Small event, big impact on your life

[Alferd Packer]

This is a rather simple question: what small decision or event has had a big impact on the course of your life? It's granted that something like choosing which college to go to or what vocation to pursue will have an enormous impact, but it's also an huge decision, to be weighed extremely carefully and reached after extreme deliberation. This stuff is more innocuous; only looking back can you see that your choice or pure dumb chance had a huge impact.

For myself, I have go back to 4th grade for a ready example. 4th grade was the first year that our school system offer musical instrument instruction. They had a certain number of instruments available, and you signed up for the one you wanted and hoped you got it. For whatever reason, I declined to sign up for anything the first time around...probably because that was also the first year that we had computers in our classroom. At any rate, I somehow became aware that a bass clarinet was available about halfway through the year, and I decided I wanted to give it a try.

So, the day I was to go and officially join the band, I got sick and had to go home early. When I came back to school, I promptly forgot about the whole thing, and as a result, I never played and instrument or learned thing one about music. An entire avenue of education remains completely unexplored by me, some eighteen years later, all because I happened to get a cold.

So, what about you? What chance incident had a huge impact on your life, but you didn't know until after the fact?

[Lusankya]

I went to maths camp, and when I was there, there was this guy who fell for me big time, because I was a girl who gave him the time of day. He tried very hard to go out with me, but I eventually managed to hit the clue stick over his head hard enough for him to figure out that I wasn't interested.

Fast-forward to university, and said guy was in my maths lectures. And for some stupid reason, I went up and talked to him and his friends. Cue THE CRUSH Mk II. During this period, he did a lot of rather pathetic stuff that's not really relevant, but what is relevant is that he talked nearly non-stop about Dungeons and Dragons. Eventually I decided that one way to shut him up would be to actually go to a session, because (in my mind) that way whenever he brought it up again, I would be able to honestly say, "been there, tried that, not interested".

Unfortunately, one of the people in the D&D group was my ex-boyfriend, with whom I spent two years of what could most accurately be described as "hell". As for what caused it: well, one could choose going to maths camp initially, going up and talking to the guy I met at maths camp when I saw him at uni or deciding to give D&D a go. All pretty small decisions in the scheme of things.

I am, however, still quite good friends with the other people in that group, so some good did come out of the whole mess.

[Sarevok]

I think in terms of small events having a large impact discovering stardestroyer.net in 2001 takes the cake. It exposed me to ideas I would not have encountered otherwise and changed the way I am.

[The Guid]

When I first went to University I was fairly Christian - indeed some of my old posts on this board will attest to that. I have always been firm in my "evolutionism" for wont of a better term. In other words I never doubted that life evolved rather than just popped into existence creationist/intelligent design stylee. When I went to the fresher's fair I looked around for various clubs - gaming groups, Drama clubs and Christian groups.

It just so happens that one of the colleges at the University of Kent, which I attended, is called "Darwin College" and it has an extension building that someone decided to name the "Missing Link" in line with other names of places on campus that are linked to their associated colleges - "Mungo's Bar" in Eliot College (T.S. Eliot cat reference), "The Atom Bar" in Rutherford etc.

So when I saw the Christian group from a distance I saw something along the lines of this:

"Kent Christian Society,
Darwin Missing Link,
[Time]."

I thought to myself "Oh crap, the Christian group is a bunch of creationists, I can't be arsed with that nonsense" and didn't investigate further.

Its entirely possible that I would have been too lazy to go to the groups, or The God Delusion would still have been the unstoppable force that it was for me. But they're very good at keeping people in the faith in that group, and have recruited. I daresay I may have been easily swayed into Christianity had I gone to that group, which I had intended to do before thinking they were creationists. There were many attractive people there I would have returned for.

Just makes me think about fate and faith.

