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10+ People Reveal Dark Secrets They Want To Confess Before They Die

Whether it was a little white lie you told when you were young or a life-altering event you swore never to speak of again, we all have our secrets. And it almost always feels better to get these things off our chests…even if it’s just in an anonymous forum.

That’s why these Reddit users took the opportunity to reveal some of the deepest secrets they want to get off their chests before they die. Perhaps in reading through these you will find a secret similar to one of your own that will help you realize you are not alone.

1. Almost Never Existed

“I know a guy who was going to break up with his girlfriend one night after a date. He was dropping her off at home and they walked in to find her dad dead on the floor. He didn’t break it off. Thirty-five years later, they are still married.

That’s the story of how I almost never existed.”

2. In The Wolf’s Den

“I’m a total fraud. I did not have a proper education. I did not go to college. After years of working in customer service and two failed start-up businesses, I faked my resume, glorified everything I did and was hired as a manager.

I have a lot to learn, but I do what I can to survive the wolf’s den.

So far, everything is going pretty well. Two things I have learned is that ‘confidence’ can make a big difference and that there is a gaping hole in the system of companies doing background investigation.”

3. One Last Look

“When I was 15, I was lying in bed one morning and I heard my dad coming up the stairs. Being a typical teenager, a conversation with my dad first thing in the morning was not something I could be arsed with so I pretended to be asleep.

I heard my dad come in my room and he stood at the end of my bed in silence. I waited. He continued to stand at the end of my bed in silence. This went on for an oddly long time. After five or six minutes, he left.

Thank God he’s gone, I thought. What’s he doing staring at me? Weirdo.

My dad walked downstairs out of the house and drove off. They found his body three days later. Those five or six minutes in my bedroom was him taking a last look at his son before he killed himself and all I could do was lie there thinking, Back off, weirdo.

He left no note so we can never be sure why he did it, but he had been off work with a bad back, my parents were struggling to keep up with the bills and he was about to have his wages halved because he had been off work for so long.

It was probably this that sent him over the edge. When he died his employer paid off our mortgage and my mum got some life insurance money giving us the financial security he was struggling to provide. I like to think that he gave his life to give us this. I just wish he knew we’d rather live in a tent with him by our side than in a house without him there.”

4. Filled With Rage

“My dad used to go to a bar near our house every night about an hour after he put us to bed. It was not until I was around 12 or 13 when I realized where he was going. I was fine with it. We lived in a good neighborhood, he would lock the doors, and I knew where his .44 was, just in case. Not that at the age of 12 I would have had half the balls it would take to actually pull the trigger on someone.

However, one night, my dad was gone a while and came home COMPLETELY sloshed and parked sideways in the driveway.

He stumbled in and noisily went to his room, which was across from mine. I was awake for all of this because I had a lot of stress with puberty and girls so I did not sleep too well regularly. I heard my dad take a leak, stumble around, and then leave his room. Then, I heard my sister’s door open. She was 13 or 14 at the time. I thought it was her seeing what all the noise was. But sadly no. It was my dad.

He went into my sister’s room at 2 am and attempted to assault her.

This was the first and only time this had happened. My father had never been violent or inappropriate toward us in any way. But, the moment I heard my sister wake up and ask him what he was doing, I was up, put pants on, and stood in the doorway. I became so filled with rage that someone who I was supposed to love and look up to could ever do something like this.

I, a kid who was pretty well sized for my age, pushed my dad up against the wall and started shouting at him. He clumsily threw me aside. Then, I picked up a lamp from my sister’s nightstand and beat my dad’s head, face, and stomach with it.

He has a pretty big scar on the top of his head – a semi-circle about as big around as a soda can. To this day, he thinks he got in a bar fight and got kicked out of his favorite pub.

I told him that the next day.”

5. Toxic

“I met a guy online just after I had turned 18. I was extremely naive and far too trusting. He said all the right things and I thought I was in love. We Skyped and I trusted him completely. I trusted him to the point at which if he wanted nudes, I would send nudes. If he wanted a strip while Skyping, I would strip.

He could be the sweetest, most loving person I had ever known if I did everything right. If I did something wrong, I was a ‘a worthless, ugly human being who would never find happiness with anyone because I was pathetic.’

I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was a toxic relationship. I was so dependent on his approval that I didn’t notice how it was affecting me.

I got sick. I became anorexic because I couldn’t keep food down. I’m naturally skinny and have always been teased about being anorexic but this time it was no joke. I was so scared and didn’t realize he was the reason this was happening until about a month later.

So, I left him. I said I couldn’t do it anymore, said goodbye, and walked away.

Best. Decision. Ever. My parents didn’t find out about this until about six months later when I broke down crying because he was messaging me on Facebook calling we a worthless floozy, among other things.

A year and a half after this happened, my Facebook started getting a bunch of random messages from guys I had never seen before.

He had uploaded every single photo I had sent him to multiple websites. He had included very personal information in the description boxes – my full name, age, which city I lived in etc. I went to the cops and got told ‘Well you shouldn’t have done that.’ I fell into a massive spiral of self-blame and self-hate.

The cop, who basically said it was my fault, made me feel worthless. The strangers I had never met who were commenting on my body made me feel worthless. I stopped attending my university classes. I failed half my papers and I never told a soul why I went from A- to C’s.

My parents don’t know he uploaded them all.

They just know he has them. I will never tell them this and I’ve mostly managed to get them all off the internet. But I’m not stupid, I know they can easily be uploaded again. My boyfriend knows they’re on there because we were dating when they were uploaded. I broke down and told him why there was such a sudden change in my mood.

He cried. I had never felt so much anger for someone before. To see him crying broke my heart more and made me sadder and angrier than the photos themselves being uploaded.

If I ever get to meet that guy in person, I will freaking kill him. I have so much rage, so much self-blame and hate and it stemmed from insecurities (high school bullying) that he preyed on.

He played me for the fool I was and destroyed me emotionally, mentally, and physically. I’m not the same person I was. I’m meaner, I’m more emotionless and I can’t seem to change it. I’ve never fully recovered. I take anti-nausea pills two and a half years later because some days I can’t take it. I have a smaller appetite and food was one of my biggest loves.

I can’t stand strangers looking at me in the street because I immediately assume they’ve seen me naked. I hate my body because it’s a constant reminder of my mistakes.

Two and a half years later and I’m still a freaking mess and I hate him deeply for that. I hate him with a passion I never knew I had.

When I need motivation, I use that hatred. I use it to make me do better at university – now studying law. I used it just to get out of bed every day and let him know he didn’t win. I didn’t kill myself. I survived my own nightmare and I’m getting better every day.

I won.”

6. On The Run

“A very well-known and well-liked guy pulled into my yard at 4 a.m. Then, he backed his truck up behind some trees so it could not be seen from the road.

‘You have to help me,’ he said, after we asked what was going on. ‘I killed a guy and the cops are looking for me.’

