Have you ever unintentionally (or otherwise) ruined someone’s life? And did you admit to it? In this article, people share how they ruined someone’s life forever.
[Source can be found at the end of the article]
When I was 13 a really quiet, shy boy joined my friend group. I’ll call him M. He was anti-drugs and drinking. I, meanwhile, was very much into both of those things at the time. Unbeknownst to me at the time, he had a huge crush on me. When I was about 16 I would spend all my time outside the school getting high with my friends, while those that didn’t enjoy that kind of thing stayed inside. M, out of nowhere, started hanging around and getting high with us. Within about a week of that starting I started dating a different boy and sobered up. Turns out, M had started doing this to get close to me because he still had a crush on me. Been almost a decade and M is a drug addict who is unemployed and on-and-off homeless. After starting using with my friends, he never stopped. Because of me.
Finneringasvar
I crashed a friend of a friend’s party. It was quite crowded, about 40-60 people in a medium sized house. I was drinking some beer and eating some Pringles. When I was done with the Pringles, I put it on the floor because the table was full of random stuff and I was too lazy to tidy it up.
Several minutes later I heard a crash and people screaming all over the house. I went to the general direction of the noise and saw a man in the middle of shattered glass table. There was blood all over the floor and some of the shattered glass had pierced his back and the back of his head. I asked the guy next to me what had happened, then to my shock he replied “He tripped on an empty can of pringles on the floor and fell on the table.”
He’s now paralized waist down and can’t speak properly.
Wulvric
Told this guy his girlfriend was two timing him.
She married the other guy. He found true love with someone else. They both hate me, though.
sensitiveinfomax
I introduced a friend of mine to World of Warcraft while he was in college. He was a graduate bio-chem student and had an internship in a lab somewhere. From what I could tell, he was on his way to a pretty good career.
Now he lives in his mom’s basement and has no job.
But he does still have a WoW account.
So he’s got that going for him, which is nice.
H3d0n1st
I’m actively working to ruin the man who slept with my wife. He was our son’s PE teacher. While my ex wife did initially consent to the affair he began messaging her telling her he would show nude photos she sent him to our son, his friends, and everyone else if she stopped the affair.
First I got him fired from the school.
Second I got a restraining order and have hired a lawyer to pursue civil charges. I have money, lots of it I’m willing to waste to ruin him.
I sent the threatening messages he sent my wife to his wife, and his parents via Facebook via screenshots from Facebook messenger that is tied to his profile.
I then found out he was on worker’s comp from the school for a knee injury, but simultaneously operating a tree cutting business that involved heavy lifting and climbing ladders. He advertised over social media. I hired a private investigator, obtained photographic evidence and have reported him to the state board for fraud.
Thisisathroway1
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As a professor, I gave a student a grade lower than he felt he deserved. I didn’t think it was a big deal, but some unlikely sequence of events must have led from that grade to some horrific outcome, because he wrote on RateMyProfessor, “HE ruined my life!!!!!
quietlysitting
I was at a party and met an old flame, she kind of acts like maybe she wants some more weasel, but not right then because she has a boyfriend, I didn’t do anything wrong, so no big deal.
I didn’t think anything about it, was leaving later on and got jumped by her boyfriend and one of his friends.
Got beat up really bad.
About three or four months later I run across some bad dudes, known felons that I used to see around, not really friends, just ran in the same party crowds, I just knew them by first names or a nickname.
We are at a bar, they ask specifically about the dude who beat me up, if I knew where he was, cause he did something to piss them off, and these were dudes you didn’t want mad at you.
I didn’t ask anymore, all I told them is where his girlfriend lived.
He’s been missing since that week, as far as I know.
That’s been about 20 years ago.
Ran into the girl about 5-6 years ago, she looks at me, turns white and leaves.
So I might have REALLY ruined someone’s life.
And I’m not losing sleep.
satans_ferret
I ruined someone’s sophomore year. He was my neighbor in the dorm and we were great friends so we decided to room together the next year… I decided to transfer schools for a number of reasons but I didn’t tell anybody until I fully decided which was pretty late in the year. He ended up getting assigned a total creep for a roommate that apparently made his year pretty bad and we never spoke again after parting ways. When I checked in with another friend he said he heard he talked negatively about me and was pretty pissed off. This was 11 years ago. My wife’s parents happened to be friends with the parents of another guy in my hall freshman year and it turns out he’s getting married and my would be roommate is the best man… the wedding is this Saturday and we’re going… I’ve been having anxiety for the last few weeks just hoping we can put it all behind us and get along like we did as freshmen.
