

13.) From Theearthhasnoedges:

I was born with cerebral palsy. It impacts only my legs and is relatively mild. I walk with a pretty pronounced limp, but otherwise I do alright. Used to work in a call center and became fast friends with this woman who worked on my team. Eventually we went on a half assed date because she was going to be moving across the country in a few weeks. We got talking about my disability and she just up and asks out of nowhere:

"What is sex like for you? Is it difficult? You must have a pretty big dick though, right?"

I was just flabbergasted for a moment and laughed. I said: "Sex is no more difficult than anything else. As for my dick, I guess that depends on your point of reference."

I ended up asking her later why she would assume my disability would have granted me a magnum dong and she just said: "I don't know, there's gotta be a trade off somewhere."

We hooked up a few time before she left.

14.) From Mabusto:

If I became a quadriplegic how long would it take for you to leave me

She had lots of others as well like 'When was the first time you met a ghost?'

15.) From daddydonetomuch:

My dick size. Mind you, the "date" was merely hanging out at my place, and she asked me question in full earshot of my mother.

16.) From tinyhorsesinmytea:

If I would have a threesome with her and her gay friend... like, I could fuck her if he could fuck me. Seemed like a bit of a bum deal, so I passed.

17.) From TheMasterMekanik:

I dated this ditzy blonde, She said "you're like not one of those pedophile people are you?"

18.) From Shadow_Wing95:

The girl in question seemed nice, until she let her freak flag proudly fly with rapid fire questions of, "Do you have a high sperm count? And do you cum a huge amount? Also, do you have a large enough penis? Because I need to know you can knock me up easy and early on for many kids." Um.... what....?

19.) From Shadowfury45:

"have you ever had a bad food experience here? because last time me and my ex were here bla bla bla"

• uh yeah no please go on for the next thirty minutes about you and your ex's digestive issues. its not as if i'm missing any productive dates here

20.) From CaspinK:

“So what did you do to cause your ex to cheat on you.” Pretty amazing moment in hindsight. Still took her home.

21.) From QuietShortGurl:

What would you do if I stabbed you? while holding a 3 inch knife

This was right after this dude grabbed me between my legs (over my jeans) and said "THIS Is mine".

Needless to say there was no second date.

22.) From drittinnlegg:

I have Aspergers... been asked if it’s legal to date or have sex with somebody on the autism spectrum...

23.) From SirSnowlol:

Met a girl one time to go bowling. Before she got in my car she asked me if it was okay if she brought her bowling ball. Little did I know that she was the state champ bowler 2 years in a row and I got my ass handed to me.

24.) From alypooo:

"What would you do if a gunman came in here and robbed the place?"

25.) From IONenemabandit:

"Do you know anything about hemorrhoids?"

Kinda weird first date material.

26.) From yicu666:

Got asked “Would you stay the nite if I paid you $300.”

27.) From pipapopupon:

“Have you tried cocaine, do you like it ? Maybe we should go to my place and call my drug dealer?” 20 minutes into the date.

EDIT : If he was hot I would have said yes, obviously.

If you grew up on a steady diet of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, then you're already deeply aware of the exciting and terrifying possibilities of the underground. The dark sludgey atmosphere of underground subway tunnels has captured the imaginations of generations of people, who see them as mysterious places to explore or do drugs in peace.

As anyone with experience knows, traveling into dark underground tunnels, bomb shelters and creepy attics is not for the faint of heart. You have to go ready to ruin your shoes and sense of smell, while potentially traumatizing yourself with what you find. Still, the stories are worth it in the long-run.

In a popular Reddit thread, people who have explored underground tunnels, subway routes, or bomb shelters share their most memorable stories.

1. SoreWristed has had some strange times inside the boarded up WWII fort.

There's an abandoned and boarded up WWII fort in the southern part of Belgium, that we often sneak into with the scouts. Getting in there requires scaling a sheer wall (where we've placed anchoring points for ropes and climbing gear) next to a relatively busy road. So you're being super quiet, making no light and cowering every time a car passes by so he doesn't spot you in his lights. The atmosphere is set.

The moment you enter it, it's like diving into water. Sound stops and the entire place is at a constant 14 degrees Celsius, with a slight breeze passing through. The tunnel is barely large enough for me (slightly broader than the average person) to pass without turning my body sideways.

The tunnel is just high enough to work up a decent gait while hunched over. If someone ahead of you blocks a passage for a moment, the breeze stops and it feels like the entire tunnel network takes a breath. Because of the way the tunnels are constructed, they echo in such a way that your own footsteps seem to be coming from behind you. They also seem to take one more step than you do when you stop.

Of course we don't allow the guys and gals to take any source of light in there, so it's pretty scary overall.

So I'm in there, posted at a side passage to ensure everyone takes the same path and doesn't get lost. I go in first, before any of the climbers arrive, so they don't know there are friendly faces in there to help them. I'm in there for a while, just waiting for the first to come by, when I see a dancing little light coming down the long hallway. I quietly settle back in my nook and wait for whoever was smart enough to hide some matches and take them away.

The light quietly bobs closer when I realize there aren't any footsteps accompanying it. I poke my head around the corner just in time to see it disappear. I hear no footsteps still.

I settle back and wait some more, when I realize I do hear some scuffling. Very faint. Breathing noises, but still very faint. I become aware of a wet heat coming from right in front of me, with a faint smell of... person, sweat, dirt? Suddenly I realize, there's someone there. Right in front of me. Inches from my face.

The breathing stops suddenly, whatever it is is aware of me as well. Whatever or whoever it is, we're both holding our breath, both acutely aware of each other. It takes ages. I'm sitting there, unable to move, speak or breathe properly.

The wet heat passes and some minutes later I become aware of very faint light coming from my right side, which soon dissipates and leaves.

Some time later still, I hear the familiar stomping of combat boots coming down the hallway from my left. I stop the person, tell them to keep following the passageway and take the first right they come to. Out of curiosity, I ask who went in first. No one, he went in first...

<Spoiler> it was explained much later. the first guy got lost down a dead end side passage and the second girl passed him by. She got nervous from the footsteps and removed her shoes. She saw me poke my head from around the corner and dropped the match. She passed me very slowly. One of the later checkpoints said she was crying her eyes out.</spoiler>

2. TSCHWEITZ has walked into other people's showers.

I work for the MTA in NYC. The underground train system is the perfect place for homeless people to escape the elements. I walked into a fully naked man bathing under a leaking hot water pipe. That was pretty terrifying.

3. hubble-oh_seven still thinks about the tunnels under the school.

Freshman year of highschool I noticed this large panel under an old staircase in the basement of a school building. For years my buddies and I talked about opening it, but it was across the hall from the office of the lady in charge of misdemeanors and suspensions.

Fast forward to the last day of senior year after most everyone had left. My two buddies and I, in formal attire from the day's events, unscrewed the panel from the wall. Sure enough, there was a tunnel about 5 feet below the floor. Luckily there was a sturdy stool for us to climb down.

There was a system of tunnels down there but our exploration was limited since we were in good clothes and there was standing water down some of the tunnels. The unexplained part is that, while there were pipes where we went, there were tunnels without pipes that went out from the buildings footprint and not towards any other building. These tunnels had inches deep standing, nasty water so we couldn't go in them in rented dress shoes. But we could make out that they connected to other tunnels which seemed to serve no purpose. I doubt there was anything sinister going on, but we thought it was pretty creepy at the time.

4. renegade_donut did not love the underground mines.

Many years ago I worked as a technical assistant at a coal mining company. This was basically doing the grunt work for those with degrees, taking samples of things, doing data entry, driving the surveyors around etc etc.

One of my duties was to go into the underground mines and take coal, dirt, and air samples on a regular basis. often this'd be a little away from other workers.

One place I'd hate going because every time it'd feel and sound like there was someone standing just behind me to my left and whispering in my ear, even when the nearest other person was 30 yards away or so.

Probably just weird acoustics but f*ck I hated those days.

5. beechknoll's grandpa got lost in a Mammoth Cave.

My grandpa got lost in Mammoth Cave after he got back from WWII. Apparently before he was drafted it was not a National Park and the rules around exploring it were very loose, the property it was on was privately owned and locals were known to trespass to explore the cave (or that's what my grandpa used to tell me, he and his friends vary well may of been the only people trespassing).

While my Grandpa was serving in the Pacific Theater the cave became a National Park. After arriving home my grandpa and his friends that survived the war went back to explore for old time sakes. They were wandering around with flashlights when they heard a tour group, considering they weren't in their 'legally' and had bypassed many Federal trespassing signs, they cut the lights and slowly but surely tried to walk unnoticed back to the entrance.

