The metaphor of small stones falling and causing an avalanche has been done to death, but often enough in life, it stands true. If you really sit down and think about it, so many bits of your own life are the result of choices made, often at random and without planning.
Someone asked “What's your most unexpectedly genius decision made on a whim?” and people shared their best stories. From chance encounters with their soulmates, to inexplicably avoiding disasters, people show just how magical life can sometimes be. So get comfortable, upvote your favorites, and be sure to comment your own thoughts below.
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Once, I randomly took a route to pick my daughter up from school that I never usually take. Along that rural road, I saw a puppy in a ditch looking starved and very scared. Put him in the car, picked up my daughter, and went to the vet's. After being declared healthy, other than being malnourished, I brought him home, and he has become the best pet ever!! All because I wanted to drive with my windows down!!
I had a roomate with a drinking problem who got really drunk and decided to fight the cops when they showed up bc he was fighting ppl on the street in front of the house. I was at work on the night shift at the time and I came home that morning to my front door kicked in and the whole entire house was just absolutely trashed. So then a few hours after the the landlord shows up with an eviction notice.
I was too broke to move into my own apartment so I asked a work colleague if I could rent the spare bedroom in his basement for a month or two while I saved money and planned my next move. He agreed. Lol then about a week after I moved in he got caught cheating and just up and left his wife and child to be with his mistress. I felt bad about that bc it left them in the lurch really bad so instead of saving up money to move out I covered the rent for a few months. In that few months The lady got involved with another guy and him and his kids moved in with us.
It's been 12 years and I still live there. They ended up getting married and were so appreciative that I kept them off the streets those first few months they asked me to move into a much bigger house with them where I'd have my own apartment in the renovated garage.
I wouldn't trade these last 12 years for anything. I love the three kids as my own and watching them grow up into talented and kind adults has been probably the most rewarding and satisfying experience I'll ever have. For the first time in my life I really felt welcomed and that I had a family that loves and supports me. I laugh out loud when I think about how close I was to just moving back in with my mom back then.
We live next to a VRBO. Wife makes fun of me for always saying hi to new neighbors that come in for the weekend, says it’s weird.
I’m walking the dogs, see they have Jersey plates and say hi, ask if they are in town for the Springsteen concert which I can in no way afford to go to so I’m jealous. They are and they have extra tickets if I know anyone who wants to go. I said I’d love to but I know what they cost and send them to a few neighbors who are into music and might go.
Few hours later there is a knock, they ask how much I have (hour before show) and I said I got $100 for my bday but I don’t want to offer that, cause it’s too low. They are drunk and say we’d rather have that than nothing so let’s go! I tell them to cancel the Uber, I’ll drive them (I get free parking there) and have an amazing time with new friends. They even sent me a video of my favorite song.
All cause I said hi…
I asked this girl sitting on my left in my English class if she wanted to go to the coffeeshop after class. Married 40 years now.
I had a crush on a guy in one of my freshman engineering classes but he had a gf...fast forward 9 years, we meet up at a wedding where he was now divorced from said former gf exactly 30 days (time frame for her to object to entry of final decree). I got his phone #, and snatched his a** off the market before opportunity passed! Married 10 yrs no regrets
I did quite a few very important decisions on a whim and just rolled with the outcome.
Best one so far: after 7 years I was sick and tired of my job and most importantly the company I worked for. On the brink of burnout and reoccurring depression, I decided to apply for other jobs to test the waters.
Got invited to an interview for a position I was barely qualified for and was crazy honest during the interview. Told them what I am struggling with at the current job, what I can and can't do, what work environment I wish for etc. The 2 managers I had the interview with were awesome. We had a great conversation and they told me that they have a few more candidates lined up and will get back to me in about 2 weeks.
Got a call the same day from HR, that Manager X would actually love to skip the other interviews as he really wants to work with me - and I just accepted because the the f not?
That job changed everything. The manager became a great mentor and sponsor for my career, I got mentally out of that dark place and enjoyed myself again and I got to meet that cute colleague in the office right next to mine, to whom I am married now :)
Some friends and I went/broke into an abandoned house on our street (legally suspect, I know). But it was broad daylight, and we were children. _My_ mindset was purely explorational.
