Fearless or stupid - what crazy thing did you do, and why?

[Kayla55]

When I was a teen and due to various factors went off the rails, when I faxed army first unsuitable job I wandered off into night, ended up on the swing in the park. Looking back if I hadn't so many problems I may have not had nervous breakdown as today my emotional regulation is much much better!!

Why I did this????

 

[Kayla55]

Failed first unsuitable job.
Spent time as low functioning....was emotionally unstable, did crazy things

 

[Georgia Galaxy]

For me (I am a late teen early young adult) I went walking over an hour and a half away from home without sunscreen or a hat (in Australia, in summer), and got pretty sunburnt. I felt very regretful because it hurt but it's been a week and I've healed ^_^ One of my family members just thinks it's good that I had such a wild adventure and got so much exercise D it was also nice to be far away from my family, iPad and laptop, all of which I interact with so very often. ^^

 

[Darkkin]

It wasn't stupid or fearless, it was simply the right thing to do:

When I was finishing my thesis for my MFA, I literally had my work physically stolen from my advisor's office. A sequence of villanelles I had done for a collection on the tessellative properties of the classic forms of poetry, where taken after I had handed them in for critique. It was a senior from the undergrad english class, who had failed to get a referral for her senior thesis. The pieces she took where the heart pieces of a sequence of a dozen villanelles. And she decided to present them as her own work at the Poetry Exhibition. I was coming off a major heart surgery (valve replacement) during this time, so was not physically able to be on campus as much as I usually was.

My professor saw the program bill and immediately emailed me. All three of the missing villanelles were listed as original work by the student. I had the fore and aft pieces, as well as the origin stories of all characters involved. These pieces are the embodiment of my pattern obsessed autistic brain incarnate. It is a physical manifestation of a mental stim. The collection itself is a singularity with its star recognizable at a glance. This was a volitation of not only my work, but also very personal. I was rightfully angry.

I filed a formal complaint, reported the theft of the work, and the entailed paperwork requesting a professional linguistic analysis of the challenged work. But I was not going to stand passively by while the inquiry process wound its way along. The Poetry Exhibition is an open forum presentation put on by seniors and grad students. It is a mixed bag of work from classic forms to spoken word and slam poetry. It was scheduled for that night. And that night was the first and only time I ever made a scene in public.

I confronted her in person with villanelles in hand and read along with her word for word through the first stanza. She knew I knew and started screaming about how I must have stolen her work. Open public forum, and I came with facts in hand. Printed emails, the dates the work went missing. More importantly the complete collection of work in its entirity, in chronological order.

All she had were the three stolen pieces not the enitre body of work. All my files are backed up on half a dozen mediums and I had date stamp data going back nearly eighteen months. The senior had turned in these pieces to her advisor three days prior with no foundational work. Just said, 'Hey, I wrote these for the exhibition add them to the program.' He didn't ask any questions, just added her to the docket. And it was hard to say who was more taken aback, her or her advisor, realizing what he had helped do.

Justice played out fairly in this case. Linguistic analysis showed without a doubt the poems where mine, nevermind that I had the whole body of dated work. (The school still wanted unbiased analysis just to be sure.) The senior had less than 1% linguistic congruency with the challenged works. The review board ruled in my favour and the senior was expelled with credit for completed credits pending a plagiarism review. I graduated with honors and my MFA.

But I was called arrogant and all types of colourful names because I stood up for what was rightfully mine. It wasn't arrogance to speak out about theft. It was not arrogance to tell the truth and say, 'Hey, that work is actually mine.' It was not arrogance to hold a thief accountable for their actions. It was the right thing to do. The easy thing would have been to say nothing and let it pass. That would have left the blatant arrogance of that student unchecked and confident in possibly repreating the preformance.

 

[Georgia Galaxy]

It wasn't stupid or fearless, it was simply the right thing to do:

When I was finishing my thesis for my MFA, I literally had my work physically stolen from my advisor's office. A sequence of villanelles I had done for a collection on the tessellative properties of the classic forms of poetry, where taken after I had handed them in for critique. It was a senior from the undergrad english class, who had failed to get a referral for her senior thesis. The pieces she took where the heart pieces of a sequence of a dozen villanelles. And she decided to present them as her own work at the Poetry Exhibition. I was coming off a major heart surgery (valve replacement) during this time, so was not physically able to be on campus as much as I usually was.

