Month: September 2020

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People Who Met Strangers They’ve Never Been Able to Forget

Sometimes, it can be hard to remember sometimes how similar human beings are, all over the world. We focus on the ways we’re different, our disparate beliefs and upbringings coming into the mix.

At our core, though, we all have the same desires, We all need the same things to thrive. And in these 12 chance moments, people found understanding and support in total strangers.

12. Just a little perspective.

I had surgery last week because I broke my ankle in 4 places. I, being the restless ADHD-girl I am, went on a wheelchair trip around the hospital the afternoon after my surgery because I was so bored.

The entire time leading up to the surgery(hospital was too busy so I had to wait a week and a half for my surgery) I was incredibly scared and I felt broken, useless and immobile.

I went to the hospital pharmacy because a friend of mine works there, just to see if he was working.

There I had a conversation with a man waiting for his wife’s medication. When I told him I had surgery just 5 hours ago he was truly amazed and told me how it took them 3 hours to get his wife to wake up after her surgery.

He told me he thought it was amazing how strong I was and that I should be proud I was getting around by myself so easily.

That and the fact that the pharmacist was laughing at how hyperactive I was, sitting in my wheelchair talking to all kinds of strangers because I was bored, really made me feel empowered and it’s showing off in my recovery.

I haven’t used any pain medication for the last two days, I’m doing most things by myself cause my bf works full time, and I don’t mind walking around on crutches anymore.

11. Sometimes you just need a push.

I was at my retail job working in the tech area. It was kind of slow so I had the opportunity to really help this older guy out (not thaaat old, I estimate late 50s to mid 60s) with all of his questions and stuff. He was really impressed that someone at the store was actually able to be of help for once and provide in-depth answers and help for tech stuff.

So he pops the question that I get a lot since I look very young (I was 21 at the time but commonly mistaken for 18 or so): are you in college? I decided to be honest and tell him about how I tried community college twice but it didn’t really grab me and I ended up quitting. Long story short, he ends up telling me that I’m way too good for the place I’m at and should get out of there and make some progress towards my dream job.

One part in particular I remember well: he said that he wanted to see me gone from the place in 6 months. For some reason the things this guy said really stuck with me. My family had been telling me for a while to start considering education plans again but I was kind of just coasting along. This guy saying all of that while being a complete stranger really…woke me up some. Sooo I went home that night and told my parents that I was ready to do school again after 1.5 years of being out.

I was out of there by Christmas, which was about 4 months from the time the talk happened.

By February, I had enrolled at a semi-trade school in the Computer Animation program, completed my first 4 months of classes, and was in the process of moving to Florida from Texas. I was doing so well in the new environment, and having lots of fun meeting people with similar interests at the college.

The pandemic has really set me back mentally though, so that’s been a problem. I think I’m coming back out of my depression phase though, so things are looking up at least.

10. A great memory.

It will seem very simple compared to many stories on here, but this summer my boyfriend and I took a vacation together. We paid for a fancy bed and breakfast and when evening came, my boyfriend went out onto the balcony and (being the social butterfly he is) made conversation with our balcony neighbors.

Our neighbors were about 26-28 years old (much much older than us) and they already had a 3 year old kid and a house. We drank, told stories, laughed–it was amazing. I had never made friends with strangers so quickly before, and it’s all thanks to my extrovert boyfriend. It is seriously one of my favorite memories.

I had no cares in the world that night and laughed so hard it hurt to smile. The couple’s relationship was what I envision for my own future, as well. They were totally in synch, made inside jokes between them, and I caught them on numerous occasions speaking to each other through eye contact. It was wonderful to see what a really lovely relationship looks and sounds like.

9. Advice for a lifetime.

First time at Burning Man. I’m struggling to undo the lock I’ve placed on my bike.

An old couple wearing fabulous outfits walk to the other side to get their bikes. The gentleman proceeds to tell me with a smile on his face “Never stop dancing, man.”

He rolled his bike away without losing a beat to his step. I think about that often. Never stop dancing.

8. Kind words help anxiety.

In my first run at a local grocery store(currently back there since I need money cuz pandemic) I was cashiering and it was a busy day. Had more than a couple confusing customers that week who either were trying to steal or just being pains the ass. I hadn’t been doing it for that long at that point and I was pretty nervous after all that happened.

Eventually once again hit another issue at my register and for what felt like the 500th time that day I had to call a manager over to help me. Wasn’t feeling great at that point but I stopped and explained to the customer what the problem was. I don’t remember what the issue was anymore, probably something small like a double scanned item or something that didn’t matter but I also didn’t have the authority to overturn. After I finished apologizing and explaining the situation he said

“Yeah man, whatever you need to do. You know you what you need to do better than I do, that’s why you’re the one back there and not me”

For whatever reason that helped my nerves behind the register a bit and boosted my confidence for a while. I guess just hearing that someone else who had no reason to believed in my ability to solve an issue was all I needed for a little. Seems small but it helped make a difference for me for the rest of the time I had that job.

7. What we leave behind.

Consoled a woman who had a baby with one of the people who lived in my block of flats who’d just hung himself. We didn’t get to him in time as the flat was locked and we had to call the police to break in. Her scream still haunts me.

She kept saying ‘I could have stopped him, I didn’t want to be with him but I didn’t want this, what am I going to tell our daughter’ while I just held her with her mother.

It reminds me that while it seems like the only way out, you leave a scar on everyone in your life you left behind. Especially ones you love.

6. The right place at the right time.

When I was 21 years old I found my dad dead in his house. Even though he looked fairly peaceful I still freaked out and ran out of his house to the only neighbor I knew. I knocked but she didn’t answer. I took a few steps back from her door and looked around frantically while trying to process everything that happened and what to do.

A lady a couple houses down saw me and walked over. She said, “Are you Okay?” I said, “No. I think my dad is dead but I can’t touch him” She brought me over to where her husband was standing outside. She asked where my dad was and I explained which room he was in. Her husband comforted me while we waited for her to returned.

She took me inside while her husband called 911. The two of them helped me to call my mom (my parents were separated but it was still really hard on her) and to find my dad’s siblings phone numbers to notify them. This couple welcomed my mom, sister, sister’s boyfriend, and my aunt in with open arms.

The woman made us cookies and tea. I had never met these people in my life but they helped me get through one of the most challenging days of my life.

5. She made her think.

This one time when i was 17, i decided to leave a family vacation upstate early to go on a trip with some friends for their birthday. So my parents said i could buy and take the train from where we were in northern California back to LA. turns out i had read the ticket wrong, and showed up ten minutes too late for the train. Very dumb on my part.

I realized after my Uber had left, and now i was stuck at this empty train lot in the middle of nowhere until the next train arrived 3 and a half hours later. I sat there for a while before an older woman came and sat next to me at the one bench. She sparked a conversation asking me what had brought me there and we spoke for a long time. Ended up learning a lot about the town i was in, and some touching stuff about family.

The whole situation made me miss my parents and made me guilty i had left the trip early. She got on a different route train about an hour before i left, but the sense of anxiety and uncertainty i was met with in this empty lot was taken away after our lighthearted conversation.

