Why is it, that it seems most of life's biggest consequences are birthed from the tiniest of actions, often without intention? So many of us fight, struggle, plot and methodically plan for certain outcomes for many things in life but to no avail. Then suddenly like a Julia Roberts movie you turn a corner and BOOM.... everything changes. Heck, it makes you nervous to go outside, but then maybe staying in will lead to the biggest BOOM. Oof, I can't decide. It's all a coin toss.
Redditor u/Homelss_Emperor wanted to hear from people who are still trying to decipher how they unintentionally played a part in some major dramas by asking.... Butterfly effect. what is that trivial thing you did that caused a serious chaos later on?It was a whole thing.
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Broke a glass and spilled juice all over the floor when I was 8. We we are at our uncle's house. It got under of a quite heavy cabinet. It was sticky and my father move the cabinet a little so my uncle's wife can clean it. Behind the cabinet, there was a small box and inside that small box, a cellphone. So that's how my uncle's wife found out he had a second phone and was cheating for a long time. It was a whole thing. They ended up getting a divorce.
Fill the hole...
Kinda a long story so I'll sum it up. When i was in high school I had to dig up a dead tree in our yard. I lazily didn't fill in the hole like my dad requested because I was exhausted after moving everything left it for a couple days and my mom ended up breaking her ankle after taking a nasty fall from that same hole. She went to the hospital where they did surgery on her ankle and she caught gangrene.
No big deal it was treatable at first they did some minor amputations and gave antibiotics. Nothing they gave her did anything but slow it down. So when they finally found one that worked well for her what they didn't realize is that in a weeks time she would have several heart failures a day because of it and eventually it got to the point we had to let her go.
The Help Desk.
Not exactly chaos, but it had a big impact. After I graduated college, before I could land a full time job, I was doing temp work. I'd just finished a weeklong temp assignment as a receptionist at an office. It was Friday, but they called me and asked if I could come back for one more day since their receptionist was still out.
I did, thinking nothing of it.
Turns out that my husband was starting his first day at the company working Help Desk, and his first ticket was to install a new printer at the receptionist desk. If I hadn't agreed to one more day of work, I never would have met him.
Second Life....
In 2007, I played an online game called Second Life. My avatar bumped into another and because of lag, I moved him. We joked about it and somehow that night I said to him "yes, but I'm not taking your name in marriage." We've been married for 12 years. A lot has happened.
One More Minute....
Not a bad kind of chaos, but showing up for a final exam at the wrong time lead to a shitload of cascading events that result in me meeting my wife and having a successful life.
i was on academic probation my junior year of college because i liked partying more than studying, and refused to learn my lesson. I pulled all-nighters for my final exams, and needed a 2.0 or better to stay in school.... part of being sleep deprived meant that i mixed up the times of my last exam.
It was at noon, but i thought it was 5pm. So I show up to a now-darkened building, freaking out. I was scrolling through my contacts hoping to call anyone i knew from the class when i bumped into my professor, knocking the stuff out of his bands. He was packing up the last load of his things, as he was heading back home to Canada for the winter break, and had me marked as a 0. I needed a 75% or better on his final to stay in school.
He gave me 20 minutes to take this test, which i was able to get a B on, which let me stay in school, graduate, get a professional job (after a year of min wage bullshit), move to a city with my friend where i met my wife... If i was literally one minute later rounding that corner in that lecture hall 9 years ago I wouldn't have had the life i have now.
The Riot Starter
A few years ago I brought yellow slime crystals to school, I left them under a desk because I didn't want them anymore. I was in a pretty bad school so all the teachers assumed it was a form of cocaine. Which led to a whole drug search of the school, which turned up all sorts of knives, drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, and stolen goods. Next thing I know 100 kids were suspended/expelled. Now, I was the culprit who accidentally started this.
When all the kids got back, people were getting jumped left and right of being suspected of the drug search. They were all looking for me, and only my closest friend knew that it was me. The security tightened around the school, but kids were even getting jumped at their homes, because of all the contraband. So yeah. I basically started a riot because of yellow slime crystals. :/
Me + 6....
I made an impulsive decision to drop an Administrative Law class with a world-renown professor to take an advanced Constitutional Law seminar that had been added during the summer break after our Law Faculty had poached an up-and-coming professor from another university.
I was having second thoughts on law as a career and figured I might as well take a class I like as opposed to a class people said I needed. There were only 6 other people registered in the seminar, including the man I ended up marrying. He was a foreign student that semester and I'd never have met him otherwise.
