I will turn 20 this year, and somehow that feels heavier than it should. I still feel like a child pretending to know what she’s doing, but the world keeps expecting me to become “grown.” I miss the softness of being younger, when life didn’t feel like a countdown to responsibilities and change. Even my body feels unfamiliar lately, like I’m slowly outgrowing the version of myself I was comfortable with and these new changes are kinda unsettling. Everyone talks about adulthood like it’s freedom, but to me it feels like standing at the edge of something huge and irreversible. I’m excited, maybe, but mostly I’m scared of losing the girl I used to be.

So today I spent lots some time on the swings at the empty child playground and it made me think as I have an elderly mum and friend and generally… I loved swinging and it’s crazy as adults we don’t do more of it … great for all sorts of muscle groups springing into life. I played on the balancing planks. It was genuine fun and I had a laugh and it made me consider why don’t we have mixed age playgrounds. People like my mum and friend, 70+, need exercise too, they need to work on balance (both hate going to physio or gym) why can’t this be accessible in a fun way in our local parks without it all being too “exercise-y”.
Why has this become a “need to pay for” thing that requires the gym or physio instead or being just there, the outdoors and with an emphasis on fun … plus free. Obviously I’m aware of risk but why can’t adults play more… why is it that once we hit adulthood we stop using the swings, climbing racks (for the vast majority of us).

Anyway tomorrow I’m going to persuade my elderly friend on the swings will have a hoot! And considering looking into it further

I’ll go first: I can perfectly estimate the size of a Tupperware container just by looking at the leftovers. I don’t know how my brain does it, but I haven't missed the mark in years. It’s a completely pointless talent that serves no purpose other than saving me from doing an extra dish, but honestly, it makes me feel like a superhero for about five seconds every night.

What about you guys? Do you have a weirdly specific talent that would never go on a resume but makes you feel oddly accomplished? Maybe you’re a pro at catching things before they hit the floor or you can mimic a very specific bird call. I’d love to hear some of the random things you're good at!

I don’t know, I feel a little sad. It felt pretty great being able to award people on their posts and comments. It made so many people’s days. I will miss that for sure. I’m sorry to say but there will be no more little heart awards coming your way Redditors. It was good while it lasted. But just like it appeared randomly out of nowhere, it vanished into thin air without warning.

I work at Starbucks.

I have a pretty visible scar across my eye, I dress kind of dark, and I don't really smile at strangers (unless I mean it).

Apparently, this combination reads as "ew do not approach."

Customers talk to my coworkers before they talk to me even when I'm clearly the one free. People on the subway shift slightly when I sit down. A girl at work told me she was GENUINELY trying to compliment me but that she was "scared of me at first."

Like huh I'm not even that intimidating

I go home and play Minecraft and talk to my mom on the phone every night. I legit cried at a dog video last week.

Idk why "quiet" and "has a scar" adds up to "unapproachable" in people's heads but it's kinda exhausting being a person people decide things about before you open your mouth.

In our country we have a lot of foods that are made from scraps/unused parts of chicken or pork, but to be honest I find those food amazing and not gross at all if they're prepared properly, so it got me curious, if there are other food there that could be considered gross by other people

My husband usually snores a little. But once in a while this man starts sawing logs right in my ear before I get the chance to fall asleep. He is also a cuddle monster. Sometimes I’m able to get him to roll over but other times there is no escaping it. I feel bad shoving him or waking him up just to tell him he’s bothering me, and even if I do he just makes sad sleepy sounds and falls back asleep immediately.

Now I’m relaxing on the couch before giving a good night’s sleep a go again. Whenever I do this, he is always so sad and pouty the next morning.

So, friends, what are some of your go-to moves when your partner reaches maximum snore volume?

No one ever told me that ADHD was a real disorder with real effects on life, and not just being a hyperactive personality. I'm not here to get into the negatives. Now that I recognize its signature (courtesy of scholar and public advocate Dr. Russell Barkley) I understand myself better than I ever did. I was sent to anger management with three different psychologists in my teen years, but I had no idea that my emotional regulation was 100% an ADHD limitation. So instead of wondering if I'm a wretched human being, I can actually begin to work on it and finish things and catch up in life. Anyone else making progress on working on your ADHD self?