4. What excellent timing.

Called a client to tell her something urgent on a weekend and thought that would be the end of the call. She said she was surprised my office was open on the weekends. I tell her we’re not and that the office is staffed with interns who go through mail and paperwork that has arrived since Friday so we can get a jump start on Monday work since it is time sensitive (investment firm so trades must be done during market hours and non-financial work gets more time to complete). Blah blah blah…

she asks Oh, what’re you studying? I tell her I’m studying accounting. She says “I studied engineering and if I could just give you one little nugget of unsolicited advice, it’s this… get Six Sigma certified, actually.. just get any of those silly certifications that you think mean nothing.”

I waited for her to continue and she went on to tell me that she works in coal mines all over the world reviewing their operations and helping to increase efficiency and save money, reduce accidents/errors, etc. which is right up my nerd alley.. she tells me that she misses out on a lot of bids for the jobs because she doesn’t have the six sigma certification.. capable sure, successful yes, but missing that silly certification. She goes on to tell me that she calls after she’s rejected from every job to find out why she didn’t get the job (I had no idea you could even do this) and more often than not, she misses out on the opportunities to accountants with Six Sigma certification.

No idea why this conversation lit a fire under my ass but I went into my full-time weekday job and sat down with my boss to talk to her about it. I knew she had a black belt (lol) in Six Sigma so I wanted to pick her brain about it. She says “it’s so funny you bring this up actually because we just hired a Six Sigma guru to teach our staff some of the principles of Six Sigma and we’re going to be starting a challenge in different departments to utilize Six Sigma to increase efficiency and productivity across the organization.”

….. here’s me dead silent.

She tells me to meet with the guru down the hall and pick his brain. So I do. Fast forward.. he approaches my manager about allowing me more autonomy in my low-level nothing position. She agrees and basically lets me do whatever I want. So I just start paying close attention to conversations in other sub-groups of my department and start putting pieces together and blahblahblah long story short — six months later I implemented a process change that not only saved the company $1million annually going forward, it identified a gap in a process that was bleeding about $250k monthly from the company because nobody bothered to ask a simple question of hey, why are you doing that?

Life and career changing for me.

3. The big questions.

I had gotten off work from a graveyard shift and went to my boyfriend’s house to surprise him. However the surprise was all mine when I walked in his room to see him passed out drunk with another woman in his bed. I was devastated. Needless to say I ended it then and there.

I had to work again that night and I was a hot mess. Bursting into tears, face puffy and bloodshot eyes was my look for the whole shift. I had to work again the next night but I had a much better handle on my emotions by then. I slept before my shift and as I was drifting away to sleep a thought, bright as a comet shot through my mind. Everything is going to be ok, this thought assured me.

So now for the weird and life changing part. A woman came in and sat in my section. She sat in what I call the awkward seat. It’s right next to the register and almost no one sits in it voluntarily. I took her order and gave her her food.

A few minutes later i was all caught up on my work and went for a cigarette, stopping to make sure my customer didn’t need anything and letting her know where i was going so she didn’t feel neglected. She said she was fine and i went for my smoke. My mindset at this time was very bleak. I didn’t want to kill myself, but i didn’t want to exist either. I didn’t want to be and could not imagine being able to feel happy ever again.

I come back from my smoke and the lady is still there, waiting to pay. She asks me if she can talk to me and i agree to go outside with her to do so. At this point I’m cringing because i had been having a NSFW conversation with another employee and i thought she was going to read me the riot act, maybe threaten to call corporate on me. However I don’t lack courage so out I went, prepared to face any music that might be coming my way. What she said next shocked me to my core.

She proceeds to tell me pretty much everything that had happened to me over the last two weeks. I did not know this woman at all. Never seen her before in my life. When I asked her how she knew all this she told me God told her. She also said that I was very loved by Him and that my purpose had not yet been fulfilled. Also that everything was going to be ok.

My whole life I had been denying the existence of God. It wasn’t logical to me that one being had control over everything that is. Now I feel differently. I couldn’t even tell the story without bursting into tears. This effect lasted for months, much to my disgust ( I hate crying. I feel like it makes me look weak). I don’t hold to organized religion, but I don’t deny His existence anymore either.

Before we parted ways she hugged me. Her whole body was vibrating. I know it sounds strange but there was no denying it. I’ve never felt anyone do that before or since. Could she have been faking? Maybe but it’s doubtful. There was no motive, nothing for her to gain from doing such a thing. She asked me for nothing. So that’s how I came to believe in God at the ripe old age of 42.

2. I bet she does now.

I was a young, small girl walking back to my dorm at around 2a from the bars, through a dark empty are if campus, when out of nowhere a huge man stepped out of the shadows and walked swiftly towards me.

He stopped right in front of me, made eye contact, and said, “I bet you don’t even have a knife.” He shook his head, and disappeared as quickly as he came.

1. Advice that lasts.

I was coming back home from a holiday, mid ’90s, I was on a train in Sardinia, there was this man with beard aged 50+ I guess and two young guys under 20. I was 25.

He actually wasn’t talking with me but with these two young guys, boy and girl, and he was insisting on the concept of responsibility, being much more important than any other thing any of the guys (to which he was talking) would have met in their lives.

Jobs, hobbies, passions, friends, love, all the things to come would have had their specific and natural ways but the real thing, the common factor would have been responsible behaviours, judgements, actions. Idk if the two young guys even listened to him, but I did, and I recall that moment every now and then thinking how it helped me focus in situations in the following years

Humans really aren’t all that bad, I guess. Not most of the time, anyway.

Tell us your story that fits this list in the comments!

The post People Who Met Strangers They’ve Never Been Able to Forget appeared first on UberFacts.

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Funny Posts for Your Viewing Pleasure

Social media can be a treasure trove of hilarity sometimes. But who has the time to go through the endless stream of tweets, memes, jokes, and everything else out there?

You’re busy! And you don’t have a few hours a day to search out the stuff that is gonna tickle your funny bone.

And that’s why we’re here!

Here’s yet another collection of funny posts from random folks that are sure to make you laugh and probably share with your friends.

So what do you say? Do you want to take a little break from work and from life and have a few laughs?

Let’s do it!

1. Why did you do that?

Your body is now mad at you.

Photo Credit: pleated-jeans

2. It looks very relaxing.

Don’t you think?

Photo Credit: pleated-jeans

3. Oh, good, it’s still there.

Especially the sandwich.

Photo Credit: pleated-jeans

4. This is epic.

And it’s so very true.

Photo Credit: pleated-jeans

5. Guy Fieri is depressed.

Wouldn’t you be?

Photo Credit: pleated-jeans

6. It might be a trap.

So be very careful…

Photo Credit: pleated-jeans

7. Hey, look at that!

Doesn’t happen very often!

Photo Credit: pleated-jeans

8. Down to one cat.

That’s 2020 for you.

Photo Credit: pleated-jeans

9. This is so NOT COOL.

I can’t find anything anymore!

Photo Credit: pleated-jeans

10. Don’t look at that!

You’ve been outed.

Photo Credit: pleated-jeans

11. Very, very true.

What happened to that kid?

Photo Credit: pleated-jeans

12. This bunny knows what’s really up.

Down with the posers!

Photo Credit: pleated-jeans

13. Hahahaha. Wow.

I fell for it!

Photo Credit: pleated-jeans

Now we want to hear from you!