Apparently, he was in a bathroom at a truck stop and a really big guy kicked in the stall door and said, ‘You are gonna suck me off.’ My friend hit him in the face with the ceramic toilet tank lid. Blood went everywhere. Assuming he had killed him, he drove off.

We talked him into turning himself in. When the cops arrived, they said that the guy had assaulted several people in this fashion, until my friend knocked him out, but didn’t kill him.

Now, they finally caught the guy. He swore me to secrecy since he wants to run for office.”

7. The Vaseline Experiment

“I was in the 11th grade and was having stomach issues that persisted for weeks. Luckily, I had never poo’d myself at that point, but I was very gassy. I mean it was awful. The worst farts ever. Greasy farts that smelled like rotting trash would blow out of me a couple times per hour, clearing out the entire classroom at one point.

No one ever figured out who it was, so I had to take action before I embarrassed myself into a new high school.

I come across the idea after seeing my grandpa use Vaseline to temporarily stop water from leaking in the garage so figured I could try it out and see how it worked on my bum.

I grabbed a handful of Vaseline and stuffed my rear with it, creating an airtight seal.

The first day went well. No farts, no smells and by lunch, I had forgotten I even had a glob of Vaseline up my butt.

It was a major relief for my classmates and I. I would pull the Vaseline out, take my daily dump and hop in the shower cleaning myself real good. This went on for a while, even after my stomach was feeling better.

I didn’t want to risk it and have the nasty farts come back. So, I kept my routine for the time being.

I got home from school one day and, without having a chance to poop and clean myself up, I had to go to one of my mom’s work events.

There was food and games so I didn’t care. We were there very late and I remember falling asleep on the way home. I don’t remember anything else until I woke up to my mom yelling that I was going to be late for school.

I hopped out of bed with cramps and my stomach was looking bloated with 24 hours of farts just begging to be released.

I went to school, not having any time to take care of myself and feeling awful, but I survived until third period. Toward the end of third period, I decided to skip lunch and try to empty my insides of farts, Vaseline, and poop.

Unfortunately, my body could not handle it anymore. My stomach was hurting and I felt a release coming at any moment.

The bell rang for lunch, but I could not make it to the bathroom without crapping myself.

I moved very slowly, gathering my things at a snails pace. Once everyone left the room, I shut the door about half way, pulled down my pants, and blew an explosion of greasy Vaseline and crap onto the wall behind the door.

The sight was awful. The smell was even worse. I rushed to the bathroom to clean myself up real fast and make it to lunch without anyone noticing.

The next day, they had the room taped off. People were asking questions, but the administration said nothing to the students.

I assumed no one suspected me because I was not questioned and no one acted weird around me. The room was reopened the next week with a new paint color and tile replacing the carpet. I never used Vaseline again and I never spoke a word to anyone.

Twenty-five years later, I still think about it on occasion. A few years after the incident, I found out I was lactose intolerant. I cut out dairy and I have not had issues since.”

8. Damaged

“My mother and I have a very damaged relationship. We don’t really talk at all. I know that she doesn’t like me and that she is waiting for me to finish school and move out. I am her youngest child and the only one who seems to be successful in school and building up a life.

My brother is 22 and dropped out of school.

He smokes green all the time and pretty much does nothing. My sister is 20 and dropped out of school because of her boyfriend and religion. I am sure that my mother would prefer them to be more successful than I because I know that I am her least favorite son, but that is just the way it is.

She does not feel like a person I can rely on. If she was not my mother, we would probably just hate each other. Our personalities and interests do not match.

I have no father either. He died when I was 10.

When my mother and I start arguing, sometimes it gets really loud and emotional. If it gets really bad, my mother reminds me of that one day. September 2, 2011, and that she has been scared of me ever since.

Before that day, my mother would physically abuse us when we didn’t obey.

It was her way of raising us up. It was annoying. Home felt like a prison with way too many restrictions quite often, especially when I saw how my friends didn’t have to cope with those things. As I’ve started growing bigger, I have had enough.

One day, my 13-year-old self was sitting at home and watching TV.

My mother told me to take out the dog. I asked her to wait 15 minutes so that I could finish the match and she slapped me in the face. In our house, this was absolutely normal and expected. Usually, I would apologize and take the dog out immediately, but this day was not usual.

On this day, I hit back. Imagine a 13 year old hitting his mother. I had planned it. I wanted to show her that she could not do this to her kids and wanted her to show how I had felt every time she hit me.

I did not realize what this would mean to her and to me later. My mom was completely shocked and hit me a lot that evening. Really, a lot. My cheeks glowed and I was too afraid to sleep in my own bed that night.

The abuse would continue until I was around 15 when my mother stopped and changed.

I don’t know if it was because she wanted to treat us better, or because she was scared of me. It was probably something in between.

But, these days, she shows a very caring side, and tries to treat me good. I appreciate it and love her for all the sacrifices she has made for her kids. But, I cannot have a normal conversation with her.

I want to avoid her in every way possible and only seek conversation if necessary. Sometimes, I try to push myself and talk to her but it’s hard. It’s very hard. I don’t know if this relationship is ever going to be fixed but I pray that I will have a better one with my kids.”

9. Buried In The Backyard

“When I was in 5th or 6th grade, I was best friends with a girl whose high school aged brother was in a local gang. One night, her brother threw a party. One of his friends ended up violating my friend.

I wasn’t there, but she told me all about it the next day. He came into her room completely wasted and they did the deed. Weeks later, my friend and I were at her house and she admitted to me that she thought she might be pregnant.

I did not really know what to tell her.

Being so young, I didn’t even know where to begin. A week or two more passed and she called me crying, saying that she needed me to come over and help her.

My mom dropped me off. I headed up to her room only to find her curled up in the fetal position in her bed, crying.

After she calmed down, she told me that she forced herself to have a miscarriage by punching herself in the stomach repeatedly. She had the fetus in a mouth rinsing size dixi cup. It was super small and did not really even look like a full baby yet.

My stomach was churning at this point.

She said that she wanted help burying it in the backyard. We headed outside, dug a hole by the fence, and buried the baby. She swore me to secrecy after that. Our relationship soon fell apart and we fell out of touch.

This was probably, at least, 20 years ago.”

10. An Uncomfortable Honor

“Two of my good friends, one guy and one girl, were both repeatedly assaulted as children by the pastors of their churches. Same state, different churches. The girl’s pastor was her father. No one else knows.

A former co-worker I had known for about half an hour told me about an inoperable tumor on her spine that keeps her in constant pain so she’s always doped up on pain meds.

It also causes incontinence, so she wets the bed almost every night.

I was born with one of those faces that says, ‘Please, tell me something incredibly personal I have no idea how to appropriately respond to.’

It’s an uncomfortable honor.”

11. Still Denies It

“I met this guy at a party on New Year’s, and I thought he was really attractive. Well, lucky me got a midnight kiss from him, and then I went home since I was only 15. A few days later I got a friend request from him and I was overjoyed.