Unfortunately they went deeper and spent 17 hours in there before getting out. He didn't have many stories because apparently you inch along in complete darkness without being able to see your hand infront of your face. But he said one of his friends kept saying "we didn't survive that shit to die in here"

6. My6thRedditusername has been unpleasantly surprised by bee nests.

I've popped hundreds of manhole covers in Boston working for dig safe. The only thing I can think of is surprise bee nests. Of when the noxious gas meter starts beeping which means "stay f*ck out of this hole or you'll pass out and die"

7. ICantProcessThis wonders how the old man died.

I used to wander the old abandoned mines, cabins and grounds of Montana (areas people hadn't been in at least 3 decades). I knew every cabin too. I knew people who'd been there decades prior when there were still crazy old gold panning loony types who'd never given up hope of the big find. I remember one story my father has with one of those people.

My father and his brother were looking in this one area and a shot went over their heads. My father and uncle froze and said they were just hiking. The old man said they were trying to steal and my father said who his grandmother was (who lived on the mountain since the early 60s). The old man then stopped, said to thank their mother for feeding him when he was starving one winter, but that he wasn't taking visitors that day and to get lost.

About a decade ago my father and I found the dilapidated cabin that man was in by chance wandering randomly through the woods. It was really hard to find and we had just barely come across it. Everything that old man had was still there, the roof was partially caved in, pots and pans were still on the stove like he had died in there or nearby. There was no body though. Just everything was there, covered in decades of normal decay, frozen in time, tools and all. It was a museum 100 years in the past, but only my father and I knew how to visit it. The old man must have died over 30 years ago at least, since he was so old when my father saw him.

That cabin was bulldozed to build millionaire cabins 8 or so years ago, along with dozens of other secret museums of the gold rush past. I used to know every secret path of that woods for miles in every direction to every secret cabin, game trail and serene natural rest stop. It is all now empty cul de sacs with no cabins, because the money stream ran dry. I think that is the scariest and saddest part, frankly.

8. Secretly_psycho is still skeeved out by the bomb shelter.

Was playing in the woods and tripped over something solid. Fund it was a cement circle, and realized it was an underground door. The next day I come back with a crowbar (to open, and like hell im going in unarmed). Pull it up, and it's a cold war era personal bomb shelter... that failed? There was a giant crack in the roof, the floor was covered in slime. But what was worse is the walls are covered in writings. "this is the end" "we must die" "everyone is gone".

Till I find the back wall, and a giant red scrawl "GET THE F*CK OUT OF MY HOME". That's it, f*ck this. I'm f*cking out. I sprint up the door, and close it. I don't want to know what the hell that was. But I come back the next day... it's burned out. I didn't set a fire intentionally, and I didn't smell smoke leaving.

9. martinmlaw had a weird find at school.

I currently attend a state university full time. By the description you might be able to figure out which one. I'm currently a senior living in private housing downtown, but sophomore year I lived in the university's only downtown quad. It was built in the early 1920's and definitely looked it compared to the uptown campus and housing quads. I was in the basement lounge area grabbing my mail when I noticed a nearby door that wasn't usually open and a nearby maintenance worker. I casually asked the guy what was down there.

He said, "Dunno, we just store our materials on the stairs." My curiosity got the better of me and I asked him if I could take a look to see what was all the way at the bottom of the flight of stairs. He said, "I don't see why not, just don't get hurt on anything down there, and try to be back before my supervisor gets back in 15".

This guy should definitely have not let me down there because he clearly hadn't seen it. There was friable asbestos literally everywhere, particularly the decomposing ceiling tiles. I turned on my phone flashlight to find that it was some kind of sealed off research area. The stairs led to a hallway which looks like it may have been hospital-like at one time, but it had since experienced some heavy water damage.

There were approximately 7 rooms on either side with one way glass pane in each, with some kind of 90's intercom panel to the right. Inside each room were heavily rusted bed frames, a sink, and a toilet. All the way at the end of the hall were a series of file cabinets. I would have looked to see what they contained but figured it would only be a cloud of black mold spores, so I decided against it. Nothing inherently creepy about the area I suppose but definitely interesting.

10. tttttttypo still thinks about the disappearing man.

I once was alone at Moorgate station in London after staying for a few after work drinks with my buddy who also works in central.

It was around 10pm so I left the pub and walked to the station and found I had missed the previous train by about 5 minutes.

Moorgate station is an underground station but the overground trains depart and terminate there. The train that I needed to catch always departs from one of two platforms that are in their individual tunnels adjacent to one another but accessible by foot as they are connected by paths that connect the platforms every 15 feet or so.

I was sat on the bench right at the end (near where the front of the train would be when departing). As I sat there I saw some movement in the corner of my eye so I turned and stared to see just a regular guy dressed in dark clothing come through from the other platform passage about 10 meters from me and thought nothing of it. He went by the track, starred down, backed away and ran back through the passage to the other platform.

I thought to myself that was weird and quickly got up to follow him and find out why he was running/if he was ok.

I was no more than 5 seconds behind him and the exit/entry to the platform is right by the other end which was a good 150 meters or so away.

As I go through the passage to the other platform I look to see no one there. I then went back to the other platform and again I was the only one there apart from a women who just reached the bottom of the escalator to the platform entrance right down the other end.

It was something I couldn't explain and I was sure I couldn't recall any footsteps that made is even weirder. London is an old place and has a lot of history so not sure if there was an event that could give reasoning to what I experienced but it's a memory that will always stick with me.

11. drone42 noped out of the crawl space.

Do crawlspaces under houses count? Because if they do I once went into one that had asbestos everywhere. Terrifying.

12. digitalis303 barely missed a corpse.

As a teen I was into urban exploration. There was an old ice plant near my house that had burned (I know- ironic) around 25-30 years prior. Anyway, it wasn't really underground, but was so overgrown that it felt more-or-less like it.

I go climbing around over and under mangled concrete and rebar and graffiti for a while and finally decide I'm done. Couple of days later I hear about how the police pulled a corpse out of there. Pretty sure I walked right by it and didn't even notice...

13. Buzzkill1591 noped away from the voices.

There's a sewer system under my old neighborhood and I would go in there to smoke weed with my buddies. We started to notice "messages" left on the walls in red paint, like " were watching you" "smoke the reefer meet the reaper". One day while we were down there we heard a couple of voices laughing and were getting closer and closer. We panicked and lifted a manhole right above that opened up to a busy road street. We never went back down again.

14. voice_of_craisin traveled a mile via water tunnel.

Well, not unexplained as the explanation is "I am an idiot" but definitely scary.

Houston is criss-crossed with bayous because it a swamp that needs to be drained a lot. There are these gigantic tunnels that lead to the bayous and collect water from the storm drains. When we were kids, these were great to explore. We'd make maps about how to get from one area to another using these tunnels.

Well, we set aside one Saturday to try to make all the way to a mall a couple miles away from the starting point. Our hand drawn map was about halfway done. We got lost. And then, as it is wont to do in Houston in the Summer, it started pouring down rain. This happened before but we were usually close to an exit. Not this time. It kept raining. The water got high enough that the current knocked us over. Eventually we got spit out into a bayou from a tunnel we had never even explored.

After finally getting out of the bayou and getting back to safety we realized we were almost a mile from where we started.

15. Vokudlak wonders where the family went.

I grew up in Frederick, Maryland. Back in the mid 90s to early 2000s when I was a teenager, the city still had a very rust belt vibe. Before its fairly recent "revival" into a hipster-infested douche mecca, it had a fairly large blue collar presence - particularly along the city's open air drainage canal, which back when I was growing up was flanked on both sides by tons of abandoned and/or condemned buildings, both residential and industrial. Now it's all sushi fusion joints, hilariously overpriced condos and vintage thrift shops like every other city on the east coast.

Anyway, back then we would roam around the city and break into abandoned buildings for fun. Sometimes we'd vandalize the place, but usually we were just exploring and using them as a hangout spot where we could drink and smoke weed without having to worry about cops. There were a bunch of creepy moments, particularly when you'd break into a condemned house only to discover that one or more homeless people had set up in there - my city kind of had a reputation for having a LOT of severely mentally ill homeless people back then, paranoid schizophrenics and such, a bunch of whom I knew by name back then.