In the comments, please share something funny that you’ve seen on social media lately: tweets, memes, jokes, photos, etc.

Thanks in advance!

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People Recall Chats With Strangers That Changed Them Forever

None of us leaves the house in the morning expecting to accidentally bump into a stranger who we’ll never forget. We expect the people who change our lives to be our nearest and dearest, I think.

For these 13 people, though, it’s those random encounters that are burned on their brains for all eternity.

13. That will stick with you.

When I was younger (around 13 or so) I went to a party with my mother. I say party, but it was basically some old friends of her meeting and talking about life. There was this old lady talking to my mother and at some point my mother left and went to another place in the house.

This old woman told me I was a really cute and smart kid and if she had a granddaughter she would wish that we could be a couple. I didn’t think much of it, sounded to me like she was just being sweet (and a bit silly TBH).

Later my mother told me that woman had a son who had a complete mental breakdown and never recovered and basically stopped functioning like a “normal” person. Due to her son’s mental illness, she would never be able to have grandchildren.

Maybe it didn’t change my life much, but I still think about it sometimes.

12. God bless the hiccup lady.

I was at the grocery store with my dad when I was about 7 or 8. I had the hiccups really bad, like the loud and obnoxious kind. We were walking through the store and a woman stopped us.

She asked if she could buy my hiccups.

She told me that she’d give me $1 for my hiccups. I was so confused, I had no clue what she meant. Apparently I thought about it so hard that I stopped hiccuping! Her magic hiccup trick worked. She didn’t give me a dollar, but she gave me a Jolly Rancher.

Turns out she went to high school with my dad, so he knew she wasn’t some psycho trying to drug me or something, so I ate my Jolly Rancher and stopped hiccuping. That trick only works once, but it’s pretty funny to explain to people when I tell them! Thank you hiccup lady!

11. Wise words that last.

Once a time I was having a conversation with an engineer in a airplane, I had 15 at the time.

We eventually reached the “money” subject.

I asked him how the hell could someone be in debt earning 20k a month, and he told me something that I think to this date: “When you earn 20k you will found a way to waste 19k”

10. That kind of thing really hits you.

In a small convenience store in Lisbon. Check out at the counter and make small talk with the store owner, who immigrated from a poor country to give his family a better life.

I ask: do you like your job?

His response: I never had a choice.

9. There are good people everywhere.

I was eating at Denny’s with my then-boyfriend. He’s black and I’m white. Our server was such a lovely person and had such a joyous personality the whole time.

Well upon receiving our receipt she wrote “Lovely couple. I hope your love grows and blossoms.” That was so beautiful and touching to me, I started crying. She came over and hugged me. I’ll never forget that. Her name was Morgan.

8. You never know the whole story.

I was traveling once. A car trip.

We were parked at a rest stop and giving them dog a pee break when this giant expensive RV pulled up in a spot where RV’s were not supposed to park. Like one of those that cost a half million dollars. A home on wheels that gets a quarter mile to the gallon.

A very fit good looking older man hopped out. Like in his 50s but very good looking for his age. He was tan and had JFK hair. He looked like a caricature of a CEO on holiday.

I thought wow, talk about entitled. He’s taking up like 5 parking spots.

Next, a younger blonde woman hopped out. Obviously 15 years younger than him. Obviously his bimbo trophy wife. They stood in the parking lot looking at the rest stop and seemed to be discussing something.

I thought I had them all figured out, you see.

The man went back into the RV. And he came back out…with a wheelchair. A small wheelchair. Hmm, what’s this? Did not fit my narrative.

He set the wheelchair up. Went back in the RV. Came out carrying a young boy. The boy was completely…handicapped. Like his limbs were all contorted and painfully thin.

The man gently placed the boy in the chair and got him all situated and strapped in. Then the three headed for the rest stop.

It just stopped me dead. I thought I knew what was going on. I did not know. I had not the first clue.

There is always at least one thing in the other guy’s situation, that you know nothing about. This story pops in my head every time I think I’ve got someone else all figured out.

7. You gotta put yourself out there.

This isn’t as big of a story as some on here but I’ll share anyways.

Back in my sophomore year of high school, I started getting into edm and the idea of making my own music. I made a few songs (not very good but they were something) and just kept it entirely to myself. I didn’t really do much with it until during my junior year when I finally told my parents that I wanted to be a music producer. They weren’t really happy about that, because up until that point I had mostly just shown interest in engineering, and they thought I was just throwing that away.

Around the end of my junior year, I was up at like 2-3 am listening to some like sad emotional music from HDsoundi and just reading through the comments. There was one that really caught my eye. Another guy was going through the same kind of thing I was. He wanted to make music but was told to just do something else. We started a conversation and convinced each other to upload a song. That was almost 2 years ago now, and I’ve been uploading my music ever since and been gaining at least a little bit of a following. My parents are even ok with it too as long as I have another option to fall back on, and my dad and his coworkers have probably become my biggest fans.

If it wasn’t for that one interaction I probably still wouldn’t have any songs out anywhere, and would just be unhappily keeping it to myself. I’m honestly just really greatful that it happened.

6. Really makes you think.

In a New York subway station, there was a violinist playing his instrument, hoping people might toss donations into his violin case.

When he paused, I asked him if people were generous as there were only a few coins in the case. He said, “If I’m lucky, there’s enough to buy a sandwich, coffee, and a subway fare at the end of the day.”

The poor guy looked starved, even though he played the violin beautifully.

5. More hotel cleaning women should write books.

I was struggling with self harm in high school and once after a long day at a convention and comments from friends was left feeling worthless. I went to the hotel restroom and cried, when one of the cleaning ladies entered and saw me.

She gave me a hug and, while I was embarrassed, it was probably the best response I could’ve received at the time. She told me things would be okay in spite of not knowing what I was going through, and it felt nice to hear that. Gave me enough strength to get through the convention.

4. In unexpected places.

I have severe depression/anxiety. It’s well managed now… but 15 years ago I would take “suicide vacations”. My goal was to get the courage to go through with it. I put myself in a bunch of risky situations.

I talked with various homeless people. I needed some kind of support. And homeless people gave it to me. One guy talked to me for nearly an hour.

I would say… if it wasn’t for those strangers offering random bits of advice… I wouldn’t be here today.

3. We all need help sometimes.

My father had early onset dementia and was driving me nuts not only because of his confusion and , at times, violent behavior but also because my mother and his doctor refused to have him admitted at a daycare.

A guy at school, who had never even talked to me, had gone through the same and one day just came to me and told me “do whatever it takes to get your dad admitted at a care center or he’ll drive all insane. He needs proper care” .

I did, and my mother eventually accepted after my poor dad got home one day beaten up and without his wallet or keys. We never found out what had happened to him except that he was robbed, he was just too lost.

That dude made me feel like I wasn’t evil or ungrateful because I didn’t want to live in constant fear for my dad’s or my family’s life. It’s a terrible disease and it’s perfectly fine to get help.

2. Priceless moments.

I’m late so I’m going to get buried but I figured I’d tell mine. I’ve loved horses since I was little. I volunteered at a local horse therapy place, because my depression was getting a hold on me, and there’s just something so calming about horses.

