That’s exactly what the people featured in this list are like. You’ll get a chance to read unhinged stories about them, and, who knows, maybe it will inspire you to worry less about what society thinks so that you can do whatever you want.
More info: Reddit
#1
The country club hosted a lot of weddings and we would always rotate the girls who would take care of the bride and anything she needed. I did it four or five times and only had one bride that was slightly demanding but poor Mia had the worst luck and always got the bridezillas. Mia was one of the NICEST people I ever met. I was in the lobby setting up for cocktail hour. The hall to my left had two doors a closet and the bridal suite. Mia and the bride were in the hall and heard the bride start yelling at Mia about water. They were standing in the hall and I watched the whole thing go down:
Bride: I ASKED FOR COLD WATER! THIS WATER IS ROOM TEMPERATURE! CANT YOU DO THE ONE THING IM ASKING YOU TO DO?
Mia: ma’am you asked for a bowl of ice and a pitcher of room temperature water. You asked to put the ice in yourself. You didn’t want me to touch it.
Bride: WATER IS COLD! EVEN ROOM TEMPERATURE WATER ISNT THAT WARM! IM THE BRIDE! YOU WILL DO AS I SAY! THAT IS WHY YOU ARE HERE ISNT!? TO SERVE ME!
Mia: (smiles and clears her throat) Ma’am I have gotten you water three times now I’m sorry it is not to your liking, but you know what’s not to my liking? YOU, YOU F*****G A*****E! YOUR DRESS IS HIDEOUS! YOUR WEDDING IS HIDEOUS! PURPLE AND F*****G PALE GREEN!? WHAT ARE YOU?! F*****G BARNEY?! YOU LOOK LIKE F*****G BARNEY IN THAT DRESS!! JESUS CHRIST!! F**K YOU! F**K THIS S**T! I HAVE A MASTERS DEGREE FOR CHRIST SAKE I DON’T NEED THIS FROM YOU BARNEY LOOKING UGLY A*S B***H! F**K! THIS! S**T! (Storms to the office hands over her name tag and fob and leaves the bride in tears)
Mia works at a college in NC now. I miss her.
#2
#3
Edit: : wow almost 2k upvotes. That’s cool! The garage was in a good part of town, then a bad part, now it’s good again. When the neighborhood was kind of crappy we met a lot of characters and had a lot of crazy stuff happen. My Dad sold the property a few years back and I miss working there and just taking all the craziness in.
This might blow your mind, but a survey of 2000 Brits found that, on average, folks spend more than 6 years of their lives directly or indirectly worrying about other peoples’ opinions. That’s why it almost feels inspiring to read (some of) these stories where people threw caution to the wind and did exactly what they wanted.
We at Bored Panda reached out to Sarah Arnold-Hall to understand how to effectively stop worrying about what other people think. Sarah is a high-performance coach who specializes in helping ambitious people take consistent action towards their goals. She shared her thoughts below.
#4
Our boss laid the blame on our department, before he was over us, saying we had modified a piece of equipment incorrectly.
One of my co-workers, a very humble man, quietly said to nobody in particular "I have pictures in my notes". Meaning, "I am throwing the boss under the bus in front of every one of his superiors in the company." He hadn't planned this, he just happened to be incredibly meticulous in taking notes and pictures and documented absolutely everything. He proceeded to do so with complete disregard for retribution from our very vengeful boss. It was quite glorious to see someone so haughty and pious get brought down so beautifully by a low-level engineer and his meticulous note/picture taking.
#5
#6
We did so, our teacher walked in and just looked at us, grabbed his books/notes from his desk and moved to the back of the class, facing us and started the lesson. No one said a word about the change and he acted like he didn’t even notice.
I’m still friends with this teacher now at 22.
From wearing a simple outfit to acting a certain way in public, most of us overthink how others will judge us for the things we do. We asked Sarah why almost everyone places so much weight on other people’s opinions. She said: “You can never be certain what anyone else is thinking.”
“You are the creator of everyone else's thoughts. Not in their mind, but in your mind, which is where the anxiety is happening. Once you realize other people's opinions are really just your own brain telling a story, you have a choice: to decide others are thinking good things about you or to decide they're thinking bad things about you.”
“Which do you prefer? I prefer to decide they are thinking good things. But sometimes, when I'm having a hard day, and I just can't imagine they're thinking good things, I choose to think they're thinking bad things about me and just let them be wrong. It's okay for people to be wrong about you. There's freedom in that,” she added.
#7
- Manager, are you ignoring me?
To which he promptly replies:
- Yes, I am.
She then just left.
#8
#9
Well we hired this young punk a*s kid to be aquatic specialist. He was bright but did not have a good background, he was a criminal. He stole guns and was a d**ggie. I don't know how he got hired on, he was a touch above worthless on a good day. on his first day I jokingly said if he can come up with a way to break this tank I would much appreciate it. Within 2 weeks he broke the tank and showed me how he broke it so it would look like an accident, silicone had been cut in a way that it would leak badly without it being able to be fixed. He didn't even hesitate, didn't even seem remorseful or anything.
