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?

I was just finishing my fashion design degree and the big finale was exhibiting at a show in london with all of the other UK fashion graduates. We had a stand with our portfolios and had to take it in turns to do shifts on the stand. By chance on my 3 hour shift, the design director for a major uk retailer came round, we spoke, she liked my work and invited me for an interview. I got the job and went on to have my dream career in a very competitive industry. Sometime you do just need to be in the right place at the right time

My grandad’s one…
he was a young man when WW2 broke out. All the young men from his village signed up to the navy and went on the same warship together. My grandad decided that he’d stay home as he was shooting rabbits that summer and the money was good. That ship went down and all the men died. My grandad became a farmer and went on to have a family and so I exist.

Went to a house warming and i really fancied the guy who's flat it was, but I wasnt sure if he felt the same. We all went to his local and he and I were getting on really well. Everyone else left and we were getting on really well. So well that i missed the last bus home (about a half an hour walk through some dodgy areas). The guy said you can kip on my sofa... 3 decades later, we have 2 kids, 1 grandchild and a lot of good memories. DH says that even if I had caught my bus he would have been knocking on my door the next day anyway.

My father’s band in the 60s were offered a record deal and part of it was they had to move to another country. The day before they were due to go, there was a problem with the visas and it all fell through. The band ended up splitting up not long after and my dad got a normal job. He met my mother and they had me.
I wouldn’t have existed if he’d made it in the music business.

I have a 'near miss' one. When I was nine, one Sunday afternoon I went out with my mum and sister to walk to the local park. About 30 seconds after we'd passed a particular house, an out-of-control car came swerving down the road, onto the pavement and then crashed through the garden wall and into the house behind us. The driver was seriously injured, but thankfully survived.

I've often thought about what could have been if we'd left the house 30 seconds later - one or all of us would have been seriously injured, perhaps life-changingly injured, or possibly even killed. The exact time of leaving the house was entirely random; we were just walking to the park so it wasn't a case of 'we must leave by 2pm'.

If one of us had dithered slightly, or in the time leading up to us going, taken 30 seconds longer to do something, it would almost certainly have had a life-changing impact. I still think about this often; if I am leaving the house to drive somewhere, for example, I wonder if the exact moment of leaving will mean we later have or miss a serious accident.

Sending off a letter to the classified section of a course I was doing asking for travel companions.

I met my ex through doing that and therefore had my four children. If I hadn’t sent that letter I have no idea how my life might have been but it wouldn’t have been the one I’ve had!

Helicopter crashed, 24hrs before DH & I were due to travel in it.

Driving along the road in a hire car on a Greek island. Rounded a corner on a blind bend and young child ran out across the road in front of the car. If we had been just a few seconds later that child would have been dead. We weren’t driving fast, being careful but that child wasn’t being supervised . I still think about it all the time. It really shook me.

I passed my 11+ and got a place at a very good grammar school. It was a catholic school run by a teaching order.

My father (with my support) objected as we were not RC and got me switched to a place at the town's secular grammar school.

My life would have been totally different if I had stayed with the first school if only because I would not have met my DW.

I was planning on driving down a road at the exact time there was an airfield display plane crash disaster and many people were killed. I impulsively decided to go to the shops first- my love of shopping saved my life.

In my 20s, one Friday night I was meant to go to a house party of an acquaintance, getting ready to go. A work friend texted me just then, asking if I wanted to come for drinks at the local rock bar with her friends. I decided to sack off the house party and went to meet my friend. She introduced me to her bf and his best mate. Been married to the mate for 12 years now.

The week before the Manchester bombing in 1996, I went there for a couple of days with A Man Who Was Not Mine. No one knew we were there. We went to the places which were then bombed. We had been supposed to go exactly a week later.
I still wonder what would have happened had we caught up in it, or worse.
As it was I soon realised that TMWWNM was a dick, and his girlfriend was welcome to him. However it turned out that she thought the same. She and I are friends now. No idea what happened to him.

I had a very similar experience. He chased me for a year and relented and went out with him in the end. He completely sh!t all over me. It’s a red flag to chase someone like that I and now realise that.

Was supposed to spend a year abroad as part of uni course.

Hated it, return within a matter of weeks.

