Bimql chhetry.

It was ten minutes to my interview. I ducked into the lobby bathroom shaking. Coffee down my blouse. Mascara smudge. Breath too fast. Three women took one look and moved like a tiny pit crew. One dabbed the stain with a stain pen. One blasted the hand dryer and fanned my shirt. One found a small safety pin and fixed a loose button. Another slid me a mint. Someone smoothed my hair and tied it back. We all laughed when the dryer roared like a jet. They stood in a loose line and sent me out with a nod. later I came back to the same tiles and told them I got it. We clapped in that echo room. A stranger wiped a tear and called me kiddo. I walked out taller in a clean blouse that smelled like floral soap and mint, held up by people I met for five minutes.

Okay. I'm just... I'm sitting here in my kitchen, and I think I need to say this all out loud to someone, anyone, even if it's just into my phone for this app. If I don't, my heart might just beat right out of my chest. My hands haven't stopped shaking since this morning. I've called into those support hotlines over the years, talked to other parents living this nightmare, but I never thought I'd be making a call like this. A good one. For twelve years, my entire world has been defined by one absense. Twelve years ago, during a custody battle that got real ugly, my ex-wife just... took our daughter, Sophie, and disappeared. She was five years old. She had this little gap between her front teeth when she smiled, and she loved this old, gray stuffed elephant named Ellie. One day they were here, the next... poof. Gone. No note, no trail, no nothing. It was like a light in my life just got snuffed out, and I've been living in the dark ever since. I did ever...

okay so im in this stupidly long line at cvs its moving at a snails pace and my baby is fussing because of course she is and im just trying to find my coupon and not cry from frustration this sweet looking older woman is in front of me she turns around and smiles at my baby and she says shes beautiful how old and we make the usual small talk then the line stops moving again and she gets real quiet she looks at her hands and then back at me and her voice gets so soft I almost dont hear her she says my daughter passed away two years ago today and I just I really miss saying her name to someone would you mind if I just said it to you for a minute my heart just dropped right there on the dirty pharmacy floor I said yes of course please say her name she said thank you her name was Emily and she loved the rain and she would have loved your little girls laugh we just stood there in the quiet for a second not moving in this dumb line and I told her my name was Emily too and she held my hand a...

You wont believe the twenty minutes I just had. So Im in the grocery store right its like 7pm and Im just staring at the wall of pasta sauces because I cant decide between marinara and arrabbiata you know the usual life crisis. This older lady comes up next to me and shes doing the same thing just staring. We stand there for a solid minute in complete silence. Then she just goes "My husband left me for a woman who makes her own sauce from scratch." I didnt know what to say so I just blurted out "Well her sauce probably isnt even that good." She looked at me and then she started laughing this kind of wheezy cry laugh and I started laughing too. We just stood there by the pasta sauce laughing like maniacs. I ended up buying the arrabbiata. I dont think I helped but it was a moment. You ever just have a weirdly human connection with a complete stranger in the most random place

First of all thank you to everyone that genuinely gave me advice and different points of view yesterday. I spent most of the day driving and with her so I didn't have time to reply to most comments, and there are lots of them. Many with questions, sorry for not answering. It's early morning here while I'm starting to write this, and she's asleep right now, and I dont really now how much time I have to write, so I'll try to be as brief as possible but I dont really know if it's possible. **To summarize: it is what I suspected**. And I'm devastated and exausted mentally and emotionally. She's been crying all night long and I cried too. We've been awake all night talking since she ended up admitting it, but she did only gradually and she changed her version a few times. She has a tendency to try to make him look as good as possible and take responsability off him, which to me points towards deep manipulation over many years, but at this point she doesn...

One night, my girlfriend and I were hanging out in the living room. Things got a little flirty, and she started touching me under the blanket. I was totally soft—full-on shrinkage mode. Out of nowhere, she blurts out, loud and clear: “Oh my God… it’s so small right now. It’s like a little caterpillar. I can’t believe how small you get!” About ten minutes later, the roommate’s door creaks open, and she walks out smiling a little too much. She didn’t say anything, but that grin said enough. To make things worse, I used to walk around in just boxers, thinking I was fine because, hey, nothing was showing. No bulge, maybe a small bump, but usually… not much. I thought that was a good thing. Recently I realized girls look at that area like guys look at boobs. I’ve become more conscious. So basically Ive broadcast my lack of bulge to a girl who had already overheard my girlfriend call me “caterpillar-sized.”

