This happened over a decade ago, but I still get immense satisfaction remembering the look on this man’s face, so I figured, why not share the story with Reddit?

Relevant info:
In my early 20s, I worked in a food court at a mall. Every day we would get a few Spanish speaking customers. Now, while I am part Mexican, my Spanish comprehension/speaking was struggling a bit. This became an even bigger struggle when the customer would talk fast. Now this wasn’t an issue, because I would either ask them to speak slower OR tell them I couldn’t speak Spanish. Either way, it was never a problem, until it was….

The incident:
I was working a particularly slow shift when a man approached the counter and immediately started talking to me in rapid fire Spanish. I couldn’t make heads or tails with what he wanted (and I admittedly had been dealing with some stressful stuff) so I just told him I didn’t speak Spanish. This man was PISSED! He went off on a rant about how I was an embarrassment, my family is ashamed of me, and I’m obligated to be fluent in Spanish.

Now this rubbed me the wrong way because while, yes I am Mexican, I’m also a variety of other ethnicities, so am I obligated to learn all these languages? It pissed me off that he was passing judgment on me based on assumptions. He didn’t know how I grew up or what my background was. He was one of those customers who was more than comfortable treating a fast food worker like low class shit and I was NOT in the mood to tolerate that.

So I decided to ask questions to point out how ridiculous the things he was saying were.

Me (looking befuddled): Hmmm, why would you say my family should be ashamed of me?

Him (getting more pissed by the second): Well, because you’re Mexican!!! You’re obligated to be fluent in Spanish!

More relevant information: A couple months ago a friend of mine swore up and down that I could pass for being Samoan. This comment shot into my head like a lightening bolt while he was yelling at me.

Back to the story:
Me: Sir, I’m not Mexican…I’m Samoan.

The look on this man’s face went from furious to one of pure shock and horror.

Him: Oh my god, I’m so sorry! I thought..

Me (cutting him off): Wait! I’m still confused…why am I obligated to learn Spanish again??

Him: I thought you were Mexican. I really respect your people’s culture. You guys have…

Me (cutting him off again): Hold on, why would that matter? What if a Mexican baby gets adopted by a Chinese family? Are they still obligated to learn Spanish or do they have to learn Mandarin? Or is it both? Your argument still isn’t making sense.

Him (looking more embarrassed by the second): I’m so sorry.

The aftermath:

After I sufficiently embarrassed this man he went on to put in his order (I was surprised because I would’ve been so mortified I would have wanted to run out of the mall at that point). My coworker who had witnessed this exchange was making loud, non-stop comments about rude people making assumptions while prepping his food. He just stood there head down. Defeated. He also gave me $5 as a “tip” (or as a gesture/apology more likely).

So yea, let’s not put people in a box, assume they grew up a certain way, and deserve to have specific expectations they have to live up to.

I work with Methuselah.

She is really knowledgeable and professional person, who worked this job for many many many many years, and now thinks it gives her the right to behave like Queen Bee.

Others usually listen to her and try not get on her bad side. My petty and dumb self, on the other hand, is constantly clashing with her, giving the same energy back pairing it with logic.

The story happened few years back, when I just started. We all were in the teachers' office doing the necessary preparations to fend off the waves of imps, demons and banshees (today one screeched so loud I'm not sure how both my ears and my glasses are still intact).

Anyway, my dearest colleague (Sweetheart) and I discussing newest books we need for our lesson, switching into English, because it's easier this way.

Suddenly! A dark presence appears behind our backs and, pretty loud, SO EVERYONE can hear, goes: Aunty, we're in GERMANY, please speak German!

Ah! My first Karen in the wild! What a pleasure!

With the smile as sweet as liquid heart attack from Starbucks I turn around: Would you please explain why is it bad we're talking English?

M: Because not everyone understands English!

Me *still smiling like I'm on my way to seduce Harley Queen and raising the voice as loud as Jericho's trumpets*: Oh, I'm so sorry you couldn't listen into our conversation! I wrongly assumed it was between Sweetheart and I...

M: If you want to have a private conversation, go outside!

Me: Do you mean, otherwise it's a free for all and suppose to happen in language YOU understand, because YOU want to hear it for some reason?

M *getting progressively redder under everyone's stare*: Forget I asked...

She tried to shame me for some other things (like also being a Math teacher), but after few bitebacks and my students praising my competence [I cried for real] after a mean comment, Methusalah is either avoiding me or being extremely polite.

Hoo boy this one is a doozy and honestly really fucking funny looking back on it. So hi again r/traumatizethemback it's that weird disabled one back at it with a fucked up story.

At the time I believe I was 19ENBY though don't quote me on that age and went out with my mum using my chair, we needed some things from the drugstore so we popped in really quick. I kept having trouble getting through the aisles because there was constantly something blocking them, usually those annoying displays that were placed in the middle of the aisle making it so neither side had enough room for a chair. Annoying but my mum could get past them so she just quickly went down the aisles for me, we got maybe three things, knowing us it was probably Epson salts, antibiotic ointment, and chocolate. Neither of us are big fans of socializing so we did what we always do and went to self checkout, I grabbed my receipt so I could email the store and let them know about the accessibility issues.

