Sometimes, a tiny action can trigger the biggest reaction. People shared 30 stories of the butterfly effect that happened to them, some wholesome, others not so much. It is amazing how these stories make us think and remind us that a single decision we made a while back led us to this point in our lives.
“I had to call my heart surgeon to give him my new insurance #s”
“I called surgeon – the receptionist said, “oh, hey, we just had a cancelation for this Friday, do you want it?” Of course I wanted to get it over and not wait another month. decided to take the open heart surgery cancelation appointment (a month before my actual appointment), and well, surgeon said that thank goodness I did because once he got a look inside, he realized I would not have survived to the original appointment date.”
“Decided I would rather use my bathroom than a portapotty.”
“Found my wife cheating, she attempted s******, I moved multiple states away. In the 7 years since I have made nothing but positive changes and went from $18/hour laborer to a well respected person in my profession making 6 figures. I’d probably still be working that dead-end job.”
“they’ve been together for 22 years and have 2 children.”
“I decided to invite my chem lab partner to lunch on the first day of college, just to be friendly and try to make more than 1 friend at school. We met up with the only other friend I’d made at school so far. He thought my lab partner was cute, invited himself to hang out with her, and then fell in love with her roommate instead. He ended up married to the roommate”
“Met my husband there. We now have a 1 year old son :)”
“Watched ‘who wants to be a millionaire’ and got so annoyed at the candidates not knowing a simple question about Katy Perry, that I applied. Got in. Got to play. Won a lot of money. Booked a holiday to a dream destination with that money.”
“If she hadn’t come with me I would have never known”
“I had to renew the sticker on my license plate a couple of years ago and really didn’t feel like sitting in the waiting room by myself forever so I told my mom I’d take her out to dinner after if she came with me.. The guy working at the counter turned out to be my moms long lost biological brother.”
“we’d never know each other existed.”
“My husband- He found out after 18 years that his moms side of the family was Spanish, not Mexican. He found this interesting and changed his country to “Spain” on MySpace instead the US where he really was. Meanwhile in Australia, I was helping my friend find Spanish people to add as a friend as she was learning the language. I came across my now husband and decided to send him a friend request as well. We got along really well and met in person after 3 years. Have been together 11 years, married for 7. If he didn’t change his country to Spain (and only for a day or so)”
One Ends, Another Begins
“Made a last minute decision to go to a friend’s divorce party and met my wife”
“I went to a study group with some people in my major.”
“Now i have the closest set of friend I could ever ask for. They helped me when my my car was broken and I couldn’t get to and fro from college, when I didn’t have enough money to buy myself food. Now, I have a good job, and two of my friends and I are getting an apartment together in a couple of months.”
“Now, I’m currently working on a tv/film production as a video editor.”
“About 10 years ago, There were no pc games to play so I tried using windows XP’s movie maker out of boredom. I didn’t know that I’m going to enjoy it and take it seriously.”
“a decision 25 years ago to change a refrigerator light bulb”
“before going out resulted in my being at the “wrong” time and place so as to get mugged, which resulted in my decision to move out of the city I had been living in, which resulted in my meeting my wife, and from there to having all my kids and the whole shebang. I would have had a different whole shebang had I not changed that lightbulb that afternoon, but the path to the present leads through that (and a thousand other) similarly trivial decisions…”
“Was going to carpool with my aunt to a family gathering.”
“At the last minute I decided to go by myself so I could leave early if I wanted. It was a ways out of town and I didn’t want to be stuck there. On the way there she drove off the road into a ditch. She was ok but the passenger side of her car was totally smashed in.”
“Best thing that ever happened to me.”
“I sent a friend from secondary school (who I had a huge crush on) a message saying happy birthday a couple years after we left school. Did the whole ‘we’ll have to catch up soon!’ thing, not expecting much. He replied with ‘how about Monday?’. I saw him that Monday for a coffee. Next month will be our 6th anniversary.”
