My daughter is doing youth volleyball right now. She's on a team of 3rd and 4th graders and been playing for like 8 weeks. My wife and I are also coaching her team despite knowing nothing about coaching or playing volleyball.
The regular season was...not great. They only won one match out of five, and lost a couple by pretty large margins. But they showed improvement and they were working hard.
Today was their tournament and if I'm really honest I didn't expect them to do great. In the seeding round they were 3-1 and ended up 5th seed out of 6 teams.
But holy shit did they turn things around in the elimination part of the tournament. They got kind of lucky because the first two seeds got a bye in the 1st round so they were matched up 5 vs. 4. They won their first game and then something just sort of clicked for them. It's like the lightbulb turned on for all of them and they realized "Oh, we can do this"
They won their second game to eliminate the 4 seed and then were playing the 2 seed who had already beaten them pretty badly in the seeding round. They lost their first game, won the second, and then killed it in the tiebreaker game to move on to the finals.
The finals were, of course, against the Titans. This was the team that had kicked the shit out of them earlier in the season, and boy was the team aptly named. I don't know how it worked out that way but every girl on that team was huge. They were the same size as most of the 5th and 6th grade teams and they were good too.
I wish I could say they won, but they didn't. They lost their two championship games 25-22 and 26-24. But against a team that had beaten them by 15+ points earlier in the season it was an incredible showing.
There were tears, but at the end of the day they walked out with their heads held high and they were proud of themselves. And goddamn was I proud of them too.

So basically, I (20M) met this girl (19F) at our church in college about 2 months ago. We became friends pretty instantly, especially getting to know each other on a trip much of the church went on for spring break right afterwards. It's a pretty tight-knit community so we've naturally seen/talked to each other quite a bit since then, however for the past month/month and a half we've definitely grown extra close. Basically we'll dm on insta bantering about random stuff, seem to always end up next to each otherunning into each other, and haven't actually deliberately hung out but have spent time one on one a couple times after running into each other while studying. She did want to go to an orchestra concert just with me (we both love classical music), though was unable because of school. We definitely flirt in the way of touching, teasing, and an occasional hint/innuendo, and while I think she likes me, it's not a 100% sure thing as again our community is pretty close/interactive, and she is quite affectionate and chipper with a lot of people. There have been a couple though that notice we seem to like each other.
Now, obviously I should make a move and ask her out. However that didn't become obvious to me until those times we studied, and by then, it was about to be finals week and I really needed to not be distracted -- had a very important and difficult grade to get to declare a major (I did :)). She moved out for the summer before my finals were over, so didn't get a chance to ask with us both there (lowkey wish I found that out directly through asking her, but I did through her ig story instead). Now, she only lives 45 minutes away from me by car. However I'm a bit of a doofus and still don't have my driver's license (my hometown is very walkable). I really would like to go pick her up and take her out, but while I really want to get the license anyway, I definitely need at least a few more weeks of practice to pass the test. So, I feel kind of in limbo, as I'm embarrassed about telling her that (she doesn't know) and asking her to come down here for a first date. Just feels unattractive/slightly emasculating for me tbh. However I feel like I can't wait too much longer without risking getting friendzoned... I felt a bit of a boiling point of tension and worry it'll simmer down. Plus, I'm not sure about her summer schedule as she travels a lot. Should I come clean about this to her, ask if she wants to come to me, or wait to get the license and just not talk to her too much in the meantime, or any other option? I can't really tell what she'd think of any of these scenarios. Again I really want to get this license ASAP anyway, but tbh I still suck :(

National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) Scholarship: Fully funded by the U.S Department of State, NSLI-Y provides intensive 8-week language & cultural immersion programs in locations around the world. The program is part of a U.S. government initiative to foster international cooperation by ensuring that Americans have the linguistic skills and cultural knowledge necessary to effectively communicate. NSLI-Y provides overseas critical language study opportunities to American youth through merit-based scholarships to spark a lifetime interest in critical foreign languages and cultures.
The program schedule consists of 4 hrs of language study at a local school, cultural excursions after school, free time, time w/ host family, homework.
Pros • Free travel to Indonesia, low income so might be only chance • Learn Indonesian language • Love traveling/ study abroad (my dream) • I’ve been focused on school, I want a break before college • Meet new friends • Could help me get other study abroad • Intangible benefits: personal growth, language, etc. • Short term fun • Can leave home earlier
Cons • College starts the day after I get back (3 hrs away) • Orientation dates are when im gone so I wont be able to go in person • Will probably attend a virtual orientation but its when im already gone • Only chance to participate
Government Internship for rising college freshman: Engineering internship at an Air Force Base w/ a college prep element. 1st & 2nd years do college/ life prep & engineering. 3rd & 4th years are placed on a team.
Pros • If I stay in the program, they will most likely offer a job (main purpose of program) • Guaranteed internship throughout college if I keep a 3.0 GPA • I’ll make around 6,000 (Salaried 30k+) • Salary increases every summer • College prep themes every week: guest speakers in industry, mentors, life lessons, “college hacks”, etc. • Project-based learning assignments: Learn coding in python (currently a beginner), build & program hardware, etc. • Can use all base amenities • Head start to learn Computer Engr & mentorship as first gen low income • Tangible benefits: money, engineering skills, career advancement, etc. • Long term advancements
Cons • Would be giving up other summer opportunities • If I decide I don’t want to do it anymore, I’ll regret not doing NSLI-Y Indonesian summer • Won’t be able to apply until sophomore year & the college prep isn’t included • If I get the post college job, I’ll have to move back near my hometown
I’m really conflicted on what to chose because I really love to travel, and I feel like going on the study abroad will be really beneficial to me. Though a lot of people have told me it would be stupid to pass up this internship because there are so many other study abroad opportunities. But I feel like there are other internships and I’ll be working the rest of my life so I should just enjoy the summer. At first I was gonna chose study abroad then I started to reconsider bc I fear that I won’t be good enough in engineering to get another internship in college.
So would I be “stupid” to pass up this internship for the study abroad?

