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And sometimes when we get overwhelmed we end up taking out our anger and frustration on other people who definitely didn’t deserve it. I know I’ve done this before and every time I think about those incidents, it makes me feel ashamed.
But, I guess we can all learn from those experiences so we don’t make the same mistakes again in the future. You live and you learn, right?
When was a time you realized you were being a jerk?
Let’s get real with some folks on AskReddit.
1. Time to come clean with yourself.
“This entire year.
Been recovering from my divorce last year and it forced me to take a hard, honest look at myself and all the sh*t I used to do and how I actually treated those around me.
A lot of tough to swallow pills, but a lot of much needed reflection taken place.”
2. Ouch.
“At the movies once it was just me and friends and one other group sitting in front. There was a guy in front that kept slurping on an Icee really loudly.
Like he just really really wanted to get every last drop. After a few minutes I got really agitated and made a super obnoxious and loud slurping sound to make them aware that it was annoying me.
Literally as soon as I did it I saw that it was a disabled man and his parents and he had a suction tube. I was so ashamed I walked out of the theater quietly whispering to them “I’m so sorry.”
I never went back in.”
3. That’s enough.
“I developed a pretty serious drinking problem, and in one day everyone finally had enough.
I got fired, kicked out of my apartment, disowned by my friends and my family. I was left utterly alone, and homeless, with $2000, and a 1986 Volvo Station Wagon.
It was coordinated between everyone in my life, and it f*cking hurt. But I wouldn’t take any of it back for the world.
Things are far better now, but that was the sort of life event that is supposed to change you, and I let it do so for the better.”
4. You were way off.
“I asked two black ladies at work what language they were speaking.
I am really big into languages and I felt like I hadn’t heard the one they were speaking before.
English. They were speaking English and they just both happened to have really thick accents.”
5. A learning moment.
“My girlfriend recently dumped me.
Looking around my room and seeing all the things they bought me and being reminded of all the things they did for me and then noticing I hardly did anything in return.”
6. Not very understanding.
“I told my friend that she shouldn’t use medication for her mental illness because I was convinced she could just use sheer will to get through it.
It was an *sshole move to make her second guess getting professional help to address her mental health issues.
I wish i just instead offered support instead of trying to “fix it” when she mentioned the side effects, when I had no idea what I was talking about. This was when I was a teenager and thought I knew everything…”
7. A rude comment.
“While hungover at a breakfast diner, the waitress asked me if I wanted a box for my food. I said sure, and she asked what size of box I needed.
Without thinking, I say “I dunno, I’m not a box expert.”
Immediately felt like an *sshole after that.”
8. Terrible.
“My buddy wanted to set me up with a new coworker of his. I got to his apartment early and started getting drunk with his roommate.
He called and said they were going to be late. He said, “She’s a bigger girl. Don’t mention her weight.” He had told me this previously as well.
By the time they showed up, I was pretty drunk and I wanted to make a good impression. I said, “You’re not nearly as fat as they said you were”.
She turned around and fled.”
9. An honest mistake, but still…
“I used to tend bar…I was very busy at a freestanding bar.
I was literally surrounded. I went to wait on the next customer, I made eye contact and asked what I could get him as I turned to throw something away. He gave no response. I asked again as I started wiping up a spot someone had vacated, no response.
This kept going a couple more times. As customers were building up, I turned with a bit of attitude and said something to the effect of “Sir, I’m getting deeper in the weeds and all these other people are getting pissed, you need to order or move aside so others can.”
He then informed me that he was deaf and as I kept turning away, he couldn’t read my lips.”
10. You were a kid…
“I grew up fairly poor and as a kid, the concept of money didn’t mean much to me. I just knew we had less things than the other kids in my class.
So when the Nintendo started getting super popular, I asked my mom for one. She obviously refused since we couldn’t afford it but apparently, later on that evening I had drawn a picture of a Nintendo along with a comic strip of me and my mom playing a game on it together.
Apparently she had stayed up that entire night crying because she had felt guilty about not being able to afford it (as my dad told me years later).”
11. Felt awful about it.
“I was running a bit late for work one afternoon, and traffic was oddly heavy for part of the drive, all these cars were driving like 15 under the speed limit.
As soon as the road opened to two lanes I slammed on the gas pedal and flew around this ridiculously slow line of cars. Until I got to the car in the front driving so slow and realized it wasn’t just some slow *sshole, it was a herse and I just flew past a funeral procession.
In my defense, every one I’d seen before had their hazards on and little flags on each car so this sort of thing doesn’t happen.
But I felt awful.”
12. Oh, man…
“In my junior year of college, I was working on a team project with a classmate who was a senior.
I was supposed to turn in the project to our professor, but apparently I forgot. This caused us to get an F for the project, until I turned it in later and he could give us an actual grade.
Unfortunately… this temporary F caused my teammate to fail the course, and for whatever reason this prevented him from graduating. So he had to graduate a quarter later…”
13. Yikes.
“Las Vegas. Second to last row for a Blue Man Group show. The people behind us were talking loudly the entire show.
They were basically giving a play by play of everything going on. We shushed and glared repeatedly to no avail. By the end of the show we were so mad that we were going to throw some harsh words their way.
The lights come up. We turn around. There was a group of people and their obvious chaperones. This was a group of blind people. Many of them had NO EYES!
We slipped away feeling just awful about our behavior. We really should’ve apologized.”
I know it’s hard to ‘fess up to this kind of stuff…
But we want to hear your stories in the comments.
Tell us about when you realized you were being a real jerk. Please and thank you!
