Before anyone asks, no, I've never been in one myself x) BUT I was discussing with my boyfriend about calling people out for stuff like being rude, cutting in lines, etc. and he expressed his concern that someone might start throwing punches and the possibility that no one would come to help.

I used to be a shy girl my entire life, always everyone's doormat, but lately I've been getting much more feisty and there's becoming less of a filter from my brain to my mouth. I honestly think one day I'm going to say the wrong thing to the wrong person and end up in a lot of trouble because of it.

So tell me, has anything like this ever happened to one of you guys? If so, what happened? Were you or the other person injured? Did you regret it afterwards?

Just genuinely curious is all. c:

I was bullied A LOT as a kid. I've been tripped going down stairs, pushed into lockers, rocks and shoes thrown at me, etc. Those were one-sided physical altercations, but still.

I had a close call in karate class a few years ago. There was a 40ish-year-old Mormon who had a big problem with the fact that I was/am an ex-Mormon. I was totally cool with him being Mormon, though. I simply stated that it wasn't a religion I followed anymore. He seemed to take this as some kind of personal attack. I'm only 5'2" and weighed 130 pounds, and this guy was at least 6'3" and maybe three times my weight. He got me into corners to intimidate me, spit venomous words at me, refused to work with me, all that.

One day, it escalated so far, my instructor had to move him to a different class.

Even I'll admit it's fun to make a 6'3" man and a 5'2" woman sparring partners. The big guy is stronger, but the little one is much faster. There can be interesting outcomes. This studio also had a strict set of rules about sparring, like certain illegal moves and the instructor's constant supervision. I felt pretty safe, even if this asshole hated me. I was wrong. As he threw his kicks and punches, I was able to dodge, block, and counter most of them. He was obviously getting increasingly frustrated, and his moves started coming harder and faster. Logically, I got increasingly angry and defensive. This had escalated from a simple sparring match to an actual fight. The fight ended when I was backed up about 1-2 feet away from a wall and he leaped into a flying side kick, a highly illegal move. I dropped to one knee and thrust my right fist out, hoping to punch him in the balls, also an illegal move (though justified here). Before any contact was made, our instructor dove between us and yelled at him, "How the hell were you going to control that?!" He turned around and asked me if I was okay. I was fine, but now just plain scared of this guy. He was ready to kick me through a wall, seriously injuring if not killing me. These days, Mormons and huge guys make me a bit jumpy.

Ugh, people can be so terrible :x Thankfully growing up no one ever really tried to hurt me, at least not physically, but I was teased a lot and lots of bad rumors floating around. Sorry to hear :c

Woah, that sounds pretty scary! Glad your instructor was there before anyone got badly hurt, but I would be distrustful too :x One of my dad's friends is a Mormon and he seems so mellow and chill all the time, but I guess you never know... I wouldn't have even thought it would have been that big of a deal, but I often forget how vicious some religious people can be when someone disagrees with their way of thinking. That's just horrible :c

These days I'm VERY cautious about telling people my religious beliefs before I can get to trust them. Karate is a place where people let out their anger. Most people make a punching bag due to really let it out on, but this guy, woah. I'm glad my instructor was there, too!

Yikes, can't say I blame you. I try to make sure that the two things I will never talk to someone about are religion and politics because people get so crazy about them. Either way, glad you don't have to deal with that guy anymore, so scary :c

When I was a little kid, I used to call out other kids on jerk-ish actions all the time. But after being made fun of for it too many times, I stopped doing that by the time I got to middle school, unless they were bothering or hurting someone so much that the other kid was visibly upset. I learned to just keep to myself.

My story isn't exactly the same as what you're asking, but I think it's similar. As an adult, I was almost involved in a fight once and it terrified me to the point that I never want to call out anyone ever again. I'm a pretty small, weak girl. I can't imagine being in an actual physical fight. This happened over 5 years ago and I still have nightmares about it sometimes.

That's absolutely horrible, it amazes me how disgusting people can be, ugh :c I would have called the cops at that point too. I'm glad no one was terribly hurt though at least! I don't blame you there. Most of the time I end up biting my tongue too unless I know the person.