People Recount the Times They Finally Spoke Freely

by Awl Sponsors

Sponsored by Rebtel.

Most of us goes through life politely adhering to the social norms and conventions that make everyday living easier. And that’s okay. But every now and then it’s productive to stop giving a fuck and and just say what’s really on your mind. Inspired by Rebtel’s latest ad, in which they call bullshit on the “vague, meaningless” corporate montages that dominate advertising campaigns, we asked folks to share stories about the times they — to borrow a phrase from The Real World — stopped being polite, and started getting real.

“This weekend at a wedding B. and I were shooting, the wedding coordinator walked in in a dress that was completely open down the middle so B. rushed up to her and said “oh my god, your dress is completely open!” And then the planner said “it’s supposed to be like that.” Awkward.” — Lauren, Austin, TX

“One night I was hanging out at a comedy club and got to talking to the girlfriend of my favorite comedian. I told her how awesome I thought he was and that he was the best in the business. She encouraged me to tell him how I felt. “He’ll love it!” she said. “It’ll mean the world to him.” Putting my reticence aside, I nervously –and somewhat tipsily– approached him. I told him how much his work meant to me and that he was “funnier than George Carlin.” He listened for a moment, then violently shook his head. “No way, man,” he said. “I got nothing new, man. I got nothing new.” Then he promptly walked away. Fast forward to me lying in bed that night, where I stared at the ceiling for a solid hour. Now he ignores me whenever he sees me.” — Stephen, Brooklyn, NY
And some are empowering as fuck.

“I had a boss get drunk in his car at lunch and sexually harass me. I’d told him that if he ever ‘accidentally’ fell against me again, I’d accidentally break his nose. He backed off completely, and I thought the issue was over … I saw him harassing one of our temp employees. It’s made me much more vocal in future jobs — especially on behalf of people who don’t feel they have the job security to speak up.” — F, Brooklyn
(h/t The Billfold).

“I started dating this girl who was a soccer player — she gave me a yeast infection. I was down and out and went to a doctor, I thought I had AIDS, I didn’t know what the hell I had. I was just freaking out — I had lesions all over my genital area, so one day I just said “Fuck it, I gotta talk about this.” I got shitfaced and went onstage [at a comedy club] and just talked about it. And it was going well and it was actually hitting and getting laughs, and it was amazing. I felt great, I was like “This might be what I wanna do.” … after that I was hooked.” — Mark, NYC
h/t Splitsider

I was also reminded of the time the editors of one of our sister sites published publicly a list of everyone they had ever blocked on twitter and why. In their words:

“This is a list of the forsaken and forgotten: People who tweeted too much…who posted a “Thank god it’s Friday” joke on two consecutive Mondays, who were wrong in such a way that would obviously never be remedied and therefore earns them permanent silence. If you grant that actively using Twitter and maintaining mental hygiene are not mutually exclusive, this is the proper way to do it.” — John H., NY

Some responses were just regretful that they hadn’t done this more often.

“I wish I did this more.” — A.S., Brooklyn, NY

Is there a moral here? If so, it’s probably this: life is too short to spend it just doing or saying what you think you should. So buck convention occasionally and say exactly what you want. And also maybe use Rebel Calling if you need to make international calls because it’s cheap as hell.