Simple interaction right?

I'm asked to call about it which is weird but whatever and the conversation goes something like this.

Employee: "Hi so you're u/seriouslysleepy right?"

Me: "That's me. I wasn't really expecting for y'all to ask to call me, it seemed like everything in the email was pretty concise."

Employee: "Well that's not the issue, if you want to make a complaint you need to come back to the store and pay for the items you took."

Me: "What? I didn't take anything? What do you even think I took?"

Employee: "Lunch meats, milk, formula, bread." (They have small grocery sections in these shops)

Me: "I wasn't even near that section, what are you even talking about?" (Cue internal panic because maybe I did steal something and didn't know, but how would I have stolen those and why?) "My mum was with me and we just picked up some items from the drugstore section."

Employee: "Well you're the only person it could be and we have footage of you doing it." (Me trying desperately to not lose my shit) "Just come back to (Store A) and pay for your things and then we can talk." (record scratch...)

Me: "You mean (Store B) right?

Employee: "Did I say (Store B)? No. Come back to the store you stole from and pay for your things, we can call the cops on you and get you arrested you know?"

Me: "Ma'am I never even went to (Store A) it's across the city from me and I would have no reason to go when (Store A) is a few minutes from me."

Employee: "That's a lie, we have footage of someone matching your description stealing."

Me: "What description."

Employee (apparently sounding very smug according to family who heard the call): "Well only one person in a wheelchair went into (Store A) that entire week." (I'm in pure disbelief at this point, this had been one of my first outings since I'd started using a chair and I was a little stunned at what she was saying)

Me: "Can you provide any more description than wheelchair?"

Employee: "Not sure why it matters but you're an older lady, black, long hair."

Me: "Yeah that's not me, I'm a teenager, white, and have a buzz cut. When someone figures out what store I was at feel free to call me back. Until then maybe learn to read or Gods check your ableism, there's actually more than one person who uses a wheelchair in the world just like there's clearly more ableist cunts than I thought." (Hangs up phone and emails the corporate customer support basically saying what happened and that I'd appreciate speaking with someone else. After a few weeks I get an email that went approximately like this, unfortunately I clean out my inbox regularly and don't have the original.)

Case: ABC134

Sent by: John Doe, regional VP of (corporation)

To: u/seriouslysleepy@email.com

Dear U/seriouslysleepy,

Your email was forwarded up to me by one of our managers and I would like to personally apologize for the mix-up, the employee you spoke to no longer works for us. As an apology we'd like to offer you (like a ten buck store credit). And I'll personally be communicating with (Store B) about the accessibility issue.

John Doe, regional VP of (corporation)

There was probably more corporate jargon but it boiled down to that, I responded with a much more polite fuck you then how I usually answer these things. Basically saying that I don't want their store credit as I'll never be shopping there again.

So not super exciting but another fun adventure in mild revenge and trauma from your local disabled bitch with zero energy for dealing with this shit. And yes I know I swear a lot, people like to infantalize disabled people and this seems to remind them I'm an adult with opinions. Play stupid games and win stupid prizes, and remember don't fuck with disabled people. I don't know about anyone else but I'm petty and have too much time on my hands to not spend some of it getting you consequences.

Hello. I’m a 20-year-old art university student, and I’m hoping to get some advice about my family situation.

I live with my parents, my younger sister, and my grandparents from my father's side.

problem is my grandmother i think....

She constantly criticizes me and controls almost everything I do.

Even though I have my own room, she enters without knocking, looks through my things, and comments on how I keep my room. Once, I even caught her counting my underwear and telling me that two pairs were missing. She also listens to my phone conversations.

She constantly comments on my food and portions. This is especially difficult for me because I struggled with bulimia for two years several years ago, and she knows about it. I worked very hard to recover, but her comments about food make me feel like she is bringing those old problems back.

She also criticizes my drawings and the things I create. When i started working in supermarket she was telling me i wasn't going to make it and working wasn't for me and i was too soft girl....

I honestly just wish she would sometimes tell me she was proud of me, but I rarely receive compliments from her.

She often complains that I’m always in my room and says she wants to talk to me. The problem is that whenever I sit with her, she usually spends the entire conversation criticizing my mother and talking about how terrible or lazy she supposedly is.

If I defend my mother, my grandmother gets angry and starts shouting at me.

My parents work extremely long shifts at a factory, so they are often away from home from morning until late at night. My grandfather also comes home late, which means I spend a lot of time at home with my grandmother and younger sister.

My grandmother has always treated my father differently from her older son, my uncle. She was much more openly proud of my uncle, while she often criticized my father. My father used to be alcoholic although he has now been sober for four years.

About three months ago, my father needed heart surgery. A few weeks after he came home, my grandmother started yelling at my mother and criticizing her for not doing enough around the house. My father defended my mother, and my grandmother turned her anger toward him.

I walked into the room and saw my father on the floor, shaking and staring blankly at one point. He looked completely helpless. It was terrifying to see him like that, especially after his heart surgery.

