Redditors, what was your life changing experience where you realized life wasn't as fair as you thought it was?

1. When I was about 11 or 12, my aunts from my mom's side of the family took me and my cousins to some store. My cousins wandered away and when I found them, they're eating candy like off the shelf. I'm like dude you're stealing. They said no it was paid for. I'm like ok. Well they ask for my help getting one off a top shelf. I get it. I eat no candy, but my cousins are pigging out. My aunts call us over, I go to the bathroom and ask them to tell them where I went. When I get back, my cousins are full on crying and confessing that I got them to steal candy. I tried to tell the truth, but no one believed me. Why? When my parents divorced, they ended up hating my dad. (It was pure financial, as they expected to still get money from him after my parents divorce.) Literally the rest of my life, I was branded a thief until I finally cut ties with them at age 16. I learned that day 1.) If you see something wrong, gtfo the scene 2.)you can be totally in the right but will still get blamed because life is not fair
   — Pawspawsmeow


2. I think I always knew life wasn't fair. It was when I realized that *no one would help* that really changed something inside me. I finally worked up the courage to tell the youth pastor at my church how badly my dad was abusing us. He told me to keep my mouth shut, stop making him angry, and be obedient so he didn't have to abuse me. So I told my teacher. I was told to focus on doing well in school and stop talking about my home life. No one ever did anything.
   — SplendidTit


3. Got accused and punished for putting a cherry bomb down a toilette in school because (and I quote) "you were in the area at the time." I realized that day that people in power aren't about justice and being on your side. They're there to blame someone, anyone when things aren't perfect.
   — Beanyurza






4. When I was 16 my dad told us he was coming back home from being out of state for 4 years. My mom (his ex wife) bought him the ticket and everything. I was really excited to rebuild and work on our relationship, even though he left us and pretty much barely called I still wanted my dad back in my life. My mom and I were driving back from the grocery store in a neighboring town the next day when we got a phone call. They found my dad at a fucking golf course hanging from a tree. That was the day that broke me. Thats the exact moment I realized that life wasn't fair.
   — rondaspinksock


5. My mom promised to buy me a laptop if I scored top 10% in my first national examination. Much to her surprise, I did it. My mom claimed she didn't have money and offered to buy me a phone instead. My brother also wanted a new phone. So, my mom signed a telecom contract for me, bought the latest handset for my brother and forced me to accept my brother's old phone. I had a horrible childhood. I used to think it was my own fault. My mom thought my brother was elite school material, whereas I was way below average. Thus, she put all the hope on my brother. But as it turned out, I was slightly better than my brother academically. This incident gave me a rude awakening. I spent the next few years standing up for myself and proving to my mom how unfair she was until I finally gave up and cut her out of my life.
   — -LifeOnHardMode-


6. When the guy that molested me for 8 years didn't get any jail time.
   — agshbdfbhru124






7. Kids who were bad but were good for a day got rewarded but kids who were good all the time were never rewarded at all.
   — AttonRand1


8. Dad died at 14. Mom died at 16. No siblings, been working and living on my own since then.
   — MyExStalksMyOldAcct


9. I was denied a promotion because my teeth weren't perfect.
   — SarahTonein






10. My dad died and my mom left me.
    — Bartjeuh55


11. My Dad worked his butt off for my family, raising 6 kids, working 80 hours a week with minimal education, and he recently passed away after a freak accident this year. I was there for it, and it still bothers me he did the right thing his whole life, retired, and never got to enjoy it.
    — silkysmoothyou


12. After my brother's second brain surgery to treat his Glioblastoma (stage 4 brain cancer) which led to a series of strokes and seizures that killed the back half of his brain. In April he was a med student who went to the gym 6 days a week and was obsessed with health. By the end of May he was in a coma and my family and I were told he likely wouldn't wake up. If he did he'd have such poor quality of life that he wouldn't be self-aware. He did wake up, but he's not him. We are on day ninety-something at Mayo Clinic and he's cortically blind and often doesn't know who he is. Every time he wakes up we have to explain to him that he's at the hospital because he has brain cancer but I'm not sure he has the cognitive function to know what cancer is anymore. He was scared, but such a champ in the weeks following his first surgery. He faced it, but made us promise we would pull the plug if he lost significant cognitive ability or couldn't wipe his own ass. It wasn't fair when his future got a shelf life of (if we're lucky) two years. It's not fair that there's no way for us to apologize for waiting seven days before making any plug-related decisions. It's not fair that we lost him before we lose him.
    — durden28






13. When I realized I didn't have the money to go on the trips and activities some of my friends in high school would invite me to, because my parents weren't even in the same league of wealth as some of my friends' (to put it into perspective, one of the families was an original founder of a well known sports drink.....much as I love him, he just doesn't get it) Also when one of my other friends told me his dad gave him ~$1200 a month in spending money while at college, *and he managed to use it up a lot of months* EDIT: got a PM asking. The sports drink was Gatorade
    — The_crew


14. In elementary school I got suspended once. I cursed out a classmate in 4th grade after he shot me in the eye with a staple. He was threatening to do it and I told him not to, but he chased me into a corner and held the stapler really close to my face and shot it and it got stuck in my eyebrow. I yelled something to the effect of, "what's your problem you fucking asshole?!?" I got suspended for 3 days for cursing. Other kid was supposed to lose a week of recess (which I already thought was a ridiculously low punishment for almost blinding me), but he cried on the first day and was back to having recess 5 minutes later, before I was even back from my suspension.
    — SheWhoSpawnedOP


15. Ok this is sad but true. My daughter was born with a congenital heart defect. We were in Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the heart baby that shared her room was "Malcolm". I put his name in italics because he didn't actually have a name and was only given the name Malcolm by the nurses, he was abandoned at birth and had the same problem as my daughter. My family would hold him periodically in the days leading up to his and my daughter's surgery and he just loved being held and feeling loved. He was such a sad baby and his eyes just showed the love he needed. Coincidentally, they both had the same surgery on the same day but Malcolm went before my daughter. They were lying in their cribs next to one another in the CICU after surgery and as she was failing he was thriving. A little boy alone with no one and he was recovering so well from open heart surgery. Meanwhile, my daughter who had an extended family crying around her was dying. I still think of him often even after 22 years and pray he has found the love he needed then in his life.
    — Catusa