Imagine that! Actually listening to peoples’ advice and trying it out!
Who would’ve thought?
I have to admit that I’m guilty of letting advice from people go in one ear and out the other sometimes, but I’m working on it, okay? So get off my back!
AskReddit users shared their own stories about advice that they ignored for a long time but were pleasantly surprised to discover actually works.
1. It’ll be fine.
“This too shall pass.
On those days when I just feel like I can’t take it I think of that, and I know tomorrow will be different.
Someone once told me, “tomorrow may not be better, but at least it’ll be different.”
In a strange way that too is comforting.”
2. It worked!
“My therapist told me the next time I’m going to have a panic attack to just give in and tell myself it was ok to have one.
I told him he was crazy. After a couple tries it started working to my amazement. I haven’t had a panic attack in 3 years.”
3. It’s good for you.
“Keeping my shoulders back.
It was a suggestion I saw for preventing panic/anxiety. Idk what it is, but when your shoulders are in that position it gives some strange feeling of control.
I also read somewhere that during panic attacks the body basically wants to curl into fetal position for protection, so I feel like focusing on keeping your arms down and shoulders back is a conscious way to go against that and stay grounded in reality.
Works for me, could work for you too.”
4. A good idea.
“TheForest app.
It grows a tree for up to 2 hours and during that time, you can’t access any apps you think will distract you. If you wanna open a distracting app, you’d have to kill your tree. All your trees, dead or alive, appear in a little forest.
I have always had trouble motivating myself to focus on homework and not look at Reddit/YouTube, but this app is just enough guilt to not open them. I haven’t killed anything yet and I’m surprised at how much I can care about a small virtual tree.
People told me about it and I just completely assumed that I’d never use it or it wouldn’t work for me considering how distractible I am, but it works wonders.”
5. Father knows best.
“My dad always told me ‘Ask anyway, the worst they can say is no’ when buying something or when I needed something from another person.
Seemed stupid to ask if I was sure they would say no but I was also a socially anxious kid. Turns out that advice has helped me with school, with raises, with people in general, with plans with new friends…”
6. Listen up.
“”There’s what you need, there’s what you want, and there’s what you can’t afford.”
My Dad says this all the time, and I never though of it as useless–I just never used it. Now I have, and my money is far easier to manage.”
7. I’m gonna try this!
“Putting cold water on freshly shaved skin will make it so you don’t get ingrown hairs.
Some of the best advice I’ve ever received.”
8. Just get started.
“Once begun is half done.
I am a terrible procrastinator by nature. I have totally done the “well now it 5:02 so I have to wait until 6:00 to start cleaning” and I like making things seem like so much work that I can’t possibly do them unless I take time off of work.
In reality if you just start a project without thinking about it you can get everything done in like fifteen minutes a day and it’s never really that bad.”
9. Get flossing!
“”Your gums bleed when you floss because you don’t floss enough”
Turns out if you floss enough, your gums won’t be inflamed so they don’t bleed when you floss.”
10. Stop “what if’ing.”
“Don’t suffer future pain.
In other words, worrying about all the stuff that could happen stops you from doing things and worse, turns potential pain into actual worry and mental pain.”
11. Works wonders.
“Exercising helping with depression and anxiety.
It’s not a cure all and I needed to be on meds to get to the point where I could do it, but it really does help me. I’ve been off my meds now for over a year (under doctors supervision don’t stop taking your meds unless you run it by your doctor) and when I can’t exercise for a few days, I can feel the depression and anxiety coming back.
Now instead of going through a million things I did wrong in my head, I run for 3 miles or lift some heavy shit.”
12. Always!
“Cleaning your house before leaving for more than 5 days.
Nothing is better than coming to a clean house.”
13. Lo and behold…
“Fans on my old MacBook died. Saw a YouTube video that said to simply take your fist and bang on the part of the computer that housed the fans.
Thinking it was a troll, I gave it a shot out of pure frustration, and lo and behold, they purred back to life and I never had another issue with them for the rest of the time that I owned that computer.”
14. Relieve that tension.
“Unclench your jaw, open your hands, drop your shoulders, and breathe in.”
15. Bribe yourself.
“Bribe yourself with fun things to do the not so fun things.
Today I was tired after work but got a little care package in the mail, so I made myself go on the 2.5 mile run I didn’t want to do before I could open the package.
Now I’m refreshed and happy that I did the thing I was pseudo dreading, and I have a fun care package to open.”
16. Put that thing away for a while.
“Not taking your cellphone into bed with you.
After awhile you will sleep much easier without the distraction and blue light shining straight into your eyes before bed.”
Now it’s your turn.
In the comments, tell us about some advice that turned out to be good once you actually followed it.
There’s a subreddit you should absolutely not visit unless you want to cringe yourself into such a condensed state that you actually become a black hole and devour the entire solar system. But you should really check it out…
It’s called r/sadcringe and it is what it sounds like; user submitted cringe content that is sad. That said, it’s also frequently really funny, as evidenced by some of the better text exchanges that get regularly get added to the gallery of failure.
Check out these 10 examples of conversations that that did NOT go well.
10. Ready, aim, fired
This is the most compelling short story of a generation.
Looking at how terrible all those conversations went makes me feel slightly better about the fact that I work from home and don’t talk to people enough. Obviously, talking to people is dangerous. That’s the lesson here, for sure.
Remember the beginning of Twilight Zone: The Movie?
I saw that movie when I was VERY young and it scared the hell out of me and left me with a permanent fear of driving in the middle of nowhere at night.
Here’s the scene so you can see what I’m talking about.
Hey, the road is a creepy place at night.
Let’s take a look at scary incidents that AskReddit users had while driving at night.
1. That’s a creepy movie, too.
“I dropped my GF off the night we saw The Mothman Prophecies. It wasn’t a super scary movie, but it had some scares. I take the interstate home. On the way, there is a curve where there aren’t any lights. Just a dark stretch of interstate.
As I came around the bend, there was a guy in a black trench coat walking along the side of the road. As it was about 3am, I guess I started him. So, when my headlights hit him, he whipped around and I swear he stared me right in the eyes.
My heart jumped into my throat. The whole event lasted maybe 2 seconds tops, but it had my heart racing. Not paranormal, but definitely scary for me.”
2. A terrible experience.
“I was driving home late one night and was driving on a dark stretch of the highway. Suddenly a body was in front of me, I tried to swerve out of the way but it was too late. My bumper was hanging on the ground.
The guy died. And I went to a nearby gas station not knowing what to do (was 18). When the tow truck pulled my car up on to it, there were a bunch of blood and guts on the bottom. I couldnt get that image out of my head
Apparently a drunk driver with 5 DWI’s had hit a guy on the motorcycle prior.
For years after I had serious depression and thought about it every night before sleep.”
3. Taxi driver.
“I drove taxi during the night shift and among many crazy and terrifying things, I saw a toddler (2-3yrs). it was about 1 am and I was driving in a very wooded part of our town, just after dropping a customer off, and in the middle of the road was this baby just sitting in the dark.