When I was at this place, they had a bunch of people with physical and intellectual disabilities who got to ride, since it was a horse therapy facility. I learned so much about working with people with all kinds of disabilities, but especially autism and downs syndrome. I even got to experience a kid’s first words, and I’ll never forget the “Thank you Tux”. It was a magical place. .

A bit later I found myself working at a pizza shop. Not really my passion, but it paid enough for my pets, so I was okay with it. There was this adorable little kid who would come in with his mom. His mom and I would talk, I think she didn’t have the biggest support base, but I told her about the place I volunteered at. They would go once a week, and you could see the difference it made for this kid. One day, they came in and the kid was babbling along to his mom, and it was the most amazing thing.

He still needed his communication tablet, but he got better each time I saw him. One day, the mom came up and put a fifty dollar tip in the jar, and I tried to refuse it. She said that as much as the tip was, her son being able to communicate better, and finding a place where he was accepted was priceless. .

I’m crying now, so sorry for any typos, but I still see him every so often around town. Before COVID, the first time I saw him outside of work, he gave me the biggest hug, which was a huge deal for him. He really changed my outlook on life, and showed me, even in a dark place, just how much I can help others. And that is priceless.

1. A life-saving encounter.

In 2005, a complete stranger stopped biking past me on a bridge and sat with me for over 2 hours listening to me as I was basically there to commit suicide.

I had been kicked out of university and my parents were absolute trash (have been no contact with them now for over 2 years) so I never was able to tell them. The only way out that I could see was to kill myself.

This complete stranger in his 40s must have also had kids and realized what I was about to do. He listened, he held me, he cried with me… Mostly importantly, he saved my life.

Humans can be so awesome sometimes – which is good to remember.

If something like this has ever happened to you, tell us about it in the comments!

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16 Conversations That Changed People’s Lives

You never know when someone you run into accidentally, for just a few minutes, might change your life.

If that statement seems like something that only happens in the movies, well, these 16 people are here to share their real-life tales.

16. You can’t judge a book by its cover.

I’ve told this story before but whatever.

I was broke as f*ck in Eugene, Oregon. Steady work was scarce. I smelled like shit because I could barely afford to do my laundry and often didn’t even have detergent when I did do laundry.

The holidays were close so I took a contract job with the Salvation Army, ringing a bell. I’d stand on a cold sidewalk in the freezing pouring wind and rain on a sidewalk outside of Fred Meyer, wearing a thin gray zipup hoody, shivering and ringing for 8 painful hours.

This gorgeous soccer mom rolls up in her gigantic suburban assault vehicle. She steps out wearing a very tasteful tan camel hair coat, jeans, nice boots, her long blonde wavy hair draped across her shoulders.

She walked past me with a disappointed look. When you’re broke as shit, you get used to that facial expression from decent and good people, and you sort of condition yourself to shirk away like “sorry I’m a smelly degenerate piece of sh%t who’s near you”

Anyway, more people come and go, her giant SUV is still out front, when I hear this very loud and aggressive woman bark, “HEY!!” at me.

I turn and look, and it’s her. She has a shopping cart overflowing with bags. She rolls up to me, shoves a hand in a bag and says, “here! Put these on!”

She handed me a very nice and expensive fleece beanie, a puffy fleece scarf and these very expensive looking fleece lined leather gloves.

“Its absolutely freezing outside. You should be wearing more than that thin jacket. Do you have a home?” I told her yes, while putting the new clothes on. They were so damn warm!! I noticed the rain would bead up on the scarf then just roll away. A gust blew and my ears didn’t ring in pain.

She said “well, you need to eat” and handed me a bag of jo-jos and a bag of chicken strips. I swear to God my stomach rumbled at the sight of the warm food.

She stood in front of me and said, “I’ve seen you here before. You were nice to my son when he was having a bad day. You’re a good looking kid, and you seem pretty smart. You deserve better than this. Go to school or something. Figure out a plan and follow it. You don’t have to do live like this.”

I started to well up, but bit my tears back. She realized how awkward it all was, so she just said, “okay, well … Merry Christmas,” then walked off to her vehicle, loaded it up, and drove away.

She showed me kindness and generosity at a time when I thought it was all gone, and she represented love from a demographic I’d grown to hate. She changed my perspective about humanity in less than a minute, and inspired me to aspire for more.

15. The adventure of a lifetime.

Back in 2012 I went my first solo trip to Thailand I was living in Karon Phuket . It was my first day there and at a late night BBQ up in the cliffs , just finished my food and was sipping a cold Chang and this American guy walks up to me .

“May I join you?” ” .. yeah sure I said , he was a 50 year old originally from north Carolina working in Dubai as a teacher that’s wife had died . He asks alot about me why I’m here , aspersions in life , family situation . We have a very intense discussion about life in general he was incredibly intelligent . The conversation switches to him and why he is here , he tells me that he bought a moterbike and he has zero agenda , he had been biking all over Asia solo for months with no concrete plan, He pulls out a little scrap book and starts going through the places and pictures and notes in it and starts giving me tips on places to go , places to eat , places to stay , routes to take . I got some paper from the bar and started taking notes on these amazing hidden gems all throughout South East Asia . We drink all night get hammered and he takes off in the morning I never see him again .

A few years back I traveled on a bike to one of the routes he recommended eating at places he talked about , caves , lagoons , waterfalls , hot springs you name it he recommended it. It was a hell of an adventure loved every minute , he recommended some amazing things and I’m truly grateful I met that American that night. Great bloke hope he’s doing well .

14. This is a great story.

When I was a freshman in college, I took a shuttle from my off-campus dorm to the campus every day. A few weeks into the first semester, a guy sits down next to me and compliments my anime messenger bag. We strike up a conversation, and he offers to introduce me to the other nerds at our dorm.

He brings me to another guy, Mark, but then leaves. Mark proceeds to escort me around to a few rooms, and I meet more people. One of these people becomes my boyfriend 2 months later, then my husband 4 years after that.

The weird thing is, I never see the original guy from the shuttle again, and no one knows who he was. That random stranger led me to my soulmate, then disappeared.

13. A small kindness.

I (f, 22 at the time) was at the airport waiting to go home after visiting my boyfriend that I don’t get to see much. A little heartbroken, I just sat there trying to keep the tears in my eyes, but a random stranger noticed my emotional turmoil.

Instead of asking if I was okay, he simply said “I’m sorry to see you’re in pain, can I do anything to help you?” And offered me a tissue. He was such a comforting presence. We ended up talking for a while as we were on the same flight that got delayed, and eventually cancelled until the next day. We hung out in the smoking lounge together, he made me promise to quit when I got home. He told me about his travels, I told him about mine. He managed to get my mind out of its pit of sadness, we talked about our shared hobbies, what we’d been doing in that town etc.

Next day we found out we were flying to the same destination via connecting flights, and as he was a flight attendant even on holidays he was able to change his booking to be on my flight and sit with me.

Our ways parted when we lost track of each other at the third airport. I never got to say goodbye or thank him for being such an A class human. His kindness made my trip home so much easier and I will never forget it. Sven if you’re reading this, thank you. I hope to be able to pay your gesture forward to someone who needs a friendly face some day.

12. The kids always suffer.

When I was eight or a bit younger, my mom brought me with her to a divorce lawyer’s office on the higher floor of a large building. While she was meeting with the divorce lawyer in his private office, I was trying to keep myself occupied in the waiting room. I recall that it was a very big waiting room.

