Life is an unrelenting obstacle course toward survival. The irony is that the end of the course is the end of life, so we're all going to end up dead anyway.
But we have to jump through hoops to stay alive and have a long course to run.
Thank the Lord sent spirits in bottles to help us through. When we're not traversing our own course, we're bearing witness to others.
Whether it be accidents or murderers, the plights of others can be haunting.
Redditor u/im_a_noob_lol wanted to hear about the things that have scarred the psyche of many by asking:
[serious] what is the scariest thing you have seen ever?
I've lost count of the number of times I've been left SHOOKETH to the core of my being. Of course being scared seems to be structured into my DNA. I can be thrown off by a mild noise at night. And I faint at the sight of blood, mine or yours.
RIP
Acds2 Look Away GIF by Anime Crimes Division
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"My brother losing consciousness and falling down the stairs. He lay on the floor with his eyes open and blood coming out of his ear. He was fine after one day at the hospital, but I sure as hell thought I just witnessed the death of my brother."
The Long Driveway
"My dad and grandma waiting for me at the top of our driveway when I got off the bus coming home from kindergarten. My mother had breast cancer and the moment I saw them waiting there together, I knew she was dead. We had a long driveway to begin with but that day it felt like it took an eternity to climb. I knew what they were going to say but I still dreaded hearing it. I've never felt that kind of terror since."
The Blackout
"This happened just this past weekend."
"Came home to find my brother blacked out and when he came to he could barely stand, walk, was in an altered mental state talking like he was drunk. He hadn't eaten or drank anything but water in 3 days and had been sleeping pretty much around the clock. Turns out he's diabetic now and was experiencing Diabetic Ketoacidosis."
"Spent the weekend in the ICU. He blacked out because he was so dehydrated that his heart couldn't properly pump blood and his blood pressure was bottoming out while his heart rate was skyrocketing. His blood glucose was sky high. He's doing better now thankfully. But I thought I was watching my big brother, my best friend, die right in front of me at the time."
- kat4190
In Class
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"A 4th grade student of mine had a seizure, it was just awful and terrifying."
Oh yeah, those people should be thankful I was not around. That is a whole messy lot trauma. Having to be a witness to or a survivor of frightful experiences can leave you changed for life. Let's try to go on...
Pleading
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"Another convict begging the co's not to let him die as he nearly bled out after having his throat cut from ear to ear. It was the begging that I can't forget. I had seen someone killed before and it didn't effect me nearly as much."
Up in Smoke
"The Black Saturday bushfires."
"We were in a small town where my grandmother lived helping her pack up to get to safety. The fire was moving so fast we had maybe 1 minute to move if they sounded the warning to leave. Watching the horizon change colour from black to a dark orange to a full wall of flames in a matter of minutes is freaking intense."
"The trees exploded from the intensity of the heat making these dull popping sounds amongst what sounded like rain from ash and embers falling everywhere. It's worth noting that the town is nestled amongst a bunch of hills in dense bushland with treacherous terrain and we were almost completely surrounded. Every hill glowed for hours."
Last Breathes...
"Finding this young dude after he'd been stabbed like 7 times and trying to comfort him. I knew the guy was going to die and I think he did too. About a year of sleepless nights and a moderate case of PTSD later I've come to terms with what happened."
Best Excuses For Late Assignments That Were Actually True | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
Oh Mom
"Seeing my sweet kind terrified mother crying out for death as she dealt with a huge tumor in her esophagus that prevented her from swallowing, after having had brain surgery to remove another tumor, to help with quality of life. I hate cancer."
Pulse Check
"I watched a girl get hit by a car and stopped to help. The panic I had when the guy who got there first said there was no pulse. Lucky in that case he just didn't know how to take a pulse. But 18 months later and I still wonder how she's doing. It's like the old Chinese/Buddhist proverb "if you save a life, you're responsible for it" only I can see how you'd still feel it even if you couldn't do anything."