“12 years later, extremely happily married, 2 goofy kids and 2 evil cats”
“I was always super flirty with the girl from HR, but we were always seeing other people / don’t date at work so when she left the company I was bummed. A year or two later a coworker asked me to search my email archives (that was a thing back then) for something he needed. I ended up stumbling across the “farewell to my work-friends” email from HR girl and she sent it from her personal email address. I reached out to her, we had coffee, then a date, then many dates, then I love yous and I put a ring on it ASAP.”
“took a shortcut home, fell in to a river and drowned.”
“At 15 I decided to stay home to play a soccer match rather than go babysit for my aunt and uncle. As a result my uncle went out alone”
“This girl is my wife through 14 years.”
“I chose to rearrange the sequence of classes slightly before starting my education. By doing this, I had to commute to a different branch of the school in a different town than the one I was originally signed up for. On my first day there, I helped a girl who had managed to break both of her arms in a drunken shopping cart accident, I learned later.”
“My 2nd cup of coffee wasnt even cold when I found out.”
“In Afghanistan, wasnt done with my coffee, so I passed on a trip from one base to another (there was another convoy a few hours later). Most everyone died who took the 1st convoy.”
“8 years later, we are now married.”
“I made a d*mb Facebook post because I was bored (“like for a tbh.”) A girl liked the post and I sent her a message.”
“now I’m someones father.”
“there was this rainy day that flooded a small piece on the street on the way to my now ex gf house. she had to stay over the night.”
“Went for a kebab,”
“ended up with a wife and three kids.”
“Now my company is paying for me to move to a new country.”
“Passed a certification exam by 1 point that saved me from a dead end job.”
“I now lead an android development team and making good dough”
“I took a web design course in school because the rumor was that it was an easy A course.”
“Now I’m barely surviving without it.”
“Just wanted to try a cigarette when I was young.”
“My children are a direct result of w**d.”
“Decided to try w**d in high school. Met a dude through w**d connections, became roommates. Roommate talks me into trying World of Warcraft. Meet a girl through WoW. Years later date her. Year after that move states, and marry her. Got kids now.”
“2.5 years later we’re getting a mortgage together”
“I talked to the guy in the queue after we’d both tried to get the last pastry in this shop (turns out a new batch was done so I got the stale one he got a fresh one) turns out we had a mutual friend and a month later we started dating.”
“I am now starting a career as an artist/animator.”
“2 years ago I was in a hospital for a week due to acne and was extremely bored (the Wi-Fi was slow), so I asked my mom to bring me a sketchbook and pencils so I could draw.”
“Met my now wife there and I can’t imagine life without her.”
“an older member of my fraternity inciting me to attend his wedding. It wasn’t a huge event and we weren’t and still aren’t particularly close. I thought it was odd and I really had no desire to go, something I heavily debated.”
“15 years later I still think about that guy every day as I’m commuting to the office again.”
“Years ago I picked up a hitchhiker who turned out to be a pretty philosophical kind of guy. One thing he said that resonated with me was “why would somebody want to do the same thing every day?”.”
“DUI folks. Don’t drink and drive. All from a beer.”
“3 years later I am a convicted felon who did 13 months in a state prison, court ordered AA meetings, difficulty finding work, cannot buy a house for me and my gf because I can’t drive anywhere. Cant have kids for same reason. Miserable. Depressed. Horrible nightmares.”
“that one hike in South Carolina sparked something in me I cant explain”
“In 2016 I agreed to go hiking with a friend after not really hiking since I was a kid. I was obese and not loving myself for many reasons. I had recently graduated college and started a career I wasn’t terribly happy with. 4 years later and I’m hiking every other weekend. I’ve dropped 70 lbs and a lot of emotional baggage. And I’m gearing up to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail next year before I make a career change.”
“One night I went out on a night out.”
“Ended up kissing a random stranger on the dance floor. Been together 6 years now, living together”
