Hey Pandas, What's The Most Life Changing Thing That Has Ever Happened To You? (Closed)

Moving away from California at 16 years old to [STATE REDACTED] after having a shitty first relationship and a huge mental breakdown. Ended up getting into another shitty relationship after moving that lasted about a month(I was so broken and felt the need for constant validation, and gravitated towards the wrong people to get it), and finally two weeks after the other shitty relationship ended(looking back, I shouldn't have jumped back into a relationship so soon, but it ended up working out okay), I got into a 2 year relationship that ended last year. That was the first time I was ever with someone who genuinely cared about me, and was able to help me learn to love myself again.
TL;DR: Moving to a whole new state ended up being the best thing for my mental health.
PS: The 2 year relationship ended because of distance(we lived over an hour away from each other) I think. The guy said that he just didn't feel the same anymore. Abd upon further reflection it started to become clear that he wanted someone who he could have seggs with, and I wasn't giving that to him, sooo. 😬

When I first met my best friend, Ace.

So I'm on this platform called "Scratch" that is meant for kids but I still use. When I first started out I saw an account and began talking to the person. Little did I know that 18 months later, me and that person would still be best friends. We talk pretty much daily and Ace has helped me through so much and I've helped her as well. She's helped me with my depression a ton and helped me grow as a person! I don't know what I would do without her. Sorry for the small rant but that's what changed my life.

TL;DR
I was on a kids website and I met my best friend ever.

My husband’s death. We were 50 years old, about to relocate to a new city due to work and he unexpectedly died. My heart hasn’t healed, there’s a nice big scar there. However, since, I’ve learned a lot about me, my kids, and how much I learned from my husband throughout our marriage. I’m able to take what I learned and support others who travel this path. I’m still lonely in a way my friends can’t fulfill, but I see a future that although not what I had planned 10 years ago, is still optimistic and fulfilling.

tl;dr version: College

Grew up on a somewhat conservative community, full of the shame based behavioral social control. Not extreme, but basic white working class type. While I did not participate in much of the worst ("homo-bashing" , insulting or threatening immigrants, cat-calling) I was friends with many who did this. Severe insecurities and desire to fit in somewhere. Always at the back of my mind was "Why do this? What did [hated group] do to you? After HS got blue collar job for 8 years and situation pretty much the same.

Being laid-off lead to trying college. Since it was a mix of trades, professional programs, and university coursed, I was exposed to a MUCH wider range of people and as the saying goes "the scales fell from my eyes". Made friends with Sikhs, partied with the LBGTQ community, got invited to the reserve, had people open up to me about deeply personal stuff that helped me to open up as well. The extra icing on top was meeting my wife of 25 years.

Oh, and the education part was good as well.

Became a widow. Half of me is now gone . . .

my first real relationship. I was head over heels for the first year or so.
After this love blind phase wore off I saw him cheating, being an absolut useless human being (dropped ou of school, no job, no driving license, just gaming all day) and him being somewhat abusive. He wasn't really abusive as you might think but he somehow managed to make me super insecure, his family was rude to me and always tried to change me to more like them.
They (and he) wanted me to get baptized so I could marry him in the church even tho they knew I'm against every type religion, he wanted me to stop wearing make up and stop getting tattoos.
In october 2020 I made the decision to end this relationship but I didn't had the couirage to do so.
I broke up in february 2021 and it was the best decision I ever made.
I regained my confidence, got more tattoos, have a great job and I'm living my life as best as I can (I would do way more but our world is pretty f****d up)

Two major events. The first one was my parent's divorce when I was 4 (for me it was better w/o my dad, can't say the same thing for my older brothers). I grew up pretty well, at least from the outside. The second one was breaking up with my 7 years BF, we already talked about our marriage but it went downhill from there. It's safe to say that I can't be the person I am today if they stay in my life.

My Biological father and mother could look after due to physical and mental illnesses, so me and my twin were taking into foster care. Fast forward a few years and my biological father passes away and my biological mother's condition worsens, at this point me and my twin are 12. My foster mother and father decided to permanently foster us, this meant that we could still see our biological mother, something we wouldn't be able to so if my foster parents adopted us. 3 years later we conjoin our biological and foster parent's surnames.

We are all happy now.

The deaths of 2 of my children. I have lived through the deaths of my parents, a partner, numerous friends and pets and none of these even comes close to losing a child. All of these other losses are expected, or at least a statistical probability, in the course of modern life, as much as we try to deny death. But your child is supposed to outlive you; they are, to you, immortal. When that expectation is destroyed, the Universe shifts and nothing ever feels "right" again. It does not fade, you do not "get over it" and I wish everyone in my life would stop trying to force me to. I am not and never will be the person I was. I live in a different reality now and have started across the bridge we will all cross, whatever may or may not lie on the other side. My children are there and so is part of me. Please remember these words when someone you know loses a child and, please, keep saying their child's name. It is the most beautiful sound they can ever know.

I was woken up in the worst possible way and time, which gave me two weeks of amnesia. Trying to prevent a recurrence, I had to move to the boondocks and give up all my projects.

Cliche I know, but the birth of my daughter. It changed me as a person, made me realise what I was put on this earth for, about the only thing in my life that gives it any meaning or purpose.

My husband died

When I was 23, my 26-year old husband died of sleep apnea. I had a 2-year old child and was 7 months pregnant. He had never gotten around to changing the beneficiary on his life insurance so it went to his parents. They kept it.

I had a terrible childhood at the hands of a narcissistic mom and passive dad. The things done to my older siblings don’t bear thinking of.
I was ‘allowed’ in my 20’s to volunteer at a charity and met a fabulous man. We were married a month later. We’ve been together for 35 years now. My life is blessed.
People can make or break you. If you think you are worthless, just know you’ve been taught that by someone or something, and you can do better.

Someone finally believing me and getting me the help that I need. Knowing that what I went through all those years actually wasn't normal was....indescribable.

In my grandmother's older years she had type 2 diabetes the first time she went to the hospital she was rehabilitated and returned home the second time the same thing but the third time she was not allowed to leave was stuck there for the rest of her life everytime we went to visit she needed help eating and drinking she couldn't even drink anything unless it was in a slushie form she stayed there until 2018 when she passed away.