I stopped my cab and turned on my flashers. I preceded to walk up to the kid and he just started bawling. I tried to comfort him but me being in disbelief that a baby with no one around was just sitting there all I could say was “it’s cool it’s cool bro”.
I picked him up and he started crying frantically (I would to if a stranger came and grabbed me) I put him in the passenger seat and looked for the nearest drive way. It ended up being about 100 yards down the street. I pulled up into what I hoped was his house and there was maybe 6 or 7 teenagers drinking in the garage.
I couldn’t see from the road because all the houses had long dirt driveways. When I pulled up they acted as if I wasn’t even there until I said “hey, this your kid?” After a few “whats?” They came over to the cab and said “Aiden? Where did you go?”
Like the baby just goes for midnight strolls. Not a thank you or good bye or anything, they just took the baby in the house and continued drinking and laughing. As I pulled out I felt as if I should call the cops or something but couldn’t bring myself to do it.
I’m still scared to this day that I’ll be driving down a dark road and hit a baby.”
4. Keep your eyes open.
“Back in my twenties I was putting myself through uni by working night shifts at a factory. Money was great but between full time work and full time study i was constantly exhausted.
Sleep got worse when I picked up a second job to make ends meet, parents split up and dad went into depression so he wasn’t working you see. Anyway, after months I kept falling asleep at the wheel on the way home from work just before dawn around 4am. One time as I was driving home all alone after work, I saw half a dozen crocodiles on the road!
I swerved to avoid hitting them and almost crashed the car. I was terrified in the moment because they came out of nowhere and were huge and I’d never seen crocodiles in real life before, let alone on a free way. I pulled over the car and looked in my rear view mirror but nothing was there.
To this day I don’t know if I dreamed those crocodiles or if they were a hallucination from sleep deprivation.
Scariest thing I’ve ever ‘seen’ and I’m so thankful no one was on the road at the time too.”
5. That’s weird.
“I was in college at the time and it was late at night, the day before thanksgiving I believe or at least around that time.
I had had class earlier in the day and packed then headed off on the 10 hour drive to the western edge of Nebraska. It was around 1 or 2 in the morning and I was in the final stretch of the trip. Driving down a totally deserted highway, only 2 lanes with no shoulder so the speed limit was 55. I was tired and having not seen anyone for at least an hour I kept kicking up my speed up to 80. I was flying down the road.
As I crested a hill I spotted head light atop a couple hills down. I didn’t think much of it. Reduced my speed a bit and got read to turn off the brights over the next hill. But I didn’t see any more headlights.
I figured they must have turned off down a gravel road. Could have been for any number of reasons. They lived that way, maybe coming home after a night at the bar and didn’t want to risk getting pulled over on the highway, but at first I didn’t think it was weird.
Until boom, a black car hauled ass past me in the direction that car had been heading, with their lights off. I still wasn’t too freaked out until I saw break lights and then headlights behind me.
I fucking hauled ass. I called my grandparents as soon as I noticed the person was gaining on me. I gave them a heads up and my grandpa said he’d be at the end of their 1/2 mile driveway with his shot gun and rifle waiting for me.
I still had another 10 miles to go until the nearest town, then about 20 miles on gravel to get to their house. I knew the roads reasonably well, but not well enough to get off the main drag and zig zag across country roads.
I was doing 90 and so was this person, but kept their distance. I got to the town and just hauled ass through it. I didn’t stop for the 2 stop signs or the one stop light.
At that point I was hoping to get pulled over. As I got about a mile from my grandparents house my grandpa turned on his head lights and spot light on his truck and was driving towards me. That’s when the person turned back around.
I always wonder wtf they were doing. Like were they just fucking with me? Did they want something? I’ll never know.”
6. Holy shit.
“A lady tried to use my truck to commit suicide. I was going 40 and she jumped towards my truck. It happened so fast I couldn’t stop in time and her head smashed out my drivers side window. Scared the shit out of me.
At first I didn’t know that I hit a person until I looked back and saw her body in the road. She didn’t die that day but as soon as she got out of the hospital, she went back and did the same thing. This time it was a semi truck and she didn’t make it.
Super sad story.”
7. Don’t drink and drive.
“Driving home after a get together and I saw headlights that seemed “funny”.
It was from a car driving the wrong way and I swerved at the very last second.
Driver was drunk and hit a van carrying a family, 3 people died, the drunk driver lived.”
8. A game of chicken.
“One time I was going to my friend’s a few towns over. Most of the drive is a pretty straight road with a few stops, and has a speed limit of 45( so everyone does 55 usually)
It’s about 8 o’clock and dark out and I get stuck behind a slow car doing about 35mph. It’s frustrating but I’ll pass at the next passing zone. Next thing I know he goes even slower, down to 20 mph. I think maybe he feels me to close to him, so I back off his bumper and he speeds up to 45.
Soon he slows back down agian..
Then speeds back up..
Then slows agian. But this time he comes to a stop. In the middle of the road. No one else around. No stop sign. I decide fuck this and slowly start going around him. And I remember wanting to look over but as I was going by him I start accelerating.
Then he lays on his horn and starts accelerating to. So I put the peddle down even more trying to pass him. He is still laying on his horn. I am freaking out, so I just accelerating harder Finally we are up to 80 mph me in the opposite lane before he slows off. I keep going wanting to put some distance on us.
Coming to the end of the road is an intersection with traffic lights. Light turns red. Guy is still behind me. I grab a ice scraper from the backseat to get ready for him to get out and come to my truck.
Thankfully nothing happens. I turned at the intersection and he keeps going. Crisis adverted, but I was still shaking when I got to my friends house…”
9. Brutal.
“Driving to work early, still dark, got caught on scene as the paramedics and police were closing down the street.
Man on a bike hit by a car, woman standing outside her car holding her face and staring at the man she hit totally inconsolable. Man on the ground, head contorted behind his back, legs splayed like a ragdoll, shoes in the street with his toes facing the wrong way, his face bloodied and cut, and his butt half out of his pants while he convulsed, obviously dying from his injuries.
I was forced to stay there while police figured out who saw what and who was involved, so I got to watch the guy die.
I didn’t work that day.”
10. Don’t stop!
“It was about 3am and we were driving back to Dallas from a field party in OK. Long dirt roads, houses few and far between. As we pass a particularly broke down looking farmhouse there is little girl standing at end of the driveway holding a headless doll just watching our car drive by.
Made my blood go cold.”
11. Years ago…
“I had a weird and somewhat frightening experience one night years ago while on a long dark road one night. I was in the Navy at the time, and I was on a training trip to Groton, CT.
I was quite the partier in younger days, and I would wander damn near anywhere wherever I thought there was some music, dancing and action (wink wink). One night I decided to wander somewhere north of the New London / Groton area to see what else was out there.
Well I didn’t see anything worth mentioning, so I said screw it and finally turned my rental car around to head back to the base.
