15+ Last-Minute Choices That Turned Ordinary Days Into Extraordinary Stories

Life is full of choices, but some have the power to change everything in an instant. A last-minute plane ticket, an unexpected “yes” to an invitation or even taking a different road on the way to work can make the difference between an ordinary life and an extraordinary story. In this compilation, we introduce you to people who completely changed their course with a simple twist of fate. Who knows? Maybe the next big unexpected decision will be yours.

• One day, a friend asked me if I wanted to go with him to pick up his friend from college. I had nothing better to do, so I said yes. I ended up marrying his friend's roommate. @DeaddyRuxpin / Reddit
• After being dumped by 2 girls in the same year, I spent a few months depressed. Instead of lying around depressed, a mate asked me to work for him on his start-up. 3 years later, I'm the CEO, 45% owner, have 12 employees and we're doing 500,000 in annual sales. @TJayClark / Reddit
• One evening when I wanted to have a bath, I could not find any shower caps. Instead of going without, I decided to go downstairs and ask my mum where they were - something I didn't usually do when we didn't get on. I came downstairs to find the drawers open and my mum on the couch. She wasn't too keen on talking to me, but I made an effort, and it turned out that she was having chest pains and couldn't remember the ambulance number (this was Geneva, where each emergency service has a specific and different number depending on the service you need and the canton you live in), which we had just been made to memorise at school. I thought she was exaggerating, but I called anyway and decided to sit downstairs with her until the ambulance arrived, instead of going back upstairs to my bathroom... It turned out that my mum had had a heart attack and the ambulance arrived almost 10-15 minutes after it happened. I managed to keep her heart pumping and at the hospital we found out she had cancer. I got four more years with my mum because I decided to give up my bath and sit with her. @ModernBarbie** / Reddit
• I had a boss who asked me to help him commit fraud. I was heavily in debt at the time and desperately needed the income, but I resigned immediately. I was lucky and got another job a month later, just in time to pay the bills. A few years later I went to see my old boss - he had been caught and was serving time. @GreedyNovel / Reddit

• I was recently divorced and unemployed. I had been offered a job that would take me to Stockholm. On the train I met a British girl who was going to the same place. She told me about an online job, which I applied for and got. The job with the company in Stockholm didn't work out well because it involved too much travelling. However, I had an online job for 21 years until I retired and I really loved it. It saved me from financial ruin as I was 50 years old at the time. @Unknown / Reddit
• I had just broken up with my girlfriend and realised I had no reason to stay in my city. All my friends were moving away, so I said "That's it, I'm going to Europe". I got my passport, made all my plans. And then on Father's Day I got a text from my ex. "Happy Father's Day," and attached a picture of an ultrasound. For about an hour I had a dark thought. "I could run away... I could go to England and just disappear. But that went against everything I had been brought up to be. So I decided to stay, got back together with my ex and had a son. I'm a single dad now with a 4 year old and a 3 year old. I'm glad I stayed, I couldn't imagine what life would be like without them. @The_Shadow_Watches / Reddit

• I swear it was complete fate... I had spoken to my mum earlier in the day and was complaining about how I couldn't find a guy I really liked (I'd been single for about 6 months and was ready to find someone else). My mum basically said I should stop taking dating so seriously and the next decent, cute guy who asks for my number should just give it a try, etc.
  Later I went to the supermarket to get a certain brand of sweets but they were out. I was driving home and suddenly decided to keep driving to another grocery store because I really wanted that particular candy. While I was in line I saw a guy and his friend paying for their groceries and I got a weird feeling. When I walked out I just KNEW he'd be waiting for me, it was so weird - and he was. He came up to me, introduced himself and ended up asking for my number. Normally I'd say no (I hate "cold" approaches to dating) but I remembered my conversation with my mum earlier and blurted out "sure, why not." This guy ended up being the love of my life and we dated for 4 years. We used to talk about how crazy it was that everything had to line up perfectly for us to meet (he didn't want to go to the shop that day either, but his friend dragged him there at the last minute). @C_WEST88 / Reddit
• After a dorm party, I had finished for the night and was almost asleep when I thought I heard a flute playing. It was strange and ethereal. As if it was calling to me, I followed the sound to the stairwell. One of my flatmates was playing the flute. I sat next to him and just enjoyed the music. Afterwards we talked. I told him how much I had enjoyed their band playing at the hall party. I don't remember much else we talked about. I just remember how much I enjoyed being with him and how comfortable I felt. We've been together for over 36 years. @Italophilia27 / Reddit

