Having a crush is quite normal but can lead one to do some ridiculous and often regrettable things. From jumping off a moving truck to flying halfway across the world, these Redditors share their experiences of what not to do for love. For most, they didn’t get their happy ending, just a big lesson learned.
1. Hats Off For The Dumbest Move
When I was 16 (I'm now 32), I was riding in the back of a friend's truck with this girl I was trying to impress. We were going about 40 mph on an asphalt road, and my ball cap blew off. She jokingly said, "You better jump out and get it".
I dove out of the back of the truck and rolled down the pavement several times. I got my hat and stood up as if I was unscathed. I played it off like a tough, yet very stupid guy. The consequences of my stupidity snuck up to me big time.
The next day, I woke up in excruciating pain and went to the hospital. I had broken my collarbone, two ribs, and the radius bone in my forearm.
2. Mating Call
On one of our first few dates, I made a bird caw-caw noise because I awkwardly wanted the guy to kiss me. I somehow thought caw-cawing was the best way to relay that information. He eventually did kiss me, but in speaking about that time years later, he mentioned he kissed me despite the caw-cawing.
It's four years later and we're getting married now. So keep up the animal sounds my friends! You'll find your mate.
Luis Zambrano , Pexels3. Nobody To The Rescue
My dad purposely crashed his bike in front of a cute girl's house, so she would come running out to check on him. It never worked, but he has the scars to prove it happened
diana.grytsku , Freepik4. Timing Is Everything
I bought front-row tickets to a Snow Patrol concert for the two of us. I think I paid almost $200 for the tickets. I was so happy, until I received the most devastating news—my grandfather had passed. I just gave her the tickets rather than waste them. She ended up taking another guy who she then started dating a week later.
Mr Ait , Pexels5. Thanks, But No Thanks
In fifth grade, I gave this guy $5 because I wanted him to date me instead of all the other girls. Instead, he said thanks and never talked to me again.
6. Risky Dare
We were walking together and a raccoon was sitting on the top of a trash can digging through the garbage. She told me to go touch it or else she would walk away. So, without any hesitation or thought whatsoever, I went up and touched the raccoon's tail. It didn't seem to care. It was worth it.
Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0 , Wikimedia Commons
7. Aimless Endeavor
I walked all over campus in the pouring rain hoping to run into her. It was the last day of class at a big university so I thought I'd never see her again or get a chance to tell her how I felt. I won’t lie—it was pretty lame.
8. Smells Of Desperation
I once found a fake gold necklace that a guy I liked used to wear. I'd never sunken so low in my life. It smelled very strongly of his cologne so I kept it. I used to carry it around and smell it. He didn't even know I existed. He grew up to be a loser.
León Films , Pexels9. Trick’s On Me
I used to have a crush on this girl from church. My friends thought it would be a good idea to dress up like trick-or-treaters at Halloween and go to her house in costume so they could help me ask her out or something. I was insanely shy but somehow I agreed to go.
So I wore my Spider-Man costume and waited for my friends to pick me up at home. When they arrived, none of them were in costume. They said, "Oh yeah, we decided to just wear normal clothes and forgot to tell you". I tried to get out of it but they ended up driving me to her house and got me to go up to her door with them. They insisted that she wouldn’t know who I was under my Spider-Man mask.
When she answered the door, she was having a Halloween slumber party with a bunch of girls and they all wanted to know who I was. One of my friends pulled off my mask and confessed my love to her. Turns out, she wasn’t interested in me at all.
BM Capture , Pexels10. Sweet Nothing
I remember I used to bring candy to this girl every day in the 8th grade—a small brown bag full of different goodies. She'd be so happy and hug me and say sweet things and whatnot.
So one day, I decided to test her and put a dollar in the bag. I got to school and gave her the bag. I waited to hear from her saying I accidentally left that in there but got nothing. She kept the dollar. At lunch, I even mentioned something along the lines of losing my lunch money—and still nothing. She never said anything.
It was pretty dumb but it made me forget about her quickly. So in the end, it was for the best.
