What really small thing influenced your life in a big way when you look back on it, good or bad

[aprilchem]

When I was in high school my parents told my sister she couldn't go to Homecoming with a boy who was a different race from us. That one action led me to ultimately question everything they had taught me and reject their beliefs entirely, and I've had a very different (and much better) life because of it.

 

[Kim&Chris]

Bad: seeing the behavior of some family members on the day my father died. It made me realize it was time to remove myself from their selfish chaos.

 

[WDWEPCOT]

I lost someone very dear to me because of their stupid actions - they died because they did something very stupid - the pain was soul crushing - (and still is almost 40 years now ) but it has made me an advocate against doing what they did - I have drilled that into everyone around me for decades and will to the day I die ! I have always made it crystal clear - call me no matter what time or where you are at - I will come and get you - but DO NOT Drink and Drive - my policy is always no questions asked - I just pick you up and take you home. I am grateful you didn’t drive! Or walk - had another friend get killed walking home drunk ! Just too dangerous !

 

[CBMom01]

a record album

Oh. Yeah. I have one of those

 

[BrianL]

Well, here's one - in 2010 I realized that I was an adult and could take my own vacations. I could go anywhere I wanted to go! Where would I want to go? Walt Disney World. That's when the bug bit me - hard! I had been as a kid and was a general Disney fan, but not a super fan! After that, I joined the DIS and have over 15,000 posts and have taken over 20 trips to various Disney Parks in that 11 year span!

 

[holden]

My high school AP Bio teacher was the most challenging teacher I ever had. His class was tough - lots of work and studying. He taught me that I could do the work if I put my mind to it. Thank you Mr. Smith!

 

[chickapin parterre]

my mild stutter when I became anxious, had therpahy in elementary school, none at middle school, then mom attends freshman orientation and signs me for a speech class...it was a competitive debate and other oral speeches.....stutter was gone by then, but it the debate class saved my life...took me from a future of working in a lumber mill to being the renaissance man I am.

 

[DisneyHardin]

When I was in middle school the Librarian asked me if I wanted to be a library aide for a period during a 9 weeks grading period instead of taking art. I thought that sounded like fun and did it. I have now been a school librarian for 15 years.

 

[tcufrog]

In my freshman year of college, my friends convinced me to be a designated driver to an off-campus party. I was sitting there bored when this very drunk guy came up and started talking to me. He eventually grabbed a permanent marker and insisted that I write my name on his arm.

I thought nothing of it until the next day he called me out of the blue while I was studying and we had a very awkward phone call. I later found out that he didn't remember the party and woke up with something written on his arm. His friends told him that it was the name of the girl he hooked up with at the party. He went through the entire paper student directory (mid 90s) to find my phone number. He thought that if something had really happened I'd say something during the call.

If you had told me then and there that we'd get married and have two kids I would have thought you were insane because I thought he was an idiot.

 

[Shelley Chiarats]

I have a couple of times where two choices were available. One was chosen and yet you always wonder what the other would have been like.

Graduated HS at 17 and what they called a "young" 17 - not very wordly. I could have gone to a Public University about 5hrs from home and lived in the dorms. But instead I picked the local Private University and stayed living at home. Two very different college experiences.

Years later, my husband and I were looking for a Masters program for him to go back to school. One was in Southern Illinois close to my Mom's side of the Family. The other was in Nebraska close to my Dad's side of the Family. We chose SIU and lived with Mom for 3 years then moved away for a few years and then ended up back in this area again. Always wonder how things would have worked out had we gone with Nebraska.

 

[diznygirl]

I was going to join the Navy after high school but I was rejected for medical reasons. I went to private university in another state and met my husband.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

It’s funny how college choices come up in a lot of these. I wonder if it’s because in some ways, it’s the first of many important life choices made as an adult?

