11.
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
12.
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…
13.
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.
14.
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.
15.
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.
—
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.
16.
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!
17.
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.
18.
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.
19.
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.
20.
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.
