I applied for a job that I didn't think I'd get at all just to practice interviewing. I've been working there for seven years and I've been promoted.

At university, who got a particular research project was decided by a coin flip. I didn't get it, so did something else in a different field, which meant I went to a different university for a PhD and, thanks to the specific field, also moved countries for part of it. I liked that country, and did my best to stay. That coin flip meant that now, fifteen years down the line, I live in Switzerland, speak French, and have an utterly different set of friends and activities.