My DS was slated to go to one college, a dream he’d had since early HS, but changed his mind at sort of the last minute to go to another. I remember telling him who knows, you may meet your future wife there. And sure enough, he did meet a girl he’s been dating for four years there. (Her parents had met there, too!) Not to mention it launched him on a career path different than the one he’d intended, but in a good way.

Love these stories.

 

[2letterwords]

I sent an email to someone with whom I had a friend in common. We've been together for 24 years and have two kids.

 

[TwoMisfits]

In college, I had a hallmate who was in crisis b/c her "distant" boyfriend was coming to visit and she actually had a college boyfriend as well, and she didn't know how to handle it. She asked for my advice, with me never having met either one. I asked her who she liked better and told her to dump the other one, since it wasn't right to date both as "boyfriends" without them knowing about each other. And b/c the whole thing was doing nothing but causing her stress. And after much consternation, she did dump the college boyfriend.

A month later, I had no idea I was doing it, but I met the "dumpee" and we started dating...a few weeks later, she tells me that the guy I'm dating is the guy she dumped...and I've been married to the "dumpee" ever since.

It's a story I tell my kids...if people ask you for advice, and you tell them to do the right thing even though they may not want to hear that answer, you never know how it may turn out, but goodness does have a way of begetting more goodness...

 

[pigletto]

Learning to read. I realize it’s pretty common in our part of the world but it’s a pretty magical thing. I remember being absolutely engrossed in books all the time, teaching myself all kinds of things.

I remember sitting in a tree at my grandmas house with a pillow and a book about figure skaters and deciding I would be a champion figure skater , or wanting to learn about girls in other parts of the world and reading all about them. Going to the library on a Saturday and using the card catalogue and finding stacks of books to spend the afternoon pouring over.

It’s always been such a big part of my life. Even now I prefer a physical book in my hand to a digital copy. But anything that brings reading and access to all that knowledge and all the stories to be told is a wonderful thing.

 

[crjack]

Not my story but my oldest sister's. My grandmother moved to Boston from Nova Scotia with her four youngest children. She got a job at Mass General and worked there for decades, always working and studying to train for advancement, even as a single mother.

My sister went to nursing school at MGH and worked there for many years. After graduation she met many experienced staff who had worked with my grandmother and she said they held her to a very high standard. Best prep she ever had to be an ICU nurse.

 

[cdobert]

I was required to take Accounting as part of my Associates Degree in Aviation Technology. I loved it and went into Accounting instead of Aviation.

 

[Praying Colonel]

I was picked to work a summer Governors Scholars Program. There were 2 campuses. I was picked for 1 and asked the person (who I worked with in college) if I could switch to the other one.

She could've just said "Fine" but she said she really thought I'd like being at the campus she selected me for. I trusted her judgment and said I'd stay put.

I ended up dating this fellow counselor there and we got married. 2 kids, 33 years later, that 1 extra bit of effort she made changed my life.

 

[bobbiwoz]

I grew up in Newark, in a four family house, and we weren’t allowed to have dogs. I often brought home strays, but the next day they were taken to a shelter. I was 40 years old when my uncle in passing said “I have been surprised you never had a dog.” Wow! My sons and I went to the pound the next day and came home with Midnight, a 2 1/2 year mixed breed, mostly lab. She turned out to have heart worms and our $5 dog cost us hundreds in heartworm treatments. We had 10 wonderful years with her, and I’ve never gone more than a few months without a dog. Our current is Gus, whom we adopted when he was 5, and he’s nearly 10, and had gone through chemotherapy two years ago, but is fine today. Here he is with my DH, Tom. Tom is Gus’s favorite human.

 

[disney castle days]

Offering a kid on my team gummy bears.

My coach was trying to make our star player stay by making me be friends with her (hence the offering her gummy bears). Our coach later got fired for abuse, which we both helped each other through since we both experience the brunt of the abuse We wound becoming best friends and went to the same college to play on the same team. We both have helped each other through some really rough patches over the last few years. I then changed my career path because of her. I owe everything to her.