"Life-altering experiences. Can you point to a single experience in your life, as a child, which you can define as having contributed to the person you are today?" This question was asked to the MetaFilter community, and over 200 stories were posted. The thread has been referred to as one of the "best of the Internet." Below is a concise summary of every story from my point-of-view, with links to similar stories, and a little bit of statistical analysis. One of the most frequent experiences was read a book, and the most frequent result was found life-long passion. Mouse-over every summary and click the "Link" button to read the original post. Click on each phrase to see all the stories with the same phrase if available. If you want to submit a story, click here. Scroll to the bottom to read footnotes. |
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exposed to intellectually stimulating environment, given alcohol, surrounded by books. found lifelong passion, forever grateful  made my mom cry, my mom kept a secret for me, my dad didn't judge me. been protective of my parents since, realized how much I love my husband had a peak experience, bullied, got bad advice. determined to repeat peak experiences over and over, learned to be on my own treated unfairly at school, traveled alone, worked offshore, read a book. discovered self, learned value of hard work family lost fortune, was held back from skipping grades, discovered D&D, exposed to computer programming. found lifelong passion met someone who loved dancing, discovered a community. learned to pay more attention to myself, learned a lot, made a lot of friends heard band, abused, read a word/phrase/line, talked about my issues, went through counseling. everything changed, became messed up winning a scuffle with family member, exposed to cartoons, sent away. found lifelong passion, gained confidence, have trouble falling in love waited for parents to pick me up, mowed lawns. learned value of hard work, learned about punctuality got beat up, winning a scuffle with family member. became over-accommodating and non-confrontational someone discouraged me, was told to read inside my head. still in love with books, have proven myself since, self-esteem affected grandma told me her regrets, was told I had a twin who died. became more careful, changed the way I think about my parents attempted suicide, almost missed important event, took a job aptitude test. always sought counseling since, found career was put into juvie, got myself out of juvie, found a lover. everything changed, learned self-reliance adult was wrong, got scared by babysitters and the Vietnam era, found reading. world was put into context, learned not to trust adults got help for depression, helped others. learned to appreciate life, got into volunteering and liking people saw two people arguing, got into an argument, friend's dad died. realized I'm not the center of the universe, learned to appreciate being able to change my mind, learned to appreciate parent(s) more, let go of sadness from my childhood read a book, discovered a community, chose a college. found career, felt like I consciously chose my direction since parent(s) hated how I looked. have since struggled between satisfying my parents and satisfying myself parents divorced, surrounded by books, had great teachers. have had difficulty forming relationships learned about dinosaur extinction, observed loving parents, observed violence. learned to appreciate parent(s) more, learned to fear of death sister was mean then nice to me, read an old love letter. learned about the futility of revenge, realized I didn't know everything, came to grips with my atheism, learned others could love me romantically the animals I loved on my farm died, parents sold ranch. became fascinated with cycles, realized the sadness of losing your way of life was told I walk funny, learned the difference between self-perception and others perceiving you. realized my dad was an alcoholic was told I had a twin who died, biological dad went away. realized why it felt something was missing in my life friend thought he was going to kill himself, witnessed carelessness toward kids. found lifelong passion, was terrified studied comedians, introduced to podium, had a negative attitude. found lifelong passion, became extroverted/popular/outgoing, ready to have a positive attitude read a book, posed for stupid pictures, made my mom cry. found a world of imagination, became frightened at my power over parents parents divorced, dad took me traveling, had an idyllic home. love traveling, feel like a nomad, got a global outlook, still dream of home had to soothe parent, learned photography. realized I'm not the center of the universe, love traveling, discovered coping mechanism struck by the predictability of television, convinced my parents about magic, took a joke about religion seriously. lost my faith, became aware of social determinism, enrolled in creative writing classes sucked into ocean by riptide, appeased bullies with humor, had turntables. afraid of water, realized how sad I've been, still in love with music religious field trip, met a girl, learned philosophy. still bitter, strengthened my belief in God, became more open-minded the father of a friend died, accepted a sibling. learned to appreciate parent(s) more, classmates didn't want to be around me, lowered self-esteem treated unfairly at school, bullied, fought back, learned history. lost my faith, had trouble in school, was never bullied again bullied, fought back, discovered journaling, skipped a funeral. lifelong writer, was never bullied again, learned family comes first picked on, sexually harassed, parents were unsupportive. improved self-esteem, lost faith in parent(s), switched schools got a computer, got LEGO, realized a teacher was traumatizing me, met a stripper, was bullied. rebelled against the teacher, overcame sexual insecurity read my first book, was told the sun would burn out. still in love with books, learned to fear of death, lifelong writer saw a headstone with my name on it, watched the Olympics, told I was ugly, saw a music video. found lifelong passion, became more empathetic, self-esteem affected, became less patriotic, developed willingness to be different, realized I would die some day someone discouraged me, picked on someone, accidentally sterilized, was told I wasn't a bastard child, did art with others, had a donor DNA child, encouraged by parents. found career, learned to appreciate life, learned that there's always someone better engrossed in TV, father introduced me to music. found career, lost career, on the road to self-improvement had a violent childhood, had tragic experiences. realized how much I owe the world, realized how easy it is to do something good read for so long the lights went out, realized I had picked on my sister too much, read an article, witnessed parents' unemployment. still in love with books, stick with jobs, faith weakened Christian grade school teacher burned my sci-fi/fantasy book, witnessed the weakened wife of a devout Christian. lost my faith adult was wrong, read a book, had issues. lost confidence in authority, developed more faith in myself was teased, divorced parents fought over us, step-father lied. lost faith in parent(s), realized a sense of self, became non-compliant, became ashamed of sexual curiosity
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This project was created by Philip Dhingra. Here's a link to the original thread with all of these stories.
The Top 3 experiences were
read a book (8),
abused (8),
death in family (8).
Top 3 consequences were
found life long passion (14),
withdrew from others (8),
still in love with books (8).
The stories are listed mostly in the order they were posted. The first 7 stories are placed out-of-order because they were heavily marked as "favorites" by the community. I also moved a story to the last spot.
I removed posters' names to provide some discretion. If you want your story removed or have any questions or complaints, please Email me. If you want to submit a story, click here. |