Terror Cycle
"I survived a plane crash. It was far and away the scariest thing I've ever witnessed. Second behind that was watching a van full of people wrap around a bridge underpass pillar (the driver fell asleep behind the wheel). 6 of the 7 people died - the 7th person was laying in the back seat sleeping and avoided being crushed."
"Strangely enough, about 5 years after that accident, I was in Basic for the Army and met a girl that lived a few hours north of me. She KNEW the people who were killed and their funerals were in her high school gym. It's a small world, folks."
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Life Saver
"Finding my husband in a full cardiac arrest. Thankfully I found him very quickly and was able to commence CPR and save his life. There is a slim chance of survival for cardiac arrest so I'm grateful it happened a couple of minutes after I got home. Most terrifying moment of my life."
In the Air
"I was a receptionist at a trucking company. I was sitting the front desk and all of a sudden there was the loudest sound ever and as I looked out the window I saw a small building fly up in the air. Found out later that a welder and his helper had tried to weld something and there was an explosion. They both died. That was pretty sad."
Remaining Scars
"I've seen my brother and another guy get blown up in a natural gas fire. Soaked/emerged in natural gas liquids and ignited Prob 70% skin/ hands looked like shredded white latex gloves with blood dripping from the tears. Lots of hospital time. Remaining scars are relatively Insignificant."
Up in Smoke
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"Watching 3000 houses go up in flames about a mile east of me. I had the cats in carriers in the car, ready to go west."
Hearts
"Someone already covered 9/11, so I'll add one that's more existential fear: seeing my dad in recovery after heart surgery. It was only then I really realized how mortal and vulnerable he was, and that he wasn't going to be around forever."
- Athrynne
"I remember walking into the hospital room after my dad had his quadruple bypass surgery. Seeing him unconscious with a ventilator down his throat made me feel so helpless."
PB+J
"When my son was 18 months old I fed him PB+J for the first time for lunch and my wife said he'd already had some at daycare. I laid him down for a nap a short time later like usual after lunch. About 45 minutes later he woke up crying and I could tell he was in pain. I rushed to the room to find him completely swollen. I instantly knew he was allergic to peanuts. I did a 10 minute drive to the hospital in less than 5 minutes."
"The whole time I was thinking his throat would close and I would have to watch my baby boy die in the back seat. I got him there and everything ended up being fine as they treated him instantly. Thankfully his reaction to peanuts, so far, has only ever been a surface reaction and no throat closing. He's 11 now and to this day I've never experienced anything more scary."
Door Issues
"Bus doors closing on me with my mother on the other side as a child and seeing her chase the bus down to get me out. It's not that my mother wasn't watching me, I just found a coin on the ground and of course me being a kid I picked it up and the moron bus driver was too impatient to wait for me to leave, it was literally a 6 second window between my mother getting off and the doors shutting. Thank goodness she made enough noise outside for him to stop and let me out".
Through the Crosswalk...
"I saw a guy on a bike get hit by a car. Guy blew through a crosswalk on his bike when he wasn't supposed to, car came to a stop and bumped him. Car was going maybe 2 miles an hour, but the dude still got flown a good 6 feet. You don't really think about how big and heavy cars are until you see something like that. Anyway, dude got up, shaky as all hell, waved at the car, then pedaled off. Nuts to see."
I would never be able to leave home after seeing things like that, heck just reading it is giving me anxiety. This is why therapy and Xanax are a must have for survival. Good luck out there. The clock is ticking for us all.
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There's nothing like leaving a movie theater having just seen an excellent movie.
Particularly one that took you by surprise.
Perhaps it was deeper and more meaningful than it purported itself to be, or on the flip side, had much more warmth and humor that you would have expected.
Or, the film took an unexpected twist that you never saw coming.
Resulting in your needing to bite your tongue until the rest of your friends and family see the film, and not spoil the surprise for them.