One memory that stands out, though, was an abandoned house we broke into which had clearly been vacant for many many years, with visible black mold growing on the walls. It was weird because it had clearly been occupied by a family previously because all of their stuff was still there, like the Rapture happened and they just disappeared. Beds, dressers with clothes, family photos on the walls, all of that (we didn't dare open the fridge). It really seemed like for some reason the family drove away one day and just never returned, it was super creepy walking through their home with flashlights and just getting this rotted glimpse into their lives before whatever happened.

16. Tekowsen found an attic full of cat carcasses.

Although it's technically not urban exploring, as a former electrician I think I can still share one moment from a job I had to do about 13 years ago.

Me and my job partner were called out to a larger restoration job that was being done to an older house from the early 1900's. The house was until this point, a family owned house which had 2 owners since it was built, and the last owner was an old lady who had passed away there whilst being the last person in her family line (sad story on its own) and nobody could take over the house.

So the house got auctioned to a younger couple that bought it for an insane amount of money due to how large the house was, but it was now time to get the old house up to modern standards, which included a completely new installation from scratch, as the old cables around the house were the type of cables that was insulated with black cotton and fastened with hand crafted wooden clamps.

While working in the 1st floor was quite easy as the entire installation process was made to fit inside the new wall frames that the carpenters were setting up, we eventually had to move on to the 2nd floor and prepare for setting up a new intake from the attic which would then pass down to the new main fuse box on the 2nd floor.

We opened the hatch to the attic, and while using the flashlight to look up there, we could surely see that the attic was very cramped, so the smallest of us would have to go up there to fix everything to get the intake cable settled while removing the old one.

As you might guess, I was the smallest of us and had to do that shitty job of going up where nobody probably had been for many many years. So I decided to grab a lunch break and mentally prepare myself for what I expected to become a pretty shit job. After eating, I grabbed my flashlight and tool belt and started climbing up the stairs, and while climbing upwards I noticed that the smell (that we thought was pretty much "old people smell" after they die) was getting increasingly stronger.

But I had to continue, so I got to the top and crawled myself onto something stable when I got up, while noticing that the smell up there was pretty damn bad. So I grabbed my flashlight to look around and get somewhat oriented about where to crawl. Looking forward it seemed like a pretty straight forward route towards the intake point that I could see in the distance, but out of curiosity I wondered if there were anything up there, so I looked to my right, only to light up 5 carcasses of what once was the old lady's cats that probably had died, one of them were more or less "intact" whilst being visibly partly eaten by various insects (or whatever eats such stuff), while 2 of them were more or less just rotten dried skin and bones.

At that moment I absolutely regretted my decision to eat lunch as the sight of this along with the realization about what I had smelled all along was these dead cats, and immediately threw up on the spot before VERY swiftly noping the fuck out of there.

After some talk back and forth, we came to the possibility that the old lady had been throwing her cats up there when they died, one by one, but we will never know for sure since the lady had died.

The new owners had no idea about this when buying the house, but our company ended up denying to continue the work until the attic had been cleaned appropriately. This apparently took them about 1 month to complete, I guess there are not many companies who wants to deal with that kind of nasty stuff, but my partner at work ended up finishing the work on the attic afterwards as he felt kinda bad for me.

In the end, I decided to not continue being an electrician anymore, as this was not work I really enjoyed doing, especially not after this event.

17. winch25 doesn't know what the wind was warning them about, but listened to it nonetheless.

So I've done a lot of things like this and there is usually an explanation for anything that seems untoward. Disused mental hospitals, train tunnels, sewers, abandoned stations, utility tunnels, military installations, the lot - it's usually just your mind if you think something is weird. One story that springs to mind was being in a storm drain in London. The storm drains are generally dry but there might be water elsewhere - the tunnels can stretch for miles at a time.

We would always listen out for moving water and any changes in air pressure or temperature, just to know whether there was going to be any change in water level or something dumped into the tunnel further up the line. I was in this sewer and there was a massive gust of wind. No idea what caused it but the chap I was with looked at me and we both just said 'we're leaving, right now'. We stomped up the tunnel and made our way out into a dry night. Something in that change of air pressure and temperature told us something and I'm not sure what it was, but we both knew that leaving there and then was the right thing to do.

18. jake502120 still doesn't know where the music was coming from.

Went exploring with a bunch of friends at the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. While this is not underground in its entirety, portions of it are. The buildings were left with hospital equipment, beds, books, patient files.. literally everything. It's eerie as if a zombie apocalypse occurred and everyone left. It operated from 1864 to 1994. The facility was self sustaining, (i.e. The "patients" farmed the land, and had all resources on campus. The years this was open a lot of horror stories came out of this place, this wasn't the modern day psychiatric ward.

More like a prison, where families paid a lot of money to hide their mentally ill, or the state put undesirables. There's an underground network, that was heavily blocked off with chains. However, the main buildings were easily accessible. But, the access ways to the underground were blocked off inside as well. Every time we got near one of the underground tunnel systems we could hear faint music playing, sounded like a music box playing. We found a bent wired gate and attempted to file in, the music got louder and we were all pretty freaked out.

We were all promptly arrested before attempting to go into the tunnels. There's a lot of speculation about the tunnels still to this day. The new owner said he was afraid of asbestos, and was fearing for our safety. He was very grim, he agreed to drop charges if we never went back. We obliged happily. Still, I sometimes think of my interactions there, all of the remnants left behind and get severely creeped out.

19. dtsrd2 believes there's a rational explanation, but still felt strange in the moment.

Recently, I was visiting NYC and stayed in a hotel inside the city. It was a fairly nice place, but it was also a pretty old building that was not built with the intention of it getting so much use. For example, there were only two tiny elevators available for guests (and the hotel was at least 15-20 floors). The wait for elevators took so long that I decided I'd use the stairs. For some reason, there were 4-5 stairwells in the building, accessible from each floor and most wound up in different parts of the lobby. I remembered using one of them the day before, and I thought it was stairwell D, so I took it.

After descending for a while, I passed level two. The next exit wasn't marked, but I thought it had to be level one. I went through the exit door and found myself in an unfamiliar hallway with a very low ceiling (it could only have been about 7 feet) and sparse lighting. It wasn't eerie, but it definitely didn't look like it was intended for guests. Still, a little curious, I decided to check it out and see if I could find the lobby.

I walked for a minute down a long hallway with a kind of dirty stone floor and some industrial double doors. There didn't seem to be anyone around and it was pretty quiet. I rounded a corner and to my immediate right was this big window set into the wall. Through it was a clean white room that reminded me a little of my high school's cafeteria (I remember thinking that, but I'm not sure exactly why). There was also a man, sitting and looking at his phone.

He must have been about 5 feet away from me and only the window separated us. He saw me and looked a little startled. I waved and was about to ask where the lobby was but he quickly pointed for me to turn back. Neither of us ever said a word. It was just the weirdest experience being in such a silent, dirty place and then seeing a modern room with a person. I speed walked out and took the elevator.

In retrospect, I probably just stumbled into some storage area under the lobby (it definitely wasn't the same level), but it was the strangest discovery, and I like to imagine what could have gone on down there and why I wasn't aloud to be there.

Edit: I definitely agree that there is a rational, boring explanation for this. I just thought it was an interesting story.

20. Skryptix knows firsthand that hell is other explorers.

I'm not sure I qualify, since the explanation seems rather straightforward to me - another group of explorers. Still, I have a pretty good story. I attended the University of Huddersfield, and one of the accommodation facilities for students is called Storthes Hall. Storthes Hall was previously a psychiatric hospital, an asylum. Most of the buildings were demolished, I believed two are currently in use to house students, and then off site there's the main building and the mortuary.

The main building was off limits and I believe security guards were in place, but when you have several hundred drunk students living nearby you're basically just grabbing sand. I went with a group of people and we intended to have some kind of DIY seance (Derren Brown had done his not long before), so we toddled off with tarot cards and a Ouija board.

It was all pretty funny to be honest, none of us really took it seriously, and having seen the Derren Brown seance I was really skeptical. Then the torch died, and we heard several loud knocks. We f*cked off sharpish. But again, it likely was somebody f*cking with us after hearing the panic caused by the torch going out. Might have even been the security guards, I wouldn't blame them.

Meghan and Harry are saying "toodles," "chip chip cheerio," and "peace out" to the British Monarchy, announcing that they are will "step back as 'senior' members of the royal family" and raise their son outside palace walls.

After years of racist harassment, including a headline suggesting that Meghan was "fuelling drought and murder" by eating avocado toast, the couple decided that free palace housing in exchange for relentless scrutiny just wasn't worth it.

The couple announced on Instagram that in 2020, they will transition to a new role and "work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen."

