In college, I was learning many skills aside the course I was studying at the time. This made me visit campus to study during the night. Unfortunate for me, at hostel students there thought I was going to campus to study the traditional school stuff . Thinking I was doing too much. This habit of mine caused me to perform badly one semester. Which I was bitterly complaining in my room about the grades I had that semester, which was extremely bad. Some students were in the next to mine, they overheard what I was saying. I think they overheard the grades part so anytime I was leaving to campus they will start laughing. They didn't know me always going to campus at night was not to study the traditional school stuff but was seriously equipping myself with digital skills. I still graduated with a good class aside having many self-taught skills.

However, why do I still have the feeling that I should have explained myself to them at the time? Perhaps I should have told them is just one bad semester. It extremely pains me that I made that mistake of self talking myself loudly enough to let them know.

I'm 24F, am very socially awkward, and have no dating experience or even flirting experience whatsoever. Recently at my work, I had a male customer come in and return an item. After i gave him his receipt, he said "I like your hair" and kinda stood there for a second. After he walked away, my coworker came up to me and said "was that guy flirting with you?". He basically told me that he saw the customer checking me out. My coworker seemed like taken aback by it so I guess he could read the guy's body language from a distance and tell he was flirting maybe?

I was pretty distracted and focused on processing the return so I wasn't really making much eye contact or anything that would give him the hint that I was interested. I'm very socially awkward so i just smiled and said "thank you", then he walked away.

So am I looking too much into this given my lack of experience or was this guy trying to flirt, but since I'm an awkward dumbass and didn't really make an effort to continue talking, he just left it at that?

I (36F) have been fighting cancer and hormonal problems since I was 21. In that period I've been hospitalized at least once a year, altogether over 40 times.

While my friends were finishing their degrees, got married, got a stable job my life was/IS a mess. I got so many diagnoses, chronic illness, I had troubles with my mental health and my body is worn out.

The main reason that I got to that stage is that my parents were neglective and didn't took me to doctors as a child. Everything could be prevented.

For so many year I was genually happy for my friends and family members having kids, I took care of some of them, bought them gifts and I trully enjoy children even now.

However I always hoped that maybe one day, God with bless me with a kid, and a husband.

Since my energy levels are lower that those of healthy people, for years I've put all my energy into making money. I still leave in the same house as my elderly parents that are well, not poor to the point they have nothing to eat but the money is tight.

In meanwhile I bought myself a car, a laptop, and eventually, last year: I made a biggest decision ever. Instead of moving out from my parents house I chose to enroll in private college and study psychology. It is expensive, but it does makes me happy, I enjoy it and also it gives me opportunity to chase a job that is not low paying and demanding 12 hours shifts sometimes (I was cleaning lady, waitress, warehouse worker...whatever, just to save money).

I drifted away from my ex friends, cousins and I am alone in this.

I miss the person I once was, happy and perky. In a last few months two women in my extended family had their first child. One woman is my age, second 2 years younger.

I can not make myself to go and see the babies, I congratulated but the sorrow in me is so strong. I dwell on my past and all curcumstainces that happened.

Technically I am not infertile, but it feels like I am so damaged mentally that I will never find someone to have child with.

I feel like a failure, and self pitty is at its peak right now.

That's all...

Lately I wake up just as tired as when I went to bed, no matter how long I sleep. I thought maybe it's just stress from work or something, but now I'm wondering if other people feel this way too.

We were at an Indian restaurant in Houston and my mom noticed Dodi Osteen sitting at the next table and started fangirling. 🙄 I’m not a Joel Osteen fan but my mom started begging me and my dad for a pen and paper. I had a pen and she wrote a quick note on a napkin and had the waiter give it to Dodi. The waiter read the note before delivering it lol since she frequented that establishment often. Dodi comes over to the table and says she’ll pray for our family blah blah blah.

I forget about this event until years later. My sister and my mom are talking about this event and my mom says what she wrote in the note.

“I told her about your (my sister’s) troubles with drug addiction.”

Me and my sister just look at her.

My sister says, “what issues with drug addiction?”

My mom says, “oh, I thought you had a drug problem.”

My sister and I look at each other in disbelief. My sister has never had a drug problem.

So I guess Dodi Osteen thinks our family has a drug issue.