11. Smitten And Stupid
When I was 14, I went to a church (even back then I was not into the Jesus thing) because I thought this boy who went there was insanely hot. I took communion—the whole nine yards.
I ended up dating him for a bit until I found out he was a complete idiot. Yeah, I was the insane stalker girl who did something idiotic for a crush.
12. Gone But Not Forgotten
When I was in fourth grade, my crush had his Pokemon card deck stolen out of his school desk. He was pretty upset about it so I gave him all my holographic cards. I previously refused to trade my cards for anything. I loved my cards and was very proud of them. By giving him my precious cards, I was hoping that it would get him to like me. Big mistake.
Well, after giving it to him, he didn't even thank me for them. It's just small potatoes now, but it was a big deal at the time. I've never forgotten about it and always regretted it!
13. Valuable Lessons Learned
When I was a freshman in college, I was planning a day’s visit to see my friend “Steve” who attended another college a few hours away. When I found out there was going to be a dorm party at my school on the same Saturday and that my crush, “Mary”, would be there, I decided to cancel my trip to see Steve.
I was pretty socially awkward and didn't get invited to many of these affairs, so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to be near my crush.
Ironically, the day before the party and after I canceled my trip, Mary came up to me and said, “Hey, I heard you were going out of town tomorrow. Can I hitch a ride? I want to go visit a friend up at the same school"!
Suddenly, I now had to un-cancel my visit with Steve. The problem was that I couldn’t get a hold of him (cell phones were just starting to become popular but Steve didn't have one yet).
Ok, I ended up driving my crush to another school where I claimed that I had plans to meet a friend—whom I canceled on. When I got up there, I still couldn't get a hold of Steve. So my crush and her friend, “John” invited me to hang out with them.
I never managed to get in contact with Steve, despite having called frantically several times throughout the night. Why did I want to leave Mary and John? Because the "friend" she was visiting was some dude she was trying to bang. So in the end, with nowhere else to go (I planned to sleep in my car without them knowing, just to get the heck out of this increasingly awkward situation, but failed miserably). They invited me to stay on the couch, where I stupidly spent the night, clearly able to hear them having intercourse.
14. An “A” For Effort
In high school, a few hours after school was let out, I was talking to this guy I had a crush on. He mentioned that he left his Spanish notebook in his locker and had a test the next day. Since it was a regional high school and he lived far away and I was close, I offered to help him out. I walked a mile to the school, went to his locker, called him, got the combination, and read 10+ pages from the notebook to him while I sat on the hallway floor and he took notes.
We never ended up dating. It turns out he was mostly gay. We are still friends, though.
15. Teenage Angst
I stalked him for four years. I memorized his routes to class, his locker, his lunch period, and every freaking thing. I asked him out and we dated for a few months. Getting him to kiss me, hold hands or show any type of affection, was excruciating. We NEVER hung out alone outside of school, despite my pleas. He dumped me after a few months, and I was devastated.
I continued to stalk him for all four years. I joined the high school band in a periphery position just so I could see him regularly. I dated many other people, but if he had even once glanced my way, I'd have jumped on him in a hot minute. I left dreadful love letters and once, oh my goodness, I spent an entire lunch period staring at him from the second story, sobbing my eyes out. He saw me—everyone did. At 14, I was a mess.
So anyway, 10 years down the road, I am happy to report that he and his husband are very happy world travelers, and I'm happily married to a lovely man.
16. Last Hurdle To Cross
It was 11th grade, and this beautiful alien-looking boy named Hank was in one of my classes. He looked like Spock, with eyebrows pointing up towards his scalp. I think I was mostly attracted to his muscles and his simple, masculine name.
Being in 11th grade and never having done anything remotely athletic throughout my high school career, I decided to join the track team. Hank just "happened" to be on the team, and was rather obsessed with hurdles. He was so obsessed in fact, that the only thing he would talk about when I nervously engaged in conversation with him was his love for hurdles. I did not care for his abs but his Vulcan facade made me excited!
