Top Stories
Stories in Confessions that you’ll love, handpicked by our team.
First Day Jitters
The cool air of the moon still lingered through the morning as my eyes opened to the light. I pulled the covers over my face in hopes of returning to the hours of least expectation, recreating the darkness to hide from the affliction of my responsibilities. To no avail, the alarm rang into my ears and shook me out of bed. I dragged my body to the edge of the mattress, ripping the blankets from my sheltered skin, to embrace the sting of the unforgiving breeze. The crisp cold greeted the tip of my nose as it leaked in through the cracked window. It was the only way I could ease my bones into sleeping, but it always became somewhat of a rude awakening. I stumbled over, collecting what was left of the joint from the night before, and pushed the window closed.
By TheLateBloom 5 years ago in Confessions
being pregnant as a teen saved my life
To say my childhood was challenging would be an understatement. I lived most of it being told that I was a mistake. That, single-handedly, I ruined the life of the person responsible for my birth by simply existing in this world that they brought me in to by no choice of my own. I wasn't just told, sometimes I was hurt. Transparently, the bruises were just icing on the cake that was all of the emotional damage I carried through the rest of time. The bruises didn't hurt nearly as much as everything else.
By EMandKids | AmazingAbigailGrace3 years ago in Confessions
I Joined the 5 AM Club and Hated Life for a Bit
Before this experiment, the title that had come to mind was: I joined the 5 AM Club and Changed My Life. I had a gut feeling that this would finally be the one simple habit to start turning my days into true wins, allowing for maximum productivity, creativity, and happiness.
By Justin Boyette3 years ago in Confessions
Jumping Off the High Dive Board
I’ve never been a great swimmer. I can manage and all, but I never went in for having distance badges sewn onto my trunks, or diving board showboating. As a teenager, I enjoyed frolicking in the shallows, eyeing up girls, and performing illicit bombs when the pool attendant wasn’t looking.
By Joe Young3 years ago in Confessions
Sneaking into the Cinema
In the centre of my home town, Blyth, there stands a huge building that was once a cinema, but which, like many of its fellows, is now a pub belonging to a huge national chain. The building had lain derelict for many years, so its refurbishment was welcomed, and an eyesore was transformed.
By Joe Young3 years ago in Confessions
People still don't trust me with an axe
I was at my friend’s place a few weeks back giving them a hand with a few things. They had a tree that needed to be cut down and I headed over to grab the axe. I’ve never seen them move so fast in my life, they got to the axe before me and said, “Ah, I think after what happened before, maybe I’ll do the chopping”.
By D-Donohoe3 years ago in Confessions
Spring Cleaning
I suppose we hide it well, like cobwebs our mothers hasten to dust away before an aunt comes to visit. But, it's there, silently knocking at the door. It waits to come in. Such is the residual wound of abuse and the horrid tales that accompany it. It leaks into my conversations sometimes, but mostly now it stays tucked away.
By Laura Lann3 years ago in Confessions
Deprioritizing Email Has Greatly Improved My Work Productivity and Overall Job Satisfaction
For as far back as I can remember in my career the first thing I did everyday upon arriving to work was check and respond to email, it was also the last thing I did before I left each day. It was also the thing I did regularly throughout the day each day of each workweek. Checking and responding to emails has always been at the very top or very near the top of my priority list at work. The portion of my work time I spend checking and responding to emails grew each year, and seemed to neatly mirror my own growth within the business where I worked. As my responsibilities grew so did the size of my inbox. I prided myself at keeping my inbox and unread emails at or near zero and always responding promptly to each and every message no matter how unimportant or trivial. In recent years as the flood of emails reached record levels I devised ever more complicated systems of rules for prioritizing, categorizing, organizing, and storing emails into folders and subfolders, groups, and subgroups. I asked colleagues to explain their even more complicated systems so that I might learn from them and mimic their best ideas. It was an ongoing, uphill, seemingly never ending, battle against an enemy whose numbers were never depleted, and in fact mustered more troops to the field each and every day. I was just one man going toe to toe against this ever growing onslaught of emails and I was determined to never give up, never surrender. All of this effort was undertaken with one overarching goal in mind, maximizing the number of emails I could receive and respond to in the shortest possible amount of time, and always in priority order. Typically that meant that priority was assigned based on the senders rank within the particular business within which I worked, with those higher up the chain being prioritized above those below. Special deference would always be given to my direct manager, who's emails (almost) always took priority over anything else from anyone in the organization, including my own direct reports. Failing to respond within hours was shameful, failing to respond in the same day an unmitigated disaster, not responding at all, well, let's just say some things were downright unthinkable.
