When Did You Discover That Hard Work Doesn’t Always Pay Off? Here’s What People Said.

I remember hearing that phrase over and over and over again when I was growing up in school, from family members, and from sports coaches.

And I still think hard work is a really important part of life…but as you get older, you realize that it doesn’t always pay off the way you think it will.

AskReddit users shared stories about when they realized that hard work doesn’t always pay off in the end.

1. Retail hell.

“Easily retail.

Those performance based raises are deliberately rigged to not give people the best raises. I only really understood how much when I became a manager and was overruled on how much to give my employees a raise when I gave them a 5/5.

I was told, and I quote, “No one is a 5/5″

She came in whenever we called. Stayed late whenever we needed. Was the epitome of the perfect employee and was well loved by everyone that shopped there.

They changed her evaluation from a 5/5 which was I believe a 50ish cent raise (still not enough) to a 3/5 which was a 10 cent raise.

She quit a few weeks after I told her and no one we’ve hired has been half as productive as she was.”

2. Lesson learned.

“I never ever called off sick.

And yes, I understand now why that is not a good thing, but when I was young I thought you went to work unless you were on your death bed.

At a staff meeting, boss was reading everyone the riot act for calling off too much and his second in charge said “Well, except for (me), they’ve never missed a day.”

Boss said “Hmmmm, really? I never noticed.”

Lesson learned.”

3. Office space.

“Worked this office job for 9 years, ever since I turned 16.

They kept giving me responsibilities, never any pay raise beyond the minimum they had to, all the while telling me how I was indispensable. Then Covid hit and they laid off all my coworkers.

They told me I could stay, but for less hours than before and definitely no pay raise — just more responsibilities, either working from home or in an empty office.

I declined the offer and quit right then and there. Felt pretty cheated though.”

4. Not impressed.

“The first time I had a real job.

Turns out that working harder than your coworkers does not impress them.”

5. F that.

“Worked hard at my first job for an entire year after a $0.20 raise. Got a $0.10 raise after that year, while a guy that avoided work got $0.40.

So I avoided working too hard for a year and got a $0.40 raise. No bullsh*t. Also passed up a “crew leader” position to work in an easier area, then they made me a crew leader anyway in the new area, I didn’t even ask.

The company I work for now does some *ss-backwards stuff too. It drives me nuts. Progress takes time and there’s a fine line between getting stuck because you’re too good at something and getting moved on to promote you.”

6. Gee, thanks…

“When they reward you for getting your work done well by giving you everyone else’s work to do.

Pretty much every job I’ve ever had.”

7. Whoopee!

“I worked 4 years at a Walmart almost constantly being praised as one of the best employees on my shift / team

Now what kind of reward did I get for this

A raise? A promotion?

Nope

I got a small pin I was “allowed” to wear that just said something like “Management Appreciates Me”.”

8. Lame.

“I worked for a few years at BJs.

First year I got a 59 cent/hour raise, which was unheard of because I’d been hired far higher than what cashiers were hired at. I got glowing reviews by the person who reviewed me.

By the time of my next raise, a trusted person had told everyone who would listen that I was gay. This led to a LOT of gossip, harassment, and bullying on the job. My reviewer, the same woman from before but who just HAPPENED to also be a devout Christian, gave a harsher review and I got something like 9 cents.

I went from being super well liked to suddenly a pariah all because of my s*xuality. It was f*cking awful and I knew that it didn’t matter how hard I worked if some Bible thumper was going to use it as an excuse to hate me.”

9. Taken advantage of.

“I was a really bit of a people pleaser when I was younger.

Tried to do everything to make life for everyone easier, turns out that they just took advantage on me”

10. Not fair.

“When I realized I get paid the same as coworkers who are putting in bare minimum.”

11. Ugh.

“By being taken advantage of repeatedly.

Go above and beyond the expectations in hopes to advance? You now have to do that advanced job with way more work for no pay increase and in less time than the people getting paid more than you.

Don’t ever let an employer know you’re capable or willing to do significantly more work than anyone else for the same pay.

If an opening arises and you have been consistent, you’re more likely to get the position than someone who does twice the work you do for the same pay just because you “follow the book” more.”

12. True.

“There wasn’t one particular moment for me, but the saying “It’s better to be lucky than good.” is oh so true at times.

Sure working hard helps, but being at the right place at the right time is often overlooked by those that purely equate hard work with success.”

13. First job.

“My first job.

I was working at a pizza place known for letting you, the customer, bake the pizzas at home. I was working minimum wage, but I felt like I’d been there a while and wanted to move up. So I talked to my boss about a possible raise. She said she’d keep an eye on my performance over the next month and see if I deserved it.

Now, there was another employee they’re by the name of Jimmy. Jimmy was great of the was a rush because in those instances, just having an extra pair of hands makes a difference. But in all other aspects of running the store, he was useless. He slacked off and left his work for the rest of us to do. Of course, the manager loved him.

After a month of picking up every shift I could and doing every unpleasant task assigned to me, my boss tells me that I’ve been doing a fantastic job and that I earned my raise. I looked in my check and I was now making an extra $0.50/hr. Not great, but I was 16 at the time and it felt like the squeaky wheel got the grease!

Until I find out that Jimmy also got a $0.50 raise. And everyone else did too. Turns out the minimum wage was increasing nationally and they were legally obligated to give everyone a raise. When I confronted her about this, she turned the tables on me, telling me that talking about my pay with other employees was unprofessional.

She went on vacation shortly after that. I taped my two week notice to her door the day after she left.”

Now we’d like to hear from you.

In the comments, tell us about the times you realized that hard work doesn’t always pay off.

We look forward to your stories.

The post When Did You Discover That Hard Work Doesn’t Always Pay Off? Here’s What People Said. appeared first on UberFacts.

March 1, 2021

Women Talk About What They Wish They’d Known Before Getting Pregnant

I can’t possibly imagine what women have to go through when they are pregnant.

The anxiety, the pain, the uncertainty…it must be a truly terrifying experience the first time it happens.

But that’s why we think articles like this are really helpful to the ladies out there.

Women talked on AskReddit about what they wish they’d known BEFORE they became pregnant.

Let’s take a look.

1. Terrible.

“I was absolutely SHOCKED when my first pregnancy ended in miscarriage.

I thought that I must have done something to cause it. When my second pregnancy ended the same way I started to think that I had some kind of physical malfunction.

Only after talking to several other women about it did I realize how common it is. Still heartbreaking though.”

2. Hair loss.

“The hair loss!

I had read about it, but i was not prepared for just how much i would lose or how long it would last.

My daughter is 2 now and i still have some patchy spots.”

3. Painful.

“My f*cking bo*bs hurt so bad.

I hit one in my sleep and woke up in excruciating pain.

Like…wtf.

I knew they got bigger, but the pain was a surprise.”

4. No sleep.

“The sickest joke of all: you stop being able to sleep way before the baby gets here.

Everyone loves to tell me to “sleep now while I can” but pregnancy leads to unexplained insomnia and I’m a total wreck already.”

5. Always different.

“Each pregnancy is different, even with the same person.

I have 3 kids -the 1st pregnancy was very typical and followed the normal timeline. 2nd pregnancy was awful.

I was miserable and sick the entire time. 3rd pregnancy was easy peasy and I finally understood why some women liked being pregnant.”

6. Good to know.

“That not all gynecologists are competent. And if you have a feeling yours isn’t, find a new one.

Mine was very personable, did my d&c for my miscarriage before my first born, didn’t really give me any red flags until after I was pregnant again.

