Share random life stories!

[VernalLapin]

I love telling stories. Sometimes I just wanna tell life stories to TBT. I recently found a subreddit called r/pointlesstories that is basically the same thing but reddit just isn’t as comfy as here. So here’s a thread were we can just tell random stories we feel like telling. They could be short or long, happy, frustrating, sad, fascinating, or boring.

I’ll start.

Spoiler: Tornado Warning

So, when I was in 5th grade and it was October, my teacher had half the class read Night of the Twisters and the other half read another book called The Haunted Dollhouse or something like that. I was assigned Night of The Twisters. Pretty spooky book. I remember it being the first time I heard a toilet being called a “John” and I was very confused. And it was the first time I heard of the grain “Milo”. Anyway, I went out with my dad one day during this time while he got his haircut. The weather was weird because it went from sunny to rainy to partly cloudy or something like that in a few hours. We were just about to go into the grocery store afterwards but the tornado siren went off. Now, I was pretty accustomed to tornado watches and warnings and such. But reading that book made it different. I panicked and my dad helped calm me down and we went home (which was not far) and went in the basement. That night I panicked again, I remember panicking or something just staring at my band folder unable to think about anything but tornadoes. That summer was really rough because I would panic every time it stormed at all. Anyway, on a brighter note, this might have been another time because a) I seemed to be in a better mood and b) I was watching Dino Dan, right after the watch had ended my I drank some Green River (a pretty green soda) for the first time.

 

[SkyKnight03]

I always play fought with my older brother. He was 20 years older than me. Obviously, I was never going to win because of the massive strength difference.

Did it stop me from trying? Never. When he came out from his room I tackled him on sight. Only to get swung around like a toy or put in a wrestling hold. It was still my dream as a kid to get 'one victory'.

One day he picked me up and tripped. He fell straight through our couch. (Which was meant to fold out into a bed). He knocked himself unconscious. I laid on him and won. He denied that it counted. But as a little kid it meant everything.

Due to...the obvious age difference, he moved out and we eventually parted ways. We still have a fantastic relationship. He's one of my favorite people. I always made sure to keep in contact with him over text. For 10 straight years. He always visits on Christmas.

I'm glad I did so. We could have easily become strangers. In terms of hobbies, I'm like a miniature version of him, so we never ran out of things to talk about.

 

[Suguri]

OK so this is recent but I felt like putting this out there because it was one of those moments where... no, I can't spoil it. But think this is a pretty great life story of mine.

So last week I went on a field trip to a museum. We started by riding a bus and walking there to look around. When lunch came we went to the market square and from there at 11:00 am we pretty much went our separate ways for a bit. No, really, we students went on our own. We didn't have our chaperones with us. (As a side note, one student got lost for a few minutes but thankfully they found him. Next time we go anywhere during a field trip we need to bring a chaperone along.) The teacher expected us to come back in an hour at 12:00 pm.

I remember feeling excited when I got this opportunity because I've been wanting to buy stuff independently on Target. I specifically wanted to get another pair of Switch Joy-cons and a new game. So when they let us go I immediately pulled out my phone and looked up walking directions to the nearest store.

Because it was a 20-minute walk there I had to finish my lunch quickly. This was the second time I went out on my own (the first time was when I was dropped off at the library to study and I went to get fries at a fast-food place nearby during one of my study breaks), so I wasn't as nervous about it as I was back then. I even played music to make the walk more tolerable. Once I reached my destination I checked the time it took to go back (it was also 20 minutes) and I realized I needed to get my stuff quickly.

I made sure to buy my controllers and the game and nothing more because of the time constraints, and by about 11:38 I wanted to go home as soon as possible but I couldn't use the directions on my phone because its battery was very low (1%!) So I had to sprint my way there. It was exhausting and I got impatient whenever I got to a crosswalk and had to wait for the signal. But guess what... I returned at 11:59, exactly one minute before 12:00 pm. What a relief! I was lucky there. I can't even imagine what would've happened if I didn't come on time...