He asked if I wanted to go to a party with him and, of course, I said yes.

For a few months, we partied almost every weekend. I turned 16, he turned 19, and everything was great. Then, one night after we went out, he asked if I wanted to stay the night with him and a friend.

I did. That night, I wasn’t me.

Normally, I have morals. I’m a nice girl. But, with the combination of drinking and hanging out with a guy I wanted to be with, I was willing to do anything. He asked me if we could have a threesome and I was really hesitant.

They just kept asking and asking so I said, ‘Fine.’ He started touching me as the friend watched and it wasn’t so bad. But, then, his friend unbuttoned his pants and got on top of me. Once that was over with, the guy I liked decided he didn’t want seconds and that was it.

I asked him if I could leave so he just said yeah. I walked myself to the car and went home.

After that, the only times I would really talk to him was when I bought weed. One night, I went to a party and I saw him there.

We only said hi and he asked for my pipe, so I let him use it. The next day I asked if I could go by and pick it up and he said yeah. I went to his house and we started talking. I ended up telling him how much I liked him.

I was just telling him everything about myself.

We ended up hooking up, but after that was when I really got betrayed. Afterward, he told me that he didn’t want a relationship but we could be friends with benefits.

Nope. I just said ‘Bye,’ and left.

I didn’t talk to him until a month later when I told him I was pregnant. He denied it was his, but we had a paternity test after my son was born and he is. He has never seen him, even when we did the paternity test.

They were in the same room, but he didn’t attempt to even look in the car seat. I know he didn’t tell his family, and I’m sure he still denies it if anyone asks. We don’t talk. He blocked me on Facebook and changed his number.

My son is turning 1 soon, and he has never met his dad. He probably never will. I feel sad for my son, but seeing how he reacted, I’m glad that kind of guy isn’t in my son’s life.

The secret part: when I was around 20 weeks pregnant, he asked me if I could keep quiet about it because he didn’t want his girlfriend of two years finding out.

As far as I know, they’re still together and she has no idea.”

12. Paranoia

“I’m 33 years old and dealing with some mental health stuff right now and all that fun business. So, who knows? This could just be paranoia, but I have this sneaking suspicion my dad is a child predator.

It is just little works here and there, such as the shows he watches.

He watches a lot of kid shows, anything that involves children dancing in skimpy clothing. Sometimes I catch him standing in front of the TV with his hands in his pants.

He hasn’t done anything, that I know of, but it just makes me highly uncomfortable at times.

I think back to things when I was younger. I would take baths with him. A lot. I never thought anything ill of it. He also helped my grandmother with Sunday school a lot. He loves younger women. He is about 67 right now.

I mean, I have zero proof, besides, maybe the bathtub stuff well over two and a half decades ago.

It just irks me. Even now, when I am far too old for him to be… yeah. Sometimes, he just makes me very uncomfortable.

But, hey, mental health issues. It could just be paranoia.”

The post 10+ People Reveal Dark Secrets They Want To Confess Before They Die appeared first on UberFacts.

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Writer Posts Ignorant Tweet About Depression, Gets Hit With a Dose of Reality

Mental health is still not treated with the same level of importance as other ailments in this country. Of course, those of us who suffer from mental health disorders understand how serious they can be and show empathy towards others with similar conditions. After all, over 40 million adults suffer from depression in the U.S. each year. But to an outsider looking in, depression might be easy to mislabel as plain old sadness.

Just look at best-selling author Reno Omokri. He has practiced law, hosted his own television show, and travels the world preaching the gospel. Still, he doesn’t quite understand what it means to be depressed, which he demonstrated in a recent tweet.

Photo Credit: Twitter: @renoomokri

This led to a deluge of replies from Twitter users who struggle with depression and want to make sure they set the record straight.

Photo Credit: Twitter: @jj_chidozie

Photo Credit: Twitter: @spookperson

Photo Credit: Twitter: @imteddybless

Photo Credit: Twitter: @CaraidArt

Photo Credit: Twitter: @Music_Man_Mike

Photo Credit: Twitter: @hanactive

Photo Credit: Twitter: @KylePlantEmoji

Photo Credit: Twitter: @Chibusomaa

We’re sure Omokri had good intentions when he posted the tweet. Perhaps he was attempting to address people who complain about things without realizing that they have it better than most of the world. If that’s who he was talking about, fine…but that is not depression.

As long as people think depression is something that makes people sad and complain, and not a debilitating mental health issue, then we won’t see any major changes in how people are treated and cared for. So, the next time you hear someone miscategorize depression, make an effort to talk to them and help them understand that it’s not an attitude issue, but a serious health issue.

The post Writer Posts Ignorant Tweet About Depression, Gets Hit With a Dose of Reality appeared first on UberFacts.

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The U.S. Navy Teaches You How to Fall Asleep in 2 Minutes or Less

There are many complicated factors that contribute to Sleep deprivation. Things like excessive stress, poor diets, emotional or mental health issues are just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, statistics show that up to 70 million people in the United States suffer from sleeping disorders.

But there exists a technique that’s said to help you fall asleep fast, one that was originally developed by army chiefs concerned about their soldiers’ performances; exhaustion and sleep deprivation can lead to mistakes, and those can be deadly when dealing with soldiers on a battlefield. You can read about it in a book called Relax and Win: Championship Performance, that was published back in 1981.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

The method, detailed below, has been proven to be successful 96% of the time after 6 weeks of implementing it. You should ideally spend 1.5 minutes on each step, and then it should take you only 120 more seconds to fall asleep!

Supposedly.

Step 1

While laying down, relax your facial muscles, including your tongue, jaw, and the muscles around your eyes.

Step 2

Drop your shoulders as low as you can manage, then relax your upper, then lower, arms on one side and then the other.

Step 3

Breathe out slowly and relax your chest, then your legs from your thighs to your calves and down your lower legs.

Step 4

Completely clear your mind.

This step is gonna be hard – it’s not easy to empty out your mind if you’ve never tried before. But it gets much easier with practice.

Lloyd Bud Winter, the author of the book mentioned above, suggests envisioning one of the following three images: 1. lying in a canoe on a calm lake with nothing but a clear blue sky above you, 2. being snuggled up in a black velvet hammock in a pitch-black room, or 3. saying ‘don’t think, don’t think, don’t think’ over and over again.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

With a little practice, this method is supposed to drastically reduce problems falling asleep. And since not getting enough sleep is linked with issues like a weakened immune system, memory trouble, high blood pressure, weight gain, and others, giving it a try is worth a shot!

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15 People Dish on the Worst Teacher They Ever Had

Students remember their teachers. Whether they were the good ones who encouraged us and pushed us to be the best we could be, or the bad ones who made class something we dreaded. These 15 people have, uh, different sorts of memories when it comes to school, and their experiences will likely make you appreciate the excellent educators in your life even more.

