In the sixth grade I had a very strict English teacher. It was the beginning of the year and we had just finished going over all the parts of speech. This will be relevant later.
That Monday was a teacher training day, and I was old enough to be home alone but not all day, so my parents asked my old babysitter if I could spend the day with her. She was in community college, and her teachers gave her permission to bring me with her to class. I brought some of my homework, and figured I’d just doodle in my notebook while she had class and do the homework later. My friend said it might be fun to listen in because her teacher is “odd” as she said.
When I arrived to her class, we sat next to each other in the back and I prepared to pretended to do my homework. Her teacher introduced himself to me and said I was welcome to participate. I thanked him but thought no thanks to myself.
The subject of the day is…the parts of speech. My school started earlier, so it was only the second or third class. The teacher goes over all the basic ones: noun, verb, adjective, etc. Then I see some of his odd behavior.
He slams his hands down hard on his desk. “BANG” he screams, “what’s that?” The class is silent.
He slams his hands on his desk again “BANG! BOOM! POP! POW! HISS! What is it?!” He’s jumping up and down.
At first I wasn’t sure, but now I knew the answer. The class is still silent.
I figured I’d whisper the answer to my friend so she can get the credit.
“Ononotopoea” I whispered to her.
“I heard it!” The teacher screamed.
Instead of my friend saying the answer, she points to me and says I said it. The teacher asked me to repeat what I said.
“Onomotipoea” I said louder, but embarrassed.
The teacher and class were impressed I knew the answer, but was so embarassed I didn’t know what to say. I sunk back to my homework and after class my friend and I laughed at how weird he was. I admitted I had no idea what he was doing at first and we laughed. We skipped her next class and got Starbucks.

I ran up to the grocery store to get a few things for dinner. After getting everything, I went up to the registers. For context, I’m a woman in my early thirties, the cashier was a man probably in his mid twenties. I put my stuff on the belt and this conversation followed. The entire time, his tone is happy and excited sounding.

Cashier: How are you today?
Me: I’m good, thanks. How are you?
Cashier: Have you seen the movie Ted Bundy?
Me: No, I haven’t.
Cashier: It’s about this guy, Ted Bundy. He was a serial killer who killed lots of women in the 70’s.
Me: Yeah, I’ve heard of him. I just haven’t seen that movie.
Cashier (not even seeming to realize that I had spoken, he continued with some more facts about Ted Bundy, ending with this line): He was a really bad guy, he killed over fifty women. (Pause) I guess women were just stupider back then.
Me: (Just standing there in shock, not sure how to respond right now and feeling incredibly creeped out)
Cashier: Or at least they were more naive. Man, it’s a good thing I wasn’t alive back then. I don’t think any of my girlfriends would have been safe. But I probably would have caught Ted Bundy and the police would have given me a medal.
At this point, I hadn’t said a word in response in several minutes. When the transaction was done I just walked away, not quite sure what had happened, but feeling offended and very uncomfortable.

After the 2020 election has been called, but before the various lawsuits have been settled, my husband and I are taking a walk. We are discussing a friend’s political Facebook post. This friend is usually way to one side and we are moderates.

Me: Did you see [friend]’s recent post? I don’t usually agree 100% with her political posts, but this one was spot on.
Husband: Yes, I was surprised. It was so… Rational.
Me: There *are* rational people on both sides, you know.
Husband: well, yes, but the irrational people are so much LOUDER.
Me: That’s because they’re irrational. They never stop, they just keep going forever. That’s kind of the definition. (at least in math…)

This happened back in the seventies, when life-hacks were still called “tips for housewives”. A popular tip was to screw an eyelet to the end of your broom so you could neatly hang it on a hook. My mother, wanting some order in a household with five young kids did just that. It happened a nice sunny day when I was three and my one year older brother was sweeping the driveway. I was running right behind him and due to our heights, the broom made the perfect angle to hit me in the eye when I moved to close and my brother made a backward motion. Screams, panic, a lot of blood and I was bundled up in the car and we went to the emergency room where it was determined that I needed some stitches. Not everything went quite to plan. The anesthetist approached my mum explaining that he didn’t dare to dose me anymore since I already got a dose fit for an adult and still was wide awake. My mum urged him to just start the operation to which he objected as I was still fully conscious. My mum inquired whether I would feel anything to which he replied negatively. “Then just start the operation, he wants to see what happens.” Yes, I was the inquisitive type. So reluctantly, they started. I can’t remember if I really could see what they were doing but apparently I stayed quiet throughout and then the anesthetics kicked in and I nodded off. Cue the next panic attack since it took a while for me to wake up again.
I survived it all no worse for wear and only have a small scar to show for it and upon arriving home my mum removed every and all eyelets from her brooms and such.

(We have a rewards system at work, you go on the website and it gives you discounts. I’ve never been a fan as they don’t really save you any money and imo, just a no-effort way for a company to look like they offer benefits)

Boss: hey (me), you use that rewards system don’t you?

Me: err I have in the past, yeah.

Boss: oh good, this is Kelsee she is looking for feedback.

Me: err OK sure. What did you want to know?

Kelsee: great thanks, I just wanted to hear your feedback, how you got on, what you liked about the system, what sort of savings you made.

Me: well to be honest I might not be the best person to ask, many of the discounts offered aren’t really for me. I don’t really buy 5 star Holidays and diamond rings every month, but I..

Kelsee: (interrupting) we do shopping cards they save on every trip!

Me: I mean yeah, you save 50p a month. I would save 20 times that just going to another supermarket. I have bought a few things from the system , I..

Kelsee: (interrupting again) oh good, i must be doing ‘something’ right then.

Me: ..but one of them was a fake Chinese knock off and the other actually cost me more money as i had to pay full price when the system didn’t work. To be honest it feels like the system might work for some people, but if you want to save money you can just shop around and find a better deal.

Kelsee: oh well.. thank you. I will take that on board.

(It clearly wasn’t the answer she wanted, but I was honest. Making a reward system for everyone that only the well off can benefit from is a poor effort. They ended up scraping the system a year later and hosting more community events (bbqs etc) so an overall win i think)