Sure, our friends and family know a lot about us. But, there’s not a person out there who knows everything about us. They don’t have to be these dark secrets hidden from the world, but sometimes they’re just random tidbits that people don’t think to ask about. On the other hand, sometimes our facts are a bit too heavy to share with others.
Pxfuel
#1 Oops, I Did it Again
Once, when I was two or three, my family and I went shopping at the nearby strip mall. At some point, I lost my parents and sister. I remember crying in front of one of those large stacked displays of TVs, all playing the song and music video to Britney Spears' "Oops, I Did It Again" for a really long time before anyone found me.
Now, the weird part. Whenever something bad is about to come up in my dreams, that song starts playing. I can pre-emptively wake myself up from nightmares because "Oops, I Did it Again" will start playing, right on cue, right before anything really awful happens. (Sometimes I even see the music video.) This wasn't even a super traumatic incident or anything; I guess the fact that I still remember it is a testament to how good of a childhood I had!
Pxfuel
#2 Nibbled Cheese
As a kid, I could nibble American cheese into any state shape and most large countries. It was my “talent” when I was interviewed for commercials once. It also got me on Kids Say The Darndest Things. After we filmed at CBS studios, my mom and I went to lunch at a nearby restaurant. Jerry Seinfeld was eating and my mom said she’d give me a box of Tic Tacs if I walked up and said hello to him.
#3 Extremely Stupid
I once stayed up as long as I could without sleep just because. I was also very depressed at the time. The results were interesting. I stayed up for about five days straight before passing out for a few hours, then stayed up again as long as possible, rinse and repeat. I did this for maybe two and a half weeks. My body eventually did microsleeps at the last half (sleep deprivation severe enough your body basically forces unconsciousness that lasts a few seconds).
My only source of sleep was crashing for three or four hours every couple of nights and the microsleeps. It was a competition with myself and a growing infatuation with my own morbid experiment. It became almost like an addiction. I still get urges to partake in this experiment but haven’t done it for two years now.
I hallucinated that my room turned green and everything I saw looked more vivid. Geometric shapes and designs hovered over me like a cloud. All the shadows liked to move when I wasn’t looking at them. I felt a bit tipsy and things were surreal. I was out of touch. My movements were like moving through water that was both thick yet thin. I also couldn’t do basic math as I tried to count how many hours I stayed up and just didn’t understand what I was writing. I wouldn’t recommend it as it’s extremely stupid and I stopped after that.
#4 Training Myself
I’m ambidextrous. I was born a righty but I had my right arm badly broken as a kid and it took a while to heal. During that time, I had to adjust to using my left hand for most things. After my right arm finally healed, I still used my left hand for a while because I was so used to it. But, once I started re-using my right one, it was still so natural. So, I kind of trained my left one to work just as well as the dominant one. Nobody really cares, although one of my direct reports noticed once that my handwriting is just as calligraphic with my left hand as it is with my right one.
#5 Are You Twins?
I’m a twin. I could know someone for years, yet it never comes up. But when it’s finally mentioned, it’s so mind-blowing to them that I have a twin because they’ve known me for so long and didn’t know. When we were in school, I was always the year behind my sister, so people hardly knew back then either. Another weird thing is that I’m a man and my twin’s a woman. I don’t know why everyone assumes we’re identical.
#6 Those Experiences
I did a ton of substances as a young adult and committed some felonies. But, I never got caught and decided to take a different path when all my friends started getting locked up. Now I work at a prison with people who were convicted of the same types of things I used to be involved in. Most of them assume I don't even know what grass looks like. If anyone knew the truth, it would hurt my credibility. But those experiences are actually what makes me good at my job.
#7 Stereotypical Dude
I spent a decent amount of time in the military, have been to Afghan, have seen tons of terrible things and done some mad stuff, but I love sewing. I want a sewing machine badly. My friends and family think that I’m this masculine stereotypical dude, but I just want a nice cup of Yorkshire tea and to sew. I’m also 29 years old.
#8 Fun to Try
I hooked up with a cheerleader from high school… the only male cheerleader. For those who are curious, we’re both in college and I just knew him from high school. Yes, we’re both males and no it wasn’t controversial. Literally, nobody cared about it, it was just fun to try. But, I still prefer relations with women.