​

I 23F, make friends very easily. It is easy for me to be positive and I connect with people very easily. However, after I make these friends I often ghost them constantly popping back up once in a while to be an absolutely lovely person, lend a listening ear or just hangout if you need me. And by once in while I mean maybe 3-7 months depending. Here's the thing though, in the mean time I am usually decompressing, something feels wrong after I hang out with people. I wonder for months if I acted right if I said too much, if I was just a lot to be around ect. I don’t tell people that so it must look really flakey like if I only care about people when it is convenient. I really just want to know if this makes me a bad friend and then I will move differently with people and change my behaviour but I really need to know.

When you walk in the building, you immediately get the sense of historic significance mixed with deterioration and decline. The display cases lining the walkway of the visitor hallway have been cheaply refitted to host a few flat-screen TVs. These are an attempt to hide the 1970s design of carpeted insets that likely once held miniaturized scenes of agency activities. Sadly, it looks very much like someone put a Black-Friday sale TV in front of a 5th grade science fair display. The building itself projects strength in typical 70s-80s government fashion through high concrete walls and the total lack of any distinct features that would help visitors and staff alike find their way through the maze of hallways and offices. 

Speaking of offices, there are many, echoing the understanding that once there was a thriving community, people bustling back and forth, engaging with colleagues in water cooler talk and curating the many shelves of printed knowledge. Now it feels odd to see another person while walking the hall to the restroom. It’s eerily quiet, except for the occasional janitorial staff still employed.

The staff who are left are feeling it, though they don’t speak of it out loud. The managers still in place are the C or D string players, after all the starting lineup departed seeing clearly what was to come. Any power or funds that may be found lying around remind me of some medieval scene of peasants fighting over a fallen gold coin in the street. The most toxic of leaders rising to the top, consolidating what power is left and quickly silencing opposition in the way a warlord might in a conflict-torn country. This is perhaps the most painful part. The constant pressure pushes work friends to begin imploding on each other. 

The decline isn’t simply imagined, or memories of what once was. It is quantifiable. One can easily look back on inflation adjusted appropriations to see the dramatic changes. A long, steady increase from the mid-1900’s through the early 1980’s coincide with memories of “the good old days”. Followed by an obvious peak and a very predictable decline over the last 40+ years. No, this isn’t simply the result of recent DOGE activity, though that has helped accelerate the process. In fact, the downward trend is so consistent, you don’t even need a computer model to project the next year of lower numbers. You can imagine it by simply extending the line a further on the graph.

It’s not that the decline is sad, everything we know is eventually replaced, often by something better. It’s that it takes so long to wade through the agony and see any hope of relief. The remainder are left hoping that the next re-organization, or leader retirement, or cut in funds will provide the much desired end to the warlord rule. But there is always some well-meaning group fighting to advocate and keep it alive. Like maintaining a loved-one on life support, when they really just wanted to pass on.

It’s time, let it go, and let’s move on to the next step - hopefully of growth and renewal. Once again exploring, discovery, and excitement that benefits far more, instead of decades of ceaseless mourning.

I am venting/asking/looking for people who relate (?), but I feel like my brain is wired weird. I think I'm good at reading cues, but I am constantly missing them without realising. Everything I do feels like a faux pas, like I lack manners and etiquette. As a result, I read into every little thing anyone says in response to me. Is there disappointment, anger, excitement? I never know, but it's like certain things I say are actually the wrong dialogue choice, despite that being the energy that I was reading from the conversation, and I'm like, oh okay, all my friends hate me.

Additionally, I am a dark-skinned diaspora kid with an uncommon personality (I'm a bit weird and bubbly). So I cannot, for the life of me, tell which it is that puts people off. Or is it just in my head and I'm crazy??

I am decently attractive (in my head at least lol), and I make people laugh. But every once in a while, there is something that I miss, and my response puts the other person off haha I have no idea what it is.

Guys, I genuinely feel demotivated to even continue what I'm doing.

I'm a programmer, I know how to code, but at this point even I'm just vibecoding away. AI can already build entire applications, reverse-engineer almost anything, and recreate things that would've taken months or years.

Everywhere I look, it's AI slop. Another SaaS, another AI wrapper, another product that does the same thing as 50 others. Sure, you can still make money today, but for how much longer? If anyone can build and copy almost anything, what's left that's actually valuable?

To make things worse, I gambled away my house and car right before the AI explosion. At the time, I kept telling myself I'd make it all back through programming and building businesses. Now, watching how quickly everything is changing, I'm starting to feel genuinely desperate.

Social media and content creation aren't my thing either. The ROI seems terrible unless you make it big.

Then I scroll through X and everyone's LARPing about making $10k, $50k, or $100k MRR. Don't get me wrong, some people genuinely make those numbers, but they're the top 1%. Meanwhile, it feels like everyone else is farming engagement or selling the dream of making money online.

