This Craigslist ‘Missed Connection’ Will Hit You Right in the Feels

“Missed Connections” on Craigslist have long been enjoyable to read, but this missed connection really raises the bar. This beautifully written ad reminds us of the power of connection and that we never know how much our actions might impact the people around us.

The ad begins with a veteran struggling with his time in the service.

Photo Credit: Craigslist

The text of the post says:

I met you in the rain on the last day of 1972, the same day I resolved to kill myself.

One week prior, at the behest of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, I’d flown four B-52 sorties over Hanoi. I dropped forty-eight bombs. How many homes I destroyed, how many lives I ended, I’ll never know. But in the eyes of my superiors, I had served my country honorably, and I was thusly discharged with such distinction.

And so on the morning of that New Year’s Eve, I found myself in a barren studio apartment on Beacon and Hereford with a fifth of Tennessee rye and the pang of shame permeating the recesses of my soul. When the bottle was empty, I made for the door and vowed, upon returning, that I would retrieve the Smith & Wesson Model 15 from the closet and give myself the discharge I deserved.

I walked for hours. I looped around the Fenway before snaking back past Symphony Hall and up to Trinity Church. Then I roamed through the Common, scaled the hill with its golden dome, and meandered into that charming labyrinth divided by Hanover Street. By the time I reached the waterfront, a charcoal sky had opened and a drizzle became a shower. That shower soon gave way to a deluge. While the other pedestrians darted for awnings and lobbies, I trudged into the rain. I suppose I thought, or rather hoped, that it might wash away the patina of guilt that had coagulated around my heart. It didn’t, of course, so I started back to the apartment.

And then I saw you.

A beautiful stranger had taken shelter from the rain. The two talked and laughed over coffee.

Photo Credit: Craigslist

You’d taken shelter under the balcony of the Old State House. You were wearing a teal ball gown, which appeared to me both regal and ridiculous. Your brown hair was matted to the right side of your face, and a galaxy of freckles dusted your shoulders. I’d never seen anything so beautiful.

When I joined you under the balcony, you looked at me with your big green eyes, and I could tell that you’d been crying. I asked if you were okay. You said you’d been better. I asked if you’d like to have a cup of coffee. You said only if I would join you. Before I could smile, you snatched my hand and led me on a dash through Downtown Crossing and into Neisner’s.

We sat at the counter of that five and dime and talked like old friends. We laughed as easily as we lamented, and you confessed over pecan pie that you were engaged to a man you didn’t love, a banker from some line of Boston nobility. A Cabot, or maybe a Chaffee. Either way, his parents were hosting a soirée to ring in the New Year, hence the dress.

For my part, I shared more of myself than I could have imagined possible at that time. I didn’t mention Vietnam, but I got the sense that you could see there was a war waging inside me. Still, your eyes offered no pity, and I loved you for it.

And they lived happily ever after, right? Right?!?

Photo Credit: Craigslist

After an hour or so, I excused myself to use the restroom. I remember consulting my reflection in the mirror. Wondering if I should kiss you, if I should tell you what I’d done from the cockpit of that bomber a week before, if I should return to the Smith & Wesson that waited for me. I decided, ultimately, that I was unworthy of the resuscitation this stranger in the teal ball gown had given me, and to turn my back on such sweet serendipity would be the real disgrace.

On the way back to the counter, my heart thumped in my chest like an angry judge’s gavel, and a future — our future — flickered in my mind. But when I reached the stools, you were gone. No phone number. No note. Nothing.

As strangely as our union had begun, so too had it ended. I was devastated. I went back to Neisner’s every day for a year, but I never saw you again. Ironically, the torture of your abandonment seemed to swallow my self-loathing, and the prospect of suicide was suddenly less appealing than the prospect of discovering what had happened in that restaurant. The truth is I never really stopped wondering.

My heart is broken.

Photo Credit: Craigslist

I’m an old man now, and only recently did I recount this story to someone for the first time, a friend from the VFW. He suggested I look for you on Facebook. I told him I didn’t know anything about Facebook, and all I knew about you was your first name and that you had lived in Boston once. And even if by some miracle I happened upon your profile, I’m not sure I would recognize you. Time is cruel that way.

This same friend has a particularly sentimental daughter. She’s the one who led me here to Craigslist and these Missed Connections. But as I cast this virtual coin into the wishing well of the cosmos, it occurs to me, after a million what-ifs and a lifetime of lost sleep, that our connection wasn’t missed at all.

You see, in these intervening forty-two years I’ve lived a good life. I’ve loved a good woman. I’ve raised a good man. I’ve seen the world. And I’ve forgiven myself. And you were the source of all of it. You breathed your spirit into my lungs one rainy afternoon, and you can’t possibly imagine my gratitude.

I have hard days, too. My wife passed four years ago. My son, the year after. I cry a lot. Sometimes from the loneliness, sometimes I don’t know why. Sometimes I can still smell the smoke over Hanoi. And then, a few dozen times a year, I’ll receive a gift. The sky will glower, and the clouds will hide the sun, and the rain will begin to fall. And I’ll remember.

So wherever you’ve been, wherever you are, and wherever you’re going, know this: you’re with me still.

I’m not crying. You’re crying. We’re all crying.

One small act of kindness and friendship saved this man’s life. It’s a reminder to treat the people around us with kindness. You never know what someone else is going through.