Joining the track team gave me a lot of time with Hank. Viewing him from afar was enough; since he was so dim-witted I didn't want to date him, that would've been embarrassing because everyone knew how Hank was not the sharpest tool in the shed. Also, the fact that he was younger than me didn't help. My friends would never have let it go.
I am possibly the least athletic person I have ever met in my life. Joining the track team was like a snail trying to join a pack of cheetahs. That is,a snail whose ankles would swell up from the simple act of lightly jogging. It was not good—and it only got worse.
One fateful day, when both of my parents happened to be out of town, the inevitable happened. I was failing at hurdles, as per usual. Hank did not notice, for he was too intent on practicing his hurdling form. My foot got caught on the last hurdle, and to my horror, I found my entire body falling on one arm. I heard a small crack followed by immense pain throbbing through my body. A stream of expletives poured out of my mouth as I clutched my aching arm.
Hank looked on, jaw slacks with his usual dimness.
Everyone said my arm was not broken, but I knew better. I had to have a neighbor take me to the doctor to get an x-ray. It was broken, of courseX-ray all because I was infatuated with a hurdler named Hank.
17. Lady, You’re No Friend Of Mine
When I was in second grade, I had a crush on this one girl and when we were on a field trip, I saw this lady bug ring for sale. I bought it knowing that she liked ladybugs and waited for the right time to give it to her. It ended up being in front of her friends and she laughed in my face and refused the gift. I felt like shit and threw it out.
18. Painful But Worth It
I met my wife at university. I heard she was into judo so I joined the judo club to spend more time with her. We had to bike to get there. She cycled like a maniac and I was scared.
When we got to judo, we practiced choke holds on each other. She wrapped her legs around me and throttled me silly until I questioned my existence.
It was worth it.
19. That’s Creepy
In high school, I had a HUGE crush on a cheerleader. Everything about her was stunning. Her long brunette hair, her heart-shaped butt—but it was her smile and eyes that initially got me. When I eventually got to see her interact with others, I discovered that she was very popular, but had no ego. She likes everyone and I was hooked.
One night, I got desperate and looked her number up. I called to ask her out. She wondered why I didn't ever talk to her at school, and thought a late-night phone call was creepy.
A year later at VA Tech, our dorms were close together, and I got to know her better. We became close friends, and after six months, we started dating. Last July, we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary.
20. Not Attractive At All
In fourth grade, my crush shaved his eyebrows off for no reason and was made fun of mercilessly by our classmates. To take the heat off him, I shaved off my eyebrows the following day, hoping to either start a trend OR that we two eyebrowless creatures could team up and eat lunch together while ignoring the ridicule.
But there was one major problem—he looked a lot better without eyebrows than I did. I mean—A LOT FREAKING BETTER. So my stunt took the heat off him and on to me.
It took the rest of the year for my eyebrows to grow. I pretty much had no friends and in fifth grade, during our outdoor PE class, my crush threw a deceased frog's eyeball into my hair. That's the closest thing I ever got to closure.
21. Can You Say, “Cheesy”?
Back in high school, after my very first girlfriend broke up with me, I was certain my life was over and I would never find another girl who could top her. I started doing silly things to try and win her back. Once, I pretended to be the school photographer and took pictures of this guy that I knew she had a crush on. I even pulled him out of class once to get a close-up. Everyone laughed at me. I think he thought I had a thing for him.
22. At Your Service
In high school, I was a fat and sweaty slob. I had a crush on this girl, “Kay” who was tall, beautiful, and on the varsity basketball team. We had biology class together in freshman year and I was her mule the entire semester.
I would get her soda, give her the homework answers, and freaking worship the ground she walked on. Even though she only gave me the slightest bit of attention, I convinced myself that she was secretly plotting to have intercourse with me. She wasn't.
Anyways, one day in biology class, she needed a pen because hers had run out. I'll never forget Kay looking over to me and beckoning me with her fingers like a servant. When I got to her she said, "Do you have a pen I could borrow"?
"No”, I replied.
"Well, why don't you go look around the class and ask around,” she ordered.