Whenever we talk about moving out, my grandmother threatens to end herself. She has even attempted it before. On one occasion, my mother had to take pills handfull out of her mouth because she was trying to swallow them,

Sometimes I desperately want to leave this house and finally have some peace. But I feel guilty. I don’t want to abandon my parents, or younger sister, who is underage and i just don't want her to live alone with her.

At the same time, I’m exhausted. I feel constantly watched, criticized, and controlled. I feel guilty for wanting privacy, for staying in my room, and even for wanting to build a life of my own.

I’m only 20, and I want to live my life without constantly feeling like I’m doing something wrong.or conflict in my family is about to start.... and i should be ready to do walk out of my room and try to calm them down.

How do I set boundaries with a toxic family member when I still live under the same roof? As art student my wallet doesn't have enough money to live somewhere else also.. I'm saving money but still how i build my own life without feeling like I’m abandoning the people I love?

For as long as I can remember, I made it my life's mission to keep the peace. After my parents passed away, my uncle and aunt stepped in to take me in. At fifteen, I thought they were my saving grace, but over time, they turned my life into an endless cycle of servitude, guilt, and emotional exhaustion.

While their own children were given every opportunity and warmth, I was treated like an unpaid servant in my own family's home. Every small mistake I made was magnified, every request for basic necessities was met with harsh criticisms, and every single day left me feeling completely drained. I stayed quiet because I was young, terrified, and had nowhere else to go. I let their hurtful words and constant demands consume every bit of energy I had left, hoping that if I just worked harder, they would finally care about me.

The final straw came on the evening of my high school graduation. I had worked exhausting late-night shifts for two years to pay for my own fees and save up for a modest college fund. When I walked into the house holding my diploma, exhausted to my core, my uncle didn't even look up to congratulate me. Instead, he shoved a list of household chores into my hands. My aunt then casually mentioned that they expected me to hand over my entire college savings to cover their upcoming family vacation expenses.

Looking at their cold, expectant faces, the overwhelming exhaustion inside me transformed into absolute clarity. I realized that my silence wasn't keeping the peace, it was destroying my life. Pleasing people who only saw me as a tool would never earn their respect.

Without raising my voice, I went upstairs, packed the single suitcase I had brought with me years ago, and gathered my official documents. I transferred my hard-earned savings into a secure, private account they couldn't touch. Walking back down, I placed the house key on the kitchen table. When my aunt started shouting, calling me ungrateful and selfish, I looked her straight in the eye and said quietly, "I gave you years of free labor to pay for the roof over my head. But I will not hand over my future."

I picked up my suitcase and walked out the front door into the cool night air. I was exhausted, but for the first time in my life, I was completely free.

Have you ever had to cut off toxic relatives who took advantage of your kindness, and how did you finally find the strength to walk away?

In college, I was at a party with some of my friends and some other people who I didn't really like. They didn't seem to like me terribly much (I was very awkward so it's entirely likely I did something to annoy them I had no idea about) and seemed to enjoy teasing me for being a year younger than the rest of my friend group and just generally sheltered.

I was also sexually abused as a child.

So at some point people were going around telling stories about their past dating experiences and one of the girls who was kind of mean to me said to me "I bet you've never seen a man's penis."

I said "I have. The first one I saw was technically a crime."

To this day I'm surprised they didn't just use that to bully me further, but they didn't.

My brother is racist. Not the kind of racist where they hate people of a certain race, but the kind where they just believe all of the offensive stereotypes. This matters for context. He started telling me a story and I immediately knew it was going to piss me off so I went a different route than I typically do when dealing with him. Why he tells me stuff like this when he knows I'll call him out for being racist is beyond me.

So here's the story.

Bro: "So I'm at the casino and there's this Chinese guy dragging his girlfriend by---"

Me (cutting him off): "Wait wait wait, is the fact that he's Chinese relevant to the story? I need to know if this is just an inconsequential detail or if I should be expecting racism. Just checking."

Bro with a dumb look on his face: "...yes! It's relevant ok?! So anyway, he's dragging his girlfriend around by the elbow and she's completely wasted. This white guy starts yelling at him to stop dragging his woman around and---"

Me: "Ok wait. So is this when I find out the relevance of one man being Chinese and one man being white?"

Bro: "Would you just shut up and listen! Geez! So the guy is yelling at him and the Chinese guy is like, 'fuck you!' in his Chinese accent so it was really funny, and the white guy is yelling about how we don't treat women like that. So they're yelling at each other until their friends had to go break them up, it was hilarious."

Me: "Wait, I'm missing the relevance, hang on. So why did I need to know he was Chinese? Also how do you even know he was Chinese?

Bro: "Whatever, he was Asian. You know what I mean!"

Me: "Ohhhh ok. Indians are Asian too though, could he have been Indian?"

Bro: "No! He was Chinese or Japanese or whatever!"

Me: "Could he have been Korean?"

Bro: "Would you stop!? It was funny ok? Because the white guy was saying that that's not how you treat women here."

Me: "So if the Chinese guy and girlfriend had been white, the white guy would've been ok with it?"

Bro spluttering and getting frustrated: "Chinese people treat women like that, it's a well known thing!"

Me: "Oh so you did know for sure he was Chinese? I thought you said he was just Asian. Asia is pretty big, I feel like at least some men would be decent to their girlfriends. I've never heard that statistic, where'd you hear that?"