National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) Scholarship: Fully funded by the U.S Department of State, NSLI-Y provides intensive 8-week language & cultural immersion programs in locations around the world. The program is part of a U.S. government initiative to foster international cooperation by ensuring that Americans have the linguistic skills and cultural knowledge necessary to effectively communicate. NSLI-Y provides overseas critical language study opportunities to American youth through merit-based scholarships to spark a lifetime interest in critical foreign languages and cultures.
The program schedule consists of 4 hrs of language study at a local school, cultural excursions after school, free time, time w/ host family, homework.
Pros • Free travel to Indonesia, low income so might be only chance • Learn Indonesian language • Love traveling/ study abroad (my dream) • I’ve been focused on school, I want a break before college • Meet new friends • Could help me get other study abroad • Intangible benefits: personal growth, language, etc. • Short term fun • Can leave home earlier
Cons • College starts the day after I get back (3 hrs away) • Orientation dates are when im gone so I wont be able to go in person • Will probably attend a virtual orientation but its when im already gone • Only chance to participate
Government Internship for rising college freshman: Engineering internship at an Air Force Base w/ a college prep element. 1st & 2nd years do college/ life prep & engineering. 3rd & 4th years are placed on a team.
Pros • If I stay in the program, they will most likely offer a job (main purpose of program) • Guaranteed internship throughout college if I keep a 3.0 GPA • I’ll make around 6,000 (Salaried 30k+) • Salary increases every summer • College prep themes every week: guest speakers in industry, mentors, life lessons, “college hacks”, etc. • Project-based learning assignments: Learn coding in python (currently a beginner), build & program hardware, etc. • Can use all base amenities • Head start to learn Computer Engr & mentorship as first gen low income • Tangible benefits: money, engineering skills, career advancement, etc. • Long term advancements
Cons • Would be giving up other summer opportunities • If I decide I don’t want to do it anymore, I’ll regret not doing NSLI-Y Indonesian summer • Won’t be able to apply until sophomore year & the college prep isn’t included • If I get the post college job, I’ll have to move back near my hometown
I’m really conflicted on what to chose because I really love to travel, and I feel like going on the study abroad will be really beneficial to me. Though a lot of people have told me it would be stupid to pass up this internship because there are so many other study abroad opportunities. But I feel like there are other internships and I’ll be working the rest of my life so I should just enjoy the summer. At first I was gonna chose study abroad then I started to reconsider bc I fear that I won’t be good enough in engineering to get another internship in college.
So would I be “stupid” to pass up this internship for the study abroad?