There was something about her beckoning me over like a slave and her toes splayed out in those rainbow-colored toe socks that made me realize she didn't give a hoot about me even as a friend; barely as a person.
But I still got her the pen.
Krakenimages.com , Shutterstock
23. Myopic For Love
I faked my eye exam to get glasses so I could have something to talk to my crush in third grade about. That resulted in me needing glasses by the time fourth grade came around.
24. Epic Fail
My cousin flew to Thailand, where the girl he just broke up with was vacationing. He was attempting to surprise her with a grand act of romance. He just went there on a whim, without mentioning a thing to her. He thought she'd love the gesture, but it backfired...hard.
Without any information as to where she was, he spent all his money, wandered around for 2-3 days, and never found her. He came home pretty dejected about it. I don't think he ever told her about it. I guess it's one of those things that is either a grand romantic success or an epic fail.
25. Ring Of Confusion
I was in third grade and had a huge crush on this cute girl. I went to the dentist, and they let me pick a toy thing after the visit. In the bucket was this "nice looking" fake ring! I grabbed that sucker up.
The next day I went up to her after school as she was getting into her van where her mom, sister, and a friend were. I said something like, "Here" and held it out to her like a moron. She looked at me in legitimate confusion and said, “This isn't mine", clearly thinking I thought she had dropped it.
I said, “It is now" and turned and ran.
26. Permanent Impression
I always wanted a tattoo but was never able to go through with it—that is, not until I met a girl who loved tattoos. Ten hours and $1000 later, I had a new tattoo.
We never ended up dating. She's in Japan and I'm back in the States now. We talk from time to time, but that ship has sailed.
27. Should’ve Checked First
I was 12. The cute guy I had a crush on was the son of a doctor. I thought that if I tried to talk to him about his dad, he’d like me.
So one day after school, I went up to him and said, “Hey, your dad is a good doctor! I went to see him yesterday”. He got this horrified look on his face but didn't say a word.
His dad is a gynecologist. I had no idea.
bubble boats
28. Walk Of Shame
When I was in the fifth grade, I tried to impress this girl by hoping to run a 5k marathon with her. Well, I was met with an unexpected surprise—it turned out that she was a lot faster than I was. I wound up walking the darn thing all alone.
29. Lucky To Be Alive
I had a slight crush on my neighbor when I was in seventh grade. We were at our neighborhood park when I needed to go home for dinner. The park was on a grass hill which I thought would impress her if I went down it on my bike fast. Turns out I couldn't stop and slid into the street resulting in my getting hit by a minivan.
inside yelling
30. The Missing Piece
In junior high, I was massively creepy. I liked this one girl and wanted to let her know. So I decided to make her a "puzzle". I would leave her one piece per day for a week, that she would assemble. At the end of the week, I would tell her that it was me, and would then ask her out.
All went well and the puzzle was well received but in the end, I chickened out. I told her it was me, but couldn't muster the courage to ask her out. I got a hug from all that, which was nice.
31. Hey, It Worked
I used to snap my pencils in chemistry class just so I could use the pencil sharpener which was next to her desk. I ended up dating that girl for three years.
32. That Didn’t Go As Planned
My 8th-grade crush told me that if I liked her, I would date her friend. I thought it would be worth it, soI did, for about 3 months. It ended up being the worst decision I could have ever made—because it never got me my crush.
33. Clueless Idiot
I always hung around places where I thought she would be, hoping to run into her. It worked on occasion, and we got along well. Then once, there was an on-campus party and I spent half the day trying to run into her, missing out on the booze just to find her.
When I finally bumped into her, she was happy to see me, already having consumed a few. She said, "Hey, funny running into you"!, and her intoxicated friend said, "Dude, she spent half the day just looking for you"!
So my crush said sheepishly, "I did no!!" Unfortunately, it never dawned on me that she might have liked me. Regardless, we chatted a bit and she invited me to something but I didn't clue-in that she was into me. Sclue int home.
34. What A Surprise
I once gave up a promising career and moved from Canada to Tokyo, Japan for a crush. I found a job, secured a work visa, sold everything I owned, and flew out.
