What Butterfly Effect Changed Your Whole Life? | Reddit Stories

what's the craziest butterfly effect that happened to you because of a small decision you made decided I would rather use my bathroom than a portapotty found my wife cheating she attempted suicide I moved multiple states away in the seven years since I have made nothing but positive changes and went from 8/ hour laborer to a well-respected person in my profession making six figures I'd probably still be working the dead end job aside from that without Rec all the details I went to see a doctor about a splinter from chopping firewood 6 months later they removed most of my kidney with renal cell carcinoma without the Splinter I'd likely be dead from kidney cancer you may not reply but how did the bathroom Choice lead to that conclusion I was working as a construction material tester I moved around job sites a lot that day I happened to be working 2 miles down the road unbeknownst to her it was 10° out and I decided my bathroom would be better than a freezing portapotty I walked in on her making videos for him she tried to OD that night pills also from him never saw her use any before that and confessed a few days later in the hospital psych ward to everything and more I had a new job 200 miles away within a week when I was in e8th grade 13 years old I had a really long bus ride home so would pass the time by reading one day I faced the very serious situation of nothing to read and a minute to grab something in the library and for whatever reason I grabbed a book on astronomy that book book was amazing and grabbed me like nothing else had before I remember being excited to realize every astronomer on Earth was 13 years old once too and that was a career you could actually do even if you were from Pittsburgh anyway today I am a professional astronomer who studies gigantic space explosions for a living there was a lot of work to get from that moment to this one but I'm always grateful that I picked up that library book my existence when my dad was about 20 he needed a phone number so he called the operator from a pay phone she gave him the number he hung up and she accidentally refunded the money back to the pay phone she called the pay phone back and asked him if he could put the money back in which he did and hung up again she accidentally refunded the money again and had to call back again to ask him to put the money back in he did and hung up again she was so flustered she refunded the money again and called back again and my father got to chatting with her and got her number they set up a date which she stood him up for then she forgot his name when he called her again then they actually got coffee and 4 years later were married this coming August it'll be 50 years for them if my dad didn't need that phone number I wouldn't be here edit my dad still calls it the most expensive phone call he ever made I had to renew the sticker on my license played a couple of years ago and really didn't feel like sitting in the waiting room by myself forever so I told my mom I'd take her out to dinner after if she came with me the guy working at the counter turned out to be my mom's long lost biological brother if she hadn't come with with me I would have never known edit wow this really blew up I'll let my mom know that you all think her story is cool too cheers I have one for another person in 2014 I was coaching my twins flag football team my oldest player has a younger sister who came to watch a practice we will call her grace she saw my daughter on the team told her dad there's a girl on that team and the next week she was on my roster her and my daughter became Fast Friends while the flag football season was wrapping up I was putting together my roster for the upcoming wreck volleyball team at the end of one of my practices my daughter invited Grace to play on the volleyball team together Grace had played the previous season and not cared for it too much grace agreed and played from wck to Club then to high school with my daughter my daughter graduated last year and I watched Grace as Captain lead her team to a state championship and she has a D1 scholarship for volleyball next fall I went out for a beer with a coworker 3 years later I am a convicted felon who did 13 months in a state prison court ordered AA meetings difficulty finding work cannot buy a house for me in my GF because I can't drive anywhere can't have kids for same reason miserable depressed suicidal horrible nightmares DUI folks don't drink and drive all from a beer I'm sorry I'm sorry for you the victim and both families as a recovering alcoholic who had more than my share of of troubles because of booze I wanted to let you know that you can get through this and when you do you can add meaning into this tragedy by sharing your story I know that your life sucks right now and I imagine you don't see a light at the end of the tunnel but it is there I'm sure this was the worst day of your life in a day you'll always regret but it is powerful lesson that can have a butterfly effect on someone else's story write down your story and then imagine an ending where lives are actually saved because you found the strength to try and make good from bad this is your time to contribute made a last minute decision to go to a friend's divorce party and met my wife different people right yeah the divorced person was a mutual friend this adheres to the Third Law of marriages for every divorce there is an equal and opposite marriage under pressure for my sister you're young you need to have fun I went out to a concert and then to a bar after had this girl I barely knew wingwoman me to a cute guy playing pool next thing you know I'm celebrating my three-year wedding anniversary I didn't want to go out that night but did due to pressure for my sister he didn't want to go out that night but his friend wanted to play pool and I literally can't imagine my life now if I hadn't had that random girl wingman me our paths never ever would have crossed otherwise of course it took me a long time to admit to my sister her role in the whole thing in Afghanistan wasn't done with my coffee so I passed on a trip from one base to another there was another Convoy a few hours later most everyone died who took the first Convoy my second cup of coffee wasn't even cold when I found out edit holy [ __ ] guys and gals aka the Reddit Community I just checked my phone and have so much outpouring of support that