Ended up with a career in administrative law, of all things, too.
Shirt Off. Guns Out.
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Drunk too much one night. Seen myself shirtless. The next day decided to hit the gym for the first time in my life. 2 years on, currently studying Exercise science & nutrition. Got my own studio in the city. Steady job. Couldn't be happier. My drunk mind tends to see things from a new perspective. Sober OP may have been complacent but drunk OP may have been like "what the hell is this crap?"
127 Jobs...
I've been waiting on this question for a long time!
I missed the train to work one day by one minute about 6 years ago I'm a head chef so this sh!t matters, because I was an hour late my team screwed up a table that was a critic and her family they had strict dietary restrictions that my team didn't take into account without me.
The review came out it was really freaking bad, so bad that people stopped coming to our place and the company went under. I firmly believe that if I didn't get stuck in traffic that day I would have saved over 127 jobs. It still keeps me up at night!
Teenage Dream....
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In high school I had a crush on girl A and my friends figured it out. Embarrassed, I claimed they were wrong, I couldn't like girl A because I like girl B. They all chime in, then go for it! She'd totally date you.
Turns out girl B was wonderful, it lasted 4 years and it was one of the best relationships I ever had. We eventually had to break up but we are still on good terms.
I was such a dumb high schooler.
The Infected
Best I can think of is in senior year of high school, I went to school and had a slight stomach ache and I was like it's nothing probably just hunger or something I ate, and next morning full blown stomach bug in which I spent the whole day throwing up. I recovered by evening and I was able to return to school the next day, which the school had one of the lowest attendance rates where it almost reached the level in which school would've been forced to shut down because too few people showed up. One day I infected almost 60-70% of everyone at the school with the stomach bug.
in the woods.....
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I was at a hotel on a family vacation, sneaked outside to smoke a joint late at night, I must have left the door to the hallway ajar or something, later on a full blown community of raccoons come charging into the joint, man did they run wild.
EDIT : it was a mountain resort hotel. ( in the woods ).
Simba Forever....
When I was seven, two friends and I walked to a dumpster to retrieve my Simba plush. Their asshole neighbors stole it from me and threw it in there.
Five minutes after we got my Simba back, the dumpster suddenly caught on fire and five of the buttheads went to the hospital with serious burns.
Whenever I tell this story, I always start with,"Hey, my friends and I set a dumpster on fire when we were seven."
Life Moves Forward
Was talking about a cute boy that walked into the restaurant my best friend and I were at. He was wearing headphones but not listening to anything. We get to talking, exchange phone numbers, etc. I was stuck in a >2 year LDR with an abusive fool (though I didn't realize it at the time). Fell in love with boy from the restaurant, realized how crappy my situation was, tried to get out. (Now ex) BF at the time went ballistic, cut my name into his arm and sent me pictures, harassed me and my friends, threatened to kill himself if I left.
I left, he checked himself into a mental hospital after continued abuse over the phone. Now I live with the boy from the restaurant, we have three cats, and we're currently brainstorming ideas for our wedding (not engaged yet... but he's horrible at surprises so I know it'll be soon). It's a good feeling to love and be loved. I'm realizing now that this story may not be entirely relevant but I'm on mobile and already typed this out.
To the Border....
Well, while not chaotic, this does remind me of when my mom decided to run away with me and my siblings, (she didn't and still does not have custody) she wanted to cross the border into Mexico. I complained and she was somehow convinced to hide out in the deserts in California.
If had I not complained, things would have been different. My mom would still try to illegally cross the border with us and either we would gave been caught and I would not have spent 6 months in what was effectively prison, or I would be an illegal immigrant in Mexico.
The Rando Love
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Took my car to the shop and ended up needing a ride to my running club. A random guy offered. Our 6th anniversary is in October and we have a house and 3 dogs together.
Frat-tastic jungle juice....
I lived in Miami in my early 20's. This was the height of my party days. Even though I rolled with a big group of high-achieving recent college grads, we were young enough to treat every weekend like Spring Break.
I had this "bit" where I'd dump a bunch of of 5-hour energy's into the jungle juice we made to pe-game every Friday night. It was a well-known thing in my circle of friends.
I did it yet again this one Friday night. But that same night, this guy who had just started casually dating a girl in our group decided to come out and party with us. He drank a bunch of the jungle juice. Nobody thought to warn him that it was essentially a vat of bootleg 4-Loko.