I called her about a week after I arrived, surprising the heck out of her. She had a boyfriend, so I never did tell her how I felt. After a few years, I moved back to Canada.
I was the MC at her wedding a couple of years ago.
35. Slimy Present
I went into the sea and caught her fish with my bare hands. I waded back onto the shore and told her to close her eyes, then I put the fish in her hand. She screamed and threw it back in the water. I was 24.
In my defense, she told me she liked fish.
36. Painful Realization
Looking back, I was that weird girl. I liked this guy for a bit when I was about 13. He was really into things like wrestling.
I wanted to impress him after we hung out watching a dumb movie, but all I did was make myself look like a total fool. I ended up showing him I was just as cool as those guys in the show by running and jumping into his metal garage door.
I should have realized that if I needed to do that to impress someone, maybe it was time to move on.
37. Sweet Gesture
In high school, I would bake cupcakes to try and get him to notice me via his stomach. But I thought it was weird to just give him one, so I'd randomly bake them for the whole class. I also didn't want it to seem like I was only doing this for him, so I'd bake them for other classes too. Sometimes he'd eat one, sometimes he wouldn't. He never did like me.
38. Beyond Cringey
There was a really hot chick in her early 20s I met at a summer camp when I was about 15. After the camp was finished, I friended her on Facebook and we chatted for just a little.
About a week later, I saw that she had posted her phone number on Facebook. Being the dumb idiot that I was, I messaged her via text saying that she had posted her number and that she should probably remove it if she didn't want creeps texting her.
Needless to say, she removed me from all aspects of her life and never talked to me again. I cringe about it every so often.
39. Not The Brightest Star
In the sixth grade band, I used to stare up at the lights above the stage because I thought they would make my eyes sparkle if my crush happened to look over and see me. Looking back, I probably looked as if I was having a mild stroke with my eyes rolling back in my head like that.
40. Mysterious Note
In sixth grade, we used class cubbies which were like mailboxes. The teacher used them to put stuff like handout forms for us to take home. One day, I got a note in my cubby that read, "I LOVE YOU. GUESS WHO"?
This being sixth grade, I didn't care about getting a girlfriend yet, but I was fascinated by the idea of having a secret admirer. So, naturally, I decided to perform handwriting analysis on all the girls in the class. This is when things got interesting...
I went around during lunch and tried to get everyone in the class to write "I LOVE URUGUAY" on a sheet of paper, figuring that would cover my tracks while still sharing most of its letters with the original note. Except a lot of kids didn't know what Uruguay was and assumed he was a friend of mine. They also thought I was trying to make them look lik the was into guys or something. About half the class refused and the results from the other half were inconclusive.
Turns out my mom had been in the classroom for a parent-teacher meeting and had slipped the note into my cubby.
41. Wake Up And Smell The Roses
When I was 18, I charged $80 for long-stemmed roses on my first credit card for my boyfriend. He never acknowledged he'd received them until I asked. A year later, he dumped me, claiming his mom told him he couldn't have a girlfriend in college. It hurt so bad.
Today, he's short, bald, and alone. I see him eating lunch and reading downtown sometimes.
42. Words Of Despair
I wrote her a letter every day for a month. These letters went in depth about how I felt about her. It was cheesy but thought it was a sure fire way to get her to like me. I was to give them to her on her birthday, but for some reason, I couldn't wait to give them to her. So I sent her a picture of one over iMessage. She freaked out and told me she didn't feel the same way about me. So I thought, "Okay, this blows but I'll be fine" and I decided to move on with my day.
The next day was her birthday and I had already made plans to see her. So I went and I got her a record from a band she liked and put the letters in a binder. When I saw her, things were still understandably awkward. But at the end of the night, I still gave her the letters.
That was probably the dumbest thing I've done.
43. Everyone’s Looking
I was a spectacular loser in highschool. I was occasionally in shoved into trash cans, even though I was a girl. I shared a locker with a friend because people would spew in my mine and shove garbage through the slats.