FunctionBuilt
Man I feel really guilty over this one. Back when I was in high school my friend Rob and I both liked the same girl. Though being the complete jerk I was I got really jealous. So somehow I managed to convince him that she wasn’t into him (she kind of was) and instead go for some other girl named May, who had been after him since early sophomore year.
They eventually hooked up not too long after and not surprisingly she got knocked up about 4 months later. Because of this he dropped out mid-senior year and last I heard is working at a grocery store. Now, the last time I spoke to him was probably about a year ago and he sounded very miserable since he was stuck in a crappy on-off relationship along with a kid he obviously wasn’t prepared for.
Despite all this he still didn’t blame me even though I set them up on purpose. In all honesty, I still feel extremely terrible every time I think of how I inadvertently messed this poor guys life up. I really do hope he does well despite the fact I screwed it all up.
Squiz3r
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When I was 6 my sister and I were skipping rocks. I tried to pick a big one up and lift it behind my head to throw it. As my arms swung backwards, the rock slipped from my fingers and hit my sister in the back of the head.
6 months later she started having seizures. She still gets them 21 years later. I can’t help but think it’s my fault she’s epileptic.
rubytwixt
When I was in high school, my friend told me how she had been sleeping with her best friend’s dad for over a year.
I don’t do well with big secrets on my conscience, so I broke down after marching band one night. I told one of my friends who made me tell our band teacher, who reported it to the police and talked to my friend’s parents.
She told her parents I was lying about it, but that Monday morning I was called to the principal’s office where I had to tell the band teacher, principal, and the police.
Later that week, the news reported that the man was arrested. I don’t really know what happened after that, but it’s safe to assume that I probably ruined his life and he doesn’t even know who I am.
Nesnie_Lope
Thought I ruined some girls life in elementary school. Teacher left a couple of us alone in the classroom, we were doing some work. Teacher asked us not to look at our grades for that quarter, which of course made everyone want to.
But I was a good little boy, so I didn’t. One girl looked at her grade and got really upset. She told her mom. The mom called the teacher. Teacher called me to rat upset-girl out, which I did, but was able to cover for everyone else.
Came to school the next day with upset-girl, upset-girls friends, and everyone I covered for calling me “Benedict Arnold”, “You ruined my life” and other such crap. Actively felt bad about it for months. Every day I felt sick with myself. I really felt like I ruined her life.
Had her in a high school class a couple years later. We didn’t talk or acknowledge each other. She looked horrible. Like, bad girl too-much eyeliner and all that. She disappeared about half way through the year. No clue what happened to her after.
eeyoreofborg
My best friend when I was younger was an incredibly fast sprinter. His dream was to represent our country in the Olympics. He very easily could have done that, had it not been for me.
We were out one day playing in the forest (we were about 12 or 13 at the time). We saw a little stream and thought how cool it would be if we jumped across it. We did a few times and it was awesome. We did it one more time and I bumped into him in mid air. He landed awkwardly and broke both his legs. Bones were sticking out. It was horrific. I ran to get his mother and he was taken away in an ambulance. He had several surgeries and months of physical therapy. He never ran again and we lost contact.
I blamed myself for years and watched the Olympics last year and felt angry that he wasn’t there, when he should have been. I bumped into him recently and drunkenly apologised for ruining his chances at being an athlete. He laughed, called me an idiot for blaming myself for so long, we had a few drinks. So it all worked out.
convenah
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When I was in high school I was studying Blood types and how traits get passed on from parents to children.
I started asking my family members what their blood types were in order for me to make a chart for Dominant and Recessive traits.
Well I got to my Aunt and uncle who were both O positive and after some research determined that none of their kids were fathered by my uncle because they had completely different blood types.
She confessed that she cheated on him 20 years earlier and continued the affair for 9 years. Uncle was devastated and kids were upset. They got divorced, my aunt moved to Alabama to live with her long time boyfriend, my cousins got all messed up on drugs and one moved in with her own boyfriend and got pregnant.