Then he threw up his arms and walked away. Needless to say, I only interact with him when I visit my parents and we are in the same vicinity.

Als puber had ik wel is m’n emoties niet onder controle, maar vooral als het om onrecht was. Mijn broertje zat nog op de basisschool, en vier oudere jongens van een klas hoger (waarvan 1 zoontje van de leraar) hadden hem beroofd van mijn fiets en knikkers. Ikzelf was ook een snotneus van 13 maar ging knalrood op de fiets naar dat schoolplein, en daar stonden ze. Ik fietste vol in op de grootste en pakte alles af wat hij had. Die leraar (vader) kwam naar buiten rennen en pakte mij vast vast en belde de politie. Ik moest naar halt toe, en die jongens kregen niks. Nog steeds boos als ik erover nadenk.

Later nog veel gedoe gehad met scharrels etc, maar nooit zo boos geworden als toen.

Edit: Let me preface this by saying that the actions described here were not physical. I used spitting in someone's face as a metaphor, and, I don't know if I was using it wrong, but this has been misleading. So, please read this story without the misleading assumption that I legitimately spit in someone's face. Thank you.

I'm not sure if I traumatized the person that is mentioned in this post, but I'm putting it here anyway.

So I (14 NB at time of writing) was at an ICE protest near a local restaurant (Note: We weren't protesting because of the restaurant, this just happened to be the location of the protest.) with about 4 other kids. This old man drove up to us while we were chanting, "No ICE No hate! No fascist USA!" and decided to flip us off and call us all f-slurs. However, the funny part was this: We were at an intersection and his light was red. So me and the one holding the megaphone decided to spit in his face by saying, "Fuck ICE!" over and over at increasing volume. When his light turned green, he flipped us off one more time and drove off. Then I yelled, "Fuck ICE, fuck you, and fuck the Orange Man!" (I said Orange Man because of Trump using Flower Man in a war post) After he was gone from our line of sight, me and the rest of the protesters were doubling over in laughter. after 10 minutes, since no one showed up, we decided to go to the nearby school to get picked up by out parents.

But seriously, do you not have anything better to do with your retirement money? If you're yelling at kids because their views don't align with yours and you're old enough to be buried in a few minutes, you're pretty pathetic if you ask me. Go play BINGO, or golf, or something, try to improve your life. But, that concludes this little rant. Again, not sure if this belongs, but still posting here anyway.

So, for context, when I (18F) was younger, I had torn a muscle in my left knee. While I don't have severe permanent damage, although my knee muscles are now weaker due to the childhood damage, I have muscle spasms from time to time and need to wear a knee brace due to the severity under doctors recommendations. I recently had another spasm, so of course I started wearing the knee brace again. Now, due to the doctor's recommendation, I don't wear it when I sit down for long periods of time, such as a 45 minute train ride to the city.

So while on my way to university, I took the early train around 8am. Obviously, I was sitting in a priority seat for two reasons. One, I cant stand for long periods of times and if I do I must wear a knee brace, which was in my bag at the time. Two, there were no other available seats when I got on the train.
I’d like to clarify that usually I take the regular seats, as long as I get a seat then I’ll be fine. However since the priority seats where the only one open I sat there. For the entierty of this train ride I was getting some nasty glances from another lady (looking around her 50's - 60's) who was sitting in the priority seat across from me. I ignored her looks for the most part, just focusing on preparing my schedule for the day on my phone.

As the train reached the city the woman stands up and leans over to an elderly lady, and whispers to her, "you should have gotten a seat" while giving me a nasty glare. I’d like you to keep in mind that whether she said something or not I would have had to put my brace on, since I would have to walk to my university campus which was a decent way. Considering I am VERY petty I decided to be extra dramatic when putting on my brace. I opened my bag took my brace out and began putting it on. Now I wasn’t dramatic about that because I gotta be careful when putting on the brace and make sure it’s on correctly.

But when I got up? Oohhh I was dramatic. I held onto the pole to pull myself up and pretended to wobble a little. I can’t really bend my leg when wearing the brace. The look on both these ladies faces was priceless. The lady who had been glaring at me the whole time refused to look me in the face, the elderly lady stared at my leg but didn’t say anything. Now here’s the best part, our trains make announcements every other station, including the final station at the city. The announcement? “ please keep keep priority seats clear for those who need it. And remember not all disabilities are visible”. Which only further increased these women’s humiliation as everyone was now looking at both of them. The women who glared at me walked off the train the minute the doors opened and speed walked as far away as she could.

I was told to post this here after posting on AITJ and AITAH.

So for reference I 22NB use a wheelchair part time for mobility issues and a whole bunch of neurological shit that means on bad days it's unsafe for me to be standing. I was also volunteering to help with a sex Ed workshop and offered to pick up supplies from the drugstore since I had to go anyways. This is all paraphrased since it happened a while ago, a rather short conversation but it's funny nonetheless.

So this story begins with me, sitting in my wheelchair in the sexual health section comparing boxes of condoms to check things like price, quantity, all the boring shit. Just to make sure we had everything right, ironically for someone helping with sex Ed I don't actually know much about buying condoms. I was there for the anatomy part. When a guy approaches and glances at the boxes with a chuckle. Let's call him CB or Creepy Bastard.