My professor saw the program bill and immediately emailed me. All three of the missing villanelles were listed as original work by the student. I had the fore and aft pieces, as well as the origin stories of all characters involved. These pieces are the embodiment of my pattern obsessed autistic brain incarnate. It is a physical manifestation of a mental stim. The collection itself is a singularity with its star recognizable at a glance. This was a volitation of not only my work, but also very personal. I was rightfully angry.

I filed a formal complaint, reported the theft of the work, and the entailed paperwork requesting a professional linguistic analysis of the challenged work. But I was not going to stand passively by while the inquiry process wound its way along. The Poetry Exhibition is an open forum presentation put on by seniors and grad students. It is a mixed bag of work from classic forms to spoken word and slam poetry. It was scheduled for that night. And that night was the first and only time I ever made a scene in public.

I confronted her in person with villanelles in hand and read along with her word for word through the first stanza. She knew I knew and started screaming about how I must have stolen her work. Open public forum, and I came with facts in hand. Printed emails, the dates the work went missing. More importantly the complete collection of work in its entirity, in chronological order.

All she had were the three stolen pieces not the enitre body of work. All my files are backed up on half a dozen mediums and I had date stamp data going back nearly eighteen months. The senior had turned in these pieces to her advisor three days prior with no foundational work. Just said, 'Hey, I wrote these for the exhibition add them to the program.' He didn't ask any questions, just added her to the docket. And it was hard to say who was more taken aback, her or her advisor, realizing what he had helped do.

Justice played out fairly in this case. Linguistic analysis showed without a doubt the poems where mine, nevermind that I had the whole body of dated work. (The school still wanted unbiased analysis just to be sure.) The senior had less than 1% linguistic congruency with the challenged works. The review board ruled in my favour and the senior was expelled with credit for completed credits pending a plagiarism review. I graduated with honors and my MFA.

But I was called arrogant and all types of colourful names because I stood up for what was rightfully mine. It wasn't arrogance to speak out about theft. It was not arrogance to tell the truth and say, 'Hey, that work is actually mine.' It was not arrogance to hold a thief accountable for their actions. It was the right thing to do. The easy thing would have been to say nothing and let it pass. That would have left the blatant arrogance of that student unchecked and confident in possibly repreating the preformance.

That does indeed sound like the right thing to do ^_^

 

[NB79]

I was sailing, and the others with me mentioned a storm could be brewing, instead of heading to the near shore, i decided to take the long route to the beach we departed from, the storm got us, i managed to take the boat to the nearby shore and sand was biting your skin in the beach, i had to do some pretty adrenaline inducing moves to make the boat not roll on itself on the way. Thinking about it it was stupid, idk maybe i thought we wouldn't be able to transport the boat back home and i wanted to beat the storm to the other place.

 

[Kayla55]

For me (I am a late teen early young adult) I went walking over an hour and a half away from home without sunscreen or a hat (in Australia, in summer), and got pretty sunburnt. I felt very regretful because it hurt but it's been a week and I've healed ^_^ One of my family members just thinks it's good that I had such a wild adventure and got so much exercise D it was also nice to be far away from my family, iPad and laptop, all of which I interact with so very often. ^^

Ok, so I'm 43 so I've being through my life, sometimes it's easier to categorise looking back and grouping memories by decade, and also trying to track my amnesia.
On the other thread I mentioned wearing makeup as form of masking and wanting to be a 'princess' and failing. Why failing? Well I found some weird friends, goths who wore black. I was a teen who was going off the rails due to my mom's lack of supervision. So I end up at this weird club. The fascination of watching how they danced on this stage!! Me, I found this ledge under the shadow and was like a gorgyle trying to understand!!
Eventually I discovered men like dresses Nd want you to be feminine (I was such a tom boy, climb tree and draw a picture there) is it my lack of rhythm? Is it that I just don't feel to be on a stage?

My vase shattered just as I'd broken when I failed waitressing and struggled to hold wine glasses on tray. It was pressure and wanting to so much be like the other girls, but something was amiss.

I lost fragments of myself in those first few years that rewired who I'd become

 

[Georgia Galaxy]

Ok, so I'm 43 so I've being through my life, sometimes it's easier to categorise looking back and grouping memories by decade, and also trying to track my amnesia.
On the other thread I mentioned wearing makeup as form of masking and wanting to be a 'princess' and failing. Why failing? Well I found some weird friends, goths who wore black. I was a teen who was going off the rails due to my mom's lack of supervision. So I end up at this weird club. The fascination of watching how they danced on this stage!! Me, I found this ledge under the shadow and was like a gorgyle trying to understand!!
Eventually I discovered men like dresses Nd want you to be feminine (I was such a tom boy, climb tree and draw a picture there) is it my lack of rhythm? Is it that I just don't feel to be on a stage?

