u/Common_Commercial101

Back in 2013, when I was 15, my family randomly ended up spending New Year’s Eve at the Sydney Opera House and it turned into one of the strangest memories I still can’t shake.

It all started on Christmas Day when my mum’s friend suddenly invited us to this NYE gathering in the city. It was completely last minute. My parents had never really celebrated New Year’s Eve before, so we had no idea what to expect.

A few days later, we drove into the city dressed semi-casual, still clueless about what the night would actually be like.When we got there, it was absolute chaos.

Thousands of people everywhere. Somehow we managed to squeeze into a tiny patch of space among the crowd. My parents had brought a blanket and foldable chairs, so we settled in while everyone talked. I remember mostly sitting there quietly listening to music on my MP3 player and just watching the atmosphere around me.

At one point, we all had to use the bathrooms, which honestly felt like another level of survival. There were multiple massive lines packed together and nobody could even tell where one queue ended and another started.
My mum, her friend, and I joined one line while my dad and her husband wandered off somewhere else.

After what felt like forever, we finally got near the front. My mum let me go first. I used the bathroom and came back out, and since my mum had gone in after me, I quickly checked near the entrance because I thought she might not have been feeling well from the heat and crowds.

Then completely out of nowhere, this random man suddenly started screaming at me.I still don’t even fully know what he thought I did.

He started raising his fist, yelling aggressively, and trying to corner me while his friends stood there rolling their eyes and acting rude toward me like I was the problem. I was 15, completely confused, and suddenly terrified in the middle of this giant crowd.

What stuck with me most was that so many people saw it happen and nobody said a word. Everyone just watched and moved on. and I ended up running off crying.

The whole night felt surreal. One minute I was sitting there listening to music and watching the NYE atmosphere, and the next I was being screamed at by a stranger in one of the biggest crowds I’d ever been in.
It’s such a random memory, but for some reason it’s stayed with me ever since.

Back in 2014, we built a brand new duplex with two separate properties, both owned by us. Since we were planning to live on one side, we decided to rent out the other.

At first, we tried managing everything ourselves, but it quickly became too much of a hassle, so we went through a real estate agent to find tenants.

The agent found two young women in their early 20s who were looking for a place. We were pretty hesitant at first since they didn’t have much rental history or strong references. It felt like a bit of a gamble, but we decided to give them a chance, especially knowing how hard it can be for younger people to find decent housing.

Unfortunately, that decision turned out to be a mistake.

They ended up being very difficult tenants. They would play loud music constantly, have large groups of friends over, and take up not only their parking space but ours as well. They also brought in pets despite us clearly stating no pets were allowed.

On top of that, things became personal. They would make rude and crude comments about our family, and it eventually escalated into a confrontation with my sister after they parked on our side again. Instead of resolving it calmly, they became aggressive and started intimidating her. At one point, one of their friends even started recording the situation and laughing, which just made everything worse.

We complained to the real estate agent multiple times, but he kept defending them, saying things like “they’re young, give them a chance.” It felt like our concerns weren’t being taken seriously at all, even though the situation was clearly getting out of hand.

Eventually, we decided enough was enough and moved forward with evicting them. After they left, we found damage to the property and had to ask their parents to cover the costs of repairs which put the end to that there and then