Now let me set the scene as it really was. I was just driving along this long, dark highway when I spotted a white guy just standing there in the pitch darkness alone and alongside the road.
There was no car or anything there… it was just him. As a southerner, my first impulse was to ask if he was OK… that is until I looked into his eyes. This man looked me right in the eye, and his stare sent a damn chill through me as I drove by.
He actually had the look of something between a spirit and an outright ax murderer. I mean like this dude didn’t even look REAL! He didn’t say a word to me, and he made no physical gesture.
He just stared at me with this evil, weird and ghostly look in his eyes. Bottom line is this: He scared the shit out of me, so I kept my Black ass moving and got the fuck out of there as fast as possible.
I was even afraid that I was going to have bad dreams that night. THAT’S just how evil and weird this cat looked!
This incident happened about 35 years ago, and I never forgot about it, so I hope this puts the story into a better perspective in terms of the “Jason” effect this dude had on me.”
12. Back in the day.
“1978 or ’79.
I was the lead singer/guitarist of a punk band called The Nads. Punk was new to Vermont and roundly hated in an era of overblown bands issuing albums of overly instumented 14 minute pieces. We were three poor kids with secondhand equipment and few gigs.
We were also the owner of an ancient “Thames” van which had previously served a plumber. His name was still faintly visible on the sides despite many scrubbings. Anyway, we travelled up and down Vermont and also made trips to New Hampshire and Maine playing where we could.
We got a gig playing at a basement bar in Portland, Maine but the pay would cover not much more than the gas. We gassed up, packed two days worth of sandwiches and a change of underwear and off we went. Just over the border in Maine we blew a tire (or “tyre” since it was a Thames).
It was still afternoon and there was a garage/gas station nearby so we took the tire off and walked it over to see if they could repair it. The spare was bald as hell and probably wouldn’t have got us home. The road was narrow and in pretty rough shape and we walked along in our all-black attired and our unfortunate haircuts.
The reaction we got from the locals at the station was shock but we had cash and away we drove. About 20 miles further the same tire flattened again and we figured that we had been had. We were in an even more rural area and this was the time before cell phones so we were fucked. Night closed in.
We had food to eat and plenty of forest to pee in so we just waited for a good Samarian or at least daybreak. Sorry, bar that took a chance on us. We lounged around inside the van and played around a bit on a new song we were writing. then ate and tried to sleep.
Deep in the night we heard the screeching of metal being dragged along asphalt and we bolted upright and peered out the windshield. There a snowmobile was racing along the (June) road shooting off sparks behind it like a comet.
One guy was driving and another guy was…well…”surfing” behind it on something which looked like a piece of farm machinery while he clung desperately to a rope tow line. The “comet” lingered in our eyes as the two disappeared around a wooded corner. We didn’t say anything for a long while until Bill our drummer blurted out, “You guys need to write a song about that shit.” And so “Wrenchhead Surfing” was written.”
13. Naked dude.
“Dude burst out of the woods completely naked and made noise beyond screaming. We were driving maybe 35 km/h at the time due to us just coming round a bend in the dark and we see this figures tearing out of the woods on the drivers side of the road.
Head lights hit this man butt naked, covered in what appeared to be blood and they caught his eyes in that reflective freaky state. The noise that came out of his mouth could be called a scream but that would not do it justice.
The most ungodly thing I have ever heard and considering we were in a car with all the windows up it must have been obscenely loud because it was like it could have been coming from inside the car.
This was in ’96 and I still have dreams where he runs out from somewhere dark and makes that sound to this day.”
14. On the run.
“Driving home around midnight Halloween night after hanging with friends. We are traveling down the freeway and fog is beginning to roll in so we are driving relatively slowly.
We take our exit and as we are heading up the ramp we see the shadow of a figure walking across the road. The lights from the road ahead projected his shadow into the fog on the road in front of us before we saw him.
He was stumbling with his arms in front of him across the exit ramp. Much like a zombie in a horror movie. We barely missed him.
We called 911 to report a man stumbling across the exit ramp heading toward the freeway. Turns out it was a drunk driver who crashed his car into the ditch and he was on the run.”
15. Floor it!
“Driving in rural Arkansas on a pitch black night.
Came to a tiny intersection in the middle of nowhere with an abandoned car, driver’s door open, interior lights on, and not a single other vehicle for miles. No one to be seen.
Sped the hell out of there.”
16. In Mexico.
“While driving from Morelia to Ciudad Hidalgo, in Mexico, back in the 80’s we had two ways to get to Ciudad Hidalgo which was the national road or the old national road which was called Mil Cumbres. Mil cumbres basically means 1,000 curves. That stretch of road literally had 1,000 curves so a lot of people would get motion sickness when on that road.
One evening on our way back to my grandparents, who lived in Ciudad Hidalgo, my grandfather was driving and he loved taking Mil Cumbres because it had really nice views and he just really loved driving that road but since we had the new national road, not a lot of people used that road anymore so it was kind of desolate with the exception of passing one or two little towns.
It was dusk so soon that meant that being on such a desolate road in the moutains, we would be in complete darkness on the road with no many other cars on the same stretch of road. It took 2 hours to get to the town on that road so maybe 45 mins into the drive it had already gotten really dark and as we were driving my grandfather started slowing down.
I was sitting in the back seat because my grandmother was in the front with my grandfather so I kind of stood over the front chairs to see why he was slowing down. That’s when I saw a hug tree log blocking the road. My grandfather came to a stop and immediately started going in reverse to turn around and get out of the immediately.
After we turned, my grandfather stepped on the gas pedal and I was sort of thrown back into the back seat. I immediately turned around to see if I could anything and as we were speeding away, I could see men, very dimly since it the light from the tail lights from the car were starting to get dimmer and dimmer, coming from out of the adjacent trees next to tree log on the road, with flashlights and guns.
We were about to get robbed and thanks to my grandfather’s quick thinking and taking action immediately, we avoided it. That was the last time I was ever on that road.”
Okay, now I’m scared.
Let’s hear from you.
In the comments, tell us about the creepiest thing you’ve ever seen while driving at night.
I think he’s super nice, super positive, he obviously loves what he does, and he does a lot of good work for charities.
I think his TV show is good, too.
So why all the hate?
Some things and people just get hated on. It’s a fact of life.
AskReddit users weighed in what they think gets a totally unnecessary amount of hate.
1. Don’t hate on it.
“TikToks.
Most of the videos are made by kids or teens. Let’s admit it, most of us would be making TikToks too if it had existed when we were 13. Instead, we had marquees and wacky-colored cursors on MySpace.
Those kids are doing the cringy shit we did, they just do it on video.”
2. I wish I did it!
“CrossFit.
Sure it’s intense compared to your average gym session, and without doubt there are a handful of shitty coaches out there, but it’s a great social activity, teaches people to move well (yes, yes, there are shitty coaches) and understand the mechanics of their body.”
3. It’s very popular…
“Kpop.
It’s just another genre of music but in a different language, yeah fans can be cringy but pretty much fans of anything can be cringy, and kpop groups tend to get even more hate than western artists just for being asian, even though most kpop idols are less or even not problematic at all.”