"We now plan to balance our time between the United Kingdom and North America, continuing to honour our duty to The Queen, the Commonwealth, and our patronages," they explain in their statement. "This geographic balance will enable us to raise our son with an appreciation for the royal tradition into which he was born, while also providing our family with the space to focus on the next chapter, including the launch of our new charitable entity."

In other words, Harry and Meghan are actually following up on everybody's pledges to move to Canada.

People are applauding Harry and Meghan for telling the monarchy and British press to piss off after everything they've been through. Harry, you may recall, lost his mother when he was twelve years old and blames the paparazzi for the car accident that killed her.

Harry and Meghan have spoken up about their racist treatment of her in the press, and are suing a tabloid for their smears. Now The Mail on Sunday won't have them to slander anymore.

Fans of Harry and Meghan are roasting the Royal reporters who are likely clutching their pearls in shock.

The turn of events is guaranteed to make season eight of The Crown the best one yet.

Sorry A Christmas Prince 3, this is the cheesy TV movie of the year.

Ironically, by stepping away from being a prince, Harry has become the ultimate Prince Charming.

A happy day for Harry and Meghan is a sad day for The Daily Mail.

Meanwhile, racists like Piers Morgan are claiming victory for the Megxit, arguing that her decision proves their thesis that she is a selfish sociopath.

Meanwhile, Harry and Meghan are packing up Frogmore Cottage with their adorable baby, and have already perfected the royal wave goodbye.

For every tragic kidnapping or murder victim, there are those who barely got away. Similarly, for every fatal car crash or freak accident, there's a parallel situation where all parties miraculously survived. When you're a survivor of an extremely close call, it's wild to consider how differently it all could have ended.

In a popular Reddit thread, the OP shared their experience with almost being kidnapped and asked others to share the times they barely escaped catastrophe.

1. OP kicked it off with their near kidnapping experience.

So I was I'd say around 10 years old, and my family decides to take the dog for a walk. I decide I want to rollerblade, and make big circles around my family as they walk. At one point I end up a block ahead of my family, and a rusty beat up truck pulls up and stops, and a dude jumps out. I remember him having a super short beard.

He says "hey kid, check this out!" and he pulls out a skateboard, and rides it on the street and says "pretty cool skateboard huh kid? You want it?" I, being completely happy with my roller blades, say "no thank you!" He says "come on! It's free! Just come over here and take it!" I say "No, I like my rollerblades!"

At this point, he looks down the street and sees my family walking up the street. Without saying anything to me, he throws his skateboard in the back, jumps in his truck and drives away. I never thought it was weird, didn't tell my parents, in my head it was "some dude tried to give me a skateboard I didn't want!" 10 years later I'm like HOLY F*CK. THANK GOD I DIDN'T F*CKING LIKE SKATEBOARDS.

tl:dr Didn't get kidnapped because I thought skateboards suck.

2. sookybabi is so relieved they weren't raised by their aunt.

Finding out from an Aunty from my dad's side that my parents were going to let my Mum's sister and husband adopt me as a baby because they were childless for a long time. If the transaction happened it would have been kept a secret.

Thank goodness it never happened, the woman is a nutcase and the husband ended up divorcing her after they had a son. Their kid grew up whacked and feral, and my parents became his guardian, the poor kid didn't even know how to wipe his a*s and had to be spoon fed at age 10.

3. callmedabau5 saved two kids from being kidnapped.

This isn't something catastrophic that happened to me, but still interesting. I'm 16 years old, and last year when I was walking home from school, I saw two little kids that couldn't be older than 9 were walking home a little bit in front of me. I assumed they were brother and sister.

Anyway, me being so much bigger with longer legs, I eventually started to catch up to them, and right when I was about to turn off into my street, I noticed a car pulled up next to them and asked them to get in. My heart stopped when I heard the older one say 'but mister, we don't know you'. After that I kept walking towards them and screamed out 'LUCY, MARK' (because I didn't know their actual names), and they both looked at me. I ran up and said, 'guys don't run off on me like that. Stay close.'

I pretended like I didn't see the car pulled up next to them and walked with them until the car drove off. They asked me who I was but I just kept telling them to be quiet until the man goes away.

When the guy left I told them not to talk to strangers and walked them home. I explained to their parents what happened and I don't think I've ever seen more grateful parents.

4. SmoSays was saved by a gang member.

Oh, remembered the one I wanted to say.

First, let it be known that I have a gift/curse where people feel like they can tell me their life story. Strangers, especially.

I rode the city bus from a ghetto part of town to Homelessville (where I had to transfer) to home. There were a few regulars but every now and then there'd be someone new and inevitably they'd sit next to me.

I was at the transfer bus stop with three other people. An old man who spoke no English so I'd never spoken to, this twitchy gang-banger who had gotten on the first bus a few stops after I did. Then there was a man in a suit. He looked like the lovechild of Successful Black Guy and The Rock. He sat next to me and started a conversation.

I don't remember what exactly it was but something about his line of questioning creeped me out. On the surface it wasn't anything like 'what color are your panties little girl?' and aside from sitting waaaaaaaay too close he didn't try to touch me. Maybe I was just too wary of strangers but I just didn't want to talk to him and I hoped he got onto another bus. However I was raised to be polite and couldn't think of a way to tell this guy to please stop talking to me.

Then Twitchy Gang-banger plops down next to me on my other side. Also too close. Now I'm sandwiched between two guys and Twitch was almost leaning over me. He starts talking loud and fast, rambling and mumbling to where I can't understand a word.

Creepy guy eventually gets up to go stand next to NoEnglish but I still have Twitch. Twitch then proceeds to tell me his life story. He claimed to be in the Crips and I thought he was saying this to appear tough though he was flying the right colors. He then talked about his role in the gang and how his dealer ripped him off earlier that day. He was pointing to scars on his arm and face and explaining how he got them.

My bus came and we all climbed onto it. Creeper had basically given up talking to me and sat somewhere near the front of the bus while Twitch followed me to the back. He wasn't close as he had before so I'd calmed down ever so slightly. It also helped that I was sitting next to a regular who was blind so if push came to shove I could whip Twitch with the cane.

He kept up the constant monologue and didn't stop until Creeper got off the bus. Twitch then says (I'm quoting so excuse the language) 'I thought that fag was never gonna leave' and runs off. Before he does I hear him asking the driver the quickest route to get back to where we'd been picked up.

I went home and, using the location and many hours, found that Creeper was a convicted sex offender. A month later I saw a very familiar mugshot in the paper. Twitch was arrested for murder.

TLDR: Had a nice talk with a gang member who, it turns out, killed a lot of people. Also he got on the wrong bus to protect a sixteen year old girl from a rapist.

5. Corporal_Cavernosa barely avoided decapitation.

Mine was a few months after I'd turned 21. I'm from India, and frequently make trips from my house in Bombay, to one in another state around 1000km away. Its a 20 hour journey because I prefer buses over trains. I've been doing it for over 15 years, and ALWAYS booked the exact same seat, 4 seats down from the driver on his side.

This particular time though, I booked my ticket late and instead got a seat on the opposite side of the bus. We'd just stopped for dinner, and once done, I got back to my seat and settled down with a book. As soon as we turned back onto the highway, there was a big thud and a lot of dust and glass flying around.

Turns out a truck rammed into the side of the bus. No one was hurt more than a few scratches. However, in my usual seat, there was a lady, about 5 feet tall, and there was a huge block of wood that was stuck over her head. If I'd gotten that seat, I'd have been decapitated. Was quite a WTF moment, and gave me some perspective on life.

TL;DR : Didn't get my usual seat on the bus, spared a decapitation.

6. Kool-Callie was rescued from a pedophile.

When I was about seven years old, my twin, an older brother and I had gone with a 'family friend' to go to his mothers house. This was nothing out of the ordinary as we had gone with this man on several such occasions prior. We were living somewhere in Nevada at the time, near(ish) the California border.

He had asked my parents if it was okay for him to take the three of us for a visit, and my parents said yes.

I'm not really sure at what time we left, but we never made it to his mothers house. (I was looking forward to seeing her cat again) We drove for hours, my brother, sister and I in the back seat. This man didn't stop to let us out for a bathroom break, and he didn't have anything other than beer for us to drink, and he was drinking as well.

After another hour or so of driving, he got pulled over. He told us not to say anything to the officers. They approached his vehicle and could smell the beer coming off of him in waves. They noticed us in the back seat and asked if we were his. He of course said yes. The officers didn't believe him. Thank God.