That’s all it was. A game.
Something my friends and I used to play during the summer when we had nothing better to do. I never expected that it would get so out of hand.
I never expected it to come back long after recovery.
To anyone reading, please don’t do what I did.
I’m putting this out there to warn people.
On that warm summer evening, we played the role of Pandora.
Except, the monsters we released were far worse than what’s told in stories.
Because stories end.
And this doesn’t.
I still remember the date. July 16, 2013. I was an upcoming senior in high school while the others were getting prepared for their freshman year of college, raving on about their majors, life plans, dorms, you get the point. The summer had been bittersweet as those months would be the last I’d see them for a while. Because of this, Anthony, Lola, Eliza, and I would spend the bulk of our time together going to festivals and various camping trips, trying to make the most out of the summer while we could. On that day, the day I wish I could forget, Eliza had run late to one of our hangouts at my place. This was odd since as an Ivy league student, she was usually early or right on time to these kind of things. Half past three, we heard her knocking on my door rapidly, which was also out of character considering that she was usually the calm one in our group. A bit worried, I hurried down the stairs with Anthony and Lola following close behind, expecting Eliza to be in hysterics due to her frantic behavior. When I opened the door, however, there she was with a bright smile on her face, her red hair getting in the way of her eyes, which were a dark green shade. She pushed her hair out of her face with one hand and held a brown box in the other, and she was bouncing up and down as she usually does when she’s about to talk about something exciting.
“You’ll never believe what I found.” Eliza’s voice could barely hold her impatience as she stepped inside and kicked her shoes off once she crossed over my threshold.
“What’s up with you today?” Anthony questioned, looking more confused than concerned now.
“I’ll show you guys in a minute. Can we go up to your room, Felix?” Eliza looked over at me with her trademark smile, knowing damn well we were all too curious to just leave that box unopened. Without a word, I led the group up to my room and shut the door after everyone had walked in. Anthony took his usual spot on my beanbag and unzipped his hoodie, which had the MSM logo sprawled across the front in big red letters. He adjusted his dark rimmed glasses and took on his usual stoic expression. Lola wore a dark blue FIT shirt, which she revealed more of when she moved her locs over her shoulder as she sat on my desk chair and wheeled over to us. As she did, the various necklaces she wore clinked against each other. Eliza herself was the smartest out of the group, and probably in the whole school as well. She had gotten accepted into multiple prestigious schools, but ultimately settled for Harvard to pursue a degree in some obscure philanthropic career. Unlike Anthony and Lola, Eliza wore her regular outfit –usually a white tank top and jeans– and sat on my bed with the box in her lap. I took a seat next to her to get a closer look.
“So what’d you find?” The others moved closer.
“Something we probably haven’t thought about for a really long time. Do you guys remember that one game we used to play in middle school? The one we made after Felix joined our class?” Eliza looked at our puzzled faces to see if we had connected the dots, but her clue didn’t seem to strike any of us with familiarity.
“After Felix joined? Didn’t we just hang out or something that weekend?” Anthony questioned.
“We did, but there was something else,” Eliza raised an eyebrow, “you guys seriously don’t remember?”
At that moment, I saw Lola’s eyes light up and a thin smile grew on her lips, something she always did whenever she was able to figure something out.
“You mean that little map game we played? Where we would go out to the woods and explore?”
Both Anthony and I seemed to have remembered as well with the mention of a ‘map game.’ I chimed in, “ yeah I remember! Every once in a while when we were all bored, we’d pick a random spot on a map to go to and explore there for a bit, right? When did we stop doing that anyways? I remember really enjoying it.”
“Well life happens,” Eliza responded to me, “but I was thinking of things to do for the rest of the summer when I suddenly remembered that game! That’s why I was so late for our meetup today, I was looking through my attic for this.” Eliza shook the box slightly and a couple things clattered around inside.
“There’s no way.” Anthony sounded like he was in disbelief.
“You mean…?” Lola sat forward in the chair. Eliza smirked, her adventurous nature creeping out as realization swept over us like a wave.
“Mhm! I found the map we used to use as well as the things we collected from our little escapades.” With that, Eliza opened the box, revealing a folded piece of paper and various trinkets scattered over the bottom of the capsule. Lola squealed with excitement and immediately snatched the box from Eliza, who simply chuckled and leaned back on the bed.
“No way! Everything’s still in here!” Lola digged through the box and placed whatever objects she found across the blanket. Anthony got up and sat at the foot of my bed, to observe our findings more closely. There was a piece of some clay pottery, some rusty springs and scraps of metal, an old digital camera, and some other random stuff I can’t recall to memory right now. Anthony picked up a spring and turned it in his palm.
“Shit man, this is from that abandoned junkyard we found in 8th grade…that feels like such a long time ago now.”
I examined the piece of pottery with Eliza looking over my shoulder. Lola picked up the digital camera.
“Do you remember where this came from?” I turned to Eliza and held up my discovery.
“No clue,” she shrugged. It must have been a while ago if even she didn’t remember. I turned the piece over and grew curious when I saw weird symbols inscribed on the inside of it. I squinted a bit, trying to discern some sort of pattern within the scribbles.
I turned to Eliza again, “hey, what do you think-”
“OH MY GOD GUYS IT STILL WORKS!” Lola’s voice went up a whole octave as she motioned to us.
The rest of us looked up as she turned the camera to face us. There were various photos we went through. All of us at lakes, museums, exploring the woods; everything we did from 7th grade until my freshman year seemed to be documented. The last photo was arguable the best and msot bittersweet. It was a picture of the whole group from a while ago. We were sitting at Eliza’s dinner table with a giant chocolate cake on the middle of it adorned with two candles shaped like the numbers one and five. Eliza was talking to me in the photo. Her hair was even more red at the time and she wore it in a braid. I looked about the same in the photo as I did then, with light brown hair, blue eyes, and freckles scattered all over my body and face. I was smiling sheepishly at Eliza. I now knew why Anthony said it was obvious I had a crush on her in 8th grade. Lola went through the most changes out of all of us. At the time in the photo, she had her hair straightened and side-swept, with a bright pink streak in her bangs. She wore clunky jewlery and a frilly skirt underneath a long tank top, leaning over the table to cut another slice of cake. All of us had birthday hats on except for Anthony, who kept his sitting on the table. He held up a peace sign staring straight into the camera with a stoic expression. He looked like a statue compared to the rest of us, who were laughing and smiling. You could tell he was having fun, though.
“Well don’t you look like a ray of sunshine,” Lola snickered as Anthony shot her a dirty look.
“At least I didn’t go through some weird scene phase in freshman year,” He smiled and watched Lola’s face, knowing she was blushing despite her dark skin which made it practically invisible. I let a laugh slip out, but quickly stifled it knowing that if I kept going it would mean death. Lola side-eyed me and continued, “I was using my creative liberty to experiment with my options as an artist,” she said with an overly-posh accent that made Eliza laugh.
“Yeah Anthony, don’t be such a downer,” Eliza teased. Anthony simply rolled his eyes and suppressed a smile to pretend like he was mad at all of us. He looked into the box and picked up the paper we left, unfolding it with a hint of excitement and curiosity. When he looked at it, only two words came out of his mouth.
“Holy shit.”
“What, what is it?” Lola tried to look at the other side of the paper, but Anthony quickly held it out of her view.
“What if I didn’t want to show you?” A smile crept onto his face. This was one of those rare moments where he’d be in the moos to joke around with us.
“Don’t be a dick bro,” I said, laughing as I went to grab for the paper. Anthony just held it up in the air and pushed me off of him and I landed on my floor. While he was distracted, though, Eliza took her chance and snatched the paper right out of his hand.
“You boys need to learn to be nice,” she warned in her jokingly stern voice as she unfolded the paper and spread it out onto my bed. We all leaned over to look.
It was a map of a couple towns including ours. There were around ten small star stickers placed on different areas on the map near the streets the four of us lived in. On the top of the map, a couple words were scrawled in black sharpie; “Pick a Place!” I could see everyone’s faces light up.
“Oh my god it’s our map!” Lola shouted and pointed to one of the stars near her street, “this was where we found that old junkyard right?”
Eliza smiled, “I remember that. It feels like such a long time ago now.” She pointed to another star, “and this is where we found that lake we made a hideout of. I still remember swimming in there in 8th grade…”
The four of us reminisced for a while, talking about where we had gone and what we did there, and how impressive it was that we didn’t get tetanus from that junkyard. After nearly an hour of conversation, Eliza asked something that made all of us stop.
“So how about it guys? Do you want to do one last round before the summer ends?”
The rest of us looked around at each other. It was clear we all wanted to do it. Eliza seemed to catch on and she nodded.
“Who wants to pick where we go?”
“How about you do the honors?” Lola suggested, motioning towards the map. “You’re the one that brought this stuff in anyways.”
Eliza raised her eyebrow but didn’t object. Without a word, she examined the map for a few minutes, then placed her finger on one spot a bit far from my house.
“How about here?”
“You think we can make it that far?” Anthony asked.
“Well, we can drive now so why not?”
“You sure there’s some type of trail we can drive on? That spot looks pretty deep in the woods”
“We can find a path to drive on for a bit then walk the rest of the way. C’mon guys, this is probably our last chance to do something like this! Felix, you can drive right?”
Eliza and the rest turned to me with a hopeful expression. I had to comply.
“Sure. No big deal, right?”
All three of them cheered and high fived each other, looking pretty excited to go on one last adventure.
“So when do we leave?” I questioned.
Eliza flashed that smile again, “right now.”
“Right now?!”
“Hell yeah,” Lola chimed in. “It shouldn’t take that long, right?”
“I guess…” Even then I felt uneasy about the whole thing. I didn’t feel prepared enough to go on some random trip into the woods. I needed to pack food, water, flashlights, I had no idea how long this was going to take. Little did I know that those things would be the least of my worries a couple hours from then. I wish I could go back and convince my 17-year-old self that it wasn’t worth it, that I should just convince my friends to stay and talk for the rest of the day. I wish Eliza had never remembered that stupid game. In a way, I’m almost mad at her for what happened, but I know it wasn’t anyones fault. We just wanted to have fun. I wish we could’ve just had fun. But God had a different plan for us. One that made me think Satan himself devised it instead. On July 16, 2013, Anthony He, Lola Smith, Eliza Landserson, and Felix Johanson went on an adventure that none of them were ready for.
Author's Note:
If you just read all of that then thank you so so so much for doing so! I'm a rookie writer, so feel free to comment any constructive criticism you might have if you have actual writing experience! This is the first silly little story I'm posting here, so I hope you enjoyed :)

