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u/Appalled_Mongo_4122 3d ago
Someone posted this in the mademesmile subreddit today (probably where OP snagged it) and someone in the comments included the other two tweets, and it makes it even more unbelievable.
Apparently the foster kid did this for years, aged out, the clerk helped them with college/scholarship apps, got a full ride scholarship for an English degree, became a teacher, and brought all of his students to the same shop to show where he grew up.
All while the clerk was still a clerk at the same bookstore over that decade or so.
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u/SwordintheStone87 3d ago edited 3d ago
It's infuriating when fake posts like these are called out on other subreddits, or anywhere on the internet for that matter, and a bunch of people reply saying something like, "I don't care if it's fake, it's still a good story!" (Or, "I don't care, it's still really funny!"). No. It's not a good story. It's trite and vague, and there's so many actually true stories that are much better and much more heartwarming. Plus, much of the fake stuff has an aura of smugness about it, like "Look at how good of a person I am!"
I shouldn't let it annoy me this much, but I can't help it.
ETA: If all these "true story" posts were simply presented as fictional, they'd never gain the traction they do. Presenting it as an authentic experience is the only thing these stories have going for them, and even that is so superficial, but if it wasn't included, no one would give them the time of day.
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u/Appalled_Mongo_4122 3d ago
Yeah, not a fan either.
People faking kindness on the internet for views is gross. These people probably recoil when an unhoused person asks for money. Gotta have that Hollywood ending because real life is too dirty.
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u/SwordintheStone87 3d ago
Definitely, gotta be 100% shiny all the time!
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u/Appalled_Mongo_4122 3d ago
Right? At least the "kindness" content creators actually help one or two people out, even if for the wrong reasons.
This person wanted the clout without even doing that.
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u/zouss 3d ago edited 3d ago
Ugh I agree. I see this a lot with obviously AI pictures. Someone will call it out and others will respond "who cares if it's AI?? It's still cute!" No, it's cute if it's real. If it's AI it's just annoying engagement farming. Baffles me that anyone could enjoy that slop knowing it's AI
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u/Fire_Bucket 3d ago
$100% agree.
It's incredibly annoying as it usually goes completely against the spirit of the subreddit. Those kinds of subs are supposed to be for authentic experiences, not a terrible creative writing experiment that is barely more than a stupid 'what if?' scenario they played out in their head whilst showering.
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u/jeeblemeyer4 2d ago
"I don't care if it's fake, it's still a good story!" (Or, "I don't care, it's still really funny!")
I deplore this attitude to an unhealthy degree. You don't care that you're being misled? Congratulations on resolving to it being fake, I guess, but I guarantee you only arrived at that conclusion once other people started calling it out. If other, more observant people weren't there to recognize it, you would still be thinking that it's a heartwarming TRUE story about this or that. So they have to renegotiate their cognitive dissonance in order to soothe the tension of them being taken for a ride.
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u/wheatable 3d ago
Sometimes stuff like this makes me think “Wouldn’t that be in the news or Access Hollywood or something?”
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u/Kundrew1 3d ago
I used to work at a borders and there were definitely kids and adults that would come in and read for hours without buying anything. That said, the backstory is definitely embellished here.
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u/PowPopBang 3d ago
Also worked at a bookstore.
We had a woman who would come in every day, read for hours, then absolutely destroy one of the toilets and tell one of my coworkers or myself that the bathroom needed, and I quote, "TLC."
My story is significantly less heartwarming than the OP's, though.
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u/Ebonhearth_Druid 3d ago
I was one of those kids. I didn't really have anyone to trust in my life, and didn't know how to engage with people, so I went to the bookstore (Borders was my favorite, still sad they closed) and just read for hours. I was there after school until it was time to go home to make dinner, I was there waiting for the doors to open on weekends and stayed all day, the whole bit.
But if anyone noticed or cared that I was there so much and not buying anything, it was to tell me I had to buy something or leave and that was really only if it was crazy busy. No one was bringing me hot chocolate or taking a special interest, that kind of thing just isn't real IME.