Long story short, he forgot (I guess?) to have me tested for gestational diabetes, and I had it. There were OBVIOUS signs that he didn’t catch, that I didn’t even know were signs until my new doctor told me. My son ended up having to be in NICU for 3 days after he was born because he couldn’t regulate his own blood sugar.

Every doctor and nurse I talked to along the way was appalled I hadn’t gotten tested. He also didn’t catch that I was anemic the whole pregnancy either.

Thank God we’re all healthy and happy now but looking back I should’ve changed doctors.”

7. Mother’s Apron.

“I wish I’d heard the term ‘mother’s apron’ before I had one.

Like, there’s warnings all over,”Your body’s going to change!” and some specifics on how, but everything I read and heard was reassuring me about how it would all mostly go back eventually.

I’m still pretty bitter.”

8. Crazy.

“Your hormones are crazy, literally making anything and everything that happens to your body a pregnancy symptom.

Bloody nose? Pregnancy.

Hands dry? Pregnancy.

Itchy skin? pregnancy.”

9. A very real thing.

“That no matter how much you planned and wanted your baby, postpartum depression can happen to you and it is very, very real.

It is not something you can control. Hormones are liars. Partners of new moms please pay close attention.

Get help. Do not try to tough it out. Get. Help.”

10. What was that?

“Baby kicks don’t feel like butterflies .

They feel like something crawled across your skin quickly; but from the inside”

11. Trust your gut.

“Sorry to be the Debbie Downer, but knowing things can go wrong in any situation.

My first child was stillborn at 41 weeks after a healthy and normal pregnancy from a umbilical cord accident.

Always trust your gut, count kicks, and advocate for you and your baby’s health.”

12. Well, there’s that…

“How being pregnant seems to make other people think they can make incredibly rude observations about your body that they’d never make otherwise!”

13. PUPPP.

“That you can get a horrible full-body rash.

It’s a rare condition called PUPPP. PUPPP occurs in about 1 in every 200 pregnancies and 70% of sufferers give birth to boys.

I gave birth to a girl. So I was in the 0.15% of women who get this horrible, itchy, mind numbing rash that I suffered with for over two months. I couldn’t sleep, I sat half of my day in oatmeal baths. I cried A LOT.

The only thing that stopped the itching for a few hours was Grandpa’s Tar Soap because it left a coating on my skin that soothed or protected it somehow.

I NEVER want to go through that again.”

14. Exhausted.

“How tired you can be in the first trimester. I was falling asleep at my desk most days.

I always hear that labor pains were like really awful period cramps. Nope. Mine felt like someone was stabbing the front of my hip.

And, I had heard about sciatic pain but was 100% unprepared for how bad it could be. I had a c-section and the gas pain was no joke. Had to sleep on an incline for days.”

Okay, ladies, now we want to hear from all of you out there.

In the comments, tell us about some of the things you wish you’d known about before you got pregnant.

Please and thank you!

The post Women Talk About What They Wish They’d Known Before Getting Pregnant appeared first on UberFacts.

March 1, 2021

Women Share What They Wish They Knew Before Getting Pregnant

If I’ve learned one thing from people I know who have been pregnant, it’s that every single pregnancy is different and each woman is affected in their own unique way by it.

And by that, I mean physically AND emotionally.

And we hope that women who haven’t been pregnant before can learn about what might be in store when they decide to have a child.

The ladies of AskReddit shared some insight into what they wish they would have known before they became pregnant. Let’s see what they had to say.

1. Painful.

“Your body produces a hormone called relaxin that helps loosen your pelvis in preparation for birth.

Some women get waayyy too much too soon and it loosens everything to the point you lose mobility and every day all day is painful.”

2. Having some issues.

“I wish someone would have warned me about the constipation.

Corollary: I wish someone would have warned me that “fiber supplement” does not equal “stool softener.”

Today, we’re at 26 weeks gestation.”

3. No joke.

“The stuff that stays with your body afterwards.

I developed allergies after I had my second.

My feet definitely got bigger.

Hormones are no joke.”

4. No magic involved.

“I wish someone had told me that no, your body does not magically go back to normal once the baby is out.

You have weeks of healing, either your ripped vag*na or cut open stomach, your bo*bs are still on baby mode and have a whole new set of problems now, pooping will be terrifying lol depression risks are higher, just a lot of stuff continues on after the baby.

I don’t know WHY people insist on visiting right after delivery. I am tired, I am busy with this baby, I am tore up from the floor up, please come in a month when I can at least have some sort of a routine.”

5. Cramps.

“I wish someone had warned me about muscle cramps.

I had to learn a new way to pop my ankles because every night I would pop them and get massive charlie horses in my legs that my fiance had to massage out.”

6. Wow.

“Hair loss! After I had my kid I lost a ton of hair.

I would pull fists full of hair during my showers. I thought there was something wrong with me because no one told me about this.

Went to Google, totally normal and it happens to everyone. It grows back eventually and you’ll go through an awkward baby hair phase.”

7. A lot of sickness.

“That morning sickness isn’t in the morning

And that I would be puking the whole time not just in the beginning.”

8. Had no idea.

“During labor the “water breaking” is not one rush of liquid.

It’s continuous and can occur for several hours. It’s horrendous and messy and incredibly awful to deal with.

It feels like peeing but you have zero control over anything and if you tense up then everything is much more painful and weird feeling.

Nobody ever told me that and I was VERY surprised to find out for myself.”

9. Sad.

“Miscarriage is ridiculously common.

I say this as someone currently carrying a dead baby waiting for the NHS to give me a surgical removal.”

10. Skin problems.

“How I’d get loads of random skin changes.

Skin tags, so many skin tags!

Moles growing into skin tags then dropping off, like WTF body

Sandpaper dry skin, which I still get from time to time, just this one patch on the back of my right hand

My facial skin changing from t-zone oily to t-zone flaky and never going back

My psoriasis on my scalp going away, this did come back but not as bad.”

11. That’s too bad.

“Nosebleeds.

When I was pregnant, I got nosebleeds every few days during the first and second trimesters.”

12. Cravings.

“That cravings aren’t just food.

I craved dirt, particularly beach sand. The smell of the beach was excruciating, I just wanted to shovel handfuls into my mouth.

I never ate dirt or sand and the craving went away when baby was born.

A friend of a friend told me she craved freshly poured asphalt so in a way I’m glad my craving was just dirt.”

13. Wow.

“From my mom: I paralyzed her from the waist down for a few hours because I decided to take a nap on her spinal cord in the third trimester.

The doctor’s response was “yeah you’ll be able to move again once they wake up.”

Pregnancy is pure body horror.”

Are there certain things you wish you’d known about before YOU got pregnant?

If so, please share your thoughts with us in the comments.

We look forward to hearing from you. Thanks!

The post Women Share What They Wish They Knew Before Getting Pregnant appeared first on UberFacts.

March 1, 2021

911 Operators Discuss the Funniest Calls They’ve Taken

I have a friend who is a 911 dispatcher in Kansas City and he occasionally likes to text me about some of the calls that he receives at work.

I think the funny, ridiculous calls help offset the terrible and depressing things they have to deal with, because you know they get plenty of those every day.

For example, he told me a guy called and hysterically told him that Tom Hanks was driving a pickup truck down 75th Street! Tom Hanks! In Kansas City!

What a job that must be…

911 operators talked about the funniest calls they’ve ever received on AskReddit.

1. This is amazing.

“A guy calls from a payphone to complain that he has a pipe wrench stuck up his butt and he needed an ambulance.

He gave his location as the corner where the payphone was located. I asked him if he could tell me his appearance so I could be sure the medics could find him.