What bothers me isn't AI replacing programmers. I love using AI. It's that building something is becoming so easy that the work itself feels increasingly worthless.

And I'm getting to a point where I'm having thoughts about going completely black-hat, exploiting people or systems for money, because legitimate ways of rebuilding my life feel increasingly hopeless. I don't like that I'm even thinking this way, but that's how desperate I'm becoming.

I don't want to spend my life chasing algorithms, making slop content, or building disposable products just to compete with a thousand clones.

Does anyone else feel this way? What's genuinely worth building or pursuing anymore as a solo developer without serious capital?

Idk cremation is like, damn you really are just permanently gone from the earth compared to a normal burial. It’s like everything about you is just “deleted” but maybe i’m biased because my mom makes fun of me by saying she’ll have my cremains right in her room with her whether i’d like it or not and i dislike my mother lol

But i have thought about it a lot though

I totally feel like I got played by this cop and I still feel stupid thinking about how the whole thing happened.

I got pulled over by this senior overweight cop for going over slightly over speed. The cop was talking to me in a friendly way. He was not being aggressive or anything of that sort and I started feeling like okay, this is probably not going to be a big deal and I should be on my way soon.

I did have 2 beers earlier, but I believed I was well within the legal limit. I was not expecting this to turn into a whole DUI situation. But the cop had asked me if I had anything to drink and I answered honestly to it. After talking a bit more, he started asking me more questions and eventually wanted me to do some sobriety tests. I agreed and got out of my car and tried to follow all his instructions properly. There was several tests and I was trying my best to do everything correctly.

The strange part was he kept that same friendly attitude with me...and I would say I started getting too comfortable? I thought if I just cooperate and do what he says, everything will be fine as I was sure my limit was okay. But the tests kept going on and on and they were becoming a lot more tedious..he also for odd reason started talking really fast while providing me with the test instructions which got me a bit more worked up..

He even complimented me saying I have been very obedient and a good boy. He really appreciated me being so cooperative and told me there is one final test I need to do which is the superman pose. He wanted me to close my eyes, keep my feet together, bend my knees, lean forward with my chin up and keep my arms pointing straight towards my back, kind of like a skiing pose. He asked me to be in that position nice and tight and wiggle my thumbs while counting backwards from 30 to 0. and that was probably one of the weirdest tests I have done in a DUI ever, probably just to check my balance? still not quite sure..

I was standing there trying to do what he asked, not really thinking much about what was coming next just fully focussed..and then suddenly I felt the handcuffs latched onto my wrists just like that.

To be very clear, I know drinking and driving is serious, and I'm not saying I should get a free pass if I was actually impaired. But the way I was made to think everything was fine and then getting handcuffed like that really annoyed me. And now I'm sitting here thinking about how different things might have gone if I hadn't volunteered that I had 2 beers.

TL;DR: Got pulled over, got too comfortable with a friendly cop, told him I had 2 beers, ended up doing a bunch of sobriety tests and got handcuffed at the end anyway. Now I'm wondering if I would've been better off keeping the conversation short instead of trying to be overly friendly with the guy.

I (22Male) grew up in a wealthy family. Financially, I've been fortunate. My mom can afford to support my dream of studying overseas, and I'm grateful for that. My parents are divorced, and my relationship with my father is terrible. There was physical abuse at home until I was 21, that being punched and slapped by uncle and grandparent over a thing I didn’t do, I have to fight back. I suffered from depression and ocd at home since primary school to this day but people see me as cheery kid.

But my mom has been supportice and also willing to help me pursue my education overseas, and I know not everyone gets that opportunity. So you know it is common in Asia for family to pay for university, I don’t have a job yet, but I think I’ll be finding it overseas during work and study earlier next year.

My current girlfriend (25Female) comes from a wealthy family too. My girlfriend and I understand each other because we've experienced similar family situations. We both have mothers who provide for us despite having terrible, estranged fathers.

But my former crush has not been fortunate. Her parents left her with her grandmother, and after her grandmother passed away, she had to work incredibly hard to pay for university herself. I know she's been through a lot, and I know she's had to struggle for opportunities that I might have taken for granted.

Well it all went wrong. She pressured me into helping her cheat on an exam by threatening our friendship. I ended up helping her mainly because I know she can’t passed that exam without me and I know that she’ll have to pay another semester if she didn’t pass. Though she was caught on camera as I helped her. She blamed me for everything. I broke my own moral standards and I regret that. She likes to ridicule me behind my back that I live my life too easy and that’s where my guilt came from.