• About a year ago some of my brothers and I decided to go for a night run around the edge of the two acres we live on. The first run had a few problems with poor visibility and stiff joints, but otherwise it was fine. We were still buzzing from the first run and ready to go out again when someone, I can't remember who, but someone, suggested that we take a breather before going out for another run. We all agreed and it wasn't five minutes later when I saw someone lose control of their car, go up an embankment and flip their car across the acre we were about to run. @Any_Professional9718 / Reddit
• I was going out with a guy who was, let's just say, a bad boyfriend. We were supposed to go to his girlfriend's wedding one weekend in 2007. A week before, he finds out we can't go because he's on drill that weekend, so I put away my cute dress I'd borrowed and planned a Saturday of doing nothing. He calls me an hour before the wedding. He had decided to leave Drill and pick me up to go to this wedding. I barely had time to put on make-up, brush my hair and put on a dress. We were late for the ceremony, we argued all the time. At the reception I sat at a table and only knew one other person. I was miserable because we had been fighting all the time. I got a tap on the shoulder and I looked up and when I looked up I saw someone I knew was special. It was a really good looking guy who asked if there was anyone sitting next to me. That question changed my life. We hit it off, talked all the time. He found me on Facebook, I broke up with the other guy, we dated all through college, moved in together after three years of travelling back and forth, and last year he put a ring on my finger. We're getting married in two months. @ladyderptastic / Reddit

• My husband and I were packing to move across the country when I started to feel pain in my right side. He insisted that I had probably pulled a muscle and that I should just let it go. I usually listen to him, but the pain didn't go away for several days and my left leg was numb all the way to the knee, so I decided to go to urgent care. They told me it might be appendicitis or a pulled muscle but ordered a CT scan anyway. It turned out to be neither: there was a huge mass on my left ovary, so big that it was pressing on my right ovary (hence the pain) and was all the way up into my chest cavity. I was immediately scheduled for surgery the following month. That was a year ago, on the 29th of November. The surgeon said I had a fluid-filled cyst and he would have to drain 5 litres of fluid before he could remove my poor deformed left ovary. The surgeon also said that if it ruptured on it's own, it would be bad news. Thanks to not listening to my husband, I am alive and well (although we never moved as we had originally planned). @PhoenixxFyre / Reddit
• When I was 13 years old, 25 years ago, me and some friends went shark fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. My buddy caught a shark, gutted it, and put it on the side of the boat. He was older than me, so he was kind of an authority figure. For whatever reason, I wanted to jump in the water and swim after these events and I asked my older buddy if I could. He hesitated for a second and said no. A few seconds later he shines a light on the area where I was about to jump and there's a massive hammerhead right there. His decision to say no may have saved my life. @b***manlover / Reddit
• I was riding my motorcycle and felt a stone in my shoe. I was going to ride for an hour, so I pulled over to the right on a grassy curb. As I quickly took off my sneaker, the car behind me suddenly hit the gas and drove around where I could have been and into oncoming traffic. He had a seizure and luckily no one was hurt. @Silver_Scallion_1127 / Reddit

• My family (mom, dad, my brother and me) were in Costa Rica. Since it was my mom’s birthday, we decided to surprise her with a flight in a small plane over a volcano. We were 15 minutes late, but there is a 45 minute rule. We could see the plane parked out there from the ticket counter. My dad was never mean or rude, but he got angry and got into a fight with the employees there because they wouldn’t let us in when the plane was there. There was a big argument and we were told to leave. We took a car again and drove the 8 hours it took to get there. When we arrived at the hotel where we were staying (before cell phones / wifi), the person who greeted us seemed to be in shock. He explained that the plane we were about to board had crashed into the volcano. None of the passengers on the flight survived. @CHYMPOW / Reddit
• My car broke down so I took the bus to work. Picked up the newspaper from a seat and saw they were doing interviews for jobs in the Middle East. I, 22 in 1973, living in England with no career prospects having just left the Royal Air Force, skipped work and went to the interview. I got the job. Later, while traveling, I met a Swiss girl whom I married in less than a year and moved back to Switzerland with her. This October I will have been in Switzerland for 49 years with a lovely family around me. What if my car never broke down? What if I never picked up the newspaper? The questions go on, but I never regret being here. @Verdi50 / Reddit

• I come from a small town and at 17 I had been with my ex for 3 years, we were inseparable. I probably would have married him way too young, had kids. It would have been a disaster. One thing that pissed me off was that my ex was always late for meetings. My father, who had lived abroad since I was 3, asked me if I wanted to move to this country, I didn’t speak the language and only visited once and I had 15 minutes to decide and if I accepted I had to leave within a week. I told him to call me back in 15 minutes and I’d think about it. I decided that if my ex showed up before he called back, I’d stay and spend my life with him. But if I got the call first, I’d accept. Luckily I got the call first. I think my ex is still salty. I’m not married, not a mom. I don’t even like kids, but at 17 I was too young to know, I have a new nationality, new friends, new language and a career in IT. I’m so relieved he was late. Life is so weird. It’s funny how something so mundane can have such a big impact. @Bobzeub / Reddit
• When I was 18, I was supposed to go out with friends for a weekend. But I went to my aunts’ house and couldn’t get back in time to get ready, so I canceled the date and told everyone to have fun. The next morning my mother called me to tell me that my friends had been in a car accident and out of the 6 people in the car, 5 had lost their lives on the spot. The only survivor was in critical condition. The driver was going 106 mph and hit a tree on a curve. So I guess it wasn’t my time or something because I couldn’t get home that afternoon or I would have been in that car. @Much_Jackfruit382 / Reddit

Sometimes it’s best to just go with the flow and make that impulsive decision that’s on your mind. After all, you never know when a small change of plan can be the start of something amazing. And if you want more amazing stories, check out this article where we tell you about people who followed their intuition and ended up having unforgettable experiences.