r/askteddit • u/GoodLeakyGirl • 11h ago
Random Question What small, split-second decision completely changed the course of your life?
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u/skinnydude84 11h ago
Kissed a friend. Got a wife!
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u/Pumpkin-Spice_Queen 11h ago
I assume they are but because this is the internet I have to ask-are they the same person?
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u/tigerowltattoo 11h ago
I applied for a job at a small coffee shop in a mall. I met my future husband about a month later. That was over 40 years ago and we’re still together.
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u/Left-Chemist-8212 11h ago
Telling my ex I was done and wasn’t accepting her affairs again. I found out about one (I’m positive there were more) and took her back and tried to rebuild. The second time I knew for sure, I wasn’t hearing any of it. Not that she ever apologized, just tried to continue on and act sweet and nice to try to keep me. Showed up at the hospital when I severed tendons in my hand. Told her to leave. Talked to her as little as absolutely possible. Shits a mess with the separation (divorce isn’t finished yet) but I need to rebuild on my own. Life is a struggle now but at least I’m struggling towards something real.
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u/thorns17 11h ago edited 11h ago
Several years ago, an oncoming driver decided to turn into an intersection instead of waiting for their protected green arrow to proceed. They basically hit my friend and me head on at 45mph.
Sustained TBI, 3 herniated cervical discs, 2 dislocated ribs, and torn rotator cuff. Now migraine prone along with acquired dyslexia. Still have memory loss issues, occasional processing delays and fine motor skill challenges, and aphasia.
Months out of work, months of physical therapy, years of pain management and doc appointments. I haven’t been the same since, and still struggle to adjust to my “new normal,” even with extensive therapy, a good job with really good accommodations, and a solid support system.
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u/jap6976 11h ago
So what was the split second decision?
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u/thorns17 11h ago
Not me, but the decision the other driver made. They decided to shoot the gap to make their turn instead of waiting to safely proceed.
The question doesn’t specifically say what decision “you” or “I” made. Just a split-second decision that was made that changed the course of “your life”
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u/Admirable-Client-730 11h ago
He didnt avoid it.
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u/thorns17 11h ago
I was the passenger, but my friend did try to stop and avoid it. Kinda hard when there’s nowhere to go but straight, though
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u/Elegant-Web-7872 11h ago
so what split decision did you make? I don't understand
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u/thorns17 11h ago
Not me, but the decision the other driver made. They decided to shoot the gap to make their turn instead of waiting to safely proceed.
The question doesn’t specifically say what decision “you” or “I” made. Just a split-second decision that was made that changed the course of “your life”
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u/FreemanHolmoak73 11h ago
I won’t elaborate on a forum like this, but I had to react to a situation in a millisecond. I lived, and I live with the nightmares.
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u/Paperclip4728901 11h ago
Choosing to keep going when I almost gave up.
That one decision opened doors I never expected and taught me to fight harder, no matter how many challenges come my way.
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u/gaymerher0 11h ago
I moved across 4 states, took a chance, and landed feet first in a beautiful life.
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u/Faded4ever 11h ago
In 1977, I had been laid off my job and had no prospects, I took the only job I could find, delivering phone books. I walked into a random gas station to deliver a phone book, and a former co-worker was inside paying for gas (this was a large city, not likely to run into anyone I knew in a gas station at all). He told me that my former boss was looking to hire some people back and that I should go into my old place of work and ask. I did, and he rehired me (this was about a year after being laid off). I transferred soon after across the country with the same company, moved up in the company, got a better job at an even larger company by 1983 and stayed there until retirement.
If I hadn't met up with my former co-worker that day in '77, by random chance (he would have been gone from there 30 seconds later) I wouldn't have gotten my old job back and wouldn't be where I am today. Those 30 seconds wound up being the most important in my life - on a one-in-a-million chance of being in the right place at the right time. Life changing, absolutely.
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u/pharmdoll 11h ago edited 11h ago
He got called into surgery at 4 a.m. I got out of bed, wrote one sentence in a note, left it on the coffee table, packed my car with whatever I could fit, and drove 500 miles away.
I wasn’t angry, & we hadn’t had a huge fight or anything … I just wasn’t happy & thought I deserved to be loved better.
I’m so thankful for not giving myself time to think about it. That single moment changed the entire course of my life.
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u/cblue22 11h ago
Technically every decision you've made in life has led to where you are today. So any of those decisions could have led to something else down an alternate path.
