30 Incredible “Butterfly Effect” Stories That Prove Every Decision We Make Matters, Shared In Online Thread
At its core, the “butterfly effect” describes a mysterious phenomenon of interconnection between people and our larger world. People say they often experience it in a way where a small seemingly unimportant action or decision leads them to a significant, unexpected outcome. Philosophers, physicists, science theorists, and even psychoanalysts have been studying the butterfly effect throughout the years, proving how it has never ceased to captivate our imagination.
It also explains why the readers seem to love our articles about it! So today, we are diving into a new batch of incredible butterfly effect stories shared by people on this Ask Reddit thread. “What small action did you take that you later realized had a 'butterfly effect' that turned into something much more important?,” asked one Redditor and mind-boggling responses flooded in. Scroll down, upvote your favorites and be sure to share our previous post with more butterfly effect experiences.
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This past summer I commented on an AskReddit about a small donation that I made to a charity that supports foster children and young adults who have aged out of the foster system. Redditors from around the world saw my comment and made hundred of thousands of dollars in donations to the charity, allowing kids' wishes to be fulfilled.
Reddit visitors caused the charity's web site to crash, so Redditors with tech talent worked with the charity to make the site more resilient.
I've never been happier to witness the goodness in people.
Bored Panda reached out to one Redditor who, not so long ago, had a very wholesome butterfly effect experience and shared it in this thread. “This past summer I commented on an AskReddit thread about a small donation that I made to a charity that supports foster children and young adults who have aged out of the foster system. Redditors from around the world saw my comment and made hundred of thousands of dollars in donations to the charity, allowing kids' wishes to be fulfilled,” Dartdoug wrote. The charity was OneSimpleWish.org and it spreads love, hope and joy to children impacted by abuse and neglect by connecting the community to their simple, yet meaningful wishes online, all the time, so check them out.
When asked whether they believe in the butterfly effect, Dartdoug said they surely do. “I think that one small event can trigger larger and unexpected events. I certainly believe that the Reddit post from last summer was an example of it.”
I turned right down a hallway is never been down before in college instead of taking my usual exit. Saw a job posting. Got the job. Met a girl at said job. 30 years together this coming July. Two grown daughters living their lives. Right instead of straight out the door did that.
I bet he just smelled pizza and followed the scent. I would have done it too :P
When I was 14 I attempted s**cide. I ended up spending two years in a mental health facility where animal therapy was common. I got to know the dog therapist well and started training dogs. Left the facility. Trained our family Aussie to be a therapy dog. Took him in for a check up at the vet and ran into the dog therapist from 6 years earlier. The vet had an abused border collie puppy that needed a home, but had no one to take her. The trainer recommended that I take her as a foster to start training. I fell in love and named her Lila, we work search and rescue together now.
My s**cide attempt ultimately made me the happiest I could possibly imagine being. And, with the best dog ever, by my side through every moment of life.
Invited someone to lunch along the Maine coast, water view, my treat. Had not seen her in over 40 years. The intention was to thank her for being fun when we were kids. I had no idea at the time, but she told me later she had been contemplating suicide. That lunch saved her life
“I was floored when so many people decided to check out the charity’s website and come through for the children and young adults that the organization has been helping. The web site crashing probably prevented some folks from making a donation, but when Redditors came through offering technical resources to prevent future crashes, I hope the end result was a net positive,” they recounted.
I was in a weird point in my life and suffering from agoraphobia so I never left the house. As you can imagine, I was getting pretty lonely and wanted someone to talk to. I made a random Reddit post and someone responded. After a few weeks of talking he convinced me to not only leave my house but fly out of state to hang out with him for the weekend. We had an amazing weekend and many thereafter. We’re now engaged and our son is 14 months old. I also was encouraged to seek out a career that was meaningful to me and found something I really love and have moved up significantly within my company.
So basically a Reddit post made me a mother and gave me a partner, career, and life that I never thought I would be able to leave the house to have.
My grandpa was diagnosed with terminal cancer a few years ago. When he called me to tell me he only had 6 months to live I stopped at the liquor store on my way home and bought a bottle of gin. My roommate came home shortly after and we drank for hours laughing, crying and sharing deep personal stories about our lives with one another.
Drunk, confident, and armed with the knowledge that we could die at any time I went in for a kiss. I was surprised she reciprocated and after that night we began dating. My grandpa died before our wedding, but I attribute the beautiful life that I have now to him.
I began to read and thought that he was going to buy a bottle for a last drink with his grandpa. By the way, nice story.