#15. Her ridiculous rule.

“My 1st grade teacher was a miserable woman. Her classroom used to be an administrative office or something, so it had a restroom inside of it, but she would punish any kid who had to use it when it wasn’t “bathroom break time” by keeping you in over a recess.

Needless to say, there were several kids (including me) who had accidents because we were afraid to ask to use the bathroom unless it was a scheduled break. If I remember correctly several parents got the truth out of their kids as to why they were peeing themselves and they went to the principal and forced her to change her ridiculous rule.”

#14. A year or two from retirement.

“8th grade Social Studies teacher. She was probably a year or two from retirement and was either going senile or had just stopped giving a shit.

She sent me to the principals office for “disrespect” when I corrected her after she said that Argentina was a country in eastern Europe. Apparently telling her that half my family was from there and having lived there for 6 years I was 100% sure it was in South America was disrespectful.

She took marks off a report I wrote for “racism” because I wrote that Mandela was one of the most influential black leaders in modern history. On the side she wrote that the correct term was “African American”. I got given detention for arguing that Mandela was in no way American.

First essay of the year she gave me a 0 because I wrote using British English (colour, socialise, etc). My mum’s Scottish and an English Lit teacher so she’d taught me grammar that way from an early age. That one I actually complained about to another teacher and he was able to help me get the grade corrected. I wrote in British grammar for the rest of the year just to annoy her.”

#13. Flatly refused.

“I transferred from a UK to a US college, and was struggling in a journalism course as the practices are wildly different in the 2 countries.

As a result, I was struggling to keep up and after exhausting all other avenues, I decided to speak to the teacher (who was generally a very ‘unapproachable’ person, otherwise I’d obviously see him first)

After yet another video/auto presentation lesson I asked him if I could have some extra time, other reading sources or attention for an upcoming midterm. To which he replied “You should have known this before you got here”, giving me no help at all and flatly refused after I repeated my question (at first, I thought he may have misheard me).

Made a complaint to the school, where nothing was done, while I scraped by that lesson by the skin of my teeth.

I did hear that he was fired about 6 months later, after I’d followed up on my complaint (I was already back home by this point).

Apparently I was not the only one to take formal steps against his complete apathy towards his job.”

#12. She still teaches to this day.

“I don’t know if she was the worst, but I had a prof in university that I just loathed. She always taught as if everything she said was fact, and when I asked questions about things that didn’t make sense she’d get frustrated with me for not understanding her fucked up way of explaining things.

She gave ridiculously hard tests that were so terribly designed that you’d have to analyze each question for 5 minutes to get what she was trying to say, then you’d still get it wrong.

All assignment rubrics were purposefully vague (even when you’d ask for clarification) so she could take marks off for anything and try to justify it. She once took like 15% off a paper because it wasn’t formatted correctly (12 point times new roman) because I had used ariel font, even though she hadn’t laid out what formatting she wanted in the assignment, and didn’t mention it when I asked her what format she wanted.

I was a straight A student and barely passed that class, and had to explain the situation to the head of my department so that they knew it wasn’t my fault and I wouldn’t have to re-take it. As far as I know she never got in trouble, and she still teaches to this day.”

#11. I think he wins.

“I had a science teacher in high school get arrested in the middle of teaching a class for molesting his daughter. I think he wins the “shitty teacher award”.”

#10. He was ostracized.

“My sister died two days before a final. He refused to re-schedule my test. The other professors who did called him out on it and he was ostracized for being a dickhead.

He left a year later.”

#9. Completely lost his cool.

“Film professor in college. We had to produce a garbage mini series that was a blatant rip off of Heroes. Everyone got an opportunity to direct and edit their episode, and everyone knew how bad the script was. My peer had a scene with a ghost like entity talking to the actors…. he puts in the Pokémon Gastly (as a joke). Everyone laughs a bit, and I’m trying to contain myself. The professor sees this as a blatant sign of disrespect and decides to make me the example. Not only was he screaming in my face, but punching and kicking my desk. Just completely lost his cool.”

#8. They aren’t gonna be anything.

“In my opinion any teacher that tells a student that they aren’t gonna be anything is automatically the worst teacher you could have. I’ve had several of those.”

#7. A (literally) huge a**hole.

“High school physics teacher. This man was 60 years old and at least 400 pounds, so he physically could not stand up to “teach” or whatever so he would just sit on his chair and lecture. Not about physics, but about how lazy and stupid this generation is and how we all just wanted “handouts” and to be “spoonfed”. He would embarrass people who didn’t do good on a test in front of the whole class and try to make them feel stupid. With labs, he would literally just bring us to the lab room and tell us to “figure out” what to do with all the equipment. He would grade lab reports unnecessarily strict. By that I mean he would literally skim through the lab report and just grade us based on how long our responses are and how “good” our graphs/tables were (whatever that means). I don’t think anybody in the class ever got over an 85 on a lab report and this was an honors physics class with students who will do anything for a good grade, so that says something. He would always brag about how “I’ve been studying this subject for 40 years” yet never share his knowledge about it with us. I self-taught myself physics and got an 87 in his class (which isn’t bad considering it was the first time I self-taught myself a whole subject) which he ended up rounding down to an 85. I’ve had my fair share of shitty teachers but he takes the cake. Just a (literally) huge asshole.”

#6. Probably because I cried a lot.

“My 5th grade math+science teacher didn’t like me. I’m not sure why exactly but it was probably because I cried a lot. I’m still a complete package of anxiety but as a kid I couldn’t hide it so I’d get embarrassed or anxious and I’d just cry.

She made me move up to sit at the front of the room, facing the rest of the class. So not only was I having to sit with everyone staring at me but I also couldn’t see the whiteboard.

She’d call on me for almost every question which just made everything worse if I didn’t know the answer.

She had a parent/teacher conference with my mom and the 2 other 5th grade teachers (it was split by subject and we just rotated throughout the day). She wanted to move me to remedial studies because I wasn’t doing well in her class. Thankfully the other two teachers plus my mom stood up for me so I was kept with the general population.

She gave us an assignment in which we were given an adult profession and had to calculate our yearly expenses and such. It was a big, month long project we would be working on every day. She allowed some kids to pick which profession they would work on and some kids she did not. I did not, and she announced very proudly that I (sitting in the front) would be a special education teacher. Nothing wrong with that…unless you’re a bunch of 5th graders and unless it was an obvious jab at me from her.

​

Not a slight against me, necessarily, but I remember the students she liked were the “cool kids” and they’d bring her gifts all the time. She always made sure to show them off every class.”

#5. She didn’t see the need.

“My mom spent a bunch of her own money just so my 2nd grade classroom could have books. Our teacher didn’t see the need and took them to Goodwill.”

#4. She still didn’t believe me.