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These 13 Actors Got Injured For Real While Filming Movie Scenes

Whether it was suffering broken bones, nearly drowning, or waking up in a hospital wondering how they got there, these actors gave til it hurt to create some truly memorable scenes in movie history. While we don’t want them to ever get hurt, it’s hard not to admire the commitment to the craft.

1. The Wicked Witch of the West Went up in flames Filming The Wizard of Oz! (1939)

Photo Credit: IcePop

There’s being hot, and then there’s being Margaret Hamilton hot. Thanks to a trap-door malfunction, she suffered third degree burns when filming the Wicked Witch exit scene. She found herself  fully exposed to a pyrotechnic device that was going off and almost burnt to a crisp!

2. Meryl Streep almost drowned as well during the filming of The River Wild (1994)

Photo Credit: FanPop

”I remember sinking down to the bottom with this powerful and freezing water pulling me in deeper.” For Streep, that was what drowning felt like, but she still says today that they needed to get the shot. She was just supposed to paddle the raft, but the river went wild and Streep had to be fished out by a rescue kayaker.

3. Brendan Fraser almost got killed filming the Mummy (1999)

Photo Credit: YouTube

When filming a hanging scene, something went terribly wrong.  The noose used during the shoot didn’t match the one used by the stuntman. Fraser figured he could just hold his breath and power through the shot. For almost 18 seconds, Fraser was out of it. Even though he was standing on a board, when they upped the tension, he was actually being hanged briefly!

4. Sean Astin had to be choppered off the set filming The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

Photo Credit: Cinema Blend

“I’m running at a dead sprint and I get in, and as my right foot lands about two feet in the water, just this huge, sharp pain. I grabbed on to the boat and I just looked down and just… It hurt so bad.” Astin stepped on a shard of glass that went straight through his foot. Peter Jackson had to have him flown in a chopper to the nearest hospital 90 minutes away.

5. Isla Fisher almost died performing a magic trick filming Now You See Me (2013)

Photo Credit: IMDB

While filming a scene in which she was chained in a tank filled with water, the props went wrong. Fisher was supposed to be able to pop free of the chains holding her anytime she needed to. One set worked as designed, and the other didn’t. As a result, Fisher was literally drowning, and everyone just thought she was an amazing actress. Eventually, a few crew members caught on and freed her.

6. Robert Pattinson busted his butt filming Twilight (2008)

Photo Credit: Film Beat

Okay, he didn’t actually bust his butt, but he almost tore his glute and that’s still pretty bad. It was bad enough that he confided to MTV that he needed butt massages from a physiotherapist to get through filming. Talk about your job literally being a pain in the butt…

7. Sylvester Stallone needed 5 days in an ICU to recover from filming Rocky IV (1985)

Photo Credit: IFC

In his quest to create the most realistic boxing match he could, Stallone told Dolph Lundgren to wail on him as hard as he could and try to knock him out. He said that Lundgren hit him so hard that his heart was against his ribs, the way it would be if he was literally hit by a truck!

8. Linda Hamilton went partially deaf filming Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

Photo Credit: GameSpot

Hamilton learned an important lesson about hearing protection when she forgot to use any in the elevator scene. “I fell to my knees in pain. I thought I’d been shot. The noise was so intense, so extreme, I’ll never forget it.” Like a pro, she got up from her knees, and finished off the scene.

9. Daniel Craig gave his all filming Quantum of Solace (2008)

Photo Credit: YouTube

Craig didn’t actually give his all, but he did give the tip of his finger when he accidentally sliced it off.  “I was bleeding a lot. I had to get it cauterized. Filming stopped and everybody went, ‘Oh my God! He sliced the end of his finger off!’ They went looking for it but couldn’t find it.” That’s a hardcore James Bond!

10. Jim Caviezel was struck by lightning filming The Passion of the Christ (2004)

Photo Credit: Vox

Nature actually scored a two-for-one as Caviezel and assistant director Jan Michelini were hit by different forks of the same lightning bolt. It was the second time Michelini had been hit by lightning! Call it bad luck or a sign, but that is some freaky stuff.

11. Harrison Ford and J.J. Abrams got laid up with broken bones filming Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

Photo Credit: Variety

If you ever wondered whether the Millennium Falcon gets mad, question answered! It took vengeance on the cast and crew, breaking Ford’s ankle and Abrams’ back. In fairness, the hydraulic door on it tried to hurt almost everyone. It’s like Abrams told Jimmy Fallon, hydraulic doors can’t really be picked up if they don’t want to be. Ouch!

12. Channing Tatum used his head as a stud finder filming Foxcatcher (2014)

Tatum didn’t use his head to find the sexy kind of studs central casting sends over, he used it to almost find the kind that hold up walls. He was supposed to hit a prop mirror with his head and be done with it, but Tatum never goes half-speed. He hit the mirror with his head until he literally went through the wall. “I missed the stud by about four inches. I was lucky. But the cut on my head was real.”

Photo Credit: CinemaBlend

13. Cary Elwes got knocked out cold by a sword filming The Princess Bride (1987)

Photo Credit: Giphy

Elwes found out that even a small tap on the noggin from a big, heavy sword can be hazardous to your health. “I woke up in the hospital with stitches being sewn into my forehead.” That’s the danger you face when you don’t use rubber swords on set. The knockout scene looked so good, though, that it ended up being used in the film. Thankfully for Elwes, they didn’t need to get the shot from another angle.

