There is no "right" way to live a life. We all have different goals, and in almost all cases, there are multiple options for reaching those goals. However, that is not to say that some options are clearly less effective than others—in fact, it may be best to avoid some options altogether, as such approaches have a proven track record of ruining a situation entirely. People from across the world took to the internet to share a moment when they witnessed someone pursue the "messy" approach anyway. Hopefully, their stories can help you avoid making the wrong decisions, should you be faced in similar situations in your own life:
Don't forget to check the comment section below the article for more interesting stories!
#1 From Innocent To Felon
I was a bouncer. I have seen guys get in tipsy-ridden fights and usually, I did not intervene if they occurred off the property. I saw two guys one night get into a stupid brawl over nonsense and one of them hit the ground. The buddy never woke up. This kid went from having not a major problem in the world to becoming a felon convicted of manslaughter. By far, that was the fastest way I have seen someone mess up their life.
#2 Let Fury Rain
My friend got literally thrown out of a nightclub for God knows what reason. To be honest, he probably deserved to be removed. However, he landed on his head and got injured pretty badly. His dad is a commander in the state police. Fury was rained down on that club, so much so that I'm pretty sure it got shut down.
#3 The Human Body
A lot of people don't realize how fragile the human body is. We are literally a mushy sack full of blood that's held together by an incredibly delicate skeleton. Whenever it comes to fights, or football, or even falling off a skateboard. It's usually not about how hard the impact is, it's about HOW the impact is. If you hit your head just the right way, that can be it. It doesn't take a lot to get messed up.
#4 A Single Elbow
I had a buddy who was getting put into the back of the cop car. He was getting an underage drinking ticket. Not too big of a deal, it was a $200 fine and it would have been off his record in a few years. Then, he elbowed the cop in the jaw and made him fall to the ground. That messed up his life. Such a shame, since he was already in a better position.
#5 The Worst Decision You Could Make
I had a friend back in high school who was nice but kind of a pushover. We went to the same college but he started drinking too much and transferred to a smaller school back home. One night, he got super tipsy but still decided to drive home. He ran over five international students that were walking home on the side of the road, including his own roommate.
He ended three of them instantly and hospitalized two. He was so tipsy he didn’t even realize what he’d done. He woke up the next morning to the cops banging down his door.
#6 Survivor's Guilt
A guy I know just wrecked his car speeding while under the influence. He ended his fiance, his little sister, and his sister's boyfriend. That's some crazy stuff to have to live with for the rest of his life. He made it out with no injuries.
#7 Mom's A Bully
Here in Utah a few years ago, an immature mother decided to take her daughter's side in a spat her daughter was having with one of her friends. The mom decided to photoshop a picture of the friend's head onto a photo of a nude woman. Then she proceeded to print out 50 copies and hang them up all over the daughter's school. The police didn't care that the images were fake. They charged her as if she was posting real nude pictures of the girl—50 individual felony counts. I wonder if that stupid woman is still in prison.
#8 Double Dog Dare
My sister's boyfriend was dared to rob a gas station with a toy. He's now doing eight years for armed robbery. The kicker is they offered him a plea deal that would have given him four years in jail and then probation. He said no.
#9 Insensitive Nurse
I work at a nursing home. A patient was getting on a nurse's nerves, so she said out loud that she'd "give the old man the wrong meds and laugh while he codes." The patient had a sudden code and passed away the same day. It went from a hateful and insensitive remark that would have just been a write up to a formal police investigation.
#10 A Senseless Tragedy
I knew a guy in high school I'll call Josh. He was pretty smart, a bit of a troublemaker, and he and I had been in the same classes for years. About a year or two after we graduated, Josh went to a college party. At this party, he went up to a guy sleeping on a couch and bashed his head in with a bat or a pipe, I can't remember. I still have no idea why he did this, but he had been tipsy. He ended the guy and then took off.
Before Josh could be arrested, he ended himself. Even worse, his best friend also ended himself about a week later, another guy I'd known for years. That guy's mom wrote a letter to the local paper explaining that her son had no connection to the incident at that party. Most everyone already knew this, but I can understand her not wanting people to associate her son with a crime. The whole thing was pretty devastating for everyone.
So, one moment at a party ended three lives and devastated countless more. All over something that was probably really, really stupid.
#11 The Most Terrible Humans
A local guy I went to high school with was on the receiving end of a bad action. He was in bed in his house. Some tipsy guys he had beef with showed up to his house to scare him. One of the group took it further by bringing a hammer along. The doctors say the only reason he's still alive is that the mattress and pillow that his head was against cushioned the blows enough to save his life. He was still in the intensive care unit for blunt force trauma, but he's since recovered from the incident.