One morning, I walked by my locker and there was a note attached to one of those large phallic "Big Jim" candy canes. The note had a rather intriguing message for me: "Please eat this at the pep rally". I was overcome by the romantic gesture of the anonymous suitor. I thought stupidly that if I ate it at the pep rally then the person who liked me would probably be staring at me.
So I went to the pep rally and gave my mystery guy exactly what I thought he wanted—the long slow lick, the twist, the twirl. Turned out—EVERYBODY was looking at me—including the vice principal.
Anna Shvets , Pexels44. Uninvited Guests
In high school, my friend and I snuck into the backyard of the crush we both liked. We were hoping that we could see him in his window. When the back door suddenly opened, we hid in the bushes. His entire extended family proceeded to come out the back door and into the backyard to have a family reunion. I think we sat in the bushes for two hours until a small child found us and exposed us to everyone.
The school was awkward the next day...
45. One Never Learns
I taught myself chemistry so I could teach the girl I had a crush on. She knew I liked her and she went from failing to a passing grade. We never did the lessons in person. I taught her online and she agreed to go on a date with me.
The day before the date, she canceled on me. She kept telling me that we would go out soon. It's been a few years since and she still says, “Maybe another time”. I'd say I'm not holding my breath for it.
46. Those Were The Days
In junior high, my friend and I called every Anderson in the phone book until we found out which number belonged to this hot older guy at our school. Even though we lived in a small-ish town, this was quite a feat and took an entire afternoon.
We used to prank call him occasionally after that. We thought we were so cool at the time, talking to this hot, popular guy on the phone. I shrivel up in embarrassment just thinking about it now.
47. Wrestling With My Emotions
I went to school with a guy who I was absolutely infatuated with. He loved wrestling. He would watch it every Wednesday night.
I called his house one time looking for his sister and he said, "Samantha, is that you”? I said, “Yeah”. That’s when he told me that I had called during his wrestling show and I said, "Oh, I love wrestling! I'm watching it too"!
From that moment on, he thought I loved wrestling and he would call me every Wednesday and we would watch it together. I learned every character and the little things they did. I even had a favorite wrestler. I only did this because I loved talking to him. In reality, I would rather nose dive into a pile of sharp rocks than ever watch wrestling ever again. I was a dumb idiot.
48. Match Not Made In Heaven
I introduced a guy that I liked to my best friend in the hopes that they'd date for a few weeks, then she’d break up with him like she usually did to all the other guys. In the meantime, he’d realize how awesome I was.
They dated for over two years and as far as I know, he's still mooning over her.
49. Train To Nowhere
I once followed my crush into a metro train and spent the next two hours sitting in the same coach as him. We didn’t exchange any words, maybe just a smile or two. We were both in the same school but had different classes. We didn’t know each other beyond that. The situation was awkward enough—but it got even more awkward.
I rode the train until the last stop—the one to our school. He got off while I remained sitting in the train until it started on return journey. I spent two more hours (alone this time) getting back home. By the way, before following him in, I had just got off the same train, coming home from school.
50. Sweet Revenge
I was the bookish, socially awkward, ugly girl in school. I was bullied and never had anyone to play with at recess and lunch in elementary school. I used to sit by myself in a secluded area of the playground writing love notes to a guy I had a crush on. I'd scratch them onto those pebbles they use to fill the ground of playgrounds with. One letter per pebble and when I was done, I'd dramatically throw them into the sea of blank pebbles. I envisioned him finding a pebble with a letter on it and then tracking the rest down, unscrambling the message, and falling madly in love with me.
In junior high school, I still had a crush on him. One day, I overheard him and his friend rating all the girls in the class on a scale of one to ten. I heard his friend say my name, and the guy I had a crush on laughed and said, "Zero". It hurt but I stopped liking him within the hour.
Years later, when I was in college, I bumped into him at a bar. I had by then grown into an attractive adult and had worked very hard to overcome my social anxiety. We chatted for a bit and he asked me to come home with him. I said no. It felt unbelievably good.
cottonbro studio , Pexels
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