30F here…
I have been living in South Florida (North of Ft Lauderdale, South of West Palm Beach) for the past 5 years or so. I love it here, I love living near the beach, I’ve made some amazing friends, and I love my job.
The dating department on the other hand has been absolute misery. I have been on countless dates over the past 5 years with countless men. The longest relationship I have had since being here was about 5 months in 2020, and he came over and dumped me one day for seemingly no reason and got married to essentially the next girl he saw. (Whole other can of worms, I’ve been through a lot of therapy to unpack that one)
I’ve been ghosted after one date, I’ve been ghosted after 3 dates, I’ve had wonderful dates, and horrible dates, and everything in between. The result is always the same. I’ve tried focusing on myself and waiting for something to happen, I’ve tried the apps, I’ve tried seemingly everything.
Lately, I’ve been feeling awful because all of my friends seem to be finding their people and starting families and moving on with their lives. Which I am so elated for them, but I can’t help but feel like I’m continuously left behind.
Anyways, I have been considering moving. Like out of town. I have no idea where, or when, but I just wonder if this is something that would even remotely help my situation? Would it be good to start over somewhere, or would it just be the same crap that would follow me elsewhere? Has anyone tried this and had success? Or failure?
Feedback appreciated.

31F. i’m not even saying this in a depressing way i’m saying this in a matter of fact way. i literally feel like the circumstances of my life have made me evolve differently than the rest of humanity. literally due to evolution, i’m not meant to be in a relationship. and it makes me so depressed and makes me feel like i might as well die off now, because what’s the point of being alive for 60 more years just to be alone.
first off, looks are not the issue. just for context, i’m beautiful. i know i am because random men and women tell me almost every day.
i didn’t grow up feeling beautiful, they didn’t start telling me that until i was about 16. so yes, i’ve had some body image issues/childhood insecurities. but doesn’t everyone?
but i have a decent amount of confidence now, i may not feel beautiful, but i at least know i’m not ugly.
i’m perfectly capable of being social and maintaining relationships. most of my friendships have lasted 10+ years. i was popular in high school and college. i have a masters degree.
the problem is, i’ve never witnessed a successful relationship. my parents divorced when i was 7. my mom kicked my dad out and he never came back. i have not seen my dad in almost 25 years. i was never told if he would come back or not. we just never talked about it … i was so busy with school, sports, and extra curricular as a kid that life just kinda .. moved on.
we were a happy family and then one day i came home and the house just felt empty. forever.
on top of that, i grew up in the aftermath of my grandparents divorce. my grandmother constantly vented to me as a young child about my grandfathers multiple affairs throughout their marriage.
i spent a lot of time at my cousins house growing up, where their parents were still together. then one day in 5th grade their marriage was over, my aunt, who was one of the closest adults to me, was kicked out of the family, and their divorce took over 10 years to finalize.
i just saw my mom, my grandma, and my uncle experience so many negative consequences from being in a relationship that i truly feel that my young brain interpreted relationships as bad, something that only brings pain and drama. it’s better to focus on a career and be alone than someone who will only ruin your life.
i’ve had flings, i’ve had endless guys interested in hooking up with me, endless one night stands. i even lived with a guy for 8 months, but he never claimed me as his girlfriend.
i’m always going on dates and putting myself out there. i focus on myself if a guy doesn’t call. i do everything they say to do. i read all the books. i don’t get it. my friends always tell me, they don’t know what the issue is because i’m a great friend, capable of being a great partner, and one of the sweetest, most reliable people they know.
back in 2022, i felt the most connected with a guy i ever felt. i thought i met my soulmate. just to find out he was married just looking for a side piece. it felt like a literal joke, like a slap in the face, after a whole lifetime of failed relationships.
i truly believe it’s not in the cards for me. it makes me sad to know i’ll never know what it’s like to wake up to your best friend every day. always have someone to spend your day with. i barely even ever have sex. i dont know if i want children, but if i don’t, i don’t want the reason to be because i never found a partner.
all i’ve ever wanted was a relationship, but all i ever get is guys that want sex. even if they say they are looking for something real, it’s never with me.
from the outside, i’m beautiful and successful. but nobody knows this loneliness will eventually kill me (i hope it does soon tbh).