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Now Millennials Have Ruined Divorce, Too

People like to blame millennials for ruining everything. So…what have they ruined now? According to a recent study by Philip N. Cohen from the University of Maryland, they have ruined divorce.

Americans younger than 45 (an age group that technically includes the youngest Gen Xers) are taking a different approach to marriage. Rather than marrying young and divorcing like their parents, they are waiting to get married until they are older. This gives them an opportunity to get their careers and finances on track before tying the knot and starting a family.

With these changes, the divorce rate dropped by 18 percent from 2008 to 2016.

Photo Credit: Philip N. Cohen

Bloomberg presents a few possible theories as to why the divorce rate is falling. One possibility is that it’s actually due to our aging population. Older people are less likely to divorce. According to Cohen’s data, though, this isn’t the case. Even when he controlled for age, the divorce rate still showed an 8 percent drop.

Another theory is that the divorce rate is lower because fewer people are getting married. Although that’s true, Cohen compiled his numbers by looking at the number of divorces compared to the number of married women. Even looking at the divorce rate in this proportional way, the divorce rate still shows a decline.

Cohen’s data also shows that the decline in divorce is largely due to younger people. The Boomers have continued to have a high rate of divorce, even as they age. This trend has even spawned a new term: gray divorce.

Photo Credit: Philip N. Cohen

Overall, fewer people are choosing to marry. Those that do marry are statistically more likely to stay married. So millennials haven’t ruined divorce; they’re just less likely to need it because they are waiting to marry until they are financially and professionally secure.

But let’s go ahead and blame ’em anyway.

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You Have to Read These 6 Facts to Believe Them

Ever heard of the Love Commandos?

Well, you’re about to learn about them and a whole bunch of other fascinating things in this great fact set.

1. What are the chances?

Photo Credit: did you know?

2. A great organization

Photo Credit: did you know?

Check them out HERE.

3. Wish this was a thing in the U.S.

Photo Credit: did you know?

4. Lost to time

Photo Credit: did you know?

5. Time to go to Tulsa

Photo Credit: did you know?

6. Vigilantes of love

Photo Credit: did you know?

Those are 6 great facts! Don’t you agree?!?

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15 of the Most Random Ways People Have Met Someone They Ended up Dating

You never know when you’ll meet that special person, so keep your eyes peeled at all times!

And let these tales of random meetings from AskReddit users keep you hopeful.

1. Choices

“Had a choice of a baseball game or party. Wanted to go to the game but made a promise to go to the party. Wasn’t in the best of moods.

Go to get a beer and a girl comes up to the keg, I hold out the tap to fill her cup and she says in a non-talkative way, thanks.

I say, you seem to want to be here as much as I do. She apologized and we mentioned why we were there and why we didn’t want to be. Ended up talking the whole time and got together with her friends later that evening.

Spent everyday together after that. Dated, moved in together, got married and had a son.

10 years to the day we met she filed for divorce.

Should have gone to the damn baseball game.”

2. That’s one way to do it

“In high school I had a summer job insulating houses. One day I was helping spray insulation in a homeowners attic and fell through the ceiling into the homeowner’s daughter’s room.

Between busting my butt and getting berated by my boss, I was really embarrassed. The daughter noticed I was pretty down on myself and went out of her way to be nice to me.

Long story short, we ended up dating for about a year before heading off to college.”

3. Wrong number

“Wrong phone number. A girl apparently gave him a fake number at a bar the night before, and that turned out to be my number. We only dated for a few months, but it’s a funny story either way.”

4. Happy ending

“My uncle married a wrong phone number. He called, it was the wrong number (it was the salon she worked at) and they chatted for a few minutes. He enjoyed their conversation so much that he decided to stop by the salon and say hi in person and they chatted some more. He asked her on a date, she said yes, and now they’re married.”

5. Future wife

“I met my wife before a college English class. It was an 8 A.M. class and the teacher was super late, so we were all waiting outside the door. I was absentmindedly humming along to “The Ocean” by Led Zeppelin when she turns around to me and says, “Hey, is that Led Zeppelin?”

I said, “Yeah!”

She said, “Oh cool. Well, you gotta shut up. I’m hungover as hell.” And then she turned back around.”

6. Happy accident

“I used to tell people that she hit me with her car.

Which was true. Technically.

I was stopped at a traffic light on my motorbike and she was stopped behind me. Her car rolled forward, bumped my bike, which jolted it forward. This caught me by surprise and the entire thing ended with my bike falling over. No big deal.

She was extremely apologetic, and worried that I might take legal action or that she had damaged my bike in some way. So she offered to buy me a coffee in apology and it went from there.

edit: I was wearing a full-face helmet, so I doubt it was planned. And it only lasted six months back in ~2009.”

7. Classy

“In high school my now husband was stabbing plastic utensils into an apple, I told him it looked nice and he told me to f*ck off.

Edit: Wow this got popular! I’m glad that my awkward relationship story could make some people laugh, it’s a cherished memory that I don’t think I’ll ever forget and it makes a hell of a great conversation starter for “how did you two meet?”

8. To the rescue

“My current partner chopped her finger off at work and I took her to hospital and hung out for eight hours while they reattached her finger then took her home to make sure she was okay. We’ve been together two years now and she has no visible scarring from the surgery. We just kinda clicked.”

9. Nice beginning, bad ending

“I found a desert tortoise wandering down the sidewalk. So I went door to door trying to find its owner. Cute guy answers door, gets me a box, we find the owner together. We got married a year later.