After my parents divorced, I never really questioned my mom’s dating life. She’d mention “boyfriends” here and there, and I just assumed she was dating like anyone else. I didn’t pry it wasn’t my business. But a while ago, I found out she’s actually a high-end escort. Now, before anyone jumps to conclusions my mom is highly educated, has a solid career, and makes more than enough money from her regular job. She’s smart, classy, and honestly one of the most intelligent women I know. Financially, we’re stable now, and have been for years. That’s why it surprised me that she still chooses to do this. Most people hear “escort” and immediately think it’s only about sex. But from what she explained to me, that’s not the reality at least not for her. Most of the time, it’s about being a date for wealthy men at galas, business dinners, charity events, etc. She shows up looking glamorous, keeps good conversation, makes them feel admired. It’s more about companionship, presence, and presentatio...

I was working in finance Bellevue WA when I decided to go out to lunch around the year 2001. After I was done eating I hopped in what I thought was my car, grey Mazda protege, and proceeded to drive back to work. I then looked around the inside of the car while I was driving and noticed several items that were clearly not mine. I thought what the heck is going on here? I did use my own car key after all. I decided to drive back to the restaurant I just came from and sure enough there was my car. I got out of someone else’s car and got back into my own and went back to work. Apparently car keys are not unique.

I was visiting Chicago. I stayed at the Westin, a moderately nice hotel off Michigan Ave. I had a long and exhausting day of work, and returned to the hotel too tired to have dinner. Craving a snack, I asked the young woman at the hotel desk for a sprite and some M&Ms. "I am sorry, sir. I am all out if M&M's" she told me with a bored, blank stare. I asked if she had any other candy. "Well" She said "I can offer you **peanut-free M&M's**" and proceeded to hand me a sprite and a pack of PEANUT-FREE M&M's. Yes, the ones in the brown bag. Standard M&Ms.

My daughter is my pride and joy. She’s 8 years old and from the very moment she was born, she was like an angel sent down to earth, and it was my job to water and nurture her into adulthood. We have this tradition, where every night just before bedtime, I’ll read her a few pages out of her favorite book. Watching my little girl so entranced, so encapsulated in the story; It made my heart glow with a warm light that blanketed my entire being. On this particular night, we were on chapter 12 of Charlotte’s Web and Charlotte had just rounded up all the barnyard animals. This is around the point in the story where she starts spinning messages into her webs, you know, like, “some pig”, “terrific”, all those subliminal messages to keep the farmer from slaughtering Wilbur. My daughter had quite the little meltdown, pouting how afraid she was that Wilbur would go on to be sold and butchered. “Come on, pumpkin,” I plead. “Do you really think Charlotte would let that happen? Look, she’s leaving ...

I’m a wildlife photographer. It’s a career built on patience, stillness and the ability to become just another silent, uninteresting part of the landscape. I’ve spent weeks at a time utterly alone in the vast, remote corners of national forests, my only companions were the whispers of the wind and the patient clicking of my camera’s shutter. I’ve waited fourteen hours in a cramped blind, motionless, just for a three second glimpse of a reclusive pine marten. Thats how I thrive on that solitude and how I love the deep, profound quiet of the wild. I always thought It’s where I feel most myself. At least, it used to be. Now, the silence is the most terrifying thing I know, because it’s never truly silent. And the solitude is a lie, because I am never, ever, truly alone. This all started three months ago. I was on a long-term project in a massive, sparsely populated national forest. It’s a primeval sort of place, full of ancient Douglas firs that tower like cathedral spires, their tops lo...

This was last summer. I went with my dad to Home Depot because he was fixing the sink and needed some parts. He left me in the shelving section while he went to look for pipes. A few minutes later, I see him down the aisle. Same khaki shorts, same beat-up sneakers, same baseball cap he always wears. I walk right up, throw an arm around him, and say, “Find the pipes yet, old man?” Not. My. Dad. The guy turns and just stares at me, holding a pack of screws, completely confused. I froze mid-hug and just blurted out, “Oh my god, you’re not my dad.” Meanwhile, my actual dad is a couple of aisles over, *dying of laughter* because he saw the whole thing happen. I must’ve apologized like ten times. The guy was nice about it, though, said something like “Don’t worry, I get that a lot.” Now I double-check before hugging anyone in a hardware store. Lesson learned

A couple years ago i was waiting for a friend in the city center when a group of tourists asked me about a statue. As a joke i made something up like yeah it was built in 1892 by a guy trying to impress his ex wife etc etc. They laughed and i thought that was it. But then they kept following me. One question turned into ten and suddenly i had about 10 people trailing behind me like i was their official guide. I just went with it pointing at random buildings and inventing stories with a little bit of historical facts because i have some historical knowledge from before but it was mostly bullshit. The best part was that they believed me some even took notes and at the end one guy tipped me and said it was the best tour he ever had lol. My friend showed up right then saw me leading a crowd and nearly cried laughing.