There was a man in the waiting room. I don’t exactly remember how old he was, but he didn’t seem that old. I would probably guess in the 30-45 range. I can only assume he noticed the bored, sort of sad-looking little girl in a divorce lawyer’s waiting room because he came over to me. He talked to me, played with me, said I was a beautiful little girl and I’m pretty sure that he said something about how the bad stuff that was happening wasn’t my fault. I spent the whole time in the waiting room with him. I don’t remember his name and I can barely recall his face, but I had an innocent crush on him. I asked him where he lived and he told me he lived in San Francisco, which was not at all far from where I lived. Maybe it’s because I’ve just always been a very sensitive and empathetic kid, but while he was smiling at me (gorgeous smile, too) and trying to make me happy, I got the sense that he was sad. I can only imagine why, given the location.

I’ve never forgotten him after all these years. I wish I knew how to get in touch with him because I’d love to just give him a hug. He will never know how much he helped me during a time where I was subjected to my parents’ messy divorce at home and being relentlessly bullied at school. I was a sensitive big-hearted kid with drug addict parents (both are clean now) and I was emotionally neglected a lot of the time… so I think his kindness will live on in my heart forever. Whenever I go to San Francisco, I spare a thought for him and wonder how he’s doing.

11. A road trip together.

I had just finished grad school in another country and was moving back home to my parents’ in Florida after a big opportunity I thought I had fell through. I was devastated, exhausted, and second guessing all of my career choices. Really depressed.

My parents live in SW Florida. The last leg of the flight was on a prop plane (short flight from Orlando) and we couldn’t land due to bad weather. We circled and circled for a while and finally they decided to divert us… aaaaaall the way down to Key West. I could have driven from Orlando by this point and been at my folks’ place.

Anyway, we land in Key West and deplane and they tell us we can’t get out of there at all that night. Weather, etc. Of course the airline is not helping at all.

I end up chatting with this older (than me) woman in her 50s or 60s and we decide to take a big chance and just get a hotel together for the night, rent a car, and drive up to Fort Myers the following morning. Complete strangers. Both of our families thought we were nuts, I’m sure. But it was awesome.

She was so lovely and was a shining light. She had just beat cancer. She was so encouraging to me and everything I was going through. We stopped for key lime pie and scenic pictures on the drive up. We sang Tiny Dancer in the car. A crappy situation ended up one of the most beautiful experiences I’ve had.

I wish I had her number or even remembered her name. I don’t know how I lost her contact info but I did. If you’re out there and stumble across this — thank you — I still think about you a lot and hope you’re well. Send me a message if you’d like to reconnect.

10. I don’t even know what to say.

I worked in a subway for the summer years ago. There was a regular customer, 60 odd, rode an old timey bicycle with a basket that he kept his dog in.

Anyway, one time he comes in and it’s just me and him in the restaurant. He asks how I am, I tell him I am fine. He asks how I really am, and for no particular reason i told him some of the problems I was facing in my life. Let me note, this was particularly out of character for me, I keep myself to myself and dont tend to open up to my closest friends and family, let alone strangers.

He told me to “breathe, and listen to what the wind has to tell me”. I didn’t really know what to say to this, so I engaged in a thoughtful conversation with him. The way he spoke was unlike that of anyone I’ve ever met, so sincere, honest and calm.

He proceeded to explain to me how he has the ability to mentally travel to anywhere in the universe, he simply has to clear his mind and close his eyes and he will travel outside of his body and see the wonders the universe has to offer. He paused to tell me, if I think he is crazy just tell him to stop, as most people thought he was.

By this point, I was completely hooked on his stories. He told me of worlds that rained diamonds, black holes, conscious beings made entirely of gases and resin. As he left he said I would see him once again in my life, but only when I was ready. This was about 6 years ago.

I will add, the man did not strike me whatsoever as crazy, and insisted that he had never touched a drug in his life. I honestly believed that he wasn’t crazy.

I dont know if he was just fucking with me, having a bit of fun, or whatever. But the way he told me this story, I honestly believed every word, and I am not a very gullible person. At the time as well, I had never drank or taken any drugs.

The story honestly sounds so ridiculously unbelievable, and I have never spoken to anyone of it. But I hope I see him again.

9. Like untying a knot.

My daughter was born and she wasn’t breathing when they took her from us. I assumed she was dead but she wasn’t when they took me to the NICU she was tubed with all these scary monitoring. All the other babies were in incubators but mine wasn’t.

I remarked to the nurse that that felt like a good sign. It was a gut punch when she said ‘We only have her in the open air in case she has a heart attack and we need to move quickly. We will control her environment when the doctor says it’s ok’ A doctor came in an explained the she is very sick but getting better.

I simply didn’t believe him I was terrified. One of the other parents in the NICU took me aside and told me that the doctors here wouldn’t lie to me for liability reasons. If he thinks my girl is going to get better she probably will. It was like he untied a knot in my stomach and made it a little easier. She pulled through and is healthy.

8. What a fun story to tell.

I was on a plane flying to my first consulting gig and elderly gentleman was seated next to me. Normally, I just heads down on the plane, but he was really friendly and initiated the conversation. He told me he was coming home from a music festival and was excited to get home and wanted to know why I was traveling. I told him that I was a bit nervous because this would be my first big consulting gig but had spent time preparing, studying the customer, reading up on similar customers, etc. He told me that I should feel confident because I had done everything I could ahead of time and now it was time to enjoy the payoff.

When we got off of the plane he was met by an entourage, and whisked away. He was obviously “somebody” so Googled him to learn it was Hank Jones. He basically invented bebop piano. That music festival he was returning from was the Montreux Jazz Festival.

I have always kept his words in mind. Doing everything you can do to prepare ahead of time is what gives you confidence in pretty much anything you do. Then it is up to you to just enjoy the payoff.

7. Someone’s cutting onions.

When I tried to kill myself in high school I ended up in the hospital, and then shipped off via ambulance to a local mental hospital.

On the way there, the EMT in the back told me he used to be suicidal, we talked the whole way about how he chose to live and why and how he could tell I was a nice and worthwhile person from the little we’d interacted.

I don’t remember most of the conversation because I was all drugged up, but I remember feeling like someone actually saw me, actually understood, and actually cared.

It was kind of a first, and it’s one of my happiest memories even tho I can’t remember most of it. I don’t even remember his name. But whoever you were, I hope your life is great, and thank you.

6. A wise man.

There was a homeless man called Grant who stayed at a tunnel underneath a pretty busy road. I had always tried to give whatever spare money I had and he’d always been incredibly kind to everyone.

I think he got back in touch with his family and he left that tunnel but the last time I saw him he told me “Get some self respect because you’re helluva better person than you think you are.”

It was a major boost in my confidence and Its nice having some confidence for once. He also told me to stay away from Apple stores.

5. That will change your perspective.

I was in a plane at JFK stuck on the tarmac for three hours, feeling kind of sorry for myself. Struck up a conversation with the elderly man next to me. Turned out he was the youngest child to survive Dachau. Showed me his tattoo. Told me he survived because he ate whatever was left on the dishes he washed.

I don’t feel sorry for myself so much any more.