I was working till 11 p.m. at a restaurant managing. The midnight shift girl called in sick, so I had to pull a double. Around 5:30 a.m., a man came in with his daughter. We talked a bit, and he told me to apply with his property management company. I did, got the job in February 2020 (got out of the restaurant business just before COVID), moved, met the love of my life, got married, [and] found a stray husky that is now mine. All because the girl called in sick.
Dartdoug believes that their post brought awareness to the kind of disadvantages that foster kids endure. “People are so wrapped up in their own challenges that they don’t think about (or don’t want to think about) folks who have it worse. Beyond the requests made by the youngsters, how is someone who has been in the foster system until age 18 supposed to know how to 'adult' when they often had bad role models, lack financial support and have no experience with stability and peace? That message resonated with those who donated and those who commented positively on the charity’s mission.”
The Redditor also told us that “so much of Reddit tends to be negative, you can say the same of social media in general. I’ve seen postings in various subreddits about people who are down and out, lost loved ones, have become homeless, suffer from depression, that kind of thing.” But according to the author, the overwhelming number of responses are very supportive and offer suggestions on resources available to help.
I was taking a very important exam, and I was debating on two possible answers. I wrote down A, and at the last moment before turning in the exam I used white out and wrote down B instead. The answer was A. I was devastated.
When I got my exam back, it turned out that because the white out was so last minute it wasn't dry. The paper on top of mine rubbed it off so my answer remained A.
That question was worth 3 points. I got into my dream school with just 2 points over the line. If I had lost that question I would be going to an entirely different and lower rated school.
The year was 1972 and I was being drafted into the Army. If you know anything about the Army, the very most thing you will be doing is waiting. Waiting for everything was the way it was. So I'm in this big room with maybe 200 guys and maybe 25 chairs in which to sit. Of those 25 chairs, maybe six were lounge chairs. The others were metal folding chairs. I was one of the lucky ones who somehow got a stuffed chair. So, we all sat and waited. If you left your seat, too bad. After about five hours, I had enough and needed to stretch my legs and got up to walk around. About that time, a door opened up and two sergeants began counting down guys to get on a waiting bus to be processed. The guy who got my chair was one of those chosen. After they took and loaded about 30 guys onto the bus, someone sticks his head in the door and says, "You should thank your lucky stars you're not on that bus because they are heading to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina to become processed into the Marines." The Army was bad enough but the Marines were 100% heading to Vietnam. I thank my lucky stars for giving up that seat to this day.
My coworker’s family lived in Oklahoma City when she was younger. The daycare she went to was in the federal building that was bombed in 1995. That day her mom dropped her off at the daycare and headed to work. Her mom said she had a stomach ache and decided to call into work so she turned around and picked up her daughter from daycare then headed home. The bombing happened shortly after at around 9am
I made an off-handed joke to a coworker who responded with his own off-handed joke. This caused me to spiral for over 24 hours thinking that nobody liked me, my career was over, and I was a detestable human being. I recognized that my state of emotions was irrational, so I accessed my work EAP to go to counseling.
My therapist gave me three sessions before she told me that my fiancé was too dependent on his drinking and it was ruining my life as well as his. I left my fiancé. Started getting promotions (one of them led to me meeting my now-husband).
Told a woman on assistance I could teach her how to grocery shop cheap...At the end of the month she showed up at my door..in tears...for the 1st time ever she still had food...
In a college class we got our first exam back, and I made an A. The guy in front of me turned around and ask me and girl next to me what we made. We both said A’s. He was disappointed that he made a B. When the next test came around he asked if I would study with him. I said OK. We were to meet at the library on a Sunday around noon. Cool. Well, that Sunday rolled around and I was tired and hung over from a party the night before. I thought about just not showing up to study and apologizing when I saw him in class on Monday. At the last minute I slung it together and went to the library. I looked like death warmed over. We studied. Both made A’s. And have been married for 41 years. If I had blown off that study session I probably would not have known the love of my life.
"Death warmed over"? Reminds me of a short story I wrote where this guy, to stay alive, had to keep Death warm for one night. Spoiler alert: he succeeded, despite the fact that absolutely nobody has even managed to survive being NEAR Death for more than five minutes.
I sent a very dear friend of mine a stupid meme and he called me a few minutes later to tell me that I unwillingly interrupted a s**cide attempt and saved his life. He's doing better now.
When I was working the night shift at Elstree Film studios in summer 2005, I used to finish my shift at 8pm and had the option to get a free breakfast in the canteen. I almost never did. The only reason I had the breakfast that morning and got the later train rather than my usual was because I hadn’t eaten the night before.
I hadn’t eaten the night before because my mate said, “Fancy a pint?” and I said yes. We were in the pub all evening so we missed dinner.