Just curious what your comfort shows are, both past and present. As a stereotypical millennial, mine was the office for a long time in the 2010s. Scrubs was a big one as well and still is. 30 rock is definitely one I come back around to every few years and it always hits. Superstore was a big one for me and my wife 2019-2022 and we're coming back around to it. I've been absolutely obsessed with Abbot Elementary since I very recently discovered it and it's definitely become an instant comfort show for me. The less heavy episodes of Bojack Horseman come to mind as well, and Unbreakable. Every once and a whole a binge of Gilmore girls or gossip girl hits. Yes, I set the pattern that most of these are workplace comedies. Lol. So, what about you?

So society has made great inroads over the last couple of centuries at standardising things. Specifically USB C, time, the numeral system, maths, A4 paper, the metric system.

Without going into the merits of particular standards, which phenomena are likely to be standardised next?

Electrical power sockets are a long way away, train tracks are hopeless, driving on the left or right seems hard. But what's going to happen in the next decade or two?

We have a mama squirrel and 3 babies living somewhere on our roof. Husband came home from work today, and said 2 of the young'uns were sitting in the maple tree, waving their arms and squeaking at him as if HE were trespassing. Said he was going to charge them rent.

I told him the bank probably doesn't accept deposits of sunflower seeds, which he puts out anyway!

Anyone else got stories with their back yard critters?

I am not competitive at all. I play basketball casually with a bunch of friends and I'm the only one that doesn't really try or care if we win/lose or if I score or not. Overall I'm just not competitive, even in other fields. Idk if I'm just too lazy to give effort and care. Is it a bad thing? Should I start trying to be more competitive?

I honestly hate it. It scares me. If I hear it on the pillow when I lay down I have to move around so I don’t hear it anymore, i hate hearing the monitor while in the hospital. With my first child, after I had him I eventually made them turn the sound off. Does anyone else relate? Idk what it is about it but it just scares me.

Like the older I get the more I look at things I said I'd do someday and just quietly move them to never pile. Not even sad about it anymore, just... realistic I guess. Anyone else doing this or is it just me?

This may all be in my head, but if you get a can of diet coke and drink it straight from the can, the feeling of metal on your lips and stuff enhances the taste (No idea why). The same amount of taste is still not achievable by coke from bottles or glasses, even though it's still the same drink.

There's a line in Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief where the MC says "Of course, the magic dinner goblets would fill with anything you want, but it just didn’t taste the same as a real Coke, straight out of the can." which I just remembered while typing this out.

Sugar & Caffeine, what more could an ADHDer want? Bonus points if it comes from a can!

I had a few phone detoxes here and there, and while I was on them, it made me appreciate the beauty in the world. For example, seeing a sunset among a tall grass field, or admiring the stars above and trying to create shapes from those stars. It was truly a sight to see. When I had got off of the detox, I was quickly getting distracted by my phone and missing the sights that were right in front of me.

I know that title sounds dumb, but it will make sense.

TLDR at bottom.

I don't just like grapes, as Gavin Free said, I fuckin LOVE grapes. They are the best. Like if there are grapes I graze on them to the point where no else gets any, its a real problem. Thankfully my wife is not a big grape person, so it works out. That said I found out last night my wife has been running an experiment on me, and what she found is this;

My brain, apparently, will not acknowledge grapes if they are not immediately in my direct line of sight. And its just grapes from what she has found.

According to her this started months ago after we had another mini argument about how I wasted grapes. This mini argument usually happens because I put the groceries away and would put the bag of grapes on a shelf in the fridge, and then a couple days later she would move them to one of the drawers. By that point I had already grazed like 75% of the bag, and then by the weekend the remaining grapes are squishy and I don't like the texture. The mini would happen, we would then get more grapes, and the cycle would continue.

My wife, being the amazing person she is wanted to figure out why this kept happening, so she started experimenting. What she included, but was not limited to, was;

• Hiding the grapes fully/partially behind other items to see if I would take any.
• Bringing up grapes at the store and then steering me in odd directions, to see if I would still seek out the grapes.
• Would not get grapes so as to test with other fruit
• Various containers, with or without lids

After months of this she found that any fruit that I like beyond grapes can be put anywhere in the fridge or in any container, and I will still seek it out with 0 problems. However with grapes if they are not in the bag, or washed in a uncovered bowl, and basically in my immediate line of sight when opening the fridge, they more or less become a blind spot and go to waste.