4. This is hilarious.

I told this once before on a different account.

I was on a cruise in the Caribbean, three days out of Miami, to Nassau and back to Miami. Dude at the bar was chillin, about 20 years older than I was. I was already drunk, started talking to him and asked where he was from. “Jupiter!” was his answer. I assumed that this dude is just nuts and I left mid conversation.

Years later I learned that Jupiter, Florida is a real place and I was just oblivious and needed to get out more. The only assumptions I make are about myself now.

3. Just when you think all is lost.

Had a customer at my previous job telling me about how he used to stress about being single for most of his life until a week after his 40th birthday when he met his future wife outside a grocery store, just after he had accepted the possibility of being alone. He ended with sometimes waiting patiently is the only course of action, even if you don’t like it.

I think about that whenever I’m feeling the single’s blues.

2. When a stranger really sees you.

I was going through a really rough time, I was about 15 at the time. I was having a lot of identity issues and family troubles, I was also struggling with dissociation.

This culminated in me sobbing in a Kohl’s bathroom. I was at the sinks and a woman came up to me and told me “I don’t know who you are, I don’t know what your going through, but it gets better”.

She offered me a hug, which I accepted. It wasn’t a lot but it definitely helped me realize that there’s some genuine nice folks out there.

1. Sometimes a reminder is all you need.

Once at the mall I was chasing my 3-year-old. I was feeling real irritated when this guy yells to me ”just like his dad, huh?” indicating I was a child too once. Really gave me some perspective, just that one sentence.

These are beautiful stories, don’t you think?

If you’ve got one to add to the pile, I’d love to hear it!

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People Share What They Would Do WITHOUT a Moral Compass

The fact that we all live in a society with rules and norms isn’t the thing that keeps most of us in line every day. We have our own moral compasses that are built in from birth, and we follow them because something inside us says it’s the “right thing” to do.

It can be fun to imagine a world without that little voice, though, and these 16 people are musing on what they would be doing right now if their Jiminy Cricket suddenly disappeared.

16. Scary to think about, as the spouse at home.

Drain my bank account, take out a loan on the house, cash out retirement and bail.

Move to some beach in Europe.

15. Do they really check those things?

Writing straight-up lies on my resume as I look for new jobs.

14. That last one, though…

Follow my pleasure instincts. Eat, f*ck, give in to anger and probably murder.

13. Speaking your mind.

Telling certain patients to f%ck off.

I want to take care of people, I don’t want to be talked down to, yelled at, threatened, lied to for drugs, or so many other stupid things all while smiling and biting my tongue.

I kind of hate my job.

12. Would that really make you happy, though?

Not giving up my life in my city to help my mother have a comfortable hospice in her home.

Living like I’m just here for myself.

11. The other side of the story.

I quit a pharmacy over their inability to tell the seekers we weren’t playing their games.

“Your doctor hasn’t approved the refill”

Ten minutes later, they call saying they called their doctor and the doc’s office has sent it over.

They hadn’t sent it over.

I actually got pretty good at catching the phone before others when the ID was showing someone who was a known seeker. I would just pick it up and hang up. I couldn’t care less. They would spit and cuss us up one side and down the other if we wouldn’t fill their 13 different controlled scripts a week early. I’m not losing my license for that sh%t.

F*ck off.

So, one day, I had a customer who had proclaimed she wasn’t going to move away from the window until we filled her script. I went through all the regular requests for her to move with all of the normal pleading for her to be a decent human and let us help the others waiting in line. But…nope. she just stood there. My pharmacist, the store manager, all the other techs just kept their head down and never stepped up to help move her out of the window. With 20 people backed up in the line, I looked at my pharmacist and said ‘Welp, I’m not doing this sh*t anymore’ and walked straight out the door. Walked past 20 of my customers I had for years. Never looked back.

I haven’t worked retail pharmacy since. Not, will I do it for long in the future of things change for me. We should be able to fire customers without the government or the state or the company having any say. Though, some of those people would have pulled a race card or the s*x card or a political card or what ever card they had in their deck to sue us. All types of people are addicts and all of them will mistreat their pharmacies. Yet, because a doctor keeps them prescribed without question, they are not breaking any law. It sucks.

Soccer moms are the worst. Xanax addicts all half asleep driving their kids around. Scary.

10. There are good people in the world.

Packing for school. My dad tested positive for covid this morning, and although I haven’t been in close contact (he just got home from vacation) I have to get tested and it’s recommended I quarantine two weeks regardless of the result.

My college move in day was supposed to be Saturday. I’ve been stuck at home for so so long, haven’t seen my boyfriend in months.

I was so ready to go and this setback has me losing my mind, but my moral compass is telling me I shouldn’t put people at risk even if there’s only a small chance of a false negative (I’m expecting to be negative). I wish everyone else actually took quarantine seriously.

9. I wonder what it could be?

I can’t say exactly, but it starts with ‘S’ and ends with ‘elling drugs.’

8. How dare.

Call Ann Landers a boring old biddy.

Yeah, I’m living on the edge, fam!

7. There’s something soothing about it.

Well, at this moment in time I’d be doing the exact same thing.

Staying up until 1am on reddit.

Simple yet self destructive.

Mwa-ha-ha!

6. Seems like a lot of effort.

Pillaging I guess.

I’ve always wanted to pillage.

5. This just made me laugh.

Absolutely wrecking some 12 year olds Minecraft world.

Oh, that would be wonderful.

4. This is a good one.

Selling pics online.

Don’t judge. Your girl needs money.

3. Dang conscience.

I’d be married to a guy who owned his own airplane courier company.

He was boring as f*ck, but he was rich and into me. I could have used him for his money but it just didn’t feel right.

2. This hot take.

This made me think a moral compass has close to zero effect on my moderate actions, which are mostly conditioned by shallowness, apathy, fear and social stupidity.

I’m not doing anything significantly unethical not because I’m good, but because I’m dull.

1. Life is hard right now.

I’d be in a car driving away from my kids leaving my sick wife to deal with the two little lunatics.

I’m so exhausted I just want to sleep for 12 hours and not have to break up constant fights/screaming crying about nothing.

It would be simpler in some ways, right?

Or maybe just easier.

Share your answer with us in the comments!

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People Share Honest Slogans for Their States

We all have affection for the states where we were born or the ones we’ve adopted as our own – good, bad, ugly, or funny, it’s home.

Which is why it’s okay for us to make fun of their stereotypes like these 27 people did on Reddit!

27. The important ones, anyway. Except chocolate.

Ohio, home of the four C’s: Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Corn

26. Kind of disappointing, really.

Arizona: All beach, no ocean.

25. And they get to pick the president.

Florida: hold my beer.

24. That’s the nicest thing you can say about Florida.

Florida – The further north you travel, the more southern we get.

23. Spoiler Alert: because it’s cold.

Minnesota – come for the culture, stay because your car won’t start.

22. They should get a cut of the profits.

Colorado: Sponsored by Subaru.

21. Nope. Definitely don’t.

New York- We do have more than just one city.

But you probably don’t care.

20. At least half.

Texas – You’ll spend half of your cross country trip driving through here.

19. As us about corn! (Or soybeans or the ghosts of dead baseball players).

Iowa- not Idaho stop asking us about potatoes.