 

[VernalLapin]

in kindergarten and first grade, our classes celebrated the 100th day of school. We’d count up the days, and in Kindergarten, a mysterious figure named “Zero the Hero” would “leave” us gifts every week leading up to day 100. I remember one week it was Froot Loops and we sorted them by color. Another time, “he” “left” his cape on the Elmo projector (yeah this was like 2008 or something, a couple years before they phased those out). We had indoor recess that day and I just curled up into a ball terrified that some stranger dressed as a superhero would come in and take it. Thankfully, that never happened. The next year, my mom made me a special shirt for the event, with the number 100 in light green puffy shirt paint. I loved it and continued to wear it around the house. During that time, my family had recently gotten an Imac and I had taken a great liking to iMovie. I would film tons of videos of me babbling nonsensically and dancing. One time I put a window decal over the camera and danced behind so it was all blurry it and thought it was literally the funniest thing on earth XD ahh, simple childhood joys. Anyway, I made a program on there called “Foo News”. It wasn’t much of a News program though, and I couldn’t tell you if any I talked about on most of them made any sense at all. I do remember that it had a repeating gimmick every episode where “three different” people would come on and introduce themselves (just me leaving and returning to the frame and doing different voices). I made a “100th” episode (there weren’t actually that many) where I wore that shirt and danced around with my stuffed animals. Oh! Not sure if this was strictly a foo news thing but I would have a “Top of The Hour Special” in some videos. This just consisted of me saying and getting excited about it. I stole that term from JTV (a jewelry shopping channel I watched constantly).

 

[Suguri]

During that time, my family had recently gotten an Imac and I had taken a great liking to iMovie. I would film tons of videos of me babbling nonsensically and dancing. One time I put a window decal over the camera and danced behind so it was all blurry it and thought it was literally the funniest thing on earth XD ahh, simple childhood joys. Anyway, I made a program on there called “Foo News”. It wasn’t much of a News program though, and I couldn’t tell you if any I talked about on most of them made any sense at all. I do remember that it had a repeating gimmick every episode where “three different” people would come on and introduce themselves (just me leaving and returning to the frame and doing different voices). I made a “100th” episode (there weren’t actually that many) where I wore that shirt and danced around with my stuffed animals. Oh! Not sure if this was strictly a foo news thing but I would have a “Top of The Hour Special” in some videos. This just consisted of me saying and getting excited about it. I stole that term from JTV (a jewelry shopping channel I watched constantly).

This looks like something I want to watch one day. It sounds funny! I wonder if you could still find the videos anywhere...

 

[VernalLapin]

This looks like something I want to watch one day. It sounds funny! I wonder if you could still find the videos anywhere...

Thanks! I know where they are, it’s just that theyre on the same dusty old computer in the basement that’s kind of a hassle to get to, and I have to figure out how to transfer them to a new device and hope the thing doesn’t blow up^^;

 

[SkyKnight03]

For a year, our family lived in the suburbs. It was on the boundary of a really bad neighborhood. We didn't live on that side, but I had to share a bus stop with teenagers from over there.

I befriended another kid (I'll just call him andy). He skipped school, smoked, was involved with the school drug trade, carried a knife on him. Basically everything I didn't do. Yet we clicked and conversed easily for some reason. Isn't life funny? He always walked me home after school. I didn't care for his 'activities', but I would never cross him. Guess I was fortunate he liked me.

Until one day when he didn't show up. I see two kids in the distance. "oh god, i'm being followed". "let me make it home, i'm so close to home".

They yell for me to stop. They start asking about Andy. I'm just like..."I don't know. We aren't that close".

...Then they wanted money. They start calling me a liar because I didn't have any. Then they ask me to flip my pockets. I was very apologetic and polite because I didn't want to get stabbed. (and realized I was getting robbed).

Then they shrugged and left me alone. One of them I recognized from math class in middleschool. We sat near each other. It's very possible that saved me from getting hurt.

(apparently andy owed them money or something. was being paranoid the day before and constantly checking behind his shoulder). Decided not to show up the next day. I was naive and didn't think they would bother me.

