32 Wild Butterfly-Effect Situations That Will Leave You Questioning Reality

‘Someone else’s flu saved my life’
32 Wild Butterfly-Effect Situations That Will Leave You Questioning Reality

We’re all aware that one little decision can alter the entire trajectory of our lives, but that doesn’t make the concept any less mind-blowing. Like the Redditor who got so annoyed at the incompetence of the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? contestants that she applied to be on the show. Not only did she get selected, but she won a lot of money, took a trip with her winnings and met her future husband while on that vacation. They now have a child together. 

Other Redditors have shared similar jaw-dropping tales of how one little decision had a butterfly effect on their lives, and some of them are film-worthy. 

Mutchie . 3y 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. If she hadn't come with me I would have never known
. 3y Made a last minute decision to go to a friend's divorce party and met my wife ... 56.4k
JakeMasterofPuns . 3y I made a dumb Facebook post because I was bored (like for a tbh.) A girl liked the post and I sent her a message. 8 years later, we are now married. ... 4.7k
durhamdale . 3y Went for a kebab, ended up with a wife and three kids. ... 3k
lulun97 . 3y 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. Не replied with 'how about Monday?' I saw him that Monday for a coffee. Next month will be our 6th anniversary. Best thing that ever happened to me. My friends joke I'm 'queen of escaping the friendzone'.
smartaleky . 3y I spilled my coffee. I work in a bank and you learn never to do that, all the papers and files. You also learn to place it far enough away so it doesn't fill out anything if it does spill. I worked in finance for many years. It was 8: 43 in the morning and I figured I had enough time to get downstairs and get another cup and come back up before 9:00. So I went to the elevator bank. Waited for the elevator to come, It took a long time. Got in the elevator went
A911owner 3y My existence. When my dad was about 20, he needed a phone number so he called the operator from a pay phone, she gave him the number, he hung up, and she accidentally refunded the money back to the pay phone. She called the pay phone back and asked him if he could put the money back in, which he did and hung up again. She accidentally refunded the money again and had to call back again to ask him to put the money back in; he did and hung up again. She was so flustered, she refunded
duckwaggles . 3y Right before freshman year of high school, I was interested in trying out for the tennis team. I was lukewarm about it, and the morning of tryouts my dad came into the room and asked if I wanted to go. I was leaning towards no and just wanted to be lazy in bed, but my dad asked, do you think you'll regret it if you don't? The answer was yes, so I went and tried out. I ended up meeting my absolute best friends, rekindled my love for tennis, was on varsity for three years, and it
kimar2 3y The other day I was driving home from work, traffic was light and I was behind a car with a numberplate that started KFD. Decided to duck through KFC drive thru for chippies with extra salt as a little treat to myself. They took forever to bring them out and by the time they finally did (all told about 10 minutes later), traffic has slowed to a complete halt. I need to get over a bridge that's normally six lanes which has now been reduced to one. Turns out it's due to a massive collision involving several cars.
KartoffelSucukPie . 3y 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. Met my husband there. We now have a 1 year old son :) ... 10.8k
discostud1515 . 3y 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. ... 12.1k
Megalon84 . : 3y Decided to try weed in high school. Met a dude through weed 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. My children are a direct result of weed. ... 1.2k
3y Out of university, looking for a job and exhausting all the online resources. On a whim, I looked in the career section in a print newspaper that was lying around in the house. (We never subscribed to that paper, I dont know why it was even there). Got the job in a different city, met someone who is now one of my best friends, who introduced me to their friends, who introduced me to their friends and so on, until I was eventually introduced to my wife. If I'd found a job where I actually planned on working,
Andromeda321 3y When I was in 8th grade (13 years old) I had a really long bus ride home so would pass the time by reading. One day I faced the very serious situation of nothing to read and a minute to grab something in the library, and for whatever reason I grabbed a book on astronomy. That book was amazing and grabbed me like nothing else had before. I remember being excited to realize every astronomer on Earth was 13 years old once too, and that was a career you could actually do, even if you were from Pittsburgh.
rleash D 3y The first day I ever signed up for internet back in 1999, I installed mIRC (because it was on the starter disk my ISP gave me) and joined a random chat room. Over the course of the next year the regulars in that room became like family to me. We would talk about everything. All that practice made me a fast typist and WAY better communicator than I was before that. They would even help me when I had trouble understanding something in my college classes. I also met my husband in that room, and we've been