My regular train that I would have been on was blown up in the London 7/7 terrorist attack that killed 56 people. Having not died, I was able to take the job in Dubai later that year, where I met the woman who would be my wife and we had a son.
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While in Dubai, I once grabbed a small kid who was about to run out into the road and would definitely been run over, and with the speed the car was going almost 100% certainly killed. I also have a very rare blood type and was able to answer the call for donors that ultimately saved a kid’s life.
The guy in 2005 that I went out for a pint with was a mate from back home. I’d become friends with him through another friend. I’d met THAT friend though a five-a-side team that I joined with another mate.
I’d become mates with THAT guy because we were in the same year at school and collected Panini Football Stickers and we did swaps. I’d only started collecting those football stickers because the guy I sat next to in Primary school introduced me to them. And I was only friends with him because I chose to sit next to him in class when I was 5 years old.
So, the decision on where I sat when I was five, through the butterfly effect, ended up saving the lives of two children in Dubai, via a few seeming minor choices at the time choices that saved me along the way and led to me creating life with a women I’d met.
My mum tagged me in a Doctor Who related post on Facebook. Some random guy who was part of the same group saw the comment and liked it. He added me and we got chatting. Became really good friends and after a year and a half of chatting, we decided to meet up.
We’ve been together for 5 years this July!
When I was on my mind twenties I was in a dead end job, always tired, working off hours in customer service/retail. I grew up poor, aged out of foster care, and just felt lucky to have a job at all, I guess. One day, I was about to clock out and realized I hadn't done the bank deposit. My friend offered to do it, even though he wasn't allowed. It was on his way home. I signed off on the sign out book, and he took it. He was tired too, and in school. He threw his backpack on top of it, and just forgot it was there. When he realized, I told him not to worry. I told my boss right away. I thought since I had worked there 7 years that she would understand. She told me to get my stuff and leave. They made me do an interview with loss prevention and then fired me. I couldn't believe it. I was shocked and so sad. I worked really hard for so long, never called out, and they had thrown me out like garbage. I made up my mind to go to college and to get a job where I would be valued. I was so determined to be treated better that I forgot that I was scared that I would fail.
I went to school. I worked my ass off. I got a good job, then a better job, then a great job. I'm in my late thirties now. I live in a beautiful apartment with a killer view in San Diego. My husband is a stay at home dad. I like to go to work every day. And I am SO thankful I forgot that f**king bank deposit.
I'm glad it worked out, but letting someone else mess with money they are not allowed to is certainly a firable offense and I don't blame the employers at all.
I was waiting tables at a restaurant and I picked up a shift on my day off.
During that shift one of my friends who recently quit came in to get his last check, so I got talking with him and asked about his new job, then asked if they were hiring, which they were.
He set me up with an interview, I got hired and trained on how to use CAD, and after being there for four years I got hired at a bigger company making more....which is where I still am today.
In early 1998 a friend of mine was working for an ISP and his boss asked him to set up an IRC server for a customer (who turned out to be Epic UK). He didn't know how to do it so he asked if I wouldn't mind doing it for him and just keeping an eye on things until the customer can take over. Took me about 15 minutes to set the thing up, made myself an Oper then I just hung out on that server for a while and just made sure the handful of people using it behaved themselves
Anyway, fast forward a couple of months and I'm dropping out of University, his boss is impressed enough by what I did for that customer that he offers me a job which was my first full time IT job - he took a chance on a University dropout and I'll never forget it. Learned a ton working there, gave me the foundation I needed to go to bigger things. I stayed on that server too, ended up getting pretty close to a few people. One day I met a girl on there and we got talking. 18 months later I jumped on a plane and moved to the USA to start a new life and marry her. It's been 22 years and we've got three kids now and are still happily married.
One quick favor for a friend changed my whole life.
In 2003 I went to uni, but in my first term my dad died, and I ended up dropping out. I took a two-year break and decided to move to Bristol and try uni again. In the first week of the term I met a boy (let’s call him Dylan), we became besties and that led to romance, and now we’re married and been together for over 16 years. ... I became a teacher. I have never been happier in a job my whole life. I love it
I had a best mate called Lilly who went to school with me and she would visit me in Bristol. Dylan lived in a shared house, and Lilly met his housemate, and they became romantically involved too. They have also been together for 16 years and have 3 kids. Lily’s parents and brother, who are all from London, decided to move to Bristol to be closer to Lilly and the kids. After they moved, Lilly’s brother met a girl, and they got married and have two kids too. If my dad hadn’t died, I wouldn’t have met Dylan, and five kids wouldn’t have been born. I would be in a job I hate. It’s the only thing that brings me peace, because I was devastated when he died. He looked out for me I’m sure
"No daughter of mine will have a hard life!" --this dad, probably.