#9 Direct Sunlight
I have Polymorphous Light Eruption. Basically, I get a huge rash when I'm exposed to direct sunlight. It mostly occurs on my back, chest, and neck. Sometimes I'll get it on my belly and arms. It itches, burns and takes almost an hour to completely go away once I'm out of the sun. Also, I have a crippling fear of getting my throat slit. I can’t watch it in movies.
#10 Teenage Years
I struggled really badly during my teenage years. I had daily plans on how I could end my life and what I thought would happen after I was gone. It’s strange to look back on at this point in my life because I have my own family now. To be honest, the thought that I would have thrown that away really scares me.
#11 A Very Nice Feeling
I know this is going to sound super weird, but I’m actually quite good at barking. When I was younger, I would go by the window and bark across the neighborhood. At that point, some dogs would bark back nonstop, thinking I was another dog. It felt like I’ve made a connection with them. It was a very nice feeling.
#12 Dinosaurs on Command
I can make convincing dinosaur noises (in the Jurassic Park sense) on command. Specifically, I can mimic raptors and pterodactyls as those are my specialty. It’s weird enough that a decent chunk of people doesn’t know about it. However, I’m also a girl, so yeah. As you can imagine, my talent never really comes up.
#13 Group Therapy
I’m the “therapist” of all my friends. I help them with all of their random problems that they don’t know how to handle. The problem is, I need my own therapist who can legitimately help me. But, I don’t. So, I feel more and more like garbage every day. I have to put up a fun-loving front so they don’t feel bad.
#14 Shallow Waters
I got stung by a (baby) stingray on the bottom of my foot a few years ago because I wasn’t following proper wading through shallow waters etiquette. So, now I know how to properly treat stingray stings. Not only that but I also know how important it is to shuffle your feet and not step through shallow ocean waters.
Pxfuel
#15 Studying Abroad
I know for a fact that no one in my life knows why I refused to go abroad for my higher education. I actually had such severe mental health issues that I wouldn't have survived alone there. The thought was too much for me. To be honest, I’m worse now, but at least I’m alive. I’m also grateful to be done with college.
#16 Turning Upside Down
I have reverse acrophobia. If I stare at the sky for too long or if I’m inside in a building with a high ceiling, I get really anxious. At that point, I start to tremble, thinking at any moment the world will turn upside down and crush me into oblivion. I’m not sure how many other people struggle with the same thing.
#17 Get a Job
When I was a kid, I always wanted to be a dinosaur. I wanted to be a Tyrannosaurus Rex more than anything in the world. I made my arms short and I roamed the backyard. I chased the neighborhood cats, growled and roared. Everybody knew me and was afraid of me. One day my dad said, "Bobby, you’re 17. It's time to throw childish things aside," and I said, "Okay, pop." But he didn't really say that. He said, "Stop being a dinosaur and get a job."
#18 Sitting on Top
When I was two, I broke my arm and I had a cast all the way up to my shoulder. Since the break was in the middle of my arm, I guess the doctor didn’t think to x-ray my actual hand and fingers. Now, 14 years later, my middle finger doesn’t move properly. It’s sitting on top of my knuckle. It constantly clicks and I can’t close my hand without it bumping over my knuckle. Thanks, doctor Tyran!
#19 Constant Pain
I’m always in pain. I just think of another 50 years of constant pain and it doesn't feel great. I get on with life, do my job and live with it, but sometimes it pushes me over the edge. It gets so bad that all I can do is curl in a ball after work. I have chronic kidney stones and get cysts. I also have lactose intolerance and any lactose causes severe pain for days. I don't tell people and if someone finds out, they’re always shocked because I don't act like I’m in pain.
#20 Full Panic Mode
Only my family knows about this. I go ballistic when there are ants in my room and on my stuff. I don’t show it, but if I see an ant... I will hunt for that little demon entry hole until I find it. It’s been six years since I saw one in my room, but I’m always on alert. It triggers me when I find one on the floor outside my room and until I figure out its just the cat that dragged it in, I’m in full panic mode. I get hawk-eye vision and can’t think of something else until I calm down. If I could ever have a wish, I would say to make all ants disappear. I don’t care what they do for nature.
#21 Published Author
My favorite hobby is worldbuilding and I'd love to be a published high fantasy author someday. I used to talk about it all the time as a kid to the point where some of my closest friends would make fun of me for it. So now I never, ever talk about it, sometimes even when prompted. That’s pretty much why only two or three people know about it.