18. So friendly around those parts.

Welcome to New Jersey: We don’t want you here either.

17. It’s that darn research triangle.

North Carolina. Only 90% yankee refugees who got lost on the way to Florida.

16. Every person, every time.

Arizona: …but it’s a dry heat.

15. Unless you want to die.

Massachusetts – Don’t drive here if you’re not from here.

14. One might be an Ave.

Georgia – take a left onto peachtree street then a right onto peachtree street.

13. You can’t ask for directions, though.

Massachusetts – where even google maps gives up.

12. Accurate af.

Illinois – If it ain’t Chicago it’s corn.

11. Wellll…no comment?

West Virginia – We “don’t” f%ck our cousins anymore are f%cking liars.

10. Funny AND awkward.

Illinois- Our former governors make our license plates.

9. There’s been some spillover.

Oregon-We have almost as many Californians as California.

8. That’s why we live all the way up here.

Alaska: Leave me the fuck alone.

7. You can put them all together for super fun.

“Kentucky: Bourbon, Bluegrass, and Bibles. Oh and horses.”

6. Are we sure that’s all?

Michigan – Road construction next 300 miles.

5. And there’s no soda or booze.

Utah- You’re Mormon, I’m Mormon, We’re all Mormon!

4. Did you know there are two?

Washington: No, the other Washington.

3. When natural disasters just aren’t enough.

Oklahoma – Earthquakes and tornadoes are not enough. Wait 50 years and we’ll install both an artificial volcano and artificial oceans, so we can have double the disasters!

2. Hi did you know everything is killing you?

WARNING: This state contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.

1. The best place to learn to drive a stick.

Kansas- for drivers that don’t want to turn for 4 hours.

These are just too perfect, don’t you think?

Which one is the most right for your state? Tell us in the comments!

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Little Things That Feel Rude, Even Though They’re Not

Human beings sure are weird. We try our best to get along, to avoid conflict, and we worry far too much (imho) about our interactions with strangers.

Sure, some people could stand to be a little more polite, but for the rest of us, we should stop worrying that things like these 13 are horribly rude.

13. This person is probably Italian.

Saying “no thanks” when offered more food.

Especially at a family function, there’s always those relatives that offer so much.

I really don’t need to eat that much food.

12. You feel like you’re taking advantage.

Accepting an offer that doesn’t benefit the other person too.

11. I just avoid walking past them.

Rejecting kiosk workers feels rude, but i digress.

I went to a mall and I have really big, thick hair. One girl asked me if I ever straighten it and I said no and she was like “well, this straightener is easy, less damaging, let me try it on you!” And I said no thanks and then she’s like “come on i insist!”

And I was like noooooo fucking thank you.

Then like an hour later I walked by the same kiosk again and a different guy was working and asked to try the straightener on my hair and I said no, and he asked “why not” and I said because I don’t like straightening my hair. He’s like “well this is not time consuming!” And I got really mad and kinda yelled “I’m not buying a hair straightener from you!”

10. I feel like there’s some subtext, here.

Calling people out for social misconduct.

As in saying they are coming in 5 minutes only to not hear from them again.

Mildly specific, I know.

9. Those still exist?

Ringing the bell when there is no one at the service counter.

8. Like you’re saying you don’t want to be with them, but that’s not true.

saying you need space/time to yourself.

i don’t know why, but it always feels like i’m being rude when i tell people this, even though it’s just part of life and needing some alone time/time to think and reflect.

7. This makes me giggle.

Giving ppl the thumbs-down motion, especially when driving.

My dad and I do that instead of flipping ppl off.

Gets ppl madder than shit but it’s still hilarious.

6. Always ask why you feel like you have to do it.

Telling the truth about something that might hurt but is going to save your butt in the long run.

5. Ok but this is kind of rude.

Not continuing the “pay it forward” at drive-thrus.

It’s happened several times to me, and I’ve always reciprocated.

I’ve hit a financially rough time, and I’m working 6 days a week starting at 5:30.

If I miss a coffee the rest of my morning will feel like hell, even though I’m pushing my budget to get one.

The cashier told me my coffee was paid for already, so I left a small tip, and went about my way. I’ll pay it later when circumstances are better.

4. The good ones should understand.

Telling a doctor that you want a second opinion.

3. Especially with Gen Z kids.

Texting with a proper punctuation.

2. I thought it was only me.

Asking someone to correct your food order.

1. You gotta do it.

Discussing salary.

It’s a good way to make sure you and your coworkers are all being treated fairly.

Be polite, but don’t be a doormat, y’all.

What, if anything, would you put on this list?

Share your thoughts with us in the comments!

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People Share the Things That May Seem Rude, but They’re Actually Not

What makes a behavior “rude” can be a bit subjective.

What bothers or offends one person could go unnoticed by another, but most of us just get that awkward feeling when something that’s been said or done feels off.

This post, though, is about those moments that occur even when the action or words in question aren’t rude at all – strange, right?

15. Only in the Midwest.

Passing people who are walking really slowly.

“Ope sorry, just going to squeeze by. Sorry. Sorry about that.”

14. Being an introvert is not a crime.

Leaving a party/function early, or even at a reasonable hour.

A lot of people take offense if you leave before the end and it’s a drag.

13. Oh, sweet summer child.

Calling out of work when I am sick.

Most act like I’m faking it so makes me feel bad whenever I need to due to medical issues.

12. This modern world has downsides.

Not being available 24/7 despite being reachable 24/7.

11. You have to learn how to do it.

Saying no to anything.

10. It’s not because you don’t want to. All the time.

Not being able to do favors for someone when asked

9. Just say thank you.

East Asian here.

The act of “pretending to turn gifts down and the giver insisting and going back and forth for a 3 f*cking hours and eventually accepting the gift anyway”

Just f*cking irritates me to no end.

8. This is so hard to do.

Asking for money that is owed to you.

It seems awkward and rude but it really isn’t, or at least shouldn’t be.

7. Only if it’s the first time, though.

Correcting someone if they mispronounce my name.

6. You just want to leave.

Ending a conversation with someone who is legit trying to commandeer your time.

5. Your real friends will understand.

Not hanging out with people because you are tired.

4. Being honest.

Actually telling somebody what you think about their abilities. There’s a way to do it without being rude.

I spent 2 years studying a craft in a very competitive field and toward the end of the 1st year I started to fall behind and my instructor started to give me polite responses instead of actual feedback. So I followed him to his office one day and said I feel like I’m getting shrugged off, I know I’m not going as well as others but lay it on me.

He didn’t want to because these are peoples life-long dreams and its hard to crush people’s spirits. But he laid it all on the line, said I’m going hang on for a while and fizzle out within a couple of years. I asked for specifics, he hit back even harder. I didn’t take it hard and in fact I was excited because I was going to fail anyway before he was brutally honest but now I had specifics to work on and improve on!

A couple years later we were talking and he said “you know I was wrong about you” and I got to say “no you were so right. and if you hadn’t told me all of that, I wouldn’t have worked on it”. Because of his honesty I had two choices that were better than the path I was on. Either find something else to do with my life, or hone in on my shortcomings and work tirelessly on them and if it hasn’t gotten better a year from now then I can find something else to do with my life. I got better over that year and now work in the field I’d started my studies in. That definitely wouldn’t have been the case if that instructor had kept being polite and never gave it to me straight.