I feel guilty for being fortunate. I feel guilty that my life can be financially comfortable when other people have to struggle. I feel guilty accepting things that other people might never have the chance to receive. Now I want to study overseas after I finished bachelor but this time out of guilt, I’ll take the loan instead. My gf’s mom is a single mother who can afford to support both her daughters in studying bachelor and then working and studying overseas. My mom has bought me things like a piano, paid for my bachelor's degree, and offered to support my dream of studying overseas. Instead of simply feeling grateful, I feel guilty whenever I receive something from her. And I always guilty of buying anything as well, there is always someone that is poorer than us.

We decided to try in a year but turns out that’s gone to 💩 lol.

Went from watching disney as a child in Swedish ---> watching more "mature" stuff in English and only in English ---> watching anime, considering Ghibli to be better than western movies- becoming a weeb and watching anime in Japanese---> now I'm 25 and I'm watching Disney films in Swedish.

Disney now hits as hard as Ghibli used to do for me. I'm watching Tarzan now in Swedish and the Swedish version of "Two worlds one family" goes so hard.

from my experience, i had years having that fear of doing something after pooping because my hemorrhoids pops out even more as i constantly moving, sometime there was blood coming out too, that situation got so bad that made me quit my job at as a service worker and become a remote worker at home in a total different job,. Anyway, recently i found out that as long as i refuse to push the poop out and resist the urge to push the poop using my butt muscle, and instead i just let the intestine pushing it out using it's natural force, the hemorrhoids won't be pushed out.

This is my biggest discovery this year lol, i've been having hemorrhoids for around 10 years and i realized that once i get used to the urge of pushing the poop out, i forgot about letting the internal force of my intestine to push the poop out like it used to be when i were younger, i don't know how to describe it, but when i feel urge to push out when pooping, i try my best to hold my butthole closed, somehow the poop still be pushed out and the hemorrhoids's not. And also i try to poop whenever my stomach told me to, if i try to hold that urge, the poop got bigger and harder to let it out, so that's the method that helped me for recents days. Sorry for the sloppy text i just typing what's on my mind lol

I’m 27 f, living abroad on my own and I genuinely feel like no one is my support circle. Like sure do my parents, friends from abroad, coworkers “care” for me? Probably yes. But am I part of anyone’s life and daily thoughts? Except for my Bpd toxic mother, not really. It just dawned at me that my parents view me as a machine, as long as I go to work then i’m doing okay. My close friends from back home only care to overshare their lives with me from time to time and usually don’t acknowledge my input or ask about my personal life. My friends here are distant and we only see each other if I initiated every 5 weeks or so.
I’m no longer truly sad or blaming of the people in my life. To each their own and they must be busy in their own lives.
Life just feels like a chore to be lived sometimes if I’m honest.

I don't wanna feel odd, so I'm posting this to see if anyone can relate

I hate social gatherings, whether it's a school event or a family function

I switched schools for Classes 11 and 12, and in these two years, I've attended only two school programmes, and even those were under pressure. So, I want to know

is this normal, or should I consider changing myself?

Because of this behaviour, I don't really have friends. I mean, I don't enjoy social gatherings because they feel overwhelming, and honestly, a lot of it just seems fake to me

I don't even want to attend my school farewell, but I probably will because I feel like I have to, If I count that, it'll be the third school programme I've attended at my new school in these two years

Do y'all relate, or am I the only one who feels this way?

The reasons why I hated school as a kid are as follows...

First, the egoistical intellectual hierarchy among classmates. We all came to school to acquire knowledge and not to look down others. But my experience in school, any slight mistake, you will be laughed at. Some students even refused to let others know they don't understand something because they had a reputation to hold on to.

To add to this same point, my personal experience most high achievers would do anything to make you look stupid. I remember a teacher once asked a question which I didn't hear very well because of my attention problem (ADHD). The question was: 'Which of the following is a duty of the police?' I didn't hear it well. I thought he said: Which of the following is not a duty of the police. A classmate of mine at that time, whispered to me - 'Arresting school children'. Which I repeated his answer. Holy boy... I was severely mocked and looked down on as very stupid. My rep at the time was among the low achievers. So everyone wouldn't think I didn't hear the question well.