Redditor HornyCorny was curious to hear which plot twists left viewers utterly speechless, leading them to ask:
"What’s a movie twist that caught you completely off guard?"
He Didn't See It Coming Either!
"Brad Pitt in 'Burn After Reading'."
"So surprising and downright freaking hilarious."- thefirehairman
If The Shoe Fits...
"'The Shawshank Redemption'."
"Come on."
"It's not always a man notices another man's shoes."- FUBARspecimenT-89
Lucky For Some, Not For All...
"'Lucky Number Slevin'."
"Huge twist and very satisfying."- kvlr954
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Rosie O'Donnell Would Agree...
"Fight Club."- BuchseeI
"once watched it with a friend who had never even heard of it, and she called the twist like, a half hour in."
"She said it as a joke and didn't realize she was right until the actual reveal, but still I was shook."- yugosaki
I See You Keyser Söze
"The ending of 'The Usual Suspects'."- Schwarzes__Loch
Definitive Shyamalan
''The Sixth Sense'."
'I love movies with plot twists, but I never imagined this one. It caught me completely off guard."- lucasduka
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The Title Is Also Misleading...
"The second half of 'Parasite'."- iwontrememberthat4
Appropriately, They Really Toyed With Your Cognition
"'The Game'."- DudeHeadAwesome
"Good one!'
"I spent the entire movie going 'is it a game? Is it real?'"- fastpixels
There Were Definitely Ghosts...
"'The Others'."
"Unsuspected end."- NeckComprehensive743
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One Unforgettable Opening Scene
"'Scream'."
"The Drew Barrymore role."- LivingTheLife53
The Real Reason Everyone Is Terrified Of Bees...
"When I was a kid, I wanted to feel good and happy."
"So at the video store, I decided to rent a movie with two happy laughing kids on the DVD cover, thinking it would be a feel-good playful story."
"That movie was 'My Girl'."
"Eff that movie."
"Seriously."
'The DVD cover lies."
"IT LIES."- buckyhermit
You THOUGHT you knew who the villains were...
"'From Dusk to Dawn' — midway point."
"Didn’t know at all what I was walking into when saw it in the theatre decades ago — just, you know, Salma Hayek. Good enough."
"Quentin Tarantino slurping tequila from her foot after it ran down the entire length of her leg — that was already a 'Holy WTF' moment."
"But then, well.. . you know."
"And if you don’t know — quick, go watch it. "
"No trailer, no synopsis, no summary."
"Find it and load it 'blind' and fasten your seatbelt."
"You’re in for a wild ride."- canada11235813
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It's Title Is More Than Accurate!
"'Crazy Stupid Love'."
"The scene when the whole movie goes apesh*t in the yard is one of my all time favorite movie scenes."- Fimbulvintern
Trifecta Of Twists
"'The Others'."
"The end of 'The Mist'."
"'The Prestige' (though, I ALMOST had it figured out, but not quite)."- Krinks1
There's nothing better than when a movie surprises you.
Even if it does make talking about said movie with people who haven't seen it a bit more challenging.
Case in point, people who saw The Sixth Sense and The Usual Suspects after their endings were spoiled for them, don't seem to like those movies as much as those who went in blind.
Every family has its secrets.
It's up to every new generation to unearth it all.
Don't we all want to know if we're related to famous people?
Or what if we have a familial stake in lands and businesses?
Also, this is a good way to NOT end up dating blood relatives.
The more you know, the less awkward later.
As much as there is a lot of trauma there could be a lot of cool facts to to discuss at parties.
Redditor ForthrightPedant wanted to hear some interesting family histories, so they asked:
"What is a historical fact about your family that you think is kinda neat?"
I don't have any family history.
Of course I've done no investigating.
Maybe I do.
I should look!