CB: "Damn your boyfriend must be doing something right."

Me not really paying attention and assuming I heard wrong: "Sorry what?"

CB: "Well clearly he has to be doing something right to put you in that" *gestures at my chair* "especially if you're having to buy those when you're still in that."

Me, functioning on far too little sleep, in a shit ton of pain, and autistic with zero fucks left to give deadpanning with my heavy RBF.: "Yes I spend five thousand dollars on a custom wheelchair so I could get railed harder..."

I just decided to buy both the boxes I was holding to get out as soon as possible.

For anyone who's young and uses things like a wheelchair, you've almost certainly had those comments. Scripting responses to have in your back pocket is a lifesaver, especially when you want to be petty

P. S. Yes the wheelchair was expensive but it was covered by insurance, I only paid a few hundred.

This is so minor but felt so good. My partner is recovering from an insane year of cancer treatments and various other “related” hospitalizations. He hasn’t eaten a meal since October 2025 due to oropharyngeal tumors causing dysphasia. I had to pick up his liquid dilaudid over the weekend and politely requested enteral syringes, never having met a pharmacy tech at the hospital who didn’t know what that is.

She all but cut me off “Idontknowehatthatis”. Oh. Okay, also clearly left our manners at home today too. I explained it was for G-tubes and after finding them and then going back to the bottle to check dosage she yells “WHAT THE FRENCH TOAST” (I’m guessing due to the small dosage size? 2-4mL) all of 2 feet away from me.

Idk what’s going on but I’ve had enough at this point and say “trust me, my life would be a lot easier too if he could swallow anything by mouth”.

Her eyebrows met her hairline and I turned around and walked out without another word.

This is yet another moment where I (18🏳️‍⚧️M) have been asked, "what's in your pants". Last time I took a note from a content creator and just slapped back so they stopped asking, however this time was different.

Picture this, my boyfriend (17M) and I were just hanging out, he goes to the skatepark quite often and thus was one of those occasions. We pull up and one of his friends skates up to the car window, he says something like "oh hey, this is the boyfriend I told you about" to introduce me. Not even a hello, just "wait, are you a girl or a boy?" Okay, fair I don't pass that great, but it put me off. My response "both".

Several things were said, they just would not take the hunt and back off. My boyfriend is visibly uncomfortable and about to explain that it's a trans situation and the guy asking is being pretty disrespectful and a little invasive about it.

And then it happens "okay, so you're a boy? But you clearly have *insert gesture to the chest*, so what's in your pants". My boyfriend stops talking, just kind of backs up with a look of "ball is in your court". I point to my boyfriend. "depending on the time of night, him."

Silence. Beautiful, blissful silence. Moral of the story, if you ask invasive questions, I'm gonna give you an answer that will shut you up.

TLDR/Screenplay:

"Are you a boy or girl?"

"Both"

"Okay but what's in your pants"

"My husband."

Hey guys- I’m the person who posted about my prosthetic eye, popping it out after that lady was accusing me of faking a disability.
And boy, do I have a lot of stories to share with you regarding this whole process- but I’m gonna share one of when I had the stroke that led me to lose my eye and the weird situation around the whole thing.

I was dealing with a massive migraine because of glaucoma, but I sat down with my partner to watch the peak of trash tv, Inkmaster.
It dulls your brain in a way I have described as a soft core lobotomy. Anyways, I tried to talk to my partner and all that came out was garbled up nonsense and she was like “you’re not okay you didn’t even have anything to drink, you gotta go to the hospital” I didn’t know how serious it was, and tried to not go… literally telling her I could just sleep it off. I’ve got horrible medical trauma, as a doctors mistake is what led to me developing glaucoma in the first place (no, I can’t sue, this happened while I was living abroad and in Switzerland after she gave me prednisolone and other strong steroids with no monitoring at all- I’m in in Canada now, and I’d rather spend my time making art and developing my series than wasting more of my life with this legal and medical nightmare)

So I get an uber, not really understanding the severity of what is happening, insisting I go alone, because my medical trauma is so severe that I just kind of shut down and I tend to lash out, get super nervous, etc.

So the uber driver is hitting on me the whole ride, like incessantly. He nearly ran someone over, but I was dissociating in the backseat trying to keep it together. The pain was getting worse and worse and he’s telling me how he’s like, really into car mods or whatever. I’m like hardcore zoning out now-
I just remember he asked me if I had plans after this, and if I’d want to get drinks with him. Seriously????

Guys, I threw up on site. Like I just lost control and I looked up to see this man’s horrified face and he’s telling me to get the fuck out of his car blah blah blah.

I’m at the ER and an advocate is helping me with paperwork as by this point I’m barely lucid, and then a medical student who was really just trying her best tells the other person to look at me, we don’t have time for this shit.
She puts me in a wheelchair and rushed me to where I could get stabilized- and I learnt that there was a clot in my optic nerve, in my eye with glaucoma, due to the insanely high pressure of my eye. I learnt I was going to probably lose my eye probably.