[The Grim Squeaker]

Moving from England to Israel. Maybe not that small, but fucked up things on every level and scale.
Not starting or continuing a whole asston of things that I got accepted to that I don't feel like mentioning on a bbs board.
Trying to take a picture on a camera, starting to take pictures for socially reasons and ending up a photo nut .
Hitching a ride back from school with a classmate, hearing about his brother's community service year, which ended up with me doing that program and changing the course of my life and personality of the past 4 years.

[Guardsman Bass]

Coming across and reading Peter Ward's The End of Evolution. Regardless of the actual merits of the book, it got me really interested in science and evolution. Since my mother was a YEC, I decided to read up on some books countering creationism, which led me further into skeptical works on religion, and now I'm an atheist. But the Ward book basically started it - before that, I hadn't really shown an interest in evolution or the like in general.

[Mayabird]

Heh, the first one that pops into my head has to do with this board.

There was an internet radio show that was advertised that it would have one of the Phelps clan (yes, the Westboro Baptist ones) on, and I decided to listen.

People had been asking the Phelps guy why he they were all so against homosexuality to the point of obsession, and he quoted verse and line about abominations. People quoted verse and line back about how clothing of multiple fabrics, a bajillion foods, etc, are also abominations, so why not obsess about shrimp-eating instead? The Phelps claimed that all that stuff was "ceremonial law" that Jesus got rid of, but the part about hating gay people was God's law and still had to be upheld.

So DPDP called in and asked how he could tell the difference. The Phelps sputtered and hung up.

Small event. Then followed a small action. I decided to flirt with DPDP for defeating that Phelps.

Over five years later, and we're still going strong and now we're living together.


(Everyone can go "awwww" now.)

[aerius]

I decided to become friends with the cute quiet girl in my high school music class. About a year later there was way too much shit going on in my life for me to handle and I was damn close to offing myself. She's the main reason I'm still around. If I didn't get to know her, god knows where I'd be right now. She's now one of my closest friends and she ended up marrying one of my other friends, but that's a story for another day.

[Ace Pace]

Probably a teacher setting me up to produce a small two hour radio show back in 9th grade. Met quite a few people who had immense impact on my life.

[Sarevok]

Probably a teacher setting me up to produce a small two hour radio show back in 9th grade. Met quite a few people who had immense impact on my life.

You had your own radio show ? What was it like ?

[Gil Hamilton]

On a lark deciding to ask a girl I knew in college only somewhat well if she wanted to go to a party with me while I was in town about a year ago. As of yesterday, I've purchased her engagement ring and will be giving it to her New Years.

[aerius]

Small event. Then followed a small action. I decided to flirt with DPDP for defeating that Phelps.

Over five years later, and we're still going strong and now we're living together.

(Everyone can go "awwww" now.)

Are you guys trying to break my record for the longest time dating before getting married?
Of course you could also do what one of my friends did, he was engaged for over 12 years with no real plans for getting married, then had a shotgun wedding after knocking up his fiancée. It was pretty hilarious.

[Mayabird]

Contrary to what you may believe, it's not all about you and the universe doesn't revolve around you.


Packer's initial post made me think about my initial start playing music. Starting playing clarinet in sixth grade on a whim and also partly because my cousin had a clarinet she wasn't using anymore. Band then consisted of most of my offline social life until I got out of college (so about half my life so far). Met my friends through band (good friends I still have), went traveling because of band, had hilarious and wacky adventures through band, even helped found the Freethinkers club in college because of my band RAT, and I haven't quite found anything to replace that yet. How would things be different otherwise? Don't know. Maybe in the end it wouldn't be that different at all.

[Rye]

Whatever year Quake II came out, I played Quake II and got into metal. This would actually end up shaping a lot of my coming of age and gave me a healthy outlet for the misery of that era. Since then, I've learned how to play guitar and keyboards because I wanted to. Today I found the guy who made the Quake II music on facebook and contacted him, thanking him for the unexpected influence he's had on my life, including the eventual inspiration to make music on my own. Being told by someone that you inspired them to make music is the sort of thing one looks forward to, so I hope I brightened his day.