By Everyday Junglist3 years ago in Confessions
Catch a tiger
In 1994, I took over my father's shift and worked as a worker in the cutting team of Erdao Inventory Forest Farm in Huma County, Heilongjiang Province. At that time, the forest coverage rate of the Greater Khingan Mountains was as high as 90 percent, and we had many encounters with sika deer, wild boar, wolves, bears and other wild animals. That winter, just before the shutdown, we accidentally captured a Siberian tiger, which got caught in one of our carefully set traps and couldn't free itself. It was exhausted and went limp. We put a big net over it, tied it down, and carried it back to the station. It was huge, about 300 kilograms. Most people want to taste tiger meat after Zhang Zai, when the Spring Festival ahead of schedule. Field long or relatively have consciousness, know the Siberian tiger is not much, then reported the superior. After many contacts, a zoo in a big city was willing to accept him and promised to pay 1000 yuan for his labor. We take good care of this Siberian tiger, specially waiting for the car from the zoo to pick it up. The female tiger was put in a big wooden cage, and still refused to be tamed. She roared loudly, and the sound could be heard for miles, and she would not eat what she was fed. The next night, she finally brought a bigger one. It was a male, much bigger, with a roar that was terrifying and earth-shattering. It seems to be the king of the mountains in this area. How can it give up when we bind its "Lady of the village"? We were on alert, ready, taking turns watching day and night. On the third night, the wind was cold, snow was blowing, and the temperature dropped to minus 30 degrees Celsius. A few of us young men were on duty in the timber hut of the logging team, chatting around the charcoal brazier. Such a cold day, the tiger probably won't come, even if it dare to also in vain, we put its "beloved wife" shot anesthesia, shut into the cellar next to the wooden house to go, at the moment, it is snoring. At about 11 o'clock, the little Xu at the tip of his ear shouted, "Listen, there is a tiger barking!" All ears pricked up, and sure enough, the whine of the wind was mixed with a more shrill, harsh shriek. It was the real roar of a tiger: "Aw-woo", "aw-woo", full of anxiety and resentment. The sound came closer and closer, and before long, it was clear enough to hear, as in the ear. "Well, how dare you come and kill it." "Shouted Dazhang, taking his shotgun off the wall. We all leaned over to the window to watch. No shadow of the tiger can be seen, but its roar is clearly close at hand. Chang couldn't hold on. He fired a few shots at random. The sound of the gun shook the wooden house, but it had no effect on the snowy night. "Pa!" Plank door was severely beat once, we happen to see a hairy bowl big tiger palm, shape like plum blossom, sharp claws out of the claw sheath. Then, a few centimeters thick wooden door "Hua la" was broken, a huge surprise, terror of the tiger head in. The tiger mouth is big enough to fill three heads at the same time, the red tongue is more than twenty centimeters long, the two cheeks of the tiger must shake, like burging flexible silver needles, and the fierce light of the triangle tiger eyes to awe our soul. We were stunned for a few seconds before we thought of running away. But big Zhang, small Xu but a buttok sat on the ground, have the spirit of death, give up the tiger. The truth is, they were so scared they peed their pants and their legs were as soft as noodles. The tiger body suddenly squeezed in, the wooden door completely collapsed, the cabin suddenly crowded up, this Siberian tiger has more than 3 meters, 1.6 meters high. The tiger is like a quick fight, usually is so a few deadly fight, its swift and violent action is beyond imagination. We didn't even get a good look at it, but Zhang's chest was punctured by a tiger claw. He Yong and I were so overstimulated that we instinctively jumped up, broke down the door and ran to the other room. After four or five rooms, He Yong saw a room with a large wooden bed can be invisible, then a mouse like a head into the bed. Still, I rushed forward without thinking. When I reached the end, I realized that the door there was sealed and there was no way out. There were no Windows or doors, and I ran around the room in a hurry. The Siberian tiger forced this way, the tail like a steel whip whip, very scary. I came within ten metres of it. I caught a glimpse of the large pine casks in the corner. It was dug with a whole root of red pine up to 1 meter thick, which contained more than half of the barrel of sorghum white, the top of the lid is tightly sealed, to prevent the wine from running smell, it seems that only there can hold me. I pried off the lid, held the barrel by the leg, and got into it. The wine was chilled to the bone. After entering the whole person, the wine is not enough to the barrel, my head can just be exposed. I closed the lid upside down with my hand on the handle, and let fate take its course. Within ten seconds, the tiger came along. The wine overpowers my scent. It can't smell me. I could feel him sniffing around the house, probably looking for the tigress, which wasn't there. Suddenly, the tiger came close to the barrel and scratched the lid with his claws. There was a stir. I shivered. Seeing that he could not open the lid, he was impatient and emptied the cask at once. I cried bad luck, with the cask also fell down, suddenly feel the sky spinning, the wine on my face, flush into the nose, almost choked me to death. The wine gushed out of a crack in the lid, and I could hear the tiger licking it curiously, probably thinking it was good, and sucking it with its tongue. It's 60 proof, and for the big Samson, it's just drizzle. The tiger drank about a dozen jin in one gulp, and the alcohol finally had a soothing effect on it. With a growl, he turned and walked out. After another half hour, when I was sure there was no danger, I dared to come out. I'm so cold and stuffy that I'm out of breath. Fortunately, He Yong was still alive, and we made it through the night with mutual encouragement. The next day, the leaders of the field learned of the situation and were shocked. After dealing with the aftermath, they decided to immediately transfer the female tiger to the foot of the mountain, where there was a strong iron cage with tighter security. On that day, a dozen of us boys carried the big wooden cage containing the tiger to a car, pulled by three cows, and walked down the hill. All the way we took extra care and waited. After 4 p.m., it was getting dark. The wind was howling and snow was flying. We were walking hard on the winding mountain road when suddenly there was a thunder-like tiger roar. We fired immediately, but we didn't see where the tiger was. The tiger's movement was so swift and powerful that it broke a wooden bar with the bang of "Click bar". The two tigers roared and ran up the hill. For a long time, we dare to climb up from the ground, as if just finished a nightmare, the wooden cage has been empty, 3 cattle scared to collapse on the ground, shit.
By gongkai23 years ago in Confessions
Stripped Down and Built Back Better
For the longest time I assumed that the fabled biological clock just skipped right over me, but a few years back - mere months before the pandemic struck, when the world was still 'normal' - I was standing in our empty guest room and it suddenly hit me that we could totally put a baby in that room. It would be a great nursery.
By Apple Dainty3 years ago in Confessions
We Reduced Our Living Space from a 1,800 Square Foot House to a 43' RV and Now...
Almost a year ago, my husband and I decided to massively downsize. In fact, we sold 80%+ of our belongings strategically placed in our 1,800 square foot home and chose to live in a 43' RV.
By Crystal A. Wolfe3 years ago in Confessions