4. Not your business.
“Not wanting or liking kids. If it’s none of your business, spend your energy on something positive rather than useless judgement.
It is a little frustrating how many people’s responses to a post about lessening your judgement… is to judge and complain.
You know you guys are proving my point, right? Like super explicitly. I hope it’s helpful to readers of the thread.”
5. Thank you!
“Guy Fieri.
He seems like a genuinely good person.
In 2017 and 2018 he cooked for thousands of victims and first responders affected by the California wildfires.”
6. She’s just a kid.
“Billy Eilish.
People who talk shit on her are literally talking shit on a kid. Do you have nothing better to do? I get you don’t like her music, I don’t necessarily favor her music either but that’s no reason to attack her personally.”
7. Look into it.
“Veganism.
Yeah there are a lot of vegan idiots you hear about, but you don’t hear about all of the vegans with completely normal lives. Veganism is simply food without chicken, cow, pig, fish, eggs, or dairy.
You can find protein and vitamins from other sources. But some people go extreme with either raw vegan, fruitarian, low carb, etc.”
8. This one is very weird.
“Greta Thunberg.
People hate her with a passion and it’s ridiculous.
A girl with a lot of foresight: “We should save the planet, make a future for our young”
Some asshole: “I wish you were dead, little girl”
I genuinely don’t understand that train of thought.”
9. Unions.
“Labor Unions.
Since the vast majority of people are working stiffs that would benefit so much from being in a union, it’s amazing that they’re unpopular at all.
Groups of worker who essentially band together so they’re able to bargain for a more fair share of the profits their labor produces. Throw in some great health insurance for you and the family and a pension so you can retire in dignity.
Seriously, what’s not to like?”
10. Furry alert!
“Furries.
Like, yeah, sexualizing anthros are weird and like mmmmmake me uncomfortable. But children who role play as warrior cats? Neuro divergent teens who find comfort in it?
Yeah, I think spending thousands of dollars on a fur suit is silly, but their out here living their best live sooooo. Cringe culture is all about making fun of children (well mostly adults who are into kid things) but like why??
Their life doesn’t affect you in any way???”
11. Good point.
“Feminism.
Feminism is female equality. I feel like we all agree that women should be legally allowed to vote and given constitutional rights. So why hate on feminism?
Bunch of right wing propaganda masquerading as memes about fringe wackos who want men to donate their paychecks or some stupid shit. You can’t achieve equality by reversing injustice.
Those people aren’t feminists, they’re angry assholes.”
12. Politics as usual.
“The other political party:
I’m just being honest. Due to the structure of algorithms and confirmation bias, people on both sides are fed straw-man arguments of the people that are different from them.”
13. Live and let live.
“Smokers.
Not “smoking”. I think that smoking receives the appropriate amount of hate. Smoking sucks. Smokers get a lot of shit though, just for having an unhealthy vice. I’m not trying to throw stones though, I have a few unhealthy vices myself.
I have a friend who got irritated when some second hand smoke wafted past them in a movie theater parking lot. The lot was behind the theater, the smoker was far way from all the exits and not anywhere near a high traffic walking area.
My friend said “Ugh, gross. Isn’t that so inconsiderate?” I said “…no, man. This guy is like…as far away from people as he can reasonably be, and the wind just happened to carry a little of the smoke the 40 feet between you two.
Where do you want this guy to go to have his smoke, Mars?”. My friend was then annoyed with me.”
14. Capitalism.
“Capitalism.
I want to be rewarded for working hard. If I’m not incentivized to work hard, I’m not going to. I’m not a billionaire. I’m not a millionaire. I don’t hate poor people. I don’t like Trump or Bloomberg. I think our healthcare, education, and housing is fucked and should be socialized.
I just think it’s stupid how much reddit hates capitalism. The world is a cruel place. People are assholes. Life isn’t fair. The government can’t create a system to change that.
Socialism only works if people love their jobs and never want more in life.
If someone told me that no matter how hard I worked, I would never be able to attain X because things are supposed to be equal, I would either say fuck you and go and attain X because I can, or I would be spiteful and do 0 work and actively look for opportunities to fuck the government.”
15. To serve and protect.
“Cops.
Yes, we need to reform how police forces are trained and be able to hold them accountable for their actions. But the broad sweeping generalizations that people make about how all cops are horrible and you’re afraid you are going to get shot when a cop pulls you over for a tail light is ridiculous and makes for an unproductive conversation.
I do honestly believe there are good cops out there and there are people who go into the job wanting to serve their community even though it is a high stress job.”
Now we want to hear from all the readers out there.
In the comments, tell us about the things you think get hated on way too much.
Some people hate on things because they don’t understand it. Other things get put down because they get too big or popular.
And some people hate things just because they’re negative and they like to be, well, dicks.
But some things out there get a lot of hatred and it doesn’t seem warranted.
Let’s take a look at what AskReddit users had to say.
1. Looking for some respect.
“Robert Pattinson. Sure, he got famous for the “Twilight” movies, and no, they’re not very good; but all of the weird independent films he’s made after that really scream that this poor guy just wants to be appreciated as an actor.”
2. Grosses some people out.
“The word ‘moist’.
I’m just describing this nice cake I’m eating and you’re acting like I’m reciting ancient curses from the Satanic bible.”
3. Remember them?
“The most celebrated Canadian alt-rock band of the mid 1990s, the Barenaked Ladies.”
4. Don’t hate the player.
“Basically anything that everyone under the age of 15 is into.
The irony is, the majority/plurality of people that hate on it; the thing that they were into at that age was the thing the Internet hated at that time in the same way.
“fortnite bad minecraft good”? I remember when Reddit (and the Internet in general) didn’t like Minecraft because it was full of “cringy pre-teens” in the exact same way that Fortnite is “hated” now.
I guarantee you, in 5-7 years time, Fortnite will be seen in the same way as Minecraft is seen now. It happened with Minecraft, it happened with Call of Duty, it happened with Runescape, it happened with Halo.
Heck, the likes of World of Warcraft and Dungeons and Dragons always used to be stereotyped as “that game that only loser nerds in their mom’s basement play” (which was a dumb assumption to begin with), but now anyone and their dog can say they have an account/campaign and no-one bats an eye – you’d be raked over the coals for admitting that a decade or so ago.”
5. I love ’em!
“Vegetables.
I eat them regularly since I was a kid and it just blows my mind that there are people who take eating vegetables as punishment or they need to “learn” to like it or cook it because somehow they find it disgusting in raw state. I cant imagine not eating at least one kind of vegetable once a day.”
6. Nothing wrong with it.
“Shitty Beer.
Look, no one is making you drink bud light or coors. You can also choose not to drink if the beer that is provided to you is that bad.
I say this as a person who drinks way more than I should and chooses not to drink shitty beer.”
7. Don’t worry about it.
“Pop music.
