Sometimes the universe takes REALLY good care of you.
Some of the lucky people below were put in situations where they went with their gut instinct. Others happened by chance, and it's like the universe saved their lives for some unknown to us reason. Warning: violence and references to major destructive tragedies below.
u/S3Dzyy asked Reddit:
These are some of the lucky answers.
Hold The Pancakes Please
I once slipped on ice and into the street right after a truck went by. I had stopped to pick up my phone moments before, if that didn't happen I'd be a flapjack right now
Rob, A Robber
Didn't lend money to a "friend" because I was broke, few months later he disappeared with several thousands he had stolen from my other friends
Push Push Push
We were all set and ready to put an offer on a house. Did the paperwork with the realtor, signed the check, put down the offer. The realtor was super pushy but the room was 90 degrees and we weren't thinking straight. After signing the papers we go to see the house again with my in laws and notice a TON of issues we hadn't seen before. Got really anxious, big issues like plumbing, a huge wrap around deck that needed work, etc but we were stuck now.
Got a call the next day from the realtor saying that we never signed the bottom of the offer paperwork and can we please come sign it RIGHT AWAY. We decided not to and are going to wait a bit and do this smarter next time.
Don't rush when buying your first home folks.
Jobs
Got offered my dream job running an offshore aquaculture facility. Had to choose between the job and my SO's future. I reluctantly declined the job. A few months later i heard the facility was dealing with a serious disease issue and had no chance of being sustainable. Had i taken the job, i would have most likely being single living in a tiny seaside town, the job would have sucked, and I would have only worked there for max three months before the place shut down.
Truly Dodged A Bullet
Was in Vegas during the concert shooting. We arrived a couple of days prior and the stage where it happened was already set up. Everytime we passed by the stage my dad kept telling me "we should go there, looks fun". While I was in Vegas we went to a Golden Knights game and planned to go see what that stage was all about afterwards. I was so tired during the game that I could barely keep my eyes open. My dad noticed and told me we would go to the hotel to sleep instead of the concert.
Never Thought I'd Love Staten Island
I missed my ferry on 9/11, making me late to work. I saw the plane fly into the building from my next ferry.
So Many True Bullets
I had a ticket to the theatre 9 showing of Batman in Aurora 2012. I was the closing waitress at work that night and got "screwed" by a table coming in 5 minutes before closing. The person sitting next to my bff was killed- it probably would have me sitting there
Could Have Lost Everything
Moved out of an apartment complex this year where I did not have renters insurance. It burned down 4 days later.
Drive Defensively
Leaving work one day and I let someone else merge in ahead of me. We both get to a Traffic light and stop. The light turns green and we both start driving through the intersection. A SUV comes throught the guard rails and off the overpass just past the intersection and lands ON the car ahead of me. The car is flattened.
If I had been more agressive that would have been me.
Literal
I didn't understand how tickets worked. There was a fee and a court date and I assumed I had to go to court that day and pay it there.
Missed the court date.
Went to the district attorney's office and she looked right my 17 year old self and said "Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to reduce your speed, I'm going to completely ignore the fact that you were out after your curfew, I won't have a warrant out for your arrest, and you'll just have to pay a large fine. This is an almost literal get out of jail free card, don't waste it."
I wanted to hug her through the glass, and I don't think I said thank you enough
So Much Work
Buying the wrong house. Put an offer on a house that needed some work. Offer was refused. House sold a year later for $100,000 less than my offer. Bullet dodged.
A Breath Away
Not my story, but my moms. When she was a senior in high school, a bunch of seniors went up to the mountains to party a week before graduation. Someone's dad worked as a ranger, so we was able to secure the keys to everyone's cars. Mom's best friends show up late in their topless jeep. They decide to go stump jumping in the jeep. They drive up the path a bit, messed out of their minds, and my mom begs them to stop and wait for her while she pees. She hops out, goes to do her thing, her friends leave her. She hikes back to camp and tells everyone and so they go out looking for her 3 friends. Finds them the next morning, jeep completely turned over, everyone dead. If my mom went with them, she would have died too.
It absolutely messed her up, and she's said she's never had a best friend since that, despite her being very social and a wonderful person.
7s All The Way
The choice: A) Stay in a dead, remote town of 600 people because I liked (but did not truly love) the woman I was with, after the shop I worked at closed down. She had a good income (nurse), did not want to move, and was fine with me earning less developing my own business interests... or B), break it off and move to a huge city and roll the dice.
I chose B, and my girlfriend ended up fired for drug abuses (stealing them from work). I never suspected she was doing that, but she was making bank on selling what she stole. And I had an awesome time in Montreal.