Met my now DH, been together 17 years

Living in Leeds with my increasingly abusive and frightening ex (5 years together) and doing a dead end job. I went back to my home town in the south for my mum's birthday and my sister forced me into meeting her for a drink in a local pub- I didn't want to go because I felt really rundown and tired but I felt guilty for not making the effort with her so agreed to one drink. Within minutes of being there a gorgeous man approached me to chat. We got on so well and he was so lovely, and it reminded me that not all men were as vile as my partner was. I left my ex the following week, moved back to the south a few months later and got myself a career. I didn't leave my ex for the pub man, he was simply the catalyst for my eyes opening, and I didn't think it would progress into anything serious given it was a rebound relationship, but we've been together almost 20 years now and have a very happy marriage.

My dh (pub man) also had his sliding doors moment that night as he had also been dragged to the pub by his mates- it was his first evening out for months and he was leaving as we arrived. How different life would have been had we not both been forced into being sociable that evening!

At 15 I sat down next to the 22 year old electrician who was lighting our school play, rather than go down the stairs with the boy my age who fancied me.
25 years later, I’m married not to the electrician but to one one of his friends, we have nearly adult children and the boy my age is serving life in prison for murdering his girlfriend.

Similar thing for my great grandmother! Our family live near Southampton and she had a ticket for the Titanic but (and nobody ever believes this) she had a dream of it sinking and refused to take her ticket, it was an outrageous thing for her to do as they were so valuable and everyone wanted a ticket at the time! Not sure who took her place…

If she’d perished on board she’d not have given birth to my gran or her siblings and none of us would be here…

Opening up the laptop and clicking reatore last sessionn
rather than start new session- managed to read all the messages between my ex and his bit on the side - no coming back from that one!

Applied from a job in Poland. (From another EU country)
They sent me to work in the U.K. for a few months. I met my now dh and never made it to Poland after all,p.

And no, if someone had asked me, I’d never have chosen to emigrate to the north of England either 😂😂

😲

I was pretty much permanently single - just didnt seem to be able to meet men and actually get in a relationship. Had moved back to my home city and had a good job etc but just wasn't truly invested. Hard to explain but was just sort of floating.

Met a man on a plane in my way back from a work trip. Had the most amazing chat. V light flirting. He was absolutely gorgeous and I was, if I say so myself, looking pretty good at the time.

We.got off the plane at at baggage claim he turned to me and I absolutely know/knew he was going to ask for my number. I just sort of froze, brushed him off, said bye and left.

I thought about that man a lot. But it was part of the impetus to make me start owning my own life. I moved to London shortly after and really did throw myself into it. Met dh etc.

Deep down, I have always suspected he could have been something but it's like My life had 2 paths and I went down this one where I got THIS amazing dh and THESE amazing dc.

Stayed with unfaithful husband. Have my beautiful daughter - our second child. So grateful for her. But went through hell with him.

Some how, some way I managed to secure an interview for a job that I really wanted, but was unqualified for. They knew this.
The interviewer seemed a bit unimpressed, but I tried as hard as I could. I was told that if I had not heard in a week, to assume I had been unsuccessful.
The week was up, and I realised I hadn't got the job, but I decided to phone him regardless.
I asked my interviewer if they had appointed anyone. He said, 'No, I cannot find anyone suitable. Oh for goodness sake, I'll give you a chance.'
I made the company a great deal of money, and started a 25 year career.

Not mine but affects me. I'd been in my job a couple of years (teacher). Different department recruiting, two candidates. I was privy to insider talks about the candidates and they really weren't sure which to go with. They ended up going with who is now my husband and father of my children.

Mines quite a recent one - but after 13 years single (relationship trauma) I met a guy who made me consider getting into a relationship again. He wasn’t sure what he really wanted tho and I wasn’t up for being messed about so rather than wait for him to make his mind up I decided to try “facebook dating” had a couple of disastrous dates and creepy messages and felt like giving up - then Facebook popped up a “you passed on these give them a second chance” the first guy that popped up on that was someone who I only passed on cos there wasn’t a lot of info on his profile and I don’t really like to judge on looks - but figured I had nothing to lose at this point so matched. We’ve been together about a year now, and it’s best relationship I’ve had. But I’ve only got it because the guy I was interested in initially kept mucking me about and on a whim I went “oh eff it, I’ll see what he’s like” on a random profile. The other guy has remained a friend of sorts and he’s still the same now as he was 2 years ago when it comes to meeting ppl / getting involved. I’m so glad I didn’t hold out waiting for him to get his act together because I’d be missing out on what I have now ❤️