Life sure can be tricky…
One minute you can be minding your own business and having a pleasant day and then out of nowhere something totally unexpected and terrible happens.
That’s why it’s important to appreciate every day we have on this planet…because you never know when something bad might happen.
AskReddit users talked about when they dodged major bullets in their lives.
1. Gotta protect your head!
“I used to roller skate as a kid outside my house down a hill and never wore any kind of protection.
Suddenly one day before I go out my older brother tells me I can’t leave unless I put on a helmet, which is weird since he’s never cared before. Anyways I do it and that day, for the first time ever, I fell and landed on the back of my head so hard that the helmet cracked.
That crack would’ve probably been my skull had I not wore it.”
2. Creepy.
“Years ago I was on a first meet for an internet date. We met at a bar and the bartender carded us.
Even though we were both older they were doing stings in the area so he was carding every single person. Handed mine right over but my date was an *ss about it. The bartender checked mine and handed it back to me. He checked his and rather than handing it back to him he placed it on the bar right in front of me.
It had the s*xual offender stamp on it. The guy picked it up, looked at the bartender, looked at me and then got up and walked out. I immediately googled him. He was on the registry and had been in prison for r*pe.
Lesson learned. Always google. The bartender and I are still friends.”
3. Phew.
“About a year ago at my job I was offered to switch from my current team where I was established for a few years, had seniority, etc. for a new department that just started to kick it off, write processes, basically start from square 1. A lot more work for the same amount of pay. I figured f*ck it and went.
Yesterday they announced that they just closed the physical HQ office for my old department, and everyone in that entire part of the company would have to either move to one of 14 random states (that we cant pick, its chosen basically by a roulette wheel for where you’re going) to a local office, or they’re going to be fired.
Thankfully since I’m part of the new department, I wasn’t included in that mandate. Phew.”
4. Pre-pandemic.
“Sold my three restaurants in February 2020, for way more than they were worth.
Now two of them have closed.”
5. Close call.
“I was a teen driver not paying attention at an intersection at the crest of a hill with low visibility when the light turned green.
The car behind me honked and just as I was about to go a truck barreled through the red light on the perpendicular road at decidedly ludicrous speed. If I had been paying attention and gone when the light turned green, I very likely would have been T-boned to death.
Closest call I’ve ever had.”
6. This is scary.
“I was on the train in Brooklyn a few years ago.
Next to me was this man who had a big tool in his bag. I think it was a hammer. He was moving very oddly. It was just the vibe that “this man is up to something.”
I decided that once we got to the next stop, I would get off the train and catch the next train, which I did. 30 minutes later this guy gets off the train, at my stop, and starts attacking people. He went after cops and was shot to death.
If I didn’t get off that train, and instead got off with him, I might be dead.”
7. No more smoking.
“In 1994, I was on a business trip in LA.
I stopped for a pack of cigarettes before getting on the Santa Monica Freeway. The Northridge earthquake happened while I was in line. Parts of the freeway collapsed.
I quit smoking after that pack.”
8. Ouch.
“Got chucked off a horse. Hit the ground so hard I felt my soul leave my body.
Started to cough up blood and was having trouble breathing within 30 seconds. Rushed to the hospital and the doctors were running down the hallway with me on a back board (doctors running is aways a bad sign). I was sure I was dying.
Come to find out that I broke 2 bones in my back and collapsed a lung. Once I was more with it a nurse handed me my helmet and said “it’s a good job you were wearing this”. It had been cracked almost in half.
If I hadn’t been wearing it that would have been my head, and I’d most certainly be dead or permanently disabled. Wear your helmet kids.”
9. Tinder match.
“I matched with a guy on Tinder who played for the Atlanta Falcons. He was really charming and seemed nice
. He asked me to fly down to Atlantic City for Memorial Day weekend, said he would pay for everything (airfare, hotel, food, etc.) but I had never met him before and he refused to give me his phone number.
I was uncomfortable flying to meet a stranger so I told him no. Two weeks later he was on the news for kicking (and killing) his girlfriends dog.”
10. Avoiding the storm.
“2005, my friend and I evacuated New Orleans 2 days before Hurricane Katrina and drove to Mississippi with the little money we had.
We were trying to decided on where to stay for the night and it was between a mid range hotel or the really cheap motel. Decided to spend a little more for the hotel.
During the night the eye of the storm came through Mississippi and flattened the roof of the motel we decided against.”
11. Split decision.
“When I was 12 years old, I was going to be home alone one evening, since my mother was going to a dinner party at her friend’s house. She wouldn’t be home super late, midnight at the latest – but I would have to tuck myself in and such.
I was looking forward to it and feeling like a really “big girl”, hell yeah! Since we lived in a kind of shared two-story town house, with close neighbors on each side and a nice lady living in a separate apartment upstairs – I felt super safe being home alone at night.
An hour before dinner time, a good friend called and asked me if I wanted to come to her house and have dinner – afterwards they were going to watch “The Abyss” in their giant home theater.
Being a lover of sci-fi and having heard about the really cool computer graphics in that movie – had wanted to watch that movie in like forever. Having the chance to watch it on such a cool setup convinced me to go, despite having looked forward to being home alone.
The evening went fine and I had a good time – but since the movie was really long, I got home pretty late.
When I pulled up to my house on my bike, I only just noticed an orange glare in the windows upstairs – before the first-story windows exploded out in to the garden. The fire department arrived only a few minute later, and put out the fire, before it could engulf our part of the house as well.
Apparently the lady upstairs had fallen asleep on her couch, with a cigarette in her hand. The fire had smoldered in the couch, developing a very toxic smoke, which not only caused the lady to get “normal” smoke inhalation – the chemicals also f*cked up her brain permanently. She was in a coma for a year or so, before they ended up pulling the plug.
The doozy was that we shared our ventilation system with the upstairs apartment, so our apartment was jet black – SO much of the poisonous smoke had come into our home.
The fire marshal (I think they’re called in English?) said that with that amount of smoke, combined with my small stature – I would never even have noticed the fire (I would have been asleep by then), but simply have slipped into a coma and died, before anyone had even noticed the fire from outside the house.
I think the shock almost killed my mother as well. See, she thought I was home (I hadn’t told her of my sudden change of plans), and got the call about the fire from a neighbor – to only later learn that I was shocked, but safe and sound, being looked after by another neighbor.
So I guess that’s the story of how my budding love of sci-fi and computer graphics helped me dodge a bullet with a big fat ”DEATH” stamped on it.
I still love that movie.”
How about you?
Have you ever dodged a major bullet in your life?
If so, tell us all about it in the comments.
Thanks a lot!
