People like to feel special in some regard. When we're kids, it's about having the latest and most popular toy. When we're teenagers, we want to be popular or stand out from the crowd by being different from everyone else. Listening to and gatekeeping pretentious, obscure bands was my thing, personally, but there's no judgment among Pandas, right?
In a couple of threads online, people started sharing what makes them different from everybody else. The answers to the question "What are you in the 1% of?" varied: people covered everything from genetics, unique experiences, and, of course, some morbid stuff.
But what exclusive club do you belong to, dear Pandas? Don't forget to share with us in the comments and let us know what makes you special!
#1
I had pancreatic cancer last year. Out of 10,000 patients they normally find 100 who have another form of this cancer who kill a little slower, like in 2 years instead of months.
I was one of the hundred. Out of those, normally 15 can have surgery. I was one of them.
Out of those 15, some die and some come back to basically normal life.
That's about a 0.07% chance in all.
I am still one of them. I should be dead by now. ?.
Image credits: WillingnessSouthern4
#2
Mine's pretty godawful. I have 2 uteruses.
Edit: lot of people asking why I put up with it till I was around 33. *I* *didn't* *know* . Because doctors don't listen to women complaining of menstrual issues, is why. The endless pain and bleeding? Suck it up, take 3 Advil not two (holla). Starting at age 12. Till I lucked into a rare empathetic gynecologist who, since I'd always known I was uninterested in parenting, offered me a minimally invasive (just removes the top of the uterus, the rest of me stayed there) hysterectomy to stop the pain and hemorrhaging. And in doing the surgery, he discovered what no other doctor had cared enough to find.
I love that guy!
N.B. in the States, it is rare and usually extraordinarily difficult for a young woman who has not borne children to get a voluntary hysterectomy. Criminal.
Image credits: therookling
#3
I have a double gene mutation that makes me highly resistant or even immune to the HIV virus.
Image credits: Som12H8
#4
I fell off a 100 foot cliff and landed head first on rocks.
Broke my neck and back. Smashed up a lot of my body. Had to travel about a mile to find help immediately after the fall. Doctor said I caused more damage by trying to walk for help, but would have bled out if I stayed where I fell. 15 months later, I am power lifting and ran a half marathon. Should not be alive, much less be able to walk.
EDIT:
How: Camping on a mountain. Found a spot to lay down and observe the stars. Had to pee, stepped into woods, lost my footing. Geronimo.
Injuries: Head was scalped. Huge piece of flesh was just hanging off my head. Must have been a sight to the folks who's door I knocked on in the middle of the night for help. Neck was broken and had to wear an immobilizing neck brace for many months 24/7, as they were concerned surgery may cause more damage. Initially a had a loss of sensation in my hands. Multiple vertebrae were broken, one had broken into over a dozen pieces. The neurosurgeon figures at impact my body folded in half causing that one to essentially explode. I had to have spinal fusion and relearn how to walk after. Multiple ribs broken.
Recovery: At first I essentially lived in one of those geriatric chairs that lift you up to stand. I could barely get around with a walker. Sitting on the toilet was the most excruciating thing. At some point it turned into laxative use and stand in the shower. I couldn't bend or care for myself much in any way. Some of my friends think that being a Marine made me tough enough to survive this, but I credit an inherent stubbornness to never give up. I constantly pushed through the pain to get myself to the next level. From walker, to cane, to walking sticks. The neurosurgeon told me the best thing I could do for physical therapy was walk, so boy did I. At first I could barely make it to the end of the block and back, then a quarter mile, then on and on. Every hard effort day required a day or two of sitting in the chair and suffering through the pain. Got off meds the moment that I could stand to. 5 months after the accident I got on a treadmill and tried to run. The impacts were excruciating, but I kept coming back for more and more. At 10 months I was able to race in a 5K on memorial day in honor of a fallen veteran. I raced my heart out and was able to run it in less than 30 minutes. I immediately began half marathon training and at 14 months was able to finish at about 2 hours and 40 minutes. Started back to lifting serious weights at about 11 months and here I am in month 16 about to become a member of the 1000 pound club. (Bench press, deadlift, and squat all totaling 1000 pounds.) I still deal with pain regularly and I have a lot of discomfort that makes sleep challenging. I've still got a couple of months until the bones reached 100% of their healing potential.
It's been quite a journey. Never give up my friends!
#5
I’m one of only @200 deaf pilots in the world and one of only four (that are commonly known of) in the world with Commercial & Instrument training.
I’m also one of the only deaf people who hold both a pilots license and a commercial drivers license.
Image credits: deafaviator
#6
Chefs. I have earned a Michelin star.