His response, “look dude, I’ll be the only guy on the corner with a pipe wrench in his butt.”

I couldn’t argue with that…”

2. I hope he let him out.

“My department dispatches our area’s animal control after hours.

Once received a call from a guy freaking out because he caught a possum in his house. I asked him which room he was able to confine the animal and he didn’t tell me which room, but said he trapped it in a microwave.

I had many questions.”

3. Aliens!

“While working for the Airport PD we would commonly get a call from a lady that lived nearby and thought aliens were scanning her brain.

To solve this we would have to “launch the alert fighters” (which we didn’t have). She lived close enough that we could just wait till a plane took off and tell her that sound was the alert fighters.

She would be fine then for a couple more months.”

4. Wow.

“Woman calls up to allege that her car has been s*xually soiled by a car washer.

She had left her car with a valet service while she was shopping, picked it up and drove it home before she noticed a white mark on her passenger seat. She’s convinced it was spunk, so she calls the police to report it. Operator asked if she had complained to the company, which she had.

They had advised her that the soap they use for fabrics sometimes leaves a mark when it dries and if she just gives it a quick rub, it will go. She then tells the operator that she knows the company is lying because she put her finger on it and then tasted it, and it was definitely spunk and she “knows very well what spunk tastes like.”

Somehow the operator convinced her to complain further to the valeting company and ended the call before falling off his chair laughing.”

5. Haha!

“A man called to say he’s wrestling with deadly 10m (32-33 ft) snake in his backyard.

He was very scared and although I wasn’t sure how did a 10m snake appeared in his backyard I send the emergency to the police. They even called him back, but his father answered. The conversation was quite funny:

Hello, sir. Police here. Is this Mr. Y?

His father.

Do you know where your son is?

I don’t know. Went to the backyard I guess.

Maybe you should check on him. He might be fighting for his life against a deadly snake.

Turned out the guy was a little high and was wrestling with a bush.”

6. We need to figure this out!

“Dude wanted an ambulance because he needed to check if his girlfriend was pregnant or not.

I heard her in the back saying “But my period is over 2 months late!” and he was like “no, no, no. A doctor needs to see it first”.

He didn’t want to accept that it was not an emergency, and couldn’t understand how gynecologists usualy aren’t in an ambulance.”

7. Oh, boy…

“Some guy called about 2 am flipping out becuse his meth batch smelled funny, and he wanted the fire department, but no cops! I got an address out of him after a ridiculous run around, and sent it over to the dispatch people across town.

They didn’t send cops. He was in the county, they sent deputies, and the fire department, and the DEA, and the hazmat team, and he got to come visit and then go spend an ungodly amount of time with the state DOC.

I think he got 50+years. the house/ property he was renting was demolished and is a hazardous area now because he was making so much meth, and I think explosives.”

8. Ouch.

“I used to be a 911 operator from 2014-2018. I was also responsible for training new hires on answering phones.

One day, I get a medic call for a guy wanting an ambulance because he has hemorrhoids. I try to get more information from him like his name, phone number, and where he’s located. I get all of that he starts screaming “MY *SSHOLE, MY *SSHOLE”. During his screams about his *sshole, I turn to my trainee and blankly stare at her.

That was about 6 years ago. We still joke about it to this day.”

9. Are your parents home?

“A young kid called and asked to talk to the fire trucks.

It was pretty late at night so I told him the firetrucks were already sleeping and asked him to put a parent on the phone.”

10. Wrong place.

“We’ve had people wanting the police because those a-hole McDonald’s employees refused to sell them a whopper.”

11. Two stories.

“I had a guy call in to try and rat out a Chinese massage parlor for giving out “happy endings.”

It was clear that he had some kind of religious guilt about it or something with a deal gone wrong (clearly not a case of molestation, so this is okay to laugh at)… and was trying to make amends. While the premise alone is funny, he REFUSED to say “hand**b”, jacked off, etc. He kept beating around the bush about it and wouldn’t give details, just heavy implications

. Over the course of this five minute call, every other dispatcher picked up on the line and muted their mics, but the room was howling with laughter as this dude danced around getting a tuggy. Eventually, I passed it off his call to the detective/vice division, but that was a very funny five minutes of worksafe masturbation humor

I had another call from a neighboring town that called us because the local department wouldn’t take him seriously. His issue was that a co-worker threatened to, and I quote, “punch his dick off.”

The second he said it, I started laughing because I wasn’t expecting it. He said it with what felt like a comical tone to it as well. I recovered well enough and eventually told him there wasn’t exactly a lot we could do, as it was out of our jurisdiction, but he kept repeating that he was going to have his dick punched off and… I dunno, something about that still makes me laugh to this day.

Almost cartoonish levels of violence enters my head where a weiner just gets Falcon Punched clean off and it makes me giggle.”

12. Locked in.

“I had a man call because he was locked in an Exxon station.

Just trying to take care of business and the workers shut down, turned on the alarm (which he immediately set off when he opened the bathroom door) and left. I stayed on the phone with him until the state police got there.

He was like… My car is still at the pump! This alarm is so loud….”

13. A story from Mom.

“My mom was a 911 operator in the SF Bay area in the 80s and 90s. I asked her to tell me a story to pass along, so here it is:

I got a 911 call and I couldn’t understand the caller. He was slurring his words. I knew he was calling from a bar so I asked if he’d been drinking and after asking many times I asking, I was able to determine that he wanted the police, not an ambulance.

He wanted to file assault charges because a woman pulled his tongue. I asked, “how was she able to pull your tongue?” and he said, “because I stuck it out at her.” I had to keep muting the call because I was laughing so hard.

Apparently my supervisor went on to play this call in seminars for years and always got a ton of laughter.”

Have you ever had to call 911 before?

Or maybe you worked as a 911 operator?

If so, please share your stories with us in the comments.

Thanks in advance!

The post 911 Operators Discuss the Funniest Calls They’ve Taken appeared first on UberFacts.

March 1, 2021

People Talk About Their “I’m Turning Into My Parents” Stories

I usually don’t pay too much attention to the commercials on TV or they annoy the hell out of me, but I gotta say that those Progressive Insurance ads about turning into your parents are totally hilarious.

And they’re 100% spot-on.

Because most of us can relate to that stuff as we start to get a little bit older, no doubt about it.

People on AskReddit talk about the moments they realized they were turning into their parents. Let’s take a look!

1. Gotta work on that.

“Every time I get angry.

My mom is this type that always explodes when she’s angry, everything and everyone near her will burn because of her wrath.

And it happened multiple times to me and when it happened my brain goes “sh*t, dude, we’re just like her! Stop!”

I hate it.”

2. In or out?

“When I was a kid, I was constantly going outside and coming back inside. It annoyed my mom to no end. She used to say “In or out!!!! Pick one!”

About 20 years later, I have an amazing kid. Now that he’s old enough, he is constantly going outside or coming inside and NEVER closes the the sliding glass door.

Hence, either heat or air conditioning is being wasted for most months out of the year. I caught myself telling him “In or out!!!! Pick one…..oh crap, now I understand my mom’s frustration…..”

And yes, I’ve told him to shut the door. Many, many times. He’s never closed a door or turned off a light without my reminding. I’m hoping it sinks in soon. Sigh.”

3. Like father, like son.

“My wife and I went to visit my parents a while back.

It’s about a 1.5 hour drive so we stopped to pick up some coffee in the morning before the journey. I took a sip them went on a rant about how everywhere serves coffee too hot it’s undrinkable and I hate it.

A few hours later my dad started complaining about how he hates Starbucks because they serve their coffee too hot he can’t drink it, and my wife busted out laughing.”