Buuuuut then while paying for his Ph.D. in ethics, he’s busy hammering hookers while I traveled for work… to pay for his Ph.D. One divorce and 10 years later I’m still stuck with his student loans on my credit report and HPV to boot. NEXT TIME JUST KEEP THE DAMN TORTOISE.”

10. Dueling parties

“I met my wife at an ad hoc party thrown by two roommates who hadn’t told the other that their friends were coming over. So both groups of about 5 people showed up just expecting to hang out, and it turned into 10 people jammed into a small apartment laughing and drinking.”

11. Kind of awkward, but okay

“I went in for a colon cleanse on a dare with a friend, and it ended up in a date with the girl inserting the water tube and performing the flushing.”

12. “Are you real?”

“4 years ago, my friend introduced me to a game app, the kind you play with your Facebook friends. After a while, she lost interest in it, so I decided to play with a “random opponent”. I got matched to some guy from Europe and we played the game for a week before he messaged me on the chat function “Hey, are you real?” because he wasn’t sure if he was playing with a bot. We hit it off and he ended up moving to my country to be with me 🙂

13. Billing = Love connection

“I had a full-time job at a biotech company, but also a part-time job at a magazine. The magazine didn’t do direct deposit so I had them send my checks to the biotech company. One month I didn’t get my magazine check, and the head of billing at the biotech emails me and asks me to come to her office.

The biotech was somehow able to deposit my magazine money that month into their own account, and the head of billing asked me why I was receiving money from some magazine, what I did for them, what the magazine was. All this with the door to her office open.

After some back and forth she says she’ll cut me a check which requires a lot of paperwork on her part, and as I’m walking back to my desk downstairs, I make eye contact with a girl in the billing department.

An hour or so later the girl sends me an email because she overheard our conversation and is familiar with the magazine I worked for. We dated for a little over three years.”

14. Coffee shops are always good for this

“I was at a coffeeshop with a girl I was absolutely nuts about but only dating casually. During our conversation she cuts me off and hisses about a girl across the room I’d never seen before who was having an argument with her boyfriend.

“That’s the bitch who stole my boyfriend!” girl-I-was-nuts-about said. Same guy arguing with girl-I’d-never-seen-before. Girl-I’d-never-seen-before stands up, says “I’m done”, and storms off–not angrily, but calmly and confidently. Supremely poised, like she was storming out of a Henry James novel. I remember briefly thinking as she walked out the door, “that is the most regal creature I have ever seen in my life.”

Girl-I-was-nuts-about huffs in pleasure about their fight. I murmur some kind of agreement in the interest of solidarity. We have a pleasant coffee date and don’t go home together.

Three years later, I start managing that same coffeeshop. On my first day, girl-I’d-never-seen-before is formally introduced to me by mutual friends. It dawns on me after a moment that this was the girl from that night. This was the entire conversation:

ME: Hello. HER: Hey.

A year later, as she became a regular at the shop, we became actual friends and started hanging out. A year after that, we started dating. That was 20 years ago. She’s snoring quietly beside me as I type this.”

15. Thank you, volcano!

“It was April 2010, I was travelling in Barcelona for work when the Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted and grounded all aircraft flying to Europe. I was trapped. I did the sensible thing and went to the pub where I met 2 drunk Irish guys. Proceeded to get reasonably hammered until a girl walked in and sat beside me. She was stranded as well so we proceeded to get drunker together. Decided I should kiss her, I did, and now she is my wife. All thanks to Eyjafjallajökull.”

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15 People Tell the Most Evil Things They’ve Witnessed Children Do

Are people born bad or does their environment make them that way?

These stories form AskReddit users about some really bad kids make me believe that the former is true. What do you think?

1. Evil

“I saw my 5 y/o neighbour kill a puppy for fun and then he tried to blame it on my brother.

Luckily I witnessed the situation and cleared things up.”

2. Thief and a liar

“My cousin stole my mom’s necklace she got from her grandmother and tried to sell it to the same pawnshop my mom worked at.

When she was caught, she tried to pin the blame on me and after she has had her sights on me.

Best revenge I had was when we met again and she tried to fight me and I just carried her and locked her in the bathroom for 6 hours.”

3. Disturbed

“I work with emotionally disturbed kids. So you know… I see a lot of kids doing evil sh-t.

My worst one was when a kid grabbed a 3/4 full carton of milk at lunch and pissed in it to fill it up. He then, calm as anything, yelled for the principal to come out. As soon as he walked out of his office door the kid threw the milk/piss all over him. The principal was wearing a down jacket

It was my first week working in this sort of environment, so I hadn’t reached the point where I’d normalised it, and was so beyond horrified. Honestly, the calm, creepy manner he did it, and the joy he got, makes this situation stick out more than the kid who cut up a rat, or the kid who set a frog on fire.”

4. Creepy

“Interviewed an elementary student about what he wanted to be when he grows up. He said serial killer. Alarming, but I just responded that wouldn’t work out very well. “What about a job?” So he says he wants to be a police officer. And it’s an interview so I ask him why? Does he want to keep people safe? He told me he wants to use a gun. That’s all… I hope he doesn’t make it.”

5. Poor kitty

“My 7 year old cousin shoved her cat into a duffel bag and zipped it shut, kept it in there. Needless to say, my family found a better home for the cat.”

6. In denial

“My neighbors daughter (4? Maybe 5) stomped on her rabbit in the garden while chanting “This is for your own good” with each stomp.