BeDazzledBootyHolez
In 1st grade, I quickly made friends with the new girl. I was also then convinced that she was stealing all of my friends when one of those friends told me they didn’t want me to hang out with them anymore since they had her. One day, she came up to me and asked if I wanted to play, and I loudly proclaimed I didn’t want to be friends with her anymore. I still remember her face. The next week, I just remember she became more withdrawn, and not too long after, her family moved again.
Maybe she was going through something else, and her life probably (hopefully) wasn’t ruined, but that is by far my biggest regret. That was the turning point when I decided I wasn’t going to be so terrible anymore.
A, if you’re reading this, I’m so sorry. I wish I could apologize to your face.
HalfajarofVictoria
I chipped a soccer ball towards a goal at the end of soccer practice and one of my teammates ended up running in front of it and it hit him in the temple and he had pretty bad amnesia and just forgot a good portion of things that had happened before in his life. His parents took it sort of as a clean slate opportunity and tried molding him to be more of a goodie two-shoes type kid which he ended up becoming. He’s done very well for himself, just graduated from a top college studying physics (I think, he was studying it last time I talked to him) and has a long term girlfriend. It’s hard to say whether or not I “ruined” it but it definitely was not a good time for him for the few months after. As far as I knew, he never really recovered the memories from before.
caug37
My roommate met this girl who was a bartender at a pool hall. They shared similar interests in Anime, only this pool-girl was the most annoying person ever. She was massively attention seeking, overly touchy but also kind of mean. She was always over at my house and I finally got so sick of her that I just tried to go to sleep when she was over.
They started sleeping together. The thing was, this girl had a boyfriend. I tried to talk to my roommate about it, but she was having none of it. I had just gotten out of a cheaty relationship and it made me like this girl even less.
Christmas came, and I had gotten my roommate a particular gift. I had texted all of our mutual friends (including pool girl) telling them that I was getting her this gift. Pool girl shows my roommate the text while they were at an anime con, and then proceeds to buy her the same gift while at the convention.
I contacted her boyfriend on facebook anonymously and told him that she was cheating. He threw a huge public fit at this convention and left Pool Girl stranded, since he was driving and paying for the hotel and such.
lawlessSyntax
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I introduced my best friend to an older guy I knew and had previously worked for. He is really manipulative, and my friend was/is very naive. He puts out cult leader vibes if that makes sense.
They ‘hit it off’ and she dropped out of college, moved to the other side of the world with him and barely sees her family now. He kept emphasizing how its a mutual attraction would talk openly about their sex life with me. How they might have children…. all very early in their relationship before they left together.
He is very good at isolating her, but I don’t suspect he’s outright abusive. More like he puts her on a pedestal because he’s a lonely old man married to a woman 30 years younger than him. Either way it’s very unhealthy and they would have never met if it wasn’t for me.
I feel like I really messed up her life.
MonardaFistulosa
My friend was getting kicked out of school for getting caught drinking too many times. His parents were preparing to come pick him up.
I had a meeting with the Dean for other reasons and at the end explained my friend was the hardest working person I knew. He had learning disabilities and would literally study from the second he got out of class until 1am just to pull Cs and a few Bs and then go out and party hard for a couple hours.
I was able to convince the Dean that he was the most worthy person I knew to be there in the mix of all of us partying until morning.
I got a call a few months later that my friend was missing. They found that he blacked out in a creek and drowned in 3 inches of water on his way back to the dorm.
I can’t take much responsibility for that, but it messes me up. In a moment of assertiveness and courage I fought for my friend and put him on a path that caused him to die a different day.
I shook the Deans hand at his funeral and we both just kind of stared at each other for a second. Like no matter the intentions, we did this.
khaominer
Some punk kid bullied my little bro with his wanna-be gang. My bro was using clutches from a twisted ankle and they were messing with him on the bus. My bro told them to back off and they wanted to beat him up after he got off the bus. I saw them trailing my brother and went out with metal bat to scare them. Then I called the cops. Cops notified school. Kid got suspended for weeks. He called and begged us to be lenient on him. He called pretending to be his dad. I should have recorded the phone calls. Basically messed his college applications. It felt very good. We live in a upper middle class community.