My vase shattered just as I'd broken when I failed waitressing and struggled to hold wine glasses on tray. It was pressure and wanting to so much be like the other girls, but something was amiss.

I lost fragments of myself in those first few years that rewired who I'd become

Ohhh right. Hehe, you kinda sound like my Mum when she was my age. She was a bit naughty. And my Dad's partner as well. They were both a lot naughtier than I am now. The only real addiction I've had (unrelated to drugs and alcohol) has been internet and video games ;P

I've got some really good lyrics for you that may describe how you feel: "Do you think the coast is clear? No one to see, no one to hear? Me sing out my song? I think I'm all alone... I don't need my name in lights! That's not where I've set my sights! Oh no, not me! I don't need a stage to SIING!"

Aww, I can understand how the pressure feels. I felt that in school and nowadays, as I said, I'm being told I have to act in order to fit in or be liked. < I hope you've recovered from all that, you are strong ^^

 

[Jeff T]

Spent a week in a tent atop Boulder Mtn / Aquarius Plateau in Utah during monsoon season.
Boulder Mtn is a forested-grassy plateau at 11,000', perhaps 80 square miles?
One night, the crazy thunderstorms rolled in. Quite a light show and heavy rain. The lightning and thunder were practically simultaneous, and accelerated to almost strobe-like intensity.
My labrador was frightened, which had never happened in the 12 years we'd been together.
I should have been frightened too, but the electricity in the air was strangely exhilarating.
An hour later, the thunder and lightning were diminishing, and we got some sleep.
Next morning was clear, sunny and beautiful! A tree about 1/8 mile away was smoking slightly.
We left later that day, the dirt road had a few washouts. Further down the RV camp was a foot deep in mud.
Fearless and stupid- yeah.

 

[Tom]

Fearfull and very stupid. Skateboarded down the backside of the Verrizano Bridge (Brooklyn side) with two friends. If we lost our boards or balance and tumbled down we would end up on the crowded parkway

 

[Misery]

Well, generally for me it's sorta about exploration or just sorta going abruptly in some direction or other. I have a tendency to just go "what's down THAT way?" and then I go that way. And then do that a bunch more times in a row without first going back the way I came. All of this, and no actual sense of direction. I have absolutely astronomical luck, and tend to just use some of that to get onto my original path when lost.

I always come back... sooner or later.

Of course, that's a bit less problematic these days, when the phone can just tell me how to get back, though it occurs to me suddenly that I've never actually used it for that. But hey, it's there.

The really big risk though was the blizzard, years ago. I was up at the northern house, and was supposed to come back home, a 2 hour drive, on that day. But that horrid storm hit... I'd not seen one like that before and I havent seen one like that since.

So did I stay back and wait a day or two? No, I have no patience. I just sort of declared that I was going to do it anyway. So... I did. It took way, way, way longer than 2 hours, and there were MANY intersections where I could not actually stop the car, knowing that it'd get stuck if I did. Which sounds like a recipe for a collision, but... nothing else was moving. Just me. There were a few other cars I passed, but they were stuck in random spots (seriously it was THAT bad). Though I did bounce off a guard rail or two. One way or another, I simply kept going until I made it home.

Absolutely nerve-wracking, but I did it anyway.

Also there was the Bad Sleep Convention. Well, okay, that's not what it was called, but it was an anime convention that just went horribly wrong for me. Over 72 hours without any sleep. I did not know why... at the time, anyway. I hadnt quite connected the whole "drinking Mountain Dew, which is full of caffeine, before bed isnt a good idea" thing. Yes it's obvious. I still didnt spot it. Not to mention just... nerves, in general.

It had been a four hour drive on a super dull highway to get there, to Iowa. It would be such a drive to get back. With 72 hours of zero sleep.

What's that? Have someone else drive? Nope, cant do. My friend who was with me just plain couldnt drive, like, at all, so one way or another, I was the only one who could get us home. I told him, just keep me alert the whole way back, that'll do it.

He fell asleep in the car after about 20 minutes.

I remember nothing else about that drive. What I DO remember is getting back home after dropping him off at his place, and heading straight upstairs, flopping into bed, and then just passing out for a good 14 hours straight.