For context I am a 15 year old kid i would say I am not bad looking either I have a pretty muscular frame and a kind of visible 4 pack but I am only 5 foot 8. The girl I am talking about is extremely beautiful however I would say she is out of my league. She has a boyfriend and I am not ''Mr steal your girl'' at all I probably could not take her from him even if I wanted to. I have liked this girl since seventh grade and have been obsessed with her since. She is very beautiful and so is her personality I am talking even after 3 years I still get butterflies when she walks past me in the hallway. It is not fair either because like I said earlier she has a bf but I want her so badly I know I sound like your typical love struck teenager but it hurts To make matters even worse she dated one of my close friends and out of respect I would not do that to him. She is the most perfect girl I have ever seen I would go into detail on how beautiful she is and how she makes me feel but this would be way too long if I did that. However, it pains me to not be with her, I . I know I am just a teenager and this is not a really big problem but If someone could give me some advice it would be much appreciated

Just putting this out there, I have ADHD/autistic personality traits, so I already know that my views on "normal human interactions", are significantly different that most people's.
Growing up, me and my 2 younger brothers spent a lot of time hanging out with some of the other kids that lived near us, and now that we are adults, there are a few of us that have been getting together and having game nights every month or 2, and for the most part it is nice to see an old friend, and get time to hang out with my brothers (1 lives with me, but it is still nice to play games and just hangout). The problem is that there is one member of the group that I do not like. We'll call him 'Jack'
For context, this guy has never wronged me directly, in fact, he thinks that we are good friends. I have honestly never liked him, or considered him anything more than someone who is around/a friend of my brothers. I think it was just an age difference thing, at first, but as we got older I never found anything I liked about him. One of my brothers "dated" his older sister in grade school (He will be called 'Larry'), and 'Jack' instantly got very attached to him, seeing him like an older brother figure. That combined with him not having a super great home life, has lead to 'Jack' to try and overly include himself in my family over the years.
At first it was nothing, just hanging out at our place a lot, which wasn't bad, I just didn't interact with him directly unless I had to (I was never mean to him, but I didn't go out of my way to be his buddy). Then it started getting frustrating, 'Larry' wouldn't want to hang out, so 'Jack' would hang out with my other brother ('Nick'), and after a few minutes, he would spend more time trying to get 'Larry's' attention, and would just leave 'Nick' on his own, which pissed me off as I got older, and saw what was happening. At the time I did not mention anything, because I was just happy 'Jack' was leaving me alone. He also started calling himself "the 4th brother", or our mom's "4th son", which I have always found creepy, and I know my mom is not the biggest fan of him, or when he says that, but much like me, she does not say anything, because for some reason both of my brothers still consider him a friend (Both of my brothers are aware of how I feel about him, and also talk about how irritating and annoying they find him as well).
Cut to the last game night, it was me, 'Nick', another of our childhood friends, and 'Jack' ('Larry' had work, so couldn't be there). I do not know if it was lack of sleep the night before, if it had something to do with us being down one person so there was less people between me and "Jack', or if my tolerance for him being in my life has grown less and less over the years, but I was just having a bad time with him around. I played it up, and pretended to have a good time, chatting and hanging out like everyone else, but as soon as I got out of there, I was so exhausted, and almost regret the time I felt like I wasted.
I do not expect my brothers to not be his friend, because I dislike him, but this guy is the bane of my existence, and he literally gives me a head ache if I spend more than 5 minutes in a room with him. I don't know if I am just here to vent, but besides me finding a way to get out of these game nights, I cannot think of a peaceful resolution to this. I dread these game nights, and will complain about them the whole week leading up to them, because this 'Jack' guy rubs me the wrong way that much. I do not think he is a bad person, I just do not want anything to do with him, and have found myself in a situation where social niceties are almost forcing me to spend time with him.
I apologize for the epic novel, but if anyone has any advice on how I should approach this or how I could get out of this, I would appreciate it.

sorry if this is lame to ask advice for and the answer is obvious but i just want second opinions
about 7 months ago i joined one of my local sports teams, since then i have gained a few new friends. the girl i’m closest to on the team i’ll call her A me and A text pretty often and i was so excited to become friends with her since i don’t have many in the first place since i’m homeschooled i also met this boy, i’ll call him B, me and B have talked a few times and i started getting a little crush on him after he helped me with something at practice. us 3 are all in the same grade but since we’re all homeschooled we don’t see eachother at school. A and B have been on this sports team a few years before me and their families are close and about a month or so ago she admitted to me and my other friend on the team that she really liked B like she has for a loooooong time so i chose to just ignore the crush i had on him since i wouldn’t wanna hurt her. since then she’s told me about stories she’s written about him and her and so on and he has no idea. my crush on him grew a lot as i’ve been around him more and more and it’s harder for me to ignore it
today we had a competition for this sport and she actually went with him and his family to this event, and i saw them both standing together majority of the time and even though i was happy for her deep down i was sad. she told me after it was over that she told one of his siblings about her crush on him and his sibling was very supportive of it and he’s never shown signs he likes her or anything which makes me doubt that he likes her back. but i feel bad because one side of me wants him to reject her and like me instead and the other side is rooting for her to get with him, but idek if he’s interested in dating at all. i feel like a bad friend she’s one of the sweetest people i’ve become friends with but i’m so jealous that she’s so close with him and his family and not me
should i ignore my crush on him

4th/5th grade kid pitch rec league and I am the head coach in my first year. It’s a “competitive” league, as competitive as you can be over 6 games and no play offs. We lost our first game because I left one of our pitchers in too long and walked 5 runs in one an inning and a half. The second game I started out best player and he went 5 innings with 11ks 2BB and 1 hit. We won 11-1 against the team to beat in the league. The kid has a heck of an arm and is only playing in rec to fill the time between his little league ending and Football. Anyway, one of the assistants asked if I wanted to get another pitcher in and see if the other kids could get hits of them. I was torn because we were winning pretty handily but 1) The kid really wanted to finish the game 2) I figured that even tho he threw comparatively speaking, gas, he threw strikes as opposed to our other pitchers who walk way more, where the opposing team would see less strikes but at slower speeds. What’s the best way to handle a kid like this? I don’t want to do the same thing I did in the first game and have him come in to bail us out just for us to lose. The kids were way happier winning than losing obviously but I know some want to pitch even tho they aren’t throwing many strikes.