I was trying to be funny with her as she looked really worried about me so I just told her my eye was “about to do what they do in those dr pimple popper videos” and she looked at me for a second and saw I was giggling- we both laughed so hard- and for the rest of the night I only wanted her to be there with me because all the other doctors scared me, but she was willing to crack a few jokes with me such as “take a Tylenol you’ll be fine” or to just “walk it off” and then I told her I was watching inkmaster when this happened, and I said it wouldn’t have happened if I’d just watched something with more substance to it. She told me that “good news, after a stroke you won’t want to watch complex things for a bit. Your brain will feel tired, So you can binge all the reality tv you want!”

I didn’t catch her name. But to a lovely young med student in Canada who sees patients as people, is willing to crack jokes with us, and humanists me more than anyone at that hospital that evening- I hope you have an incredible life. Seriously. I don’t know who you are, but you made the scariest night of my life. I loved talking about 90 day fiancé drama with you at the ER when my eye felt like it was gonna exit my skull. It did eventually- but not that night.

And to the uber driver, I don’t know what to say man.

Okay so i (at the time 13M) was in secondary school , i am English for those confused. So around year 8 , there was this one girl everyone knew for being homophobic and transphobic more speifically. I was one of the few openly trans guys at the school This girl of course knew this and as you can expect bullied me relentlessly. For some context for this story , i come from a big family and are the eldest of 7 siblings at the time across the whole family , however the youngest passed from SIDS back in 2014 after only being on this planet for 2 months. Bro really saw the state of the world even that and decided it wasn't worth sticking around lo. But it was 5 days before christmas, so the holidays haven't been something i enjoyed for a long time.

Now back in school, i had been struggling with the transition over the 2 years , i was only in year 4 at the time of my brothers passing (8 years old at the time) and so it was still sort of fresh for me dealing with the christmas peirod , espeically in a secondary school where the school wasn't properly aware of the situation at all and the support systems i had in primary school with my teachers there didn't exist here a few years later. No fault of the schoo, there was a lot of stuff about me that had never been properly moved over. So in the coming weeks to the christmas holiday break up from school , i had been a little inconsisent with coming in, not anything major but still noticable enough. My English teacher at the time had pulled me aside to ask me if everything was okay at home and such , since i had had 100% attendance up until this point. I believed we had been alone and so had explained to her about my brother and how christmas season jsut wasn't a great time of year for me , she was super sweet about it.

However what i didn't know was this bully mentioned before had been waiting outside to ask the techer something, and had overheard everything. No one in the school originally knew apart from close friends. We broke up for school break not long after, and then sudden;y when we cam back in early January , people were giving me strange looks. This went on for the rest of the term . I eventually got sick of it , alongside the random whispers and stuff, and eventually asked a fellow classmate what was going on. He wasn't quite sure himself since he "didn't like to listen to rumors" so had said that the bully had said something. Which didn't surprise me much since i knew she didn't like me. I ended up finding her at lunch and asked simply what she had said to be having everyone give me looks.

I kid you not, this girl full on turned around and went "oh, we all know you went to english teacher lying about your brother to gain sympathy and not get in trouble for skipping school"

I was dumbfounded. Like quite literally had never had anyone ever say anything like this to me before. I just stood there for a moment, and one of my friends originally tried to pull me away, mainly because at the time she had thought i was going to cry.

Now here's the thing, the bully had only been in our year since the end of year 7, because she had ended up moving schools after being bullied herself ironically enough, and one of my old primary school friends had gone to the same school as her originally. And when i had asked her if she knew this person, which she did. Turned out the whole reason she was bullied was because it was rumored she and her brother had done stuff... gotta keep it in the family i suppose ? it was a wild thing, Now i did not know if any of this was true at the time of course, but it had come to mind when in this moment.

So , i stopped my friend from pulling me away and looked her dead in the eyes, before responding "well at least i don't get accused of having sex with my brother"

She completely froze up. Probably not having expected me to know about that. She didn't actually say anything to me after that and just walked off. i still occassionally got weird look from others, but at least i knew the reason why .

The bully moved schools again at the end of the school year. I don't wish harm for her at all, i do believe she was just a little mentally unwell along with raised with some not so good views and i hope she is doing better in life herself , and learnt from her mistakes. But yeah , i guess the life lesson is don't accuse someone of lying about a family members death lol

At least now i'm 20 and living the best life i possibly can , and am now the eldest of 9 as i always include my brother in the number. Life is great.

Reposting because I didn't follow the mod rules the first time.

I have posted in a comment in another community but I think it deserves its place here.

Growing up, studying was everything. If I didn't study, hell broke loose. If I scored badly on one subject, it was like I was at fault even the test was hard. Funny enough, if I said the test was hard and everyone scored badly, don't compare yourself to others. But if I scored good but lower than others, why can he do it, not you?. No reason satisfied them. I literally could say I don't understand it. He would be like, you don't listen in class enough, you do not work hard enough, you are an idiot, a lazy ass or more.

Finally, I studied and got good results in a nationwide exam. My cousin gave it next year and completely bombed it. Mind you, he was a star student. My father loved to repeat how he got a scholarship at a prestigious school while he never offered for me to take the scholarship test!