“My Spanish II teacher in high school, Melba XXXXXXX. I used a single phrase in an assignment that she claimed I could not have known and someone else had obviously written the paper. (It has been 24 years, and I can’t remember the exact term but it was apparently colloquial and had to do with dancing. “Dance of dances” or something like that.) And since I had cheated, I received a zero. I informed her I had used a Spanish-English dictionary (which was allowed) and I would bring in the dictionary to prove it. The very next day I brought it in and she still didn’t believe me despite the phrase being in the book. She upgraded my 0 to a 50 and I got a stern lecture about cheating and being disrespectful.

For the term, I believe my grade was about an 80-ish.

You’re a cunt, Melba and you got me in a lot of trouble at home with a very angry father because of your lie. Fuck you.”

#3. The creep.

“We had a long term substitute in 3rd grade, the creep didn’t allow us to have recess one day and we had to sit quietly at our desks. A girl in my class had to go to the bathroom and he wouldn’t let her, I think she ended up getting up and leaving anyway and after she came back he demanded she talk to him in the hall. A minute later we heard a loud noise, turned out he tried to punch her in the head but she ducked and his hand went thru the wall. Luckily he got fired and teaching license taken away.”

#2. My social anxiety kind of started after that.

“5th grade made fun of me for not knowing how to pronounce a word so my social anxiety kinda started after that but good thing she passed me to the 6th grade because she never wanted to see me again.”

#1. The patience of a toddler.

“I had a biology teacher in 10th grade, lets call her Ms. Boglo

Ms. Boglo had the patience of a toddler. She had absolutely no control over her class and was straight up a terrible teacher. She would only ever give us packets that she downloaded online, or show presentations which weren’t hers. She would have temper tantrums when the class wouldn’t quiet down, and refuse to give us classwork when we misbehaved (which just gave us what we wanted at the time).

She INSISTED that we call her DOCTOR Boglo, even though she really didnt have the qualifications. She was once caught dealing drugs with students and somehow got past it.

One day we were supposed to do a lab, but we didnt quiet down, so she straight up refused to give it to us. Months pass, and when its time to take the state mandated exam for biology, a question about THAT SPECIFIC LAB was on the exam. My class could not answer it because she refused to give it to us. We didnt know the answer because she refused to give us the lab, even though we were ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED to take ALL labs for the state exam. I probably could have reported her for it, but I just wanted my ties with her cut.

A whole year of this biology class, and I learned absolutely nothing. She has absolutely no business being a teacher, and its people like Ms. Boglo that are failing to provide the care that young learners need.

Edit: she was also constantly doing things in her personal life during class time. A lot of the time she would be looking at bikes to buy, or houses. She would also sometimes bring up pictures of her sister, who was a lawyer, and talk about how jealous she was of her. She was one of the most childish teacher i’ve had the experience of dealing with.”

Hug a (good) teacher, folks!

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Eight-Year-Old Finds Viking Sword After Skipping Stones on a Lake

Playing in the lake is always fun. But it’s extra fun when you find an ancient artifact!

A Swedish-American girl named Saga Vanecek – her real name – had only moved to Sweden a year ago. She and her family had previously lived in Minnesota and are even big Vikings fans.

While vacationing at Vidöstern Lake in Tånnö, Småland, Saga’s father, Andy, asked her to go grab him a buoy. The lake level was lower than usual due to drought, and he wanted to warn area boaters. Along the way, Saga picked up some stones and skipped them across the lake’s surface.

Andy, according to The Local, was growing frustrated with his easily distracted daughter. “I was getting impatient because the World Cup game was about to start!”

Then Saga found a stick. “I picked it up and was going to drop it back in the water, but it had a handle, and I saw that it was a little bit pointy at the end and all rusty. I held it up in the air and I said ‘Daddy, I found a sword!’ When he saw that it bent and was rusty, he came running up and took it.”

Photo Credit: Andrew Vanecek

Andy decided to take it to his neighbor who had some practice in archaeology. Both concluded the sword might be of real interest and turned it over to authorities. Shortly after, Saga and Andy were told the sword was likely from the 5th or 6th century AD, which makes the relic pre-Viking.

How did the sword get in the lake?

A representative of the museum that took possession of the sword said, “When we searched a couple of weeks ago, we found another prehistoric object; a brooch from around the same period as the sword, so that means — we don’t know yet — but perhaps it’s a place of sacrifice.”

Saga and her father were tasked with keeping the find a secret until now, so that no would-be treasure seekers would come disrupt the site (except of course Saga told her best friend). But now that the museum’s work in the lake is done, the secret is out – and was celebrated at Saga’s school with an ice-cream party.

The work on the sword, however, is just starting and it may take at least a year to complete the preservation of what might be known as “Saga’s Sword.”

Photo Credit: Jönköpings Län Museum

Life to come

Clearly, after pulling a pre-Viking sword from an ancient lake, Saga is the next Queen of Sweden. However, she says her future includes a career as a doctor, veterinarian or actress in Paris. She is not interested in becoming an archaeologist, although she likes to learn about “old stuff.”

We’ll see what the sword chooses. It’s destiny, after all.

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15 Stories That Reveal the Truth About Reality TV

If you still think reality shows are real life, then have I got news for you. In most cases, I think it goes without saying that these shows have teams of writers who are behind everything that happens. These 15 folks have experienced the “reality” of reality shows, and they’re ready to reveal those secrets.

15. Looks first, plot later

I have a friend who signed up to audition for a show that she thought was “The Bachelorette”, or something similar. I guess its standard practice to not give the actual name of the show, and just say, “We need good looking, energetic young women for blah blah blah.”

So she got called back, went through a few different interviews and a screen test. Finally, they tell her that the concept is that she will be running a Pawn Shop with another woman. She is a dental assistant with no experience remotely related to the Pawn business.

“Pawn Queens” ended up being on for two seasons and they gave her a backstory about how/why she got interested in the pawn business. Not exactly SHOCKING, but it was pretty interesting to see that they basically looked for hot girls first, then put them into a proven concept (“Pawn Stars”-type reality show).

14. Hypnotic parenting?

I was on an episode of “extreme guide to parenting”. My mom is a hypnotherapist for a living and so they “interviewed” my brothers and me about getting “hypnotized” to do chores and get good grades. They had us say thing like “my mom using nuro linguistic programming to make us do things” and that she hypnotizes us on a daily basis. I was 14 and I had to pretend that I had a crush on this boy and my mom taught me how to “hypnotize him to like me”. All the parts with me in it were cut out, thank god, but my twin brothers got a decent amount of airtime. All of it was scripted. It was basically a publicity stunt on my moms part to get more business. I don’t blame her, it worked pretty effectively and we got a 5,000 dollar check for letting them use our house to film.

to clarify, everything my mom said was true to a degree, and she has hypnotized me in the past, but hypnotherapy is not what everyone thinks it is. It is a way of gaining more self control, not less, and in no way is it someone controlling your mind. There are subtle cues you can give people to get them to agree with you, such as nodding your head when you ask for something (and touching their shoulder) but other than that it is mostly used to help people stop smoking or biting their nails and even improving concentration and avoiding panic attacks. Just like anyother therapist might help you, my mom does it with hypnosis.