Don’t like Taylor Swift? Don’t listen to her music. It has literally never, in the entire breadth of human history, been easier to find music that fits your taste.”
8. Yeah, this is weird.
“iPhone/ Android hatred.
Who the f cares what phone other people have!? I like my apple.
Why do people have to tell me their Android is superior and my phone is trash when they see that?!”
9. Another shot?
“People who have been in jail.
I mean they already paid for their crime. Can we let them have a regular job and join society again without spitting on them for the rest of their life?”
10. Girly?
“Probably late to this, but I felt I should add, Men who are into “girly” things.
Like any male who likes something “girly” instantly gets criticized by the entirety of society, including their own parents, like wtf is up with this?”
11. Bang your head!
“Most metal bands.
Worst thing is, people who don’t listen to metal couldn’t give less fucks about these bands.
It’s the damn metalheads always criticizing bands for changing their sound too much or always sounding the same, or for sounding too much like other bands, or not sounding enough like their genre, or switching genres, or changing their aesthetic or not changing it, or being posers, or the feared going mainstream.
It’s like metal bands get a free pass on their first album and from there on it’s the shit avalanche.”
12. Teen stuff.
“Teenagers.
Especially teenage girls who dress similarly and act similarly. It happens in every single generation and will happen until the end of time. Everyone that age is impressionable and wants to fit in. You probably were too. It’s a part of life.
Grow up, stop gatekeeping everything, and stop trying to make them feel even more insecure all the time, especially if they aren’t even doing anything to you.
I saw a grown man the other day refer to a teenage girl wearing leggings and a generic “teenager-ish” outfit as an “abortion that should have been” and she didn’t even interact with this person, or really do anything at all. What kind of psychopath says that about a kid??
If you don’t like them, who cares. They’re teenagers. If you let teenagers just existing piss you off, you have a problem.”
13. I love Florida!
“Florida.
The Florida weirdness is a result of a transparency in government law that releases police report data to the public almost immediately (scrubbed of identifying information to protect privacy IIRC). That’s why you get all the “Florida Man _____” headlines where other states don’t have them. The state police were required to issue a bulletin and the news wires just babysit the feed waiting for interesting stories.”
14. I’m not a fan…
“Pineapple on pizza!
It’s actually weird cause so many people eat weird things together, but pineapple on pizza gets hate for some reason.”
15. Have some fun!
“Old people doing young people trends.
They just want to be a part of the fun.”
16. They do get a lot of hate.
“Nickelback.
The only explanation I ever heard for all they hate they get was that they were on the radio all the time.
This maybe due to the (done zero research on this) Canada having to air Canadian artists for a certain % of airtime. Heard the same of Bieber.
A reason the US hated on them is they also had an insane amount of airtime on radios because their music (studio/producer/whatever) was cheaper than most. And, like other commenters have pointed out, they are pretty talented.
So they were just hard to escape if there was a radio nearby.”
Some very interesting replies there…
What do you think?
Talk to us in the comment and let us know what you believe gets too much unwarranted hate.
Even though I think (I hope?) we are evolving and becoming more accepting and more kind to each other, there are A LOT of problems in this world right now.
And a lot of them come from deeply-entrenched ideas and beliefs that people can’t see to get rid of no matter what.
What stupid and backward mindsets would you like to see go away?
No, it’s pretty terrible to be honest. I feel like shit today.
I want to stop drinking but I know I’m gonna drink more today.”
2. It’s okay to change your mind.
“That if I change my mind or opinion about something I’m being fake or phony.”
3. Let it go.
“That you need to stay in contact with all of your family members even though some of them are incredibly toxic.”
4. Get this shit outta here.
“My opinion is as good as your evidence.
This, or that everyone’s opinions are equally valid.
No, the guy who has a PhD and 10 years of experience in the field’s opinion is more valid than your 10 min google search.”
5. All about me.
“People who oppose good things because ‘I struggled through it and so should you!’ instead of thinking ‘good, nobody should go through that if possible.’”
6. We all need a break.
““No days off”. Sometimes you need a mental health day or a break, and people make it sound like if you don’t work yourself into the ground you won’t be successful.
Successful people know when to recharge.
It’s an annoying mindset .”
7. A little patience.
“Expecting everything instantly.
Patience is a virtue.
You’re not going to die if you have to wait in line.”
8. Not a hoax.
“Climate change is not weather.
Just because it’s -10 degrees doesn’t mean it’s a hoax.”
9. A bunch of BS.
“If you don’t post about a tragedy or support something on social media, you are ok with it or dont support/care about said something.”
10. Sometimes, you have to let it go.
“Quitting is only for losers.
If you try something and don’t like it, why keep doing it? Why not allow yourself to switch to a better major or try a different sport or get a new job?
I mean, don’t quit everything once it gets hard, but why stay miserable for a “quitters never win” mentality? Get a job you LIKE. Do an activity you LIKE.”
11. Work/life balance.
“There is this whole work culture expectation now of always being reachable by email or text for whatever happens. A lot of places expect, and at times demand, that you be pretty much on call even when you’re not at the office anymore.
I worked at an ad agency where days off sometimes didn’t even feel like that, because I would still be getting emails about things and was expected to be checking them. I hated it.
There should be some level of balance between work and personal life and I feel like that is fading because so many places are adapting this type of culture and mentality, especially start-ups.”
12. Not a competition.
“Stop comparing traumas.
It’s not a fucking competition. Learn to have empathy and take care of each others’ mental health.”
13. People change.
“Assuming that people are not allowed to change their opinions or values over time, and judging people, famous or not, for comments made decades ago.
Yes, some people have patterns of problematic comments and behavior and should not be ignored. But it also makes sense that, for example, a politician may have learned more about abortion or healthcare or what have you and be able to change their stance.
We are not the same people at 25 and 50.”
14. Gimme my sleep!
“Just because I’m young doesn’t mean I don’t need sufficient sleep.
Just because I’m young doesn’t mean I spend all of my money recklessly and need to work overtime every weekend.
Just because I’m young doesn’t mean I don’t want to relax at home on my time off.
I hear a lot of shit at work because I work with mostly older people. I budget my money wisely and in a sense I also budget my time.
Apparently those concepts are hard to understand.”
Okay, now we want to hear from you.
Tell us about the mindsets and mentalities that you think need to end.
A lot of people think that they know everything and so they can’t be bothered to actually take any advice. About anything. Ever.
I used to have a boss who would never listen to any of us employees even when we KNEW the things we suggested would save us time (this was in the food service industry). It was enough to drive all of us crazy.
He eventually came around and took our suggestions and guess what? They worked!
Let’s see what folks on AskReddit had to say about advice that sounded useless until they actually tried it.
1. Clean it up!
“Life is really much easier if you clean your workplace/room.
I clean my room often and it makes me feel calm and clears my head.”
2. Get on a schedule.
“Stick to the same sleep schedule on your days off that you follow on days when you have to be somewhere at a specific time (like school or work days).
