50 Of The Weirdest And The Most Interesting Real-Life 'Butterfly Effect' Stories

It is childish but a single fart changed my life. In 2013 I was working in the lobby of a downtown bank. Things were slow and I was trying to tidy up the lobby. I had to pass gas so I stepped outside the building. I was standing on the sidewalk and made sure no one was around. I released the fart and it was loud lol. I laughed out loud and then heard a woman laughing behind me. I turned around in horror and there was a woman who had just come around the corner and was walking. I was so embarrassed. So I apologized to her and she told me to stop saying sorry because she thought it was funny. I had never met a woman like that. Well she stopped to talk for a few minutes and I found out she worked at a corporate building a couple of blocks over. We agreed to meet at a downtown bar after work. Three years later I married her.

If I had not stepped outside to fart at that exact moment she was walking by then I may never have met her.

I was adopting a puppy and I couldn't decide between this cute little terrier and a cute little beagle. I was moments away from the terrier when the beagle nudged my hand. She became my absolute soul dog and I still miss her 16 years after she passed. Her name was Scout.

I (male) offered to be in the delivery room to support a friend about to go through motherhood on her own. I saw it as strictly supporting a platonic friend at a vulnerable moment. I never saw that I would be the father figure in that child’s (now adult) life and that would become the most important thing I ever did.

When I was 14 my mom took me to a history show and the had door prizes, I won two tickets to go on the Kalmar Nyckel (a tall ship in Delaware) while on the boat I fell in love with it and then found out I could sign up to be a volunteer crew member. I eventually followed the first mate out to the west coast to work on boats, then while out here going from boat to boat and working my way up the command to becoming a captain, I then met my now wife who was a deck hand at the time and now we have a family together.

When I was 18 in my second semester of college my roommate came home saying she found me a cat at a pet store while on a date with her boyfriend. She was half joking but I went for the heck of it. I found my best friend that day. It turns out that out of all the cats there he was the one she had been talking about! He passed a few years ago at the old age of 16 but that was the sweetest smartest cat I ever had. He was with me throughout my twenties and was always there with a purr and a snuggle when I needed him. Bob you are so missed.

I got rejected to every PhD program I applied to. I was very disheartened and about to give up. Called my brother and was like “there’s one more but the deadline is today.” He said “just apply.” So I did. They were the only program that accepted me and gave me a chance. Now 5 years later I have my PhD and a life plan that’s finally on track!

I was unemployed in Edinburgh, in 1991, on my way back from signing on and a friend from my previous job pulled up and asked if I’d like to come to the pub because one of the other guys who used to work with us was in town looking for advice on making a tabletop RPG.

I tagged along and enjoyed the chat and beers with everyone returning to their respective towns. I got a phone call a week or so later to ask if I’d like to help do the book layout for the game.

Long story short, it turned out we were quite good at writing and producing games and our first RPG got us bought up by a new company that needed a UK office to sell their new card game into Europe.

We became Wizards of the Coast UK and sold Magic: The Gathering everywhere we could. This set us all up in careers we’re still related to, and we just sent the latest book of that same RPG to the printers.

One chance meeting got the core talent into the same room and we never looked back.

So, if an old friend you’ve not seen for a while asks if you’d like to go to the pub, the answer is yes.

I don't even remember making the decision, but this is how the story goes.

In the late 80s, when I was just shy of 5 years old, my parents took me to the movies foe the first time. This was before Disney VHS, and the theater was showing Cinderella.

Preschool-age me left the theater saying, "Call me Gus." I apparently just adored Gusgus, the dang mouse.

My parents humored me, thinking it a phase.

When I started school, I took the name with me. I'd get roll call "Sandra?" And I answered, "Call me Gus."

Fast forward to me in college. Still going by Gus, struggling with gender identity (we did not have all the great terms as I was growing up so I was very lost and lonely) but I wanted to legally change my name. I finally settled on August, so Gus would finally FINALLY become a logical nickname.

I'm now a happily-myself trans man named August. Have been loving my name for 18 years. Even better, a few years after the name change, I discovered August is a family name. I'm just the first one in 3 generations, but 4 generations ago there were a TON in my family.

So, I renamed myself permanently at age 4. Nailed it, too.

My friend asked one of his work colleagues for a date, she wanted him to bring a friend for her sister, and I accepted the blind date invitation. That was his only date with his colleague but 35 days later I proposed to her sister. That was 54 years ago and we're still blissfully married today.

Applying to a front desk job at a health care practice for $1.50 more than my current crappy desk job. I had no healthcare experience and relied on my "customer service" experience to get the job. I literally started in the mail room. I switched roles at that company, gained more actual healthcare experience. A few jobs later and I am a clinical informatics manager making great money at my current job. So, take the risk into industries you might not have any skills in, on the job training is still viable.

My old manager reneged on my leave request 6 months out (already approved earlier as I was taking a years leave without pay to travel).

In spite, my colleague and I searched a job site online, I applied for a job in Antarctica, interviewed, accepted the position and resigned literally with the minimum of notice from the job with a jerk manager.

Went on to spend 13 months in Antarctica, traveled the world (still do) and have changed to a career with much more money and experience and passion to live life.

Living my best life now. Ha!

I was working retail as a manager and loved it.

I had a repeat customer who would always come in and talk to me. One day, he offered me a ride along for a job and mentioned that he was trying to recruit me. I assumed it was just some larger retail company based on how this guy dressed.

No, I just followed him in my car. In case anyone is wondering.

