Part of the magic of growing up is being able to look back and trace the impact of the decisions you made. In hindsight, tiny, seemingly unimportant choices often do have a cascading effect on our health, wealth, and happiness, even if we can hardly see it in the moment.
So one person wanted others to share the little, seemingly insignificant decisions that turned out to have a far-reaching impact on their lives. From meeting the right person during a chance stop at a restaurant to quitting smoking, netizens share their stories. So get comfortable as you scroll through and upvote your favorite tales. And if you’re feeling introspective, feel free to share your own experiences below.
#1
I went to prison for a robbery. I did it. I was a drug addict. After almost 5 years in, at a work center, I got a write-up which would make me stay in for a few months longer. The warden offered a deal if I would paint a mural at a local high school of their mascot, they'd forgive the writeup. I had always been good at drawing (they knew that which is why they asked) but had never done a mural. I figured out how to scale it up in my head and did it. I got out about 6 months later and made it my career. I'm now married, happy, and fully booked until summer of next year for work, owning my own business. In September, I will have been out for 10 years. I also hid my initials in the high school mascot mural.
314points
#2
I chose to be nice to everyone in high-school, even the kids people thought were weird. F****d my life up pretty bad 10 years ago and recently got a call asking if I wanted to train as a software developer by one of those kids. I was frying chicken in a gas station for scraps. Dude told me he remembered me being smart and into that stuff and knew I could learn fast
Life is hard sometimes so just be excellent to each other, you never know what kind of impact you can have.
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272points
#3
I broke my hand playing soccer in high school (fell, landed awkwardly). Consequently, all I could do for gym class was walk a loop around the track the entire class period until my cast came off. A girl had a cast on her broken finger (hers got accidentally closed in a car door), so she walked with me every day, and we talked and hit it off.
20+ years later we’re married with a couple of kids.
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249points
When the average person thinks about a small change, it tends to be a new restaurant to check out or perhaps slightly changing up their morning routine. Mathematicians and meteorologists break it down even further. It’s very possible that you have already heard about the “butterfly effect,” the idea that if a butterfly flapped its wings in, for example, Brazil, a tornado would form in Texas.
An older variant instead mentioned a housefly, while a more “tested” alternative included a gull. Mathematician Edward Norton Lorenz wrote “One meteorologist remarked that if the theory were correct, one flap of a seagull's wings would be enough to alter the course of the weather forever. The controversy has not yet been settled, but the most recent evidence seems to favor the seagulls.”
#4
Playing wow, I picked druid.
Ended up loving playing a healer.
Decided to become a nurse IRL.
Still like being on the healing team.
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194points
#5
Getting a cat. I feel like she has done a lot of positive things to my psyche, against my loneliness, and also helped my mother. Cat sure turned the home into a comfy place.
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194points
#6
Saw an absolutely gorgeous guy on a “dating” app. He was absolutely stunning, and so far out of my league . Normally I would never have messaged someone so obviously attractive but I felt I needed to tell him that I thought he was the most attractive person I’d seen online.
We’ve been together 11 years, married for 7, and I’ve never been happier.
Oh and he thinks I am the hottest thing on legs, so that’s a huge bonus.
We’ve been together 11 years, married for 7, and I’ve never been happier.
Oh and he thinks I am the hottest thing on legs, so that’s a huge bonus.
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193points
While the butterfly effect generally is used to exemplify how time and chaos take the smallest action and blow it up over time, it can be easier to picture it in one’s own life. Take a savings account with compounding interest and do some back-of-the-napkin math to see how much you could have made if you left an extra hundred in it each month last year. If you feel a pang of unhappiness, you aren’t alone, regret is a painful emotion.
#7
My new desk job’s internet filter stopped me from going to my favorite websites. It didn’t block Boardgamegeek.com, however, so I ended up spending my downtime at work researching board games, game designers, and publishers. I read about a game I couldn’t find a copy of and put together a version of how I thought it might play. Later I found out I was totally wrong about how that game worked, but I preferred my version of the game. Yada yada yada, I’m an award-winning board game designer now.
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182points
#8
Took the wrong train in a new city to a job a minimum wage job that I didn't want but needed at the time. Asked a random guy for directions when phone GPS still kind of sucked.
He happened to be going in the same general direction. We rode a train together and nerded out on films we were into. He was an aspiring filmaker (very beginnings of aspirations), and I was just a film nerd without any post high school education or thought of "breaking into the industry." We ended up becoming roommates and collaborators eventually. Sold our first film to IFC like 2 years ago.
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179points
#9
First month of uni, can’t wait to take faster bus home to take a dump and continue playing whatever. Cute girl I’ve helped with some computer tech class asks which bus I take as she thinks we live nearby, decide to “ugh, fine I’ll take the longer one”.
It’s eleven years later, quit drinking and smoking, have depression under control, finished two masters (was about to quit bachelors in the upcoming week), I’m petting our poodle, playing with our nine month old son while my super hot redhead, freckled, funnier than me, smarter than me, salt of the earth wife takes shower, and I’m asking myself how the duck I’ve got so used to this that I needed this post to get reminded how bloody unfairly lucky I’ve been, all thanks to deciding to hold that dump half an hour longer.