 

[g u a v a]

one time i was on a family road trip and we stumbled upon a ghost town in the middle of literal nowhere. we had been driving for a while and needed a place to stop to use the restroom, when we stopped at this town there was nobody around but it looked like people had just been there?? we went into a restaurant/bar and there were plates of food and coffee that was still steaming… we used the restrooms and left some money in a tip jar as a thank you to whatever ghost or shy person that worked here.

to this day that’s been the only experience in my life that i can’t explain and i wish id been more attentive to where we were on the road so i could try to find that place again. i’ve scoured google maps and have found nothing along the route we drove did we accidentally glitch into some kind of backroom??

 

[VernalLapin]

one time i was on a family road trip and we stumbled upon a ghost town in the middle of literal nowhere. we had been driving for a while and needed a place to stop to use the restroom, when we stopped at this town there was nobody around but it looked like people had just been there?? we went into a restaurant/bar and there were plates of food and coffee that was still steaming… we used the restrooms and left some money in a tip jar as a thank you to whatever ghost or shy person that worked here.

to this day that’s been the only experience in my life that i can’t explain and i wish id been more attentive to where we were on the road so i could try to find that place again. i’ve scoured google maps and have found nothing along the route we drove did we accidentally glitch into some kind of backroom??

That sounds so cool aaaa! My aunt once found a town called Blood when driving through a very rural area. She said it was very creepy. It was very hard to search for, only stuff about blood donation centers would pop up. I eventually managed to find a wikipedia page that acknowledged its existence as an unincorporated community. I think I managed to find about where it would be on Google Maps by some very few and far between clues. I wonder if it’s like that town you saw at all. It probably is at least some sort of ghost town, considering the fact that it’s not even listed on wikipedia anymore. I find stuff like that fascinating. My aunt said “who knows how many little towns are downstate that aren’t listed on maps…it’s pretty scary!” Now if I wasn’t so shy and broke and scared would go down to that county and ask the historical society about it lol.

 

[Suguri]

I used to have this classmate in elementary school. (I can't recall if it was first grade or second grade.) I don't remember much about him but I think he had a crush on me. One time me and the class went out for a bathroom break. Having already gone to the toilet, I stood there and waited for everyone else to finish when the classmate went up to me and hugged me. And then he said, "I love you!" Looking back, it was kind of startling at first but this was the only time someone who wasn't a part of my family said something like that to me, and—as someone who considers herself socially distant—that warms my heart. There was also this other time when he visited my house and he gave me this tiny Hello Kitty coin purse (or was it a capsule that had coins in it?) that came from a gashapon machine. Later he moved out, and I haven't seen him since.

 

[Neb]

When I was a kid back in 2010 one of my moms and I took a walk around the neighborhood my grandparent's 4 acre property is in. It was several miles outside a small town and all that was there was some spread apart farms in the high desert. We took my childhood dog Tucker with us. He was less than a year old at that point and was very small. We passed by my great uncle's property that was down the street from my grandparents and we said hi to him. A few minutes later a large elk stood about twenty feet from us on the gravel road. Tucker kept charging at the elk very quickly and I had to pull very hard on his leash to keep him from getting too close to it. My mom and I slowly backed away from the elk and called my other mom to pick us up. She drove up with her car and we all hopped in to return to my grandparent's house.

 

[SkyKnight03]

I preformed as Jesus Christ two years in a row at a church play.

It wasn't planned. The kid who was supposed to be Jesus didn't show up. (both years). I had long hair as a child. As soon as I walked through the door of the church, I was pulled in as a replacement. Despite having no prior involvement in the play.

It was very easy. Jesus had no speaking lines. All I did was stand there in a robe.

 

[SkyKnight03]

I suppose something that has been on my mind would fit here. (I've only spoken about it with my older brother).

In 2nd grade I was falsely accused of vandalism. Somebody had taken a sharpie and drew my name on the floor under my assigned seat.