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u/Justboy__ 3d ago
I was just reminiscing today about how after school a group of us would go to our local birders and just read and hang out. We never bought anything but were never asked to leave. It’s no wonder it went out of business…
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u/darcytype1_0 3d ago
I sat in a Hastings for a few minutes on the floor to read and was asked to stop. My educational prospects were ruined.
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u/ryanasimov 3d ago
Sentence fragments. Make your post. Seem more impactful. And certainly. Don’t imply. Pretentiousness.
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u/BurgerThyme 3d ago edited 3d ago
I work. In bookstore. Type. Write. Like this. Am hero. Because say so.
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u/Specialist_Pudding_6 3d ago
The first four sentences seem likely. Everything else is def made up. I also hate her writing style.
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u/NotMyThrowawayNope 3d ago
First four sentences are totally likely. I was homeless at 18 (so still a teen) and a bookstore was nearby. Would go in there for hours every evening just to have a warm place to stay, a bathroom, and to read. Never bought anything. The security guard even befriended me and never kicked me out. But he certainly never bought me snacks and hot chocolate and whatever the hell this lady was on about.
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u/Pryoticus 3d ago
Pretty shitty writing for someone who works in a bookstore
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u/Reverend_Tommy 3d ago
Long ago, I came to the conclusion that working in a bookstore doesn't mean someone is actually reading the books.
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u/SalvadorP 3d ago
Once I interviewed for a job at a bookstore. They asked me what my favourite book. I said I didn't have a single best book, but was reading the The Myth of Sisyphus and it was having a great influence on me at the moment.
I did not get the job.
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u/Carl-Weathers71 3d ago
Yeah most of the ushers at my movie theaters have directed and produced a couple movies.
I mean how else would they know where to seat me if they hadn’t.
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u/kasmackity 3d ago
What kind of tests do you think you have to take in order to work in a retail store
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u/Omega_Boost24 3d ago
Is Foster care so bad in the US? GENUINELY asking, I'm a foster parent and here in Italy I've never heard of dislocated kids, let alone 7 times. Well, it this HAPPENED!
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u/venomsulker 3d ago
yes. i was foster kid who was also in group homes and state facilities. I was in 8+ homes, some of them horrendously abusive, some of them were okay, and the last 2 were amazing.
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u/Omega_Boost24 3d ago
I'm speechless 😶 social services here are tedious and nagging families trying to help. Here is the opposite: often families give up because it's too difficult to adopt or foster.
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u/venomsulker 3d ago
That’s interesting to me. I was often just picked up, plopped into a strangers house or dropped off at a group home (where I was always the oldest), and it was sometimes someone who clearly really did not want a kid being put in their house
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u/raise-your-weapon 3d ago
Whatever you’re imagining, it’s worse.
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u/Omega_Boost24 3d ago
As a foster family we went through countless meetings, tutorials, screenings and since we got our first kid we are at least once a month reporting for an informal interview. She's in too, separately. They kinda nag you if you let them. So I would say it's the opposite, many people give up because it's too big of an effort.
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u/Cakeday_at_Christmas 2d ago
The only experience I have with foster care here in Canada is an ex-girlfriend was a youth in care.
She was sexually harassed by the son of her foster parents, but nobody believed her so she had a really rocky relationship with them and was kicked out the day she turned 18.
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u/dorian_white1 2d ago
Yeah, unfortunately it happens here. The foster care system is massively underfunded and filled with multiple structural problems. It’s sad seeing successful systems in other countries (well mostly successful) and seeing our system consistently ignored
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u/lovable_cube 3d ago
Yeah, they’re often abused and/or neglected too. This is completely believable unfortunately.
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u/njoVNeggah2 3d ago
I really Do. Love that. Movie. It's a. Childhood classic.
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u/RowanWinterlace 3d ago
Really? Well I. Can't agree. That movie. It's trash.
