Random Life Stories and Unpredictable Moments

I am walking. It cannot be otherwise

I'm starting to kind of dislike my mom. Yeah, I love her with all of my heart, but after she broke up with her most recent boyfriend, shes been acting a whole lot different. I know she smokes weed and drinks beer and all, but its still unsettling. She's been a lot more infuriable, she makes me sleep in her bed to help her anxiety despite the anxiety she gives ME, she won't even interact with my dog without yelling at her, she barely interacts with me OR my brother, only talking to me when she needs me to get a drink for her. This morning, she woke up yelling at us, forcing me to wear clothes that hadn't even went in the DIRECTION of the dryer, almost forgot to give me life-affecting medicine, etc. Screaming about how we embarrassed her, were in her own words "addicted fucks"(simply for even BREATHING in the direction of a phone), etc.

She's also been venting to us a whole lot more instead of seeing a professional. My brother and I are in our early teens.

I dunno, am I the asshole for being uncomfortable with her?

I've just been promoted to a managerial role, and it's becoming crystal clear that I have serious control freak tendencies. I used to be in a more technical position where I could handle tasks myself without much interference. Now, as a manager, I've got a whole team to oversee, and it's driving me insane not being able to do everything on my own terms. It's like I'm constantly looking over their shoulders, second-guessing every move they make. Why do I feel the need to micromanage every single aspect? 😡

It's embarrassing how much this is affecting me. My team's productivity is actually pretty good when I step back (which isn't often), but it's like giving up control makes me anxious beyond belief. I've tried delegating small tasks, and sure, they manage it fine... but still! I find myself correcting things that don't even need correcting half of the time.

Honestly, how do people handle this? What magic trick am I missing here? Do I really have to go through some kind of attitude adjustment therapy to learn how to stop being such a control freak? Or maybe there's just something wrong with my wiring altogether. In the end, all this controlling behavior might backfire on me and alienate the very people I'm supposed to lead.

hi everyone i'm kinda feeling anxious these days and would love to share my thoughts hoping for some insights. i've been working at my current job for quite a while now and things were going smoothly until recently the company's financial health has taken a hit apparently. let's just say layoffs are looming around the corner from what i've heard through the grapevine. our team had a secret meeting during lunch (you know one of those hush-hush discussions where we try to piece together whatever info we got) anyways need to vent this before I lose my mind;

you see i'm 41 and have built enough experience in my field but here's the kicker i feel like every company around is either downsizing or not looking for someone with my skill set right now which is a bummer 😅 it's not as easy as it used to be figuring out what comes next when you're faced with redundancy ya know? relocating isn't really an option since we've settled down here wifey doesn't work she's great but she decided to be a homemaker long ago plus there's that mortgage breathing down our necks every month so its kinda hard knowing this might be coming

i try talking about making adjustments planning for potential scenarios but honestly most nights i lay awake wondering how it all happened so fast within months everything shifted pjce of mind no longer exists doing good job turning into merely anxious fingers crossed things change though yet if they dont guess getting ready searching new opportunity should really start thanks for listening i'm open for advice...

Earlier this year, I was confronted with a terminal diagnosis. According to my doctors, my time is limited—possibly just a few years remain for me to address any unresolved issues. With the aid of a dedicated attorney and a social worker specializing in end-of-life care, I've begun laying the groundwork to ensure that my desires are honored smoothly and respectfully when I am no longer able to make decisions.

My family background complicates my situation further. My biological parents were never married and my father passed away from the same ailment I'm battling when I just turned 12. He was unmarried, hence his wealth was secured in a trust, overseen by my grandparents, for my benefit. Later, my mother remarried and I have a half-brother from her second marriage. He faces severe mental challenges—functioning mentally much like a child, despite his adult physique, which places immense stress on my mother and stepfather's already strained finances. They couldn't gain access to my trust funds despite several attempts. At times, I feel more like a backup financial plan to my mother rather than her daughter, leading to a strained relationship filled with passive-aggressiveness from her and my stepfather.