As for exploiting my brothers and me, it was really fun and I laughed a lot when I saw the final cut. I thought my family didn’t seem so bad when compared to others that I saw in the same episode, but I can’t judge. Either way, the whole plot was made up but it is true that my mom taught us how to exit something called flight or fight mode when in non-life threatening situations, like when you panic, she taught us to think clearly. Nothing as extreme as how they portrayed us in the show. Honestly, it’s counter intuitive to make a show that puts my mom in bad light for business reasons and so while everything was scripted, she did maintain her usual air of professionalism, the directors just took all the parts that made her look as bad as possible.

13. They all go insane

I have worked on several reality shows. Some are more fake than others, but they are all heavily scheduled and formatted, never spontaneous.

I worked on a certain MTV dating show where one of the contestants tried to escape the house in the middle of the night, and one of the Production Assistants had to tackle him in the front yard and drag him back into the house. It’s like prison, they are completely cut out from the outside world (no computer, books, phones, watches) and they are fed mostly booze. They all go insane.

Also, if the show doesn’t air, they don’t win their prize money. This is a standard for all competition reality shows.

12. This one’s actually really sweet

I’m late but whatever. Pitbulls and Parolees on Animal Planet. I used to work at the main warehouse where they filmed everything. Not sure if I’m actually on the show at all but if I am I’m just in the background scratching my ass.

Everyone that works there only tolerates filming because it’s more money for the dogs. The camera crews would try and get people to recreate things they missed but most of us weren’t very cooperative. Everyone on the show and in the rest of the staff really just wants the best for the dogs. From what I have seen anything that was staged we’re things that had actually happened and the camera crew wasn’t around for.

The dogs there are amazing. All the horrible things they had been through and they remain so lovable. I miss all my furry buddies there.

11. That actually makes sense

In the very first episode of Top Chef they ever filmed, Tom Colicchio flipped out because the dishes the contestants had cooked were getting cold while the film crew took “food porn” shots of them. From then on, all the contestants have to prepare two dishes. One for the judges to sample, and one for the cameras to pan over and show the audience.

10. Creating drama

You know, it really depends on the type of show you are on because they vary so wildly in style. I’ve worked on a number of reality shows as a lighting technician, the ones I can remember the most are the amazing race, the great escape, kitchen nightmares, and twinning.

Twinning was the one that was most like jersey shore or the real world. Definitely not fake, but casting is so important. You don’t need to fake anything when the people you as filming 24 hours a day are absolutely nuts. They’ll decide at certain points to play God a little bit and move them into rooms with people they hate or give them alcohol when they realize two people have a thing together, but aren’t acting on it. The producers of all of these shows just sit in a room and figure out how to create drama.

I’ve had friends work on duck dynasty. Everything in that show was scripted and they would do multiple takes and get coverage. Very fake, basically a tv show shot in a reality format.

Shows like the amazing race and the great escape on the other hand are pretty dang real. Because of the obstacles and challenges they are interesting enough without the producers interfering that much. On the great escape because of the style of the show, we would go back the next day and reshoot key moments in a cinematic way to push that style. While it was “fake” it was still pretty dang real.

Oh and kitchen nightmares is very real. Gordon Ramsey is just basically a producer that is in the show. He knows what good tv is and how to get it. They pick terrible businesses and the show writes itself. The remodels are always funny though as they are just so on the surface.

9. This sounds like a miserable experience

I know someone who was on Love It or List It when it was in Raleigh. Here’s how the show works, according to what they told me:

As mentioned, nobody wants to list their house- they just want a free renovation and to be on TV. However…

…the show only pays for 50% of the work they do on your house, and the producers do what they want for TV and don’t really respect the homeowners’ wishes.

They shoot a bunch of episodes in one market at a time, so they use one set of contractors for all of the homes. If they get behind on the work on a given home, they pretend that the work is done so they can wrap on the episode, then they take the crew with them to the next house. You then have to live in an unfinished renovation until the whole set of episodes is finished and the crew can get back to you. This can be months or not at all.

It has been an awful experience for many in this market, but the contract is so immensely in the favor of the production company, the homeowners don’t really have any reasonable recourse to get things finished or fixed in the cases stuff was done wrong.

8. Definitely not a blind date

My cousin was on a Toronto dating show called Matchmaker many years ago. She said it was completely scripted and she met her “blind date” before filming so the producers could go over the script with them. They were given a list of ridiculous and racy questions to ask each other and encouraged to make out if they actually liked each other or to cause a scene and be dramatic if they didn’t really click.

7. What you see is actually what you get

Probably no one on Reddit watches it, but Say Yes to the Dress. It’s real. One sister and a few friends have gotten their dresses there, and while they didn’t appear on the show (you get asked when you make your appointment), their experiences were the exact same as TV.

Yes, the consultants really are that personable. Yes, you sit where the show is filmed. Yes, the people on the show really work there. No, they won’t show you anything outside your budget, and yes, they really do bend over backwards to find you discounts if you need one (like on the show.)

I know there are probably cheaper places to buy a wedding dress, but Kleinfeld’s is gorgeous and exactly like it is on SYTTD. The only thing that might be “faked” is if girls/their family are told to be super picky about the dress for ~dramatic effect~.

6. At least he got paid

I had a friend on Cash In The Attic in the UK. The idea is that some antique dealers and so on will scout around in your attic/garage/shed and “find” valuable items to sell.

They found precisely fuck all in my friend’s house, so they pulled some paintings and a vase out of the van, “found” them, then asked him to go and get changed so they could film a segment from “after the sale”.

It all seems like a complete waste of time, aside from the couple of hundred quid they gave him.

5. That takes the cake

Everything. Every single thing is fake. I was on a cake competition show. The judges recorded 2 takes for every comment, one positive and one negative so the editors could put it together however they wanted. They rolled the clock back an hour so everyone else could finish. We had over three months to plan our “spontaneous” cake. Oh yeah, and while we won by the judges vote…a producer decided one of the other cakes would film better for the big reveal so we didn’t win even though we should have.

4. Boo-hoo

Sob stories on singing shows – it’s not the contestant’s fault!

I made it through a few rounds for a well known singing show and they BEG you for sob stories. on my very first application form, I was asked about the most difficult moment in my life, what obstacles I’d overcome to be there, had I ever experienced bullying, etc.

They pretty much make you tell them a sob story. So I wrote all about my heartbreak when I ran out of coffee.

3. New clothes aren’t that exciting

My friend was on What Not to Wear, and I was in the audience of people who were there to react when she came out from behind the curtain with her new look. She came out over and over again, but our cheering was never enthusiastic enough for the producers. After about 10 takes, we were screaming our heads off, totally hysterical, as if we’d just seen her rise from the dead. So that part was fake; I thought she just looked alright.