[[R_H]]

Realising that life rarely goes like planned.

[Twigler]

Reading the article on St. Nicolas (Dutch equivalent of Santa Claus) in an encyclopaedia when I was six. At that age I believed he was real, since everyone around me told me so. But reading that article shattered that belief and set me on the path to question everything, including my Catholic upbringing.

[Lord Pounder]

For me it was answering a message from on Ok Cupid. I very nearly didn't reply, she was in Cork and 350 odd miles away in Belfast which I considered too far away. I did reply. We've been together for over 8 months now and have lived together for the last 5 of those month. Life has never been better.

[Big Phil]

The time I killed a man in Reno... just to watch him die... that sent me off on a life of crime with my girlfriend Bonnie - I'm pretty sure we're still one step ahead of Hoover's g-men. Hope I remembered to oil my rifle last night...


Alternatively, it was deciding to ask out the women who is now my wife, seven years ago.

[Dahak]

Deciding to take that job offer as consultant almost 5 years ago.
That sent me down a "normal" consulting path, to the point where I think I can only go on as consultant or moving into management. I doubt I could go back to being "just" a normal developer again.
I often ask if it was the right decision back then, but well, now I just have to enjoy the ride...

[The_Saint]

Small event 1. Weighed some options (which in hindsight were less than insignificant) and didn't insist my girlfriend (of the time) into staying two days with me whilst her family moved interstate. GF and her mother were killed and sister scarred for life in a car accident three days later without ever reaching the new house. I still haven't forgiven myself.


Small event 2. Replied to an email from a girl who saw me at the University Bar. Four years later we're still together.

[Darth Wong]

Small event 1. Weighed some options (which in hindsight were less than insignificant) and didn't insist my girlfriend (of the time) into staying two days with me whilst her family moved interstate. GF and her mother were killed and sister scarred for life in a car accident three days later without ever reaching the new house. I still haven't forgiven myself.

That's just awful. My sympathies, even though it was obviously a long time ago.

As for my small event, it was my application for Village residence at the University of Waterloo getting lost. As a result, I did not get into the Village residences, and I was forced to apply at one of the church colleges on campus. It obviously didn't turn me into a churchgoer, but it did put me in a position to meet Rebecca, 20 years ago. My entire life for the past 20 years would have been unimaginably different if not for that simple clerical error.

[SCRawl]

The exhaust system on my father's car needed repair on the day of my last university exam. While waiting around for the repair to be completed, he met and spoke with a guy who worked for a small manufacturing company (whose truck also needed repair) that needed another pair of hands. My father communicated this to me, and so I applied that morning. The next day (at 7am) I was called in to come in and work. (I had no other job prospects, so I figured that it would be a good idea to start working somewhere, anywhere.) A few years later, the guy who met with my father introduced me to his wife's sister, and two years after that I got married to her, yadda yadda yadda, we have two daughters.

So yeah, some minor automotive work ended up getting me a job, a wife, and two kids.

[The Yosemite Bear]

I got kicked in the side of my head when I was in first grade, lost a baby tooth, suffered a concussion, had to be observed for epilesy for a few years, got blinded in one eye, started my hatered of organized religion, (still lapsed christian/kabbalsitic jew), couldn't get a driver's liecense until I was over 20 (due to the hold on being able to get a DL for so many years per lapse of conciousness). Gotta love getting beaten to a bloody pulp by someone in catholic school for being half jewish.

oh, and DPDP/Maya are you guys still living with Marina?

[DPDarkPrimus]

oh, and DPDP/Maya are you guys still living with Marina?

Mayabird moved out of the apartment she shared with Marina when she moved in with me. Marina's never lived in the same place I have, though I have driven cross-country with her.

[Phantasee]

Does this mean you aren't in Iowa anymore, or Mayabird isn't in Washington anymore?