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u/njoVNeggah2 3d ago
What? Damn. What didn't. You like. About it?
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u/RowanWinterlace 3d ago
That movie. It's like. So predictable. The plot. So lame. The characters. Two dimensional. The music. Loud and annoying. The hotel? Trivago.
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u/livin_la_vida_mama 3d ago
Why do they write like the bastard love-child of William Shatner and Neanderthal Man?
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u/uppercasemad 3d ago
So many of those accounts of “feel good” stories just scream fake pick me shit. I don’t believe a word of it.
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u/KittehKittehKat 3d ago
I worked in a book store and didn't care if someone did it AS LONG AS THEY PUT THE BOOK BACK WHERE IT GOES WHEN DONE.
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u/Maddogenes 3d ago edited 3d ago
Then I adopted him. My name? People call me Ms. Honey.
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u/RowanWinterlace 3d ago
And the child's name? Albert Einstein.
The book store? It's now a library.
Obama? He clapped.
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u/SalvadorP 3d ago
But then we fell in love and now we have an only fans together in the mother/son incest fetish category with nerd guy + cougar subgenre material.
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u/bloodfire00 3d ago
I did this as a teenager, I couldn't afford books but I loved to read. No one ever gave me snacks, but they did let me read for free.
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u/PussySmashedFace 3d ago
They tell the truth.
source: I am the LLM which generated these short fucking "punchy" sentences. No bluff. Just the truth.
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u/Lack0fCreativity 2d ago
The worst part is that this is an entirely believable story, it's just formatted and told like shit to the point where I don't believe it happened.
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u/atrocityexxxhibition 3d ago
You forgot the slides where she helps him through college and get a job and he invites her as his mother to the wedding lmao
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u/TheodosiaBurrGoodman 3d ago
Honestly I worked many years as a shop girl in a bookstore in a bad part of town because I was in college and I couldn't afford to live anywhere else and the pay was fine, I had a couple of kids coming in and reading because they were heavily disregarded by their dysfunctional struggling families and when I went to grab a coffee I'd ask if they wanted something to drink or eat. I never went to the described fairy act ir got into their business but my bosses would have kicked them out if I didn't stand up and said its fine their parents are coming around and buy this and that when they weren't. I was a kid too so kindness can happen. Fairytales nope.
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u/ViolaOrsino 3d ago
I also did this a lot as a teenager. But the employees were never this friendly with me.
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u/joejackson62 3d ago
Why does this person write as if they're a monologuing cowboy? Either that, or they watched the ending to Carlito's Way too many times.
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u/Cakeday_at_Christmas 2d ago
I read this story. It could have been believable. Poorly written. Disjointed. Load of crap. Ate some snacks. Hate this story. Everyone clapped.
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u/Doctor_Donnawho 2d ago
I am. The world’s best person. This Facebook. Post proves it. Give me attention.
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u/rat_enby 1d ago
i don’t really understand what’s unbelievable about this? she sounds preachy, but ive literally heard from people who were the kid in situations like this and (i wasn’t in foster care but:) i had a really rough childhood and a few adults did stuff like this for me too.
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u/DocBrooklyn 1d ago
This reads like it was written by Holt from Cleveland Show... just minus a boob joke
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u/Various_Ambassador92 3d ago
They're already over the character limit for free accounts; this is a paid account that could post up to 25,000 characters if they wanted to. I get not wanting to post a huge wall of text but it would only take maybe ~25 extra characters to add some conjunctions or full sentences that would make this read a lot letter. Even besides the wording, they could've used the exact same words and just mixed up the punctuation a bit to make it a lot less annoying. There's literally no reason they couldn't have replaced some of those periods with commas (eg, "Books were his escape, his education, his hope.")
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u/Cakeday_at_Christmas 2d ago
They're already threading their tweets, so there's absolutely no reason to write like this.
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u/EnderJax2020 3d ago
This post. I can’t. Spacing atrocious. Never typed before. Talks like Neanderthal.