#22 Body of Water
I used to have thalassophobia because I saw my cousin get swept away by waves when I was five. To this day, I still don't know if it was a real memory or a dream. I talked to my cousin about it and he faintly remembers it happening but isn't sure either. We’re convinced we both suppressed the trauma, which is why we can’t make out the details other than how old we were and where it was. But, we have no recollection of what happened next or who saved him.
For a long time, whenever I was looking out at a body of water where you can't see land on the other side, I'd get chills down my back. I’d feel cold, claustrophobic, and wouldn't be able to bring my eyes up to look at it directly. This happened more for the ocean, but sometimes large lakes. Eventually, I overcame it by forcing myself to look at it for a few seconds before dropping my gaze. Over time, I would be able to hold my gaze for longer periods until I was fine. But, it definitely took years.
#23 Weekly Tips
I worked as a barmaid in a lingerie bar. I made more in tips than my weekly wage. It was just as well because my boyfriend had run up thousands of dollars of debt in my name, credit cards, and personal loans. These were the days when banks would post pre-approved credit card and loan applications to your house. But, it worked for me because I was pretty and had a great figure when I was 18.
#24 Coming to Terms
I’m bisexual. Most of my family and friends are religious, so it is something I’ve never dared to talk to them about. I’ve come to terms with it this year and don’t hate myself for it anymore. I’m still learning to be 100% comfortable in my own skin, but once I get to that point, it’ll be something that I’ll gradually share with the people around me.
#25 Fused Together
I have an extra tooth that sits on the bottom row, right in the middle. Two of my teeth fused at the root when I was young (or maybe before I was born). My parents wanted to have it pulled when I was getting my braces, but because it doesn't cause any problems, they left it. Plus, it would've added a year to my one and a half year braces sentence. No thank you.
Pxfuel
#26 Shot in the Dark
I love movies and I make movie reviews on YouTube. I’m actually really serious about it. I have a full-time job but, to be totally honest, my life goal ever since making my first review on YouTube is to be able to do it full-time. I know it’s an oversaturated market and a shot in the dark, and I really don’t articulate myself well. But, I love it so much. I love movies and I want this to be my life.
#27 Crippling Anxiety
I claim to be an introvert. But the truth is, I have crippling anxiety. I really would love to be a popular guy and have a ton of friends. But when I go out in public, I just see every person I meet as some kind of obstacle. My parents think I'm lazy. My ex thought I hated being seen with her. I can't get help because I'm so scared of admitting it or being vulnerable with a stranger.
#28 Kicking and Screaming
I almost had to have my leg amputated. I don’t know how young I was, but my parents have only ever told me about this once. Apparently, I somehow got a raging staph infection in my leg. If I had waited any longer to get some sort of shot, they would have had to amputate. They had a bunch of nurses hold me down all while I was kicking and screaming. But hey, I still have both legs. I later learned that staph will stay if your body for the rest of your life, so I later got it on my eyebrow bone. I just had to get cream for that one, so it was much less dramatic.
#29 Abandoned Kitten
No one asks why I’m so protective of cats; I go ballistic if I see someone hurting a cat. It’s because when I was young, my sister and I found an abandoned kitten and tried to help it. It passed away because nobody helped it but us and we were young. My egg donor (I won’t call her mom) took it out back and threw it into the lake like it was nothing.
#30 Into the Void
I’m an atheist. However, I’ve had two experiences with “past life” memories and also have a very irrational fear of my children drowning. I always see them going under and it looks so real. I fully believe you are here, you live, you pass, that’s it. But maybe souls can live on? But then that questions my entire belief system and makes me spiral into the void.
#31 Damaging Winds
I’m terrified of strong wind. When I was really young, I watched a hail storm outside my bedroom window. Our house was decorated on the outside with little white rocks, and I thought the storm was tearing the house apart. Now, I can’t turn off the irrational fear that wind will do damage to whatever building I’m in.
#32 A Weird Place
I can't stand silence. I need to listen to something to entertain my mind. If there's nothing to listen to, my mind starts to wander and I start thinking about things too much. When I'm deep in thought or feeling anxious, I dig my fingernails into my thumb in the opposite hand or rub the tip of my thumb along individual nails.