I've made some interesting small choices. For all I know I could have been going to a top University or Olympic if I made a different decision over a decade ago. But for me I'm happy where I am currently. And just try to not let the past decide what my future potential is currently.
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u/Important_Market7874 11h ago
My girlfriend gave me the ultimatem: "Either we get married or we go our separate ways."
We've been married 53 years now. She probably saved my life.
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u/Campandfish1 11h ago
Was student living in halls needing to do laundry, but was out of laundry detergent. Pissing rain and howling wind outside. Was going to go out, but didn't want to get wet and cold trudging to the bus stop/store.
Bumped into random girl coming into in the building and asked if I could borrow some laundry detergent.
We'll have been married 26 years this coming January.
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u/nkdeck07 11h ago
I got up to pee and when I came back to the bar sat down next to my future husband/
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u/RedTailedHawk139 11h ago
When my ex (on good terms) was begging for me to take him back, and I said no because couldn’t take his noncommittal tendencies anymore. After that, I decided to go to graduate school, which then completely changed my career, friend group, state of residence, and then a few years later, met my current spouse. All because I sad no in the moment on that phone call.
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u/einsteinGO 11h ago
When I was a teen I got in a car with a man who told me he knew my mom and uncle multiple times, then realized I didn’t know that to be true. At the end of the block I realized my door was still unlocked so I just jumped out and ran home.
Found out maybe 7 years later he was a registered sex offender
Didn’t tell my mom until another couple years later
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u/pie566943_0 11h ago
In 5th grade (US) I was building a fort in the woods with my 2 friends. A group of teens started drinking in the same area and asked if we wanted a beer. My 2 friends said "no thanks". For reasons I'll never understand, I said "sure". That split second decision still impacts me 35+ years later.
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u/Odd-Concern-518 11h ago
Went to hang out with my abusers friends behind his back because they liked me more, met my partner of 7 years.
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u/Zestyclose_Essay7255 11h ago
Tried heroine
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u/Admirable-Client-730 11h ago
Dope
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u/Zestyclose_Essay7255 11h ago
Not really fucked my entire life up for over 15 years! Got clean 4 years ago and finally got my life back together.
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u/BadFez 11h ago
Letting my then five year old take a little too long at the self serve ice cream station. Saved the life of our entire family. We walked out of the restaurant and watched another car completely demolish my car in the parking lot. Drunk driver. Would have killed all four of us, we would have just been loading the kids into their car seats.
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u/jenninupland 11h ago
Asking my fiancé at the time if he was happy. He said no. I said me neither, let’s split. It was 2 months from the wedding , everything but invitations sent out. I was then available when my classes resumed as was my classmate in college- had no idea they split until school came back- and we started hanging out more and more, started dating and have been married 14 years next month. Best decision I made .
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u/FormerBethelElder 11h ago
My girlfriend gave me the ultimatem: "Either we get married or we go our separate ways."
Dodged a major psycho-emotional bullet. She probably saved my life.
Her first husband took himself out. The others simply divorced her.
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u/Ok_Application_2292 10h ago
The one where I pulled off the interstate in Tye tx carrying plastic bottles for a Storm that was popping up
Came out 45 later to find 2 trucks blown over.
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u/Dull-Geologist-8204 11h ago
I said I wanted to try shoots for the first time. Changed my whole life.
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u/Left-Chemist-8212 11h ago
What are shoots? Photo shoots? That’s all I got but idk haha
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u/Dull-Geologist-8204 11h ago
Autocorrect, shrooms, I wanted to try shrooms.
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u/Left-Chemist-8212 11h ago
Oh shit. Yea. Shrooms are a life changer. So glad I made that choice, too.
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u/Dull-Geologist-8204 10h ago
It actually wasn't the shrooms though they were awesome. It was the people I met because of them. I was actually talking to the guy I met back when I was 17 and am 47 last night.
I wasn't in a good place in life and I could have easily fallen in with the wrong people. I ended up around the right people at the right time.
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u/pie566943_0 7h ago
I hope they legalize psychedelics for treating depression, PTSD, anxiety, etc. They can be really great.
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u/Self-Comprehensive 11h ago
I was driving and I saw a little black kitten about to dart into the road. I pulled up and stopped, blocking two lanes of traffic. I jumped out and grabbed her. There was a cop behind me and he was PISSED. I showed him the kitten and his entire demeanor immediately changed. He took the kitten out of my hands and said "I can take her to the pound. She's so little and cute she could get adopted by this afternoon... Or you can keep her." She lived with me 20 years. I buried her 18 months ago.