You never know what small decision may have a huge impact on our life.
Here, 29 people reveal a seemingly minor event that changed everything.
1. First day of university I accidentally went into the wrong room and ended up sitting through an Italian lecture because I was too embarrassed to leave, three years later and I’m now living in Italy.
Danklord1
2. I loaned a crying guy at a night club my cell phone so he could call “his girl that was in the hospital”. Turns out he was her stalker. I apologized to her and explained the situation. We talked for a few hours and I asked her if she wanted to get some food.
That was 7 years ago. We are married with 2 kids.
IamShadowBanned2
3. In an effort to get into a girls pants I tried to impress her by attending an Narcotics Anonymous meeting she suggested I go to. Never did get to bang her but 19 yrs later I’m still clean and sober.
mkthompson
4. Passively, I introduced my sister to an older friend of mine while we were watching his uncle in a fighting match. One thing led to another and now I have a nephew. I didn’t even plan on introducing him, but he urged me to. I decided to go for it after he offered me a box of milk duds.
So basically milk duds are responsible for my nephew’s existence.
RoamingLoser
5. A girl came over to sell heroin to my roommate. I’ve never touched opiates but I tolerated my roommate doing it because I couldn’t afford to kick her out and didn’t have anyone else to live with.
I chatted with her for a minute and as she was leaving I gave her my number. I don’t usually give my number to people I just met, especially not drug addicts. I knew she was a junkie and I’m really not sure what drew me to her, but for some reason I felt like I had to get to know her.
She’s been clean three years, we’re married and our daughter is sleeping a few feet away from me. It’s just weird to think that our awesome little family only exists because she and my roommate were ruining their lives together with smack.
slept_in
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6. There was a college party I was invited to my freshman year in high school.
Didn’t go because my mom made my favorite dish; fried chicken.
The party ended up getting busted and a bunch of kids got locked up and kicked out of school for underage drinking and illegal substances.
MorganFreemanProdigy
7. I asked a girl at the bus stop if I was in the right place, we started chatting, became great friends, she broke up with her boyfriend, dropped out of school, and I took her apartment.
It’s a really nice apartment.
higherfire
8. Almost five years ago now, I was a bit bored during the summer of my M.Sc. and fired off a little article pitch to the anonymous form online at Astronomy magazine for a short, not too serious or complex article. But it turns out the editor there actually liked the idea, enough to write back, which evolved into my first piece for the magazine.
I’ve now been writing a few articles for them a year (even got a cover article once!), for them and other science magazines too. Always a thrill, and it pays well enough to cover my travels on weekends and further afield- I was very proud to cover a week to Curacao this year entirely from writing! But damn, am I happy I was bored that day… even if getting your first article pitch accepted totally spoils you for how it usually goes.
Andromeda321
9. For a lark, while bored, I went over and sat on the arm of a chair where the shyest boy ever was studying, in 1963. I wanted to see him blush, in a cruel sort of way. Now have eight grandchildren and he still blushes.
louiseG
10. When I was in 5th grade, my school took us on a roller blade rink for the D.A.R.E trip. I tripped and fell on my face chipping my two from tooth.
Being poor, we never could afford to get them fixed. I grew up with no front teeth. My never smiled. Never talked. Never ate in front of people. Until I was half way through High school, I never had them done (story continued on the next page…).
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I barely had friends because of this. It wasn’t until I finally had the teeth fixed was I able to make real friends and become social, but the damage was already done. I was very awkward.
On top of this. The crowns for my teeth were surprisingly expensive and caused a lot of arguments over money between my parents the following years. Yes it was enough to drag on several years. When I was in college, they split up.
I believe much of my personality traits have been shaped by this event when I was in 5th grade.
MadNhater
11. Was tired and thirsty, stopped my motorcycle for a quick drink. Decided to say hi to a girl there at the cafe.
Eight years later we are married with two kids.
calzenn
12. When I was sixteen, I grabbed a bottle of wine from the basement to bring to a friend’s birthday party.
Turned into a huge argument between my parents about my dad’s apparent alcoholism and resulted in their divorce.
HoboChique
13. My husband and I were both working at jobs we hated, marriage was going through a rough patch. We decided to spend the weekend at his parents house. This included going to church with them Sunday morning.
After church, we heard someone talking about a local disabled man who was looking for live-in home care. It sounded way too good to be true, but we applied anyway. Got the job, moved – it totally changed our lives. The man, who became one of our best friends, passed away this year (23 years after he was told by doctors he wouldn’t survive), but his influence on us won’t ever be lost. My husband and I both have jobs we love, live in a city we love, and have years of amazing memories with a man who so many people knew and admired but didn’t get to know like we did. I am so grateful we went to that service 5 years ago.
chelbycobra
14. When I was a bit tipsy, I walked up to a girl I found attractive (but “too attractive for me”) and just started talking to her. My general idea was that my buddy could laugh while I was told to screw off. I am pretty shy so this was way out of character for me. There was basically no reason for me to approach her, I didn’t know her from anywhere, just “hey I saw you sitting here, just thought I’d say hi,” type of thing. We’re married now.
soomuchcoffee
15. I grew up believing I was a ‘creative type’, & was destined to work in the performing arts. I applied to study Drama as an accelerated subject in senior high school and there was an administration error so I got put in Biology by mistake. Quite a few errors had been made, so a lot a people were making a fuss about fixing it. I was pretty easy going so was cool to just attend Biology until they could get around to putting me back in Drama (story continued on the next page…).