My mom made me go to a football game for my school when I was in the 8th grade. I didn’t want to go but I eventually caved and went. I ended up talking to a random person, and down the road he became my best friend. My friend introduced me to another friend, who introduced me to yet another friend. That friend eventually set me up on a date with my future wife. Now I’m married with kids. Who knows what would have happened if I didn’t go to that game.
My grandfather ... went to school during the second World War in Estonia (pre-deportations), and once he didn't go to school because he couldn't find his hat. Apparently, the same day some kids had found a grenade in the school's attic and blew themselves up.
Took piano lessons when I was ten. Was really bad at piano, stopped taking lessons. Learning piano made fingers very fast and flexible. Fast and flexible fingers means good at typing. Good at typing gets noticed by family friend. Family friend is a stenographer, a highly specialized field that pays very well. I am enrolled in school for field.
I'm six months from graduating and have three different judges asking me to come work for them. It's a six figure job, and I am very excited about it.
I hate to burst their bubble but, "The average Stenographer salary in the United States is $41,389 as of December 27, 2021, but the range typically falls between $33,902 and $51,134" those are 5 numbers, not six.
In college someone asked to swap seats in psychology so he could sit next to his friends. I moved and sat next to someone I'd seen in another class but never spoke to. Well we started talking and became best friends. Then started dating. Married for 5 years now with a child. All because I swapped seats
i'm seeing a lot of people meeting someone because they swapped seats
I had broken up with my first serious boyfriend and was having a really difficult time back in the dating game. ... I was supposed to go to a party later that night after work, but was asked to stay late. ... Usually one of my duties is taking the garbage out, and I do it right away to get it over with, but I delayed doing it for some reason. When I finally did get to it, I was unloading it in the shared garbage disposal room (I worked in a mall), and a guy walked in (another retail worker from a different store). Normally I’m very shy, but for some reason I just had this gut feeling and instinct and started chatting. Anyway, we’ve been together for three years.
So she basically found her husband in the trash... Would make a great wedding theme.
I never made this action but…
Long story short, I would not have been born if my mom hadn’t hit my dad with her car
I was too nervous to be first row clarinet in high school, so I switched with a friend to be in the second row. There I met my best friend, who introduced me to a friend of his (who lived out of state, so we never would have met without him), and now we're married 14 years! All because I had anxiety about sitting front row.
There are so many stories here about POSITIVE life changes related to meeting romantic partners. But being someone who met a partner 20 years ago and now sees how my life has spiralied downward in many ways, in the last ten years, almost entirely due to my partner's behavior, it's good to just remind people that anyone can tell an inspiring story when everything is wine and roses. But just as (or even more) often, that fateful meeting goes the entirely other direction. I can't get back the years I've wasted on a relationship incredibly toxic for me. Neither can many others. Fate is fickle. My advice is: ALWAYS go with your gut. I should have left a decade ago when I first started seeing the changes. Now I'm stuck.
I was due to leave for school one morning but decided last minute that I needed the toilet, a bus crashed into the area where I would have been walking had I not turned back. My mum’s annoyance at me for stalling going to school instantly turned to relief.
Turns out the driver of the bus had a heart attack at the wheel and crashed into the buildings across the road from where I lived. From what I remember no one was seriously injured but am unsure if the driver made it.
When I just turned 13, I joined the girls basketball team at school because the guy I liked played basketball. On the journey to an away game, the girl sitting next to me on the bus pointed down a road we passed and told me she attended a weekend stage school at the other end of that road.
I mentioned that I had just left my Saturday drama club and was looking for a new place. We talked about it, I mentioned it to my mum when I got home, and I was signed up within a week.
19th January 2008, I was walking into the dance studio for the first time with the girl from basketball and I saw a guy sitting on his own by the windows. I asked the girl about him and she mentioned he didn't really get involved with the group and was normally on his own.
I'm now 27 and I can count the amount of people I've approached someone first on one hand due to my anxiety. And yet, without even thinking about it, I walked over and introduced myself.
He has now been my best friend for (oh s**t, in less than a week it's 14 years! Need to drop him a message!)
Through him, I met his friend group and we are both still friends with most of them all these years later. I'm getting married in 45 days and he's my man of honour. I met him on a Saturday; the Tuesday before was the very first time I tried to end my life. When I failed, I held on the hope that there was a reason for it.
If there is such a thing as a God out there, I 100% believe they sent me my best friend after my attempt because I truly needed him at that point in my life.
I know you're reading this. You're the only one who knows my Reddit account! Once again, thank you for the friendship you have given me.