They asked him to step out of the car and placed him under arrest. He fought them the entire time until they had clubbed him into submission just to get him into the back of the cruiser. Another CHP showed up and took us with him to a foster home where we stayed until our parents could come to pick us up later.

It wasn't until fifteen years later that I had learned that the man had pedophillic intentions with the three of us. I never thought anything of the fact that he didn't bring another of my brothers with us. When the officers asked him why that was, he simply replied that the other brother would have talked.

TLDR; kidnapped at 7, forced to drink beer when thirsty, nearly raped by drunk man before he was arrested.

7. sarahbobara was rocked to sleep by an attempted robber.

I was born in Boyton Beach, FL and spent my first few years in a home that skirted some really rough neighborhoods. Though the houses on my street were mostly low-income and minority families who were just trying to raise their kids, occasionally we'd have some break-ins or gang fights overflow into our community. For a span of a few years we had a crack-addicted homeless man who would hit our neighborhood for easily pawn-able goods to support his habit; the cops always knew it was him, would lock him up for a few months and then when released he'd be at it again.

I was really young, just under three years old the night he broke into our house for the second time. He woke me up as he was shining a flashlight into my bedroom window looking for an easy way in, and moi, being the headstrong toddler that I was, got up to investigate "the policeman's flashlight" as I later told my mom. Apparently I must have scared the shit out of him when I sleepily greeted him as he came in through our kitchen window because he abandoned all intention of robbing our home and instead picked me up to rock and soothe me back to sleep, laid me down on our living room couch, and high-tailed it through our rear door.

I had forgotten the whole incident completely by the time my mom retold me the story later in life, and initially was freaked out by my 3- year-old description of the "scary man with the long fingernails." However, I look back at it now with a level of humility; it could have been someone else much meaner and a far more tragic situation. This man who was bottom of the totem-pole by most societal standards, addict, homeless, petty-theft, was still a human being who chose to be gentle with a child. In some ways it restored my faith in humanity.

8. npott438 barely avoided killing a man.

I was driving down a country road at night, I saw a "Deer Xing" sign, and decided to slow down significantly for the upcoming blind corner. Came around the corner going about 20km/h as opposed to the 80km/h posted limit. In the middle of the f*cking road is some idiot walking and wheeling his bicycle. I stopped about 3 inches shy of hitting him. If I had been doing 80 I would have had to dig a grave.

9. mumpson walked home with a mysterious man.

Sort of similar situation. When I was in kindergarten, a man I didn't recognize came to walk me home. Being as stupid as I was, I grabbed my bags and went with him. I'm not sure how but he even knew my name (I think). We chatted and he walked me home, and as I walked through the doors my parents ran to me. Turns out they were looking for me everywhere, thinking I had been kidnapped. My teacher had told them that I left with a man claiming to be a relative. To this day, nobody knows who the man was that walked me home.

EDIT: Just to clarify, he did not actually know the location of my house, I think, as I clearly remember leading the way. Also he was quite an older man, as his beard was completely white.

10. MissLadyReddit was almost murdered by serial killer Dennis Raider.

Kind of happened to me, but it mostly affected my mother.

My parents had just divorced, and my father (being an inconsiderate bastard, as he is,) filed bankruptcy against the house that was in both his and my mother's name, RIGHT before the divorce was final. Because of this, we ended up losing the house and moving to a low-income apartment complex in Park City, KS. Doesn't sound too bad, a small town in Kansas.

We lived here for a very short few months. I was the only white kid on my bus in a very racist neighborhood (racist from the opposite perspective) so after getting beaten up a couple of times, my mother agreed to walk with me to and from school. It was about a mile and a half walk, so we would have to leave while it was still a little dark outside sometimes.

There was a friendly, stout gentleman who would often wave and say hello to my mother and I as we walked by. It began in the mornings, as he was leaving for his shift as some member of the county. However, it slowly became more frequent. Eventually, he "happened" to be checking the mail or getting out of his car or looking out the window nearly every day, twice a day (as I was going to and coming home from school.) My mother mentioned seeing him at the grocery store a few times, which was easily brushed off as small-town coincidence.

By the end of the year, news reports of a serial killer known as BTK- Bind, Torture, Kill- came about, stating that he had been arrested for ten murders spanning from 1974 to 1991. Dennis Rader waved at my mother and I on a daily basis and had been stalking her. He plead guilty and is currently serving 10 consecutive life sentences in a prison in Eldorado, KS.

In his confession, he admitted stalking and planning to murder another victim. He had set a date for October of 2004. A date shortly after my mother and I had moved to a better household in the Wichita area because of the bullying issues at my school.

TL;DR My mother and I (possibly) almost became victims of an infamous serial killer.

In case you all were interested, here's a link to his trutv special

11. EPluribusUnumIdiota outran a mysterious captor.

I was chased by an adult male when I was seven.

My mom asked me to deliver some eggs and sugar to a neighbor, typical upper-class N. East Neighborhood, no crime. After I delivered the goods I started back home, about 1/4 mile. There were no street lights and it was very dark that night, dark enough that I really could barely see anything when I got to a long bend with bushes on both sides. I had just passed a driveway when I heard a loud rustling behind me so I jumped and looked back at the same time and saw a large, dark figure emerge from the bushes towards me. I was a fast kid, fastest in my class, fastest in my soccer club, and all I could think of was how dark it was and how if I tripped on something I was a goner.

I could hear a man's grunt and inhales/exhales close behind me, couldn't hear his feet though, just his breath, and it sounded like he was no more than 5 feet behind me. I kept thinking all I had to do was get to within sight of my front yard and with all those lights he would turn back, quit, but when we got that close and we were running in the light I could really feel him pressing harder and felt he was getting closer.

I decided to take a shortcut through a hole in a row of tall bushes that bordered our land. My siblings and I had used this shortcut pretty much every time we've walked in that direction, so I knew there was a two foot drop to the driveway. I ran/ducked through the hole and onto my driveway and I could hear him crash through the bushes, didn't hear him fall, and he was still after me.

When I got to about 20 feet from my front door I no longer heard him, which was good because I fumbled with the screen door, and in doing so I got my pinky finger caught and cut off the last knuckle. I opened the heavy front door, jumped inside, slammed it shut and locked, screamed out for my dad and didn't notice my finger was missing a knuckle until after my mom let me go from a long hug. My dad ran out after the guy with a gun but he was gone.

My dad came back, fished out the end of my finger and put it in a bag of ice to take to the hospital, but they said it was pointless (no pun intended) to try and reattach it, forget why exactly. The police took my story, looked around, but aside from the bushes being jacked up and some grass pressed down in an obvious pathway across my yard, there was nothing.

A few months later in a neighboring town there was a boy about my age who went missing while walking home from a friend's house late at night, then another a few months after that. I never head anything about the fate of those kids, and for all I know it's not at all related to my being chased. But, it erased the idea I tried to believe that maybe some guy was just messing around, a scenario that let me forget the fear of going outside at night. The boys' disappearances also made me very appreciative for life.. and fast feet.

Sorry for the long story, I haven't really thought about it in a very long time, so retelling it has reminded me I need to talk to my two kids about being safe around people... and maybe I should have them come with me to the track to run a few laps.

12. dem_cakes didn't get hit by a car, but their friends did.

When I was around 9 I went roller skating with my older friends who were around 12 years old. We had just skated out of our neighborhood area when I realized that I forgot something. So I skated home which was literally 2 minutes away, got whatever and headed back. I find out that my two friends had crossed this small road while I was gone and had gotten hit by a driver who ran the red light. It was a hit and run. It was especially sad because one was a long time ballet dancer and she was never able to recover from it.

13. mynamewasf*ck's hand grazed a car that could have killed them.

Years ago I was walking on the sidewalk during one of those Silent Hill days that San Francisco has sometimes: the entire world filled with fog, every sound muffled. Still on the sidewalk, I turned to cross the street and paused for absolutely no reason with my hand up in front of me and felt something tingle on my fingertips. Something flat and yellow appeared and then disappeared in front of me in a flash at hip level without making a sound.

It took me about ten seconds to realize that what I had just seen was a taxi cab, streaming by at about fifty miles per hour, that had been unable to see the road and had driven onto the sidewalk. The tingle I felt in my fingertips was my hand touching the side of the passenger's side window.

tl;dr I am the luckiest motherf*cker on the planet.

14. throwaway8564326's mom booked it fast.

Mom and I were coming home from the mall when I was 10. My mom says that she thinks the car behind us is following us. She makes a series of random turns, and the guy is still behind us. She sees a cop car sitting in the parking lot of a grocery store, so she pulls into the parking lot and drives up to the cop. The man then high tails it around us and out of the parking lot, flipping us off as he passes us. I'm still curious as to why he was following us.

