Life doesn\u2019t always happen unexpectedly.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, people go on for years believing in something, only to know that their world was not as real as they thought.<\/p>\n
In this article, we will share a collection of stories which are filled with surprises, moments of truth, and the challenge of facing what was hidden for so long.<\/p>\n
After six years together, my\u00a0fianc\u00e9e called off our wedding, and in\u00a0the note she left\u00a0me, she wrote,\u00a0\u201cYou were a\u00a0soft place to\u00a0land while\u00a0I was between phases of\u00a0my\u00a0life.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>Six years. We\u00a0were four months away from getting married.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no\u00a0way I\u2019ll ever be\u00a0able to\u00a0bounce back from reading that. It\u2019s not like she said it\u00a0verbally and didn\u2019t mean it\u2014because sometimes words come out, and you don\u2019t mean them. She chose to\u00a0write it\u00a0and chose to\u00a0give it\u00a0to\u00a0me.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll never be the person I was before she told me I was merely a soft place to land.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n On her d3athbed, my stepmother (who had raised me from the time I was 3 years old and died when I was 35) told me that she never thought of me as family\u00a0but just didn\u2019t know how to\u00a0get rid of\u00a0me\u00a0after my\u00a0dad abandoned\u00a0us<\/p>\n I\u00a0grew up\u00a0thinking we\u00a0were poor. My\u00a0parents were extremely frugal\u2014no eating out, no\u00a0new clothes, no\u00a0vacations. I\u00a0started working at\u00a014\u00a0to\u00a0help with bills.<\/p>\n Then, when my\u00a0dad passed, I\u00a0found out he\u00a0had over $1\u00a0million in\u00a0savings. My\u00a0mom admitted they just didn\u2019t believe in\u00a0spending money. I\u00a0was furious\u2014I struggled for years while they sat on\u00a0a\u00a0fortune.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n My\u00a0grandparents and family didn\u2019t want to\u00a0come to\u00a0my\u00a0high school or\u00a0college graduations, but happily went to\u00a0all of\u00a0my\u00a0cousins\u2019 events. It\u00a0made me\u00a0feel totally unwanted by\u00a0the whole family for a\u00a0long time.<\/p>\n Turns out, my\u00a0dad told them not to\u00a0come because my\u00a0stepmom didn\u2019t like my\u00a0grandma.<\/p>\n I\u00a0went to\u00a0a\u00a0small, private college. Graduated, got my\u00a0diploma, and started applying for jobs. Every single company told me\u00a0my\u00a0degree wasn\u2019t valid. Confused, I\u00a0went back to\u00a0the school\u2014it had shut down. Turns out, it\u00a0was never an\u00a0accredited institution.<\/p>\n I had spent four years and thousands of dollars on a degree that didn\u2019t mean anything. Had to start over from scratch.<\/p>\n My girlfriend said she was moving into the new apartment with me after we\u2019d signed the paperwork and paid the lease. Turned out she\u2019d been che:ating on me for months and was moving in with him instead. I suppose I got the last laugh, as I still have her portion of the security deposit.<\/p>\n My neighbor Eva was 38 and lived alone. I was her only friend, but she never spoke about her past. One day, she disappeared. I never heard from her again. 3 years later, while watching TV, I saw her. I froze in sh0ck.<\/p>\n This woman turned out to\u00a0be\u00a0a\u00a0successful writer promoting her new book. She explained that she had been able to\u00a0write it\u00a0after fully immersing herself in\u00a0the lifestyle of\u00a0the \u201cless fortunate,\u201d spending two years living in\u00a0an\u00a0extremely poor neighborhood\u2014experiencing a\u00a0life completely different from the one she had known.<\/p>\n She had become more successful after her second book, which followed a\u00a0character living an\u00a0extravagant life. Wanting to\u00a0explore the opposite perspective, she had chosen our neighborhood as\u00a0the setting for her next novel.<\/p>\n To\u00a0top it\u00a0all off, her name wasn\u2019t Eva\u2014it was Emily. Now, I\u00a0can\u2019t help but wonder if\u00a0any of\u00a0her characters were inspired by\u00a0me. Still, I\u00a0can\u2019t shake the feeling of\u00a0betrayal and deception.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n After two years at my job, my boss called me in and said I was getting a raise. He congratulated me, shook my hand, and told me to \u201ccheck my next paycheck.\u201d<\/p>\n Two months later, I\u00a0realized my\u00a0paycheck hadn\u2019t changed.<\/p>\n I\u00a0asked\u00a0HR about it\u2014they had no\u00a0record of\u00a0a\u00a0raise.<\/p>\n When I\u00a0confronted my\u00a0boss, he\u00a0just said, \u201cOh, it\u00a0must have been a\u00a0paperwork mistake, I\u2019ll fix\u00a0it.\u201d Another month passed\u2014still no\u00a0change.<\/p>\n I\u00a0checked with\u00a0HR again.<\/p>\n Turns out, my\u00a0boss never submitted anything. He\u00a0just told me\u00a0I got a\u00a0raise to\u00a0keep me\u00a0happy. I\u00a0quit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Life doesn\u2019t always happen unexpectedly. Sometimes, people go on for years believing in something, only to know that their world was not as real as they thought. In this article, we will share a collection of stories which are filled with surprises, moments of truth, and the challenge of facing what was hidden for so …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2831"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2833,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2831\/revisions\/2833"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildwondertube.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Story 2:\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Story 12:\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n