We meet up at a Best Buy, and I find out he's a senior product manager at Microsoft, promoting and marketing the Xbox gaming console. I was impressed as a gamer, but confused as to why he approached me. We went to several stores that day, and I loved his job and how people kept stopping us when they saw his Xbox shirt. At the end of the day, he offered me the job. Said that he felt my retail experience would help, along with all the projects I had completed. He was recently promoted and was looking for a replacement.

Fast forward to today as I sit as a CIO. He helped me get into tech, and I realized how much I loved it over retail. Glad I met him, or I wouldn't have gotten into tech.

I decided to take a different route to work. On this different route, I wrecked my motorcycle and shattered my leg which is now held together by rods and screws. The long-term issues with my leg caused me to need a career change away from construction. I went back to school for engineering, which opened up the doors to a much more rewarding ans lucrative career. And while in school I met the woman that would become my wife. All because I took a different route to work.

A random girl I’d met earlier that year at work sent me a form from a Japanese reality TV show. We had been speaking about dreaming of going to Japan, so she said “lol you should apply.”

I did, with ZERO expectations.

I got picked.

They flew me to Japan, all expenses paid. I ended up on TV—like actual TV—around four times over the past ten years. I became close friends with an elderly couple from the Japanese countryside.

I ended up living in Japan for a year and a half and almost married a Japanese dude. Thank god, the pandemic hit and I had to put my plans on hold - long story short, there were too many cultural differences and my partner was an alcoholic with jealousy problems- so we broke up.

I was not meant to live there. 6 years after that I'm very happy in another country with my current partner.

Life's crazy. I got plenty of stories like this, idk why but I'm a freaking magnet for weird stuff.

I declared my major and needed to be assigned an advisor. I asked for Prof. Y, but Prof. Y was on vacation so they asked me if I'd be ok with Prof. Z instead. I said that was fine.

Well, Prof. Z had just gotten a big grant from Google to help them develop an app but everyone on their team used apple products. I showed up for my intro meeting with an android and was offered an undergraduate research gig on the spot. Me and that professor did a lot of good research together, and the research kept working, and sooner or later they looked at me and said "have you ever thought of making a career out of this?"
So now I'm almost done with my PhD in mechanical engineering at MIT. It's mind blowing - not even something I thought I could never do, but something that never even occurred to me as an option.

So what's the small decision? Well, my whole family ALSO uses apple products. I was the rebel who wanted an android in high school because the apple store didn't have emulators yet, and I wanted to play pokemon on my phone during musical rehearsals.

Videogames cause PhDs.

I wore a nerdy t shirt a college friend gave me to a film festival. There were some vendors there and one recommended a comic series that I might like based on the joke on the shirt. That led me into a local comic shop, which led me to join a game night there, which led to me making friends, which led to the formation of my primary adult friend group. That wasn't a shirt, it was a bridge.

I got a job that ended up leading to my lifelong career because I helped a woman with her rental car.

I had recently applied to a role at a local university, and while deemed appointable, they hired someone else with more experience. Not even a week later at my rental car job, one of the supervisors from that university came to pick up a car after a late night flight. I was surprised because I didn't have any other customers on my itinerary for that night. Turns out her employer had accidentally booked it to be picked up in a completely different city, and even though we were really low on available cars and changing corporate bookings was very restrictive, I worked something out.

She called me the next day to say she had seen my resume on her boss's desk, and immediately offered me a job. She even honoured the fact I needed part-time because I was studying, despite it typically being only a full-time role. I started working there 2 weeks later, and I decided to pursue academic librarianship thanks to discovering my love and passion for academia. I now work as a senior librarian at this same university.

And on a personal side note, I really struggled with feeling like I'm forgettable and unmemorable. So for someone to remember my name and my actions and feel strongly enough to do something about it was a really big moment for me and changed how I started to see myself.

I was a divorced single mom without a college degree, working retail and barely making ends meet. I'd always been involved in the arts when I was younger, and at a party a guy I met told me that he was a graphic artist, and that it wouldn't take a four-year degree (at that time) to get into the field. I ended up going through a 40 hour a week, six-month course for those with low income, and that jump started my career. I was a graphic designer for 30 years before retiring.


One day about 20-some years after that party, I ran into that man again, and told him how that one conversation had changed my life.

I was in a mild depressive slump in the fall of 2018. I was just shy of 25 years old and my mom saw an ad for auditions for a local community play at a nearby church. I was in drama club in high school and my mom said I should try out so I thought "why the hell not."

I got the part of the wife in a young married couple. One night the guy who played my character's husband approached me in the parking lot after rehearsal and ask if I'd like to go to dinner. I was single and he was pretty good looking and a good actor. Sure, why not.

We went to dinner at a local tavern and had a great time.

That was seven years ago.

We've lived together for four years now. This year on October 18, we got married.

Thanks, mom, for keeping an eye out in the newspapers.

Literally happening right now,

I was vending at LA Comic Con last year (We 3D print stuff to sell, and I made a lifesize Shadow the Hedgehog).

My cousin kept bugging that he wanted food and we headed off to go look for food. When we were going back he kept going to different aisles and we happened to run into the voice actor who plays Shadow the Hedgehog. I told him about my statue and brought it over to him. Him and a few other Sonic voice actors were super impressed and mentioned that they had a mini reunion a few weeks later and if I would be willing to make more of the characters for them.

I did and took them to the event. They all loved it and we've kept in touch and now I'm hosting my own Sonic convention and technically it's gong to be the biggest reunion in the world.

Everyone with me are still super excited to see how it turns out.