(Don’t) mess around and find out. Life is chock-full of important lessons that we have to learn, both large and small. It’s usually best to save your time, energy, health, and nerves by learning from the blunders your friends, family, and peers have made. However, there will inevitably be moments where you massively mess up yourself.
Well, some of the members of the r/AskReddit community wanted to pass on their wisdom to others. In a viral online thread, they spilled the tea about the times they messed around with something, only to find out that their actions had very negative consequences. Scroll down for their top life advice and safety concerns.
#1
Just because you climbed up something doesn’t mean you can climb down.
Image source: alphajager, Annie Spratt / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#2
HR, Human Resources. I’ll never trust them again.
Image source: falconshadow21
#3
Do not attach two very active dogs to the handle of a Razor scooter because you want to see if they’d be good sled dogs. .
Image source: MissusNilesCrane, Vincent van Zalinge / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#4
Driving through standing water. Just because the car in front of you makes it through doesn’t mean you will.
Image source: Pjolondon87, Dibakar Roy / pexels (not the actual photo)
#5
Don’t work full time and go to school full time.
I was like meh. I can do whatever I put my mind to. It broke my brain. I repressed my stress but my brain and body didn’t care. Started waking up in middle night with panic attacks thinking I was dying. Got agoraphobia. Places like airports and malls I would get vertigo. Dizzy and lightheaded and feel like I was floating which would trigger what is wrong with me panic attack. Rinse repeat.
I went to dr and he was like you are doing way too much. Stop doing that. And he was right.
So you actually can do too much. And even if you can brute force it, your brain and body will eventually rebel against you.
Image source: sleepybeek, Vasilis Caravitis / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#6
Hiking alone in Iceland being a confident hiker. Paraphrasing: the most dangerous hiker is a confident hiker.
I got lost, didnt pack enough food and got caught on the side of a mountain. 20 people had to rescue me. Never again.
Image source: alexvonhumboldt, Matt Hardy / pexels (not the actual photo)
#7
Motorcycles.
It does not matter how good of a driver you are, there are other cars on the road and some of those cars are driven by idiots.
Image source: Bai_Cha
#8
Regular check ups and screenings. Get the damn colonoscopy on schedule, get the skin check yearly. Get your prostate exam or pap smear. If you smoked or are high risk get scans for lung cancer regularly. Talk to your doctor, find out what you should get and when and follow the schedule. I have lung cancer, one of the 20% of people with lung cancer that never smoked, and the difference between the outcomes from stage 1 to stage 4 is literally life and death. Do not wait for symptoms, do not put off getting that weird mole checked.
Image source: wwaxwork, Mathurin NAPOLY / matnapo / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#9
Don’t fry bacon when you’re naked.
Image source: BRUHSKIBC
#10
First responder here. Garage door springs. Let a pro fix them.
Image source: lonelygoat357, Luis Yanez / pexels (not the actual photo)
#11
Not wearing hearing-protection when necessary. Tinnitus sucks.
Image source: catnapper9811, Mikhail Nilov / pexels (not the actual photo)
#12
Alcohol, 22 years drunk, 18 months sober.
Image source: under_the_broad_walk
#13
Considering coworkers true friends lmao…. whenever money or power is involved, human beings are two-faced.
Image source: goatpath
#14
Customs officers. They have no sense of humor, don’t ask me how I know.
Image source: cantstopthehorse, Amin / wikipedia (not the actual photo)
#15
Depression, it f***s you hard.
Image source: ElNakedo
#16
Texting and driving. I was around 27, driving out of my neighborhood around 3pm and remembered I forgot to text a friend about an assignment for grad school. I looked down and within 5-10 seconds, ran up onto the sidewalk. I was so mortified that I could have killed someone, kids, a woman with a stroller, etc. Never did it again.
It’s been a few years and I still think about that stupid choice that could have ended horribly.
Image source: Btrad92
#17
USE your right to remain silent. Don’t be an idiot and yap.
Image source: overstimulated-ukti
#18
I was in the ocean with my then wife. We’d gotten out to the sand bar, and were just chilling… she was on a beach raft sunning and I was just gently pushing us around. I had my back to the shore, and I saw something go by. it was sofa-sized, and it went by pretty fast. I had this immediate understanding of what was going on… I’m standing in chest deep water in prime shark attack territory. I said, “Hey, let’s go in,” and started pushing towards shore. it went by between us and the shore. then there were two of them. then three. we still had to cross the ditch, and I was realizing that we really might not make it.
but it turned out to be dolphins, not sharks.
I’m quite a bit more cautious in the ocean now.
Image source: gogozrx, Airam Dato-on / pexels (not the actual photo)
#19
Private student loans. No Ivy is worth it. Take the spot that offers you the most funding. Undergrad, grad and professional.
The interest should be illegal and the terms are insane.
For some, even death doesn’t release you from the obligation. Permanent disability? They don’t care.
Just don’t do it….
Image source: facemesouth
#20
Well, I knew not to f**k around with it, but Covid kicked my a*s so hard I went from climbing and 6 mile hikes with a kid on my back to walking with a cane. Additionally I have cognitive problems, ended up with a stent for kidney stones for 2(!) months so now I might have some internal scarring, made my asthma SO much worse and because of exercise intolerance I developed type 2 diabetes.
Good news is, I’m a mother fracking cockroach so after 3 years I’m slowly kicking it’s a*s.
Image source: Beakymask20
#21
In ground yellow jackets.
Pay the dude with the bee suit and the right s**t to kill them safely.
Image source: y2knole, Aljaž Kavčič / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#22
It’s a lot easier to get lost in the woods than you think. I wandered away from our campsite a little tipsy because I love looking for mushrooms. I kept going in just a little further until one time when I looked back I couldn’t see my wife and friend back at the site. A few big steps to the left to reorient myself, wait… maybe a few steps over in this direction… Oh s**t.