The teacher never liked me so she wanted to immediately blame me without any actual evidence. However, why would I write my own name on the floor and incriminate myself? I was also a very meek and quiet child with perfect attendance and no behavioral history at all. It didn't add up.

Then a lady from the staff office enters the classroom and dumps out my entire bag on the floor. Thinking she would find a sharpie. There was nothing. (Invasion of privacy).

Eventually, another kid was like "we all know it was you and don't like you, but one of us will take the blame so the teacher doesn't punish us all". (After an entire day of being pressured to turn myself in for it).

I never found out who actually did it. But ugh, with stuff like this, it's no wonder my anxiety became so bad into adulthood. I have an idea, but that would make me no better than the teacher.

 

[Ghost Of Mascevanje]

Back in middle school, the social studies teacher had the class do a special assignment where we had to rewrite the Preamble of the U.S. Constitution so that even a first grader could understand it (or something like that). This was like a contest, as a cash prize of $5 would be awarded to the student who accomplished this feat the best.

The teacher eventually chose me as the winner, which I wasn't really expecting. The runner-up was a girl who I found to be a bit obnoxious, since she was usually loud, overly sarcastic and also tended to act like a know-it-all. While I didn't really care if I won the contest, I was kind of glad that I didn't lose to her (ha ha).

Anyway, it was awkward when the teacher called out my name and asked me to come up to the front of the class to retrieve my prize because everyone was just staring at me every single step of the way. After that, this social studies teacher seemed to take a higher interest in me and even tried to get to know me better, although I was pretty shy and quiet (still am).

One thing I clearly remember her asking me while I was browsing through some books was what kinds of films I liked watching. When I said horror films, she just had this puzzled or surprised look on her face, almost as if she either didn't care much for them or wasn't expecting that a middle school child would be into horror, ha ha.

 

[SkyKnight03]

I remember when I spilled a bowl of cereal as a kid. I thought my mom would be mad but instead she was like 'meh, that's not really a big deal or anything'.

Despite maybe being 3 or 4 years old, that instantly stuck to me for life. It became etched in my personality not to make a large fuss over small mistakes and to have patience with others.

It's important to remember how we behave around small kids. We never know what memories they might retain.

 

[cornimer]

Once I was sitting at a table in a hotel breakfast buffet and someone looked me in the eye, walked up to my table and grabbed my bag. My immediate reaction was to say "Um, excuse me?" really loudly. They put it back and walked away. I mean I'm glad I didn't lose my bag but if that was an attempted theft it was pretty pathetic lol.

 

[Neb]

So some schools in some states have what's called outdoor school. It's basically like a summer camp during the school year that lasts for a few days and involves classes out in the woods. When I was in the fifth grade my school started a fundraiser where if we raised $35,000 in a few months we could go out to the woods for a three day outdoor school. We not only reached the goal, but exceeded it. As promised the music teacher dyed his hair bright pink for a day and had it shaved by the gym teacher during an assembly. This moment was preserved in the yearbook and I wish I could find it since I really want to see it again.

 

[VernalLapin]

So some schools in some states have what's called outdoor school. It's basically like a summer camp during the school year that lasts for a few days and involves classes out in the woods. When I was in the fifth grade my school started a fundraiser where if we raised $35,000 in a few months we could go out to the woods for a three day outdoor school. We not only reached the goal, but exceeded it. As promised the music teacher dyed his hair bright pink for a day and had it shaved by the gym teacher during an assembly. This moment was preserved in the yearbook and I wish I could find it since I really want to see it again.

I did outdoor school in 6th grade. It was really busy and fun, even though I had several negative experiences. They had a farm with llamas, I hung out with my friend a lot, got to sleep on the top bunk, we made jello snot (in an activity where we learned all about snot’s role in the immune system), played a food chain game that was really fun (at least for me because I was a snake and only had one predator to worry about, eagles), I saw a sky with so much less light pollution, a shooting star, and the northern lights (looked like thin faint cloud covering half the sky), and my parents wrote me sweet and funny letters to read each day. That field trip had such a distinct, pleasant smell but I couldn’t tell you what it was.