Dan Wilbur
Not every decision you make in life is something you thought long and hard about. Maybe that’s for the best.
The following stories show that simple moments in our lives often have huge consequences. Frankly, that’s why I never leave the house. It’s chaos out there. Who knows what damage I’m doing.
Someone on Reddit wanted the dirt on the moments in other peoples’ lives that absolutely changed everything. People were ready to answer.
Here are the wildest responses to the question: Redditors with real-life “butterfly effect” stories, what happened, and what was the series of events and outcomes?:
1. The injury that started it all.
“My mother wore heels to work and slipped on the carpeted steps, resulting in a broken high heel and a broken leg. While she was home recovering, she somehow developed allergies that led to her needing an inhaler*.
The inhaler* interfered with her birth control and now I have a brother 13 years younger than me.” –busytoothbrush
2. Sitting close.
“Nearly every single friend I have in college is because one day in my gen-ed health class we had to pick a seat that would become our seat for the semester. When I came in there weren’t many seats left, and the people I sat next to ended up becoming my best friends and introduced me to all of my other friends in one way or another.” –emma527
3. Not getting the class was the best thing that ever happened.
“High school, I didnt get into the AP history class wanted. Changed up my schedule, including a different gym class, without everyone I knew. I was heartbroken. I really wanted to teach, and without an AP class senior year, I was screwed.
Made a new friend in gym class, who was wearing a volunteer firefighter shirt. He had just joined. Seemed interesting, and he invited me to check it out.
They paid for me to get my EMT. Fell in love with healthcare.
Fast forward quite a while, and I’m an ER Nurse and ‘precept’ students and new nurses, teaching them how to survive in the ER. I also do public outreach and injury prevention. And I love it. Glad I missed out on my class.” –shitscrubber
4. Pack the camera.
“So my then-girlfriend, now-wife were planning on going away travelling for a very long time. Several years. The night before we left I was just packing my things and at the last minute I decided to include some camera stuff. I had an SLR that I didn’t really use too much. I very nearly didn’t bring it because it was big and space was at a premium.
While we were away one of the things we did was work in a wildlife rehab centre. At the time we were there is was very quiet, very few baby kangaroos to look after. But we had to be ready as that could change in an instant. Like in one day 3 could come in and boom. Full time job. I used this spare time to really get to grips with the camera and learn about photography in general.
Now I’m a wildlife cameraman. Had I decided to leave the camera I never would be doing what I’m doing. Which is sitting in a freezing cold shed for hours at a time waiting for some animals to do something that they’re not doing.” –Armourdildo
5. Diarrhea isn’t all bad.
“I was going out to grab pizza and a case of beer for me and my roommate but he texted me that he had a stomach thing so I walked to a restaurant and ordered dinner at the bar and met a girl there and now we are married and have two kids because my roommate had diarrhea.” –plateishot
6. Never leave a wounded soldier behind.
“The wife and I were having dinner in Hawaii one night on vacation. As we were getting up to leave, I noticed she hadn’t finished her beer. I told her she should finish the beer since we paid some ridiculous price for it. Fast forward 30 seconds and we leave the restaurant and are walking the 3 blocks back to the hotel. About 50 feet in front of us as we’re walking (were walking down the sidewalk on the left side of the road), a car comes flying out of a side street from the right and crosses through the street, hops the sidewalk in front of us, and smashes into a wall. If she didn’t finish her beer, we would have been smoked by the car and most likely squished between the car and the wall. We always finish our beer now.” –mikevankempen
7. Love to see it.
“I was walking to school and got distracted by a hedgehog that ran in a bush next to me then a big ass tree branch fell infront of me, would’ve crushed me if I didn’t get distracted by a spikey little mouse scurrying in the bushes. I gave him a dead cricket the next day, he took it and ran off. God speed spikey mouse.” –EhhLeeBee
8. Dodged a bullet.
“Pregnant cousin usually takes the bus at around 5:10pm after work. She was about to hop inside the bus but she needed to pee really badly and the commute is about an hour long so she decided to go to the restroom instead and just catch the next bus. That 5:10 bus ended up falling from a cliff.” –ImaginaryxDoll
9. I over-drafted, and a bunch of kids were born.
“I was just out of high school and new in town with no job. I was living off what savings I had left and my account went below zero without me knowing. I was overdraft charged like 10 times and owed $300+. I went down to the bank spoke with a teller and she ended up being a lifesaver. She worked with me and got all the charges removed. On top of getting the charges removed, we got to talking about my situation and she said that her son worked at a local restaurant and she would help me get a job.
She was a woman of her word and by the end of the week I was working full time. Fast forward, I meet a cool dude who worked there, we became friends, I introduced him to my sister, they fell in love, got married and had two kids. His best friend came into town for the wedding and I introduced him to my roommate at the time, they fell in love, got married and had two babies. I also got my best friend a job at the restaurant where he met a girl working there, they feel in love, got married and had a kid. Right before I left I got my roommate a job at the restaurant, where he met a customer, fell in love, got married and had a kid.