I read somewhere that it's a small form of self-harm because you're inflicting some kind of pain on yourself. I have no clue why I developed this, nor did I notice it until my husband pointed it out. I feel like I have a few issues that I'm noticing more now and I don't know where they came from. I'm in a weird place mentally honestly.
#33 Unrecognizable Voice
I don’t have a uvula. One tricky tonsillectomy later and “whoops,” gone. My voice changed noticeably at 18, but just before college. So, I was in a new environment and nobody was aware, except family. They didn’t recognize my voice over the phone for a bit. You know, when we used to call on landlines to chat.
#34 Good Friends
When I was younger, I liked to put myself through random challenging stuff, mostly mental for a while. They became more self-destructive at a certain point. I tried to avoid sleeping for a long time after some bad emotional relationship trauma. I stayed up without any sleep for around five days. Before I started "micro sleeping," I started seeing things and certainly couldn't make sense of a lot of things. I lost the concept of time too. Luckily, I was with good friends, and though we were all young, kind of lulled me to sleep when I started to get bad.
#35 Comes in Handy
I had a boxer fracture twice on my right hand during college. So, I had to write all my notes with my left hand for two semesters. I thought my left-hand writing looked terrible compared to my right but most professors said it looked better than most people write with their dominant hand. It came in handy when playing pool and I'd play left-handed until serious money came in. Then I'd switch to my right hand and clean them out.
#36 To the Top
I’ve lived on my own since 10. I learned at an early age sometimes you have to make sacrifices you hope later on pay off. My mom passed away a few months after giving birth to me and my father was an alcoholic who was either working, at the bar or passed out at home. At 12, he told me I wasn’t his son, just a roommate.
I shopped, cooked, cleaned, balanced the budget, paid the bills, got myself to school, and got myself home. I also called when plumbing was broken or the house needed repairs, and occasionally I sat quietly in a bar watching my “roommate” get in fights. Despite all of that, I got honor roll and graduated top of my class. I also got three years of college in paid scholarship.
I eventually moved out on a promise he would change and give me a sum of money when he sold the house and his vehicle. So, I moved to my college town with my high school sweetheart and we were on route to be married. She developed a brain tumor, won and we celebrated. She then went home for a family emergency and her tumor came back. She didn’t win round two.
My father took his life months after my wife passed. I entered a bad relationship to not feel alone. I pushed through it for years and finished college top of my class and got a good job. She cheated on me. I didn’t cope well and eventually lost my apartment, my job, and went homeless. I became very ill and was hospitalized. She left. I was hospitalized again after an attempt to take my life. Eventually, a college friend found me on the streets and took me in.
I got a retail job and started at minimum wage and working my way up. I got stable, went to therapy, and got some help. He set boundaries, rules, respect, peace and understanding. I got a better job when he had to move. I moved back on my own and felt so loved that I started doing everything nice I could for every person around me. I helped neighbors buy groceries.
Additionally, I helped friends who needed a place to stay. I volunteered at the soup kitchen, homeless shelter, and a hotline. I got a better job and am now middle class. I never bring any of it up because, I don’t want my past to define my future or to limit me. I sacrificed a ton just to get this stable footing and have lived so many lives. I try to stay in the moment and leave the painful past behind when I can.
#37 Sign Language
I had really bad anxiety as a child until I started learning sign language. I started pretending to be deaf in public so people wouldn't talk to me. A few years later, I participated in a world record that was in the Guinness World Record book for a while. I overcame my anxiety and I now work with disabled people.
#38 Whole New World
I love the concept of alternate universes. People never ask about it so I never go into it but alternate universes are pure gold. Anyway, the concept is interesting. There can be a world where we can be born with neon hair or a world where WW2 never happened. Little things and big things, from an atom out of place to a whole new world. It’s amazing.
Pxfuel
#39 A Short High
I was a pretty masochistic kid. I used to love sticking my hands in really hot water and would cry at the doctor's whenever I didn't get needles. I also loved yanking out all my loose baby teeth and would engage in a lot of self-harm for fun. It felt like I was getting a short high every time I hurt myself. I've since grown out of that and, ironically, I'm terrified of getting needles at 20 years old. My biggest hypothesis is that it had something to do with the fact that I was also being attacked as a kid. That or I was just weird.
#40 Away on Holiday
I’ve never had a holiday, which sounds silly. But literally everyone I know has had multiple holidays. Some in the same year! Growing up, travelling was out of the question because we were very poor. There was barely money for food let alone plane tickets. As an adult, I had too many other priorities to even think about a holiday.
