Some people spend their whole young adulthood lives buttoned up and locked down – no dating, no parties, no drinking, no fooling around, nothing.

That usually doesn’t last forever, though, because life has plenty of ways of reminding us that it’s too short to not really live at all – and these 14 people have some pretty great (or at least memorable) moments when they finally had that realization themselves.

14. Watch how you parent, my friends.

I come from a strict asian family that emphasized education above all else. Even before my sister I were born, they already started planning financially for our higher education and choosing the schools we would go to. They spared no expense for our education.

I am blessed that they are very supportive and responsible but this also brought immense pressure to me and my sister. We always needed to be top of the class or else face their disappointment. We both got into the best high school and university of the country, but unlike my sister, I snapped in university.

Due to pressure to do well in school, I got depressed and suicidal. I would get drunk all the time and skip class. Ultimately, I dropped out of university. It was the hardest thing to tell them that I would not be going back to school anymore. I thought they would cast me out of the family due to shame and disappointment. I never thought they would welcome me back with understanding and open arms, but they did. I stayed at home for 1 year and did nothing. They allowed me to heal.

Finally, I went back to school by my own accord and finished university. They encouraged me to go to law school and here I am. Suicidal drop-out to being a student in the one of the best law schools in the country. I just very thankful for their support.

13. It’s always a good day to stand up for yourself.

I don’t know if I’d say I was a goody two shoes, but I definitely was always taught to be polite and not make waves, and it took me a long time to learn how to stand up for myself.
My turning point was at the airport – it was my first time flying alone with my infant daughter, and we were heading to a funeral so I wasn’t in a great place to begin with.

I was lined up waiting for a self-check in machine, and was next in line. Some asshole older white dude decided that the one line for 6 machines didn’t work for him, and he was going to start a line behind the machine he wanted. Meaning he attempted to just jump in front of me.

Normally I would have just rolled my eyes and huffed and dealt with it. But not this time. I’m real soft spoken, but I got LOUD. “Excuse me! There’s a line. I was next.” Now everybody is looking. He starts muttering and then calls me rude. “Yeah, it is rude to cut off a mother with a BABY.” He was still muttering but he retreated to the back of the line.

I don’t want my daughter to grow up as a doormat, so she needs to see me modeling strength and boundaries.

12. Go girl.

I was suffering abuse.

I couldn’t take it anymore and decided to put myself first instead of pleasing the people around me.

11. I want to give this person a high-five.

My friends were just joking around and I knew they were but I couldn’t help but finally snap at their silly remarks towards me. I yelled, went silent and just wanted to be alone for a minute. When I checked my phone they had been trying to contact me to see if I was alright.

They said they felt awful, understood why I was angry and apologized. I felt bad that I snapped but they said it was fine and that we all have a breaking point.

10. Figure out who you are.

All throughout high school, I was the perfect student. Good grades, played sports, played cello, cared alot about what everyone thought of me, so I tried really hard to be ‘perfect’. I was planning on going to the university my parents and everyone expected me to go to.

The summer after high school I began getting really depressed, and wasn’t sure what I really wanted out of life. That fall I decided not to go to university, but moved to a ski resort instead. Best decision of my life. 5 years later, I have lived in 3 different countries and have a better understanding of what I want out of life.

I am planning on going back to school for the subject I want. I also stopped caring what people thought of me a long time ago!

9. It’s ok to make mistakes.

Honestly it made me more human and more accepting of myself.

We’re not perfect, we make mistakes, and that’s perfectly okay.

We don’t have to prescribe to labels that people put on us, or even labels that we put on ourself. We’re allowed to change and grow.

8. She told him to get lost.

Tired of being the “cool” girlfriend, the one who doesn’t demand anyone’s time. I cooked, cleaned and did laundry. This was forced into me since childhood being the oldest female child. When I got into a relationship I assumed a mom role.

When I stood up for myself and held conversations with my ex about needing more than s*x from him, he promised he would change. He never changed and after a while he said well if I had a problem with him, that’s just something about myself that I have to deal with.

I became fed up with it and broke it off and he never contacted me again thank god. I’m single now, take care only of my needs and you can be da*n sure I expect other people to handle their sh*t like I handle mine. I don’t know if I snapped at all, I just told him to get lost and I moved on.

7. At least there’s a happy ending.

I snapped at work after five years, left work in the middle of the day and went straight to the doctor.

He gave me sick leave for three weeks, I had a total break down.

The aftermath?

I used those weeks to find a new job. It’s hard and I’m not doing as well as I wished, still afraid I will break down again at any time.

Shi**y mental health!

6. They should be proud of themselves.

I have not been getting the promotion at work that I have been promised so many times, and I have been there the longest from all the people i worked with.

I snapped and am handing in my resignation letter next month…

5. Perception vs. Reality.

I was always perceived as a goody-goody at my jobs, though it wasn’t actually the case with me. I partied almost every week through college, went to concerts every month with friends, drank heavily. I’ve never been a pot smoker, but only because I tried it a few times and didn’t like it.