#12 Making Things Worse
I had a young girl come to jail for a misdemeanor assault. It sucked, but it was not the end of the world. I think she got a five-day sentence. Well, she decided to smuggle her medication into jail instead of just giving it to us to administer. So she caught a 5-month charge, which still wasn't so bad. Four days before her release, she decided to do illicit substances with another inmate. She caught another couple of months for that now.
Instead of sitting for a few days on a misdemeanor, she wound up doing eight months and getting a few felonies on her record. The icing on the cake: she never showed up to report for probation so she just spent the weekend with us again less than a week after she got out and caught another charge.
#13 Joke's On You
My co-worker got a winning lottery ticket and started walking around the office telling everyone off. He told his boss what a jerk he was and another particularly lazy employee he should quit too because McDonald's was hiring. Then, he climbed on a desk, kicked things into a trashcan and left. It was a gag lottery ticket that I got for him as a prank.
#14 Vacation Gone Wrong
I used to live on a decent size lake. I had my eye on one boat—I just had a weird feeling. I kept watching as they got closer to shore with three teenage girls behind them on a tube.
The driver (who was very tipsy) made a turn that swung the girls at high speed towards the shore and right into a steel dock. The three girls hit the dock at around 40 mph, ending one of them on impact and putting another in a coma. She eventually passed away months later. The one survivor was left with permanent physical damage.
Not only did this guy destroy two families' lives in a matter of a few seconds, but he's also now in prison for life and some spectators will never forget the sound of a human body collapsing upon contact with a steel dock, let alone the horrifying screams from their mothers.
#15 Relationship Paranoia
This just happened a few days ago. My neighbors have been together for a few years and seemed pretty happy. They had three kids but didn't marry yet. One day, the guy just completely lost it and accused the girl of cheating, even though in reality, she wasn't. He demanded her to tell him who she was seeing. After some arguing, he dropped it for about a week. Then he started following her around. At some point, she finally had enough.
About three days ago, I saw him looking angry and driving his kids somewhere, but I don't think anything of it. It turned out, he drove his kids to his grandparents that day then waited for the girl to show up at the house. They got into an argument. When she said she was leaving, he threatened to end himself. She turned around and immediately heard a thud. The guy ended himself over nothing.
#16 Always Protect Your Head
Not wearing a helmet when doing BMX tricks. He was doing a grind down a handrail and went over the outside of the rail from about 15 stairs up, landing on his head. Now he can't speak correctly, can't focus, and he gets mad easily and often. Brain injuries are terrifying and doing things like wearing a helmet when biking or wearing your seatbelt when driving are such a "no-brainer" to me after seeing how it has affected people around me.
#17 Tripping Over The Bar
My now-wife started at a top-14 law school in 2013. There was an impromptu party at a local establishment a couple of nights before law classes started. It was very popular. Well, this local establishment was mostly outdoors and was set up in such a way that you had to climb a small flight of stairs from a sidewalk to get to the seating area.
We had just left the party when we saw an ambulance blast past us and to the bar. An incoming student got super tipsy and fell off the flight of stairs, hitting his head on the sidewalk and causing significant brain damage. He intended to defer for a year but I believe he never came back.
#18 A Lack Of Communication
Cheating. She was unhappy but wasn't communicating with her husband. Over a couple of months, the mood got tense. One day, she didn't come home and said she needed time to think. A few weeks went by and it all started to come out that she was living with someone else (an ex-con for assault). She wanted nothing to do with her husband and two kids.
A few months ago, they were a normal family, but she dumped all of it to go party. People separate all the time, but the way she did it was like a total burn of the bridge. It was unnecessary. She kept saying her ex-husband was a great guy and that she was doing this for the kids, but she had only seen them a couple of days in the last two months. He might have to pay her child support since he makes more while she does absolutely nothing for them.
Her friends and family have pretty much disowned her. She messed up her life up because she couldn't communicate with her husband and decided to burn it all down instead.
#19 Impaired Judgment
I worked as a gas station attendant and caught someone trying to steal. The guy was obviously sloshed; he could barely walk. He grabbed some chips during the 2 a.m. rush and shoved bottles in his shirt, thinking I was too busy to notice or something. I called him out and yelled at him. I told him I saw him steal and to put everything back. Apparently, he didn't make it very far. He passed out in the road and got ran over.
#20 No Plan B
A football star in high school was a first-stringer in varsity during freshman year. He was already being scouted by sophomore year for major D1 colleges. By the end of junior year, he was doing some dumb things... He messed up his shoulder and ended his football career. Football was all this guy had for a future. He didn’t have a plan B.
Six months after destroying his shoulder, he was found hanging from the railing at home with a therapy band wrapped around his neck. I grew up with this kid since the second grade. He was always a little jerk, but I loved the dude. We weren’t great friends at the time of his departure, but we’d spend our entire lives interacting together. And he had a good heart.