I yelled for help but the sound doesn’t carry. The sun was just setting when I went in but it gets dark a lot faster in the thick of the forest. I panicked. I ran. I cursed at myself. I yelled for help over and over. I tried to stay calm but also decided to keep moving because it was getting dark and cold and I knew I was in very deep s**t if I didn’t get out before nightfall. I spent about an hour and a half totally lost, the longest 90 minutes of my life. Finally, I heard a truck rumbling in the distance and sprinted towards it. I almost cried when I saw the clearing and popped out on a gravel road 3 km west of our campsite. Looking at a map after, had I gone any other direction it was just forest with no end in sight. My wife and friend said they went in to the forest yelling my name, of course I was probably too far at that point and heard nothing. I don’t know what would’ve happened if that truck hadn’t been going for a late evening drive along the service road. I thought I was going to die.
Image source: No_Sandwich5766, T I M E L O R D / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#23
Inverted Storm Surge.
This happens as a hurricane approaches a coastline. If you search, you’ll find pictures of people walking around in shallow, empty stretches of beach. The storm gets close enough and the low pressure within the eye basically sucks up millions of gallons, pulling it away from shore. It can go for miles sometimes, depending on the strength.
Anyway, that water comes back. With prejudice.
I grew up on the Alabama Gulf Coast. Walked down to the beach as a hurricane was approaching. I was in middle school, and had no idea you couldn’t “see” a hurricane the same way you can a tornado. Anyway, the beach was drained entirely. Not knowing any better, I walked out to the end of the public fishing pier that would normally be about 8-9 feet deep. A few minutes passed, I was satisfied with this excursion, so I turned around. About 2/3rds of the way back to the shore, I felt the ground rumble, and I instinctively hauled a*s as fast as I could. I’d say I finally got to about 20 feet from a jetty (rocks piled up to mitigate erosion) and got hit from behind by a wall of water. It actually carried me up and onto the very top of the jetty, and slammed me down. I could feel that my sandals left my feet, and by pure luck, they floated up and gently settled right by my hands where I was holding on to the rocks. The water receded slightly, enough for me to get over the jetty and away from the beach. I was so embarrassed that I never told my mom about it, and snuck into my house to get a shower and changed.
Fast forward to 2017 when I was living on the Florida Gulf Coast, a bunch of people walked down into Tampa Bay right as Hurricane Irma was rolling in. I legit got anxiety watching the footage from the local TV station. Needless to say, I’ve never gone anywhere near the water ahead of a hurricane again.
Image source: FelixMcGill, Nikolas Noonan / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#24
If an older man has a “saddle nose deformity” or cauliflower ears, let them be. A saddle nose deformity nose is also called a “boxer’s nose”.
An old man with training will f*****g kill you. That’s how they got to be old.
Image source: ricko_strat, Gül Işık / pexels (not the actual photo)
#25
Pitbulls.
My family has always had and loved dogs. Thought the breed was fine and just got a bad rep.
My dad brought a puppy home, we had her for 6 years. Loved her, house trained, no behavior issues, we thought.
Came home one day and she had killed our old boxer, who had been with her everyday that we had her and also was so old she had no teeth, and was chewing on her severed leg like a chicken bone.
Never again. And it makes me want to puke when people have their children crawling around with these dogs.
Image source: pussmykissy
#26
Overwork and exhaustion can be a potential killer.
When I was in my late teens I spent a few years working 80-100 hours per week. I found out that at a certain point, your body just… stops.
I woke up in a hospital bed and it took me 6 months before I started to feel semi-normal again.
Image source: UncleHeavy
#27
As a child i learned, Geese are the crowned prince of a******s of the bird world .
Image source: Erkoseus
#28
Pedestrian safety. Was hit by a car crossing the street. After cpr onsite and coma in hospital had to learn to walk and talk all over again. I triple check both ways. Even when I have the right of way.
Image source: Xebou, Vinta Supply Co. | NYC / pexels (not the actual photo)
#29
Road rage, I was chased by a guy threatening me to shoot me, that was the last time I yelled at somebody while driving.
Image source: Inevitable_Rabbit_67, Vova Kras / pexels (not the actual photo)
#30
Don’t f**k with the ocean, I got swept away by a wave while stupidly sitting on a rock too close to the water. I thought I was a goner and never to be found again but then it got tired of me and thew me back towards some rocks like a used intimate hygiene tissue.
Image source: StjerneskipMarcoPolo, sebastian Voortman / pexels (not the actual photo)
#31
Shared housing with people you’ve just met. I did it out of necessity for many years, now that I have my own place I finally feel free.
Image source: InsertMoreCoffee
#32
Chainsaws.
I don’t even like the sound anymore.
I had an accident with one and cut up my leg.
Image source: LooksBleeker, Lincoln Holley / unsplash (not the actual photo)
#33
Dehydration and overheating. Being covered in ice in an ambulance and pissing black pee will change your perspective.
Edit: one thing I have never really explained to anyone is how big of a personal victory it was for me when I regained the ability to workout hard and push myself. the experience i described below took a huge amount of recovery physically and psychologically and when I got back to a healthy state of going hard, not being afraid of my heart getting up into the cardio zones, etc. was like regrowing a cutoff limb and wining the lottery and coming back from the darkest inner fears and I don’t know if I could ever communicate how big a deal it was for me.
Image source: cliffdiver770, abhishek goel / pexels (not the actual photo)
#34
Sleep deprivation.
Damn near died in a car accident (round 1), then went mildly psychotic and paranoid (round 2).
Just dumb. There are better paths to adrenaline-fueled euphoria.
Image source: SamDBeane, cottonbro studio / pexels (not the actual photo)
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