I spent my whole life sleeping until noon on weekends, thinking I was storing sleep in some imaginary sleep bank. I recently started waking up early on weekends, and now I don’t have trouble waking up when my alarm goes off during the week.
Plus I have all this extra time to do stuff because I’m not sleeping all day.”
3. Drink up!
“You’re not hungry you’re thirsty!
I would eat a big meal and wonder why I still felt hungry.. It is because I wasn’t drinking a glass of water with my meal.
Now if I notice I am hungry after eating normal portions I have a glass of water and wait 5 minutes before I continue eating.”
4. It’s good for you!
“Practice gratitude.
Grateful people are happy people.
This includes just saying ‘thank you’ any time someone does something. Everyone likes to be acknowledged for something, even if it’s something small, and just making other people a little happier makes you happier.”
5. A lifestyle change.
“I suffered severe insomnia for years.
Someone told me I should get up an hour earlier, go for a 30 minute run in the morning, then do yoga for 15 minutes before showering and getting ready for work. Seemed ridiculous, but I decided to try it for a month.
Haven’t suffered insomnia since. Have way more energy, sleep better, feel better. It’s amazing.”
6. Ask yourself this question…
“Before I do anything I ask myself, “Would an idiot do that?”
And if the answer is yes, I do not do that thing.”
7. Good tip from Mom.
“My mom told me to spend good money on the things that separate you from the ground: tires, shoes, mattress.
I finally bought good not cheap shoes and life was SIGNIFICANTLY better. They last so much longer and my back and posture improved too. She’s not wrong about tires and a mattress either.”
8. EVERYONE should go.
“Going to therapy.
I’m a guy. I’m emotionally stable, so I thought it was a pointless idea. Went with my ex-gf, in order to work out problems in our relationship (mostly on her end).
I learned so much about myself and got some amazing life advice. 10/10”
9. They can sense it somehow…
“Stop chasing girls.
Most times now they notice me as an individual, not as someone begging for a girlfriend.
They can smell the desperation coming off you. When I gave up and worked on personal projects, I found a lot more success with women.
That said, you still have to be in an environment that leads to talking with people. Giving up doesn’t mean to sit in your apartment and mope, it means to not have getting a girl as the goal for the day while you’re out and about.”
10. All the good stuff.
“When you are sad eat healthy, do a lot of sports, and try to take in fresh air under the sun.
It works incredibly well.
It probably is something purely chemical, so it is definetly worth a try.”
11. Just get started!
“If you want to write a novel, just start writing.
Don’t plan, just get words on paper.
“You can’t edit a blank page.” Is the best writing advice I’ve ever gotten.”
12. So addictive.
“Drink less caffeine.
I didnt realize how much it affects my mental disorders (anxiety, depression, ADD) until I started drinking less, and realized I function way better when I don’t have a soda or two every other day.”
13. It really does work.
“Changing something about your appearance to gain confidence/self-esteem (getting a haircut, going to the gym).
I thought it was a cop-out piece of advice and then I got a haircut and I felt so comfortable in my skin and at peace that I remember the exact moment it happened.”
14. Baby steps.
“Trying to lose weight?
When going somewhere in your car, try and park as far from your destination as you can, when you can.
I read this tip somewhere else when I was at my heaviest and really trying to lose.
Every morning instead of taking the first spot available at work, I’d take the farthest one back. I had to trek a bit to just get to the door, then through the office and upstairs to my cube.
It felt good whenever I did it, and it put me in this mode where I wanted to do other healthier things throughout the day.
I went from 385+ to 220 in about a year and a half after I started adapting those baby steps (among many other baby steps, of course!).”
15. Don’t put it off.
“If it takes less than 5 minutes, do it immediately
I do so much less housework on weekends because of this.”
16. This is important.
“Show up.
You don’t have to be the best worker or friend. Just being the one that shows up it will mean a lot to everyone.
I got this advice from a Redditor on a post similar to this. It has help me a lot. I never participated in shit because I felt like wasn’t wanted or needed. Turns out a lot of people are self absorbed or flaky and the simple act of just being the one who shows up is monumental.
Show up to the moving party Show up to your kids events Show up to your company picnic Show up to the HOA meeting Show up to your awkward friends open mic night.
When you show up for other people they will start showing up for you.”
17. Do it every day!
“I saw a video of a Navy Commander talk about why making your bed as soon as you get out of it is so important.
The first thing you do when you wake up is stand up and get out of bed. If you make the bed, you have accomplished a task. You have succeeded. The first thing you did today was succeed at a task.
Take that with you and use that success to fuel everything else you have to do for the rest of the day.
Repeat tomorrow.”
How about you?
Have you ever taken some advice after fighting it for a while and it turned out to be great?
A lot of people lack life skills that are very useful.
I’m not talking trash either, there are some things I probably should have learned along the way that I just never did.
But, there’s still time!
So maybe these responses from folks on AskReddit will give you some inspiration to learn some new skills.
Let’s take a look!
1. Learn to swim.
“My Dad was a naval officer and made a point of seeing all his kids learned to swim at an early age.
I literally cannot remember ever being unable to swim.
It took me a while as a child to grasp that a lot of people don’t know how to swim.”
2. This is very important.
“How to listen.
A lot of people currently tend to lack the ability to actually listen.
It’s not about shouting points at each other, it’s about shutting up and actually listening to what the other person is saying.”
3. You gotta do it.
“Self reflection.
You can NOT grow as a person without it.”
4. The essentials.
“Basic gardening, food preservation, and cooking.
And the basics of sewing.”
5. Fix it up!
“Fixing your own stuff.
Including electronics like broken screens and other stuff like your car.”
6. This is good!
“When I was in high school and failed to get a summer job, my dad made me cook every meal (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) for the family, every day, for the whole summer, as “punishment”. It ended up being inadvertently the most valuable “lesson” he ever taught me.
On top of that, I wasn’t allowed to ever repeat a dish. Worked my way through a whole cookbook, and then some.
Being able to cook a wide variety of really good meals is a constant source of simple joy in my life… not to mention, it’s a massive advantage in the dating scene.”
7. Get the facts.
“How to extrapolate useful information from biased media sources.
A simple way I do it is first break it down into the facts. Then look at another biased source on the other side and do the same. Whatever is comparable is probably true, and anything else MAY be true but with less emphasis than the media gives it.
Also, remember that media as a whole (right left etc) caters to your reactions. There’s a reason that you will always see more negative, fearful, anger inducing news than happy news. More people will watch news about some bad incident or tradgedy than they will about something equally good.
And because bad news means more viewers, naturally it’s in the media’s best interest to get the most eyeballs on their stuff.”
8. Very important!
“When I was in high school track, my coach went into cardiac arrest after doing 200m sprints with us.
Me and some other students got some other teachers and they performed CPR on him until the ambulance arrived.
They saved his life. LEARN. C.P.R.!”
9. It’s true…
“How to write an email.
Seriously, too many people go out into the wide world with no idea how to write a professional-level email.
Writing one the same way you text won’t cut it when you are looking for a job.”