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But then I found I loved it! I decided to stay in Biology. Since then I’ve got a scholarship to do my science degree and won some awards for some microbiology research I did. I met my partner through collaboration between our research groups. I taught at the University for several years too. Since then, I have studied to become a teacher to hopefully let kids know that there is no such thing as a ‘science person’ – we’re all science people if we want to be! I got offered my first high school teaching job this morning and couldn’t be more excited.
spiffybert
16. Drank water from the tap at a gas station to wash down an aspirin. Microbial parasites nearly kill me! I rethought my life, dropped out of on of the top universities in the country, ran for parliament twice, taught rock climbing for a while, did some serious long distance hiking and ended up a stay at home dad and couldn’t be happier.
Adventurenox
17. My husband and I, back when we started dating, got into a small argument. He pointed out that we never really did anything that he wanted to do. The argument was over and done with – but it triggered something in my brain, which made me realize that he was right. I’d actually spent a lot of my life being quite selfish, without even realizing.
That one small argument made me realize how I’d been up to that point in my life, and I became very aware of what I did or said – for the better!
He made me a much better person, from what was, at the time – a passing comment, and I think it’s benefited not only my relationship with him (he did end up asking me to marry him after all, for some unknown reason!), but with my family and friends as a consequence.
EasyTigrr
18. When I was 14 I was walking back to the bus during a school ski trip.
Saw a girl awkwardly struggling to carry her skis/poles.
Decided to help her carry them instead of walking by.
2 years ago today I married her.
whitemike40
19. Working in I.T. And the lowest on the totem pole (not me) usually gets coffee. I feel stressed out due to a big project and decide to get out of the office. I ask the newbie where he gets coffee and tell him I will do it today for the fresh air.
Cute girl serves me, sees my name tag lanyard with DC logo’s on it. She asked me if I had seen the new batman yet. I said no!
Then I took my coffee and left.
About 3 hours later I clue in. I loudly exclaim “OH CRAP” at my desk and run out of the office. She was still there, I asked her if she wanted to see it with me, she said “I thought that was obvious”. 3 years later I proposed in disney land and we live together!
Vyper28
20. When I was 13, I met a girl in an online forum, and we started to talk quite a lot. This carried on for a year or two, until we finally fell out of touch.
Fast-forward to when I was 18, and a girl I barely knew from high school posted some photos on Facebook of her and some university friends.
I instantly recognized one of them to be that very same girl I’d spoken to all those years ago, although she looked understandably different (story continued on the next page…).
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So I did what any shy IT student would do; I sent her a ‘poke’. The only one I have ever sent.
The next day, I logged on to see that she had poked me back, and also sent me a message! She remembered me!! After a week or two of exchanging messages, she suggested we meet up, as I would be in her city for a music gig with my Dad and some family friends.
I was so nervous and shy, I almost said I wasn’t going. But through some reason or another, I agreed and she came to meet me outside the venue. I can’t remember much of what happened afterwards, but it clearly worked, as she asked me out that very night.
We now live together and have a cat! We’re both still young, but it’s a great start.
Nisja
21. I offered to work my Saturday off to help a coworker out. A guy brought his sick cat in that morning for an emergency appointment (worked at a vet clinic). That was just over 5 years ago and we got married 4 months ago.
singlewhitewolf
22. I watched a YouTube video about South Korea and now I live in South Korea.
[deleted]
23. I have had difficulty making friends all my life. One time on camp, my usually table buddy during lunch (the guy who sat in front of me and who i knew from school) wasn’t there yet. Instead, an unknown kid sat in front of me, who had moved tables to get away from a certain bully. We began to talk…
12 years later still best friends. Best bully ever.
EmperorZIZ
24. Go to leave a party. Girl is sitting on my jacket so I ask her for it.
I think she’s cute so I ask her out. Dated her for 3 and a half years.
Broke up two days ago and I come home to a smashed PS4
All I had to do was hang my jacket up like a normal person and my PS4 wouldn’t be broken today.
whyme427
25. When I was in fourth grade my mother took me with her to Books-a-million so she could buy another mystery novel. I was walking with her and saw a book that had an interesting cover. So I picked it (Homeland by R.A. Salvatore) up, read the back of it and thought it would be interesting and asked my mom to buy it. It really enthralled me, and I started to read more and more of his books. Eventually, I branched out to other fantasy authors like Tolkien and Pratchett. By the time I was in 6th grade I already had a college reading level thanks to them. However, in 7th grade I started to miss a lot of school due to kidney stones (story continued on the next page…).
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From 7th-12th grade I passed around 29 of them. However, thanks to my love of reading I only ever really fell behind in Math. You can pretty much get a concept of Science, English, and History from books though. If I had not enjoyed reading so much I probably would have failed out of school. I only went about 40 days in 7th and 8th grade.
Vestrin
26. Two years ago I was almost run over in a parking lot by a 24 year old asian girl. We’re getting married next weekend.
Kitosaki
27. My ex spent a good hour yelling at me about socks I had ordered so I just walked out. I didn’t plan on it, I had no plans on what to do I just left and went to my moms house.
It’s taken a solid year but Ive finally rebuilt, all because of some socks.
WadeWilsonforPope
28. I was sitting in a park on a bench as a teenager when a punk guy in his 20’s came up to me.
We chatted about life and he inspired do what I love and not be ashamed of who I am. After I left to go home for dinner, a lady walked up to me asking if he had hurt me. It showed me the ignorance and judgement of some people and taught me to both be more careful but also openminded.
That silly, old bench shaped me in who I am today.
ponyinacup
29. Went to a party with my roommate my freshman year of college. The party was run by the school sports fan club thingie. That party was basically everything I wanted in college.
Because of that party, I went to their next meeting, met someone who worked for one of the IT departments on campus and who at some point later on said I should apply to work there. I wound up working there, doing great, and now run a help desk for a school.
That party also introduced me to nearly all of my best friends and they are responsible for pretty much every great moment I had in college. 10/10 would halfheartedly follow my roommate again.
KontraEpsilon