Cut to the idiots I once associated with smashing everything they found inside to splinters, including several windows. Because that's what kids think is fun.
Needless to say, I get cold feet and dip. But only after finding a pair of glasses on the ground (I had always wanted glasses, for some reason). And they're not even, like, a cool pair of shades. Just someone's pharmacy store, plastic, reading glasses.
So, I make it home and chill out while rocking my new lenses, waiting for my friends to come back. My parents and my friends' parents ask me where they are, and I cover for them by claiming to have no idea.
Soon, the rest of the group runs back, in high spirits from their vandalism. Little did they know they were being trailed, like the amateurs they were. By a middle-aged couple who had apparently been charged with caretaking the building. And they don't look happy.
The couple eagerly tell our parents about our crimes. And our parents, in turn, round us all up from our hiding places. Then, they ask the couple to point out who exactly they had seen.
Cut to the couple picking us out of a lineup while I put on the most neutral expression I can manage. "That one. That one. Also, that one."
Then comes my turn. "Nah. Not that one. None of them had glasses." And they move on.
Moral of the story: Clark Kent isn't Superman.
Purchasing line insurance when we bought our house. I honestly didn't understand what it was, but said "yeah, sure, whatever" when the insurance agent asked.
We found out the sewer line was collapsed five days after we moved in and it needed to be entirely replaced. It was absurdly expensive, and fully covered by that $47/year added line insurance.
Needed gas on the way home and stopped at a station i NEVER stop at. Helped a woman that was having car troubles, we have been married for 28 years now!!
I was trying to decide with my wife (gf back then) if we should go to this concert or not. Eventually we decided we are lazy and we'd just sit on the couch watching something (note that we decided we're lazy after getting dressed up, she got her makeup on and all that, we were 1 step from leaving the house basically). This band was playing that we've already seen like 4 times at that point and we wanted to see as many of their concerts as possible. We just said well, next time we'll go for sure. And most of our friends would typically go see this band but they were busy (each for their reason). Some of them were even friends with the band.
It turns out the club where they were playing burnt down during the performance, most people died and the ones that survived will never be the same.
I learned to not feel guilty if I feel lazy to do something. Sometimes it changes things in ways you can't expect.
After sleeping on a new pillow I had severe neck pain for the first time ever. Even when I went back to my old pillow, the pain persisted. I tried five or six different pillows (including that Tempur-Pedic c**p). NOTHING HELPED.
This went on for two months. Some days were so bad I could barely get up and dressed for work.
One day, at Aldi, I came across a pile of super soft (SO goddamn soft), super fluffy pillows for sale.
Everything I'd read said to steer clear of super soft pillows if you have neck pain. I figured I'd tried everything else, so I snatched one up and gave it a try that night.
Four months now with zero neck pain.
**Best $14 I EVER spent**.
**EDIT:** I took a look at the tag. It doesn't have a brand name on it. It just says "MADE FOR ALDI" and Item # 58447-23.
Impulsively flying to Asia for no reason whatsoever other than to shake up my comfort zone and face some fear.
10 years later I live there.
Kudos! In my experience not many have the opportunity or means to do this... and fewer take the chance when it presents itself.
Corrected something on Wikipedia. Ended up meeting my husband. Gg
I started to edit more and more. Turns out the people who are really active basically all know each other (or did at the time.) We started talking and it was a met online story like any other from there.
This is actually a shockingly common story. There are A LOT of married Wikipedians.
Convinced my husband to apply for a USDA rural development loan. We were able to get out from under our trailer and actually have a home now.
So lovely to hear a story (in the UK) about the US government actually helping people! I had no idea you even did schemes like this!
Went to the birthday party of an old work acquaintance I hadn’t seen in months (years?).
He was literally the only person there I knew.
That night I met my wife, and made several new, close friends.
One of the managers was going to be out and unavailable to teach a new hire class. I volunteered. Long story short, I've gotten 6 promotions, each with at least a 15% raise, in the past 7 years. Teaching that class allowed the director to see a bunch of skillsets that he had no idea I possessed. It literally changed the entire course of my career for the better.