15. fireindeedhot still won't forgive Cory.

I was four wheeling with some friends up in the rocky mountains last summer. I'm not from the US and this was my first time so I was just a passenger. Everything was going normal, at least as normal as I think (yelling yeeehaw while listening to the team america soundtrack). when we took a turn a little too sharp and high centered on the edge of a cliff. It was like slow motion as we slowly crept toward the edge and I decided to put on my seatbelt.

The car got stuck on a mound but wouldn't move backwards. I think the mound was the only thing that slowed us down enough not to go off the cliff. We were literally an inch away from plummeting to our doom, while "AMERICA! F*CK YEAH" was blasting through the speakers. We don't let cory drive anymore. I hope you see this cory, you are an awful driver.

16. The-other-jon was lucky to not be chosen.

In middle school I volunteered to work one period for the school library rather than have study hall. I got along really well with the head librarian, I would say he was the first adult that I thought of as a friend. He was really friendly towards me.

A few years later I come home from college on break and my mom starts asking me questions about him. Turns out he had been molesting boys at the school.

tl:dr Didn't get molested by a librarian, now I have self esteem issues.

17. iwantobeatree's mom has escaped a few times.

Didn't happen to me, but my mom. She was a college student in the 70's in Oregon walking out to her car late one night. A handsome brunettebrown-haired man comes up and starts talking to her while she's walking out. At first he was very polite, then he began to seem more aggressive/creepy and making her more and more nervous. She starts yelling, a car comes into the parking lot, so she takes the opportunity and runs to her car. A couple years later she sees Ted Bundy on the news and swears it was him that night.

Edit: Didn't know men weren't brunette.

Also have another story where my mom had a close call, thought you guys might enjoy. About a year after this incident, she moved to Albuquerque, NM. She was at a church gathering on a sunday night. The young adults group usually went to go eat after. She got into her car and noticed two hippie men following her. One had long blonde hair, and one had brown big afro.

They kept flashing their penors, mooning her, and shouting out nasty things. About about thirty minutes of her driving around trying to loose them, she finally pulled into a police station and they sped off. About a month later, she learned that they had taken a young girl up in the mountain and raped her repeatedly in their car. While they were raping her, the girl had taken the car lighter and lit the man with afro hair on fire then got away.

TL;DR: the 70's were scary for my mom.

18. Bejezus saved the whole school from dying.

Not to try and piggy back on the top comment, but when I was in junior high school I had a very tight group of friends. It was about 5 of us. One of the guys' name was, lets says George.

George wasn't always the most "normal" of people, but we knew the guy since we were in elementary school and he was a great friend. But he was a little off. He was always doing something "out there". Always being George we said. He never socialized with anyone outside of our group of friends. All through out junior high, we never saw anything suspicious in him.

Come our freshman year of high school, when everyone starts figuring out their identify, you could slowly see the changes in his personality. He was becoming distant and even more incredibly "out there". But we always supported him as our friend because we understood most of his problems, even if we weren't capable of doing anything about it.

Then one day, I was with my friend Steven and George, and out of no where he announces that he was going to murder everyone in the school. It freaked us out. He showed us his plans (and yes, he had detailed guidelines to how he was going to do this. School blueprints, paths to taken, classes to take out first.) But he told us not to worry..he was going to kill us first. Because we had been such good friends to him and defending him when others would try and tell him he was weird or some other BS, we were always there to defend his name.

He didn't want us to suffer from watching him do this, so he thought he was doing us a favor. We immediately left his house with some excuse, told authorities and he was taken away. He disappeared for about a year, he was put into a mental institution. Apparently 6 months through, he made "great progress", and was released. He then tried to kill his sister, and was reinstated. He ended up being released and is now joining the Army. I'm not exactly sure if this the best path, but we haven't spoken in a long time. But I still defend him to this day, he was a great friend. I just wish I could help him.

19. valkyrieleison screamed themselves to safety.

Same as you, OP. I wandered away from my mother briefly at an outdoor market and this middle-aged, heavyset guy grabbed me with no warning and tried to drag me into his van ~10 feet away. I was a scrawny kid, so it almost worked, too. Screamed my head off for help, he took off running. For years I thought that this was just something that happened to most kids. F*cked me up a bit when I realized just how close I came to being kidnapped.

Edit: it did not help that my mother thought I was making shit up and still seems to have no regret about that.

20. everything_is_pandas almost froze to death.

When I was little (somewhere between 8 and 11), my dad forced me to join Girl Scouts. We had to wear uniforms to meetings, and I got stuck with the dress version that didn't reach much past my knees. Usually, this wasn't a problem. Then one day we out for some kind of hike or nature walk, in winter. In Ontario.

I don't remember how long the walk was supposed to be, but I was getting really cold and very upset (I had a coat, but no snow-pants). My mom was there as a volunteer, and I kept telling her it was too cold and I wanted to go home. Mom agreed and told the group leaders we were leaving early. Now my mom didn't have a car, but we lived relatively close by, so we started walking home. To cut a lot of time off our walk, we tried taking a shortcut across a golf course.

The snow turned out to be a hell of a lot deeper than we expected; I could barely walk through it despite being very tall for my age, and it was almost up to my mom's waist. My mom's health had never been great, and when we were out in the middle of it, she realized she couldn't keep walking. We were stuck out there, alone, with no cell phone, and no one waiting at home expecting us back (my parents were divorced and my dad was living in Quebec at the time). It was getting dark and still freezing cold. Luckily, there were some houses within sight of the golf course.

Mom stood in the snow and prayed while I waded across the golf course and into the nearest neighborhood. I ran up to the first house I saw and rang the doorbell. Then the scary part happened: no one answered. I tried another house, ringing the bell and pounding on the door. No answer. The street was completely empty, but there were houses on both sides. I turned around and screamed, as loud as I could, "Somebody HELP ME!" No one heard me scream. So I went to the third house and rang the bell, and finally, FINALLY, someone answered.

I started babbling to a random stranger about how my mom was out on the golf course and needed help. He ran out to get her, while I sat on the staircase inside. His daughter was nice and gave me a pair of her socks (black with red toes and red dogs around the ankles) since mine were soaked through with melted snow at this point. The man found my mom and drove us both home. I never heard the guy's name and I've never seen him or his family since. But I still have the socks his daughter gave me, and I'm never going to throw them out.

TL;DR: Me and my mom almost froze to death within sight of a dozen houses.

21. Yboc was saved by a broken wrist.

In August of 2009 I was riding at my local motocross track one evening. I was doing laps with a friend and right on straight into a 90 foot jump. Right as hit the beginning of the jump my bike bogged and lost a lot of power. I give it some panic throttle but I leave the lip without enough momentum and I had to bail off the bike mid air. I slam to the ground after about a 20' fall and still moving forward pretty fast.

I ended up breaking both wrists and one required surgery. A couple weeks later I go in for a pre-op blood test and I end up getting a call shortly after and they told me my blood sugar was really high and I needed to get to the doctor. So, it turns out my blood sugar was way high and I had been ignoring the only sign of my newly acquired Type 2 Diabetes (I was peeing a lot).

If I wouldn't have broke my wrists I don't know how much longer I would have gone on without knowing. And I don't know how much higher it would have gotten and what it would end up doing to me. So that's how breaking my wrists may have really saved me.

Edit: As I read over that, I realized that it starts out pretty cool with a motocross story, but then ends with lame diabetes. Sorry for that.

Shame has a funny way of cementing memories in our brains that we wish we could forget. And, much like cravings for Nutella straight-from-the-jar, these shame-memories tend to re-surface at night. You're trying to fall asleep and suddenly you can't stop thinking about the time you accidentally said "love you!" to your 4th grade teacher. Then it's HELLO, Nutella.

Someone asked this question on Reddit: "When you're lying in bed at night, do you ever randomly remember some embarrassing stuff you said and beat yourself up over it? If so, what happened?" These 20 people shared the things they have said that they can't seem to forgive themselves for, even years after it happened.

1.) From kingofvodka:

I was really drunk once, and I got a phone call. I thought the caller ID said 'Matt', which was the name of a good friend at the time, so I yelled 'what's up you sexy motherfucker!' into the phone. Turns out it wasn't Matt, it was 'Mark' who was my boss at the time, calling to ask if I could come in that evening to cover a shift. He was very old school, late fifties, no sense of humour. The awkward silence before he awkwardly pretended he hadn't heard it will haunt me forever.