#21 Depressed Over Love
A girl I know threw away everything because a boy didn't love her back. She had been living on her own since she was 16 but she was able to get her high school degree at 20. She even chose to do further studies and seemed to do pretty well, given the circumstances. She had a friends-with-benefits situation with a guy for maybe a year or so.
She wanted a relationship, but he was in it just for the company. He honestly sounded like a manipulative jerk, but she didn't have the spine to say no to him after feelings got involved. He left to go to Africa for a few months, and she coped with that by completely abandoning her studies, spending entire weekends binge drinking in bars, and taking anti-depressants.
As far as I know, she doesn't study, doesn't work, and lives off welfare. She went from doing okay and seemingly having it together to completely losing it in a matter of weeks.
#22 Digging Deeper Into A Hole
A guy I knew in college was dragging his feet about breaking up with a girl. He went over to her house to finally end their toxic relationship but ended up sleeping with her again instead.
#23 From DUI To Felony
There was one young woman. Initially, she was pulled over for speeding, which isn't all that bad just a traffic citation. Then the officers noticed she was tipsy—still not terrible as it was misdemeanor DUI, but you still end up spending the night in the tank. As she was being arrested, she resisted, During the struggle, she kicked one deputy in the face which ended up blinding him in one eye because she happened to be wearing high-heels. She went from a simple speeding ticket to a DUI to felony assault in the space of about 30 minutes.
#24 Turning It Around
My buddy drove tipsy and got in an accident. Thank God it was a single-car and nobody got hurt. He went to jail for the night, totaled his car, had to pay thousands of dollars for a lawyer, legal fees, fines, etc, and had to have an interlock breathalyzer on his car for like a year. A couple of hours out and one bad decision really messed up his life for a year or so. On the plus side, he's been sober for over a year now! Really proud of him.
#25 No Racism Here
A dumb girl at my school posted a picture of herself saying: "That's 200 fewer Mexicans trying to cross the border" on her story after the earthquake in Mexico City. She got death threats, and kids at my school ran around with Mexican flags. She ruined her family's life because they had to move.
#26 All From A Stick Of Gum
Last year, a kid in my school was caught chewing gum in class, but he denied it so the teacher checked his bag for gum. The teacher found a bunch of illicit substances that he was selling to other students. He got expelled and his parents had to send him to live with his grandparents in Africa for the rest of his life.
#27 Careless Decision
I went to college with a girl who was poised to go to nursing school. Nursing was her whole life and everyone knew she'd make it right to the top. Then, she was careless and suddenly became pregnant. Last I heard, she's a cleaner with three kids on benefits.
#28 The Lesser Evil
Alex decided to NOT join his wife on vacation because he legitimately had a lot of work to do. During his wife's absence, he took pity on a "poor, pitiful young lady" (a con artist) who seduced him. When he came to his senses, the con lady's secret husband showed up and blackmailed Alex.
Alex paid off the extortionist, but since he worked in finance, audits showed a lot of suspicious payments. After being called on the carpet, he decided to prove his innocence by publishing an open letter admitting his infidelity. So in order to prove he was not a crook, he destroyed his reputation. And his wife was super angry.
#29 For The Money
A guy I went to school with about 10 years ago set his house on fire for insurance money with the intention of getting out his stepfather. However, he ended his own mother who had terminal cancer. It was idiotic at best and evil at worst. The problem was his stepdad never got out and he passed away too. The cops could tell it was him because he had gasoline burns on his hands.
#30 Messed Up
Growing up, I was best friends with two brothers. They always roughhoused and whatnot, no big deal. Both of them were in the bed of a truck once and they started pushing each other. One pushed the other of the bed of the truck. His brother is pretty much a vegetable now and has no movement from his neck down. It was crazy that just messing around caused that. The other brother drank himself to death over the next eight years because he was so messed up on what happened.
#31 What A Waste
A guy in the same grade as me got accepted to a great college on a full-ride scholarship playing football (not going to specify which one, but they're in the top 5 right now). He gave it up because his at-the-time girlfriend with no future didn't want him to go off to college without her. They broke up not even a year later. What a freaking waste.
#32 In Denial
A girl I know is doing it right now. She's going between boyfriends that openly cheat on her and refuses to acknowledge it. She's also in college, but does very little work and actually has a friend do her homework for her in one class. Once this is known, she'll probably get kicked out. She used to be best friends with my sister, but all that turned her away.
#33 Mission Sort-Of Accomplished
A freshman at my university posted an anonymous threat on YikYak about a month after he started. The threat was something like: "No one should go to the main building tomorrow at 7 p.m. You've been warned." He got arrested that night or the next morning and got a 10-year sentence for terroristic threats. He wasn't even serious; he thought it was a harmless joke. He just didn't want to go to a quiz or test that day. I guess he didn't go, so mission sort-of accomplished?