Forever for a Reason, my idiot of a best friend!
I have a similar story. The day after I spent a night seriously contemplating suicide, I asked God to show me a reason to live. I then found a picture of someone I knew for a few months before moving across the country. The memories inspired by that picture reminded me that I am called to a greater future than I knew of then, and that's basically why I'm still alive today. I them founded the Dark Humor Gang, a support group for depressed teens like myself.
Not me, but at college orientation 12 years ago, a boy came into my orientation group late because he had changed his major to the same as mine last minute. He copied my class schedule because he was late, and now he’s my husband.
On 9/11 I was living in the East Village and saw the entire hideous event. On my brick wall facing downtown I had hung lots of pictures. The ONLY one that fell down was a photo of the WTC my sister had taken.
I'm recently divorced, was settling in to be single and alone for the long haul. My brother came over to drink whiskey and play Mario Kart. We randomly decided to go to a karaoke bar. My normal place was closed, so I googled for another one. Ended up in a hole in the wall I've never been to. Met a girl at the bar. Turns out she's awesome. We've been together seven months, and I kinda don't want to be single anymore.
My younger brother broke his leg and saw a podiatrist afterwards. The podiatrist saw my crazy feet in sandals and insisted my Mom make me an appointment with him. From there I had prescription orthotics, multiple surgeries and now my feet and hips aren't so messed up- this all started nearly 30 years ago. And thank goodness it did!
I wouldn’t say this was important, but just a cool moment in my life. After going through a breakup and being single for the first time in six years, I bought two tickets to Blink 182’s album anniversary concert- one of my favorite bands growing up.
At the time I purchased them it was still months out from the actual date and I had no idea who I was going to go with, but I figured a friend or someone would. A few months later I had started dating someone and we went to the show together.
I was not familiar with the stadium but the tickets I ended up with were in the first row behind the GA section, so we were on a higher level than the floor with a rail in front of us. I was about to head to the bathroom but the guy I was with stopped me to say he thought they were getting ready to play their acoustic set right in front of us. Sure enough, they did! It was so unexpected, like literally Mark Hoppus was ten feet away from me. After one of the songs ended he also came up to me and gave me his guitar pick. As a long time fan it was just so special and I still have it!
It ended up being the most fun, just incredible night that I’ll always cherish. Oh and the guy I brought with me, well he’s my fiancé now! We still talk about that night as one of our favorite dates.
I was in some class in college where everyone just played on their computers during lecture. The Dean of the school was a guest lecturer one day, and he was talking about a really cool co-op program with two open spots for the summer. No one was paying attention. Myself and one other person applied for the position, so we both got it. Through that summer job I met someone who was friends with a future employer. When I graduated, he recommended me to that future employer, so I got the job no questions asked. That job was my launchpad for building my own business. All because I halfway listened to a class lecture one day.
This kind of thing happened to my son, who is in grad school at a very competitive first-tier uni (and is super smart & very hard working). He decided to transfer for year 3 in college and was accepted to several very competitive schools. The one he chose set him up with his academic advisor, who was also the chair for his field of study.When it came time to look at grad schools, my son c With a 4.0, when it came time to look at grad schools, my son considered Cambridge overseas, but his academic advisor wanted him to stay & found him a research position that paid his tuition fully. The spring after his first year of grad school, the same advisor recommended my son to be the summer intern to a friend of his, who was the head of a federal agency that my son has always wanted to work for. That man liked my son so much he hired him part time permanently until he finishes grad school, where he will almost certainly then have a full time offer. One single decision can be a shortcut to anything. It's crazy how that works.
I was home for the summer after my first year of college in the early '90s. Buddy had a random weekday off, and we decided to drive up to San Francisco with no real agenda. On the way there, I decided to drop by Sega’s US headquarters, because why not? I was a kid and had no idea you couldn’t just go to a company and visit. They politely kicked us out, and as I was backing out of my parking spot I hit an executive's car as he was driving out. Turns out that exec went to the same college I was attending and stayed in the same dormitory. I ended up getting a summer job answering phones at Sega and have been working professionally in the games industry ever since.
Signed up for the Duke of Edinburgh award even though I didn't really want to. On the expedition in the Lake District, all the different groups met at the same campsites. That's where I met my now-husband.
Most Americans have no idea what the DOEA is--so this one, sadly, won't get the upvotes it may deserve.
I'm a Renaissance faire performer. One of my gags is I sit on a tree stump as a dirty peasant and give people "career advice".
One day, a lady asked me if she should quit her current job and go into nursing. I was out of improv juice at that point so I gave her my honest opinion that she should chase what makes her happy. She giggled and left.
