Anyone had a 'sliding doors' moment?

[EvilHerbivore]

Inspired by another thread - Anyone had one of those moments or decisions where you know it would affect the way the rest of your life would pan out?
Other than the chose to go to university or to try for my DSs, I'm not sure if I've had a sort of 'defining' decision or if I've just bumbled along and dealt with how life has just turned out

DS1 was 4 months old and asleep in our bedroom.

I had just sat down with my dinner - I was tired and hungry. A tiny sound came from the monitor. A hiccup maybe, not very loud. I could so easily have ignored it - it wasn’t a worrying sound.

But I thought I’d check and I can remember so clearly walking down the corridor and into the bedroom and looking into his cot. He’d pulled a toy over his face and brought up milk. The milk had nowhere to go and when I lifted him out his face was blue. I slapped him on the back and a glob of milk shot out.

Shouted DH, called an ambulance, all the while shaking thinking, I nearly didn’t check, I nearly didn’t check.

He’s a teenager now and I can close my eyes and walk down that corridor like it was yesterday.

If I hadn't read about and gone to a site which had a 'slap an annoying celeb' page, I probably wouldn't have met my husband!

Yes

Could have worked and lived in Chicago in 1986 but turned that down. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened had I not turned it down. Probably as my life is pretty shit at the moment . Sigh , the path not taken.

I found out I was pregnant when I was 21. Had just moved out of home. Had a one night stand. Didn't realise I was pregnant until I was 13 weeks - was still out drinking and put the sickness down to hangovers, had stopped taking the pill and was using condoms and my periods had been serious it erratic so, again, didn't realise.

I went to the hospital to get assessed for a termination as my circumstances at the time meant I couldn't continue the pregnancy. Hadn't told anyone I was pregnant. They told me as I was further on than I expected that it would need to be surgical. I was terrified. Had never had surgery before.

I sat in the hospital waiting room in tears and phoned my mum, the one person I usually turn to when I'm upset. She didn't answer. I know if she had I'd probably have been convinced to keep the baby and I would not have the life I have now with DH and our two DC. Proper sliding doors moment and I still get quite emotional thinking about it 19 years later.

Yes definitely. I took a sabbatical from work to travel, and if i hadn't listened to a colleagues wife about countries i should visit, i would not have met my husband. My original plans didn't include visiting this particular country and after her advice i added it to the itinerary. My now DH had originally wanted to fly out a week later but couldn't as the tour was fully booked, so he had to book the week i was on. We would never have met otherwise.

I was born in the UK but moved to another country as a child. After a bad breakup in my mid-twenties, I moved back to the UK as a temporary escape to get away from it all. I was fully intending to move back after a couple of years here. Then I met DH at work...

Years ago I was one of a general intake of clerical staff by a large company. We were to be randomly assigned across numerous depts.
On the first days induction, by chance, I happened to be sat next to the company’s chief accountant so was assigned to the accounts dept.
Despite previously having no interest nor knowledge of accountancy, I ended up doing my qualifications and having a long and successful career in the profession. And it turned out that I loved accountancy 👍

Choice between short way home (at midnight) by myself, or longer way with group of friends including boyfriend. Chose shorter way. And was attacked.
But ... This led to a break up with boyfriend, and having a ONS... With my supervisor at a new job... Who I've now been married to for 9 years.

Yep.

I had two offers of a job starting on the same day when I left school

I picked the wrong one

If I hadn't taken a job abroad a friend turned down I'd be living hundreds of miles away. One of my top 5 3 regrets.

Chose not to go on a trip to Australia and South Africa and stayed in the UK and met my late DH...

I went to an auction to buy my first car. Budget £120, the one I liked was a Hillman Imp.

Auctions are boring and smelly when you're 17 and the flasher, more expensive cars go first so I went for a wander to look in the window of the antique shop next to the auction (behind the Orange Tree Pub).

Imp came up and the chap (granddad type called Stanley) I was with called me over. A split second after I moved a car just out of the auction smashed into the shop and took down the wall and window.

Didn't get the car as it went for £10 over my limit.

So many choices: 'That path is for your steps alone...'

I distinctly remember circling a part time job in the newspaper in our uni flat and deciding I was taking it! The plan was to save money to move abroad after graduation. Walked in day one, met my future husband. A decade later we’re still happy as anything, just bought our forever home with gorgeous DC and little dog. I’d never have met him anywhere else, that’s for sure.