You gotta be honest with people you know. Not in a mean way, not fully unsolicited. But if you’re not honest with something people are trying to get good at or pursue a career in, you’re setting them up for failure by not pointing out weaknesses they can fix or by accidentally encouraging them to go down a path that leads to a dead end.

3. Why is this so hard?

Telling people what you want as far as your boundaries.

“I don’t like being touched. Please don’t touch me.”

“I prefer not to text a lot during work hours.”

“I don’t like making last minute plans. Next time please let’s set up plans ahead of time.”

“I don’t think we really click. I don’t think this is working.”

But standing up for your boundaries encourages people to stand up for theirs, too.

2. I’m cringing right now.

When you’re at a craft fair or farmer’s market or some other outdoor event where people have a bunch of tables set up to sell their wares, go up to a table to check out what they’re selling, and walk away.

Either you don’t like what they have, or they’re selling their nice soaps for waaaay too much money.

They are looking at you this whole time with this happy, expectant look on their face, like “This is it, I’m going to get a sale!” Or worse, when you ask them what they’re all about, and they go into this long pitch about their thing, only for you to realize that you’re not interested.

I always feel like a complete a$shole for going, “Yeah. Well, okay. Bye!”

1. Unless it’s your spouse.

Actually, i am not in the mood of talking right now.

I totally agree with these, and I honestly hate these scenarios!

Is there one you would add to the list? Share with us in the comments.

The post People Share the Things That May Seem Rude, but They’re Actually Not appeared first on UberFacts.

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Myths About Puritans That Need to Stop Spreading

Most of us remember a couple of things about the Puritans from our days spent half-listening in history classes – they had something to do with the founding of America, and they had big ol’ sticks up their butts.

Even those couple of things, though, aren’t totally and honestly true.

It turns out we believe more than a couple of things about our ancestors that aren’t exactly right, and below are 5 that we need to stop repeating asap.

5. They weren’t always party poopers.

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Witty journalist H.L. Mencken said in 1925 that Puritanism could be defined as “the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.”

That’s really a bit of a stereotype, because in general, the Puritans weren’t anymore repressed or judgmental than other Christian sects of the day – which is to say, everyone was pretty uptight and repressed back in the day.

They might not even have been as fanatically religious as we believe, because those jeremiads – the six-hour “fire and brimstone” sermons – evolved out of a fear that their flocks were losing faith.

They were a lot like us, I guess – their parents had to force them to church, and everyone was in a hurry for it to be over.

4. They’re not the same as Pilgrims.

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Religiously, the Puritans and Pilgrims are almost identical – both groups wanted to “purify” the Church of England with reforms – but their methods were different. The Pilgrims believed leaving the church was the right thing to do, while the Puritans wanted to change it from within.

The Pilgrims sailed to America to do their own church thing, but the Puritans hoped England would be inspired to change after seeing how well it worked for them.

It was the Pilgrims who arrived on the Mayflower to establish Plymouth, made friends with the Natives, and barely survived their first winter.

The Puritans, rich, middle-class merchants – arrived 10 years later ready to go to war with the Natives, establishing the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Once both were in America, they kind of blended together, though the Pilgrims continued to treat the Native population much better than the Puritans, who were at war with the Natives within five years of landing on their soil.

3. They didn’t spend all their time burning witches.

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Everyone in the early modern world believed in witches and witchcraft, and if you were Christian, you believed it was bad.

Thousands of people were convicted in England and Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries, and many more were murdered by mobs before they could stand trial.

But while the events in Salem, Massachusetts in the 1690s make the Puritans look overzealous in their witch-hatred, the truth is that event was an outlier – between 1620 and 1692, there were only 61 known prosecutions of witches in Massachusetts (and only 16 convictions).

2. They didn’t exactly bring religious freedom to America.

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The Puritans came to America so they could practice their new, purified version of Christianity – they never intended to let others freely practice as they chose.

Don’t take my word for it, though. Listen to Nathaniel Ward, a Puritan clergyman and colonial leader in the Massachusetts bay Colony.

“I dare take upon me, to be the herald of New England so far, as to proclaim to the world, in the name of the colony, that all Familists, Antinomians, Anabaptists, and other enthusiasts shall have free liberty to keep away from us, and such as will come to be gone as fast as they can, the sooner the better.”

Dissenters, within and outside the Puritan ranks, were tried for heresy and banished.

Fun fact: They really hated the Quakers, though, and people were put to death for simply giving a Quaker directions on the road.

1. They didn’t hate intimacy (all the time).

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We think that people’s beliefs that sex is dirty and sinful come from the Puritans, but in truth, as long as the act in question took place in a marriage bed.

They thought intimacy was fine and good, even if the couple in question wasn’t looking to have a baby, and believed it strengthened bonds between a spouses – at least one man was excommunicated for withholding the pleasurable experience from his wife.

I’m feeling smarter already, how about y’all?

Tell me in the comments which one of these gobsmacked you!

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This is What Happens When You Drink Saltwater (Pssst: Don’t!)

We’re taught not to drink the water in the ocean. It’s not the same as other water, though our parents rarely explain why beyond telling us “it will make you sick.”

We read horrifying stories about disasters at sea, where men and women are stuck without food or water, and eventually succumb to the lure of seawater, only to make things worse.

Why is drinking it so bad for us, though, and what happens to our bodies when we do?

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You might think it’s counterintuitive, this avoiding of saltwater, since our bodies contain – and depend on – both salt and water to function.

Water is a universal solvent and is essential in helping us metabolize food, use our muscles, pump blood, and even for brain function. Salt is necessary for those same chemical reactions to take place.

That said, you likely already know that consuming too much salt is not so great for our bodies. It can lead to issues like high cholesterol levels, and our bodies need to stay under a salinity of 9 in order to function properly – that means for every 1000 grams of fluid we consume, we need 9 grams of salt.

Saltwater is a hypertonic fluid, which means it contains more salt than our blood, with a salinity of 35 – and it throws our body’s coping mechanisms completely out of whack.

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Our cells have membranes that prevent salt from wandering into them unwanted, and although our bodies can use built-in mechanisms like these to an extent, they struggle with extremely high concentrations of salt.

When those concentrations are higher on the outsides of our cells than on the inside, water movies outside, too, trying to correct the imbalance. That leaves your cells devoid of water on the inside, and that’s never a good thing.

This process, called osmosis, can be disastrous in the case of consuming seawater. Our cells will shrink, and to correct that problem, our kidneys start to excrete the excess sodium in our urine.

The kidneys can only produce urine slightly less salty than saltwater, though, so they start making us pee more and more in order to keep up, dehydrating us in the process.

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Basically, you’re peeing out more water than you’re taking in, which means you’ll only get more thirsty, not less, if you give into the temptation of drinking saltwater.

Not only that, but the body compensates for fluid loss in other ways, too – increasing your heart rate, constricting blood vessels in an attempt to maintain pressure and flow, nausea, weakness, and delirium that can lead to more bad decisions.

If you’re not able to consume fresh water in a short amount of time, the result will be organ failure and ultimately, death.

So, if you find yourself marooned or adrift at sea, resist the temptation and wait for rain.

Please.

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