End of the season she seeks me out to tell me that she took my advice and couldn't be happier. I didn't know what to say except I was glad my fried brain gave her some good ideas. Hope she's doing well.
Back in elementary school, 1st grade, we had these small bags that carried our sports uniforms (aka shorts and a shirt so they were soft). I slapped a guy with the bag. He slapped me back. We've been best friends ever since, for almost 13 years now
No one is gonna see this, but in 8th grade we had to pick classes to simulate one day of high school. I can’t remember any of the classes I picked, but a friend of mine said he thought the German class was cool. When actual enrollment came around, I picked German for my foreign language.
That same year, a semi-close friend and I ended up in all four of the same classes for a semester. We became best friends then and stayed that way through high school. We were in all the same German classes throughout the rest of high school.
Come college time, we went to separate state universities. In the first semester of sophomore year, he had to get a tutor for German. It’s crazy how bad he was. His tutor was actually German. According to him, she was cute, and he could probably get her if he wanted to.
He ended up inviting me to do a study abroad program through his university for the summer. As I was too poor, I politely declined the offer. It sounded like a great experience. We met in our home town for lunch over winter break, and his dad offered to pay my way. My Midwestern guilt didn’t allow me to accept the generous offer, but they were insistent.
It turns out that his “kinda hot German tutor, who he could get if he wanted” was the graduate assistant on the trip…
Yadda yadda yadda…we’ve now been married for ten years and have two kids together. If that one kid in eighth grade said he really liked the French class, I would have never gone down this path. Life’s funny.
started a heavy metal band for the sole purpose of picking up chicks
posted in my college’s subreddit looking for a vocalist
a girl thought I was interesting/funny and decided to message me just to say hi
We quickly became best friends
We fell in love and are dating :D and she’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. She makes every facet of my life so much better. And she’s now the honorary ukulele player in my death metal band
Took my friend to whataburger just to chill and eat some burgers. This led to 1.) losing my other best friend of 12 years and having him to absolutely psycho stalker on me and 2.) a year and a half later being deeply in love and moving into an apartment with whataburger guy.
My older brother dated this girl in high school who had more than a few screws loose. She was overly possessive and, even in social settings with other friends around, she would be so physically affectionate with him that it felt like they were doing everything short of f*cking. Our entire social circle was BEGGING him to break it off with her, since he would constantly complain about the red flags and she clearly had issues. He broke it off with her soon after, but not before she introduced us to one of her friends, who was far less crazy. Even after my brother broke up with crazy girl, we kept in touch with her friend and she basically became a part of our friend group. Years later, when we'd all gone off to college, I drove up to visit the friend at her school, which led to me meeting her roommate. I don't typically believe in love at first sight, but that's sure as hell the closest I've ever been to experiencing it. Before long, we wound up dating, and we've been going strong ever since. So strong, that I'll be surprised if I don't marry this girl.
TL;DR: My brother dating a psycho in high school led to me meeting my (hopefully) future wife many years later
The girl's story is that due to her being a friend with a psycho, she got to meet psycho's boyfriend and friends. She really liked one of them and invited him to visit her at school. Instead of them getting to know each other better, he hit on her roommate instead.
I had a call from an old employer (coffee shop) asking me if I wanted the odd Sunday shift. I had worked for her before and knew her family a little and her brother worked at the store.
Ten years later they are my family and I have been with her brother ever since. Her father is at my house right now doing electrical work.
Just feels weird how life would of gone if she had never off-handedly call me to work that Sunday shift.
I barely played video games (had an interest in it though), after 4 (!) different people all recommended me the same game (Red Dead Redemption 2), I said "Fine, I'll try it". Fell in love with the game, kinda of stumbled on a group of people to play with, a couple of discord server later, I met my boyfriend (it's been almost a year, still going strong), someone I would had never met in any other circumstances
In these days a lot of people meet and fall in love with people they would never have known without the internet.
A while back, I took a retirement planning course to ensure that I would be able to stop working in ten years' time.
I told my boss what I learned and told him that he was probably set to go any time he liked. He said he hadn’t thought about it and asked me to book him for the course. Two months later, after taking the course, he rage retired due to being fed up with how upper management was handling things.
They moved a guy in from a different state to take his job. A month into the new guy being there, he hit and killed a pedestrian while driving to work.
My desire for a financially sound retirement led to someone losing their life.
No, his bad driving led to a pedestrian being killed. He would have probably killed someone sooner or later. And by the sounds of it, your boss would have probably left sooner or later, if he was that fed up with the way management were handling things.
I lived by myself for awhile before and during lockdown in the USA. I was at home and I saw someone I graduated high school with years ago on Insta and asked to follow them. They messaged me and asked if I wanted to be friends. Since then we started dating, bought a house, welcomed our first child and I’m going to propose sometime soon.