An hour or two into the night, he starts freaking out b/c his heart is beating so fast. I realize why, I tell him he's just stupid caffeinated, and my friend/his sweet, very drunk kinda-gf takes him home early. They have a fun, if drunken and messy, hook up that night.
A month later she's pregnant. Soon enough, my gal pal is a new mom. A year after that, they're married. Now they've got a multiple kids together and live in a border town in TX b/c he's in the military. My dumb butt, frat-tastic jungle juice started a freakin' family. But it seems to be a happy one, so... meh.
I'm Sorry
Soooooo.... One time on a night out many, many years ago. A guy I knew said he had a friends mums phone number as his friend had lost their phone and was using their mums. He said, "Shall I text her pretending I'm a guy that's in love with her" or something like that. I laughed and said yeah, not thinking too much about it.
Anyways, years later I find out that this friend's dad had seen the message and attempted to kill himself in his garage. I felt awful! I still do.
A Long Story
My wife and I were almost adopted siblings. Not what I did, but when my Mom got pregnant in High School, she confided in a high school friend.
THAT high school friend spoke to her next door neighbor about potentially adopting me since she had just found out she wouldn't be able to have more kids after giving birth to a daughter.
She decided against adopting me, the unborn baby.
Well anyways, Mom had me and kept me and 18 years later I dated and later married that woman's daughter. So, by deciding not to adopt me, she set in motion a series of events that led to me marrying her daughter.
A Quick 5....
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Leaving five minutes earlier than I should had which caused us to be in the right spot at the right time to get T-boned. Now, we are piecing our Jeep back together after three weeks of insurance stuff.
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When we're intoxicated, or even the slightest bit tipsy from having a little too much to drink, our immediate perspective on things is hazy.
But there's nothing like a bit of alarming news or a jarring incident to snap us out of the fog and focus on the moment.
Sometimes alcohol isn't always to blame for our impairment.
It can be a state of mind, like a perpetual numbness from being complacent in life, and all it takes is one shocking moment to rattle us back to our senses.
Curious to hear from strangers online about this type of scenario, Redditor Known_Challenge_7150 asked:
"What’s one thing that sobered you up real quick?"
These individuals were witness to shocking events that sobered them up right quick.
Bleeding Out
"Got out of a taxi and found a naked man profusely bleeding from his head crawling up the driveway in my condo. Called him an ambulance completely forgot I was absolutely wasted until 45 minutes later when I'd helped him translate and in to an amublance and stepped in my front door."
"Later a few days later learned he'd slipped in the tub and literally crawled out for help. Poor dude. He was fine but I genuinely thought he was going to die there."
– DongLaiCha
Tragic News
"At a bachelor party and we got a phone call that the groom’s father had suddenly passed."
– accountnameredacted
Bottom Of The Barrel
"I went to visit my parents back in July. I was homeless and deep into fentanyl addiction so I lost a lot of weight. My folks could see it. They knew something was up. Anyway, I spent the night and I was getting ready to leave in the morning and I looked at myself in the mirror for a good long time. I finally had enough and told them everything. They took me to detox, from there I went to rehab. Graduated in August and been living with them ever since then. I have 160 days clean and sober."
– Crotch-Monster
A reality check can be enough for some people to snap out of it.
Like Father, Like Son
"Was driving a drunk friend home, he had been on a bender again and was smart enough to call me for a lift rather than try and drive. As I helped in to his house his mother came down the stairs and said 'your as drunk as your father' and went back upstairs. I haven't seen him drunk since then, he still drinks but the thought of turning into his dad scared him out of hard drinking."
– psycospaz
Busted
"Flashing blue lights."
– FiddleOfGold
"This sobered me up just thinking about it."
– redmaple_syrup
Losing Sight
"Woke up to no sight in one eye. I had cataract surgery so just thought one of the lenses had slipped and it was an easy fix. Eye doc says nope, you had a stroke. I loved soy sauce, teriyaki sauce and salty food, which caused high blood pressure, which caused retina damage. Over six months was able to get most of my eyesight back with medication, and all back within a year. Trying to navigate life with one eye was very sobering. Started taking HBP much more seriously."
– MissHibernia
Quitting The Bottle
"Looked up someone I went to highschool with who was an awesome guy. Found out he had been dead for 3 years from alcoholism, at age 33. I made an overnight change. I hadn't started drinking that night yet, 10 months ago. Haven't touched it again since."
– omgtater
These disturbing moments were enough for Redditors to immediately come to their senses.