#34 Overly Too Attached
My brother has a schizophrenic girlfriend who refuses to take her meds and he thinks he can fix her... He has nothing in his life but her. He can't leave her alone so she even goes to work with him most of the time. If she doesn't go, she calls him every 30 minutes. The only reason he still has a job is he works for a family member.
#35 Shaken Baby Syndrome
A guy from my high school had a baby girl in his early 20s. The baby was still an infant and wouldn't stop crying. He tried rocking her, but it wasn't working and he got frustrated. I don't know the specifics of what happened, but when the baby finally stopped crying, it was unresponsive. He took her to the hospital and they found that she had Shaken Baby Syndrome. The baby later passed away. He lied to the police and the doctors about having anything to do with it initially but later admitted to shaking the baby when he was frustrated. He was found guilty of neglect and received 30 years in jail.
#36 Doing The Right Thing
There was a guy I had met at a few parties in my area. We weren't friends, and I can't remember if we even ever talked to each other. Anyway, there was a party in the town over from mine that I decided to skip for some reason. Apparently, the guy that I sort of knew was trashed and wanted to drive home. Someone took his keys, so the dude went to his car and grabbed a huge Bowie-style knife. Unfortunately, the guy passed away trying to stop someone from possibly ending himself or someone else.
#37 A Bottle Of Jack
A guy I went to school with, we'll call him Jake, had a full ride to a great college football program. He was one of the best athletes I've ever seen. I went to a party and someone told him he'd mess it up just like his brother did. Jake didn't take kindly to this—he smashed an empty bottle of Jack Daniels over the guy's head, causing him serious damage. He lost his full ride, stayed around my home town, and lost his life years later in a motorcycle accident.
#38 Lethal Twerking
There's a video of this girl in a dance competition in a club. She was twerking upside down in a headstand. She slipped and her body fell down over her head, snapping her neck. She lost her life from twerking. That has to be a tough funeral to get through.
#39 Taking The Fall
I worked with a high school kid for a day. He had a lot of problems—he hung out with the wrong crowd and didn't have parents who cared, but this was his first job so I thought he was starting to turn his life around.
Then, the next day, he didn't show up to work. I thought he must have slept in or something. The manager was unable to reach him, and we didn't hear anything about him for a week. Turns out, his friends picked him up and robbed a car afterward. The kid was not involved but took the fall for the guys when they inevitably got caught the same night. Last I heard, he's still locked up. Sad.
#40 A Quick 180
A friend of mine got into the same college I did. We were both excited to know someone when we started school. She received a full scholarship for diving. We weren’t super close in high school and didn’t hang out outside of it. So, we said goodbye after graduation and didn’t speak over the summer.
Fast forward to move-in day at college. I was walking towards the cafeteria after moving in and gave her a call. I asked where she was and she replied, “I’m pregnant.” I really hope her life turned out well, but I have no clue. That was the last we spoke. I can only imagine throwing away a full ride to college would mess you up.
#41 Family Tragedy
Guy meets girl. Guy dates girl for a couple of weeks. Girl tells guy she cannot get pregnant. Guy believes her. Girl gets pregnant after one month. Guy and girl get married very shortly after. Baby is born. Hear less and less from them. Don’t hear anything from them for a couple of weeks. Landlord finds them both lifeless in their apartment when checking on them.
#42 A New Perspective
My parents are away for the week, and I've been considering driving to work every day instead of just using Uber or a taxi as they told me to. I have my permit and have to say that I'm a very good driver. I've taken the car out before twice without my license while they were away and everything turned out just fine, no close calls either.
However, seeing the way automotive accidents and small moments can quickly and completely define your entire life, I'm going to be staying away from driving until they get back and I can practice for my license test (which is a week from now).
#43 A Bad Withdrawal
My brother and I inherited $20K each after our grandfather passed. He withdrew it all from his bank before going to jail for a DUI. He hid it in the house where he had been staying, and his roommates robbed him of $13K in cash. They also sold all of the musical equipment he had bought with his inheritance.
#44 Drawn Into The Wrong Crowd
About thirty years ago now, I had a friend whose grandmother passed away and left him about $5K. The day after he got it into his bank, we hadn't seen him which was unusual. Later that day, we saw him in the street and he asked us if we wanted to go his that night because he tried illicit substances the night before with some lads. We declined, and you can guess the rest.
#45 Putting My Dreams On Hold... For A Girl
I decided to not go to the US Naval Academy and instead tried to stay in town with my high school girlfriend. We broke up six months after graduation, and only in the last two years have I gotten back to having the same level of promise for my future.
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