4. Don’t make me do it…

“I know the exact moment.

I was 29, driving my dog somewhere and he climbed in the back seat and was acting up.

I turned around and heard myself say, completely unironically, “If I have to pull this car over, buddy, are you gonna be sorry.””

5. He was in Titanic!

“When I started watching movies and making sure everyone knew what each actor had acted in before and who their parents were (if they were famous as well).”

6. Lunch is served.

“When my father had to go to work and my mother was free, she still woke up with him and prepared him lunch.

I never understood why, since she could sleep for a couple more hours and he was perfectly capable of making his own lunch.

Well, a couple of years later my boyfriend just started his first job while I have a few weeks off between clinical rotations, and here I am waking up with him and preparing his lunch.”

7. Shout it out loud.

“Yelling at the news.

I remember constantly asking my dad if he realized the people on tv couldn’t hear him.

Sometimes you just have to yell, though.”

8. A time to cry.

“Tearing up and becoming emotional when watching even slightly sad movies/shows.

Never used to be like this until I got into my 20ss.. what’s happened? I’m just like my mom now.”

9. And the list goes on…

“Waking up before 5am everyday, drinking massive amounts of black coffee, getting extremely grumpy when prepping for vacations…

The list goes on…

I am my dad.”

10. Send help.

“When I was a kid and we were watching family movies, if the kids in the movie were cheeky to their parents or a smart-mouth my mother used to get angry at the movie and make declarations about how she would slap the little brat into next week if they spoke to her like that (she actually would have – and did, plenty of times).

I’m 40. I don’t watch a lot of television but in the past week I watched Uncle Buck and Bad Moms at Christmas (don’t judge me), both of which feature kids being cheeky / smart-mouthed to their parents.

I felt my blood rise and caught myself thinking that I would slap those children into next week if they spoke to me like that as a parent.

Send help.”

11. It’s getting ugly.

“The first time I yelled “DON’T TOUCH THE F*CKIN’ THERMOSTAT!”

Now, to be clear, this was directed towards my wife, who for some reason has about a two degree comfort range. My kids were confused, because they aren’t old enough to know what a thermostat is or what it does.

A few weeks go by, and I hear my wife in the living room tell my son “Tell Alexa to turn the thermostat up.” I lean into the doorway a bit, and my son locks eyes with me.

He then looks my wife dead in the eyes, with the most serious look he can muster and says “No way Mommy. Daddy said don’t touch the f*ckin’ thermostat! Are you trying to get Alexa in trouble too?!”

We both died.”

12. Kids today…

“Mumble rap, this is not music.

And that’s exactly the same thing my mom said when she came into my room while I was listening to Rage Against the Machine!”

13. All the good stuff.

“Daily yelling at nobody in particular about lights being left on and doors open.

Grunting when standing up.

And investing a hearty sum into various pain relief creams/ointments.”

Now we want to hear from all of you out there.

In the comments, tell us your “I’m turning into my parents” stories.

Please and thank you!

The post People Talk About Their “I’m Turning Into My Parents” Stories appeared first on UberFacts.

March 1, 2021

People Discuss When They Realized Hard Work Doesn’t Always Pay Off

When we’re young, most of us are told that if we work hard it will pay off in the end and we’ll be rewarded handsomely.

Buuuuuut, as you probably know by now, life doesn’t always work that way…

Yes, it’s still important to work hard, but sometimes it can be discouraging when that work doesn’t amount to much…

People on AskReddit opened up about when they discovered hard work doesn’t always pay off.

1. Working the system.

“In the last 5 years, learned hard work HARDLY ever pays off…

It’s about working the system more than anything.

The catch is that I suck at working the system…”

2. Does not sound fun.

“Every single retail job I ever worked.

Working harder, faster, smarter than coworkers never got you a raise or promotion or recognition.

It just got you more tired.”

3. Not cool.

“When your boss rewards you with bits of their work and positions it as a “great learning opportunity”.

Yes, please let me do the b*tch work parts of your job while getting paid $45k less per year.

I guess that’s why they get paid so much – they’ve implemented creative strategies for ~cost savings~ and ~efficiencies~.”

4. Wasn’t good enough.

“When I was proficient at my work and the boss brought in her old husband to replace me.

I did the most amount of work on that particular task, the most anyone had ever done, but it wasn’t good enough to keep me employed.

I also did a great, determined job in the warehouse but because the boss liked keeping us as casuals and cutting costs wherever possible, and glaring at me, too, I realized that working hard wasn’t worth it.

So study hard and earn qualifications and become a worthy asset.”

5. Quit on the spot.

“Worked for a company for a few years in my early 20s.

Busted my *ss and was essentially doing a manager’s job for very little money (our manager left a while before and they just had me take on his duties). They employed a 40 year old guy to help in the warehouse doing basic stuff. They hired him on TWICE my salary.

I brought it up with the owner and asked for a pay rise, laid out why I deserved one and went about it in the right way. His response was no as I’m young. The other guy has a family and a house that’s why he’s getting paid more.

I could have lost my sh*t. Realised I needed to cut my losses.

I quit on the spot.”

6. My superstar.

“I was working retail overnight and I worked my *ss off (partly to keep from getting tired).

My living situation started falling apart and I had nowhere to go if I had to move, so I was very stressed. My “fun” boss who everyone loved came over to ask why I wasn’t working as hard as usual.

I told him I was possibly a week from being homeless, and he just kept smiling and repeating the phrase “You’re usually my superstar. I need you to be my superstar, buddy.”

My hard work wasn’t valued at all, this boss only cared that I’d been making him look good by accomplishing so much. No one at the store actually cared about me as a person.

I’ve told this story here before, but the truth is I never worked hard again. No matter how hard a job tried to pressure me that something absolutely had to be done, I never worked that hard for anyone ever again.”

7. Learned from Dad.

“I was probably 16.

When I realized we were dirt poor and watched my dad kill himself working 12 hours a day and coming home coughing up black snot.

Then when he got sick and went to the hospital due to his lungs his company let him go and then fought him on unemployment..”

8. School and work.

“Multiple times.

In School: Group projects. I always was one of the couple of people who would do their part and then I would have to make up for others not doing anything.

Work:

I worked my way up to being a shift manager at a gas station that basically allowed me to carry a key to the store and run the daily reports. I got no pay increase.

Now I am a software developer and I found out pretty quickly that if I stayed ahead of the “added features” curve, that I get no extra praise or recognition. Now, I do still stay ahead of the curve but I only send out required updates when it’s due.

Kind of annoying but it means I do less work in the day.”

9. Broken down.

“I’ve worked blue collar jobs my entire life.

It’s a good way to pay a mortgage and not much more. If by chance I ever find a way to retire, I’ll be too broken down physically to enjoy it.

There are two Moldovan guys where I work that would be billionaires if hard work made you rich.”

10. The way it goes.

“Today, when my dad told me about his boss that bought him self a brand new Mercedes GLE while he keeps cutting pay from all the workers in his factory.

Even though thanks to them he has record profits even in this Corona crisis.”

11. BK.

“My first job was a cashier at Burger King.

I worked my *ss off, I was 16/17, in high school working over 40 hours every week. Somehow my grades didn’t suffer but my health did. I regularly would only get maybe five hours of sleep a week to a max of 4 or 5 a night and that was very rare, usually only when I had a day off and most assignments caught up.

Got a couple raises, but it wasn’t worth what I was working. Many managers hated being the manager or even hated working, so they would give me their keys and say if I need anything, they would be outback smoking, having s*x in the bathroom, or outside on the phone, etc. Their whole shift. I became the manger without the pay.