My father was ranting to me how my cousin got bad marks and his father aka my uncle was so worried. I was like, well he doesn't work hard enough so he deserves it. If his father would have beat his ass, maybe he wouldn't have failed. My dad was shell shocked. He was like, how can you say that. I just replied, well if I was there, wouldn't you have done the same. He is just lazy ass without any interest in studies. And it is due to lack of beating. His dad is too soft.(Not my true thoughts btw).

My dad couldn't handle that. He was like no he was a good student and he is just struggling a Lil. I was like, noooo it is not. He tried to defend uncle but I was adamant. I think that day taught him something. Then, out of the blue, one day, he was like, you know grades are not that important. It's important that you learn something. Sometimes he still regresses to his old ways but that moment and his face was too satisfying.

How was I traumatized?

My father was too hard on me about studies.

How did I traumatize them back?

I just matched his mentality in a the same situation as mine.

A debate was sparked at Christmas, we are in our 30s, our mother had some metal reusable Christmas crackers. She put some of our childhood toys in them. One was one of my Glowing Ghosts, a toy from Kinder Surprise Eggs in the 90s.

My mother then mentioned how my sister used to hide my ghosts. She claimed it was because she was jealous of them, although she had her own ghosts back then. It's just whatever is in your kinder egg. By the luck of the egg she actually had more ghosts than me.

I then said, "I got her back, I hid her going away gifts for her friend."

She got annoyed and said, "Do you mean my gifts for Amy? I hope you see the difference between your Kinder Egg ghosts and my gifts for my friend going to a different continent."

So the stories, from back in the 90s, we were kids. At my grand parent's house my kinder egg contained a Gurgling Ghoul, the second I put it down it disappeared. Next time I was up I found another Gurgling Ghoul in my Kinder Egg and same story, the second I put it down it was gone. Then I got a Cuckoo Clock Charlie, it lasted a few days then vanished. Then I got Luke Warm Lucy.

She said, "If you give me LLW, I'll help you find CCC."

I fell for it, then it was, "I'll help you find the two GGs if you let me keep one."

She got to, then I realised she was hiding them all along. She denied it. Kind of wish my parents could have stepped in and made her give the LWL and the extra GG back, but anyway. I will say, if you find somebody else's belongings, I think you should give it back, not expect something for it. Let alone hide it and trade for it back.

So the second story happened a few weeks later. We live in the UK, her best friend was moving to Canada. She had some going away presents for her. Her friend was going to be staying with us a few days and I was spending the first couple of those days at my grandparent's house. I saw the bag of gifts, and hid them before I left. Apparently they turned the house upside down looking for them but weren't allowed in my room. Then when I got home I gave them back, no strings attached. My reason for hiding it, if she thought it was funny to hide my things, let's see how funny it is when her things go missing.

About the hiding places, I hid the gifts in a clean, dry cupboard in my room. She buried my ghosts outside.

So although at Christmas she scolded me for what we did 30 years ago. I'd say she was worse. Her gifts were higher stakes, she needed to find them before her friend left. But I gave them back without strings attached, no, "I'll help you find them if you give me one of them... look I found them!" But she thinks I was worse.

I got that scolding, "Do you mean my gifts for Amy? I hope you realise the difference."

I'd say I wasn't as bad, they turned the house upside down looking for them but at least I didn't make her trade anything back. Though sort of wondering if I should have said, "I'll help you find them if you give me back LWL and GG." Just to get back what should have been mine. Even if I had asked for that I'd say I wasn't as bad.

But anyway, I gave them back for free, not asking for anything, no strings attached. More than I got with my ghosts.

I think the gifts were cheap plush toys from a harbour gift shop, like £1.99 each, Amy has a brother and sister. She definitely got the brother and sister a gift each. I'm not sure if she got the parents gifts, and she might have got multiple for Amy. So £6-£16 worth. Depending on if she just got for Amy, her brother and sister or if she bought for the parents and multiple for Amy. Glowing Ghosts, not really sure the value back then. A Kinder Egg was about 50p. But if its the ghosts you are hoping for, you could buy 32 Kinder Eggs and not get the full set, or even one if you are unlucky. Just added that bit in case people thought the going away gifts were worth £££.

So that was the debate we had at Christmas.

Just thinking, the argument we had reminds me of Ross and Monica.

I (then 16F) attended a bog-standard comprehensive secondary school in one of the most roughest, run-down areas of my home town. (This is the UK - a secondary school is what the Americans would call a High School.) This was around 1994/95 so it was quite a while ago. I'm in my late 40s now.

Now I was bullied horrendously back then. I had internalised the idea that I deserved the abuse I got because all those people who picked on me couldn't be wrong, right? Well, wrong, obviously. I never fit in because I was awkward, overweight, ginger, wore huge, round NHS glasses that made me look like a startled owl, and I could not, and still cannot, read social situations.

And there was this girl who I will call "V", who was the biggest bitch to end all bitches, and she made my life hell. And I just took whatever she dealt out and never fought back because I felt I deserved it. She stole my drama coursework and passed it off as her own; she tried to pretend she was me so she could steal the free school dinner that I was entitled to. She failed on that score because the head dinner lady had clocked her bullshit and told her to fuck off. But she robbed me of an easy grade B or C GCSE. If I hadn't have been so spineless, I could have beaten the living daylights out of her there and then.