I was hanging around in a university waiting for my brother to finish a group project. I was 18, unemployed and had been looking for a job for months with no results.
Randomly decided to apply for several jobs in my industry that I wasn’t totally qualified for, just because I was bored and felt I should probably do something productive in such a studious environment.
Two hours later I got a call from a recruiter, 2 days later I got a job.
Dropped out of university (Ba Philosophy). Return to read Molecular Biology. Went on to do a PhD. Now a professor of bioinformatics at one of the world's more prestigious universities.
10/10 life decision, no notes.
So happy to hear a good news story about jobs after graduation. Good for you!
I went on a road trip a couple summers ago as what I’ve been referring to as a Pandemic Life Crisis. I stopped in Panama City, Florida on a whim as a stopping point between New Orleans and Jacksonville. I got a cheap hotel and that night walked to a hooters to get some food before going to bed. I planned on waking up and just heading east to meet my friend across the state. While I’m sitting at the hooters, one of the other guests mentioned there’s a cool air show tomorrow at this beach in a state park. I couldn’t give two s***s about air shows, but I decided I should do something in every city I visit and I hadn’t planned on visiting Panama City. I woke up that morning and drove to the state park and set up a lawn chair on the beach. Lo and behold, it wasn’t any b******t air show. It was a training session for the Blue Angels and I got the best photographs of my entire trip. Such an exhilarating experience. Like being inside a real action movie watching the best professional jet fighters do amazing stunts all across the horizon.
in the 70's i was stationed at a naval air base that had yearly airshows. the day before, the angels would buzz the hangers and we would all go outside to watch an extended, very cool airshow before the public arrived the next day. meet the pilots and crews and all.
my academic record wasnt that good but on a whim i applied to an internship in a different country.
every university and job application since has said how impressive it was. im pretty sure this helped me get into one of the best universities in the world, which is now equally the most impressive thing that employers mention
it all snowballed from that decision
Exactly what I tell my students. If you are young, grab any opportunity to gather international experience, especially if your employer arranges everything. Learn the local language if it is one hardly anyone speaks. This knowledge opens fantastic job opportunities in many fields.
In the very early days of what became the Internet, I went to a meetup with a group that had been online together for awhile. That wasn't something people really did back then (most people didn't even know what "online" meant yet), so it was scary, but my life was trash and I just needed to get away. I met a really sweet guy there, fell for him, and took a way out of character risk and told him so. He's shy, so he never would have told me first that he felt the same way - that was just over 30 years ago, and we're still together!
Wow. This could be mine and my wife's story literally word for word, except for only 25 years instead of 30.
Decided to apply for one more school just in case, and looked up who has one of the latest application deadlines, (and was relatively close to the beach).
That resulted in a chain of events that moved me across the country, gave me some of the most fun times of my life, and essentially set me up for a successful career which I love, but would never have imagined. Now I'm married to a east coast lady and have no plans to move back west, so that "let's just try this one" decision 15 years ago completely redirected my life.
Bought a home after the 2009 financial and housing crash. I never saw myself as a home owner, but the right house at the right price at the right location just fell into my lap
Did the same in 2009. Landlord passed away and I knew I couldn't afford higher rent that would have probably happen with a new landlord. My sister talked me into looking for a home. 15 years and I'm almost out of mortgage payments since I purchased the home at such a low cost. I can't afford my own home now. BTW: I live in California.
I once decided to go to a birthday party when I had originally planned to go to the mall. When we set off for the mall we started having car trouble and had to head back home. I could have just stayed home but I thought "screw it, I've got nothing else going on." And went to the party.
That's where I met the absolute love of my life and now wife. 25 years together from that day forward. Best "on a whim" decision I've ever made.
Quit a job I hated. Like literally hated every person I worked with, but I'm not a quitter. One day they called me in on my day off to yell at me. So I tossed my work computer at the boss and walked out the door. On the street I met a bunch of old coworkers and told them what I just did, and they were like uh, a job JUST opened with a guy you know. I texted him and he hired me the next day.