Finally got tired of it and put my two weeks in, they said if I stayed I would be a manager. So I stayed. Waited a couple weeks, nothing. They hired a new dude straight on as a manager. Same deal, dude just gave me his keys and stayed in the office on his phone.

When I asked about being manager the GM said they couldn’t make me a manager because I’m needed in drive thru and they won’t be able to find a replacement. Ok, so give me a raise. No, we can’t afford that. Make me a manager. No, we like you where you are. Okay, finally put my two weeks in and left officially.

F*ck that place.”

12. No credit.

“After spending over a year researching and crossectioning samples, imaging them on powerful scopes, and measuring each sample at specific locations, proving my theory was valid and being told that the extra work time wouldn’t validate the changes in the process and the value attained.

They started using my idea within 6 months of my report being published. Guess who got no credit?

I gave up after that.”

13. Talk about bad luck.

“When I was younger my dad had 12 hour shifts too and was killing himself on the daily.

A hurricane came and took my entire house and all of our belongings, he got fired for not coming into work.

One of the kickers? His employer asked for the uniform back.”

Have you ever had any experiences where you realized that hard work didn’t really pay off?

If so, share your stories with us in the comments.

We’d love to hear from you!

The post People Discuss When They Realized Hard Work Doesn’t Always Pay Off appeared first on UberFacts.

March 1, 2021

Floridians Discuss How They Feel About the “Florida Man” Stereotype

Let me get this out of the way right off the top: I really love Florida a lot.

I’ve spent a lot of time there, my parents lived there for a long time, and I really do enjoy the weather, the beaches, the wildlife, the food, etc.

BUT, I’ll also be the first one to admit that Florida is…well, weird. Really weird, in fact.

And if you’ve been on social media over the past few years, you’ve definitely seen the various strange things that people in Florida do that end up in the news.

So, what’s the deal?

Floridians opened up on AskReddit about how they really feel about the “Florida Man” stereotype. Let’s take a look.

1. It’s accurate.

“I encounter them fairly often and I find it pretty accurate.

It doesn’t describe all of us, but there are a non-zero number of them in any public space, so it make sense that it has caught on.”

2. Entertaining.

“I find it entertaining.

Weird sh*t definitely does happen here. I once went to a party and ended up in the start of a zombie apocalypse because a crazy girl bit me on my arm and wouldn’t get off me till her roommate came across the room and kicked her in the face.

I only offered my hand to help her off the ground and she bit me, totally unprovoked. I’m sad I don’t remember her name or I’d fb message her on our bite-iversary.”

3. Here’s a good story.

“My lady and I filmed a crackhead that walked around singing for a while, then laid face down in the street (still singing) until someone stopped to make sure he was ok.

When the lady got out of her car, the guy got up and walked quickly towards the drivers side of the car like he was going to steal it, but the lady was able to hop back in first. Then, I sh*t you not, this guy went down on one knee and tried to propose to her in the middle of the road. She ended up driving away and the crackhead ran off into the bushes by the train tracks just before emergency services arrived.

This happened right in front of my door. My lady was recording and I was watching by the door in case she needed help.”

4. Proud native.

“I wear the Florida Woman title as a badge of honor.

Iwrestled a gator in a Christmas hat! (My Uncle is an alligator trapper for the state, FWC, who needed help removing a large nuisance alligator when I was home from the navy. It was a perfect Christmas card opportunity)

This was in Sarasota FL. The gator was reported to the state after it attacked a lawnmower, ate a calf, and tried to eat the farmers daughter. Yeehaw

I had to sit in a bush by the waters edge making a baby alligator call to attract the gator when the speaker died…. Nearly had a heart attack when the gator beelined towards me to investigate!

Baby alligator calls sound like you are saying “oww oww” in a constipated voice.”

5. It’s a big place.

“If only people knew how different northern and southern Florida are.

We should honestly be different states at this point.”

6. Don’t live there anymore…

“So I no longer live there but grew up in Northern Florida on the Panhandle (left when I was 19).

Looking back it’s funny but good, living there could be exhausting at times (especially as a gay teenager). So my 2 stories I like to tell that always get a laugh.

My hometown got a Walmart. On its opening day, my high school took a field trip to it. Always joked that the school was saying “Come look where you’ll spend the rest of your life kids!”

The only boyfriend I had back then left me for his 42 year old second cousin. Keep in mind I was 17 and my boyfriend was 18. But oh, it gets better. The 42 year old had a 20 year old son. They later on got engaged (and the ex told the son to call him dad now <_&lt$$).

Then tried to talk me into a threesome, fun times. If you didn’t guess it, the relationship didn’t last. Don’t know what happened but eventually they got into a fight and broke it off.

So yeah, I very rarely visit home…”

7. Maybe that’s true?

“I think it’s funny that living in Florida, most of the genuinely INSANE people I have met aren’t even from here.

They’re all people who moved south from NYC.”

8. It’s all over the place.

“It’s accurate, but the only reason you see it is because arrests are published immediately.

Other states have weirdos too.

Those governments just don’t go out of their way to publish the arrests.”

9. A lot of outsiders.

“Born and raised Floridian. I feel like it’s appropriate and wrong at the same time.

The biggest problem with it is most of the “Florida men and women” you hear about are originally from somewhere else. Same reason we’re seen as being bad drivers.

No one is actually from here. You throw a million different driving styles into one place, you’re bound to have a bad time.”

10. For your information…

“True Florida Man here, the rare Florida native variety, born and raised in the state. I will tell you a couple of truths about Florida.

“North Florida” is really South Georgia.

The further away from the beach you get, the more “southern” Florida gets (with Orlando being the exception).

As with the distance from the beach rule, so goes the same with the distance from I4.

Central FL, basically along the I4 corridor, is about as normal as Florida gets. That spans from Daytona Beach on the east coast, through Orlando and down to Tampa on the west coast.

As for the stereo type, most people will also tell you that the “Florida Man” stories are readily available because of our sunshine laws. It’s not that Florida Man is any crazier than Texas Man, or Michigan Man (not sure those are great comparisons by the way), it’s just that the access to the police reports is readily available and easily reportable.

We air our dirty laundry, we don’t hide it!”

11. Oh, my…

“I claim it with pride: “Did I ever tell you about the time I fought off a 450 pound bear that wanted my BBQ by stabbing it in the FACE with a 50 cent steak knife, on my front porch?”

The details:

I’m cooking out on the porch. I hear a noise, and look around. A BIG black bear has been following his nose, sees me between him and his BBQ, made a sort of “humph!” and froze, staring at me. He’s about 15 feet away, on the three steps up to the porch.

I raise my arms to look bigger and yell “Go Away, bear!” … but he doesn’t twitch. I can see the wheels turning in his head through his beady little eyes… he didn’t expect me, but is now considering whether to eat me or just teach me a lesson about getting between him and his food.

The door is about ten feet away, but that’s directly towards the bear – Not a good direction. No other retreat is open to me, being on the porch with the grill. Maybe if I throw something at him he will get momentarily distracted or intimidated enough for me to make it to the door.

My options are a 99-cent Dollar General spatula, which does not recommend itself as a weapon, or a flimsy plastic-handled 4 for $2 steak knife… which at least has a sharp(ish) point.

I take the steak knife by the tip and threw it just like I would expect someone to throw it if they knew how to throw a knife and the knife was a “throwable” knife – neither of which are true.

Miraculously enough, it hit the bear in the face almost directly on his nose, point first, and stuck him quite deeply on the muzzle. I mean “POING!!!” deep.