Anonymous
I used to work in a call center and was responsible for screening new hires. After their training, I let them take calls and decide whether they are good for the role or not. I was very strict. I once failed someone who did well on training but had some temper issues (he was impatient and managed to turn a rather calm customer irate.) I told him the role may not suit him well and he need to wait so we could reassign him to a different department. He got really upset and left almost instantly. A few day later, I learned through his fellow new hires that he died of a heart attack. He was just in his mid 30s.
realgrizzlybear
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I used to live in China, and while I speak good Chinese, an acquaintance I made did no speak it at all. Well, me, him and his local girlfriend all went out to eat. The 2nd time we went out, I brought along a Chinese friend, and the three of us were talking in Chinese, and his girlfriend brought up the fact her boyfriend played piano well. Well, next time I met friend, I brought up his amazing piano skills only for him to say he never played piano in his life. I then casually mentioned that his girlfriend said he did, and assuming they were in an open relationship told him what his girlfriend had said.
He dumped her. Found out 3 months later, that it wasn’t his girlfriend I met the 2nd time, but the girlfriend’s sister. Oops.
Dalazai
Hit a car in the rain. Everyone (little girl, boy, mother, and dog) was fine but the weird thing was that the car was full of clothes and seemingly random items. I distinctly remember a blender. And they were all dressed in their pajamas as though they’d just hopped out of bed, loaded up the car, and set out. Well, eventually the father shows up. I’m standing next to the little boy, he’s probably twelve, while all the cops, firemen, and on lookers are hurrying around us. It is absolutely pouring. The father sees the kid and walks straight passed him to go look at the car. It didn’t hit me until later that they were running from him, but I knew something was off. I looked at the kid and said I was sorry and that I couldn’t see through the rain. He didn’t even look back. He just stood there staring straight ahead in his soaked clothes with that angry look kids get when they’re trying not to cry. I knew he hated me and I knew I had just put the cherry on top of a horrible childhood.
I will never forget that moment. They never filed an insurance claim and I never saw them again. I destroyed someone’s life and all I had to pay for was a new bumper and grill for my truck.
Stolypin26
I had a neighbor who was a drunk. Worse than that, he was a drunk driver. Not a day went by I didn’t see him swerving into his driveway. One morning, around 5 am, I came out and he was hosing off the front of his car. That kind of guy.
Called the cops a few times. They didn’t do anything. Kept saying they needed to catch him in the act. I figured it was only a matter of time before this guy killed someone. And I was pretty worried having my kids playing outside with this drunk on the loose.
I bought a burn phone and began using it to file anonymous complaints with virtually every agency I could think of. I told them whatever I thought might prompt action. Never filed a report but always just left a juicy tip for them to follow up on. I basically figured that a guy like this was doing something illegal and would get swept up if I just figured out the correct combination.
The one that eventually stuck was when I called the local drug task force. They stopped him on the way home one day and caught him driving drunk and with a bag of meth in his car. He also had a handgun in his possession but, because he had a handgun with drugs, it resulted in him being charged with like a super felony.
He went away after that. House was either seized by the sheriff or foreclosed and a young family moved in afterward.
TheFire_Eagle
When I was around 20 years old I was still living at home. A friend came to visit me once and brought his girlfriend to meet me. She decided she’d had to have me instead, left him, and actively started pursuing me. I wanted nothing to do with her as she was not my type but she kept calling and my sisters caught her looking in the windows.
Eventually I had the bright idea to introduce her to another friend so I can get her to leave me alone. They actually hit it off and eventually got married and had a couple of kids. Sounds good, doesn’t it.
Except it wasn’t. They had a terrible relationship, had both kids taken away, and were homeless for a while. I tried to save him from her by bringing him to my apartment in a neighbouring city somewhere he could haven’t a place away from her and get his life back in order. A few days later, she found out where I lived and came and got him while I was at work.
Eventually they did split up permanently. He remarried several times, had several kids, was always having trouble with support payments and insurance. He couldn’t get a decent job and has always been on the brink financially.
Currently he has his own lawn and garden business but is still struggling. Out of guilt AND because he’s still one of my best friends, I help him out financially and materially whenever I can but I can’t help but wonder how much better his life might have been if not for me. All because I didn’t want this girl to keep bugging me.
Goatboy1
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