High school girlfriend was a bit intense and told me she wanted me to marry her and that she wanted children. I was 16 at the time. I was terrified by that, because you know, 16, and she got mad at my nervousness. She dumped me a week later and wouldn’t you know it, married less than a year out of high school with now 3 kids.
I went on to get my degree, move far far away, get a much better job and a much better partner. I think back to who I would have been if teenage me had let myself be pressured into that. Small town, working at the gas station or pizza joint, supporting 3 kids…
God, I feel this. One of my uni girlriends was similar. I was attracted to bad women or women with problems, lol. Then I fell in love with a really nice guy who was like, the polar opposite of everyone I had dated prior. Fast forward years later, and we’re married and finally starting to think about having kids. Feels closer to the right time :)
Shortly after getting my driver’s license, I stupidly merged onto a road with a 40 mph speed limit without looking left.
A car was coming right towards my driver’s side door. The driver of the other car made their brakes squeal (this was before ABS). Right before they would have hit me and probably killed me (this was before airbags), they released their brakes, swerved around me, and kept going.
It was some really impressive driving, and it likely saved my life.As an EU immigrant, left the UK after the Leave vote but before Brexit and Covid.
It’s not a bullet but more like a whole lot of bullets.
Mind you, most of it was entirely predictable back then.
I moved to UK after school to get a university degree. Graduated in 2014, and despite having multiple interviews, had to move back home due to not being able to land a job. Eventually got employed elsewhere, and boy did it turn out pretty well compared to what would have happened if I stayed.
Can you elaborate on some of the bullets dodged? Not from that part of the world and I’ve only heard of the economic ramifications. I’d be curious to hear about it in greater detail, if you have the time!
The country moved to the far-right, the Industry I was working in - Finance - lost 40,000 jobs, Britain got general Economic stagnation worse than the EU, the value of the British Pound fell significantly against the Euro after the vote (fortunatelly I moved all my savings out of Pound-denominated assets evern before the Leave vote, so I personally was alright) all of the sudden as an EU immigrant you became a second class citizen with lots of extra hassle for living there (inside the EU, EU immigrants have the same rights as the locals, so when Britain left, they lost that), significant decay and problems with their National Health Service, really bad mishandling of COVID (especially in the beginning) and so on.
In some ways the place turned into a mini Trump’s-America, only with the extra nastiness of already being very classist country with very low social mobility from the start and a heavy “know your place” mindset - which is extra hard for immigrants because Britons see themselves as superior to all foreigners but Americans, so “Immigrant” is the lowest “social class” for them - and without the upsides that American has (mainly space and scale, natural resources and at least in some places good weather).
Mind you, most of those things are trends predating Brexit which were heavilly accelerated by it.
The biggest?
That time we dodged a Scud ballistic missile. I don’t mean we saw one get intercepted or had one land nearby and just watched. We actively dodged it.
So there we were in Iraq in 2003. We’re outside Al Najaf and the battle for the city is raging. There are artillery rounds going both ways, planes dropping ordnance, and thousands of civilians leaving the city on foot. Mostly we ignored them because we had a job to do. But one guy turns around suddenly and starts walking back into the city. Several of us noticed him and started asking the others around us, “is he?.. Is he pacing? Did he turn around just to the side of our position?”
The consensus quickly formed that, yup, he was walking in a way to count his steps and get a distance measurement. Our leaders called up the chain and a plan quickly formed. If it was nothing then there wouldn’t be an interruption to the battle anyways. The second the sun was down we moved out to a new position in complete light discipline. Nobody was allowed any light but what they could get through a night vision device. Not even the IR flashlights and markers.
In our new position everything was normal until around 0300 when a huge explosion went off right in our previous fighting position. They had indeed launched a SCUD based on one man pacing a distance measurement, and they were accurate. If we hadn’t moved that night then I wouldn’t be here.
So we dodged a Scud Missile.
Holy shit dude.
I’m a fan of your war stories. The amount of shit you’ve survived must put you on par with chuck norris or something.
It was definitely a year that contained a decade, but I’m far from being the one to see the most stuff. And I certainly wasn’t a lone wolf. Well except for that one time… Lol I jest, we never did anything alone.
Nah, with Chuck Norris, it’s usually the missiles that do the dodging.
With chuck norris it’s actually probably a lgbtq or minority that needs to do the dodging.
Chuck Norris is a piece of shit
Are we talking about the same Chuck Norris?
No, we are not.
I am talking about an internet meme
You are talking about a real person, who is probably old by now.Yeah, we’re talking about the same chuck norris.
Unfortunately we memed a douchebag back in the day, but the good news is you can stop.
Maybe 9mm?
Edit: never been in a shooting, but maybe only because i dodged all the bullets?
On that note:
Most likely 7.62 x 39 for myself.
Was walking down a sidewalk, roughly 100 to 50 feet from a stationary group of people, when a car slowed to a near stop and unloaded on them.
It looked like some kind of Draco, AK-pistol type of weapon, but I did not get the best look, as I was rather preoccupied with jumping into some bushes and then sprinting away.
do you - by any chance - live in the greatest of all nations, the US of A?
Yep.
“Why do they call him the bullet dodger?” “Because he dodges bullets, Avi”
"“Wots in the car?”
“4 seats and a steering wheel”
Riding a motor scooter through an intersection, I hear a giant crash behind me.
Turn around and I see a Jeep on its side in the lane I had turned from.
If I had been about 2 seconds slower, I wouldn’t be here to tell this story.
Oh yeah, Jeeps do that.
“It’s a Jeep thing; you wouldn’t understand”
I love the Americans in this thread answering the question literally
A firework fired at my face
As kids we were out in the country setting off fireworks, I launched a bottle rocket. Instead of it going up, it took off did a 90° turn and went horizontal. Went inside their garage. It landed in the case of all the other fireworks.
I’m not sure what the odds were of that firework setting off other fireworks. But it definitely made us hit the ground.
Almost like Bart did in that episode in china town with the “Chinese Fire Drill”.
I pulled a Neo matrix move like where he dodged the bullets on the roof. I had to sit for about 20 mins to get the adrenaline rush to subside.
Bullet Bill on Mario Kart
I’m guessing .30_06 or .308, but I never saw the shooter. Just heard the zip of the bullet and then the gun.
Growing up in the middle of nowhere was an experience.
I was driving home from an event late at night on a highway. It was warm and my AC wasn’t working, and my eyes felt heavy. My blinks kept getting longer until I realized my eyes had been closed too long. I realized I was falling asleep at 65mph and opened up the windows and managed to wake myself up, but if the road had been any busier I could have killed someone, myself included.
My ex.
A bit too late to dodge
Came to say “ex” too. We split when engaged and before married, so yes, bullet dodged. We went our own ways before legal/financial/possible children complicated things.
That makes sense! Good on you
Russian military draft.
How did you do it? Must be crazy to look back at it with all the things that happened in mind.
Nice try, KGB
A lot of moving around, not knowing what city or country I will be at next week.
Was a wild ride for sure, glad I was fortunate and persistent enough to find a place I can tentatively call home again ❣️
I’m glad you made it!