This is doubly miraculous since I was aiming rather vaguely at the other end of the bear. Throwing really hard is evidently terrible for one’s aim.

He blatted exactly like I imagine a sheep would sound, jumped in the air, swatted the knife out, and fled at top speed. He cleared a four-foot chain link fence without slowing down and without touching it at all.

Oh, and they caught the bear a couple of weeks later about 1/4 mile down the road when it clawed up some guy at a trash can. Identified by the wound on the nose, almost healed.”

12. Here’s the deal.

“I’m from Florida. It definitely holds up, depending on what part you’re from.

At one point I was living in a trailer in the swamp. During the rainy season the water would come up all the way to the back porch. One summer there was a big gator that had been terrorizing folks on the street.

Lunging at people on their porches and hissing and just being a jerk. Eventually it went after the neighbors dog, so they shot it and had a BBQ. Everyone got together and had bbq gator tail, got super drunk, and went swimming in the swamp. Was awesome, would do again.

Also one time I saw a very obese lady take a dump on the floor of a Walmart in the middle of the night.

Yes it’s safe to swim in the water, most kids and many adults did when I was growing up and nobody thought it was weird. Swampy water looks gross, but the brown color is actually due to tannins, the same chemicals that make tea brown!

Alligators are usually big, lazy, scaly blobs. They’re shy and they avoid people. Somebody was probably feeding this one. When they lose their fear of people, they become *ssholes. Don’t feed the alligators!! But don’t be terrified of them either unless they’re not acting afraid of you.

I’m a lady, and the neighbor who shot the gator was also a lady. So I guess this is really a Florida woman story.

I didn’t see what happened to Walmart lady. I’m sure that some employees saw it since it was right by the entrance, but nobody said anything and she just continued shopping. Later I saw someone cleaning up.

I don’t think the employees get paid enough to confront her. I can’t blame them. I hope she’s okay though…”

13. Grandpa!

“It is 100% accurate, and it perfectly describes my Step-Grandad. He’s your typical white trash, God fearing, washing machine hoarding, no-teeth-having back woods crazy person.

When I was 12 I went hunting with him. He fired a 12 gauge about 6 inches from my unprotected left ear, causing permanent hearing damage, because he happened to spot a buck through the bushes next to us and felt he had no time to warn me. On another hunting trip, he gutted the freshly killed deer and ate its heart raw. I threw up.

When I was 14 or 15 I worked for him for a few months diving for golf balls in the retention ponds at golf courses, which is prime territory for gators, snakes, and many flesh-eating diseases. He could PERFECTLY imitate the mating call of a gator, which would usually result in one or two alligators coming out of the pond to try and get some.

He would calmly walk up to them, sit on their necks, tape their mouths shut and left them to sit there while he went under water. Sometimes they hissed at him and opened their jaws or made a move on his ankle, but none of them ever actually bit him or resisted once he was on top of them. Alligators are surprisingly docile unless you threaten them or their young. Anyways, just in case one did try something, he carried around a ziplock bag with a few .44 magnum rounds and a hunting knife.

No gun, just ammo. According to him, if he was in trouble, he would just “Put the bullet against its neck and hit the primer with my knife.” Unfortunately I never got to see this happen, I would have loved to see how that would have worked out for him.

As a kid, my Grandparents lived in a small travel trailer and I would usually stay with them since my parents usually just didn’t want to deal with me and would just drink instead. This trailer was from the 70’s, meaning it was old, smelly and covered wall to wall with brown. Brown cabinets, brown beds, brown seats, and particularly brown shag carpet.

Well, one day a mouse managed to sneak its way into the trailer and scurried around the carpet looking for crumbs amidst the miller lite cans and cigarette butts. Now, any reasonable person would either set a trap or just shoo the mouse outside. Not my Grandad. He went to the closet, grabbed a S&W .357 Magnum revolver, and fired 6 shots at the mouse. He missed all of them, leaving 6 holes in the floor. The mouse got away.

It was our 4th of July tradition to attend my Grandparents’ house for food, fireworks, shooting contests, beer and a bonfire. My Grandad somehow managed to obtain 6 50 gallon drums of gasoline, and thought it would be a good idea to put a barrel in the middle of the bonfire as fuel.

He doused the pile of branches in gasoline, placed the barrel and lit a match. The fire started burning, and he starting dancing around it like some Native American ritual if Native Americans were overweight rednecks with no teeth. About 30 seconds later, the bonfire, predictably, exploded.

He sustained 2nd degree burns on the entire left side of his body, singed off ALL of his hair, including eyebrows, facial hair and arm hair, and melted the power lines that ran directly over the fire, cutting power to most of the county. The Fire Department was called and he was forced to pay restitution to the power company to repair the downed lines.

My favorite story, however, is a story of a vacation I took with him and my aunts (who are only a year older than me) to the beach when I was around 10 years old. He drove a 1985 brown on brown Chevrolet Astro with pinstripes down the side and no back seats. We sat on buckets in the back of the van for the duration of the 2 hour drive.

When we got pulled over since he drives like a maniac, we hid under a tarp from the cop and had to stay completely still and silent for 25 minutes. While we were exiting the Interstate, my Grandad noticed a mound of dirt in the construction area taking place on the off ramp, and I can only imagine he thought this would be an awesome Dukes of Hazzard moment. He suddenly veered off the road, put the gas pedal to the floor and went for it.

This Chevy Astro went up, flew about 15 feet and landed directly into a giant hole where the mound of dirt had originated on the other side. Since we were not sitting in actual seats with seatbelts, we first flew into the roof, then flew into the windshield when we hit the bottom of the hole.

By some miracle, the only serious injury sustained in the crash was my Grandad who broke his arm. Without skipping a beat, he started maniacally laughing and shouting “WOO HOO! THAT WAS ONE HELL OF A RIDE!” The van was totaled. He managed to avoid being arrested for reckless driving, and since this took place in a time where seatbelts were more of a suggestion than a rule, he wasn’t arrested for child endangerment either.

He did have to pay a massive fine and lost his license for a few years though. He wasn’t allowed to drive us anywhere after that.

I love him, but he is a f*cking maniac who quite frankly probably shouldn’t have access to anything more dangerous than safety scissors. He’s somehow managed to live into his 80’s so far, and is still as trashy and insane as ever. He just has even less teeth now.”

Alright, Floridians, we want to get your opinions.

In the comments, tell us how you feel about the “Florida Man” stereotype.

We look forward to hearing from you. Thanks!

The post Floridians Discuss How They Feel About the “Florida Man” Stereotype appeared first on UberFacts.

March 1, 2021

Hawaiians Discuss What People Don’t Realize About Life There

While Hawaii might look like paradise with no problems to us outsiders and mainlanders, I’m sure that, just like any other place in the world, there is a lot more than meets the eye.

All places have their problems and serious issues that folks from the outside just don’t understand. And that goes double for tourist destinations.

Let’s get a reality check from Hawaiians who took to AskReddit to talk about various misconceptions about living the island life.

1. Very routine.

“Life can often be very routine.

There’s less space to build new stuff so new developments are generally a much longer timeframe.

If you’re not comfortable going to the same two beaches, the same three restaurants and the same coffee shop on a regular basis, life can be very difficult here.”

2. Interesting.

“A major employer and source of residency is the US military.

Those of Japanese ancestry make up the second largest ethnicity.

Staples like groceries and gasoline cost a fortune to account for shipping costs.”

3. Hard to date.

“Dating is hard in Hawaii.

The population is small, and there is a joke that “people are waiting for someone to break up”.