I started running on a whim like 2.5 years ago. Literally got up one day and decided I wanted to go on a run. Only made it like a quarter mile, but I felt good and decided to do it again the next day. Started wondering if I could go for longer without stopping, set a goal for the next few runs. Snowballed from there. I ran a marathon on Sunday and I'm in the best shape I've ever been.
I think what's unexpected about this decision is that it stuck. I can't stress enough that this was not a difficult decision spurred on by a deep, long talk with myself about my health. I literally just got up one day and felt restless so I decided to go on a jog.
One day, I woke up and decided I wanted to go to school for engineering. I was out of high school nearly 5 years at that point and I was never the greatest student either... it was hard, but it was a great decision.
5.5 years ago I decided to be sensible and come back from my holiday on Saturday instead of Sunday to rest up more before returning to work. On Sunday, went onto tinder and matched with a girl who seemed cool. Asked her out after not many messages and set up a date for later that week. Still with her today and had our wedding last July! Turns out that someone else asked her out on tinder right after our first date and she said no based on how good ours was. Could have been a very different story if I hadn't decided to have one less day away ...
Bought over 3600 shares of GameStop mid-January 2021 after seeing a many posts about it. Worked out alright
u/kyonkun_denwa added:
Man that was a crazy time. I remember my brother convinced me to buy GME options because “there’s a short squeeze, no way you can lose money bro, I’m telling you throw a good chunk in there and you can’t lose”.
He had a history of risky investments but I still threw in $1,000 of “what the hell” money and ended up turning it into $20,000. My brother, meanwhile, YOLO’d $22k into options and turned it into $418,000. He ended up paying like $80k in capital gains taxes, but even after accounting for that, he was up like $316,000 on a single bet, having started with just $22k. Absolute insanity.
To buy a scratcher and let the clerk pic the ticket. Didn't care how much the ticket was just told him to pic me a winner. He picked a $10 ticket and I'll be damned if I didn't win $10,000 US.it was a Friday night so I had to wait till Monday to cash in the ticket since it was a large amount. So, being the responsible adult I am, I kept my nephew and stepson out of school on Monday, and we had a boys' day. I did whatever they wanted to do once we went to the lottery off and cashed the ticket.these lil reprobates conspired, and we ended up a Wendy's for lunch. These lil got Double Baconators with chocolate frostys. Now this kids were 11 and 12 and I'll be damned these little put it all down and asked to go to DQ for Blizzards. Ahh what a day.
Curious. Does anyone throw the cashier a few bucks for selling them a winning ticket?
I was in line at an electronics store to buy a thumb drive or something tiny and one of those Wacom drawing tablets caught my eye. It was super expensive for an impulse purchase ($900aus if I remember correctly), but god damn has that thing been a game-changer and an absolute joy to use. I’ve sunk so many hours into it and it’s the most relaxed and focused I ever feel, which is super satisfying. I’m not suggesting Wacom above all others because I have no idea how they compare. Probably similar. But yeah, so glad I bought one.
Decided to join a guild when Diablo 2 first came out. Met my wife playing that game in that guild. 22 years ago.
I kinda bought a flat on a whim. Our landlord came to us and told us he will need to end the contract because his landlord told him he needs to sell, so my landlord had to either buy or move. We just moved in, I liked the place so I asked, what if I buy it?
It wasn't easy and without help from my dad, it would be impossible. But I had nice savings, with the help from my dad I was able to make the down payment. I just landed a new job with a good salary, but getting a loan was difficult because I was still in the test period at the job (first 3 months, where either party can end the contract for no reason). But in the end, I got a loan, which I later refinanced to proper mortage.
Being in such a big debt is not great, both psychologically and practically. I think I'd never commit to it if it wasn't for this "let's just do it" moment. I'd never take the decision back, having a place that is my own is so comforting. Living in fear that I will have to move at any moment because some other person wants to end the rent was so frustrating. I am really lucky I was able to afford it, thanks to my good job and my parents.
How does a landlord have a landlord? I'm genuinely curious because I'm looking at maybe buying overseas, and the term "flat" isn't used here in the US, but I always thought it meant condo/co-op/apartment. Over here "landlord" means owner of the property.