Knowing my days are numbered, I have tried to bridge the gap with my mother, aiming to ease any past grudges while I still can. Since my diagnosis, she has shown genuine concern—possibly sensing the gravity of my condition. In discussing my plans with her, making it clear that I have assigned a relative as my health and financial power of attorney to mitigate her burden, I sensed her relief. However, she hinted at her hopes for my involvement in my half-brother's future care. She expressed desires to allocate any inheritance I leave behind for his continued support, underlining her wish that he recognizes the aid as coming from his big sister.

Despite these conversations, I have chosen not to leave my assets to my mother or half-brother. My life’s joy has been significantly brightened by my best friend’s children, to whom I am an affectionate "auntie." They, along with their parents—who have supported me tirelessly, accompanying me to medical appointments and offering their home when I couldn't be alone—will be the beneficiaries of my estate. My decision is driven by a desire to affect positively the lives that have interwoven so closely with mine, rather than securing a potentially better care arrangement for my half-brother.

Am I being unreasonable in making this choice?

It’s interesting to ponder how this might unfold if my life were part of a reality show. Cameras capturing every nuanced expression as I disclose my decisions to my family. Would the audience sympathize with my wishes, or would they judge me for seeming to neglect my own family in their eyes? The dramatic reveal and the ensuing familial reactions could indeed make for compelling television but might also skew public perception of my choices.

I yearn for ppl but i ruin everything unknowingly myself. everyone leaves me. atp idon deserve anyone, i ruin everything. I'm a literal baggage to everyone around me. i should just stop expecting anything coz I'm gonna sabotage myself. I'm a total brainfuck.

my sister (nickname Lily) grew up perfectly- perfect hair, perfect friends, perfect grades. I'm the youngest and my life is anything but perfect. My friends are dodgy, I'm awkward and literally no one at school likes me properly. She just got in to one of the most prestigious universities and i feel like if i don't do something like that i'll just be a dissapointment.

I live in india from childhood I had severe anxiety issues , but it worsened from age 8 when I was medically diagnosed with thyroid and other hormonal imbalance meds and other remedies were too much for me as a child but endured as my parents were really concerned from them spends too much on my meds cause my condition sometimes worsens but at age 16 due to my incorporating roomates i was confirmed as OCD and depression it get cooled down at a point but till then I was already 17 and due to my health the result on my academics got bad. I asked my parents for 1 year drop as I can't give my open college entrance exam so somehow I thought I should use that one year to go in an excellent college and become successful and till time I will improve my skills but they didn't agree due to some called society opinion and now stu k on zu h a college whose name is only famous by publicity but not with education and faculty as it was my last option I had to move i thought may be faculty must be good but the here is also a ratta fixation and teachers don't teach properly didn't get our sem syllabus,HOD is a kind of person who doesn't take our studies seriously also this attendence survival game , too much assigments , frequent fest and then exam I am also a practical person who learns and understand by experiments but they only focus on unnecessary theory. Arguments with parents frequently by which this being time pass i truly got mentally sick again also migraines by this baseless study I feel like I can't become upto my parents expectation as an eldest one but I truly want to die or some kind of miracle happens.

I'm not very good at saving money sometimes and I'm trying to change so I want to know some good tips to be smarter at it.

Thanks!

Quick backstory, I'm between 13-16 atm, just to give a rough age range so you get an idea. I am a minor and this is how my home is.

I'll first introduce you to my family! Mother: in 50's Father:in 50's Older Brother: 20+ I also have other siblings but that doesn't matter too much.

My mother has stage 4 cancer and is extremely childish and easily irratated. She lacks empathy and often talks about her self and how much worse she has it when I talk to her about anything.

My father is an alcoholic, who works most hours of the week and spends his one day off, (monday) golfing with friends. He is often not home and extremely close minded and absent in my life. Refuses to go to the hospital or believe in medicine since "men are strong enough, and if I die, I die." Therefore I don't know if he'll die tomorow. :) (He makes up most the income we make and so if he dies soon, I am kinda screwed.)

My brother is on the spectrum, has ADHD and works a job atm. Extremely mentally unstable and has had therapy.