As a bonus, my best friend, who I helped get the job repaid the favor and got me a job at a different restaurant, where I met a girl, fell in love and got married.” –nuckingfuts73
10. All roads lead to this resort.
“Received an incredibly high paying job offer to run our biggest competitor’s team. Told my boss, even though I loved my job, but it was more than double what I was making.
Boss agreed to a reasonable raise, still not near the offer. I decided to stay because I genuinely loved my team/coworkers, and the money wasn’t enough to leave that happy place. In exchange, I had to take up another account that meant a business trip I didn’t have in the plans.
Went on that trip and met my future husband. Couple of years later, we went on our honeymoon at a new resort in St. Lucia. Ran into someone I knew from home/work. Turns out, the team that I’d been given the job offer for had made so much money that they had booked the same resort to celebrate.
I sat there and went WOW. Life is nuts! Would’ve ended up there, either way.” –speedy-tomato
11. Thanks, criminal justice system!
“Got arrested for growing weed, moved back home. Got first job I could at Ikea. After working there for over a year, randomly decided to check Craigslist for jobs and saw an opening at a cafe and they were hiring right then, so instinctively went for it.
The cafe was connected and owned by one of the most popular brewpubs/beer gardens in the area. They hired me to host there, quickly worked my way up the ranks to eventually bar manager. Met girl of my dreams, we are now married with 2 amazing kids. Opened two more restaurants with them and currently assistant director of operations, overseeing three restaurants @ 3, 5, and 8 million a year in sales!
Love my job, love my family, love my life. No idea what I’d be doing if I never got arrested, or never applied for the cafe job.” –pakiranian
12. War. What is it good for?
“During the Sri Lankan civil war my dad and his family were chased out of their home and were forced to seek shelter at his cousin’s house a couple town’s over. His cousin’s only had one neighbour and that neighbor was my mom and her family. They used to meet up at the fence dividing their lawns and talk for months. One of the pictures from their wedding was them at that fence.” –Nimbus-Rose
13. Coin toss.
“Almost everything that has happened in my life for the past eight years is a direct result of me literally flipping a coin to decide between two colleges. I play the sport I do, have the friends I do, am dating the person I am, and very nearly every other aspect of my life, is because a nickel landed on heads.” –Sethrial
14. When God closes a door…
“If my former roommate wasn’t an alcoholic going thru withdrawal and had to be hospitalized, we’d have had enough money for rent. Then, I wouldn’t have moved home. If I hadn’t decided, while looking for a new job in my hometown, that it would be nice to have insurance, I’d have got another restaurant job instead of a manufacturing job. If I hadn’t started that manufacturing job, I’d have never met a co-worker who was quitting for a much better job. Then, I wouldn’t have also applied for a job with that company that was still hiring. I still work here 8 years later and hope to retire from here. It has its shitty days (or weeks), but the benefits are amazing and I’m making more than most college graduates.” –meme-com-poop
15. 5th Grade is pretty important.
“Entering middle school, I had to choose between foreign language or music. I made my decision. My mother came into my room later that night to make sure I was certain in my choice. I chose music, which led me to pilot training, to radio, to my ex-wife, my kids, Massachusetts (twice), my new partner and a career in IT. I can trace my entire adult life to a decision I made in fifth grade.” –seizer1975
16. The transfer.
“My mom was diagnosed with cancer while I was in community college. Unfortunately she passed, and it was time for me to apply to colleges to transfer. I applied to a college out of state because the running joke in my family was that she loved this place so much, she would have come with me to college to live in my dorm room with me. I applied as a joke, never thinking I would get accepted.
Turns out I did, and I accepted the admissions offer. 5 years later, I live 3000 miles from home and have an amazing life studying science. If she didn’t pass away, I would have gone to state school and followed my then boyfriend. I would probably be pregnant and married by now. But instead I am a very independent person who practically lives on the beach.” –IrrelevantJoker
17. The silver lining.
“Mom died when I was 3. If she hadn’t died, my children wouldn’t exist.
The short version: My dad wouldn’t have remarried and we wouldn’t have moved and I wouldn’t have met my husband.
The source of my deepest grief also gave me my greatest joy.” –callistonire
18. That’s one reason to read the comments.
“I was strolling through Ifunny 2 years ago and left a comment on one of the featured pictures. A guy responded to my comment, we kept replying to each other for a few days and then exchanged our kiks and started texting on there. 2 years later and we’re now married and have a 3 month old daughter. I have PCOS and my doctor informed me I probably could never have children and he was previously married for 10 years and never had any kids, no matter how much he tried. Later on he found out he had a really low sperm count. Pretty much impossible for us to have any baby, but we have our daughter now. She is a perfectly healthy baby.” –0galaxy0candy0
h/t Reddit: r/AskReddit