But I also have always been a believer that it’s inappropriate to talk about your personal life at work. It’s not my coworkers’ business how drunk I got Saturday night or how many people I’ve slept with, so if someone asks me about plans or what I did last week, I tend to “grey rock” and skip over any discussion of anything unusual. This lead to all my coworkers thinking my weekends are nothing but Netflix and books.

The thing that started to bother me, though, was that my coworkers were all hanging out outside of work, and even though they talked about going drinking together and sh*t, none of them ever bothered to invite me. That stung. I liked my coworkers and wanted to be friends, wanted to be included, I just didn’t want to discuss s*x and parties at work.

Finally one day I got rude. My manager mentioned going drinking with some of the other workers, and I straight up asked why I was never invited. He replied that none of them thought I drank or partied, so I corrected the record, and he happily invited me to the next get-together.

The night out was fun, and I definitely got to know my coworkers better. That was great. Unfortunately, getting to know them better also resulted in two of the guys – one of them my manager – repeatedly hitting on me and hassling me through text for a hookup. The manager in question even had a girlfriend at the time who regularly popped by work to bring him stuff.

I was relieved when I left that job a month later, and I went back to letting people think I’m a stick in the mud.

4. I hope they’re ok.

I graduated a year early in the top of my class. Never drank or did drugs, never even had a boyfriend.

Then I snapped.

I moved out at 17 and became a homeless bulimic drug addict living with three men.

My bender ended with a suicide attempt and subsequent psych ward stay.

3. Life has its reasons.

My husband cheated on me and we got divorced. Up until that point, I had tried to do everything to be perfect, look good to others, and please my ulta-Christian family. I was very judgmental of others during that time. I was judgmental of myself too, it was all around a bit unhealthy.

When my husband cheated and I filed for divorce I, for the first time, had to deal with public shame/gossip, the feeling of letting my family down, and the stigma of being in my early 20’s and a divorcee. I learned a lot and I’d say it all made me a much better person.

I’m very uplifting of other women, I don’t judge people so much anymore, and I’m way more laid back. And I don’t worry about living my life to please others anymore (well, I still worry a little, it’s always a work in progress). It took a hardship to knock me down a peg and teach me grace.

2. Don’t carry more than you can handle.

LOL I was very prim in high school, ran track and played field hockey, played violin and piano, was on every committee, volunteered, all honors / AP classes with good grades, long-term BF (voted class couple), a ton of friends, etc. BUT I was not happy in the small town and always wanted to move to a nearby big city.

I moved and went HAM. got my tongue pierced, drank a ton, had a BLAST. Then my parents cut me off, I moved into a horrible studio, worked full-time (at 17) and dropped out of college, only to resume at a community college at night. Even did a stint as a stripper lol

Finagled my way into the finance industry, graduated from a good school, work at a prestigious firm now, travelled by myself to 40+ countries, had a TON of experiences that I wouldn’t have had if I took the path everyone expected me to (college, grad school or med school). I’m now very easy going, still really organized and productive, but more focused on my own happiness than what others think of me. But my relationship with my parents never recovered, we’re still strained 10 years later.

I think it’s all about finding that you’re carrying more than you should. Like I hand made a canoe to get me through high school / childhood, and it was beautiful. But once I crossed the lake I didn’t need it anymore and it just weighted me down. So I let it go.

1. When life hands you lemons.

I always had an odd relationship with my parents for various reasons when growing up and always did the things I thought I should do rather than the things I wanted to do. I was the perfect, hard working, diligent student but quiet and socially awkward. Silently judgmental of others but really hard on myself. I was bullied at school and that lead to me just trying to melt into the background and not get noticed.

When I went to uni I met my ex. He was someone I never in a million years thought would be attracted to me. We were together for nearly 10 years and I spent the whole time trying to be whatever it was I thought he wanted. As a result I never really knew myself or what I wanted out of life. He left me one day (literally moved to another continent over night). It was pretty traumatizing at the time. I was also being treated badly (I thought it was me being not good enough – it wasn’t) at work and that came to a head too not long after my ex left me.

Losing my ex and then my job was what did it for me. I actually thought about what I wanted out of life. I started dating, took up a couple of new hobbies and gained loads of confidence. I decided that I was in the wrong career and got my masters degree in mental health, something I would have written off as impossible previously. To pay for my masters I had to do temp work in my previous field and found that I actually really like it and I’m quite good at it too when I’m not being told I’m rubbish all the time.

I am now engaged to a really supportive, caring man. I have a job that I love and have got better at as my confidence has grown. My current partner sees me as really confident and quite outgoing, and my colleagues respect me for my work. I’m even looking for opportunities to take on more responsibility in my job. I recently ended up paired with someone for a particular project I haven’t worked with before and when I turned up she was really relieved to see me and said she was glad she was put with someone good. A small thing but made me look back at how things had been in my previous job.

I don’t know if this really counts as snapping as such. It certainly wasn’t instant but the difference is massive. I even have a much better relationship with my parents. I disagree with them where they can hear me and everything! Lol

I can definitely relate to some of these, how about you?

If you’re a former goody-two-shoes, tell us your own story in the comments!

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