I told my neighbor what I saw but “MY daughter would NEVER do that” and now we don’t even say good morning.”

7. Ouch!

“When I was in preschool, some kid (a little mental) snuck up behind me with safety scissors and snipped a hole in my cheek. That is the only clear memory I have of preschool — I was bleeding like crazy.”

8. The bad seed

“My younger brother is a psychopath. We are 13 years apart. When I was very pregnant with my second child he tried to drop kick me in the stomach and said he wanted to kill my baby. He was mad because I wouldn’t let him play a video game. Another time when he was around 6 or 7 he took a baseball bat and jumped on the neighbor’s car hood and started bashing it on the hood and roof making dents. The neighbor cane out horrified and when he yelled at my brother my mom came out and threatened to whoop the neighbor’s a–. My mom is part of the reason my brother is such a sh-t. He’s 17 now, and I’m sure he will end up in prison some day.”

9. Brutal

“I was the child. The day after my dad had his vasectomy, I kicked him in the crotch.

(I was only 4, but still!)”

10. Animal abuse

“I was once hosting a gazebo at a wildlife event. I was an intern for a conservation charity in the UK. A group of children came up to me and I showed them the froglets that were making their way back to a pond nearby. For some reason, these little demons started grabbing baby frogs and ripping their legs off. I was so horrified I couldn’t even say anything. I didn’t point out the survivors to any other kids.”

11. Little perv

“I watched a five year old boy cop a feel. The victim didn’t notice, but the kid made eye contact with me immediately before and after, so he knew I saw. I rattled him out to his father, who said, “I’ll teach him to buy them dinner first.” “

12. Psycho

“When I was younger, I had a younger cousin that ties my little sisters’ hair to the bike rim and then F-CKING PEDALS.

I got a metal pipe and full force swing it at his jaw.

I think he’s in prison now, don’t care.”

13. Attacked

“I was a child as well at the time, but in first grade during an after school activity for writing I sat next to a group of girls I’d never interacted with before. Well I remember reading a book and then feeling something splinter off in my arm. It hurt like hell at the time and I looked over and one of the girls had stabbed her pencil into my forearm. There was a bit of blood and some splinters and this girl was just glaring at me as she twisted the pencil in. I was frozen because what the f-ck.

I think she stabbed me in the same place like 3 or 4 more times before a teacher finally saw my upraised hand and came over. Not a f-cking word was said as the teacher removed the pencil and clotted the blood. My parents were never told and this girl wasn’t told anything either. No idea what became of her.”

14. Intimidation

“My niece was trying to pour herself some Sunny D and my sister said not to do that because it’s a new container and too heavy for her.

My niece said she can do it and my sister told her not to do it on the carpet where she was and to move to the kitchen so if she spills, it’s ok.

My niece looked at her and dumped the juice on the carpet.

Power move.”

15. A whole host of issues

“Late to the party and it is a throw away. My son is evil. He is 8 now, has problems disassociating reality with make believe, my ex wife enables him and belives everything he says. Within a week of starting school, he accused a teacher of touching him in his special place after school one day, was disproved once the CCTV in the class room was reviewed.

Regularly punches his younger brother in the face saying “die Joker”

He also told his teacher that I choked him when my ex wife wasn’t there. Social services were called, not allowed to be near my sons. Got kicked out of the home. Wife files for a protection order and because of it I was let go from work ( I require security clearance for my job). The social worker later found out that he was making it up, because my son calls me Homer now.”

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12+ People Reveal The Reason They Had to Break up with Their Best Friends

Breaking up with a best friend can be even tougher than breaking up with a significant other. They may have been in your life for quite some time, but for one reason or another, they’ve got to go.

Take a look at these stories from AskReddit folks who had to do the deed and ditch their besties.

1. Bad move

“We were completely inseparable through middle and high school and had always planned to stay together through college. She didn’t get into my choice schools, so (being an extremely dumb and anxious teenager) I foolishly agreed to attend a second-rate school with her instead… as not to be alone.

Shortly before the start of our freshman year of college she informed me she was no longer going to school with me and was instead moving to NYC to live with a guy she met on the internet. She’d known this for months but neglected to tell me until it was too late to do anything about it.”

2. Sick

“I got ill, regular doctors appointments and didn’t have the energy to do lots of activities. They just stopped talking to me and blanked me when they saw me.

Edit: Wow I didn’t expect so many people to have been in the same boat. I hope those of you who have been abandoned by friends through illness have managed to find better friends and make stronger relationships with others. Unfortunately my situation made me not very trusting and I don’t form any kind of relationship easy.

For those who asked, I did try to reach out to my friends both at that time and also in the future. Unfortunately at the time I was just blanked and ignored, if I saw them in the street or around college they’d just look straight through me. Acquaintances and ‘friends of friends’ also stopped taking to me and I got horrible glares and looks as if I’d been the one to do something. Naturally I was upset and hurt but because I was ill I just didn’t have the patience to care.

It turned out my best friend took a year off to work and then came to my University (so I was starting my second year and she was in her first year). I only found out when she graduated and her parents put her picture in the local newspaper.

A few years later my second best friend got a part time job for the firm I work for, albeit in a different department and office. I reached out and asked if she wanted to meet for a catch up and she was very enthusiastic about it. I said I was free whenever and asked for her availability- no reply. I waited a few days and thought maybe she wants me to make the plans so I suggested a time and place. No response. This was about 5 years ago.