2. Not actually impossible

I was on restaurant impossible a couple years ago. They say they have a $10,000 budget for the renovation, definitely does not mean they use it. The host, Robert Irvine, was only there for like an hour a day, of the 3ish day venture, just to get in the way and whine about things for the camera. They made up this whole story about how my boss would lose everything and cause so much stress on his marriage and family if the restaurant failed. They had us “walk this direction with a sullen look” to show that we felt underappreciated as employees. We had four employees actually walk out because of some the comments Robert made. We also did not get paid any extra for any of this.

But, while all of that was annoying, I will say this. The food network did pay almost $4k for a very local construction crew to come in, which is awesome for local business/support, the food was very awesome, and I got to learn some insane techniques from world class chef’s, at the very start of my career (I am a chef myself now). It was very neat and exciting thing for a small town, and definitely brought our community together. And while the business did still end up failing a year and a half later, my boss was totally fine because he bought out another restaurant and is now very successful elsewhere.

1. They weren’t even married

My daughter and her boyfriend were on Divorce court. They were not married, and the shows producers helped them tailor their story (which was completely made up) to be more interesting. They are now married and since they’ve already been “divorced”, it should last forever.

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Map Shows The Most Googled Medical Symptoms in Each State

Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of the time, self-diagnosis online is incorrect and you will have wasted your time for nothing.

Still, that doesn’t stop people from across the country from Googling their symptoms every time they experience a fraction of a headache.

Is Everyone Sick, or Just Me?

Curious to know what your neighbors are Googling? The Medicare plans review site Medicare Health Plans used Google Trends to find frequently searched medical symptoms by state for the past year. Check out the map below to see if you are the only one worried about passing strangely colored poop (spoiler alert: not if you live in South Carolina or Wisconsin).

Photo Credit: Medicare Health Plans

Our Health, Googled

The most searched symptoms pointed to respiratory illnesses. Makes sense as many Americans suffer from colds, allergies and flu yearly. In fact, over 155 million flu vaccines were manufactured and administered in the past year.

Stress symptoms were also widely Googled, especially in the Western United States – hello sweaty palms and stomach acid. Guys, try to fit in more yoga.

Meanwhile, Eastern folks experienced “loss of sleep,” and “the sniffles.” Except for Rhode Island and New Jersey, who not only got plenty of sleep, they had “lucid dreams.” Is that even a medical condition? Stress was also a major concern along the Atlantic Seaboard.

What to do Now

While not an ideal way to manage health, Internet research is helpful for pointing to what may be causing your discomfort. But use it to compile questions for a visit with your doctor. Meaning, go to a doctor! Having notes and questions with you will make for a more proactive appointment, especially when you feel like crap.

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Here Are 2018’s Most Visited Cities in the World

Do you ever wonder where everyone is traveling? What countries have the most booming tourism industry?

Mastercard released its annual Global Destination Cities Index that measures travel to and within 162 cities throughout the world.

Visitor volume and spending are used to forecast the growth in visits to all of these cities around the globe.

Scroll through this list in descending order and you’ll discover the most visited cities in 2018 based on the projected number of international visitors.

20. Bali, Indonesia — 8.43 million international visitors.

19. Osaka, Japan — 8.78 million international visitors.

Photo Credit: Flickr,Pedro Szekely

18. Barcelona, Spain — 9.06 million international visitors.

Photo Credit: Max Pixel

17. Hong Kong — 9.11 million international visitors.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

16. Milan, Italy — 9.19 million international visitors.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

15. Palma de Mallorca, Spain — 9.3 million international visitors.

Photo Credit: pxhere

14. Pattaya, Thailand — 9.56 million international visitors.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

13. Mecca, Saudi Arabia — 9.73 million international visitors.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

12. Phuket, Thailand — 10.08 million international visitors.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

11. Seoul, South Korea — 10.13 million international visitors.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

10. Antalya, Turkey — 11.27 million international visitors.

Photo Credit: US Air Force

9. Tokyo, Japan — 12.12 million international visitors.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

8. Istanbul, Turkey — 12.8 million international visitors.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

7. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia — 13.53 million international visitors.

Photo Credit: Flickr,Jorge Láscar

6. New York City, USA — 13.67 million international visitors.

Photo Credit: pxhere

5. Singapore — 14.47 million international visitors.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

4. Dubai, UAE — 16.66 million international visitors.

Photo Credit: pxhere

3. Paris, France — 17.95 million international visitors.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

2. London, UK — 20.42 million international visitors.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

1. Bangkok, Thailand — 21.98 million international visitors.

Photo Credit: Flickr,Roger W

Are any of these destinations on your travel list?

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These 6+ Interesting Facts That Will Open Your Eyes

Did you know that chimpanzees can recognize butts? How’d you like to have that power?

And you’ll learn that fact and 6 more when you keep on reading this fact set.

1. Not humane

Photo Credit: did you know?

2. I know you from somewhere…

Photo Credit: did you know?

3. Lunch lady land

Photo Credit: did you know?

4. Get your sleep

Photo Credit: did you know?

5. Fire Mummies

Photo Credit: did you know?

6. Whoa…

Photo Credit: did you know?

7. I need a few of these

Photo Credit: did you know?

Are your eyes opened and your brain expanded? I thought so.

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15 People Tell Their Most Incredible “Once in a Lifetime” Stories

There are moments in our lives that when they happen, you know they’ll never happen again.

That’s what makes them so special.

In this article, AskReddit users share their best “once in a lifetime” experiences.

1. Green Day in the house

“Live in Australia, friend and I decided to go check out a bowling alley on street I lived on at the time.

Walk in, discover Green Day there bowling, ended up spending the night having drinks and chats with them and their crew.”

2. The Motherland

“Taking my grandmother to Ireland for her 75th birthday. It certainly wasn’t my most fiscally responsible decision, but it was worth every penny to spend that time together.

Her grandparents had emigrated from Ireland to the U.S. in the 1890s and she grew up hearing stories of their life in Galway. Getting to experience “the motherland” with her and explore the Irish coastline together while sipping whiskey are memories I’ll cherish for the rest of my life. She knew an old song for almost every single town we stopped in.”

3. The C word

“In 2008, 10 days before the election, my republican roommate dragged me to a McCain rally happening on campus. I knew I was voting for Obama but thought “hey? why not, could be interesting”.

Campaign manager picked me out of the crowd before it started to stand behind him during the speech. This would be normal as lots of people do this. What was different this time is that during the speech, McCain accidentally said “The rates were c*nt in the Bush years.”

I ended up on national news, TMZ, etc., standing behind a presidential candidate who dropped the C-bomb. If you google “John McCain says c*nt”, you’ll probably find it ? “

4. OMG

“When I first moved to nyc, I decided to randomly go to a bar alone because its name was the fat black pussycat and I didn’t have anything else to do.

