Amazing things you have done that shocked your friends, family and coworkers.

Sailor.X

Cold War Veteran
Founder
This thread is about the things you did that are mundane to you but people who know you didn't know you could do. Just regular stuff you don't think about but left them slack jawed in shock. I will start it off.

For me it was when my coworkers and neighbor found out how strong I really am. One day 12 years ago I was working at an MRAP upgrade site. We had just gotten in a cases of parts with thick bands on them. The Site Super was about to get the cutting shears to remove the bands when I just grabbed them and snapped them off. His mouth dropped open and he said..... "How in the hell did you do that?????" my response was "Doesn't everyone break bans like this???" He then shook his head and said " Remind me not to let you grab me." The second incident was when me and my Neighbor was changing the tires on one of his cars. He was about to go to the trunk to get the bar to remove the Hub Cap. When I just grabbed the Hub Cap and pulled it off. He just looked at the hub cap then looked at me and said. " Remind me not to let you grab me." I am beginning to see a pattern when old white guys see me do stuff they this.
 

JasonSanjo

Your Overlord and Jester
A number of years ago I was out on my daily walk in the local nature preserve. At the time the municipality had recently decided to basically renovate the path going through the nature preserve and make it more accessible. As a result, while I was walking I discovered the wooden bridge that normally spanned some wetlands along the river had been torn up and they had begun work on a new one. Unfortunately, they were only about half-done, so there was no way across. Faced with the choice of cutting my walk short, I decided to just jump off the partially-constructed bridge and jump from tussock to tussock and then rush up the slope on the other side until I could get back on the path. So, I did... apparently to the utter shock of the guy building the bridge. When I came back along the same route the next day, the guy stopped me and asked me if I was an acrobat or a circus performer or something, because he had never seen anyone do anything like it. I just shrugged and told him I had done martial arts since childhood and it was no big deal. Then I did it again, because the bridge still wasn't completely finished, and that time I actually looked back and saw the guy staring at me like I was an alien or something. I gave him a wave and went on my way.

Another time - back in middle school, so ages ago - I was at basically weekend summer camp with my class. At one point the people running the camp had put together a number of "challenges" that we were supposed to work together to overcome. Long story short, I did most of the challenges on my own without help, because I was much better at jumping, climbing and balancing than everyone else. I particularly remember one part, where we were supposed to start in different places and use boards to let each other cross... only I told them I could simply jump the gap. They actually laughed and said it was impossible, so I got a little miffed and jumped anyway, clearing it easily. They were pretty slackjawed after that, and it only got worse as I kept clearing challenges without help. After a while they told me I couldn't do a challenge until everyone else had already cleared it. I remember feeling offended and proud at the same time.

Something kinda similar happened in high school, when the P.E. teacher decided to take the class curling, as a welcome-back-to-school special, basically, as it was one of the first P.E. lessons of the year. The thing was, I had just spent the summer playing on my grandmother's boule team, and the technique was similar enough that I could employ it for curling. The result was that I went last and blasted away all the opposing team's stones every time, making each round an overwhelming victory for my team. After a few rounds of this the teacher decided I had to do the first throw in the remaining rounds to make it more "fair" for the other teams. We still won big, though.

And speaking of school... in both middle school and high school, I was repeatedly accused of cheating on my written English exams, because the teachers couldn't believe someone of my age could have such a grasp of English spelling, grammar and vocabulary as I did. Each time, I had to prove I wasn't cheating by writing something on the fly while they watched me. They were pretty flummoxed, and apologized profusely afterward.

Oh, and in university, I... may or may not have used simple logical reasoning to disprove the assertions of one of the philosophy professors. Repeatedly. Like, during almost every single lesson. The guy hated me. How he managed to become a philosophy professor while having such a poor grasp of basic logical reasoning and deduction I have no idea.

Not sure if all of the above counts for what you intended for the thread, Sailor, but I figured I'd at least add something.
 

Sailor.X

Cold War Veteran
Founder
A number of years ago I was out on my daily walk in the local nature preserve. At the time the municipality had recently decided to basically renovate the path going through the nature preserve and make it more accessible. As a result, while I was walking I discovered the wooden bridge that normally spanned some wetlands along the river had been torn up and they had begun work on a new one. Unfortunately, they were only about half-done, so there was no way across. Faced with the choice of cutting my walk short, I decided to just jump off the partially-constructed bridge and jump from tussock to tussock and then rush up the slope on the other side until I could get back on the path. So, I did... apparently to the utter shock of the guy building the bridge. When I came back along the same route the next day, the guy stopped me and asked me if I was an acrobat or a circus performer or something, because he had never seen anyone do anything like it. I just shrugged and told him I had done martial arts since childhood and it was no big deal. Then I did it again, because the bridge still wasn't completely finished, and that time I actually looked back and saw the guy staring at me like I was an alien or something. I gave him a wave and went on my way.

Another time - back in middle school, so ages ago - I was at basically weekend summer camp with my class. At one point the people running the camp had put together a number of "challenges" that we were supposed to work together to overcome. Long story short, I did most of the challenges on my own without help, because I was much better at jumping, climbing and balancing than everyone else. I particularly remember one part, where we were supposed to start in different places and use boards to let each other cross... only I told them I could simply jump the gap. They actually laughed and said it was impossible, so I got a little miffed and jumped anyway, clearing it easily. They were pretty slackjawed after that, and it only got worse as I kept clearing challenges without help. After a while they told me I couldn't do a challenge until everyone else had already cleared it. I remember feeling offended and proud at the same time.

Something kinda similar happened in high school, when the P.E. teacher decided to take the class curling, as a welcome-back-to-school special, basically, as it was one of the first P.E. lessons of the year. The thing was, I had just spent the summer playing on my grandmother's boule team, and the technique was similar enough that I could employ it for curling. The result was that I went last and blasted away all the opposing team's stones every time, making each round an overwhelming victory for my team. After a few rounds of this the teacher decided I had to do the first throw in the remaining rounds to make it more "fair" for the other teams. We still won big, though.

And speaking of school... in both middle school and high school, I was repeatedly accused of cheating on my written English exams, because the teachers couldn't believe someone of my age could have such a grasp of English spelling, grammar and vocabulary as I did. Each time, I had to prove I wasn't cheating by writing something on the fly while they watched me. They were pretty flummoxed, and apologized profusely afterward.

Oh, and in university, I... may or may not have used simple logical reasoning to disprove the assertions of one of the philosophy professors. Repeatedly. Like, during almost every single lesson. The guy hated me. How he managed to become a philosophy professor while having such a poor grasp of basic logical reasoning and deduction I have no idea.

Not sure if all of the above counts for what you intended for the thread, Sailor, but I figured I'd at least add something.
Your jumping story reminds me of an old Navy Buddy of mine who could jump really far. As in clear 10ft of water with a running start on the boat to get to the bulkhead edge.
 

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