I feel like I’ve missed out on amazing experiences that loads of people my age have had by now. Even when I can afford to go, I feel like it won’t be as good. I’m always too embarrassed to admit it to people when holidays come up in conversation, so I normally just ask lots of questions to get them talking about theirs.
#41 Unusually Small
I have a migraine aura. Basically, I get headaches that cause really weird sensory illusions. For most people, it’s something like smelling things that aren’t there, but for me, it’s in my vision. Everything just gets tiny. Like very unusually small. I can put my hand out in front of me and be startled by how small it appears. It’s as if my eyes were a lens and I just zoomed out by a few factors. Vitamin supplements seem to help.
Pxfuel
#42 Little Bites
I have a crippling fear of choking. I had a medical book at home when I was ten that described the effects of choking, as well as a slow, horrible asphyxiated end. I don’t eat when I’m alone and I take tiny bites, but I eat fast. Every so often, my sleep is delayed because I’m having intrusive thoughts of choking. If someone brings it up, I go to the other room.
#43 Parents’ Divorce
I’m an adult who cannot get over their parents’ recent divorce after 26 years of marriage. I’ve been stuck mentally over the last five years. It messed up my career progress and I stopped going out, living or meeting anyone. Everyone either expects me “to be an adult about it” or assume I’m a loser. I feel like a child who lost a family, though. I wish they could understand.
#44 An Unlucky One
I'm going blind due to genetics. There’s no treatment, no cure, not even a way to slow it down. I've already lost the ability to read my own handwriting and I've had to give up art. That’s not the part that nobody knows, though. The part that nobody knows is that I am extremely angry, bitter, and depressed over it.
The overwhelming majority of people with my condition have stable vision, making me one of the very unlucky ones. I can't rant or vent to anyone about it because they're either going blind themselves or respond by saying something completely infuriating. Either that or they give useless advice, like Lasik surgery.
#45 Mood Swings
Some may notice but I haven't directly told anybody except my closest friends. I have extreme mood swings that can change my mood extremely fast and extremely "far" from my original mood. These mood swings can last for days . This basically means that I'm acting "normal" but all of a sudden my mood changes in about a minute or so and then I'm sad for four days.
#46 Physical Contact
I have a hard time making physical contact with people. I'm not a touchy person and I'm really uncomfortable with strangers touching me. I usually unconsciously avoid making physical contact, even with people I know well. I'm more comfortable when I'm the one making the move or if it's well-telegraphed, like arms wide open for a hug. I understand it can be a sign of love and do appreciate it, though. I’m just not sure if it's an anxiety thing, but that's usually what I chalk things up to be.
Snappy Goat
#47 Second Glance
I don't know how many people are aware my dad is still alive. My parents divorced when I was 16 and all of a sudden, for complicated reasons, he wasn't there anymore. Plus, he's toxic. I don't really remember much about him, aside from things like starving so he could get his fix. I quickly learned people genuinely don’t care if your parents are awful. My mom has met most of my friends, but my dad hasn't. I don't really talk about him, so I don't even know how many of my friends know he's still around. As far as I know, they probably assume he abandoned us like he did his first family.
#48 Little Projects
I’m no longer in the trade, but I was a licensed plumber. I allowed my license to expire after moving several states away and took up a different line of work. Friends of friends used to ask me to help with "little projects" all the time. I would tell them that I was free as long as they handed over their tools and $50 an hour. Hardly anyone knows.
#49 Foot Surgery
Everyone can tell I've had foot surgery just by looking at my foot. What they don't know is that I had surgery to remove an accessory navicular bone that was causing me a lot of pain and affected my gait. I not only got the bone taken out, but a tendon had to be transferred and my heel was sawed and moved with two screws in it. The worst part is one of the screws are too long and often slips into my ankle joint. I’m then unable to walk for a few seconds to a couple of minutes.
#50 Morphing Face
Only my girlfriend knows, but I’m absolutely horrified by mirrors. I actually reach my hand into a room and turn the light on before I look in the room so I don’t have to be in a room with a mirror in the dark. She found out because I ended up having an anxiety attack after I stared into a mirror for more than a few seconds. I started feeling like if I moved at all, my face would morph into some sort of demon. I started crying my eyes out and I had so much trouble explaining to her why.
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