FrogWithEars 3y Ordered some shirts off the internet, company sent a size too small. Emailed them and they sent the correct size and let me keep the other ones too. My grandpa's house was being redone, noticed one of the workers liked a band i did and gave him the shirts that didn't fit. Years later working and having a smoke break, guy overhears me and a friend discussing a concert we were going to, asked about it and said he had some old shirts I could have. Met up with him after work to hang out. They were my
Spiritual_Jaguar4685 . 3y 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
MindOverEmotion 3y In high school I took an intermediate biology course. I had never done biology before but was good at science generally so I thought the intermediate course would be a good fit. My science teacher of a couple year previous happened to walk into my class to talk to the biology teacher and she spotted me in the class. She asked me what grades I had got the previous year. I told her and she nodded and left. A minute later she came back in and asked me to gather my belongings and leave the class. I was
Naganofagano . 3y My husband- Не found out after 18 years that his moms side of the family was Spanish, not Mexican. Не 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
HerbertGoon 3y I was parking my car on the street and was about to shut it off but I noticed my car got pretty dirty last time I parked under that tree, usually I don't care but I drove forward another space. The next day I came outside and my car's rear suspension was damaged and tires were bent. Someone had smashed into it and took off. I went on to spend about $500 in repairs and my insurance couldn't cover it unless I found out who did it. I was very upset I couldn't go to work and the
beanbiin . 3y 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. Now, I'm currently working on a tv/film production as a video editor.
. 3y 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. This girl, whom I would absolutely never have met had I not changed my classes around, is my wife through 14 years.
Generic-Online-User 3y 4 years ago a kid I barely knew from school invited me to a six flags. I was a bit of a loner at the time and I heard rumors about this kid being weird, so I intended to not go. On the day he wanted me to go, I was feeling extra bored and decided on a whim why not?. So I went and met this kid and two of his friends I've never met at a six flags. 4 years later and that kid is my best friend, and I have 3 other very close friends
Atomic_ad 3y Decided I would rather use my bathroom than a portapotty. Found my wife cheating, she attempted suicide, 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. Aside from that, without recounting all the details; I went to see a doctor about a splinter from chopping firewood, 6 months later they removed most of my kidney with Renal Cell Carcinoma. Without the splinter I'd likely be dead
35mmPirate 3y My wife got an email from her old colleagues the day we returned home from our honeymoon, asking if she wanted to star in a short film they were doing for fun. She said sure, and asked if I could come along, as she knew I had an interest in movies, but at the time I worked in life insurance and was miserable. It was more than an interest- I had always wanted to make films, but never made the right connections with people and didn't know where to start. I made friends with the producer of that
myeggsarebig 3y I had to call my heart surgeon to give him my new insurance #s (I had only just gotten them because the person who had them had the flu and was not getting back to me) as soon as I got my numbers, 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
Mabonagram . 3y In high school I read House of Leaves and one day was trying to explain the concept of the book to a friend. My drama teacher overheard, said it sounded a bit like Pale Fire by Vladimir Nobakov. On his recommendation I read that book which sparked an interest in Russian literature, then I branched out from there, always seeking out new reading opportunities. My quest to find more reading led me to major in English and become a teacher myself. Being a teacher at a Title I school has had a huge impact on my political
ourhero1 3y This is obviously going to get buried because I'm late to the party... A few years ago, I was on the phone with my boss as I was getting home, discussing what we needed to get done the next day when he asked what the f is that noise?! I said it'd make more sense to just show you. So I took a video of me opening the door and feeding my (very loud) farm cats. I realized I didn't like anyone crowding me awkwardly looking at my phone when I show someone a video, so I uploaded
NotDaWaed . 3y 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. I am now starting a career as an artist/animator. ... 4k
DonNibross 3y Burned my arm on an extremely hot plate working at a restaurant in NYC. New manager didn't like that I told him we were out of towels to hold hot plates, had a vendetta against me. Six months later, found a reason to fire me. Friend got me a job working on the set of a low budget movie, met a woman named Dorothy who was key PA. A full year later I ran into her on the street, she asked if still worked in production, got me a job on reality tv. Worked 9 seasons on a
BrStFr 3y The older I get, the more I am constantly cognizant of the vast cascade of seemingly insignificant decisions and actions that led me to where I am. For example, 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
MAN someregulardouche . 3y 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. now I'm someones father. ... 3.3k

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