Also to those who asked about what I would have wanted from them, the simple answer would be just to have things carry on as normal. Basic things- reply to texts, tag me in memes, usual sleepovers, study sessions. Only difference would be I couldn’t come to anything when I had doctors/hospital appointments.”

3. Addiction

“I tried to help her with her addiction to drugs and she cut me off. It’s been six years since I talked to her and I just found out she died. I have known her since I was sixteen and I am fifty four now. It was very hard to see how she changed from a sweet girl to a completely different person.”

4. Let me make you an offer

“It was a lot of things individually but on the whole it came down to selfishness. Wall of text incoming.

Moved in with one of my best friends at the time. We’d lived together in college and we were about a year or so out from graduation and had an opportunity for a real cheap apartment. Moved in with her and her boyfriend. Very quickly it became apparent that she was gonna be treating this place as her Barbie dreamhouse, complaining about anything I brought into the space as “going against her vision” and trying to get me to throw in on the expensive furniture she wanted to buy. You could never say anything negative around her or she’d start going on about how much “negative energy” you put out and was always very quick to remind everyone how many hours she worked and how no one worked as hard as her. Constantly complaining about everything, EVERYTHING. Going out of her way to start fights because it was her way or the highway. Just generally unpleasant. Don’t know how the boyfriend put up with it. I tried to just ignore it as best I could and play Good-Time Charlie.

Then she joined the MLM scam.

One of those health and wellness product lines. She was pushing that down EVERYONE’S throats. Hard sell, 24/7. You couldn’t escape it. Forced her boyfriend to sign up. Started taking over the living room as her “work space” i.e. “TV off, radio off, no talking because I have to listen to this conference call of people waxing poetic about the wonders of this scam company for the next two hours.” We’d asked her to do it in her room if she needed space but she said she didn’t want to feel excluded… even though she was excluding herself.

She had started to distance herself from me because I was skeptical about the whole thing. Kept trying to convince me. Started guilting me. Eventually made it clear that the only way to stay friends with her was to join the thing. Stupid me, I joined the thing. It was only to save what little friendship was left, which was stupid in hindsight. I lost a LOT of money.

So we’re nearing the end of the lease, and she’s talking like she wants to renew and all this stuff. Then like 3 weeks before the time comes, she decides she’s like bored with her boyfriend or something, and she just f*cks off. Like straight up dips and has no contact with either of us. Turns out she’s taking mental health days from work to do drugs and go cavorting around the city with one of her other friends who’s been putting her up because she didn’t want to be around us. She left her two cats with us to take care of. Her now ex was frequently away as well (with good reason though) so it fell to me. Shoveling cat shit was not something I wanted to add to my now frantic to-do list as I was trying to secure a new place to live all of a sudden.

So during all this, girl’s ex-boyfriend is a MUCH better friend than she is. Seriously, total bro. I mean the guy is going through this nasty-ass break up and yet he’s calling to check in on me because he know’s I’m freaked out about suddenly having to find a house. Good kid. So the two of us work it out and decide we’ll figure it out together. Meanwhile, suddenly girly-girl shows back up because she’s got to go back to work. She’s acting like a total martyr, no one can complain because “it’s hard for everyone, okay?” and this is all something that’s happening to her, not something she caused herself or whatever the hell her rationale was. She just needed to do something new with her life and we needed to be understanding. Which is fine and all, but doesn’t give her free reign to be a total b****.

Obviously, we weren’t too ready to be all friendly with her, but like she was already to hang out with us and ask for puffs off our joints and shit like that. Afterwards she asked me why I was so “standoffish” and I was just like “are you kidding me? Like you pull all this crap and complain about how this place is toxic for your and then show up and demand we try to make you feel welcome?” After that I think she got it and kind of withdrew. She went back to flopping around the city until the time came to divvy things up and go. She sent me a message asking to still be friends and I sent her a bullet-pointed list of all the reasons I couldn’t do that. I ran into her only once since then and it was awkward AF, but civil. I do have one old mutual friend who is bent on fixing our friendship but I think I’ve made it pretty clear now that it won’t be happening.

Her ex-boyfriend and I are still buddies though. We’re on like our third apartment together. Good times are had by all.”

5. Psyched myself out

“Ally and I were best friends and both in marching band, we went through a lot together and we tried to do everything we could together too lol. I got her and her bf together (they’re still together!) She came for support when I had surgery, and I quit band with her when our director accused her of being at fault when a teacher tried to be inappropriate with her. Lotsa stuff.

She’s 2 years older than me and when she graduated HS, I psyched myself out. Told myself she’d have cool new college friends and she wouldn’t need me or like me anymore. I stopped putting in effort in a “I’ll stop talking to her before she stops talking to me to avoid being hurt” kind of mindset. I regret it very much. By pulling away I made my fear come true. She did make new friends obvs but that didn’t necessarily mean I would be replaced, but since I wasn’t there anymore I was.

We reconnected recently and text every once in a while but it’s certainly not the same.”

6. Sounds like fun

“After several years just realized I always felt awful about myself after leaving his and his family’s presence. Our mutual friends had a saying “it’s not a trip to XXXX’s house until you get criticized.”

From the clothes you were wearing, to how dirty your car is, just a barrage of sh*t.