Super Talent
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"Great-grandpa created the Flintstones. Dan Gordon. Drew lots of Hannah-Barbara cartoons, and directed the first three animated Superman films at the beginning of WW2 as well as several seasons of Popeye, Scooby Doo, Smurfs, Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound."
downnoutsavant
Bad Voyage
"My grandfather disliked America and wanted to return to Ireland. He booked passage on the Titanic’s return voyage. If it wouldn’t have sunk, no of us would be here."
mrseddievedder
"My great-grandmother was a Titanic survivor. She was a steerage-class Lebanese immigrant in an arranged marriage. Her husband went down with the ship but she managed to make it to a lifeboat and made it to the Carpathia. Then she remarried in a Lebanese neighborhood in Virginia. Had it not been for the iceberg that struck and sank the Titanic My family lineage would be different and I wouldn't be here. My family's official toast is 'to the iceberg.'"
jaspersurfer
Forgotten
"My husband's grandfather was one of the 'forgotten soldiers' in Canada. He was a Canadian-born Chinese man who asked the Canadian government to fight for his right to vote and a passport. Even tho he was born in Canada in the 20’s since he was Chinese he was not considered Canadian."
H"e was dropped into the Burma jungle and was told he would likely never return. He was in the 10% that did return. He was given the right to vote, to a passport, and to University."
"His wife is still alive today and my son is named after him."
cowskeeper
Can you imagine?
"My great-grandmother had 13 kids, so she was pregnant for literally a decade. There’s two hundred of us now, all because of this one woman."
CoverlessSkink
"My great grandma had 14 kids. My grandma was the youngest. She died giving birth to my grandma. The oldest child who was like 22 years old raised my grandma. My great-grandfather remarried a woman who had 10 kids of her own. My grandma would tell me stories of them all living together. Can u imagine? 😦."
Content_Pool_1391
Long Ago
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"The land my dad was raised on and my cousins still live on was deeded to the family by George Washington as compensation for service during the Revolution. There was a document with his signature on it at the courthouse until a fire destroyed the records a few decades ago."
mustbethedragon
So much land and fortune and HISTORY has been lost due to fire.
Thank God we keep more than paper records now.
Over the Moon
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"My second cousin is David Scott who walked on the Moon and drove the moon buggy. My mom does. He was so busy during the time when I was young that he even said later in life that he wished she’d gotten to know more of his family."
Roadgoddess
The Union
"Great-great-great grandfather on my mom's side was working his field in the part of Virginia that split off and became a new state because they didn't want to secede from The Union. Union soldiers came along looking for conscripts and he was a young, able-bodied man so they told him to come with them. He informed them he was a Quaker and thus a pacifist. According to family lore, that discussion went on for a bit but he would not give in. So they shot him and left him there. Good thing he had a couple of kids well before that day."
SpottyNoonerism
Opportiunities
"My great-grandfather was offered a chance to invest in a new invention by a guy by the name of Alexander Graham Bell. He declined, saying at most there would be one telephone per town."
Carson4307
"That is apparently my family too."
"One uncle apparently built a version of a hot water heater and then sold the design to GE for a good sum back then."
"Another uncle was asked if he wanted to be in a photo during his military service. He said no so they raised the flag on Iwo Jima without him in it."
"No idea if any of these are true, at best they are enhanced truths, but for me, I really hope they are true."
Jormungand1342
Underground
"I have a relative who worked for the Underground Railroad and had a price on her head in the South."
dahlia6767
"My uncle was a carpenter. And was doing restoration work on old houses in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Many of those old, historical homes had underground railroad passageways and hidden walls. He got to see and restore many of them. He had photos of some of the work he was doing and I got to see those as a kid. Living in Southern Ohio, we have a lot of rich underground railroad history here."
AddictiveArtistry
Family Empire
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"My great-grandfather was the town police chief in the 1920s. His brother was the Mayor. Their cousins ran the casino."
"My family was a smaller version of Boardwalk Empire."
nowhereman136
Wouldn't we all love a show based on our families?
Then that's even more neat family history.
