All former relationships have an effect on your personality in some way or other. The ones that ended amicably will always have a bittersweet place in your heart, while the ones that ended with animosity will always be responsible for some of your jaded cynicism — or, in some cases, for your daily pettiness.
More often than not, our exes leave a lasting imprint on us, which can often manifest in certain spiteful and petty habits.
Writer Sophia Benoit recently asked her Twitter followers to share the “pettiest” things they do to spite their ex “despite them not knowing.”
What’s the pettiest thing that you do to spite your ex despite them not knowing?
I’ll go first: my ex HATED when people would just stand on escalators instead of walking so now I always stand. Sorry bitch!!!
— Sophia Benoit (@1followernodad) April 24, 2018
Not surprisingly, people have a lot of not-so-pent-up pettiness.
Befriend their heroes on Twitter
— Mara “Get Rid of the Nazis” Wilson (@MaraWilson) April 24, 2018
He used to tell people “no thank you” when someone would say bless you after he sneezed so I never miss the opportunity to tell someone bless you. I’m an atheist.
— Laraine Pennington (@LaraineBaker) April 24, 2018
I let people merge in front of me in construction zones.
— von Lutzenstein (@RhymesWGlutes) April 24, 2018
One time an ex told me that when I do my makeup a specific way I look like “a cat but not in a good way” – so now I do it like that almost every day
— Raigan (@CrayCrayRaiRai) April 24, 2018
He wanted me to get my nipples pierced. I said no bc I was insecure and didn’t want to deal with the pain. Four months after we broke up, I got them pierced (with my now life partner) and felt hotter than ever. I don’t think he knows and that makes it even better ??♀️
— chole (@chloctopus) April 25, 2018
mine is having honest emotional dialog hahaha even though its technically a healthy thing, I am motivated purely by spite
— Eric Trost (@Albino_verse) April 24, 2018
my ex loved obsessively checking the accounts of women he was dating/trying to sleep with (while i was his gf), including mine. after we broke up i knew he was checking, so every few days for a LONG time, i would unblock then block him again days later to fuck with his head
— Ingrid Ostby (@ingridostby) April 24, 2018
I went back to folding my towels the same way I had my whole life before he showed me how it should be done.
— Suzu (@suzspetals) April 24, 2018
There’s a dive bar near my parents place my ex ~forbade~ me from going to (b/c some dude got stabbed there like 10yrs ago). I make all my friends meet me for drinks there when I’m in town (I mean, their pitchers are $6 why would we not?)
— nicole rinde (@nicole_rinde) April 24, 2018
I have an ex – one I quite like actually – who used to get very upset if two people ordered the same dish. He was a picky eater, and toward the end of our relationship, I used to order the thing I knew he wanted for myself just to watch him have to find something new to order.
— Captain Awkward (@CAwkward) April 24, 2018
When I finally logged out of his Netflix account (voluntarily & actually as a positive, healthy move) I noticed he’d renamed one of the profiles for his new (younger) gf so I changed her security settings to ‘Kids’ so she can’t watch anything worse than PG.
— Alice Angliss (@aliceangliss) April 24, 2018
My ex couldn’t eat spinach, so now whenever I buy spinach, I think “HA. SUCK IT, MATT” to myself.
— Kristi Colleen (@KristiColleen) April 24, 2018
My ex hated when I wore revealing clothes, colored my hair anything but natural, or cut it short. Anytime he said he wanted me to have long hair I’d cut it. Now I have green hair and only wear crop tops im not sure if I even own a full length shirt other than for work
— crystal (@yi_soojung) April 24, 2018
he hated velvet, so now i own like A LOT of velvet
— ice witch ☃ (@probablyalissa) April 24, 2018
I always slow down at yellow lights now. My ex would always yell at me to speed up to get through them so I’ve developed safer driving habits purely out of spite.
— Justin (@roboplato) April 24, 2018
Of course, if you stop to think about it for too long, you may very well realize that a significant amount of your personality is specifically formulated to spite the exes who have wronged you.
I was going to answer this and then I realized my entire personality is just a collection of traits I cultivated to spite different exes. pic.twitter.com/CMgeYuMuhd
— Jill (@jilleeuhn) April 24, 2018
Here’s to our exes: if not for them, we wouldn’t be the salty, sassy people we are today.