The final straw was when I was dating my now wife, we went to go hang out at his house, and he immediately pounces on my appearance (was wearing a hardhat all day do my hair looked a little funky), then handed me a bag of aluminum cans for me to recycle “and put towards my house fund” (was in deep saving mode). Fortunately my wife was a good sport, but realizing what the hell this guy was trying to accomplish… embarrassing me in front of someone I’m interested in for no reason at all? Walked out after that and never looked back. Cut out completely.”

7. Changes

“She changed completely our senior year of high school. We were the exact same person, loved the same things, got along like sisters. Then she started prepping for her freshman year of college at a southern school, and completely overhauled her life to look “perfect” for the sororities. She started partying, only hanging out with the “cool kids”, refusing to let me tag her in photos, and just became really focused on her appearance (not just physical, but how her whole life appeared to an outsider). It’s like she lived her life as an Instagram model. Everything had to look perfectly perfect. We just faded out and stopped talking because I didn’t fit her new life.

I still think about her a lot because we were so close and I’ve never had a friend remotely as close to me as her. It hurts a lot that she just changed and left me behind and didn’t seem to care.”

8. Talkin’ sh*t

“She couldn’t stop smack talking me to everyone. She had incredibly low self-esteem and when I met her, so did I. But each step I took towards being more confident in herself, she saw as a threat.

I started working out and losing weight? She told everyone that I was trying to look better than her; eventually that turned into “she stopped going to the gym and just did coke to stay thin”. Nope, never done hard drugs in my life and I was attending double sessions at the gym.

I started seeing this guy who was really sweet and nice to me; she said I was just seeing him to show her what a jerk her boyfriend was.

I was getting a dog after moving out of the apartment; she said I was doing it to taunt her since her new place didn’t allow dogs and mine did (I specifically looked for dog-friendly places).

I’d hang out with different groups of people because my anti-depressants had kicked in and I wanted to be social again; she said I was going out to make her feel bad for not having friends. Except that I’d invite her to come. But she told me she didn’t like those people (whom she’d only met once and was rude the entire time).

I changed my major to business while she was in writing because I found business to be ridiculously easy; she said I did it because I wanted to make her feel poor after graduation.

My parents rented a place at the beach and I invited her along and told her that they’d cover expenses because my parents remembered being poor college students and wanted us to have good meals and fun; she went but later said I invited her along because I wanted to show off my family’s wealth. We went off-season to a cheap place within driving distance.

It got to the point where I couldn’t say any longer that the people telling me these things were lying. It seemed like almost every day I was telling someone they must have misunderstood her, that she wouldn’t say that. But nope. She reveled in being a frenemy and I thought I had a friend. I distanced myself and she went nuclear. I had friends send me screenshots of the insane messages she was sending them about me, completely unprovoked. We haven’t been on speaking terms in almost a decade.”

9. Low points

“We were there through our lowest points in life. I watched her body and life fall apart when she developed an unknown chronic illness in high school. She watched me fall apart when my “friends” and long term boyfriend abandoned me when my mother was dying. She saw me before I was broken and she saw me at my worst. I was there when her dog died. She was my family. Even now if she needed me I would ignore all the problems and go be there for her.

I know her chronic illness causes her to be very depressed. But after so many years of being the only one putting effort into the friendship I had to call it quits. I had suffered an attack from a family member, and had to leave my home. I was homeless for my birthday and her family let me stay on their couch – but she left me alone on my birthday during such a difficult time. She left to be with one of her friends from online – and they went and did all the stuff I always invited her to do but got told no. Going to theme parks, the beach – you name it. And she never did mention my birthday after it passed. That was the final sign I needed that she just didn’t want to be my friend anymore. I’ve cried a lot over that girl.”

10. All about her

“I was best friends with someone for 12 years and we did everything together. Well, everything that she wanted. It was always about her and her schedule, never compromising for me. I went to every event she had, even her parents anniversary dinner.

One year my mother had just passed away and I was home alone. I asked her to come over and she said she was going to a friends house to party because she broke up with her boyfriend. We havent spoken to each other in probably 2 years and I’ve never been happier.”

11. Aggressive

“They showed up on my doorstep red-faced in anger and picked a fight with me (out of nowhere). I was completely dumbfounded and confused but had to defend myself – so I broke their nose. That pretty much ended the fight. I immediately helped them stop the bleeding and get in a taxi. I tried reaching out that day but they ignored all my calls.

Some months later I wrote them a letter asking what had happened. We were such good friends right up until that moment. Turns out a mutual friend had told them I stole something from them (I didn’t). There was some stuff going on in their personal life involving death in the family. They admitted they had had what amounted to a psychological meltdown and taken it out on me.

I forgave them and we grabbed a beer together, but it was never the same.”

12. Paranoid

“We were best friends for 10 years, both 19 M.

One day we decided to smoke some weed, it wasn’t anything out of the usual for us. After about 30 minutes he started getting very paranoid. I don’t mean worried about getting caught (we live in an illegal state & we were smoking in a local park), I mean paranoid that people were out to get him.

It got worse as time went by, every single person who arrived or left the park was a suspect in his eyes. Eventually he then felt as if I was “setting him up”. I kept trying to comfort him but nothing was working. In fact, it escalated things and made it worse.

I finally convinced him to change locations so we got in my car and drove for about an hour until he felt comfortable enough to park somewhere. During that drive I was trying to tell him I’m not setting him up and I’ve no idea where or how he got this idea. He kept denying it and saying I wasn’t telling the truth and he was completely on edge.