I'll just talk about yesterday as an example. My brother had another mental breakdown where he went on a rampage, screaming and breaking things. Heres a small list of what he broke yesterday, a set of joycons, a metal soldering kit and a ceramic bowl (With a hammer). This was all done when he panics, he also threw out a laptop he broke the day before that still partially works that he can easily use as he said him self. But he threw it out since he finds it hard to look at since its something he broke when he had a mental breakdown. He has been screaming at the top of his lungs and since he is taller and stronger than my parents, I am terrified that he would cause harm to members of my family. Not to mention I get terrible anxiety when he screams since I have trauma of him screaming in the middle of the night that he was going to off him self two years ago. In the same year, he has also stabbed scissors into his hand right infront of me and he passed out multiple times.

If I bring up any issues, my parents tell me that they have it much worse. Which is true, I run and hide when my brother has a mental breakdown but my parents need to deal with them, but I don't feel like they care about me at all. My sister is also mental and silently struggles and the other one also is mental. Life is great :,)

(Sorry if some of it doesn't make sense. I'm horrible with grammer and I wrote this quickly :,))

Thanks for caring enough to read this, this alone is more than my parents do for me now days.

I always thought I’d be ready for this moment. I mean, isn’t that what parenting is all about? You raise your kids to be independent, to go out into the world and make their own lives. But now that it’s actually happened, I feel so... lost. The empty nest isn’t what I expected at all.

Last month, our youngest moved out to start college. The house feels so quiet now, almost like it’s holding its breath. For years, it was filled with laughter, noise, and the constant chaos of a busy family. Now, it’s just me and my husband, and we don’t really know what to do with ourselves. We used to joke about all the free time we’d have once the kids were gone, but the silence is... unsettling.

I find myself wandering into their rooms, staring at the posters on the walls, and wondering how time flew by so quickly. It feels like just yesterday I was helping them with homework, driving them to soccer practice, or staying up late to make sure they got home safe from a night out. Now, they’re off living their lives, and I’m stuck here trying to figure out what mine looks like without them in it every day.

Don’t get me wrong—I’m proud of them. So proud. They’re doing amazing things, and I know this is how it’s supposed to be. But I didn’t realize how much of my identity was tied up in being a mom. Now that they don’t need me the same way, I’m struggling to figure out who I am outside of that role.

Everyone keeps saying I should take this time to focus on myself, pick up hobbies, or travel. But it’s hard to start when your heart feels so heavy. Has anyone else gone through this? How do you adjust to life with an empty nest? I want to be happy for them, and I am, but I can’t shake this feeling of loneliness.

So they are my childhood friends who make fun of only me and i was so naive back then but now also it's just like i am almost scared of them like if i say something wrong they are gonna say something and whenever i see them now it's like all the fun they made of me or all the whispers i heard or the judging comes flowing back but then there's a very little part who thinks like they are my friends like i spent half of my life with them so i just go meet them and after meeting then it just feels bad even if they are good to me at that time i just can't trust them because they prove me wrong everytime i thik they are nice to me it's like idk. and one more thing all those years i just used to laugh with them and then come home and cry so much like i had more bad memoris of them than good

im so embarassed to talk about girls to my friends because i dont want to come across as sappy or desperate, and i feel like i shouldnt need someone like that in my life, and i can just have close friends. but to be honest, ive never had that close of a friend before.

the girl that i was "talking" to (at least i viewed it that way) added me first, and she was super sweet when i first started talking to her. we had a few common interests and were doing all the classic texting stuff. however, i kept asking if she wanted to talk more in person because i only ever saw her during school. she kept avoiding the conversation and eventually i just said that i loved talking to her and spending time with her and that i liked her, and i asked for her number. she said that she just wanted to be friends and that i didnt do anything wrong and that im still a good person, and that shed rather just stay on snap bc its easier for her.

when we first started talking, i tried to be as authentic as possible and talked about the stresses and anxiety that i had in my life, bc honestly at the time she was one of the best friends i had ever had. i felt like i could count on her and could trust her more than i ever have even with my closest friend (i dont talk to him much anymore now that i moved far away). me and her even shared pretty personal stories about our family situations and struggles that we were having. after i told her that i liked her quite a bit, she seemed to become a bit more closed off, and i did in return. i dont really like her the same as i did before, but we still talk for a few minutes over snaps every day. however, now i feel like i have to walk on thin ice when im talking to her and have to avoid certain topics, and cant really talk about my problems like i feel like i used to be able to do with her, in fear that she'll think that i like her still. its not that i like her, its just that i miss having such a close friend and someone i could trust.

