I got downsized at work last month, moved, old boss lied to unemployment and I ran out of money. Then found a new job that pays almost double, and is half the stress.
Have you had a situation that looked bleak, then turned out better than you could have imagined?
I will choose the winner tomorrow (Thurs, June 20) and send something $20-$35 from their list.
Posted Jun 19, 2019, 4:13 PM UTC
A little over three years ago I was struggling in grad school. After the first semester I got too many C’s and had to plead my case. They responded favorably and I was able to continue. I ran into trouble again after my third semester (out of four) when I got another C. Despite my GPA being gold and me thinking I was safe, I was told that I could not continue. When I absentmindedly checked my school e-mail about two-three weeks after the semester ended, I got notification that my counselor was incorrect and I was told I could finish my degree that fall.
That last semester I got straight A’s and got to carry the liberal arts banner at graduation in December, 2015. I now have a BA for English but also an MA for Public History. So yeah, I’d say that was a bleak situation that got better!
I was turned down for ALL of my MFA and PhD applications in the States. I had pretty much given up, then I got an offer from the University of Glasgow. Came on an MFA, was handpicked to switch to a PhD. Was homeless for awhile—I’d never even been here before!—and got an amazing flat. Depressed for months—I once spent an entire January without getting out of bed except to pee and order food—due to isolation. Eventually saved up enough money to fly my cats over. Met my husband a year later. Been married 2 years this August, he refers to the cats as his children, and just successfully defended at my VIVA. Got a spousal visa two months ago and am on track to permanent residency in the U.K. Getting proper mental health care for the first time ever.
Bleakest time in my life to the best I’ve ever felt.
Six years ago my (now) exhusband told me that after 13 years he wanted a divorce. I subsequently found out he’d been cheating on me. I was completely destroyed. I thought my life was over. I started chatting with people online to cope and met my current husband. Long story short looking back my ex and I hadn’t been happy in a really long time, and the divorce is probably the best thing that ever happened to me. I got to marry a man who I am a million times more compatible with and whom I’m madly in love with, I got to move to Europe, which was a life long dream of mine and I am happier than I have ever been.
Mine went from good to bad, then back to good?
I went home for Christmas with my husband-to-be in 2017, I saw my family for the first time in 8 months! While we were there my mental health wasn't at it's best, and they showed their true colours. My fiance and I ended up having to escape in the night to get home 350 miles away. I've honestly never cried so much in my life. It was dark and snowy, everywhere was closed so we had to stay outside - we were so cold we unpacked a blanket I had gotten for Christmas and wrapped ourselves up while we waited 6 hours for our first train.
It's been a year and a half since then, and while it's been incredibly difficult, with my partner's support [and a lot of therapy!], I learned to recognise their manipulative behaviours. I've learned how to assert myself, and respectfully defend myself. When I accepted that my positive behaviour will not change their treatment towards me, I cut them off.
I've never been happier, and never felt stronger! Sorry for the long reply, I'm just proud of myself for getting through this. Thanks for reading this far! <3
Omg I’m sorry your going through that but that is amazing that you found a much better, less stressful job.
A few years ago my son; 6 then, nonverbal, autistic; suffered abuse at school that ended in a concussion. (We has been documenting bruises but there was always a way to explain by saying he fell, resisted restraint etc. But he would scream and cling to me when she would try to take his hand and he had never had this many bruises at home. But at the time just thought we were being over protective)
One day the nurse called me stating he had a dime size bruise on his cheek and he fell but was fine. When I picked him up 5 hours later; half his face was bruised, he had a huge knot at the back of his head and the teacher was supporting him and basically carrying him to the car. I took photos at the school and found out he threw up 30 mins after “falling” and they let him sleep the rest of the day. We immediately took him to children’s, gave them the voicemail from the school and cat scan showed a brain bleed. They reported it to add to the schools report. Well the school never reported it; the teachers kept changing their story of what actually happened. (We still don’t really know) but the good that came out was the school was investigated and found to be not reporting most of their injuries, Jobs/licenses were lost; my son wasn’t the only kid being hurt, and the teacher was being investigated for abuse criminally.
It changed my son; he is now very short tempered and is weary of new teachers even though it’s been 2 years. The short temperedness we have been told is just how he is now as some concussions can change kids personalities like this. But I am so glad that the school and teachers who were abusing our special needs kids that don’t have a voice were found out about and now they can’t hurt anymore kids. I wish it wouldn’t have happened to my baby boy but I’m glad that we had the power to put an end to it all.
Now he’s a happy little boy who finally has a voice by using an aac device so nothing like this can happen to him again.
Omg. This actually made me cry. I’m so sorry that happened to you all! 😢
Awe I’m sorry to make you cry. It’s okay; it took me over a year to make peace with it but I believe everything happens for a reason and am just glad they can’t do this to other kiddos anymore.
I’m glad that it all got sorted though, I used to work with special needs and I just can’t fathom how people could do such things.