I well am overwhelmed thanks for caring trying not to tear up not working I was late to a flight in Iraq to take me on RNR I was pissed as my platoon Sergeant made me work late knowing needed to make this flight the shinook was shot down about half the people died I ended up going a few weeks later and was able to coordinate to spend a few days with my wife in Qatar who was deployed to [Music] Afghanistan just graduated college and could not find a job to save my life criminology and sociology went to the local College in my area to inquire about an entirely different degree that would guarantee employment nursing guidance counselor told me it would be another 3 years to obtain down and out he asked me what it was that I wanted to do I told him investigate internal fraud turns out his wife was vice president of a bank secrecy act department at a local bank started working as an analyst and worked my way up to making more money than I could ever imagine and loving what I do in compliance my first boss is still one of my best friends failed an exam in final year uni by a couple marks then I failed the module I was originally doing a four-year integrated Masters but because of the fail they made me graduate third year with a bachelor's but would allow me to do a separate yearlong Masters because of that I was the only person free in a uni group to be sent to the US from the UK for 4 days to do a 5minute presentation and ended up applying to jobs later in the year which is also when my ideal job became available which I got getting a $5 baby rabbit from a farmer's market completely changed the trajectory of my life I immediately sobered up had a pretty severe drinking problem because this little animal took so much care and I didn't trust myself to even be buzzed around her from quitting drinking I quit smoking didn't see what the point was it was no longer fun to smoke without a beer in the other hand I figured why stop there with this whole self-improvement thing so I started running dropped 30 lbs immediately and have never felt better it goes on I fell in love with the species as a whole and we started an online store to supply good New England hay to rabbits everywhere because store-bought hay is so shitty it's thriving to a point that chewy. com has approached us so yeah that $5 purchase in a bar parking lot and so many aspects of my life suddenly blossomed amazing what can do that little ball of fluff literally saved my life simply because I cared more about her than drinking myself into Oblivion when I was seven I begged my mom to allow me to stay with my grandparents she really wanted me to stay she allowed me to go I was woken up the next morning by my grandfather telling me she had attempted suicide and was in a metal hospital we had to go see her they took me and she told me that if I didn't say the right things they weren't going to let her out and she would be raped that someone had tried to rape her the night she was checked in and that friends is why I have trust issues I think everyone who is upset will commit suicide I became a peop pleaser SL empath I put others needs in front of my own I am 43 years old so sorry to read this there are good therapists out there maybe give yourself a chance took me 11 years to dig myself out of my psycho sht and it's so worth it you can do it I've never been able to afford it but I'm currently looking for a therapist it's way overdue thank you for your kind words the fact that I am bad at math is made an astonishing amount of life choice for me which led to me meeting the man I would marry I scored 1. 2 low on the ACT math portion for entry into a stem High School this led me to a local community college which had a program for teens interested in biotechnology to take dual credit courses under a scholarship but I got too low of a score in an algebra class twice to take chemistry which caused me to swap to an English degre degree which led me to pick a different college for my bachelor's degree and I met my now husband the first day of classes he was in my sister's class and we all went to a movie on the lawn which never happened and we just hung out in one of our dorm rooms instead while working as a barback I began having an existential crisis about where my life was going after getting a master's degree in a medical anthropology I had fallen out of love with Academia and the idea of being a professor so I was floundering in NYC working at coffee shops and behind n bars I decided to apply for an apprenticeship at a company that paints murals for advertisers I had no background in art or construction rigging scaffolding is a requirement just dumb luck apparently because one night while working at the bar I happened to ask the bartender if he knew anyone at the company I had already cobbled together a resume and submitted it the company which gets 100s yearly little did I know he was in a band with a vice president of the company and was able to slide my resume to the top fast forward 5 years and I have my dream career getting to paint girls all day in different cities all across America my wife got an email from her old colleagues the day we returned home from our honeymoon asking if she wanted to star in a short film they were doing for fun she said sure and asked if I could come along as she knew I had an interest in movies but at the time I worked in life insurance and was miserable it was more than an interest I had always wanted to make films but never made the right connections with people and didn't know where to start I made friends with the producer of that short film my wife was in and 11 years later film making and video production is my career I've shot feature films short films video for TV and web and all over the world because of that one email to my wife changed our lives oh and that original short film never got finished LOL about 10 years ago there were no PC games to play so I tried using Windows xp's Movie Maker out of boredom I didn't know that I'm going to enjoy it and take it seriously now I'm currently working on a tv/film production as a video editor clarification I mean there's no games that is installed with our computer back then I met a girl a few years ago we were never any more serious than weekend hookups and after work dinner dates but she introduced me to some friends of hers who I really hit it off with one day after a series of minor mistakes on her end she decided that she didn't like these people