#7
Only 2% of pregnant women experience 2 miscarriages in a row. Only 1% of women experience 3 miscarriages is a row. I have had 5 miscarriages in a row and I fully hate any type of statistics now. Statistics used to make me feel safe. Now I just know how easy it is to be on the wrong side of them.
Edit: Thank you for sharing your support and your stories. I feel for so many of you that also make up the 1% (or less than 1% I guess). Sending all the love and healing your way if you’re in this same sucky boat as me.
Image credits: hedgehug17
#8
Survival. I fell 25 feet out of a window when I was about 2 years old. I’ve also been hit by a car that was traveling over 50mph/80.4kmh. I’ve had two near drownings. I was also held hostage at gun point for over three hours. All if these things happened before my 14th birthday.
#9
Genetics. A red head with ab- blood and hazel eyes. I’m a walking recessive gene.
#10
I’ve been in 2 helicopter crashes and 1 plane crash. There is only a small group of people who have survived that many crashes. I’m also not a pilot.
Image credits: No1uNo_Nakana
#11
I suffer from a relatively harmless “phenomenon” called “Aphantasia”.
I am incapable of conjuring images inside my head. I “know” what object or thing I’m supposed to think about but all I see is nothing.
When I dream, I know what’s happening and what I’m supposed to see but it’s just a whole lot of nothingness. I guess you could say I’m “blind” in my mind.
Apparently around 1% of the population suffer from this weird condition.
Must be nice having a screen in your head that shows anything you can imagine :/.
#12
I can make my eyes shake (voluntary nystagmus) and I can wiggle my ears.
It was a lot more impressive when I was 7.
#13
According to my step counter, walking.
Not even kidding, I manage a warehouse and walk 10-15 miles a day at work. Apparently this is more than 99.3% of users.
Turns out the one thing I'm exceptional at is the one thing almost everyone can do. Yay.
Image credits: FastWalkingShortGuy
#14
Cancer survivor. Think that’s 5%. I had it 3 f*****g times.
#15
Not me but my dad.
He was born with a backwards heart and didn’t find out till his heart attack a few years ago and it actually saved his life.
His doctor later told him that after being a doctor for over 30 years he’d never seen someone with a backwards heart and that apparently 1% of people on the planet have it.
Image credits: SaphireJames
#16
Far less than 1% of people make their living creating crossword puzzles. I've also written five novels, three of which were published.
Image credits: TheFairyingForest
#17
Typing in my PC.. I can type up to 170 WPM sometimes, and in the human benchmark site that's 1%.
Image credits: anon
#18
I’m naturally ambidextrous. Apparently that’s something only 1% of people naturally are. I can use both right and left hands ably for any task. For example, I often switch which hand I write with based on how I’m sitting.
(It’s worth noting _natural_ ambidexterity is not the same as _learned_ or _acquired_ ambidexterity. For example, left handed people often have to use things designed for right handed people but otherwise are left handed.).
Image credits: Stormaen
#19
Surviving a crossbow to the head. Directly between the eyes. Only one other person has been documented in surviving a crossbow head impact, and they became brain dead. Not only did I survive, but I still have enough brain function to type this out and even go to work on a daily basis. I'm very blessed to be here, and I do my best to not take it for granted.
Edit: apparently more people have survived this than I originally knew, and that's kinda cool to know!!
Edit 2: holy crap I did not expect this to blow up so much!!! Thank you all so much for the kind words and awards!!! I'm not going to reply to everyone just because there's so many comments, but if you have a question feel free to ask and I'll do my best to respond!!
#20
Mirror writing:
writing the same exact thing with my left hand, except backwards and to the left, while I write it normally and with my right hand.
#21
I’m an American of North Korean descent
#22
My actual name. My last name is one of the rarest in the country and I am the only person with my name out of the entire population.
Image credits: anon
#23
So apparently my left eye is 32mm. The average size is 21-27mm. My eye doctor said it was neat.
Image credits: sumtinfunny
#24
I'm albino.
#25
If you make 40k a year and have no debt... Wealth, globally speaking.
#26
Grandmaster in league of legends (0.02%) ?, this results in not having a social life or girlfriend so don’t recommend.
#27
Eyesight. I have 20/10 vision, turns out only about 1% of people have better than normal 20/20 vision.
Image credits: Skumbob
#28
I am a super recogniser. Super recogniser is a term coined in 2009 by Harvard researchers for people with significantly better-than-average face recognition ability. I am not in 1 percent to be precise actually, it is around 2% but wanted to share anyways.
There is a free online test for you to check if you are one as well.
#29
I'm a totally in the 0.2% of something. People who have a rather nasty reaction to the blood thinner, Heparin. Lost half my toes because of how lucky I am.