 

[Lysholm]

When I was in high school - so over twenty years ago - a couple buddies and I went to a local ag center in the middle of the night. It had those giant silos made of concrete. They were 130 feet high (40m) and I know this because we measured with a giant tape we found. We went in and around all over this structure, from the tunnels way underneath to the top of them. We did this half a dozen times and threw several items off of them just to see them break. Some two litre bottles of pop, an old bowling ball, and we even lifted a small dresser to the top by tying the measuring tape to it and then threw that off as well. At the top there was a steel walkway between two identical silos and I was determined to deuce off of it, but when I hung my butt over the rail I clenched up and could perform. We did this about a half dozen times over a few weeks and no one noticed despite this place being right next to a major road. They knew we were there, though, and eventually grates were padlocked over the ladders and doors were suddenly locked. Foiled, we looked for more mischief.

We found it in a bridge over the local river...and I mean in it. There was a rumor this big concrete bridge was hollow, which we didn't believe, so we went to look and sure enough it was. Directly under one side there was a square, steel door with an easily broken padlock. In we went. It even had lighting. This thing was cavernous and the traffic overhead was loud AF. The floor was low and the pilings that supported the bridge jutted inside. Ladders were fitted to traverse these things. At the other end it was wide open to the outside save for a fence attempting to keep birds out. We found a discarded couch (one with a bed in it) and, guess what, it fit inside the little door. My friends took turns taking their chicks in there to bone. I succeeded deucing in there. This went on for a few months but, eventually, our activity got noticed. The couch was ripped apart and thrown down the embankment and an elaborate lock was placed on the door. We gave up and never made it back in.

I want to add that I never would have done any of this stuff if it weren't for our one NT friend being so bold. I just kinda followed along and it was fun, but crazy.

 

[Darkkin]

During a two week tour of the Highlands, we stayed in Edinburgh for a couple days. The first night we were there I got tired of our tour group and decided to go for a walk. By myself, in the dark and rain, in a city I knew nothing about...

I was out for a couple hours when I got adopted by a ghost tour on their way to Greyfrair's Kirk Yard...Greyfrair's was an experience, but I made it back to the hotel safely afterwards.

And I also went sledding down our basement stairs in a water softener box. It lasted all of .2 seconds start to finish and I didn't put a hole in the wall. I screamed and freaked Rue Dog out though. He bawled me out for nearly half an hour afterward.

 

[Metalhead]

Drinking a pint of Southern Comfort in half an hour.

Ending up with alcohol poisoning.

Do not do this.

 

[Richelle-H]

WARNING: The following refers to unsupervised drug use which is not condoned by me nor do I advocate any of the path that I personally followed and also do not presume too much from the fact that to get to the crazy requires context, in my humble opinion *

Spoiler: Crazy and then some (at least from my vantage point); you should not read this

Looking back on my life, I was not often a risk taker of any sort. I was always the quiet one in the back of the room that you had to prod with a metaphorical stick in order to get a response. However....

In the transition from my twenties to my thirties was my crazy period, at least in retrospect, but at the time there was a great deal of reasoned thought behind it. This time frame was the years from 1975-1979 and it all started with the trip to Amsterdam the lasted from the beginning of January through the first week in March (some may leap to an erroneous conclusion based on that, but bear with me).

My then job sent me to the Netherlands on a long term job. I was very stressed out at the start of it, as it was my first trip out of the country (meaning I had the stress of applying for a passport, etc. , etc.... I arrived on a Friday and spent the whole weekend in my hotel room with a monumental case of jet lag. Not an auspicious beginning, to be sure.

So, while MJ was readily available, it was not attractive to me. I was very inhibited back then and seemingly going nowhere in my life. You would think that was enough to do something crazy, but....

However, I quickly discovered that you could purchase a liter stein of Heineken's for less than an 6 oz. glass of coke. So it was there that I was introduced to alcohol for the first time (that ignores the small sips of this and that were slipped to me by an aunt or uncle growing up ).

The trend continued the following year when I was on another long job in Montreal, working on support in the run up to and during the '76 Olympic Games. To shorten things a bit, I became very depressed there, for I had spent a great deal of time away from my safe environment (6 months out of 18). That was new and I am afraid that to ease my anxiety I drank a bit more than I probably should have but still only got truly drunk once in Montreal on an entire bottle of aperitif wine the night before we were to get our ID photos taken[ No one should look that bad in a photograph ].

That trip and other factors left unmentioned, left me in a dark place that only grew, without my awareness, through the rest of the year and into the next. Culminating in one of those deep depressions where everything seems hopeless. That also lasted as long as the individual time spans of the aforementioned trips out of the country.