I could see it being lonely there long term if you didn’t find someone quickly or move there with someone.”

4. From a native.

“I was born and grew up on the mainland. My wife and I have lived in Hawaii (Maui) for almost a decade now.

It is definitely a lot more expensive to live here. 2 bags of groceries is generally in the $100 range. Rent is crazy. Gas is stupid expensive. The other end of that is that pay can be higher too, depending on the job.

If you get a good job serving somewhere fancy, it’s not uncommon to leave with $300-$500 for a shift. We depend completely on tourism here to survive. So as much as tourists can be annoying, intrusive, rude, and entitled, we need them. Distance is weird.

If I’m gonna drive 30 minutes somewhere, we better be having a whole day planned. Eating out somewhere casual is at least $30 for two people.”

5. Good information.

“Hawaii State Senator here.

About half of all households are unable to afford basic food, shelter, and healthcare. This is often masked by many families living together in multi-generational households. Importing food, energy, and goods through the 20th century has created an unsustainable dependency that has driven up the cost of living for Hawaii’s 1.4m residents.

Outside pressure from speculators drives up the cost of land and housing. Military and federal personnel make up a notable portion of the population, but often overlooked are their cola and housing allowances that massively distort the rental market. Tens of thousands of airbnb and vacation rentals take additional units out of long term housing exacerbating the housing shortage and increasing costs.

Add to that many who buy up second and third vacation homes, and many foreigners parking money in condos and real estate that all sit empty most of the time.

Because of our somewhat isolated job market, competition is limited and wages tend to be lower for many professions compared to their mainland counterparts. For example, I just passed a law a few years ago that prohibited tech companies from requiring employees to sign non-compete agreements that essentially barred them from working for other competitors. An independent study afterward found without those draconian controls tech sector wages increased by 4% as a result.

But despite these challenges we are making progress. We have among the best access to healthcare, life expectancy, and quality of life. The digital and film industry is taking off, and remote work is opening up massive new economic opportunity.

We’ve tripled our renewable energy in the last decade and are on our way to 100% clean energy and a carbon-neutral economy by 2045. We’re growing brand new niche industries like farm to bar chocolate production which no other state has yet done. We’re expanding local agriculture and tackling food sustainability.

At its peak Hawai’i supported a thriving population before western contact, 100% sustainably. We host more unique and endangered species and ecosystems than any other state, and in some cases than the rest of the country combined.

At 1.4 million people living with limited space and resources, Hawai’i is the perfect model to prove to the rest of the world that we can all live together sustainably with a longer and better quality of life than anyone thought possible. And for our kids’ sake we hope to prove it.”

6. Paradise?

“After living on the Big Island for 12 years now, I can say it is not always the vision of “living in paradise” that my friends and family keep presuming it is.

My family discredits any struggle I have because I am “in paradise”. Many of us are still struggling despite the “beautiful beaches”…even more so with Covid and the lack of jobs. So many of my friends, and extended family, cannot even afford food, let alone their rent/house payment since this pandemic.

And let us not even discuss how expense it is to BUY a house here! The cost of living here is astronomical, and if you live on a neighboring island to Oahu, you most likely lack proper medical facilities as well…

Many live multiple-families/generations in one home just to be able to survive. Many more work several jobs, just to keep a roof over their head and food on the table.

Yes, it is beautiful. Yes, we are graced with incredible views (when we drive to see them), and yes, we are thankful for what we have…but please do not ever think that it is just a fantasy island we live on. As we all have our burdens to carry.

If you are one of the fortunate who move here when you retire, and already have incredible assets…than this really is paradise!!

If you are from here, or relocated at a young age, have families to support, or otherwise…well, it is a high price to pay, and much sacrifice for so many, for those beaches and views…”

7. Hard to make friends.

“Lived on Oahu for about 4 years from 2012-2016.

How expensive everything is is definitely at the top of the list. The one that most people don’t expect is that I had a hard time making friends. I’m guessing this could be hard in any tourism based place but I’d go to the restaurant or bar and meet tons of people. They were all there for the week.

It seems that even residents my age were all only there for a short timeframe as well. I just had a constantly rotating group of friends and it got old. That’s part of the reason I moved back to the mainland. Also everyone was always stealing stuff. Mopeds and other goods get stolen all day every day if it’s not locked, it’s gone.

It was frustrating the amount of stuff that would just go missing or get broken into.”

8. Haole.

“Being called a haole can be derogatory or neutral depending on how it’s used. I’m a white woman married to a brown man.

Once, we were having dinner out while I was pregnant and our server told us we were going to have the cutest hapa-haole baby. She was pretty nice and I’m pretty sure she said it completely innocuously. Another time I was visiting the Big Island (I lived on Oahu) and was checking out an off-the-beaten-road beach that belonged exclusively to the locals.

It was crystal clear that I wasn’t welcome, and though they never called me it to my face, I heard them call me a haole amongst themselves and it definitely wasn’t neutral.

When I first moved to Oahu, my husband’s employer hosted us for a dinner party with some of his new co-workers. Another white dude who had lived there for about 20 years pulled me aside and told me point-blank that I should expect to be called a haole and not to let it bother me.

That I was a white person from the mainland in their space – it was my trade off. Broadly speaking, it wasn’t really an issue while I lived there. Most people were really nice as long as you weren’t acting like a self-entitled d*ck.”

9. Homeless problem.

“There are a LOT of homeless people.

One reason why? The job market relies a lot off of tourism and military. And it’s very expensive to live there – it’s also very expensive to leave. If you move to Moloka’i, and lose your job, where’re you going to go but under a bridge somewhere?

It costs way too much to leave since the only way to leave is by plane or boat and people can’t exactly stowaway on them easily.”

10. Second-class citizens.

“Many people who live here are treated as second class citizens by the tourism industry.

Sure, it provides jobs, it’s a very important part. But how would YOU feel if you had people wanting to build a play park on a cemetery where your ancestors were buried? If you say “Build it somewhere else”, they will always ask you the same question: “Where?”. And what’s the answer? Well, there probably isn’t.

It’s a real Zero Sum game, because if you want to build something, you’ll probably end up evicting someone else.”

11. Craziness.

“Lived in Honolulu for four years. People tend to think of Hawaii as a peaceful, laid back place but really it’s a f*cking madhouse.

I also lived in Florida for five years and I always tell people that Hawaii really is what people only think Florida is. I’ve shared many stories on Reddit over the years of the endless string of lunatics and crazies I dealt with on nearly a daily basis out there.

There’s something about being on a remote island in the middle of nowhere that really brings out the loony in people.”

12. Normal life.

“Born and raised on the Big Island, live in California now.

I can only speak to my own experience in the town I grew up in, on the island I grew up on, but it’s a pretty d*mned normal life, just happens to be in a very beautiful and unique place.

Like any other tourist destination, the vast majority of visitors only see what’s on the path of the “guided tour” so to speak. When you peel back that curtain, you just see people living their lives like anywhere else.”

Are there any more Hawaiians out there who can tell us what island life is like?

And what some other misconceptions are about living there?

If you fit the bill, please share your thoughts with us in the comments.

We’d love to hear from you!

The post Hawaiians Discuss What People Don’t Realize About Life There appeared first on UberFacts.

March 1, 2021

People Discuss What They Didn’t Understand Until They Got Older

I don’t think I was THAT bad in this regard, but there were definitely many things I THOUGHT I knew when I was younger that I now realize I was totally clueless about.

Hey, you live and you learn, right?

And with life experience comes a helluva lot more knowledge.

AskReddit users opened up about what they really didn’t understand until they got older.