10. We all need to do this.
“How to unplug and enjoy silence and solitude.”
11. Car care.
“Basic car care.
Everyone should be able to change their own oil and rotate their tires, at a minimum.
Both are super simple and require only a few tools but can save you a lot of money.”
12. Learn it. Live it.
“Basic finance.
I’m in my 30s and shocked by how many people my age don’t understand how credit works.”
13. Become a good studier.
“How to study correctly. It seems like a small thing but the majority of my school life I didn’t have to study at all and I did well anyway.
But later on it gets so much harder just to retain information.
Learning to study good and well is a skill everyone should learn.”
14. Saves time and money.
“How to fix basic problems that come up. Unclog a drain, replace a plug, sew on a button, etc.
Minor problem fixing saves time and money.”
15. Protect yourself.
“How to break out of someone’s grip.
I’ve taught my wife, my daughter, many of my female friends, and back in the day when I was a daycare teacher, all of my students.
We had someone try to kidnap one of our older kids once, and that was it, that very day I taught all of the kids and drilled it with them over the next couple of weeks. Even had a Grandmother come in to pick up her Granddaughter and ask for me specifically so that she could thank me for showing her granddaughter how to do that.
Thing to remember, do not try to pull against their fingers, you can hold your body weight by your fingers (think of hanging from the monkey bars by your fingers).
Instead pull towards their thumb. The thumb is weak in comparison to the fingers. Also scream “Fire!!”, Not help. People react faster to “Fire!!” Then they do for “Help!!” I hope this helps. Many basic self-defense classes will go over this and more.
Remember, you don’t need to be an MMA fighter to get yourself out of a bad situation.”
What do you think?
What’s a useful skill that everyone should learn how to do?
Please share your thoughts with us in the comments.
“Maaaan, all the good in this world. Joking around and laughing with your friends untill you can’t breathe anymore. A random dog running up to you to sniff your butt. Getting your first kiss.
The smells from bakeries when you head out in the morning. Staring at the moon late at night knowing there’s someone out there doing the same. Hugging your parents after not seeing them for a while. Cuddling with you SO after you did the beep peep skadidly doo.
A stranger’s baby smiling at you when you’re waiting for a bus. The taste of the watermelon on a hot summer day and laying on the couch under a blanket watching the flames in the fireplace on a cold winter evening.
Listening to the music in your bed on a Friday night knowing you don’t have to set up an alarm for tomorrow. Texting your crush late late at night both of you being deadass tired but neither one wanting it to stop. The feeling of accomplishment when you finally learn to tie your shoes yourself.
When you finally reach the bathroom after having to pee really bad. Telling a joke and the whole group of people laughs. Reading a book at the seaside while the sun unbeknownst to you slowly burns in a dick a sibling drew on your back with the sunscreen.
Finally beating a game you’ve been playing for weeks. Making a meme yourself and thousands of strangers on reddit like it too. When you inconsistently water your cactus but the cactus is just fine with it and it blooms to thank you and you didn’t even know cactuses can bloom.
When you’re really tired after a workout and your muscles are sore the next day but hey you know you did something good for yourself. Starving yourself because you know grandma is going to cook your favorite meal and you HAVE to eat it all.”
2. Little things.
“The amount of beauty in the world that we lived in.
Tonight, after a long day of dealing with stuff thay nobody should ever have to go through, I looked up whike walking to my car in the parkinglot at the black night sky, and saw dozens of brightly lit stars shining down at me.
It was an amazing sight, and made me think that light, even though it took it millions to billions of years, can still reach me.
It’s little things like that which helps keep me going.”
3. The future.
“I live for the future.
I love to observe what goes on around me and predict what may happen based on those observations. That is also how I view my personal life, and I love to see how I grow and develop with each interaction and event in my life.
Cheers!”
4. Honor those who are gone.
“My parents are both gone and my best friend who is a dog is also gone, all way too soon.
I find that living life with positivity honors them and the years they missed out on.
I now have two girls that help every moment to fill that void.
Stay positive.”
5. Learned how to manage.
“I attempted suicide as a teenager.
As I’ve gotten older I’ve learned coping skills and how to better manage stress in my life. Today I am married to my best friend, have three amazing kids, a career that I enjoy, and friends that I know I can count on.”
6. Limited time.
“The thought that you can’t go back keeps me here.
You only have a limited time to enjoy everything you can, and you have to use it wisely. The fact that it will all end makes the here and now sweeter.
You have to enjoy things while you can.”
7. You’re in charge.
“As long as you’re alive, you have control. Even if you’re a prisoner on death row, you still get to decide to stand up or sit down. You still get to think.
If you’re dead, that’s all over. Every version of the afterlife I’m aware of removes all autonomy and you become a slave of either the god or the underworld. And if there is no afterlife, then I guess you just kinda cease to exist.
Either way, no more autonomy, so ending it all because you feel like you’ve lost control over your life or have nothing to live for doesn’t make logical sense, because even a 0.1% chance of regaining some sense of autonomy is better than no chance at all.”
8. It’s worth it.
“There’s always a reason to live, even though it may not always be obvious.
For example, if my time ended on this world right now, I would miss out on so much. I couldn’t eat White Castle again, watch Amphibia season 2, witness 4/20/2069, or go to more Rubik’s Cube competitions. Life isn’t always easy, but there is something that will always motivate me and let me know that it’s all worth it.
I cannot wait to experience the future and all the beauty and pain it holds.”
9. This. Right here.
“The possibilities of how to create each day are endless, the joy that can be had in every moment is limitless, the miracle of living is awesome and wonderful.
I’m grateful to be a part of it.”
10. A big world out there.
“Why not? The world is so big and is waiting to be discovered!
Why be sad when you’re one of hundreds of millions and more sperm cells to be lucky to be alive. There are plenty of people, plenty of science, culture and undiscovered stuff.
By living in the 21st century the medicine has gotten far better than anytime before. Live life to the fullest and regret nothing because the youth is the chance to actually LIVE and do a lot of things, try new other stuff, make mistakes and troubles. Live life when young so you can remember good ol’ days when you get older.
Have something to tell your children and grandchildren one day!”
11. Keep on truckin’.
“Life sucks at times, but not always.
I keep reminding myself that life can get better but death is so final and it may suck more than life so that’s a pretty big gamble might as well keep on truckin.”
12. A miracle.
“Just to get to be a part of life is so amazing. I think people take for granted what a miracle we are and all that has gone into getting us as far as we’ve gotten.
If you even just look at a wooden chair there’s probably hundreds of inventions that went into it. From the tools that ultimately built it, to the very materials and coatings used in both the chair and everything else involved in its construction you’ll see thousands of years worth of advancement that no other species known in all of existence has done.
That’s just for a basic chair, the device you posted this from represents probably involves millions of brand new ideas that people who came before you thought up to make things better for us.
We get to be part of, and even contribute to, such an amazing thing as humans, and we’ve done it in such a short time too, the oldest human fossil is what, about 50k years old? If you look at our planet, our universe, that’s so incredibly short, and we’ve already basically conquered our own planet with our eyes toward space.