Unplanned House Guests
"Me and a buddy Woke up in someone’s living room, realized neither one of us knew the people, they were just nice and let 2 drunk guys sleep on their living room floor. We didn’t even say goodbye."
– Oneinsevenbillion75
Serious Health Warning
"Elevated liver enzymes."
"And the knowledge that this sh** was gonna kill me and I just couldn't orphan my family over it."
"So I opted for recovery, instead."
"Clean and sober since June 5, 2009."
– Far_Meal8674
The Joyride
"Grew up in a rural area. The little town hosted dances at the hockey arena, everyone (adults and kids) went and they overserved everyone, regardless of age. I was maybe 16 or 17 and was absolutely sh*tfaced, and jumped in the back of someone's truck with about 8 other people to go back to someone's cottage for after dance drinking. The driver (still don't know who it was) started racing one of his buddies and we whipped around small dirt roads, flying around blind corners on the wrong side of the road, going god knows how fast. It was basically a disaster waiting to happen. It was crazy scary and I was sober and thankful to be alive when we finally arrived."
– foxfood9116
The human psyche is a fascinating thing, isn't it?
How we can automatically focus on something urgent at a crucial time, even after getting buzzed from drinking too much alcohol.
But as we're in the thick of the holidays, it's a good reminder to drink responsibly and stay off the roads if you drive to your celebratory destination.
Cheers. Stay safe. And happy holidays.
We've all complained or vented about something in our lives which, in the grand scheme of things, wasn't exactly a problem, or is very easily solved.
Then there are those who complain about things that others almost hope will happen to them at some point in their lives.
These are known as "first world problems", as they are problems that pretty much only the world's one percent faces.
From having to fly business class instead of first class, or being served Roederer instead of Dom Pérignon, these complaints are often met with amusement, bewilderment, or even anger.
Redditor jennimackenzie was curious to hear the most absurd "first world problems" anyone ever complained about, leading them to ask:
"What’s the most ridiculous 'first world problem' you’ve seen people get worked up over?"
"Tale As Old As Time..."
"I once knew a mom who was legitimately devastated, to the point of tears/grief, because a doctor predicted her 8 year old daughter's final height to be around 5'2","
"Which wasn't tall enough to get cast as Belle at Disney World."
"That was the child's (and her mother's) only dream in life, apparently."
"Didn't appreciate my suggestion that she could be Minnie or Mickey."
"Lol!"
"Only a face character would do!"- TravelLovingMom
"Must Be Funny, In A Rich Man's World..."
"My boss from about a decade ago was this insanely rich dude who always went to the bank to get fresh and crisp currency."
"He'd call the bank in advance to make sure they had some on hand."
"I think he was a germaphobe."
"He had a trash can that he'd throw $1 and $5 bills in that he thought was 'dirty' and regularly just donated it vs spending it."
"I asked him why he did this and he said it was too much trouble and asked if I wanted it."
"I said f*ck yeah dumped it into my bag and when I got home it was close to $400 in singles and fives.
"Another time, he wanted to upgrade all the computers in his studio, so we went to a store and bought 10 PCs."
"They all had $150 mail in rebates and he wasn't bothered to go through the trouble of mailing them in."
"3 weeks later I received $1500 after spending a whole afternoon filling out all those goddamn forms."- azninvasion2000
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Who Wore It Better?
"When I was about 19 years old, I was at my boyfriends family BBQ."
"I was wearing this pretty floral sundress."
"His cousins girlfriend showed up in the same dress and she was SO mad that she went and changed."
"I will never understand being upset when someone is wearing the same thing as you.'
"Did you really think that your shirt you bought off the rack is going to be unique to you?"
"No."- mertsey627
Seeing Red! Or Blue In This Case...
"The blue of the balloons wasn't quite the same as the bridesmaid's sashes."
"Years ago my wife and I attended a wedding."
"It was very low key."
"The dinner was in the dining hall at the university where the couple met, cinder block walls and all."
"It was a Baptist wedding - no booze and very serious."
"The dark blue balloons attempting to liven up the hall were a slightly darker shade of blue than the sashes on the bridesmaid's dresses."
"The bride lost here sh*t and absolutely raved for nearly an hour."
"I can't remember how they finally managed to talk her down."- mechant_papa
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See You In Court!
"Rich neighbors who end up in expensive court battles because they disagree about where a tree can be planted or whether the color of a fence fits in with the street’s 'amenity'."