Went on a 3 week work trip and decided to try hookup culture. Ended up turning into a relationship that lasted about as long as the trip but somehow really fucked up my mental lol. I ended up meeting the most amazing woman, the type I’d settle down with, but I couldn’t because of the situation. Left both of us fucked up. She was the one who crashed out first because I think the reality hit her. Started yelling at me and crying about it all, and then next was me. I just got sad and got mad at her when she got mad at me lol. I just don’t know what she expected but I think I would’ve been just as sad regardless also. So weird how we built that kind of connection so fast and it’s heartbreaking I can’t keep it going. Well shit man I don’t think I can do that again she’s just the one who got away now.

My friend, a queer black woman, was just stopped by federal agents today while on her morning walk to work. They asked for her ID which she refused because she’s educated and knows her rights. One of the masked agents she said made a sudden forwards movement towards her which came off as threatening. She instinctually backed up and they responded by LAUGHING. She is still shaken up by this incident and now I’m offering to join her from now on to make her feel more safe. It’s disgusting what this country has come to

I walked in expecting the usual questions: “Can you answer phones? Handle scheduling?” Instead, the interviewer goes straight into, “What would you do if an aggressive dog lunged at you?” So there I am, calmly explaining how I’d approach an angry Rottweiler, thinking, “Wow, receptionists here must double as pet psychologists.” She finishes the page of questions, looks up at me, and suddenly freezes. “Wait, you applied for receptionist, not vet assistant?” Me: “Yes?” Her: “Oh. Wrong list. Let’s start over.” And just like that, I was put through round two. A completely different set of receptionist questions, back-to-back. By the end, I felt like I’d been tested for receptionist, assistant, and part-time Avenger all in one sitting. Longest job interview of my life and I still don’t know if I got the job, but hey, at least I now know how to wrestle a hypothetical dog while answering phones.

This saga spans *four years of my life* that I will never get back. Think family drama meets Stockholm Syndrome, with a side of “grieving the living” and a garnish of absurdity. I (26F) was 22 when my brother’s breakup led him to move in with my fiancé and me. A year later, he meets a woman whose age is a Schrödinger’s cat situation — could be 33, could be 45, could be a vampire for all I know. We did one double date: brewery, arcade, mild conversation. She didn’t talk much, but my brother was into her, so great. Two weeks later, he’s texting me saying she *lost her mind* because he put groceries on the counter. Apparently, this is a relationship-ending offense in her world. I said that wasn’t okay. He stayed anyway. Months go by, we don’t see them. My fiancé and I plan our wedding. Fiancé doesn’t want him in the wedding party, but since I grew up glued to my brother’s hip, I ask him to officiate. A week later, he shows up married to her. Courthouse. For health insurance. Romantic. Si...

This happened a couple years ago. My then girlfriend (now wife) and me were browsing at a Barnes & Nobels. She goes to the bathroom and i follow a bit later. There’s a drinking fountain between the men’s and woman’s restroom that I see her drinking from. I like being flirty with her so a give her a love tap on her ass. Well…that wasn’t my girlfriend. This girl was wearing legit the exact same outfit as my wife, same looking green jacket, same looking pants, same ass, same height, legit looked like my wife from the back. And mind you this girl was hunched over drinking water so I didn’t have the best view I guess. Anyhow this poor women was so surprised and shocked! She took it very well though and I was extremely apologetic. My wife then comes out of the bathroom and we all laugh it off because it was obvious they looked the same based on the clothes they were wearing. That was the last time I spanked my wife from behind out in public without knowing for certain it’s my wife 😂

Today I (M27) was grocery shopping, and I see this woman walking by me, she looked about 5'4, so she was on the shorter side. She was wearing a shorter skirt and like 2 inch heels, so I didn't think she was a minor. I get her attention while she's walking near me, and just act casual and say, "Hey, I thought you were really pretty, is there any chance your single?" She pauses for about 5 seconds and then says then says, "I'm 13." I say okay and back off and start walking and that was it. I can't fucking believe I just asked out an 8th grader. She looked mature and not like what your average kid is like, so I didn't think I was asking out a child, and I only saw her from the side. That's the last time I ask out a random person at a grocery store.