2.) From plumbuz69:

I got black out drunk and begged my friend to let me suck his dick in front of all my other friends. I still don’t remember saying it but the way they fuck with me 5 years later reassured me I said it. I’ve never had any thoughts/tendencies of being homosexual so I’m still confused about it years later.

3.) From blyat56:

Trick or treating with my little brother as kids.

This woman several houses down is standing on her porch looking directly at me and hollers "Hey! Do you want to trick or treat with us?"

My brother is across the street, so I holler uncomfortably loud "Hey, you wanna trick or treat with them?"

I turn back to the woman and she goes "Oh...actually I was talking to those people" and points behind me to different kids.

ಠ_ಠ I died that day and my corpse has walked the world for 17 years since.

4.) From FedUpPokemonFan:

There was one morning at my previous job where I worked as a drafting assistant (basically just a highly technical adminstrative assistant who also performed technical writing) that I did something ungodly embarrassing. I was walking around one of the mechanical shops, checking up on a project, taking notes, pictures, marking stuff off - my usual routine. Well, as I come around the corner of the vehicle, there are two mechanical engineers working on the door. I can't recall exactly what I was checking at that moment, but in my attempt to get a good look one of the engineers reached out his fist to give me a friendly morning fist bump.

Now, I'd love to be able to say that I was tired that morning, or that I was simply too preoccupied with what I was doing. But that would be a lie.

Here's what happened next. I lowered my clip board and my pen and I stared at his fist for a good moment. I then turned to look up towards the man's face. I stared some more. And then I turned my attention back to his fist and continued to look. The man was still holding his fist out waiting for me. But at this point my lack of response got the attention of the other engineer he was working with. And so now he was looking at me. Two engineers staring directly at me, one with his fist out, and me looking at the fist. Finally, though, I begin to outstretch my hand. However, instead of reaching out and returning the fist bump in kind, I extended my index finger. The two men's attention followed my hand. And, like a child touching a foreign substance, I pressed my finger to his fist.

The man slowly returned his fist. He and his partner became transfixed on the part of his hand that my finger touched. The man held his hand up to see if I left a mark. His partner joined him in looking. There was no mark. They looked back towards me. I looked at them and then smiled.

I then made my way back to my office. I was about halfway there before I realized the absolute absurdity of my actions. Once I got back I didn't leave my office for the rest of the day.

Oof

5.) From BlueManRagu:

I had a mate in high school who’s dad had recently passed away from cancer.

A group of us were hanging out at lunch break and somehow we got onto the topic of finding Nemo. I dunno why but I blurted out “imagine if nemos dad was dead!”

The room just went silent and then I made it worse by immediately going “sorry ......”

Possibly the cringest moment of my life. I still have no idea why I said it.

6.) From NervousPlant:

I did something similar in 10th grade when a new girl started at school, whom I of course didn't know had recently lost her mother. I thought she was sweet and tried to strike up a conversation with her that went really great until I said something like;"Don't you love when your mother does that? I love it when mine do!" Unfortunately I don't remember what we were talking about but I clearly remember the awkward tension that suddenly came out of nowhere after I said that sentence. She was like;"Yeah..hah..." and then went on to change the topic. A few days after I learned from someone else that her mom just died a few months prior...I still feel so bad and cringe when I think about it.

7.) From Fluttermun:

I married into an Italian and Greek family. Very affectionate, does the cheek kiss thing upon greeting and departing, the whole caboodle- I came from a no touch home. We didn't kiss, hug, shoulder pat or touch each other in anyway shape or form, so it took me a good amount of time to get used to this type of behavior.

There was a point in the summer when I was still new to the family that my FIL went in to kiss my cheek and I turned to kiss his and we accidentally brushed lips. We immediately drew back from each other and he poked fun at me for "not turning the right way" only for me to die a little inside. No one else was there to witness the destruction of my soul.

But I will never forget that for as long as I live.

8.) From poetry-divided:

I had to help a few teachers for a day at school. I was asked to grab an "Animal Farm book" from a classroom.

I got to the classroom, asked for "Anna McFarnbook" at least 5 times, then realising 30 minutes later that I completely misread the call.

9.) From Pajosan:

Yes and its almost always the same situation. The first time a girl got me off I said "Oh man, now I have to change the sheets.". She laughed so hard I thought I was going to die.

10.) From Viaotic:

There’s a woman I go to school with. We have mutual friends and I find her physically attractive, but despite that my feelings toward her are... a mixed-bag (for lack of a better term).

During freshman year, I was leaving a room one day and almost walked right by her. When I noticed it was her, my brain and heart panicked simultaneously. After duking it out, the two came to the conclusion that the perfect response to this dilemma was to start laughing. Maniacally.

She stopped, turned around, and stared at me. Other people who left surrounding rooms stopped to stare at me. I was so mortified, but I couldn’t stop. I’m pretty sure I was still laughing as I made my escape.

Not my proudest moment.

11.) From Cyphmos:

I helped a friend move once and decided to walk over to a nearby bar one night after we finished. He and his wife were both tired so they went to bed. My night started normal enough with me just sitting st the bar enjoying a a beer or three, but then I got to talking to some strangers, and then we started laughing and cutting up.

Then we were buying each other drinks, and then we were doing shots. Then they left, and I was by myself at this bar again absolutely shitfaced.

Well drunk me decides to be all outgoing with everyone standing outside smoking, and he decides to do this by walking up next to some nice Asian gentleman putting his arm around him and complimenting his hair. He the. Turns to the other dozen patrons and says “hey, who’s got better hair, him or me?”

I hadn’t even done anything with my hair, it doesn’t make any sense why I did this. It was just on my head looking like regular ass hair. That group was looking at me like that one meme where all those people are looking at the camera with WTF faces.

The Asian guy politely removed my arm from his shoulder and went off with his friends, and soon it was just me and these two older women standing outside. One of them looks at me and goes “your hair isn’t all that great.” Before stubbing her cigarette out and going inside with her friend.

12.) From jamiev99:

I was once convinced to ask out my crush in school. I was 15 (now 20) and my best friend said "If you don't ask her out I'm telling her you'll like her". So I built up all of my very limited confidence, walked up to her, stuttered massively and said "So, I like you and shit". As a man who's now got a lot more confidence with women, it's embarrassing when this is mentioned

13.) From redrocketfapper:

This happens at least a couple times a week. The most recent on is for some reason I was off the entire day, like I just couldn’t act like a normal person for some reason. Anyways so I was filling up some gas tanks and sprayed my feet with gas by accident (I was born without a sense of smell, important detail for later). Once my gas tanks were filled I called my grandparents to tell them I was omw to put the gas under their porch, and they told me my cousin and her fiancé was over, ok cool I’ll stay and say hi for a minute. I walk in say say what’s up, and ask my grandpa for the keys and say hi to everyone and for no damn reason I completely forgot my cousin’s fiancé’s name, even though my grandpa just told said his when I was on the phone not even ten minutes ago..... first cringe. Second cringe was after I dropped off gas and came back in, I walk back in and my grandma tells me I smell like gas and to leave my shoes out side, and for whatever reason after I come back in I just can’t keep normal conversation. Accidentally talking over people, looking at the wrong person while talking to someone else, saying things off topic, just being weird. Last cringe was when my cousin and her fiancé were saying bye, I said “how bout a hand shake” as my cousin is already hugging me.... As she looks I me weird I say “you know because of the gas”.... note only my shoes got a little gas on them..... I swear I was stoke cold sober the entire day, and I’m not usually this awkward or weird.

Safe to say when I went home I had a few mix drinks and wondered if I was actually retarded for a while.

14.) From Rob-ThaBlob:

I was 10 and the wiiU came out around that time. So my family decided to make our Miis and when my older sister was about to finish her Mii I blurt out "Amy you look like a hooker." Let's just say I did not have a fun time after saying that.

15.) From MyDogGotYeeted:

I expressed my feelings to my crush and the text messages ended up being leaked. People would ask to see them and they would fake that they had my permission to see the messages (she would ask) i was 12 and i really, really liked her. I got backstabbed and i still get bullied for it to this day. I try to forget but i often here people in my grade at school yell out a quote and everynight i come home making "a continuous lapse of my judgment" about school and stuff being private.