My husband who couldn't keep a job for more than 6 months left me....like in the middle of the night. I woke up to being a single parent on a Wednesday morning, I had to figure out how to change my whole routine in a matter of minutes, for the kids. It's been 11 months now since that happened. I am happier than ever, my kids are doing well, and I saved enough money for a down payment on my first home. As a married couple with 3 kids, we lived paycheck to paycheck. As a single Mom with one hell of a budget, I have money in my savings account. (not a ton, but enough for a small emergency?) It's just an incredible feeling to finally feel secure in life.
I hope your new job is going amazingly well!
That is amazing!! Glad you and you kiddos are doing so well! 🙂
I literally just left the closing. Thank you so much!!
Congratulations!!! You are a rock star!
I got laid off and didn’t know WTF to do. I had been an IT tech in telecommunications which translates to nothing else in the workforce. I went to the comm college and took an online test matching skills and interest to occupations. Top hot was photographer. 2nd hit was graphic designer. Today, I am the green cheetah photo & design and I couldn’t be happier. On Instagram I’m participating in the 100 day project (hi, u/myeerah!) so I’m the green cheetah if you wanna see my 100 day project. I’m technically behind but I prefer to think of it as letting my creative juice simmer! 😆
Years ago I had a very sweet boyfriend. He cohosted a sports AM radio show every afternoon and I always listened. One evening we spoke on the phone for hours. The next day his radio show ran a “rerun” and I couldn’t figure out why. I emailed him and called him but thought he might be busy. We didn’t have plans that weekend because it was Easter but I was supposed to meet his mom for the first time that next week. I sent him emails again and got no response. I decided I would email his coworker or boss to make sure he was okay. I type in the web address for the station and up pops his obituary on the front page. He was 29 years old and I was devastated. I ended up having a friend take me to his visitation and funeral. Really rough way to meet his mom the first time. While this was happening I met a nice guy who I became friends with. He was so sweet and supportive. Time went by and I realized that I couldn’t see life without him and his beautiful smile. We just celebrated our 14 year wedding anniversary yesterday. I also have kept in touch with my former boyfriends mom. We see each other once or twice a year and I’m very thankful for our friendship. I’m so glad things worked out better for you!! Sometimes it’s quite hard to see the sun through all the clouds but it is always there!! 😀
My life changed when I met a stranger’s dog.
Almost 2 years ago I caught my then-boyfriend of 3 years cheating on me with another girl (in the act) and I was devastated. We had talked about me moving in with him, we went on trips together, he had met my parents- I thought there was a future.
I was borderline manic depressive for about 2 months, I was ready to quit my job, move out of state and back to my home state on the west coast. But I was walking in my neighborhood one afternoon thinking about how I was going to quit & plan my move when I met some neighbor’s dog down the road that had gotten out of their yard. I didn’t have a leash but he just trotted along with me while I tried find his house, like I was an old buddy of his. I found his owner and chatted with them and they joked that they’d call me if they needed a dog catcher. I ended up offering to watch their dog whenever they needed and they ended up taking me up on their offer for the remainder of the time I lived in that neighborhood (about 4-5 months). I loved that dog like he was my own. I ended up joining a dog-sitting/pet-sitting site and created a side gig for myself that I loved. It gave me another reason to stay in the city I was in and got me out of the house and out of my shell. I met loads of amazing dogs and customers/friends and I even got back into dating where I met my now boyfriend that I live with now.
I still have a great group of furry clientele and I’m incredibly happy that I decided to stay here and love who I’m with & what I’m doing with my life.
I hated the fact we had to move to the city we life in now. I was very bitter. Now I'm happy we did as we're in one of these best school district if your kids need special education services.
Serendipitous!
Happy it went better for you!
2 and a half years ago, I lived with my emotinally abusive mother, did an apprenticeship that drained my energy and my mental health.
But as soon as I got 18, I moved together with my boyfriend , quit, the Job and learned that distancing yourself from your familiy is ok.
Since then I got a lot more happier (:
Have a nice day!
I'm glad that things worked out so well for you!
A while back, when I was working at a different company, I made a huge mistake that cost my company about $3k.It was 100% my fault. As soon as I realized what had happened I told my manager. I thought I was going to get fired, but I managed to keep my job.
I've used that story in the interview for my current job and my boss has told me it was one of the things she liked about me because I took ownership of a mistake I'd made and did what I could to fix it.
Congratulations! Finding a better job is always brilliant, though I'm sorry about how it happened.