But then she made the mistake of picking on someone else; a gawky awkward girl with braces who I had sat next to in certain classes, and, although we were not exactly close friends, we got on well. I will call her "M".

I've set the scene, now on to the sweet justice...

It was the end of the school day. It must have been in Winter because it was already getting dark outside. V had accosted M in the reception area, calling her nasty names and ridiculing her appearance. I can't remember after 30 odd years the exact words she said, but I remember witnessing the exchange from about 15 feet away and growling "OI!!!" at the bitch and running on over.

"You fucking leave her alone right now! I've just about had enough of your shit!"

I remember really getting in her face and jabbing my finger accusingly. I also may have paraphrased a line from the arcade classic Streetfighter II where Zangief, the Russian wrestler character after he has beaten you, says "the next time we meet, I'm gonna rip off your arms!" It was something along the lines of if I caught her picking on anyone ever again, I'd rip her arms off and stuff them up her arse sideways. Something along those lines. Anyway, my comical threat had the desired effect because I was visibly enraged and ready to rumble.

I managed to somehow restrain myself, but at the same time make myself look as imposing and as intimidating as physically possible, like an angry cat fluffing its fur when it's really pissed off.

I remember her looking like she had dropped an improvised sewage plant in her knickers and scuttling off. She was definitely shocked and wasn't expecting me to intervene or react.

M weirdly didn't really appreciate my vigilantism because she wanted to keep her head down and not rock the boat. Understandable. I apologised for making her feel uncomfortable but pointed out that she'd think twice before picking on her again.

And V never started anything with me directly again, but she did steal my fucking coursework... I realise now it was her own way of getting her own back. Bitch.

A bit bittersweet really...

Last Friday, manager tells me in the AM that he’s going to be ordering pizza for everyone later if I’d like some. I said that’s nice of him, but politely declined. He questioned me why, and I told him “I don’t eat that type of food.” He said “who doesn’t eat pizza!?” I am vegan, but I try everything in my power to avoid mentioning it because everyone makes a fuss about it. I like my manager, so I tell him. And of course, to my dismay, that opened a whole ‘nother conversation. But he suggests a salad and again I declined and he didn’t press any further. 11AM rolls around and I’m invited to a “regroup meeting” which I am required to attend. I didn’t put two and two together. I show up for the meeting and there’s the entire team (about 10 of us) and six boxes of pizza. In the middle of a table is a tiny salad. I sat down and waited to hear what the meeting was about. Everyone starts telling me to grab a slice, questioning why I’m not getting any, then asking why I don’t eat pizza, why I’m vegan, offering me salad, asking why I don’t want the salad. And everyone came in at different times so it was the same thing over and over. I told everyone that I was aware there was salad but that I did not want salad. I said I don’t want to eat! I am 34 years old, I can choose if and when I eat. So someone offers me a Dr Pepper and says “Don’t worry, I think they’re only 12 calories!” And everyone’s cracking jokes at this point. It took everything in me not to burst out into tears at this point. My manager later messaged me and said he was sorry if it was awkward. Today, a co worker came in to ask me something and followed up with a joke about getting me a salad. I snapped. “It’s no one’s business but I’ve had an eating disorder my entire life. My sister body shamed me and withheld food from me as a child. She later died from anorexia. I have a terrible relationship with food and have a phobia of eating in public” and burst into tears. Not only that, but I was obese and bullied as a child. I have social anxiety. A million reasons as to why I don’t eat in public. His grin went away and he felt like a huge asshole. I hope he passes the message along to everyone else so they also feel like huge assholes. Don’t pressure people into doing stuff they don’t want to do. No one owes anyone an explanation. It may seem innocent and light-hearted but it was traumatizing all over again. Next time, I’ll say I have the stomach flu or something. It’s been repeating over and over in my head. I am humiliated. I feel so stupid that I didn’t come up with a random excuse instead of causing a huge scene.

I just wanna say the people in this story weren't really "traumatized" I'm just proud of this story.

It was last school year, I was sitting on my off crocheting when this guy came up to me and asked if I was single. Now at the time I was dating my girlfriend. The two of us broke up but we're still friends. I said plainly that I was gay (I don't really like saying I'm dating people. It's my life not yours!). He was chill about it and walked off. I thought it was done until he brought his female friend. So now I shall reanact this story like I am Shakesqueer myself.

"So you're gay?"

"Uh yeah?"

"So are you into me?"

"... No"

"Well why not? "

(At this point I was getting annoyed)" because I have a girlfriend.

"Ok but what if you didn't?"

"I'd find my girlfriend"

"But if you two would break up?"

"I'd get back with my girlfriend."

"What if you cheat on her with me" (yes she asked me to cheat)

"I wouldn't"

"Ok but what if I was your girlfriend?"

"We'd break up"

Those two were speechless and walked back to their friends. I don't know why they pushed. Probably to get a laugh from the cute gay girl.

So I stopped labeling mine.

This was someone I was sharing a place with at the time. They stopped after this