16.) From BeyoncesClitoris:

I'll start: a girl I was dating at the time in high school was hanging with me during a free period (not lunch). So we stayed in a teacher's room who was friendly and just talked /did homework. I was feeling really sick and full of phlegm, but I didn't do homework last night and really needed it done. So she noticed that i looked deathly ill and asked if I was okay. Before I could respond the anxiety and fear of responding made me fart, which I tried to hide. That contraction made me somehow sneeze, so I not only made a loud fart in a quiet room in front of her and the teacher, but blew nasty boogers all over her. She ended up almost crying out of grossness (she had a weak stomach and couldn't even stand the sight of blood).

We broke up (she broke up with me) about a month after and I cant help but feel it was because of that

17.) From -eDgAR-:

I've shared this story before but I still cringe when I think about my first solo date back in high school. I had a huge crush on this girl, thought she was really cool and I loved her art, so I couldn't believe she said said yes. We went to the zoo because it was free and we were just broke teenagers and we had a blast. Afterwards we went to grab some food at this place before having to split off to go home.

Our trains were heading in the opposite directions and the entrances were across the street from each other, so I walked with her to her side to say goodbye. I closed my eyes and awkwardly leaned in to give her a kiss goodbye, and she went in more for a hug. I ended up headbutting her in the face and her nose started bleeding. I was so embarassed and didn't know what to say, so I just asked, "Are you okay?" She replied, "I think so." Still not knowing what to do I just said, "Okay, bye!" and then ran across the street to catch my train.

It was so painfully awkward and embarrassing, I avoided her for weeks after that.

18.) From _Rosie_10:

When I was 11 I did a shit at school and it clogged the toilet, someone thought it was bark from the playground and told the teacher. After lunchtime the teachers set up a meeting with the classes they were allowed to use the toilet and told us that whoever put the bark in the toilet had to own up or our camp would be cancelled. I was way too embarrassed to confess in front of the class and I felt horrible. I think one guy ended up confessing to get the class out of trouble (actual legend). I decided I would tell the teacher after school, but then the cleaner came in and whispered something to the teacher in charge and the teacher told the class it was a big understanding. I wanted to die, I think I'm over it now, but that haunted me for a long time.

19.) From Diogenes-Disciple:

During Halloween as a kid when everyone was saying thank you for their candy, I accidentally had a stroke and yelled “thanksgiving.”

20.) From OkBobcat:

Was at the movies with my sister and some friends. We're sitting there waiting for the post credits scene. An usher comes in and looking directly at me says, "You guys should just leave, it's not even worth it." I stare back at her and say, "We're gonna stay for the whole damn thing thank you very much." Then I hear a voice behind me say, "I wanna see it." I realize it's not an usher at all, just some girl talking to her friends who were sitting directly behind us. I could have crawled under the seat.

"I think it's very healthy to spend time alone. You need to know how to be alone and not defined by another person."

-Oscar Wilde

Being single is the bomb and don't let anyone tell you any different. You get the remote, bed, and money all to yourself. Plus these memes will crack you up. What could be better?

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"Marriage is like a phone call in the night: first the ring, and then you wake up."

-Evelyn Hendrickson

If you're married, congratulations. Not only did you find someone you want to spend the rest of your life with, but you also found some memes that will be relatable as hell. If these marriage memes don't make you laugh, you may want to double-check your marriage license and make sure it's legit.

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When you're a kid, you might assume everything that goes on in your house is normal because you don't know any other way.

And then when you get older and go out in the world a bit, you might realize that your family's rules unique — or even downright bizarre.

One Reddit user asked, "What was a house rule you had as a kid that you thought was completely normal until you grew up and realized not all households followed?" More than 10,000 people responded. Here are some of the standouts.

1. It's fun when parents find new names for bribery.

My mum used to pay me to be my own babysitter between the ages of 10-14 or so. The rule was that as long as I didn't make a mess and I'd put myself to bed by the time she got home then I got $10 in the morning. - anxiousjellybean

2. This parent was an evil genius.

Maybe it's not a "house" rule. But when I was six my mom told me that if a behaved she would let me skip school on Saturdays and Sundays. One day my teacher said "see ya Monday" and I knew - missdontcare_

3. When your mom is a lazy legend.

My family had a thing we called the food blanket. When we’d eat casual meals, we’d lay a blanket on the living room floor and eat on it, like a picnic. My parents didn’t want to get any food on the carpet. Instead of “set the table,” my mom would say, “go lay out the blanket.” I remember being really confused when I learned every family didn’t have a food blanket. - llamallama-duck

4. This mom probably meant well.

Not a rule, but still to this day I am befuddled at my mothers reasoning. When I was a boy we lived in a pretty rural part of Mexico, horrible infrastructure. Power would often go out in the middle of the night. She would proceed to wake my brother and I up, simply to wait until the power came back on.

For the life of me I cannot figure that out. She wasn’t afraid of the dark, she just wanted to make sure we saw the power return. - thedraindeimo

5. Hopefully parents are realizing this type of tactic doesn't work.

If you don’t get A’s you don’t eat at the table. I legit thought this was normal until I had dinner at a friends’ house and my friend brought home a devastating report card. His parents were so supportive and loving.. - GreatGooseGimbo

6. Uhhh someone call child services.

Wasn't in my home but my aunt and uncle never let us use the up stairs washroom when we were kids because they thought we'd touch the walls with our dirty hands so they made us piss in a jar they kept under the kitchen sink and just poured it down the drain when we were done. Never thought it war strange until I brought it up to my cousin a few years ago, we laughed pretty hard about it. - lazynomad53

7. Having a room that you never use is suburb privilege!

We weren’t allowed to walk in our dining room unless we were using the room for a special occasion. The carpet always had that “just vacuumed” look so it was a dead giveaway if anyone walked across it. - secretagentsquirrel

8. You really could've put more effort into learning to use the thing you weren't allowed to touch.

We had a piano growing up that the kids weren’t allowed to touch. I was a teenager when mother finally sold the piano when she was redecorating, & she was lamenting how sad she was that neither myself or my sister ever learned how to play it.

Yes. Never learned how to play the thing we weren’t allowed to touch, that we did not have any learning music books or an instructor for. That was some big brain time there for me for a while. - Wolfwalker9

9. This seems a little over the top.

If I told my parents I was leaving at a certain time, I had to leave at that time.

Let’s say I told my parents I would leave a party at 9. I couldn’t leave at 8:50, or I’d get yelled at/grounded. I couldn’t leave at 9:10, or I would get yelled/grounded.

Same thing went for when I was leaving my house to go somewhere - 6lesbianlover9

10. Cool ways to be uncomfortable year round.

Winter meant the thermostat was turned to 55, all vents but living room vent get closed, magnetic sheet put on the vents to prevent leaks, then ALL windows get the plastic sheeting & hairdryer treatment. Sheet hung from ceiling by staircase to prevent living room vent from sending all heat upstairs. Lots of baking done. Of course bathroom and kitchen vents stayed closed year round.

Summer meant thermostat set to 80, all vents downstairs get closed and magnetic sheet put on. Curtains would be drawn 24/7, oven use was kept to a minimum. - busterann

11. This will definitely instill a healthy attitude toward intimacy in your children.

We weren't allowed to watch anything remotely sexual like if people were kissing on screen my mom would freak out and run to cover the TV with a pillow and go "blah blah cough cough" loudly until it was over.

Once I tried to see a pg13 movie with my friends and my mom cried and my dad called me horrible for making her cry. I was 14. - Dameunbatido

12. These parents had issues with skin of all kinds.

Bare skin was not allowed to touch the leather sofa. No shorts, bare feet, tank tops, etc.

Also we had to peel mushrooms. It took forever and was completely stupid. - SuperBubber

13. In some cultures, cleaning your plate is a faux pas.

I was not allowed to clear my plate when eating. I had to always leave some food on the plate. If I wanted to eat that much, I had to go get a little more to leave on the plate.

The exact opposite of what most people have as a household rule.

So... the point was my parents never wanted me to feel like I was wanting for food (we were middle class at times and poor at others). They also never wanted me to feel pressured to eat past when I was full. Those were the two pieces of reasoning behind the rule.

It made me super rude at potlucks, though. I’d waste lots of food. :/ - supaloops

14. This seems... not based on science.

When I was sick I couldn't be in my bed because it would make it dirty. My mom put a towel in a corner on the hardwood floor and I had to stay there until she dee!ed me better enough to use my bed. - Zenosparadox1

15. And this family had strict rules around food out of necessity.

We weren't allowed to get into the fridge or the cabinets without asking permission. My family was very poor and we had a limited food budget, so eating something without permission very possibly meant eating one ingredient of a meal my step mother was planning on cooking within the next few days.

I went to friends' houses and they just ate whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. - badhairguy