Just for context my parents are super accepting and supportive, so that’s not what I’m worried about My brother recently got into his 4th relationship (he’s 2 years older than me) and my mom asked me out of the blue “do you have a special someone?” I said no, and then she doubled down. “Have you ever had anyone” I said no, and she TRIPLED DOWN saying “do you like people like that?” I said yes and then I kinda forgot if she responded or not but then I told her I was gay and that’s why I have never dated. (The gay man dating pool at my school is ROUGHHH) which she is fine with but it was still a really awkward situation. If I was her, I would have never asked, but then she asked three prying questions like that in a row it’s like dude leave me alone.
P.S. I have come out to her as nonbinary before. I wouldn’t say I identify like that now (it was a very odd early-pubescent time of my life when I identified as enby) But that’s why she asked if I even like people, she suspected I was ace because she knows I’m at least a little queer.

I'm in a real rotten school that's changing management every 6 weeks. I'm actually in a very safe, consistent spot and have not a lot to complain about but it creates an air of paranoia and I wanna get out of here.
However, I finish my MA.Ed. in Nov (so I'll have the diploma by Dec, have it "authenticated" by Jan, 2025).
All the jobs I interview with are for less money than I make now, worse teaching positions (I teach in upper school with some student-facing admin duties that I love, all I get are 4th-6th grade ELL or homeroom stuff). Ideally I want to continue moving into admin.
Should I just wait 6 months, enjoy my Summer vacation, and hope for Feb or take the 15% pay cut and go somewhere more relaxing?
EDIT: And yes, yes, only I can make the choice and stuff but I'm just looking for outside opinions and yackity yack.

I'm sorry if this comes out scrambled as the feelings I have in this situation are so complex and my words are so much better spoken then written. Me and my boyfriend have been together since we were both 16 so about 2 and a half years. I myself am pretty mature for my age, but he's about average. He is great and his intention is so good, the problem just comes to his execution.
A lot of my issues come from the fact that I simply don't feel loved. I will tell him exactly what I want him to do, and I will feel like he's just brushing it off or he will do it for a week and then come up with excuses for why he can't. A big example of this is at the beginning of our relationship, for about 7 months he never bought me flowers despite me asking and then finally when I felt so drained after asking so much and always bringing it up, and I was considering leaving, he bought me some. I promised myself I wouldn't make a fool out of myself like that again and ask for attention, but it's honestly been downhill from there. After the flower incident, I could see that he was trying to 'love' me more the way I want to be loved- I told him my love languages were acts of service, quality time, and gift giving, but his progress was just really slow. Like when I asked him to do more, I thought he would do more right away, not a little more only a little bit of the time.
After the flower incident, there were much more. Literally for the following 6 months after that I felt like I was just constantly nagging telling him that he wasn't doing enough, not because I wanted to make him feel bad, but because that's how I felt. Countless times I've felt like I was settling, but he keeps promising that he'll try and get better. My biggest foe is the fact that I feel like his mom. I feel like I'm teaching him to love me- which I know is normal but with every piece of information I give him I feel like he never gets it. I give him ideas on what he can do for me, and it's like he doesn't spend any time even thinking about it. He's one of the types of people that doesn't think in their free time- his mind is just empty most of the time, and at this point I don't know if I can deal with it because he really just does not think things through all the way. I know it's a lack of maturity and it makes sense considering our ages, but am I expecting too much out of him? I know other guys our age who are willing to do more and put in more effort and thought into their relationships, so why is this such a big thing for him?
Another big thing is that to soothe my mind he lies a lot. Not about anything scandalous, but he'll lie about things like his grades being good when he knows that I want him to be focusing on school. Then a couple weeks later, when I've felt disconnected enough from that lie, he'll bring it up in a joking manner and try to make me laugh about it, knowing that it's been long enough so I'll be like 'whatever'.
The latest big thing I've been nagging about is him planning dates for me. He barely works so he doesn't have any money and complains about it, but I told him it's ok he can show his love through other ways, like planning dates, but even that is going wrong. I told him everything he was supposed to do basically step-by-step and he still doesn't get it. He won't let me know the times he wants to pick me up or anything, and just half asses ( I feel like it's half assed ) the plans and deals with most of it by the time we're already there. It's so tiring especially since I have to teach him all of it, I just feel like his mother.
I feel like it's gone on for too long and don't want to stay if the truth is that he will never really try for me. The issue is he's such a good person with such a good heart, it just feels like he doesn't use his brain when it comes to me. I really don't want to break up with him, but I don't know what else I can do to make him understand what I want. I try to communicate all the time, and have told him all of this several times, but it feels like he doesn't get it/if he does he doesn't execute it and it's just so draining. What do I do?