Last year I was sent to another country for a few months to help retrain everyone there. Long story short, they were all assholes and I ended up in therapy when I got back (being out there brought back a lot of past demons that I thought I'd shaken off, but apparently hadn't!). Anyway, while I was out there the only person to visit me was my then-FWB. Well, while he was out there I told him I loved him and knew that meant I might lose him, but I had to tell him. It took us a while to work things out cos we both had issues, but we're coming up to our anniversary soon and he's the best thing that's every happened to me! <3
I had big plans on how I wanted my college life to go. But then I chose the wrong college for myself, and went through a really bad depression for the first two...okay the whole time lol
But up until that point, I wanted to be a writer, but the college I ended up going to had an almost nonexistent writing department. So I started taking a bunch of anthropology and archaeology classes and hanging out with other people who hated the old-school patriarchy that was rampant at this particular institution.
In the end, I became an archaeologist, met my fiancé through archaeology, and all three of my bridesmaids are from this college that I loathed.
Some really amazing things can come from bad situations.
Some years back, I had this one PC. One day, there was a power surge and it completely blew the entire thing. It seemed like the entire thing was completely fried.
I took it to a friend of mine who is really good with computers and he told me that almost the entire thing was dead. CPU, GPU, all completely fried and unusable. Luckily, ONE component actually survived being obliterated... my hard drive!
He was able to rescue every single bit of my data off the hard drive before it died! I was so relieved!
Then after that, my uncle, hearing of the situation, went and bought me an even better computer than the one I had before. And a proper surge protector/battery backup unit to go with it lol
Congrats on the new job BTW!
Two years ago, a medicine I was taking daily caused me to gain 80 pounds in six months. I was miserable, hated looking at myself, and couldn’t lose the weight no matter what I tried. I tried Keto, IF, and other crash diets.
A year ago from Sunday I was taken off the medicine, and since then I’ve learned to love myself again. I still haven’t lost the weight, but I don’t care, and I’m focusing on making myself stronger, not thinner. The number on the scale no longer defines me. Now, I run every day, and I look in the mirror and smile. It took a little more than a year of absolutely hating myself for me to figure out that I am more than a weight or a pant size.
you are amazing, and i'm so proud of you for learning to love yourself again, that's extremely powerful
So we had something like that happen. My husband was working for a company that was stressing him out so much he ended up having ticks like to the point it was causing him pain. His old job would make him stay at the office late and call him at all hours of the night. He works in IT and he was good at what he does. What I didn't like was we had flood warnings because of a hurricane he told me to go to may parents house 2 hours away but his work wanted him to actually stay on site even though it could flood.
After my husband started having medical issues due to this job (flair ups with Eczema, horrible ticks, and other issues) I told him to look for another job. He looked and applied for a job with a big company in the IT field. After waiting 3 months he was told he got the job. We moved and the place we're at is wonderful. Now he doesn't have ticks, he really enjoys his job. He got a ton of benefits and gets paid a lot more. He is happy and healthy and that's all I could as for.
I'm happy things turned out good for you too. It can be hard to see a bright side when everything seems to be falling apart. Everything has worked out for the best for both of us. That makes me happy.
Congrats on the new job! Sounds like you definitely leveled up on that one!!
This ones going to be a little twisted, but some many years back I was partying with a friend who was learning to tattoo. He had a setup in his house and would do trades like beer for tattoo or stuff like that. Anyways I knew better than to get a tat from this kid because tattoos are forever and his arent even close to worth forever....well this one time I got drunk and said f it. I let him tattoo this godawful huge caterpillar on my leg. Obviously it was a shitshow and looks terrible. MISTAKE. It's on my list of first tats to cover up. I have a couple of not awesome tattoos from a couple not awesome parlors, but that caterpillar just made me so embarrassed for so many years, I stopped mentioning it at all when people ask if I have tats...
Couple years later, he passed away suddenly and way too young. Which tattoo am I never going to cover? His. Which one has the most meaning? His. Not a mistake. It turned out good because I have his artwork (however bad it may be) as a reminder of him and I'm good with that now. I made peace with the caterpillar and wear it proudly now :)
The worst thing to ever happen to me was my husband's death. However, I've found so many silver linings and little good things that have come from it:
I don't have to worry about his health or addictions any more.
A friend of mine became my best friend through this trauma.
I'm going out and doing things and actually seeing my friends rather than being at home all the time.
I was able to leave a job I hated because I don't have to worry about sticking close to home for my husband.
My finances are in order now.
I somehow fell into a relationship with my best friend (different friend than above).
It was the biggest trauma of my life and I will always love and miss him, but my next chapter is gonna be good.
I got told I could never have children due to severe autoimmune diseases. I ended up falling pregnant and though the whole pregnancy was told the worse.
Either he would not live, or have low quality of life.
We decided to keep said baby, and go through every bad news they told us.
This was my one shot.
Now...
I have a smiley bubbly baby boy who is a little miracle. Here’s a few snaps of him, 11 weeks old :)
So that’s my bad situation turned more than good :D
Also. This thread is amazing, I love reading everyone’s comments :D
he's absolutely beautiful, omgosh
Thank you :D
He’s beautiful!! Congratulations!!!
Thank you :D
Congratulations on your little miracle! He's BEAUTIFUL ❤️
Thank you so much!