I need to write this down. I need to get it out of my head and into the world, because I feel like I’m going crazy, and because I need to warn people. I’m an experienced hiker. I’m not one of those weekend warriors who sticks to the paved, well-marked trails. I like the deep woods, the places where you can walk for a whole day and not see another soul. I had a long weekend, so I decided to tackle a remote trail in a state forest a few hours from my home. My plan was simple: hike in about five or six miles, find a good spot, camp for the night, and hike out the next day. Standard stuff. The hike in was beautiful. The air was crisp, the sky was a brilliant, cloudless blue, and the late autumn sun cast long, golden shafts of light through the canopy. The only sounds were the crunch of my boots on the fallen leaves, the chatter of a distant sparrows, and the wind whispering through the trees. This is why I do it. This feeling of absolute peace, of being completely disconnected from the no...

I went to withdraw money from the ATM inside a grocery store. The older lady in front of me was there for awhile inserting her card, pushing buttons, taking out her card, then repeat 7 times or so. After that 7th time, I watched what she was doing to see why it was taking so long. I noticed she was trying to withdraw $2K when the limit is $400. I said from my position 10 ft or so away - Hey boo, punch in $400 or less and you’ll be able to withdraw your money. Thats when she started screaming from the top of her lungs for security, asking me why I was looking at her transaction, she doesn’t feel safe, I must be an entitled bitch. I just said - mam, I was trying to help you. I finally gave up and started to exit when security started running towards us. I followed them a little ways back towards her just to say I was trying to help her, she needs to withdraw $400 or less to get her money. They let me leave, I wasn’t arrested or questioned. But, I’m still trying to wrap my head around...

In France, all houses are built with bricks, cinder blocks, or concrete. They are extremely sturdy and much less expensive than in the United States. In the village where I live, a huge tree fell on my neighbor's house. The result: damaged roof tiles and a few structural elements that needed to be replaced. In the United States, the house would have been cut in half. Seriously, we are told that houses are built with wood and paper because it is easy to replace and less expensive. First of all, it is not even less expensive, and **YOU LIVE IN THEM.** In what world is it a good idea to build a house that will fall on your head at the slightest storm because it's easy to replace?

In April 2022, while working as a Juvenile Court Counselor Trainee for the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, Christian Worley requested a workplace accommodation for severe endometriosis. Her request was ignored, and she was later threatened with termination for raising the issue again. A supervisor admitted in writing that he denied the request because he would have to offer the same to “every woman in the office.” After being unable to find legal representation due to skepticism about endometriosis qualifying as a disability under the ADA, she represented herself in a lawsuit alleging disability discrimination and failure to accommodate. Despite having no formal legal training at the time, she conducted depositions, drafted legal documents, and reviewed evidence herself. Now a law student, Worley has successfully survived summary judgment. The court has recognized that endometriosis can qualify as a disability under federal law, and six of her seven claims are proceeding t...

The day of my birthday, my wife was extremely pregnant. Being we live in the US with sub par maternity leave, she planned to work until she went into labor. At lunch time, she calls me and says she just started to get some contractions but would work until the end of her shift so she won't have to take PTO. I say okay, but call me or leave if it becomes too much. About 20 minutes later, she texts me saying she's heading home to labor there. Our first took 19 hours so she figured she had plenty of time. She leaves her place of work (a hospital no less) and starts to drive home. She was driving on the highway and thinking that these were really getting strong. She called me if I had left work yet, said no, she responds, good, meet me in your parking lot in 2 minutes (my office was on the way home form her) I see her, she pulls into my office driveway then stops so I run to her car. She's deep into a contraction. She rolls the window down, so I say park there, I'll get my...

It was 5 PM and I was ready to head out. Just finished texting my girlfriend “love, I’m heading home.” I stood up, said goodbye to my coworker and instead of a simple “I’m leaving first,” I blurted out, “Love, I’m leaving first.” Realized it only after I was halfway out the door. Had to awkwardly walk back in, face her surprised look, and explain I was still thinking about my girlfriend and just had a brain fog all day. Luckily, she laughed it off with me. Definitely one of those cringe-but-funny moments you don’t forget anytime soon.