Ran into one of top drinking buddies from when I lived in Beijing three years before that. And he was Israeli. He was just representing Israel at come conference here. Neither of us knew each other had left China.

The experience went as follows,

I tap him on his shoulder, “Yawni?”

He turns around in complete confusion.

Me, looking incredibly embarrassed:” Sorry, sorry you look just like my friend. But he lives in Shanghai. And I live in nyc. This is impossible. Ah f*ck. Sorry enjoy your drinks.”

He still looking at me in shock.

Me: You are my friend.

Both of us: Holy sh*t holy sh*t omg.

Proceeded to get comfortably V drunk with my old friend for the entire weekend.

Probably the most random thing to happen to me.”

5. A memorable send off

“A good friend of mine was leaving the country to go and work in Australia permanently. Me, him, and another friend all had one last night out together.

At the time I lived in a rented flat within a manor house (long story) and this house had a driveway that was over a mile long and not easy to turn around in. For that reason in the summer months we would ask taxi’s to drop us at the top of the drive and we’d walk the mile under the stars. It was very flat and open and away from a lot of light pollution so it wasn’t all that dark or creepy or anything.

Anyway, we’re about 3/4 of the way to the house and we start hearing a fizz. We look up and there’s a shooting star right above us. But not like a little speck, it was like lower than a plane would be. And we could all hear it ripping through the sky. The tail was visible for about 30 seconds afterwards.

It was a really memorable send off.”

6. Bear!

“I went to Svalbard this August and –amongst other things — went on a boat tour to a glacier.

On the way to the glacier the captain was radio’d by another boat that there had been a sighting of a polar bear in the area of the glacier, which in itself is rather rare.

The ‘once in a lifetime’-part was that, as we approached the glacier, our boat was radio’d by the governor of Svalbard, who told the captain that the bear was getting too close to a research station.

Normally you are required to keep a distance of half a kilometer to polar bears. In this instance we had explicit permission to scare them away by getting close and turning up our motor.

As we got closer, we noticed that it wasn’t a single polar bear, but a mother and its cub. So I got within 200 meters of a wild polar bear cub.

tl;dr: Went to polar circle, got within 200m of a polar bear cub.”

7. That’s a good one

“Seeing my Grandma ride a bicycle on her 100th birthday. RIP Grandma.

No, she didn’t die from riding the bicycle.”

8. The Sahara

“A few months ago, I went on a safari trip to the middle of the Sahara desert via Morocco side. It took a few days and many, many hours in a car. You don’t really appreciate the beauty and the vastness of Sahara desert and specifically the sand dunes until you approach them from afar. It’s beauty is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. The rolling hills and extreme emptiness makes you appreciate the sheer size of not only the desert but the world as a whole.

Once we got there, it was another couple hours of atv then camel back ride until we were in the nowhere of it all. If you walked 10 mins out from camp, you probably wouldn’t be able to find your way back as even your footsteps are taken back into the desert. After dinner and dancing with the fellow travelers, I took my music and water over a few hills and sat. I sat there for hours, until the sun came up. The landscape and quietness take your thoughts in different directions and make you think of the world and your place in it.

The desert, the sun seems brighter, the distance longer, and the landscape infinite. The trek is demanding and the night sky feels untouched by any man building or light. The place is completely quiet, and maybe that’s because it already knows what it is and is completely ok with that. Ill take that memory with me as long as I walk.”

9. Phish-head

“Seeing Phish at an Indian reservation for New Years Eve 1999. All the crazy Y2K rumors were rampant. We we literally living in a tent community for three days of live music, including the famous Phish NY show that started at 11:50 PM and last until almost 8am in the morning,

Being exhausted and hoarse, walking off the concert area with my dear friends, arm in arm, under the first beautiful sunrise of 2000 was a once in a lifetime thing and indelibly seared into my brain. Nearly 20 years later and it can still bring a tear to my eye and goosebumps when I think about it. It was so special; just pure and glorious.”

10. Manatee sighting

“A few years ago I was at Myrtle Beach on vacation with my family. I had just smoked a joint and was looking around in the surf with a mask and snorkel when I realized people were shouting and pointing over by me. From above I could see a large dark shape moving toward me, I decided I would rather be able to see whatever it was head on and dropped back under the water, all the shit from TV about punching a shark in the gills flashed in my mind as I tried not to panic.

It was a manatee! I put my hand out and it didn’t shy away and swam by right next to me as I ran my hand from it’s shoulder to it’s tail. I was the only one it got close to as it swam toward the marina. I still am like “woah did that really happen?” “

11. Flood story

“I was in Singapore during the rainy season and I was pretty far away from where I was staying. It got dark really fast and you could see these giant storm clouds forming in the dark. The biggest storm I have ever seen hits immediately, the rain drops were longer than my finger and were quickly flooding the streets. As I sat there in the line waiting for a taxi, thunder and lightning started crashing. The lightning was so bright and close it was like fireworks. I eventually had to take a bus because everyone was taking taxis.

The streets were literally flooded knee deep in water and the lightning was so bright. I got off the bus and was probably 2 football fields away from the place I was staying. So I bolted as soon as I stepped off the bus, I looked like I had just jumped in a pool the rain was so heavy. Seeing as I was already soaked I basically got into this ‘Singing in the Rain’ mentality and just sat in the rain and enjoyed it. I walked with my legs half submerged in water with thunder crashes louder than guns and giant flashes of lightning striking every 8 seconds. It was the most relaxing, enjoyable experience I’ve ever had.”

12. The omen

“In my teenage years I worked at a country club on a fake lake. I used to drive the pontoon boat for booze cruises. After hours, some friends and I stole the boat to have some fun, but ended up getting the propeller caught in a plastic tarp. Dead in the water, a cop from the shoreline shone his lights at us knowing we were hooligans doing ne’er-do-well. We panicked, I jumped in the water and pushed the boat to the opposite shore.

After removing the tarp and returning the boat to the port, we scurried to ditch the cop. Once we felt like we were safe, we stood there and made a pact never to do anything like that again. At that moment a burst of light on the horizon trailed over us and we watched with awe. It was low flying, enough to see the solid speck tumbling in its own luminescence. It was surreal and something we talked about all summer. We called it ‘the omen’. “

13. Just the two of you

“An event at the Louvre. I was alone in the room showing Mona Lisa.”

14. Close call

“Got caught in an avalanche while skiing in Austria and managed to survive by slamming my skiis against a tree.

After I got over the shock of being alive I realized that my coat was pierced by a tree branch. If had been a centimeter or two longer it would have been in my lung.

That incredible experience that caused me to savor every breath was immediately canceled out by the most dull afternoon of my life searching for my friend’s skiis then all of us hiking back up the mountain.”

15. Scary

“Had my keys stolen which started a mini riot at the max security juvenile detention center I worked at.”

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