Within a month we had a new tank 🤷.
Nobody truly wants to be stuck in a negative loop where they give too much weight to the opinions of other people. But it’s important to understand that sometimes, these feelings stem from things that aren’t fully in our control.
According to psychologists, we might care so much about what other people think because it’s wired in humans to want to be liked and accepted by others. So behaving and acting in a “socially acceptable” way may win the favor of the folks around us. It’s also sometimes a learned behavior that stems from our culture or the teachings of our parents.
#10
#11
I called on James first. He walked up to the center chart and I asked him where he wanted to go. He looked at the center chart, then at Allison, then at the center chart, then back at Allison, and while staring straight at her, jammed his finger at the sensory table.
While he was walking away, I said, "wow, James, that's cold man." But I don't think he heard me over Allison's screaming.
#12
Caring about others’ judgments isn’t always a bad thing. We asked Sarah Arnold-Hall in what kinds of situations it would be okay to place importance on what other people think. She told us that “caring about (listening and respecting) people’s opinions is different from letting their opinions control your decisions and feelings.”
“I absolutely care what my partner, my family, and my friends think about what I do. But they don't get to call the shots, ever. Just yesterday, I noticed myself not wanting to let someone down by pulling out of a commitment I'd made that I didn't have the capacity for. But then I realized I would actually be letting myself down if I followed through with it.”
“I experienced about 5 minutes of discomfort to send the text, which saved me months of discomfort of following through on something I had no time, energy, or desire to do,” she shared. Meaning that we absolutely can place importance on what other people think, but we shouldn’t go overboard doing that in a way that harms us.
#13
#14
It was the same argument every day, I would bank transfer the rental and utility payments but refused to hand over cash because she'd spend it on liquor. She began throwing objects and flipping out, and eventually said "Fine, if you don't care about money, why don't you just cut up my credit cards?" in a baiting sort of way. She handed me scissors and two credit cards.
I just stared at them blankly and being an a*****e teenager, then cut up her credit cards.
She absolutely lost it. My brother lazily looked over at the scissors she handed me and said "What exactly did you expect?".
#15
Pretty much everyone featured on this list just doesn’t seem to care about society’s judgments. It’s an oddly freeing state of being and one that probably many of us aspire to achieve. That’s why we asked Sarah Arnold-Hall how to take action and stop giving so much of a damn about outside opinions.
She shared her experience, saying: “I like to imagine I have an inner jury of people who get to help me make my decisions, but ultimately, I am the judge, and I have the final say. They get to make their argument and present their evidence, but what happens next is up to me. I also get to choose who is on that inner jury.”
She also added that “just because a friend, family member, or stranger has an opinion doesn't mean they get to be on the jury. Every case, every decision in my life gets its own jury, and I actively imagine selecting people who are on it (and sometimes, I have to consciously remove people from the jury when I accidentally let them in!).”
#16
Others in the family were trying to find subtle, tactful ways to hint to her that they thought she was moving too fast and he wasn't a great match for her, but my mum ran out of sh*ts to give at a family dinner in this exact way:
Aunt (to mum): The bridesmaids are wearing purple, so your dress needs to-
Mum: Oh, I'm not going.
Aunt: /WHAT?!/
Mum: I'm busy that day. Don't worry, I'll come to your next wedding instead.
They didn't talk again until after the next divorce. Mum did indeed go to her next wedding instead. And the one after that. And the one after that (my aunt's current husband).
#17
A disheveled guy came to be treated for assault, to be arrested after discharge. He was giving everyone s**t all night, almost made his nurse cry. The nurse-in-charge called from the nurses station to cut that out. He called her a "miserable, old fat c**t".
The nurse-in-charge picked up a chocolate doughnut from the nurses station and without breaking eye contact, started slowly chewing it in front of him. Then she called the police to pick him up.
#18
My co-worker gave him a refund and the gentlemen still wasn’t satisfied. He said “this is b******t I need to talk to your manager.” My co-worker calls the manager. The man buffs and puffs as he waits, looks at my co-worker and says, “Aren’t you even going to ask me why I’m upset?” My co-worker looks him dead in the eye and says, “I make minimum wage mother f****r, they don’t pay me to care, they pay me to sell tickets.”
This man exploded the manager has to diffuse the situation. I don’t remember what he said but he got the guy to leave. My co-worker was only given a slap on the wrist as his ballsy-ness was unseen by anyone in that theater. Preston really never gave a f**k, even when they did eventually fire him.
Let’s face it: nobody can truly be free of societal judgments and other people’s opinions, but they definitely shouldn’t control our entire lives. There should be a fine balance between caring and not caring about what others think. It’s definitely a good goal to aspire to.
Have you ever been this nonchalant about something? If so, tell us about a time you did something without giving a damn about the consequences.
#19
My buddy this 13 year old kid went to his backyard into the shed, grabbed what looked like a 2x4 and just went to town on 3 grown a*s men. They went running down the street and he fully chased them, not a single f**k was given that day.
I don't see him as much anymore but we try to catch up once a year and it's a story we always laugh about.