What seemingly insignificant event changed the course of your life?

[ladybee28]

Someone asked me this morning how I ended up living where I do (small island off the coast of Africa), and the genuine answer is that my ex-boyfriend's roommate found a good deal on a surfboard on eBay...

My boyfriend at the time and I were living in Senegal. Things had been pretty crap between us for a while, and when we had a huge row one day, it felt like we needed space. So he moved out, and started sharing a new place with a surfer.

One night they got pretty drunk together and this guy found a surfboard for sale on eBay. Only thing was, it wasn't in Senegal – it was on the island where I now live.

In their drunken state, they bid on it, they won, and they decided to book flights to pick it up (it's not so far, flights were fairly cheap). My ex thought it would be romantic to book me a flight too, as a 'make-things-up-to-you' getaway.

So off the three of us fly for a long weekend... in which I reach boiling point with said boyfriend, break up with him, and decide to stay on this island for a month to cool off.

3 years later... here I am still! And I often wonder where on the planet I would be if that surfboard had been listed somewhere else...

What random event / insignificant thing ended up playing a huge part in your life story?

Year after uni in a job with a horrible boss I went on a fantasy shopping trip for a house in France over Easter weekend with my them boyfriend. No plans to buy at all. Saw my house, put in an offer and it was accepted immediately.

Quit the job, moved to France.

These are amazing to read!

Also pretty outing...
Had my heart set on a university. Loved the open day. Just as we got to the station to go home, popped into a corner shop and found ourselves in the middle of an armed robbery. Went to my second choice of uni where I met DH.

Just back from my elective in America. Totally skint and living with my parents until uni started back in the autumn.

Best friend was going to a Spanish villa with her boyfriend. It was so big that in the second week they decided to each invite some friends over.

All I had to pay was the flight.

Skint as skint could be but my lovely mum remembered being my age and wanted me to have a care free freedom holiday before I returned to medical school.

Friend’s boyfriend invited some of his mates. I fancied one of the mates from the moment I clapped eyes on him.

Luckily he felt similarly and swears that he knew within a week that I was the woman he would marry.

15 years together, 10 years married and 4 beautiful children. Best last minute decision I and my mum’s credit card ever made .

These are great.

When I finished my degree, I went to London to go for an interview/ get a job but didn't know anyone there so I stayed at a backpackers hostel. Except I got completely lost on the underground and ended up in a backpackers in the completely wrong place where I met dh .

I had 2 offers of job interviews on the same day for similar jobs about 100 miles apart. I picked one pretty randomly, got the job, met dh through someone at work and we have been married 20 years.

Taking part in a research study as they promised me a hard copy of the MRI of my head. Didn't get it. Got diagnosed with MS instead as the scan showed lesions in my brain! So glad it happened that way though!

A very long time ago I was in awful abusive relationship, but had started to pick my self esteem up off the floor by getting a temp job with really nice people and starting a masters. Met up with my best friend, who I'd only seen a few times in 4 years due to my awful relationship. Got chatting to her about this new fangled Facebook thing and how all the old gang from our home town were on there. Decided to add someone who I wasn't that close to as a teenager but was definitely fond of. Turns out we loved all the same music and had loads of things in common but were far too awkward and introverted to talk to each other much back then.

After talking for a few months online I decide to go visit him. 2 days later I went back to my exes house, packed a bag, got back on the train and never returned. Have been with DH 12 years now and baby is due a month from now!

DH didn't want to join Facebook but was bullied into it, and now he's still on there and I can't stand it so refuse to re-join, but however evil I think Facebook has become, it did absolutely change my life forever. I don't think I'd still be alive without it.

I had 2 job offers, job A and Job B. Different fields but same pay, i decided to go for job A, called up Job B to decline their offer, but I don’t know what came over me that moment on the phone, I accepted it instead. first day on the job met my now husband, it was love at first sight.

I decided not to apply for graduate jobs until I finished my undergraduate degree, because my second year marks were crap and I wanted to be able to apply with my final degree result. I had no interest in doing research, but to buy myself some time to apply for jobs after graduating, I applied for a summer research project at the university, that would pay my living expenses for 8 weeks. That led to two postgraduate degrees and a successful career I never dreamt of.

DH works abroad a lot & I was always taking our 3 oldest DSs out & about. It was to stop them wrecking the house, I think. One Sunday lunchtime I was with them in the local park when a friend turned up with her 3 DSs. She simply said, "Oh, I didn't know you went to church too". She assumed that's where I'd come from as the church was next to the park and that's where she'd just been. I hadn't, but something clicked in my brain and I knew that's what I had to do, start going to church. I've been going ever since, got baptised by full immersion in 2000 and can honestly say that becoming a Christian is the best decision I've ever made in my life.

I was 17 years of age and was told I was going to have a new Manager. They said he was very nice and that we would get on well. They were right, we married 50 odd years ago. Best thing I ever did.