We stopped at a fast food restaurant and I got him some food. He didn’t eat it because he felt as if I had done something to it, then he asked that I eat some of it first. I did. He still was not convinced and by this time it had been roughly 2-3 hours since we smoked so he should be sobering up if not coming down.

I dropped him off at his house and ever since then he has never been the same, I’ve only seen him two times after that occasion and it’s been many, many months since we’ve last been in contact. My parents ask about him all the time and I always make up excuses as to why we haven’t been hanging out. We were inseparable

I honestly don’t know what happened, before this we would smoke together left and right. My best guess is some sort of psychosis that came about faster by him smoking weed. We were supposed to enlist together and now I’m leaving alone in December.”

13. Odd person out

“It was a culmination of differing interests and lack of initiation from both of us that led to our falling out. I noticed that the gaps in communication got longer and longer and I didn’t care enough to change it. Everytime we hung out I felt more and more like the odd one who didn’t belong. I don’t think that was his intention but that’s how I felt. Looking back, the only thing we had in common was that we were both held up in the same building for 4 years and nothing more.”

14. Downward spiral

“Alcoholism, drugs, robbed his family blind, tried robbing me and even though he had 800 bucks of my cash stuffed down his pants along with two gold chains sticking out of his pocket and a gold and diamond ring he still denied it.

Took my stuff back, took him back to his house so his parents could deal with him. They tried shipping him off to the army but he failed the drug test, wound up moving to another state and becoming an alcoholic bartender.

We’re the same age, when I see pictures of him now I can’t even recognize him, he looks easily 20+ years older than I do.”

15. Two birds with one stone

“Two of them at the same time actually. Have known them both since early gradeschool. They came to my place and then I drove us downtown. We were bar hopping but ended up at a show. None of us were messed up yet so I asked “hey can one of you guys drive? I wanna take this Molly. But I’m not going to if y’all can’t drive.” My buddy grabs my keys and assured me he’ll be good to drive. So I dove in.

Well, I had a bad reaction and got sick. So we left. Once we hit my car, I laid down and blacked out. Next thing I know, one of my other friends who went to the show was knocking on my window.

Turns out, they got too drunk, ubered back to my place, and got their cars. Instead of taking me home, they left me blacked out in the back of my car in the middle of downtown. They literally took an Uber to my home. And they didn’t take me.

I have not spoken to either since and will more than likely never do so again. These are supposed to be my ride or die bro’s. If they wanted to keep drinking, they shouldn’t have taken my keys. And once that mistake was made, they could’ve fucking got me home safely. But instead they left me alone and unconscious in the back of my car. I could’ve been robbed, my car could’ve been stolen, I could’ve been arrested, etc.”

The post 12+ People Reveal The Reason They Had to Break up with Their Best Friends appeared first on UberFacts.

Over 20 Men Arrested After Attempting to Lure Kids Using Fortnite

Games are supposed to be a force of good that brings us together. Online games like Minecraft and Fortnite let gamers of all ages connect with each other and play together online. Unfortunately, predators have now taken advantage of the online video gaming world to attempt to lure kids and teenagers to meet them for sex.

In New Jersey in September 2018, 24 adults were arrested for trying to meet underage children for sex, having used games like Minecraft and Fortnite to establish communication. After the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force set up fake profiles for 14 and 15-year-old kids on games and apps, law enforcement officers posing as the kids were approaching by adults who thought they were talking to minors online. Here is a video of New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal announcing the arrests.

Those arrested would strike up conversations with the “minors” and chat with them for up to a week before trying to initiate a meeting in the real world. One of those arrested is actually a police officer, 47-year-old Richard Conte of the Howell Township Police Department. Conte believed he was talking to a 15-year-old girl. He has since been suspended from the force.

The sting took place over a week in Toms River, New Jersey. Men believed they were going to a house to meet an underage minor and instead were arrested when they arrived. The police called the sting “Operation Open House.”

Photo Credit: Facebook,New Jersey OAG

The men who were arrested came from all walks of life, including the aforementioned police officer, a firefighter, a nurse, a physical therapist, and a hotel manager.

District Attorney Grewal said, “It’s critical that parents talk to their children about social media and chat apps to let them know that the people they encounter may not be who they initially seemed to be.”

Photo Credit: Facebook,New Jersey OAG

Hopefully, this will be a wake-up call for parents to keep an eye on their children’s gaming and social media habits, because we all know how easy it is for people to present themselves as someone else online.

If the men are convicted, they face a minimum of 5-10 years in prison and a fine of up to $150,000.

The post Over 20 Men Arrested After Attempting to Lure Kids Using Fortnite appeared first on UberFacts.

This Hand Swap Optical Illusion Has Taken the Whole Internet by Storm

It all started with a simple Tweet. Isn’t that how everything on the internet gets started these days?


As of this writing, the video has been viewed over 3 million times and retweeted over 30,000 times. So what gives? Is she a magic priestess practicing some kind of witchcraft? People on Twitter seemed to think so…

Photo Credit: Twitter

Photo Credit: Twitter

Photo Credit: Twitter

Photo Credit: Twitter

Photo Credit: Twitter

But some of them were able to recreate the trick as well.

Photo Credit: Twitter

This guy even did it in slow motion.

While others…not so much.

Photo Credit: Twitter

What do you think? Sorcery or just a little trickery with the old hands and digits?

The post This Hand Swap Optical Illusion Has Taken the Whole Internet by Storm appeared first on UberFacts.