anymore and she wasn't going to talk to them again of course that had to extend to me as well I told her that she was wrong to act the way she was and I was going to stay in touch with some of these people as one of them was a realtor and I had lots in common with the other cue the drama of a young lady with blue hair in her mid-20s she broke off contact with me as well I started being a handyman for the realtor and friends with the other guy now I'm a self-employed contractor for a network of Realtors and other guy as my right-hand man in all of the work I'm doing tldr I hooked up with a girl from Tinder met her friends and got a jump start on my career from said friends after the Tinder girl had left the picture my desire for pizza set off a chain reaction that destroyed my family one day got home from school and really wanted Pizza family was poor so spontaneous food trips weren't always in the carts really worked my pouty face to my mom and begged to go to the local pizza place for dinner she said all right while chilling there I saw my uncle walk by and I was like to [ __ ] Uncle X is that you now you might say well he wanted Pizza what's the big deal well he lived several states away so to arbitrarily be in town and not tell any anyone was strange turned out he was having an affair with his sister-in-law my aunt on the other side of the family she was basically a money grubbing [ __ ] and the family protested one thing led to another and everyone hates each other now and we haven't had contact in like 20 years I just wanted some pizza the first day I ever signed up for internet back in 1999 I installed Merc because it was on the starter disc my ISP gave me and joined a random chat room over the course of the next year the regulars in that room became like family to me we would talk about everything all that practice made me a fast typist and way better Communicator than I was before that they would even help me when I had trouble understanding something in my college classes I also met my husband in that room and we've been happily married for 18 years others from our little IRC family are married too and we still keep in touch all because I randomly chose the chat room that day edit wow this really exploded thanks for the awards I'm happy to know there are so many of you other IRC people out there with good memories like mine if there's any other of my old IRC at Planet chat people out there from 20 years ago DM me BRK the other day I was driving home from work traffic was light and I was behind a car with a number plate that started kfd decided to duck through KFC drive-thru for chippies with extra salt as a little treat to myself they took forever to bring them out and by the time they finally did all told about 10 minutes later traffic has slowed to a complete halt I need to get over a bridge that's normally six Lanes which has now been reduced to One turns out it's due to a massive Collision involving several cars when I finally get to the point where I'm driving past I notice the number plate on one of the cars that same kfd number plate if I hadn't stopped to get hot chips I'm fairly sure I'd have been in a major Collision tldr KFC chippies with extra salt saved my life I was given two start dates for an entry-level job in a large organization the date I choose to start led to working in a small but high-profile team so I got lots of exposure with Senior Management and I became the cond do guy who'd fix a million tiny problems that recognition led to Promotions a fantastic career further professional qualifications and working overseas for several years I also met my best friend and my partner if I had chosen the other date I'd have been sent to a data processing pool and been fairly Anonymous just wanted to try a cigarette when I was young now I'm barely Sur surviving without it this I wish if I haven't my grandfather was a massive smoker growing up seeing him smoke every day I was really curious about how it felt tasted Etc decided to steal a pack of his Marboro Reds one day and smoked it with a friend [ __ ] I fell in love now I can't go a day without it but cut down a lot throughout the years I only smok two to three sticks a day so yay I guess the older I get the more I am constantly cognizant of of the vast Cascade of seemingly insignificant decisions and actions that led me to where I am for example a decision 25 years ago to change a refrigerator light bulb before going out resulted in my being at the wrong time and place so as to get mugged which resulted in my decision to move out of the city I had been living in which resulted in my meeting my wife and from there to having all my kids and the whole shebang I would have had a different whole shebang had I not changed the light bulb that afternoon but the path to the present leads through that and a thousand other similarly trivial decisions this is so interesting to me I wonder if your life would really be so different if it wasn't for that light bulb or that you might have decided the same because of other reasons I guess that is the general question on the validity of the butterfly effect I chose to rearrange the sequence of classes slightly before starting my education by doing this I had to commute to a different branch of the school in a different town than the one I was originally signed up for on my first day there I helped a girl who had managed to break both of her arms in a drunken shopping cart accident I learned later this girl whom I would absolutely never have met had I not changed my classes around is my wife through 14 years edit oh wow this blew up thanks so much for the badges and awards kind strangers my husband he found out after 18 years that his mom's side of the family was Spanish not Mexican he found this interesting and changed his country to Spain on MySpace instead the US where he really was meanwhile in Australia I was helping my friend find Spanish people to add as a friend as she was learning the language I came across my now husband and decided to send him a friend request as well we got along really well and met in person after 3 years have been together 11 years married for seven if he didn't change his country to Spain and only for a day or so we'd never know each other existed I had to call my heart surgeon to give him my new insurance I had only just gotten them because the person who had them had the flu and was not getting back to me as soon as I got my numbers I called surgeon