i forgot to mention, about two weeks into becoming quite close with her (or at least i thought so), i sprained my ankle and bruised my other foot pretty bad. im still hurting every day from it, meaning i cant train for football, which is the biggest and most important part of my life and my dream is to play pro. my feet are hurt so bad that i cant even walk for more than five minutes without them getting sore. rehab is so so slow, and being hurt for over two months now has made my mental health absolutely horrible. i feel so anxious all the time, and i cant escape it. im trapped in my house all day, sitting on my a** and not being able to train or play pickup with friends. my car also broke down at the same time i hurt my feet, and i havent been able to find a job for the past 4 months. i cant go anywhere, i cant do anything active, i cant even go on a walk to help clear my head. i live with my dad and stepmom, and their pretty emotionally absent. ive never been able to trust them enough to tell them about things like this, especially because it gets brought up and sometimes held over my head by them and my brother as well. i feel like my brain is trapped in a cage, ramming itself against the walls to try and get out, but only hurting itself more in the process. ive tried drawing, ive tried playing video games, etc., but nothing fills the void that soccer/football occupies in my life.

i feel horrible, not only for me, but for her as well. i feel like i lost a close friend that i could genuinely talk to, and i feel like i betrayed her trust as well by letting my emotions get the better of me and spilling them out to her all at once. i dont know if theres anything i can do to make this right, and i feel like our friendship is permanently damaged. i cant get her out of my brain, not even in a romantic way, just in a support way. im scared to apologize again bc i feel like shes already moved on from me and has replaced the time that i spent with her with someone else. she has told me a couple days ago that shes up until 2am sometimes on facetime, and it makes me so disappointed bc ive never been able to have that close of a relationship with someone, romantic or not, and it also makes me feel dispensable and like im not worth her time or effort.

ive tried watching videos and telling myself that itll all be okay, and that im worth enough. and truly, i do feel like im a good person to be around, and i check up on all of my friends, including her, very regularly. but i feel like no one has ever done that for me. i feel like im always the one trying to start conversations with other people. im always the one checking up on others. im the one asking about how theyre doing or whats going on in their lives. im always the one saying that im there for them if they ever need to rant. but i cant remember a single time that any of my friends have ever asked if i needed to rant, if i had something on my mind, if i had something i wanted to talk about. ive heard that everyone sorta feels this way, but i just dont think thats true. i feel like when i could talk to her, i finally had my person that i could lean on, but now i think ive lost it for good.

ive heard that trying to fill a void with someone is not a good way to start to any kind of friendship. and i can understand that. but right now i feel so lost and stressed out, like all of my problems are slowly seeping their way into the cage enclosing my brain, ready to drown it out. i cant take it anymore. i need someone that will listen. i need someone that can relate to me. please tell me what i can do to make this all go away, and to help me find true friends that vouch for me and will support me in times like these.

I'm in the year before university and it's clearly the most important year. I'm not doing extremely badly, but it's exam week and I'm under so much stress that I just want to cry and not even study.

My Partner and I Disagreed About Our House Renovation Project

So my partner and I disagreed about me asking him to take time off for our house renovation project. I suggested he use some of his holiday for a garden project so we could get a big proportion of it done in one go. He said no, his holiday was his time to do what he wanted and it wasn't fair for me to ask him to use it for the house renovations as he has less holidays than me. I said maybe he could just use 1 or 2 days and he said he would not compromise on this and wanted to do the project over several weekends instead.

As I have school holidays off, I said I would not be comprising either and would be getting the work done in my holidays and not just on the weekends as I wanted it to be done sooner.

He said that was not fair as he wanted to be just as involved in the project as me and accused me of threatening to do the work without him and not respecting his choice to save his holidays for things he likes doing more. He also said I could do other projects to which I replied that I just end up doing the rubbish jobs that he doesn't want to do because I have more holidays than him.

If we were in a reality show, I wonder how people would react to this situation. Would they side with me, or would they think I'm being unreasonable? It's so easy for others to judge when they're not in the same position.