Not me but The night my mum and dad met. My dad was supposed to be meeting someone and she didn’t show up, and My mum was supposed to be going to work in Butlins and she changed her mind at the last minute more or less. Anyway they both met in a pub that night. Another irony is on the road where my dad was supposed to meet his date. He ended up living there years later.
Also when I was 11 my dad tried to end his life. He was found on his dads grave by a passer by who called an ambulance. Thankfully his life was saved. Just over a year later my sister was born. If that person hadn’t have gone to the cemetery that day. My dad may not have been saved and my sister wouldn’t have been here and obviously nor would my nephews.
Great thread op.

I did a degree with an industrial placement. Your tutor arranged for you to go to a job interview from a list of vacancies, I was sent to one in the arse-end of nowhere to do a job I really wasn't interested in. The tutor asked me how it went and I pulled a bit of a face and didn't say much. The next day he found me an interview for a fabulous placement much closer to home, I got the job, absolutely loved it and it set me on the path to the work I've done ever since.

There was one with DS as well. He has SNs and one meeting at his primary school was a massive turning point which has changed his whole life and ours for the better. I will forever be in debt to the teacher I spoke to that day, it was spur of the moment and could so easily have not happened or had a different outcome.

Yes! I met my husband on a weekend away that I arranged (I'm not an arranger!) He also arranged his weekend away. I said I knew I was going to marry him that weekend and 17 years and 2 children later, the rest is history. At the time I was really looking for 'something' and I found it in my DH.

The Road Not Taken
BY ROBERT FROST
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Back in the day, when I was a student I did part time bar work. I was looking for a new job and saw two adverts in the local rag. I randomly chose which number to ring first, was asked to drop in for an interview that evening. I was offered the job on the spot, so I didn’t pursue the other job. A few weeks later, while at work, I met a group of people who regularly drank in that pub. One of them is still my DP twenty plus years later.

If I hadn’t phoned that pub first, we would almost certainly never have met. Destiny? Karma? Luck? Who knows.

Love this and yes was getting bothered by a scary drunk bloke in a club. Was looking for my mate and saw someone I thought might know my cousin. Went over got chatting drunk bloke took the hint he did know my cousin also been together nearly 20 years 😂

I was awarded a place at a Catholic grammar school when I passed my 11+. Dad objected because we were Congregationalists. So I was switched to a not so good non-denominational one. If I'd gone to the original school, I'd never have met my best mate then, later, his girlfriend and, in turn, her best mate who's been my DW for 40 years now.

I told DH it'd be ok not to use a condom

I'd not had a period for 8 months at that point and was having blood tests to determine why.

Our life plan was to start trying for a baby a few years later, but we ended up with DD.

If we'd not had her then, our other DC would be different. I'd probably have had more of a career. We'd not have needed a bigger house for an extra few years so it wouldn't be this house etc etc.

Yep.

Was all set to start work at a bank and had a change of heart at literally the last minute and opted for another where I met dh to be. TBF we still might have met at day release bank school but even then he might have been sitting at the back or something.

Oh. Thought of another. Once dc3 was 8 I rang round local schools for a MDS job. They all said 'no' but one rang back a week or so later because someone had decided to retire. Ended up staying 15+ years.

When I was 13 my mother told me I had a half sibling. She had a daughter really young and gave her up for adoption. She didn't know anything about her at the time except that her family had moved to a particular state in America and they had an unusual surname.
When I was 21 I went to a different state in America. I randomly decided to "find" my sister. I looked in the phone book for "her" state and called the first name on the list. It went through to answerphone so I left a garbled message. I then completely chickened out and didn't call anyone else.
Three days later I received a phone call from a man - my sister's adopted brother. He facilitated contact with my sister and we entered into communication.
Last year she came to England and we met up along with my other sister. It was a very surreal moment, particularly for her as she had never met anyone who looked like her before and we all look quite similar.
If I hadn't made that random phonecall we would never have met.

At 23 after a summer working abroad I had literally two plane tickets in my hand - one to go back to the company I had worked for previously And one with no job but meeting up with friends and “seeing what happened”.

I took the 2nd option, ended up meeting someone and coming back to the UK a year later (he ended up not being very nice) but that path took me to my career, my partner and my adult life.

I do wonder if I’d taken the planned job to the other county what path I’d have taken!!