the receptionist said oh hey we just had a cancellation for this Friday do you want it of course I wanted to get it over and not wait another month decided to take the open heart surgery cancellation appointment a month before my actual appointment and well surgeon said that thank goodness I did because once he got a look inside he realized I would not have survived to the original appointment date so if the insurance lady didn't have the flu I would have gotten those numbers a lot sooner and never gotten the offer to the surgery when I did someone else's flu saved my life was going to carpool with my aunt to a family gathering at the last minute I decided to go by myself so I could leave early if I wanted it was a ways out of town and I didn't want to be stuck there on the way there she drove off the road into a ditch she was okay but the passenger side of her car was totally smashed in similar story I lived in a small town and was set to drive an hour and a half with friends to see a play in a larger nearby City had the plans for a few weeks the morning of my mom wakes up and says she had a bad dream that she can't remember but she had a horrible gut feeling and decided I wasn't allowed to go argued with her for over an hour but I was a teenager and couldn't really go against her my friend showed up to get me tried to convince mom no go mom trusts her gut my two friends leave on the way to the play they get in an accident that smashes the back half of the car they're relatively unharmed but the back seat where I would have been was wrecked maybe they wouldn't have been there at that time if I'd been in the car but who knows solidified my Mom's trust in her gut feelings so a few years back I lived in nice south of France for a while as a musician I would make a bit of extra cash busing and one day I figured I'd go and busk at the prominade dong glay by the Sea it's usually packed and it's just a generally Pleasant place to be I set up played a couple of songs and was doing pretty well and making a decent amount of money then suddenly not one but two of my guitar strings snapped I even remember I was playing the scientist at the time I was massively gutted and decided to cut my losses early I stormed off home by the station in a bit of a sulk at having to rering my guitar and cutting short what was essentially one of my most productive days of busking since moving there literally 1 hour later my phone starts to blow the [ __ ] up with family and friends freaking out and asking if I was at the prominade it was bastile Day 2016 the truck drove into the same crowd I was playing too killing 86 people including my at the time gf's Uncle I had two other friends who were amongst the 458 injured I moved home the next month because it was too much and haven't been back since it's hard to explain sometimes I think I was super lucky sometimes I just kind of cry and wonder why I was lucky and others weren't it's surreal and despite what people think it's a truly horrible feeling edit I'm overwhelmed by the support of people I will be getting therapy and hopefully in time I'll be able to return to says it was one of my favorite places on Earth take care of yourselves and if you've been through something similar it looks like help is out there thank you all survivors guilt is a thing please get some therapy you shouldn't have to carry the guilt on your shoulders I'm glad you're okay I was parking my car on the street and was about to shut it off but I noticed my car got pretty dirty last time I parked under that tree usually I don't care but I drove forward another space the next day I came outside and my car's rear suspension was damaged and tires were bent someone had smashed into it and took off I went on to spend about $500 in repairs and my insurance couldn't cover it unless I found out who did it I was very upset I couldn't go to work and the tow truck driver pointed out that a neighbor had cameras up I went as a last resort to ask those neighbors if they caught anything the next day they emailed me footage of a vehicle that hit my car and parked a few houses up they found the vehicle and took pictures of the damages too I ended up getting $4,000 from their insurance company friends pressured me to go to an allight pizza place at 1:00 a.

m. after they got drunk at one of my friends house I drank but was definitely not as wasted as they were still Tipsy though anyway I give up debating with them and I go and eat pizza with them my friend that hosted the sleepout got into a fight with a 6' 3 in looking buff dude all of my other friends recorded it whilst this buff dude was strangling my friend almost making him faint luckily I was able to hit a glass bottle on this guy's head didn't smack but enough to make him fall back and then we ran but if it wasn't for me going with him that night my friend could potentially be dead whilst my other friends just stood there and recorded it safe to say I'm glad I went with them after all decided to approach a girl in a wheelchair in a bar because I thought it was cool of her to be out and about having a good time we become bar buddies a week later she brings a friend with her I get along with a friend we start dating we marry we have a daughter had I not said hi to the wheelchair lady that night I wouldn't have the most precious things in my life right now edit okay since this got a little attention I'll provide a little bit more Literature Like said before after approaching the girl let's call her why on the wheelchair we hung out the rest of the night and exchanged contact numbers I did not intend to pursue her in any romantic fashion even though she was actually very attractive her disability was temporary she told me she passed out in the bathtub and hit her head and when she woke up she couldn't feel her legs she was doing Physiotherapy as far as I know I believe she started walking a couple years after meeting her so we were buddies for a while I would push her chair all over town and made sure she was accepted in my group of friends even though my friends made jokes about me liking her I never put myself out there as someone who was interested and she always shut those jokes off and kind of belittled me as if I was not good enough for her which was fine I took it as Banner between friends the night I met my wife I took why home because well she was in a wheelchair and it was like 3:00 a. m.

we said outside her house and talked until like 7:00 a. m.