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174points
Thinking back to those pivotal moments can make us scream in frustration like Joseph Cooper trying to get his daughter's attention in “Interstellar.” As painful as it might be, we need to go through these emotions to accept and move on. “Being stuck in the past” is a film-psychology cliche, but it does reflect the real danger of not dealing with trauma or other negative emotions.
#10
Nearly didn’t go to a blind date but he was my soulmate. I knew in a blink when I met him. Lasted 33 years and I still miss him…
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165points
#11
I volunteered feeding the homeless at a local church years ago, now I’m in a senior position addressing homelessness for the city of Los Angeles.
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162points
#12
Deciding to talk to someone who was angry at his results during a test in class (we were both 15M)
We became best friends incredibly quickly, having incredible fun together, wanted to start our rock band, hell he fell in love with a girl and I was heads over heels for her own best friend... what a crazy time!
But when died just two months after that, of course everything just crashed down. At the funeral, I was the only representative from high school with our French teacher, with whom he practiced theater. When she mentioned it to me, I proposed to take his place in the play that was being prepared for the end of the year...
What followed was an amazing adventure of two years of building back my self confidence, meeting incredible people, having an incredible time, which allowed me to end my highschool after my last play with the troupe, and receiving a thunderous round of applause after the eulogy I did at the end of said play - he was the most comedic person I've ever met, of course I asked for a celebration instead of a minute of silence!
Aimery, it's been 11 years already but I wouldn't be half the man I am without the few months we had together. Just like you I don't believe in life after death, but if there's one person I'd be dying to meet again, of course that'd be you, bloody moron! 😁
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146points
Of course, many of these stories are positive, like the various “meet cutes” of people being in the right place at the right time. While it might be just as cliche as being “haunted” by the past, a lot of relationships, both romantic and platonic, often happen because you simply bumped into a compatible person. From kindergarten to college dorms, life-long friendships can arise just by spending some time together.
#13
Entered the green card lottery. Friend was trying to figure out how to do it, so I downloaded the instructions and completed an application to show them how. Since it was easier than asking them for all their info, I made a dummy application using my own info. When I was done I thought “meh, might as well” and dropped my application into the outgoing mail. Then forgot all about it. I was highly confused when, nearly a year later, I got a letter from the state dept.
I’ve been in the US for 20 years now, married, kids, the whole thing. Biggest change I ever made, and it was just a random 15-minute thing I did to help a buddy
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137points
#14
I took a job in an Emergency Room doing insurance paperwork. I thought "Okay but what happens before they get to the hospital?" That exposure lead to a career as a 1st Responder. I never would have imagined I would be helping people in Emergencies been doing it every day for decades.
133points
#15
I didn't want to see my ex on my Instagram feed so I deleted the app thinking I'll install it after two days. A week went by and I forgot that I had to download Instagram again. Now it's been 2 years without IG and my mental state is in a much better place.
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119points
Interestingly, the term “meet cute” was actually coined by Hollywood screenwriters, although it no doubt reflects the reality of chance meetings leading up to romance. Part of the magic of such scenes is that we can very easily place ourselves in them, as a meet cute is just a chance meeting, not requiring foresight or ability. If you are interested in more small choices with lasting effects, Bored Panda has got you covered, check out our article on real-life “butterfly effect” stories.
#16
Accompanied a friend to a wedding because she didn't want to show up without a "date." It was boring and tacky, and I was impatient to head to a bar afterward. But on the way back downtown from the wedding reception, my friend needed to stop by this block party and deliver a birthday present to her neighbor. I grudgingly agreed to go for a little while before continuing to the bar. On the way from the car to the party my friend casually mentions that'd she'd been meaning to introduce me to her neighbor, actually. I smelled a setup, but went along anyway. Two hours later, I'd completely forgotten about the bar and pretty much anything else as the neighbor and I had been excitedly talking to each other at the party, to the point of ignoring everyone around us. Our kid just started kindergarten earlier this month.
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119points
#17
Me and 2 other coworkers decided to grab some dinner after our shift. One ended up cancelling, so I thought my other coworker would cancel too. We were both hungry, so we decided to still grab dinner together. We'd been coworkers for over a year and have always gotten along, but this dinner truly felt like a first date. It was so enjoyable and we talked so much that we didn't realize the restaurant had been closed and that the workers had been cleaning up around us (servers were too nice to interrupt our conversation). Him and I ended up falling in love soon after that. Been together for over 6 happy years and wouldn't change a thing.
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116points
#18
Took an art appreciation course in college. Had a career that had nothing to do with art, but I've spent at least part of every holiday since then touring museums in different world cities, and various states and provinces in the US and Canada. It's given me so much enjoyment in life.
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112points
#19
I was walking out the door of work one day. Phone rang and I decided to go back and answer it instead of leaving. Quick 30 sec call and I was out the door. Couple miles down the road was a bad multi car accident on a bridge. Could have been me.
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112points
#20
I was doing online dating with no success and I was ready to give up. I almost canceled my date just out of pessimism but figured it was already it’s already scheduled I’ll just go and if it doesn’t work out I’ll just take a break from dating.
The date lasted about 8 hours and 15 years later we’re still together.
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109points