Ran a successful business for thirty years. Covid did us in. I managed to sell it for cheap and gave the money to my employees. My grandsons caretaker got cancer, since I am retired I am watching my grandson and doing my sons yard work. My God do I have respect for moms. My one year old grandson is a little PILL.
I don't understand the "butterfly effect" here, I mean a few have been a stretch but this one seems to break it and go stand on the other side of the road.
I worked in a 911 center.
I dispatched an ambulance for a call taken by my colleague. A man was found unconscious and not breathing. People on scene called 911 and started CPR with AED use.
That dispatch was maybe 10 seconds on the radio. "Respond to for a male unconscious, not breathing. CPR in progress. AED on scene." The dispatch was routine and obviously something important but a very small action.
The large majority of people found unconscious and not breathing do not survive CPR. He did.
The large majority of those who survive CPR have significant mental and/or physical impairment. He didn't.
He got to talking with doctors at the hospital where he was treated. Those doctors perform a lot of charity work for poor patients brought in from overseas by NGOs.
The patient, as it turns out, is a cardiothoracic surgeon who is a medical director for an entire hospital. He apparently offered to bring the doctors who saved his life to his hospital to train on additional techniques. That would allow them to offer even more lifesaving care to the world's poorest of the poor.
I have often thought about if that offer of training was taken up and fulfilled. I have wondered if it did. And my hope is that in doing so my one little dispatch may play a role is saving not just the life of this one patient but also lives of many more.
I graduated high school a year early with intentions of going to college and attending with the U.S Army’s ROTC scholarship. My school’s SRO slowly got me interested in first response so I decided I would go to a local EMT program and take a gap year to work. I’m now three years down the pipe, and have an AAS in Paramedicine working on a B.S for Emergency Management.
I joke that he f**king scammed me into this.
back in 2014 circa bought a small dump of a 1.5 bed room house (luckily for me with an inheritance but i felt as though I was rushing into it but ignored that feeling) for 49k, spent 20k over two years slowly renovating it, then used that house as security for the current house im in living and i managed to buy before house prices exploded, sold the 1.5 bed house for 130k back in 2020, now i'm still using left overs from the sale to renovate current house im in and i should be all paid off on the mortgage for this house in about 3.5 to 4.5 years.
Join reddit. Got a recommendation about a sub for Narcissistic parents then got recommendation for sub about jobs. In a year I'm in a better place both psychologically and financially. All thanks to a text to speech reddit youtube video.
I misread some handwritten directions and ended up missing a job interview that would have led me to go to a different law school that would have out me in a very different city and who knows what I would be up to now. I supposedly would have been working at that place through law school and then transferred into their legal department. but it was a financial company and this was the summer of 2008 and I probably would have been stuck in a new city jobless going to law school at night trying to make it work with a much higher cost if living..
instead, I missed that exit, decided to go to school close to where I was living, have had two kids. lost two more. working for myself as an attorney. it's not all roses by any stretch, but I do think about sometimes how different life would be, plus the change of existence for life I've created, if I hadn't confused a 7 for a 9.
Acquaintance worked at the movie theater next door to the pizza place I worked at. Said they were hiring. Worked there for a couple months before going back for a manager position at the pizza place. But while I was there I met a girl. 10 years later 3 dogs and 2 kids together she’s falling asleep in my arms as I type this.
About 12 years ago, I pushed some electronics suppliers in China to get beryllium out of our products (I work in tech). I was the only one talking about it and nobody even knew it was used in electronic materials aside from the metallurgists that made connectors and a few other specialty materials (Im a materials scientist with a penchant for sustainability). Fast forward to now and skipping some other advocacy work, Apple is now advertising their products as beryllium free (Google it), several other companies have eliminated it and it's one of the points in EPEAT (the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) used by most of the PC industry to prove sustainable engineering. I figure that's my little contribution to making the world a better place for a lot of people. If you are wondering, beryllium is an ultra potent carcinogenic metal.
I don't think this is butterfly effect either, this is something they were clearly working towards, not some small "daily decision"
I graduated from cub scouts to boy scouts right around when the boy scouts saw its first decline in numbers in my community.
This left me as the only scout in my grade in my troop for my entire time in the troop. I was also the youngest for 3 consecutive years.
Since I was the only one in my age group, I got a lot of attention from the leaders and older scouts, which let me work on the requirements that I needed, and pretty quickly.
By the time we finally got new scouts again, I was at the point where I could do my remaining requirements by myself, so they got the attention they needed to get started.