Met a really handsome, lovely man at a pub while at Uni, but he seemed to be attached to one of my friends - I found out (much) later that he wasn't. About a month later I was alone in my student house, bored and lonely; decided to go out to a club I knew for a drink. He was there, at the bar, and I thought, screw this, I'm going to have at least one cuddle from him, walked up behind him and put my arms around his waist.

He looked over his shoulder to see who it was, grinned, and put his hands over mine, and walked me home later.

We've been married over 30 years

My working life has been governed by a series of gut reactions or simply saying yes without much thought or contemplation of the consequences.

After A Levels wasn't sure what I wanted to do but DF was adamant women didn't go to uni, so was destined for something admin wise.
A woman I sometimes met whilst walking the dog told me how her daughter had written to a NHS department asking about careers advice and as they had a vacancy, they'd sent her an application form. Her daughter wasn't old enough to apply. She passed the form on to me and i got the job, spending 13 happy years in a career I'd never thought (or heard) of..
I then decided I really wanted to go to university to read history, chose the uni purely on the basis there was a professor there with specialism that caught my eye. The department loved mature students and welcomed me simply by my submitting an extended essay. Within weeks of starting had met and quickly married DH.
After graduating I had a casual summer job and met someone who was planning to start an Access course in the September. We kept in touch and when the college's Humanities tutor left suddenly, she phoned me and asked if I'd like to step in. Spoke to head of school and worked at the college for 5 years!! Found my niche teaching adults and went into community education with an educational charity. My boss there encouraged my creativity and I stayed (14 years) until redundancy 2 years ago.

So, had two really fulfilling careers but never really made the decision 'i want to be a ...'

@Toddlerteaplease that's incredible! Thank goodness for your (adorably nerdy) curiosity...

I'd just finished my uni exams and was knackered and grumpy. I was invited clubbing with a friend of a friend the next day and said no because I wanted to spend the evening in bed eating snacks.

Friend then guilt tripped me into going because she didn't want to go alone, so I grumpily went. It was a very busy, cheesy club with terrible music and it's own burger bar.

Friend and I were followed around the club by 2 married men who wouldn't leave us alone. In the end, we told them to fuck off and went to the dance floor on the other side of the club.

I'd only been there a minute or so when now DH tapped me on the shoulder.

If I hadn't agreed to go to the club and been pursued by a manky married man I wouldn't have DH or DS

I was on holiday in another country after getting divorced, cheering myself up by visiting friends and family. Got involved with a guy there and had a fling. He and I arranged to meet for lunch the day after New Year (we had spent New Year's eve together then each went to our own places for a bit of sleep) but he then called in sick with a hangover.

I was at a loose end so went to a friend's house, where she happened to be having some people round for a New Year celebration lunch. (She hadn't invited me because I was supposed to be with the fling guy for lunch, and she knew that). Her holiday house is gorgeous, overlooks a famous and beautiful beach, facing into the sunset.

I had a few drinks, was having a nice time, in walks one of her husband's friends. He wasn't supposed to be there either and hadn't been invited because he had been supposed to be working but the thing he was supposed to do had been cancelled so he turned up.

I took one look and spent the rest of the afternoon picking him up, in the most lovely environment imaginable (sunset over the sea etc). I won't say anything more about that evening or night but a few months later he moved to the UK to be with me, and a few months after that we got married. We are still married, 15 years later.

I never told fling guy that his hangover changed my life...

Getting elected into a particular role in a university society/charity, with another girl sharing the role with me. I barely knew her before (big year group), quickly became good friends. A few years later, visited her in the the city she had moved to- loved the city so much I decided to move there myself. Have stayed there years later, and met my DP (soon to be DH).

This is such a nice thread! 1986, I was engaged (at 20 🤦‍♀️) working in a bank, bored to tears. Saw ad in local paper for Trainee Sales Rep (!) My friend’s sister happened to work at the company and said oh it’s great and the Boss is really fit.... Applied and got the job (Boss was married and not at all my type). Six months later Boss seperates from wife (NOTHING to do with me) Nine months later asks me for a drink after work. I agree. Nothing happens but I rethink my wedding plans. Thirty years later we are still married with three fabulous children. Still not really my type 😂

@ladybee28 my brain would have looked great on the living room wall!

@SushiMonster amazing story! Fortune favours the brave!

I decided to take a Saturday job at the closest shop to my house. 16 years later I'm married and have kids with the lad who I used to swap shifts to work with .

Mine is that I sent an email! Friend kept saying I'd get on well with someone, I said give me the email and I'll get in touch.

We met got married and had kids. That email changed everything, significantly my career. I'd probably be dead now as was a ultra-high risk career.

Bumping into an old friend one workday lunchtime. Went to lunch to catch up a few days later and I’m still not entirely sure why, but she was the first one to see right through my defences and I ended up pouring my heart out about my abusive (now ex) husband for the first time.

It was the moment that changed my life and once I’d shared the truth with someone about how awful things were, it was the start of the end. A few months later, I left my husband and I was reborn. My life began again that day and I will always be grateful.