What is your 'Sliding Doors' moment?

[bridgerbelle]

Defined as a seemingly inconsequential moment or decision that goes on to dramatically affects the trajectory of your life.

So what's something small that, if you went back and changed now, would result in you being a different person/living a different life?

Friend got thrown out of Heaven nightclub and we ended to going to another club where I met H.

In the middle of divorce proceedings and splitting savings my ex H said let’s take the money and blow it on a massive holiday with the kids and reset when we come back. Years later I still wish I had taken a chance.

I was there in Church Street that day too!

To go or stay?

My first year at uni I felt very detached from my course. One night someone came running up talking about an assignment that was due the next day. I shrugged it off, not realising that not submitting would be a fail. If I had done that assignment I would have been stuck for years on a course I hated. Instead I went with my now DH when he got a job, changed subject and we are married with offspring. That was the last century.

I have a sad one and a happy one. I didn't go to my GP when I had an ear infection because I felt awkward asking for time off work to attend an appointment, and it ended up causing permanent damage which forced me out of my career completely. The happier one is that I was very bored one evening and so scrolled through previous conversations on an online dating site. For who knows what reason I decided to reply to a message that I had ignored a few weeks earlier. He is the love of my life and we are coming up to our second wedding anniversary.

Upon collecting my GCSE results completely changed my A-levels (even though I got the required grades!) and turned down a Royal Navy scholarship place in their Officer training programme.

Probably would never have met DH or had DS if I'd not done that!

Was backpacking and staying in a beach hut in Malaysia. Was planning to go to our next stop Bali, but was warned not to for risk of terrorist attacks. Almost never went, then threw caution to the wind and carried on to the next destination.
Was very lucky, as two days later, the 2004 Tsunami hit.

@Hobbitfooted Please could you explain what happened a bit more?

We intended to book our honeymoon and get a last minute deal to Thailand right after the wedding, using money guests were giving us as gifts.

Decided on a whim to book Italy the following summer instead.

If not for that whim we'd have been in Thailand when the Boxing Day tsunami hit, the hotel we'd been planning to book was pretty much obliterated.

In my early 20s I agreed to go out with a bloke who I thought was a dick but was pursuing me. I had never really had anyone interested in me before, coupled with low self-esteem and not having the assertiveness to keep saying no, so I relented. The relationship was awful and I ended up suffering with terrible MH issues that still affect me today. I wish in my sliding doors moment that I had said no instead of yes. I do wonder what my life would have been like if I had never met him.

I finished my late shift at Sainsbury's 1999 and drive off, realised I'd forgotten my locker stuff so went back, 10 minutes later a car crashed into me.

Everyone was ok, shocked bruised but I had a back injury and claimed the sum total of 1k which meant I had enough to travel.

Met my DH while travelling, 2 DS etc and a fab life.

If I hadn't gone back for my shopping in my locker, who knows where I'd be!

I have so many near misses in my life I really do think my guardian angel works 24/7

Years ago, I worked in the Leadenhall Street, DP worked in Westminster. We’d quite often meet after work in a Friday, with him coming to the City for a drink at the Underwriter in St Mary Axe.

Anyway, this particular Friday, I called and said I’d go to meet him, which was unheard of, but that’s where we ended up. That evening, a bomb was detonated outside the Baltic Exchange in St Mary Axe.

Odds are we wouldn’t have been caught up in it, but you never know. It does sometimes make me think of the tiny decisions that life can turn on, for good or ill.

I seem to remember an excellent Dr Who episode (David Tennant/Catherine Tate) that riffed on Sliding Doors - Right Turn, maybe? I should give it another look.

So it was you who bought from the shop the last size I was after😢

Turn left. It showed what would've happened of Donna made a different turn.

Said yes to marrying him. Wish I hadn't.

Said no to a guy when he asked me on a date because I wasn't in a good mood at the time. He went on to marry someone else, have the most beautiful children, move to another country. I am single and childless.

But also, I used to be late for work every single day, but this one day, for unexplained reasons, I was actually running on schedule. I missed a terrorist attack (London tube) that I would have been caught up in had I been late as usual.

At 6 weeks old I was adopted from a Catholic unmarried mother home. My whole life is a sliding door moment. A box ticked on a file, a name on a list above or below another name, that's all it was. I could be a different name living a different life. It blows my mind how randomly the decisions were made.

Decided to go out on the whim with some friends to an old bar I used to love back in the day. Bumped into my now DP, and it was his first time in my home town, also on a whim after a game of football. That was 6 years ago.

Not mine but DH, he was living abroad when he broke his foot driving a moped. He had to return back to the UK and happened to walk into my place of work looking for a job. We've been together 25 years with 2 amazing kids. He's the love of my life ....thank you broken foot

@Alalalalalongalalalalalonglonglilong has it all worked out well for you? I guess adoption really is the ultimate sliding doors moment isn’t it?

When I was a post-grad student, I ended up somewhat tipsily kissing a handsome American (who was NOT my very boring boyfriend) after a university event we'd both been to.

When we went to leave it was absolutely pouring, so I rather boldly invited him back to my room since I lived across from the venue and he lived a bit of a walk away.

The rest, as they say, is history. Dumped the boyfriend, married the American and been living a life in the US I could never have dreamed of.

Swapped my student placement from one to the other.

I'd have never met my boss, who introduced me to her son, who is my lovely dp.

Applied for a last minute clearance college course. Sat next to someone and ended up being partners with them for icebreakers.
Became really close friends and through them was introduced to a group of people, became friends and stayed in touch with one of their ex’s and through him met my DH! Complicated way of getting to it but if I hadn’t gone for that course and sat where I did then who knows what direction my life would have went in.

After divorcing my first husband 8 years ago I had no desire to meet anybody else. My team at work (all women) were nagging on that I should sign up to a dating app. Out of curiosity I downloaded Plenty Of Fish on a slow work day, looked at it and thought how utterly depressing the whole thing was and that I would delete it later. Hours later it pinged with a message from a man who looked nice. Met up a week later and have been married for 4 years now. We relocated to a beautiful market town which I adore, I changed jobs, I moved my teens with me who have thrived in the new area. I often wonder how life would have panned out of I had not downloaded plenty of fish that day!