One requirement was that I needed to be in a position of leadership. Conveniently, the older scouts had all done this requirement and the younger scouts weren't old enough to run, so I got to run unopposed.
When I became SPL of the troop (more or less class president), nobody challenged my authority since I was old enough to have known the oldest scouts for years but young enough to also know the new scouts.
Since I was able to do everything so quickly, I got my Eagle rank 2 years ahead of schedule.
People underestimate the significance of Eagle rank. Many CEOs, pilots, doctors, etc. were Eagle scouts. It takes a ton of hard work and sets boys up to be leaders. I'm neither pro- or anti-scouting. But I have noticed that many of the leaders I know attained Eagle Scout.
Getting back with my boyfriend it didn't work out the first time but we gave it another go.
My mother's cancer came back, my grandad and nan got sick they were my only family left bar my pets and then my mum, nan and grandad and dog died leaving just me and my pet birds.
My boyfriend not only helped care for my family with me he did stuff for them with me nobody should have to do for people who aren't blood related (alot of cleaning stuff like poo etc if there was a accident) He helped me when they died helped me plan funerals and then when I broke down helped me through that and keep my birds healthy and we are still together very in love.
If I hadn't taken him back not only would I of been alone in a home that was empty I don't think I'd of made it through it all and my birds wouldn't of been well if I couldn't care for them just to my brake down.
I would also of been living with my nans husband (she remarried) He is narcissistic, doesn't think woman should work , a bully and very controlling and sexisit he also doesn't belive in mental health or learning disabilities.
I'm glad my boyfriend and birds are together.
Talked a friend out of s**cide because of a bad breakup, he met someone new and had two beautiful children and as far as I can tell is very happy.
Way back when I was first engaged to my now wife, a fraternity brother from college was looking for a job. So I introduce him to my (then) fiance since her company was looking for people. He gets the job, meets another female employee there, they fall in love, get married and have three beautiful, wonderful kids. I feel good about this one.
A second fraternity brother also gets a job at my wife's company. He starts dating the younger sister of the woman who married the first fraternity brother. They get married. While she (younger sister) is pregnant with their second child, she learns that her husband is having an affair. They are no longer married. She and the kids seem to be doing fine, so I'm not sure how I feel about this one.
TL:DR By the small act of introducing my wife to a fraternity brother, 2 marriages, 1 divorce, and 5 children happened.
That's really a stretch for credit. A lot of things had to happen to get to the divorce. And the kids, for that matter.
Had this guy help me develop a small game on Roblox. Turns out the cocoon containing the butterflies had more than one butterfly in it.
I am now a semi successfulness Roblox dev
I learned how to properly stand up for myself
I learned how to do things I never thought I'd know in development, like I was moderate at building. Now I'm actually pretty good.
I learned not to trust anyone after that
Your Roblox was my military. I learned all those things on active duty. 😆
Opened my wife's cell phone as it kept chiming while she napped. Turned out to be an ex of hers texting her. We're getting divorced now.
This thread should be renamed "How I randomly met my Significant Other" instead.
I was thinking the same thing. Lots of focus on relationships. Many are "good". They might be like me and cursing those same events 10-20 years later. That happens just as often.
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I think pretty much anyone can follow the chain of events' causes and effects backwards and realize there's a point in their lives where if they had done something differently, their entire life would be different.
To complement your cynicism, many of these are "Because A, I married B, and we had 3 kids." Well if not for A, you could have just married C, D, E, etc. and had 3 different kids.
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A few years ago I had a therapist (not a great one) who told me I should go to a group event instead of a solo meeting I'd set up. I felt awkward enough about the solo meeting since I'd never done that before so I ignored her, went to the solo meeting. I just moved in with the person I met that day (platonic), getting me away from my toxic mother and giving me the best chance to overcome my depression/anxiety.
This thread should be renamed "How I randomly met my Significant Other" instead.
I was thinking the same thing. Lots of focus on relationships. Many are "good". They might be like me and cursing those same events 10-20 years later. That happens just as often.
Load More Replies... I think pretty much anyone can follow the chain of events' causes and effects backwards and realize there's a point in their lives where if they had done something differently, their entire life would be different.
To complement your cynicism, many of these are "Because A, I married B, and we had 3 kids." Well if not for A, you could have just married C, D, E, etc. and had 3 different kids.
Load More Replies... A few years ago I had a therapist (not a great one) who told me I should go to a group event instead of a solo meeting I'd set up. I felt awkward enough about the solo meeting since I'd never done that before so I ignored her, went to the solo meeting. I just moved in with the person I met that day (platonic), getting me away from my toxic mother and giving me the best chance to overcome my depression/anxiety.