I came out of that okay, more than okay if I am entirely honest. But all of this left me with a need to expand my horizons. That led me to doing multiple LSD trips on my own and without any supervision at all. The purpose behind which was to confront myself and explore my head in detail. It turned out to be just as boring as I suspected. Nevertheless, it did bring a kind of freedom that allowed me to expand my social horizons. I guess when you find that your mind holds nothing scary that you need to worry about, it frees you to be more open with people; even though that takes a lot of work. I guess I took it because I needed to break down some self imposed barriers, or at the very least poke some sizeable holes in them.

Going in, I never believed all of the scare propaganda that was rampant in the sixties, but the only reason I took it was I was distrustful of psychiatrists, knew that any lasting change had to come from within me, and my own diagnosis of my then problems saw a potential doorway. I received a great many "are you crazy" from friends when I revealed I had taken several trips by myself (and rightly so). What can I say, I was young and foolish and looking for a way out of my self constructed prison.

You were and are WARNED!

 

[Suzanne]

I was 19, I think, when I went to a nightclub ( strangely, despite the sensory issues, I loved nightclubbing) and was dancing, when my boyfriend arrived and I have no idea how, but I was dancing on a stage type construction and he put his arms out and I jumped off into his arms, which of course, caused us to fall to the ground and was both marched out of the nightclub and if you knew me, you would have been shocked, because it was not me to cause trouble! But, it was a beautiful experience, due to me being deeply in love with my boyfriend.

I did end up eating dope ( since I never smoked) and it was with an older man, who was a habitual dope taker, to the extent, he had all his own equipment to make it. I got fascinated and thought: oh, go on! So, I only ate a bit and laughed and said it tasted how I image mud to taste.

He was a gentleman, because when I said I wanted to return home, he took me ( he was attracted to me - confessed). He obviously knew what would happen, and could have easily have taken advantage of me, but nope, he took me home.

Never again, is all I can say. I nearly died from that experience.

There was one time, still in my teens, when I became fearless, literally. I loved nothing more, than walking around out side in the dark and had no fear for once in my life!

Now, the biggest thing, for someone with extreme agoraphobia; social phobia etc, was moving to France! And even understanding and speaking a little French! However, terribly stunted in many areas now.

 

[Kayla55]

Ohhh right. Hehe, you kinda sound like my Mum when she was my age. She was a bit naughty. And my Dad's partner as well. They were both a lot naughtier than I am now. The only real addiction I've had (unrelated to drugs and alcohol) has been internet and video games ;P

I've got some really good lyrics for you that may describe how you feel: "Do you think the coast is clear? No one to see, no one to hear? Me sing out my song? I think I'm all alone... I don't need my name in lights! That's not where I've set my sights! Oh no, not me! I don't need a stage to SIING!"

Aww, I can understand how the pressure feels. I felt that in school and nowadays, as I said, I'm being told I have to act in order to fit in or be liked. < I hope you've recovered from all that, you are strong ^^

Lol. Tx
My Mom was also on spectrum, she was herself a misguided light...own ideas in a time and country that wasn't permitting.
I don't drink, when I was younger I'd have glass red wine for birthday. My blood pressure is toooo low so I prefer not to.
I went out few times, lost interest....so was I naughty, not really. My Mom is still naughty but she's a dual of autism cross schitso, maybe that's why

 

[Kayla55]

I was sailing, and the others with me mentioned a storm could be brewing, instead of heading to the near shore, i decided to take the long route to the beach we departed from, the storm got us, i managed to take the boat to the nearby shore and sand was biting your skin in the beach, i had to do some pretty adrenaline inducing moves to make the boat not roll on itself on the way. Thinking about it it was stupid, idk maybe i thought we wouldn't be able to transport the boat back home and i wanted to beat the storm to the other place.

That sounds fearless and awesome!!!

 

[Kayla55]

View attachment 97194

Fearfull and very stupid. Scateboarded down the backside of the Verrizano Bridge (Brooklyn side) with two friends. If we lost our boards or balance and tumbled down we would end up on the crowded parkway

Happy birthday

 

[autism-and-autotune]

The most fearless thing I've done (or maybe it was stupid?) was to leave my first full-time job about two years ago due to stress and burnout. My partner and I had just moved into our own place, officially, and I was sick of being away from my home for nine or ten hours a day. I couldn't handle it. We'd saved enough money and eventually I'd found a part-time job four months later, but...I quit after much discussion.

It turns out that was basically ground zero for my discovering that I have autism, so...a win-win situation?