You know the thing about bullets? They move too fast for you to see.
Reddit user, u/EdibleArroyo26, wanted to hear how you escaped a terrible fate when they asked:
What is the biggest bullet you've ever dodged? Why?
To dodge a bullet means you get out of the way right as it passes by, where it's so close to hitting you that you can still smell the trail. These people can still smell the bullet that passed by them.
Got Out Before It Got Too Serious
"Dated this girl for 3 months, then broke up. Found out later that she was pregnant the whole time and was going to try and convince me it was mine. Fortunately, we never had sex."
Upper-Job5130Seems Like A Good Place To nap
"When I had just turned 21, I went to a bar with some friends, and wound up drinking more than I had intended to. I realized I wasn't okay to drive home so I just decided to sleep in the passenger seat of my car. About 4 AM I woke up to a cop shining a flashlight in my face. He asked to see my license and registration, and then told me he was just checking to make sure it was my car, because sometimes vagrants sleep in unlocked cars. I had no idea at the time that you could get a DUI for sleeping in a car drunk. Apparently if you do that you're supposed to put the keys in the trunk or something so maybe you can say you didn't have a way to drive the vehicle but they were in my pocket, and he didn't even ask if I'd been drinking, even though I was parked in an area with a bunch of bars."
Become Rich In 6 To 10 Months! Easy!
"I almost fell for a pyramid scheme (ACN) in high school. My parents talked me out of it, thankfully. Who knows how my life would be if I went all in."
"I almost fell for one of these disguised as a job as an investment advisor. $800 "certification" you pay to them, then you gotta try and sell to people you personally know."
"My roommate was a recruiter for an engineering firm and told me he'd heard about it being a scam from some colleagues. When I called them to turn the job down, the lady cussed me out lol."
"Group interviews are for scams disguised as jobs."
Follow What Your Heart Says
"Refusing to get an arranged marriage despite pressure and emotional blackmail from parents. I was told I would be lonely and sad and no one would want me if I didn't get married before 30. I'm now on my late 40's, with a great SO and living my best life"
There was lie before COVID and there's now life after COVID, where it feels like all the decisions we made before then were done with little foresight into what's to come. Thankfully, some people made it through the threshold okay.
Just Before The World Fell Apart
"Left my healthcare related job just as covid was starting. God bless those people but I'm glad I'm not dealing with that kind of stress on a daily basis."
Getting A Head Start On The End
"My company went under in Feb 2020. Filed for unemployment & started collecting about the 2nd week of March. Local lockdowns & layoffs started about a week later. Got a jump on prepping my resume & applying, got that extra Fed money, and could take my time finding the right job. My field has exploded in the pandemic—making better money and have a better title now too."
"My partner is a chef. He & another chef left a bougie hotel restaurant in our tourist city to open a pizzeria in late 2019. Their place is the only permanent restaurant in a food truck lot, with a ton of outdoor seating and a big outdoor bar. Our climate is perfect for outdoor eating 3/4ths of the year. Theirs is one of the few local spots that not only made it, but got VERY busy during the takeout & outdoor dining phases. The hotel and restaurant have both shut down."
"I was locked down for a long time but had already worked remotely since about 2017. I also spent ~7 years close to bedridden at one point of my life, so I know how to do lockdown without losing my mind."
"I feel like we dodged an entire munitions factory."
HR Recruiters Break Down The Biggest Resume Red Flags | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
Getting Out Of The Game Early
"Sold my bar and grill business in August 2019"
"Wow Right before covid. Now thats what i call a pro move"
Keeping Tabs On The Terrible
"My ex boyfriend lol. At the time he was the love of my life and the ending of the relationship hit me hard, but from what I've heard recently from people I know who know/know of him hes on his third divorce (under 40 y/o) and he's been accused of physical and mental abuse and possibly child abuse. So yeah. Definitely dodged that one."
There's no joking around here. These people are lucky to be where they are, safe where they are, healthy where they are, all because luck and the universe intervened.
Not The Kind Of Life You'd Want
"We tried for a long time to have a baby. It was heartbreaking to not be pregnant again every month. Then we got pregnant, but at 24 weeks discovered the baby had passed. Fast forward several years and I became a pediatric home health nurse. Babies who pass in utero often do so because they are incompatible with life. Had we found out a week earlier, we could have saved my baby, and that child could have survived with very little chance of being anything close to normal."
"I wouldn't have understood what a lifetime of potentially severe disability would mean for the baby, my family, subsequent children, etc. What I do for a living now makes my heart break for some of the families. They'll never have life again. They are home bound forever, and marriages do not tend to survive. It is tragic."
"Some families truly love their children, others love but feel the burden, others are disconnected and bitter. None of them really knew what they were getting into at first. I have two healthy kids, and I am now grateful for that first loss, painful as it was."
Have A Phone Ready To Go
"A van followed me in Chula Vista when I was 18. I was walking my bike to the bike shop because something was wrong with the chains. They kept circling the block to keep up with me. At some point I tried to run away from them to the business district near by but I forgot it was a saturday and the whole area was abandoned. I ended up ditching the bike and hiding under some bushes."
"They kept circling but they were in a van so they couldnt find me. At some point I left and the found me just as I was walking towards a busy Target. They still tried to approach me when i pulled out my phone and pretended to take pictures of the license plate. They ended up driving away. But they were definitely a abduction van because we have them in that area."
That's One Way To Vent Your Frustrations...
"My friend and I are on our way to a party in an apartment. I don't know anyone except my friend. Are guy comes behind us in the elevator. Walks into the party with us and we don't think any thing of it because we don't know many people at the party."
"I was nineteen and drinking for the first time and I was drinking to get drunk. I do shots with several people, including the guy. Eventually I'm too drunk to stand so I go lay down in the bedroom."
"Now, I can't remember if my friend was always in the room with me or if she came in later but I remember flashes of the guy say he was in the army. That he could do anything he wanted to me. At some point my friend calls for help. The guys at the party chase the guy out."
"Apparently everyone thought someone else knew him. Nope. He just listened to our conversation and followed us into the party. The next day I'm puking my guts out at home. My friend calls. She just saw the guy on the news. Arrested for stabbing a cop. Guess he was mad he got kicked out of the party."
"If it weren't for my friend, I shudder to think of what would've happened to me."
The Kindness Of Strangers
"Years ago I lived in Vancouver and liked to go for long walks (beautiful city to do so). I was heading to a friends first to drop something off and and cut through a neighbourhood with a lot of south east asian immigrants ( the ones I got to talk to were mostly from Vietnam). I was aware of a van behind me but it was mid day and there were people out, so it was only a passing thought."
"A lady was working in her garden and as i approached her house she started to look behind me. Then she came out onto the side walk and started talking to me in her native language. I understood none of it but her body language was adgitated. She kept jestering to me to come with her up their walkway. As I looked behind me I see three men getting out of the van, which is now parked just behind me."
"By this point the woman has a good grip on my arm and has me dragged almost to her porch. She kept talking to me and pointing to stuff in her garden and i just listened, nodded, and kept a good eye on the men and van. I dont remember how long we were there but the men finally left. Both myself and the woman let out huge sighs of relief. She then patted me on the arm, said something, and then went back to her gardening. I booted it to my friends house."
"On the news the next day was the story of a woman who was kidnapped. The victim was grabbed on the next street over from the woman's house, not long after my encounter with her, by 5 men in a van. The men were distinctive and the description of the men and van fit the ones I had see."
"That woman saved me from something horrible and I am forever thankful."