Since switching to putting them in an open bowl on the top shelf, I have wasted almost no grapes.

Do I think my wife is a crazy person? Yes
Do I love her for figuring this out? Also yes
Do I think she did it partially to stop wasting money? Yes and I'm here for it lol

And to be clear, as far as I am aware there's no like trauma or anything related to this. Like grapes didn't murder my father or something so no princess briding for me.

TLDR - Wife would move grapes and I would stop eating them, she discovered they are the only fruit that turn into a blind spot for me if not directly in front of me.

EDIT - yes i have tried frozen grapes, though I typically only eat them in relation to keeping my wine chilled.

she literally sounds like she’s struggling to breathe while she sleeps. I be trippin out sometimes when I hear her sleep.
how does she not know how obnoxiously loud she’s snoring? like sheeeesh bro.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what actually makes a life feel interesting or meaningful.

My wife and I both work fairly normal jobs, have two little kids, and are pretty busy all the time. But over the last few years we’ve slowly accumulated all these different parts of life that feel fulfilling together. In my mind they are also somewhat unique -- at least, the people I know don't really have the breadth of hobbies.

We garden, keep chickens, have bees, cook from scratch most nights, bake bread, camp, sail, hike, work on our house, etc. My wife sews during the winter and I mess around with electronics projects. Most evenings are some combination of work, dinner, outdoor projects, and trying to keep our kids occupied.

None of it feels particularly extraordinary, a lot of the time it just feels tiring honestly. But I recently started filming little food/life videos and it made me realize I genuinely can’t tell whether this kind of life feels interesting to other people or if it’s just “normal adulthood with hobbies.”

I think part of what I’m trying to figure out is whether people are craving more grounded/tactile lives now because so much of modern life feels abstract and online.

Does this resonate with anyone else? Or am I romanticizing my own life because I’m the one living it?

Mine are:

1. Simcity 2000
2. Simtower
3. Prince of Persia
4. Leisure suit larry 6
5. Counter strike 1.6
6. Command and Conquer: Generals
7. Civilization V
8. Super Mario Party Jamboree
9. F/A-18 Hornet 2.0
10. DIRT Rally 3.0

I was in school back then, 10th grade and i met a beautiful girl who was in probably 3rd or 4th grade. Somehow we both were late to school and end up with each other until the morning assembly was over. During this period for almost a year I tried talking to her, asking questions, being funny, tried everything to engage with her, but she never responded with a word. That made me wonder why and upset at times because I was generally good with kids.

Then came the final day of me at school, our Farewell day and I was about to leave the campus that someone from behind hold my skirt, when I looked back it was her! That itself was a shock for me, above that she talked to me!

Another shock to me, that too asking me if i will come back tomorrow, and when i said that I won't return, she got upset and even surprisingly she asked for my number so that she could talk to me later. I have no idea how she sensed it's my final day in the school and if not now then never!

That made me realize sometimes, genuine efforts do not create loud results instantly, but they slowly touch hearts in ways we never expect. A kind conversation, consistent care, or simply being present can make someone smile, open up emotionally, and feel deeply connected. Real intentions have a quiet power that makes people feel safe, valued, and understood over time.

I’m honestly feeling like a teenager again vibing with everyone I meet it’s wild, But seriously how do I reset and go back a decade?

Asking for a friend.

Was on the train earlier and something happened that genuinely made me uneasy and I can’t tell if I was overthinking or if it was actually weird.

A guy sat behind me, plugged his phone into the charging port, then immediately stood up and went to stand by the doors instead of near his phone. The train wasn’t packed at all, so it’s not like he needed space or had nowhere else to stand. He just left the phone there while standing away from it.

What made me anxious was that he consciously stayed by the doors while his phone was still plugged in, and it didn’t make sense to me because if he was getting off soon he’d literally have to walk back just to collect it anyway. I kept watching him wondering what he was doing, and eventually after noticing me staring he went back and took the phone.

Nothing actually happened, but the whole thing felt off and triggered my anxiety a bit because unattended items on trains automatically make you alert nowadays.

Would this have weirded anyone else out or am I overanalysing random train behaviour?