1. Totally true.

“The public really doesn’t cares what you do.

The faster people, particularly teenagers who think everyone is looking at them all the time, learn that nobody cares as much as you ever will, the happier you will be.

I spent years not going to the gym and participating in gym class and not going to school dances and my own prom because I was so self-conscience of how I looked (I was a bigger kid) that I missed out on a lot because I SWORE men at the gym would laugh at me. or kids would laugh at me

Everyone is just looking at themselves.”

2. I love this one.

“The smartest person you know isn’t the one who makes everyone else feel stupid.

They’re the one who makes everyone else feel smart.”

3. We all learn this one.

“Many of the rules you had to follow as children really were for your benefit.

The “cool” kids at school were just self-centered idiots.”

4. Lots of hard work.

“I always knew my parents loved me, but didn’t understand how much sacrifice they made and love they gave to me until I became a father.”

5. Moving fast.

“How fast time goes by!

I’m in my forties and the 90s seem like ten years ago!”

6. On the fly.

“As a kid, it seems like adults have figured everything out.

Once you’re getting older, you realize that very few people actually know what they’re doing.

The rest of us just kinda make sh*t up as we go.”

7. They’re right about that.

“Why adults say certain things are dangerous or not worth the risk.

Our brains don’t fully develop until around 25, and one of the key things affected is risk assessment.”

8. Start today.

“Retirement. Start investing in your retirement now.

I don’t care how old you are. Start immediately. A 401k and an IRA are great to get started early.

Keep contributing and don’t cash them out.”

9. Life lesson.

“Most things really don’t matter.

You can’t change THE world, just concentrate on YOUR world.

Everyone is doing their best. Their best is not the same as your best.”

10. You know it!

“Some things we label as “Kids’ Shows” actually have a really meaningful message behind them that we don’t always fully see or understand until once we get older.”

11. You’ll thank yourself.

“You really need to take care of your back, your teeth and your hearing.

There’s a lot of good life to be lived on the other side of 50 as long as you can move, eat and hear.”

12. Total creeps.

“That if an older guy/girl wants to date you, they don’t see you as a “mature for your age”.

They are grooming you, or trying to take advantage for your inexperience in life. Teens will think that hanging out with older people must mean that they are cool and special, but no.

The older guys are just being creeps.”

13. Thanks, Mom and Dad.

“What your parents actually went through to support themselves and raise you.

It makes you cringe a little when you remember saying dumb teenager stuff like “you don’t know how hard my life is!”.

How my parents didn’t punch me in the face after working a gazillion hours and coming home to my pouty bullsh*t is beyond me.”

14. A part of life.

“How heartbreaking being a parent is.

Taking my daughter to kindergarten, watching her let go on my hand to run off with friends. They are all moments of great pride in watching who she is becoming. But it hurts so bad. I want to scream “wait, come back!”.

Im the only one who remembers holding her every night til she falls asleep because it was the only way she could. Now she just wants a hug.

Every day she takes steps towards more independence and goes farther and farther away. I encourage and am so proud of her. But she is my world, and there was a time when I was her whole world.

Now its my duty to fade into the background as she spreads her wings and it is a joyous heartbreak.”

Now we want to hear from you.

In the comments, tell us about the things that you didn’t really “get” until you got older.

We can’t wait to hear your thoughts.

The post People Discuss What They Didn’t Understand Until They Got Older appeared first on UberFacts.

March 1, 2021

People Shard How Their High School Crushes Turned Out as Adults

I remember my high school crush…

She was hot, funny, cool…and way out of my league.

And I never found out what became of her, because she doesn’t have any social media accounts. Who knows, maybe our paths will cross one day…

But these folks do know what happened to the people they loved back in the day!

AskReddit users talked about what became of their school crushes…let’s take a look.

1. Hard pass!

“Back when I was younger and crushing hard I got on AOL instant messenger and had gotten my crush’s screen name from a friend.

I worked up the nerve to start a conversation with him and soon after some awkward small talk he sent me a message in Comic Sans, black background, red lettering, and in French. I then went to google for translation and found out he had just called me a pig, in French. Being a seemingly awkward and chubby teenager, I was literally crushed.

The heartbreak was only made worse by remembering that a few weeks prior I had selected to take French class the next year and couldn’t change it.

Years later now that I’ve blossomed he follows me on every social media platform, has reached out a couple of times to try and flirt/hang out.

Hard pass.

I believe he’s moved away and is a teacher now.”

2. That’s sad.

“Became a professional cheerleader.

Died of breast cancer at 34.

Googling names from high school is crazy!”

3. Tragic.

“Ended up committing suic*de a few years after high school.

She was a teacher and got caught having an affair with a female student.”

4. Nice work!

“I never made a move in high school.

About 7 years after graduating, I saw her on social media and said what the hell and asked her out.

We’ve been dating for about 2 years and I’m about to pop the big question!”

5. Still the same.

“Hot douche who doesn’t really do much except go to the gym.

To be fair, that’s how he was in high school, I just liked it back then.”

6. Crushing all over.

“I had several!

One of them is still a close friend, and he became a primary care doctor. He also officiated my wedding.

I have no idea what happened to another one. We didn’t really have overlapping friend groups and she doesn’t do social media.

One of them is a math professor now, so that’s pretty cool.

My BIGGEST crush in high school was my longtime neighbor, but it also fizzled out pretty quickly after we went to homecoming together. We’re still good friends, and our families still keep in touch.

He’s also the guy who introduced me to my husband.”

7. Happy for her.

“There was a girl I really admired for a while, she didn’t really give me the time of day after freshman year though.

She was co-valedictorian and hugged me as I crossed the stage at graduation, and no one else got one. I’m still really confused about that 6 years later.

She went on to med school and is either married or at least engaged to a guy she met there. Overall she’s doing really well, and I’m happy for her.”

8. Boom!

“We reconnected through Facebook when we were in our late 40s and now she is my wife.

She’s still beautiful.”

9. A perfect 10.

“Still a 10 for looks.

I’m sure she kept on as the amazing, kind person she is. She moved to another country, speaks multiple languages and is more successful than I imagined.

She seems happy but we haven’t talked since the time I told her how I felt about her about 20 years ago.”

10. Success story.

“Went on to be a teenage model for hair products, graduated from Yale, toured Europe, opened her own successful ceramics company that is sold worldwide and is often written up in magazines.

Makes me feel like sh*t every time I think of her.”

11. Wow!

“You made me check and she is actually a very successful artist and an art teacher at a renowned university in France.

She even got decorated for her work (Chevalier des arts et des lettres).”

12. Bummer.

“She ended up dating and marrying the guy who bullied me all through middle school and high school.

They seem like a functional family from what I see on social media.”

13. Life is strange…

“One of them is homeless and a druggie. It’s very sad.

The other one is famous in his home country, is a best selling author, and is regularly on tv.

Don’t have a crush on him anymore, but I’m glad we are still friends, and I’m happy for how well he’s done.

I guess they balance one another out…”

14. It all worked out.

“She was aware then, over 30 years ago, but it was unrequited.

We’ve been in casual contact through Facebook for the past several years, and once before that my wife (at the time) and I had her and her husband over for dinner.

From what I can tell, she’s grown into a person I probably would have been happy with. It’s nice to see my high school perspective got a few things right. I think we’d be good friends if we lived closer.

She appears to be living a good life with her husband and family. With my second wife, I’m happier than I could have ever imagined.

Life worked out well.”

How about you?

What ever happened to your high school crush?

Talk to us in the comments!

The post People Shard How Their High School Crushes Turned Out as Adults appeared first on UberFacts.