Image credits: Snoo_87426
#30
According to Amazon, I'm in the top 1% of kindle readers. They keep track of these things and within the last couple years started sharing the info with users as seasonal "Achievements."
At the end of the Spring season, they sent out emails with the final data: from April 1st to June 31st I read:
74 days
For a total
193 hours.
I don't really have a social life. As though that wasn't clear enough from the stats
#31
Birth control. 99% effective right? I'm living proof of the 1% XD.
(It's cool though, my parents never acted like they didn't want me.).
#32
Degrees. I have a BA, MA, JD and two PhD's. If I'm not mistaken, less than 1% of the world has that many (and neither should I).
Image credits: anon
#33
I can stop my hiccups on command.
Image credits: mcrfreak78
#34
I'm one of around 1% of people directly related to Swedens great king Gustav Vasa, still living. I'm one of 100k people.
Image credits: s3thgecko
#35
I have AB- bloodtype. Less than 1% of the worlds population have it.
#36
I’m of the .002% of people with osteopoikilosis. This freaked the s**t out of me because when I was diagnosed the first thing the doctor said was “wow I’ve never seen this in anything but textbooks before”...
Image credits: IgDailystapler
#37
Im the 1% of the top students in my stem high school.
#38
Not as interesting or cool as others but im in the 1% of the population that has no immunity to Rubella even though ive been vaccinated for it several time. Apparently some peoples bodies dont take to some vaccinations. Fine with everything else like mumps measels etc its just the rubella.
Ive also got type 2 duanes symdrone in my right eye. Duanes being a uncommon eye condition anyway, right eye being least common to have it in an type 2 the least common of its type out of the 3 types. Won the duanes lottery with that one.
Image credits: totallythrownawaay
#39
I held a 2nd place world record for the Mushroom Gorge time trial in mariokart Wii for 15 minutes.
Edit: thanks for all the replies! Didn’t know this would touch the hearts of many!
#40
I am diagnosed with Visual snow syndrome. Basically seeing through static. It may not be rare as thought but I am one of very few people to be formally diagnosed.
EDIT:
1) no this isn’t normal and sorry to all the people who found out they had VVS through my stupid Reddit comment lol
2) lots of ppl asked how I was diagnosed- I was at an eye specialist for an unrelated reason and he asked if I had any other concerns. I described my sight to him and he said that’s probably VVS. He referred me to a neurologist and she diagnosed me.
3) I don’t remember not seeing flickering dots. I’ve never done psychedelics. I was unaware d***s could worsen or cause it. Thanks for the warnings though! Definitely won’t be doing psychedelics now haha.
#41
Hyperhidrosis. Excessively sweaty arm pits for no reason. I could be sitting there completely at ease and sweat rolls down my sides from my pits. I have found a product to fix the issue however I know no one else who has the same issue personally.
#42
As a Lithuanian I belong to a nationality that makes up 0.03% of the world population.
#43
Infertile people. The people who can’t have children after a year of trying, for whom no treatment works, have no diagnosis to explain why, and end up the 1% of the 1% and move on to surrogacy/gestational carrier.
#44
Everyone is born with a space in the base of your skull, I have an enlarged space. The Dr called it an Enlarged *Cisterna Magna*.
Having it isn’t what makes me part of the 1%, it’s the fact that it hasn’t caused me any trouble or neurological issues that puts me there. It was only found when I had an MRI for migraines.
Edit: totally got the wrong wording. I’m sorry for misleading anyone, that came on the back of flu meds and little sleep.
I have stress induced migraines and hormonal ones too. Nothing to do with the lack of brain function, that just makes me a little dull ?.
#45
According to the census, my town is 1% black. So that means it's just me.
Edit: Woodstock, CT POP: 8221 The racial makeup of the town was 97.2% White, 0.4% African American, 0.3% Native American, 0.7% Asian, 0.000001% Pacific Islander, 0.4% from other races, and 1.0% from two or more races.
#46
Being deaf.
Only 0.22% (roughly 600k people) across all age groups in the US are deaf. More than half are over the age of 65. I've been profoundly deaf since birth, so I'm in an even smaller percent than 0.22%. Lmao
[Source](https://www.gallaudet.edu/office-of-international-affairs/demographics/deaf-employment-reports/).
#47
Distance runners. My marathon PR is faster than 99% of marathon finishers world wide. That said, the distance from my time to the world record is about the same as from the 70th percentile to me.
#48
Technically this is 2% but I have curly blonde hair I don’t really have a trait that’s 1%.
#49
Top 1% of sellers on Etsy.
#50
Fewer than 1% of Americans have completed a full marathon, I have completed 10.