Appendices
My appendix exploded, one hospital rejected me and told me to go home and use some low key painkillers. Got driven to another hospital immediately rushed for an operation. If I spent another day at home I would have died. I could have also ended up with a major scar from my ribs to the lady parts. So lucky but so shook.
Later Realizations
Bologna, Italy.
August, 2, 1980.
I was four years old and was with my dad at the Train Station, to look at the train timetables. We were planning our trip to the seaside the following week.
I was literally 10 meters tops away from where the bomb set off, two minutes before it did. We heard the explosion while entering the car to get back home.
That was horrific, but 4yo me didn't fully realise what happened till much later. I just remember my father being really scared while driving home.
Diverted
Death, twice.
First time I was 21 and was having stomach pains, like screaming in shear agony type stomach pains. But I didn't think it was anything crazy, I've always had stomach issues. Finally after a couple of days I went to the ER and that had to do emergency surgery. Found out I have diverticulitis and one of the nodules had popped, spilling bile into the rest of the stomach and had infected my appendix as well. Doctor said I had about 12 hours left to live.
Second time was this past year, around the scars from my diverticulitis surgery I had developed 2 hernia's. They weren't a bother for the longest time but finally late last year they started hurting. Each time I went to the hospital, they were able to calm my body down and then pop the bigger hernia back in and I was good to go. Until the last time (mid-May), surgeon came in and said "we're doing surgery now to fix this." Good thing too because he found some intestine had gotten stuck and was getting strangled and was dying. Said I was probably about a day or two away from having all sorts of problems if not straight out death.
I hate my stomach and it hates me.
Thank You, Eyes
When I was really young, I was pressure washing my driveway with my dad. My dad was watching the whole time but he had to go do something else, so he turned off the washer and said not to touch it. Stupid me didn't listen to him, and didn't appreciate the actual power of these things. So anyway I turned it back on when he left and ignored his instructions.
It suddenly cut out. I had no idea why, and I was freaking out as to why it was only pushing out a tiny trickle of water, and that my dad would be mad. I was trying to fix it, and I remember looking down at the nozzle. I remembered this years later as how dangerous it was-- I was essentially holding a misfired gun with the barrel right at my eye.
I am so, so. SO. damn lucky that thing didn't go off for whatever reason. So lucky.
Goodbye Mom
Was taken away from my mother at around 10 years old when I went to live with other family. I had some contact with her but very sparse, mostly letters passed between her and a neighbor at the time. 3 years later I sent an email to an email address I found in one of her letters. She had a good job and her life back together. Went back to live with her shortly after. This was around 2008.
Well we got into an argument one night, our cat was sick and she refused to take it to the vet. It got heated. I called my grandmother to get me. While talking to her my mom cut the phone cord and slipped a note under my door threatening me. They tried convincing me nothing had happened and I was making it up. I never went back.
Mom lost her job, got back into drugs, had a psychotic break, and was thrown into jail for threatening to kill multiple people, including a law enforcement official. Meanwhile I managed to pick myself up and while I am still dealing with some issues I have an ok life. I have no doubt that staying with my mom would have left me with serious mental health and or drug issues. Maybe worse.
Horrid Future Consequences
I dated a guy for almost a year, but he was abusive. I found out he cheated on me and he went to live with the other girl (much to my elation! I helped him pack).
A few years later, I see him on the news. He killed and dismembered his girlfriend (not the girl he was with when he left). They had a month old baby together too. It was disturbing.
The Tree Missed, Thankfully
There was a bad windstorm in 2008 in Cincinnati, Ohio that came from a hurricane. Cincinnati is actually in the Ohio valley which means it doesn't typically get that windy. It was my future father in law's birthday and we were trying to make it over to their house for lunch, only 5 minutes away. The main road is blocked by police cars as a trees and power lines had fallen, no worries I'll take the back way. I go a little further and have to turn around because another tree had fallen and blocked both sides of the road. I turn around and go another direction. I get to the end of the street and can go either left or right. The left is blocked by a cop car and another car just turned around so I'm going to go right. It's a 3 way stop and I stopped first. I started to go and the car on my left who just turned around wasn't stopping and ran the stop sign. I was frustrated but heard a creaking sound. A 25'+ tree fell with the trunk perpendicular to where me and my now wife were sitting covering all windows with branches. We crawl out of the car and notice the tree itself is only being held up by stretched out power lines. If those power lines wouldn't have held the tree we would have been crushed without a doubt. We just celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary and have 4 beautiful children but it all could have ended that day.