I swear this isn’t as insane as it sounds. Or maybe it is. I don’t know anymore. So I had to get my wisdom teeth pulled last month. All four. It was horrible. I cried when they put the numbing stuff in. Not from pain, just vibes. The dentist was this sweet older guy, probably in his 60s, super gentle, gave dad energy. Anyway, after the whole thing I’m in the waiting room with a mouth full of gauze, looking like a bloated chipmunk and trying not to drool on myself. This guy walks in. Maybe 20-ish. Tall, curly hair, kind of goofy looking but in a hot way. He smiles at me and goes, “You look like you fought a squirrel and lost.” I flip him off. With love. Apparently he’s the dentist’s nephew. He was dropping off lunch or something, I wasn’t listening. I was trying to keep my face from leaking. He sits down and starts chatting with me while I wait for my ride. I don’t say much because again, gauze goblin. But I must’ve made an impression because later that night I get a message on Instagr...

I’m 19 and absolutely not qualified for anything involving conflict resolution or animals with teeth. I live in a small-ish college town and walk to class most days because my car is a 2006 Honda Civic with a demon in the engine that squeals whenever I hit 30mph. So anyway. I’m walking home from class with a smoothie in one hand and my headphones in, and I cut through this sketchy little park because it saves me like four minutes. I hear yelling, barking, and then this full-on dog fight breaks out like five feet from me. Two dogs. Medium size. One looks like a boxer mix and the other is just… rage with fur. No leashes. No collars. No humans. They're actually fighting, like biting each other, rolling around, growling like hellhounds. Nobody else is doing anything. There’s a guy filming. Some lady’s screaming but not moving. So I do the dumbest thing I’ve ever done in my life: I yell “HEY” and literally just launch my smoothie cup between them. It explodes. They both stop for like h...

One night during deployment, we were loading a full 1.1 explosive shipment onto a C-17. The kind of load that, if it went off, wouldn’t just take the plane it’d level half the flightline. I was on the bird, talking to the aircrew, checking paperwork, making sure everything was accounted for before getting the final signature. Then one of the 60K loaders caught fire. I didn’t even know it happened until it was already out. In a world where most people freeze or run, this one airman stepped up. No shouting, no panic just grabbed the fire extinguisher and killed it before it could get bad. Real bad. One spark near that shipment, and it would’ve been over. I could’ve been gone right there unaware, just dead in the ash. Vaporized while others ran. But he didn’t. He stayed. He acted. Quiet heroism no medal, no speech, just a sharp instinct in a high-stakes moment. That’s the kind of shit you don’t forget.

There was this new intern at our company, Kevin. Quiet kid. Wore oversized suits, always spilled coffee, and got mocked by the louder guys in the office. You know the type—they called him “Newbie Neo” because he was into programming and The Matrix. I didn’t say much, but I noticed something: every time we hit a tech issue, Kevin was already quietly running diagnostics before anyone else even started panicking. One day, our company’s website went *down*. Completely offline. During a major sales event. Leadership was losing it. The senior devs couldn’t trace the issue. Everyone was shouting over each other. Kevin raised his hand and said, “I think it’s DNS poisoning.” They laughed. Actually laughed at him. But I remembered seeing Kevin poring over network security docs during lunch. So I told the CTO, “Give him five minutes.” He did. Kevin pulled up the logs, traced the corrupted DNS entries, and found a misconfigured API call that had been exploited. He fixed it. *In three minutes.* We...

This is hard to write, but I need to get it out. I’ve been holding it in for too long and it’s destroying me inside. I (now 31) met him(now 33) in July 2022. We were long distance for about a year. He called me every single day. We would talk for hours. He made me feel like I had finally found my soulmate. I trusted him completely. He told me he wanted a future, a family, a life with me. I believed every word. I loved him with my whole heart. What I didn’t know was that he had another "girlfriend" where he lived. She didn’t know about me, and I didn’t know about her. From the very beginning, it was all lies. I am convinced he uses girls only as a cover up to "fit the norm". He also grew up in a very christian household. We met in person for the first time in August 2023. It felt natural. We clicked immediately. But when it came to our sex life, something always felt off. He rarely initiated anything. Sometimes he would stop halfway through and say, “Let’s finish la...

This random old dude slid into my IG DMs like he was filling out a grocery list: "Know any single woman? Petite, no kids, not supporting any family, good with chores, must take care of me and only me." He's 65. Sixty. Five. Asking for loyalty, domestic labor, and zero baggage as if he’s not the entire luggage carousel. So I said, "How much is the compensation? Because this sounds less like a relationship and more like you're hiring live in help with cuddle duties." He blocked me on the spot. Guess the customer service rep wasn’t submissive enough. Anyway, I lit a candle in hopes no woman falls into that trap. Or at least charges hourly.