'These disputes get really heated and rack up huge lawyers’ bills."
"The most pathetic part is after the judgement when they are arguing about who should pay the other party’s costs."
"Lots of affidavits filed citing the 'emotional distress' they had to endure, or painting themselves as brave warriors who were forced to take a stand to fight for 'justice'."
"Also lots of pompous litigants insisting that the judge refer to them by their 'Dr' title."
"An absolutely insane dumpster fire of entitled rich people problems."- ElectrocRaisin
It's Always People With Money Who Don't Want To Pay!
"I work in a public library."
"People will get so so mad if they have to be put on a wait list for a book."
"A popular book that just came out."
"Ok our services are not only free but so are the books."
"You’re welcome, a**holes."- Switchbladekitten
A Warm Butt Is A Happy Butt!
"My own."
"We have a bidet toilet seat (Fabulous! Everyone should have one!) and not only does it wash your bum and blow dry it, but the seat's heated!"
"It's shocking how much a heated toilet seat makes the whole process more agreeable."
"Except: We had a power outage and I went to use the toilet and the seat was cold!"
"Unacceptable!"
"This shall not stand!"
"I was really upset because it didn't feel good."
"Then I stopped and thought: This is the most first-world problem anyone's ever had."
"I was really pissed because my heiny was tepid."
"I got over it."- DeathGrover
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Holy Matrimony!
"Weddings are a gold mine for this question."
"People get so hyped up over their 'most important day of their life'."
"They'll destroy friendships, go into debt, and have crazy expectations."
"It's not always the couple who go crazy, either."
"Sometimes, it's the parents or another family member who feels entitled to control the wedding."
"It's just a party."
"Be considerate of guests, have plenty of food and drinks, and enjoy it."- magicrowantree
When Fast Food Isn't Fast Enough...
"Having to pull off to the side to wait for a drive-thru order to be brought out to you because your food isn't ready and there's a line building up behind you."- demanbmore
In Case You Don't Think Customer Service Employees Are Undervalued...
"I was working the return desk at a Target next to a military base so I have so many stories."
"One of my favorites was a lady who had her baby shower before revealing the gender and was livid that she had received floral newborn diapers when she’s having a boy."
"It was a huge box of super expensive, all organic diapers, that we didn’t carry and therefore could not return."
"I cannot accurately express her fury and disgust."
"How dare either suggest her boy could wear feminine diapers."
"I suggested she donate them if she didn’t want to use them and she instead threw away the entire box."
"When she left we pulled it out and threw it in our donate bin."
"There have also been multiple times where mom’s order massive toys and when we bring them out to the car they get furious that they aren’t wrapped."
"We don’t offer wrapping services."
"Here’s the thing, if you don’t want your kids to see the toys you got them for Christmas or their bit to day DON'T BRING THE CHILD WHEN YOU PICK IT UP."
'I’ve had multiple women scream and curse me out that I had ruined their kids Christmas by bringing the toys they ordered out to the car like they requested."- clever-mermaid-mae
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Happiest Place On Earth!
"I used to work for Disney."
"That in itself should tell you everything."
"However for fun I'll give you two specific stories one form our tech department and one from my wife who worked bookings."
"I specifically worked for their call center to help with technical issues with magic band and the website."
"Suddenly got worse huh?"
"A right of passage call everyone has at least one story of is the 'Dome call'."
"Basically there is a subset of Disney Guest (TM) that believes if it rains at Walt Disney world there is someone that will push a button to encapsulate the whole of Disney property in a dome to keep out the rain."
"I'm not kidding."
"If this button is not pushed they call our tech department to angrily ask why."
"My wife worked booking."
"Pretty much everything including Bibbidi Bobbidi boutique and Pirate's league."
"These two things did roughly the same thing difference being price and theme."
"BBB was expensive did more and was focused on princesses, pirates league did a bit less and focused on mermaids and pirates."
"Lady called up my wife, and got pissed about BBB being booked up (It goes FAAAAST)."
"Karen: 'Im going to give the phone to my daughter and I want you to tell her how you are ruining her vacation by not letting her do BBB'."
"Wife proceeds to explain how pirate's league is so much cooler and how she can be a mermaid or pirate and basically gets the kid to start demanding to their parents about how they want to be a mermaid instead of a princess."- trollsong
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The horror!
Being booked into a junior suite at Disney World instead of an executive suite!
It's almost as bad as having no money for groceries, or no food to feed you children...
Said absolutely no one.