Had recently broken up with my girlfriend and reluctantly let a friend drag me to a party I didn’t want to attend. I just wanted to stay home and feel sorry for myself. I wound up meeting my current wife at that party and I’m really glad I went.
Was up late, and decided to apply for massage school
Got trained, licensed, and a job in the field two years later. Night and day financially, and had enough money to go back to college for tech.
I went from 400$ a week as the head chef of a famous restaurant (absolute nightmare working there), to being an expert in my field + pretty good medical experience.
Being able to communicate (which I learned in massage) is an amazing skillset in tech. I'm by and large in a far better place than someone from my background usually is.
All because I was drunk at 6AM, and sent an email
Lesson learnt: when of legal age, get drunk and write emails
Stayed seated on the bus a lot later than usual because I was being lazy.
If I had stood up at my usual time when the bus was still going normal speed, I likely would've gone through the window. A car swerved in front of the bus and the busdriver slammed on the brakes so hard that I slammed into the seat in front of me instead.
30yrs ago when buses didnt have a button to press to let the driver know you needed the next stop.
My autistic son and I were new to the neighbourhood and looking to go out for lunch. Walked to the end of our street, looked left and saw one restaurant, but the right-hand side had a bunch of places to eat and shop. Easy choice. Then I picked the first place that had a "You can play NTN Trivia here!" sign in the window. I'm in. Literally one other person there, he soon joined the trivia game to keep me company. 24 years later and I had to unfortunately bury him almost a year ago. Wonder what would have happened if I'd turned left that day?
I'm agoraphobic and was really struggling to leave the house after dropping out of college. A friend invited me to a potluck one night, and I was hungry and out of groceries. So I gathered my courage and went. Almost chickened out so many times but I was hungry lol I met a guy there and we really clicked. Started dating within a week, engaged within 6 months, married 8 months after that. We have 2 beautiful little girls, 4 cats, and a fish. I get to be a stay at home mom (my dream) and he's helped me rescue and foster 10 cats. When they say listen to your gut, listen! Even if it's just saying you're hungry lol
Many years ago, I used to commute from north London to Kensington for work. My route would take me through Edgware Road station. After more and more delays, I worked out a new route that took me to Notting Hill and walking down to Kensington. The change saved me 10-15mins of journey time which on the London Underground is a lifetime. A couple of weeks later, the July 7 bombings happened. If I had not change route, I would have been at Edgware Road station when the bomb went off.
I knew a guy from there who ran an old book store. He was a real goofy guy. Kind of clumsy in a charming kind of way. One day a very famous actress stopped into his store and one thing led to another. They’ve been together ever since.
Load More Replies... My autistic son and I were new to the neighbourhood and looking to go out for lunch. Walked to the end of our street, looked left and saw one restaurant, but the right-hand side had a bunch of places to eat and shop. Easy choice. Then I picked the first place that had a "You can play NTN Trivia here!" sign in the window. I'm in. Literally one other person there, he soon joined the trivia game to keep me company. 24 years later and I had to unfortunately bury him almost a year ago. Wonder what would have happened if I'd turned left that day?
I'm agoraphobic and was really struggling to leave the house after dropping out of college. A friend invited me to a potluck one night, and I was hungry and out of groceries. So I gathered my courage and went. Almost chickened out so many times but I was hungry lol I met a guy there and we really clicked. Started dating within a week, engaged within 6 months, married 8 months after that. We have 2 beautiful little girls, 4 cats, and a fish. I get to be a stay at home mom (my dream) and he's helped me rescue and foster 10 cats. When they say listen to your gut, listen! Even if it's just saying you're hungry lol
Many years ago, I used to commute from north London to Kensington for work. My route would take me through Edgware Road station. After more and more delays, I worked out a new route that took me to Notting Hill and walking down to Kensington. The change saved me 10-15mins of journey time which on the London Underground is a lifetime. A couple of weeks later, the July 7 bombings happened. If I had not change route, I would have been at Edgware Road station when the bomb went off.
I knew a guy from there who ran an old book store. He was a real goofy guy. Kind of clumsy in a charming kind of way. One day a very famous actress stopped into his store and one thing led to another. They’ve been together ever since.
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