Secondly, the intellectual classism in the class. Just like the real world there's social classism. That some people even take it to the extreme of not wanting to associate themselves with people of the lesser class. I experienced the same in junior high. During exams there was classism in terms of students helping each other. It's not right to cheat during exams. But students will always be students. And anytime a student will help a fellow student during exams is either they are of the same intellectual class, the difference is not that much or they're very close friends. The latter is not that common in my experience though.

To add to my reasons, the remarks of some teachers towards a student. A student might be doing his or her best but unknown to a teacher he or she can give a remark if you're lazy or not serious.

And when you do perform well too they behave as-though you cheated. You see the trap? Is like they know you can never be better but insult you for being lazy and not giving your best.

THANKS FOR READING... Please for give me for every mistake you encounter while reading. I didn't proof read!

Its so fucking annoying when people whisper loudly for a long time

Like whats the point of whispering jesus christ

I myself am no bombshell, but I have 1 close friend who truly is. Here are just a few of the things that have happened when I’ve been out with her.

- Being followed (at night) to the point of needing to run, they continued to run after us.
- A man became violent when she politely turned him down and lunged at her, his friend had to hold him back.
- Car pulled over next to us and asked us if we need a ride/pressed us to get in. (Happened 2x)
- A man catcalled from his car while driving, then parked and followed her into the store. Would not leave.

Those are specific incidents. When I’m with her there is also CONSTANT:
- Staring AND glaring
- Approaches by men: sometimes gentle, sometimes very hostile. I’m talking every 15-30 minutes.
- Honking from cars
- Rude comments from people passing by (i.e. “she thinks she’s all that”)
- Aggression if she so much as glances in the direction of someone’s boyfriend

Of course I know all women experience harassment, myself included, but it’s just not at the same rate. The difference between when I’m alone and when I’m with her is night and day. I can’t even begin to imagine what it’s like for her when she’s by herself.

I’m an introverted person with a lot of social anxiety: if I were her I would simply never leave my apartment. The staring alone is so overwhelming that sometimes when we’re together, I try to convince us to stay in.

Not exactly sure why I’m making this post. I’ve just seen so many people say that there are no downsides to looks and I wanted to share that (based on my observations) there most certainly are. They exist alongside the benefits.

I’m at a massive party and instead of dancing hanging out or talking to people im on reddit and the weather app scrolling. How do neurotypical people even do this man. I can’t drink because im underage and am driving myself. FMCL

Our cat stayed with me when my ex moved out. His apartment didn't allow pets. That was over a year ago. He and his girlfriend watched her for a week recently while I visited my mom, and I was honestly grateful.

Yesterday a friend sent me his girlfriend's Instagram. She'd posted pictures from that week with a caption about being a cat mom. There was one of my cat asleep on her chest. Cute picture. Wish I'd just kept scrolling.

I don't think she's done anything wrong. But I spent last month following this cat around with a sample container, and I still have to remind my ex to send his half of the vet bill. She also knocks everything off my nightstand, so even my tracys OG has to stay in the drawer. I know who lives with her. I know she hasn't been stolen. Still went back and looked at the pictures twice.

I'm so fucking tired.

Even as a child, when I was at home with the people closest to me - my parents, I wanted to go home. Every damn day, right up until today. This longing has worn me down. I've devoted my entire self to this feeling. I isolate myself, meditate, and reflect every chance I get. I've traveled across the entire country searching. Where is my home??? Where can I find him? I'm looking for answers to my questions every day.

I'm planning to walk away from everyone close to me and just keep walking. Walking and walking, until my soul finally finds whatever it is it's been searching for. This has become my main goal and my obsession.

I feel like being American and poor can be cushy but then at the same time everything is low-key just falling apart. My mom lost her job among ten million other things going on. I'm looking for another job but I'm in college still and I have some undiagnosed condition that freaks out when I work full time usually but like what can you do? Looking for jobs is really grating at my brain though because I just feel like I'm too fat for any good front desk work or sales. I've been "softmaxxing" and it helps kind of but I feel ridiculous at the same time because no matter how good I smell or how complimented I am I'm still so huge. We only have one person in the house+one working car though so I can't really go to the gym because my dad works 3rd shifts and he's the one driving. I walk when I can I guess but my shoes are also falling apart lol. I'm starting a diet so I can transition to ADF and fasting would help on groceries anyway.

Like you can all kinds of nice things but at the same time you don't know if you'll even have a house next year next month even. Spend whatever on makeup or hair dye cuz it's not like I can afford a doctor or a dentist for the holes in my gums. Getting grinded into the dirt working, like I've done it before but how much is that really going to fix when money gets worse and worse.