Top of the Day for 19/05/2024

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Most Upvoted Posts of the Day

Place	Title	Author	Subreddit	Score	Posted
1st	This is how a sex scene was filmed.	u/RayanSrivastav	interestingasfuck	64,984 Upvotes	18/05/2024 08:13 UTC
2nd	Welcome to Australia	u/Rd28T	pics	63,445 Upvotes	18/05/2024 05:08 UTC
3rd	This pedophile was identified when police uncovered his identity by reversing the 'swirl' effect he used online	u/okhahmm	facepalm	58,242 Upvotes	18/05/2024 06:24 UTC
4th	Name a greater victory than that	u/NormanFreeman67	memes	52,457 Upvotes	18/05/2024 00:18 UTC
5th	Owner pretends to be drowning to test whether his dog would save him	u/ImadeJesusLaugh	Damnthatsinteresting	45,280 Upvotes	18/05/2024 06:55 UTC

Most Upvoted Comments of the Day

^{Note: These may not be entirely accurate. Currently these are out of the comments taken from the top 5 submissions.}

Place	Body	Author	Subreddit	Score	Posted
1st	Relevant:(...)	u/The_Glus	interestingasfuck	15,826 Upvotes	18/05/2024 09:01 UTC
2nd	Camera man wasnt expecting a leg rubs outta the star that day	u/Gooliez	interestingasfuck	15,398 Upvotes	18/05/2024 08:20 UTC
3rd	Most actors hate sex scenes and I imagine this is just one reason.	u/Hoosier_Daddy68	interestingasfuck	14,167 Upvotes	18/05/2024 10:05 UTC
4th	Zoom and enhance, also unswirl	u/Holiday_Pea8576	facepalm	9,814 Upvotes	18/05/2024 07:50 UTC
5th	What the police should’ve done is not released this information and planted articles about pedos doing this and it being completely irreversible.	u/ENaC2	facepalm	8,157 Upvotes	18/05/2024 09:28 UTC

Imagine being told the house would take 10-13 months to build. And then imagine being assigned a crappy construction manager named Kevin Thornton and waiting 18+ months for the completion of your home, who seemed to only been hired because his brother Chris Thornton was already a construction manager for the company.
Being told 4 false closing dates. Having to lose a good interest rate because they don’t know how to build a house within a reasonable time. I’ve seen whole apartment complexes built in the time we’ve been waiting.
Having to reach out to said construction manager and the sale consultant Zac Davidson every single month to get an update when you were told you would get an update roughly every two weeks. Being lied to every single month. Trish is also a dishonest unprofessional woman who constantly dodges phone calls and lies about everything.
Finding a crappy job being done in the primary bathroom shower and them having to rip it out and start over again, because part of the shower wall was bowing out into a triangle shape and the small square tiles were not flat and straight with tons of extra grout around them. Having a crappy grading job where 1/3 of the back yard is unusable. And nothing can be done about it, Holiday Builders just loves cheap labor.
Going through a full roll of blue painters tape to point out all the flaws in the construction, where the manager will run out of tape, but luckily we brought some to continue using half the roll. And they still didn’t fix everything the first go around, where we had to call them back multiple times to fix the issues described at the first walkthrough, after closing. You’ll find paint on every single door handle in the house. And paint splatter all over your floors. Different caulking colors used on the countertops right next to each other. You’ll ask them to paint the water access water into the home because it looked like crap the first time and then they’ll make it worse and also paint the grass and gutter runoff as well because they simple don’t give a hoot about anything.
They even had to rip up two parts of the yard to have water and septic lines in place inspected because they forgot and now we’re stuck with even more shitty grading and yard work because of that.
They’ll schedule exterior stuff after laying sod down that end up leaving the yard dug up and not manicured and looking like trash. And then you’ll wait weeks for them to come fix it.
They give you a smart door lock that’s supposed to come with the Rekeying tool, but they won’t give it to you for unspecified reasons, even though you paid for it. You’ll ask if the front door lock is a smart/Wi-Fi compatible one. They’ll say no, but after reading the manual you’ll find out it is. They don’t even know how the products they’re installing works!
Being told a shower door for the primary bathroom isn’t even included after finding out 1 week before closing, seems like their architects failed physics, because water still gets out the shower with a door there if it’s it recessed. Finding out that something as inexpensive as cabinet handles are not included and finding out after the first walkthrough that they’re an “expensive upgrade”, when it was never mentioned during the upgrades selection. Why would I upgrade to 42” upper cabinets and soft close but not op for handles, does that make sense to you. Paying nearly 400k for a house and they can’t even do these simple thing’s correctly or offer these simple things as standard. What if someone had a disability and opening cabinets without handles is extremely difficult for them. Holiday Builders doesn’t give a single hoot about you if that’s the case.
When blinds and a refrigerator and a washer and dryer and a garage door openers are already not included. I would expect the said things above be STANDARD! And a sales consultant that only cares about his paycheck and his ego, than the customer named Zac Davidson, who won’t let you know certain basic things are an upgrade. Zac Davidson is a man that gets his feelings hurt when he gets caught in a lie and starts to be disrespectful when he doesn’t agree with something you’re trying to explain to him.
Holiday builders doesn’t care about the customer. They only care about their wallets. They’ll rush to get the CO before having everything installed. In hopes of you signing before notice they put a hole in your drywall while installing your shelves. Or better yet the construction manager won’t even walkthrough the house prior to have any touch ups or fixes done before the first walk through. We found out our water heater wasn’t even hooked up correctly after closing. Holiday Builders are real comedians.
The trades that they hire can’t even get simple things done like paint and caulking and not painting the floor and door handles, we basically covered the whole house in blue tape and only 50% of it was taken care it. 50% of the trims around the door frames were missing paint and the other 50% looked like a blind man painted the door frames, thick goops of paint and splatter everywhere. They’ll even make sure the caulking where the base boards meet the dry wall has spider web cracking in every single ROOM. Every single one of these trades and construction managers need glasses because I do not honestly understand how you can be proud of your work and let customers find this type of garbage work.
We were so fed up with this process we ended up just fixing all of the issues ourselves. Don’t build with them unless you’re okay with paying for upgrades on basic things that should be standard and you’ll have to ask the construction managers like they’re a 4th grader if they completed their homework. And having to do all the basic touch ups yourselves. It’s extremely frustrating and sad that I can’t be excited about being my first home because of this shitty fucking experience. Also any response to this review will be taken as passive aggressive, if you state that this was taken care of because it wasn’t, everything still looks like shit.
The plumbers and septic company they use suck too. We’re still dealing with sewage smells in our home that they can’t figure out. Constant back ups due to poor plumbing ventilation and workmanship. The plumbers came to investigate and didn’t even have any of the right tools or equipment to do anything and had to borrow my equipment. If you’re wondering which clowns they use. Naber Plumbing and Brain David Septic.
They even under size the AC unit tonnage for the home. Your AC will run for 18 hours a day. I found that they didn’t even seal the area for where the cold air comes out the air handler. It was just blowing all the cold air into the AC room and into the attic. Mechanical One don’t know what they’re doing and Holiday Builder takes shortcuts everywhere they can with undersizing your AC unit and going with the cheapest labor.
Every single builder in the area builds homes faster than these clowns.
Holiday Builders suck. Ever heard the saying lazy people work twice. Everything about their workmanship is trash. The construction managers do not inspect work done by the trades after it is completed. Their scheduling sucks too. They lie about everything, every step of the way. Don’t build with them. We’re still finding issues every single damn day with this house. Don’t make the mistake of building with Holiday Builders. Build with Maronda or anyone else other than this clowns. Zac Davison sucks. Trish sucks. Chris Thornton sucks and his brother Kevin Thornton sucks even more, Steve Pettko sucks. Chris Cubillos Suck.

