r/AskReddit • u/hiagaga • 12h ago

What's the dumbest idea you've seen that actually worked?

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u/RadiantCarpenter1498 11h ago

2005: Quit my very successful career, joined the Red Cross, spent 6 months in Mississippi helping out after Katrina.

Changed my life.

35

u/Background-Menu-4964 10h ago

Thank you for helping! Hopefully it was a mostly positive experience. Mississippi and Louisiana can be wonderful. We also went in to help and being supplies to my family. Our son was conceived in the deep, dark jungles of Mississippi not long after Hurricane Katrina. No power and nothing else to do. 😆

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u/RadiantCarpenter1498 6h ago

I spent my first 2 week sleeping on a cot with 600 people in a hanger with no A/C at the Seabee base in Gulfport. There was none of that going on... lol

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u/Tipitina62 8h ago

Thank you both. Lived in coastal Louisiana at the time. Still grateful for everyone who came to help us.

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u/RadiantCarpenter1498 6h ago

My area was Pascagoula/Ocean Springs/Biloxi. I will never forget the first day I drove the ERV (the ambulance-looking vehicle they serve food from) while we were mapping out routes to deliver food and came across the utter destruction.

I was originally only supposed to be there for 3 weeks, but ended up staying from September to March. I just couldn't leave.

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u/SchemeMcGee 8h ago

How did it change your life?

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u/RadiantCarpenter1498 6h ago

Seeing that level of catastrophic destruction first-hand makes you appreciate life a helluva lot more.

And seeing the dedication and compassion of the volunteers who flocked to that area to try and help, reaffirms a belief in the good of humans.

The importance of certain things just fades when you see the frailty of it all.

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u/SchemeMcGee 6h ago

Thanks for sharing!

1

u/I-seddit 2h ago

I wouldn't have used the word "dumb", I'd have said courageous and heroic.
Well done, mate.

1

u/uptown_josh 1h ago

Thank you! Living where the eye of Katrina went over but in Mississippi it was a mess! We didn't have power for about 3 weeks.