I guess it’s difficult to explain but just getting the chance to be a part of such a miracle has overwhelmed me since for a long time.”
13. The senses.
“I live to get completely lost in my senses.
We are so lucky to be able to even see, hear, smell, touch, or taste. We could just not exist and never experience anything but we are somehow here on this planet. I love starring at trees, clouds, mountains, and stars.
There’s something special about becoming just a witness instead of conceptualizing and judging.”
14. It’s a gift.
“Everything is just so wild, awesome, this whole society feels like a gift.
This is hard to put in words, but looking at any singular object fills me with a sense there’s so much of things to see/know/feel. So many things to BE. I’m privileged as fuck and the least I could do is be grateful to live in here in the West.
Also I wanna see a Dyson sphere sunrise, I wanna live on Mars. I wanna see my kids grow up on the Moon daring one another to steal the Andy Warhol penis painting from the Apollo 11 landing site.”
15. Not done yet.
“I was in a bad car accident that should have left me dead.
I like to think my job isn’t done just yet.”
16. To be human.
“To make mistakes. To err. To learn. To experience. To laugh, and to love. To be very much human. To look forward to tomorrow, a brighter day, with endless hope. To see another smile, feel the brush of wind, and smell freshly-cut grass. To hold a child up high, and hope the same for it.
But also to cry, to despair and to lose hope. To be heartbroken, gutted and lost. To feel no end to the darkness, and become despondent. To be blind in a world without light, without a guide and without direction. To feel completely helpless.
And then to rise once more, with empathy, love, cadre and affection from close family and friends. To find direction once more, to forgive and forget, and crucially, to offer a hand to anyone in a plight similar.
To Be Utterly Human.”
Now we want to hear from you about what makes you happy in life!
Life has a habit of knocking you down, dragging you around, and making you feel like you can’t get up again.
So why do we get back on our feet?
Because life is amazing! And those really tough times make you stronger and when times are good, you can point to those heartaches and realize they shaped you into the person you are.
So enjoy the little things, take care of your family and friends, work hard, and do your best to BE HAPPY.
Let’s see how AskReddit users responded to this question.
1. Get through the BS.
“There are many things that make me like being alive, like my best friends, my husband, his daughter, my dog, a future.
I just have to wade through all the bullshit to enjoy them.”
2. Your purpose.
“Even though I need to remind myself sometimes, I like to be alive because my husband and family give me joy and purpose. Ultimately, I need to not be so hard on myself sometimes, and I think most people could relate to that.
I need to take more joys in my successes rather than think, “Cool, finally didn’t fuck something up,” which is what I tend to do.”
3. All the small things.
“Seeing people’s faces when they get a nice text. Getting the window seat on a plane. Playing with babies.
Flipping through a stack of records. Hitting the rev limiter. Perfectly ripe watermelons. My dog. Everything lavender scented. A goal scored with 2 minutes left in the 3rd. When the coffee/cream/sugar balance is flawless.
Painting a room with friends. The electrical buzz when you walk downtown after rain. Overdressing for events. Finding something you thought was lost forever.
I could write a million of these and they change every day.”
4. Nearing the end.
“I’m terminally ill and the closer I’ve gotten to death the more I’ve just sat back and watched nature, genuinely stopping to smell the roses. It’s the little things in life that make life worth living.
The family of birds in a nearby tree communicating with each other. The dog you wake up every morning to and can’t wait to see you and be around you.”
I even oddly like watching the trees rustle on a windy day. Watching my fish swim around their aquarium. Valuing the time and memories I make with my wife and friends.
People that say life isn’t worth living need to try their very best to smell the roses, watch the sun rise or Sun set. I know sometimes life really can get us down in the dumps but life is truly beautiful.”
5. Kiddos.
“I have two kids.
Every day they annoy the crap out of me and each other. But they also bring me great joy.
They are smart, funny and find joy in the world in ways that I never knew possible.”
6. Found your happy place.
“My husband and our dogs.
All throughout high school I told myself that I wouldn’t live beyond 21 years old and truly believed it. Depression kicked my ass back then.
My now husband and I met when I was 19 and I swear he saved me. Four years later and I’ve never been so happy in my entire life.”
7. Music.
“Music.
Can’t read it. Can’t carry a tune. Know nothing about playing an instrument, except silent night on a keyboard, know nothing about arrangement, song writing, none of it.
But when a song hits that sweet spot, where you can feel your heart rate get faster, you start slightly sweating, the hairs on your arm stand on end and you go all goose pimply and “electric”, so much so you see colours…
That’s what keeps me alive. Its a high I can chase and get results fairly often with the only side effects being listening to a song so much it gets old quickly….or eventually tinnitus.”
8. The road back.
“It’s officially been one year since I almost ended my life, and I’m pretty proud of it and wanted to share it.
It’s always the little things that keep me going. Sunsets, endorphin rushes after workouts, pancakes, little moments of joy with my friends, art, trying new things, etc.
I don’t always feel better than that day a year ago, but I know that there will always be moments in the future that I will feel better that make everything worth it.”
9. Too much fun.
“There are so many things that I want to learn as well as so many things that I want to be good at!
I love working hard and seeing progress and improvement, it’s just too fun.”
10. I like these things.
“The woods and the ocean.
Getting the giggles that don’t quit with anyone, but especially with a close friend. I don’t think there’s anything better.”
11. Ups and downs.
“Although life goes ups and downs, I’m pretty happy how its going.
Last year I graduated from college and I have a great job, good friends and a loving family. My only wish is I could get a nice GF, but I always have one million reasons to thank for being alive :).”
12. There you go.
“I LOVE to smoke weed.”
13. Keep moving forward.
“Because I haven’t figured it out yet.
I’ve been struggling with depression for so long now but what’s always kept me going is I haven’t found that thing that just kinda ties it all together. Now at this point I just have to see what it is.
If the statement is true of good things come to those who wait then I’m hoping things get pretty good eventually.”
14. All you need.
“Laughing with my wife
snuggling on the couch with my daughter
playing Pokemon with my son
listening to people whose hearts are broken
hot pepperoni pizza with peppercinis
hot coffee on cold mornings
singing loudly and poorly off-key
the smell of freshly baked bread
smiling at strangers
telling bawdy jokes over beers and whiskey
peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwiches
sleepy cats in my lap
crisp apples
playing portal 2 again
the sound of snow after it has fallen
thunderstorms
new sharpie markers.”
15. A good story.
“I met a blind guy at the bar tonight, we started talking about normal small talk, he asked me what I did for work after my rambling on about my job for a few minutes I asked him what he did for work, he responded “well it’s kind of complicated”.
I said back to him “please don’t tell me you’re a truck driver” he laughed harder than I’ve seen anyone laugh in a long time. Long story short, sometimes people that have life harder than you need to laugh and you might just be the person to loosen up their lives or whatever.”
Okay, now it’s your turn!
In the comments, tell us why you like to be alive.
.”