So I (16M) have a friend (16M) who i’ve been friends with since seventh grade for reference we’re both about to be juniors in highschool. He’s had a girlfriend (16F) whos honestly such a sweet person and a good human he’s been dating since around December I think. Now this friend dosent exactly have much integrity and isn’t very down to earth but he’s still a good buddy of mine I just don’t let him influence me. Now even though he’s been dating this girl he still watches pXrn asks for girls snaps and flirts with other girls. Now i’ve known this since we hang out a lot usually with a few other buddy’s of mine and i’ve seen his behavior. one time in particular we were at the mall talking to this group of girls and he made a dig at me in front of them so I said “while this kid can’t talk he has a girlfriend” and he got really pissed at me and afterwards told me not to say that. I was honestly appalled and shocked he would say that (for reference this was only a few months after they had started dating so around February) now a few other things similar to this happened but I knew it wasn’t my place to tell his girlfriend and I figured he’d eventually stop but he didn’t. Now over the past few months me and his girlfriend have hung out in larger groups and have talked a bit and become pretty close friends but trust me when I say we’re strictly platonic I have another girl i’m talking to right now and am not Mr Steal Your Girl my parents raised me better than that. But last week I found out my friends been talking to a girl he met while camping once and I saw some of there saved in chats on snap and was really disappointed in him. I finally had enough of seeing him treat his girlfriend like this and talked to her last night about some of it. I’m not a total ass so I left out some things like how he still watches porn but told her some of the key events. Now too my surprise she already knew about some things but was really upset about others. She sent him a text last night asking if he ever got other girls snaps or flirted with other girls and we left it at that. This morning I woke up to a text from him asking if I was gonna be in school today because he needed to talk to me. I said probably not because i’ve been pretty sick the last few days so I said just tell me now and he was pissed. He was asking why the fXck would I tell his girlfriend about these things and honestly it was 6 in the morning I had just woken up and was pretty nervous since this dude is one of my best friends so I played dumb, I told him I didn’t really know what he was talking about and he seemed to sort of let it go but I can tell he’s still pissed in general. His girlfriend told me he denied everything but she knew he was lying and that I did the right thing by telling her and she’s pretty upset right now but i’m not even sure if I did the right thing and I really don’t wanna see me and my friend’s friendship end over this.
TLDR; I told my friends girlfriend he flirts/ talks with other girls and he is pissed at me

Yesterday I had a conversation with my family about feeling isolated and wanting to go back to school and they said I can return to school, but first i need to re-build the relationship with my mother because I haven't been speaking with her these past couple of months.
I don't really want to talk about everything that happened but basically I got pulled out in the 7th grade because I was struggling in school (me and a classmate were not getting along and i kept getting a "C" in two or three of my classes) and i was getting molested at home and i didnt speak up about any of these issues which led me to harming myself as a way to cope. My mother tried to help me by asking me what was wrong but i didn't speak up about it so she would beat me and threaten to abandon me and move on with her life in an attempt to get me to stop harming myself. I struggled to get over her abusing me not just physically and threatening me to abandon me but also sexually since she would>! pressure me into modeling lingerie for her, grope me, and say suggestive things about me.!< I would constantly tell her to stop>! touching and saying stuff about me!< and she would stop but it would always start back up a while later so i would isolate myself in my room for a couple of days so she would get the message. This led me to holding a grudge over her head when really I couldve just moved on from the abuse and forgive her. I forgive her for everything shes done in the past it was all my fault and she was just trying to help me, although its a little frustrating how my family acts like none of the abuse never happened and that I'm lying to make myself look like a victim.
I also spoke to them about my issues with communication and how homeschooling and being isolated for several years took a huge toll on me but my mother thinks its all BS and that its impossible to lose social skills overtime and that I was bad at socializing in the first place. I did struggle with socialization during my early years of elementary school but as I got older I got better at socializing and I made several friends in the 4th grade, 5th grade, and in middle school. Whenever I try to open up about this with my therapist my mother speaks over me and says that I never had friends in the first place and that im antisocial. She does the same thing whenever I try to bring up the abuse in the past she says none of it is true and I'm just trying to make her look like the bad guy. It's frustrating but its whatever.
I'm having difficulties processing my emotions right now. A HUGE part of me feels stupid because I basically wasted 5 years of my life and the only person i can blame is myself, a small part of me feels happy that i can return to school and live a somewhat normal life, and I also feel sad at the same time since next year will be my senior year so I feel like i missed out on a lot. All I have to do at this point is re-build our relationship and then I can get my devices back, speak to my friends again, and return to public school. Although, every year I tell my mother that I want to return to school and she says I can but at the last minute she makes up an excuse as to why I cannot return to public school so I REALLY REALLY hope that she'll let me go this year.