The Butterfly Effect

[Badong]

Basically, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions; a small action may seem inconsequential now, but may actually be a catalyst of a much larger chain of events.

Nearly a decade ago, I was given a choice between two schools. I was just a young kid back then, and I didn't really care which school I'll end up in; it's just a school, right? Wrong. It turns out that the school I chose was the rated the best, and most expensive, school in the country, so my family ended up spending more on my education rather than my other wants(like a gaming console).

So in my opinion, that's the story on how I have come to lack a console.

So, my fellow escapists, what insignificant event in the past has affected your life in a drastic way?

NOTE: I am aware that we cannot truly know what might have happened if a certain action did not occur. I am just asking for an action that YOU think brought about your current status in life. Just throwing that out there.

 

[CrashBang]

I won the literature award at my high school and was naturally awesome at English but when it came time to choose my university course, I chose drama instead of literature because you still study plays, it's more fun and I'm a very capable actor. About 2 years into my course I thought about starting again with English because I was hating drama. If I'd done that I wouldn't have made all the fantastic friends I did. I finished my final year yesterday and I'm proud to say I finished university with about 30 really good friends I wouldn't have had otherwise. Bonus: I got into the English teacher training course anyway
If I had chosen any other course or not gone to uni at all, these last 3 years would've most liked been a waste

 

[Soxafloppin]

Aww, I thought we were gonna discuss one of my favourite movies!

Umm, like you stated its kinda impossible to say how exactly you'd turn out making different discussions, I wish I would have worked harder at school and maybe made something of my self!

 

[tzimize]

Basically, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions; a small action may seem inconsequential now, but may actually be a catalyst of a much larger chain of events.

Nearly a decade ago, I was given a choice between two schools. I was just a young kid back then, and I didn't really care which school I'll end up in; it's just a school, right? Wrong. It turns out that the school I chose was the rated the best, and most expensive, school in the country, so my family ended up spending more on my education rather than my other wants(like a gaming console).

So in my opinion, that's the story on how I have come to lack a console.

So, my fellow escapists, what insignificant event in the past has affected your life in a drastic way?

NOTE: I am aware that we cannot truly know what might have happened if a certain action did not occur. I am just asking for an action that YOU think brought about your current status in life. Just throwing that out there.

Anything that affects your life in a drastic way is by definition significant.

Now that I'm done being difficult I'm gonna go on topic and say: Deciding what girl to date 5-6 years ago. I ended up with a fantastic girlfriend instead of a ditzy tart.

 

[Astoria]

Well in year 10 I had a choice. Stay at my current high school or change to another. I decided to change because 1) the school I was at was too strict for my liking and 2) I though I could make a whole new group of friends. Come year 12 I was miserable as all hell because I was doing mostly bludge subjects that made me feel like a idiot and I had next to no friends. Had I stayed at my old school I can be pretty much 100% sure that I would've done better subjects and had a big group of friends. Yeah, I'm still paying for that one.

 

[Ambi]

I joined a particular forum where I discovered facts that led to my loss of faith, and I also found a few people I became online friends with, and my IRL friends became friends with them, and there was all this stupid drama. I still talk to one of them nowadays, and I found this site through him.

The day I made an account on the first forum, I actually remember having this feeling telling me not to make it, but I did anyway, and I rationalised that it wasn't a big deal. I knew about the butterfly effect since I was eleven or so, and it just made me paranoid about little things I did.

 

[Aurgelmir]

I joined a particular forum where I discovered facts that led to my loss of faith, and I also found a few people I became online friends with, and my IRL friends became friends with them, and there was all this stupid drama. I still talk to one of them nowadays, and I found this site through him.

The day I made an account on the first forum, I actually remember having this feeling telling me not to make it, but I did anyway, and I rationalised that it wasn't a big deal. I knew about the butterfly effect since I was eleven or so, and it just made me paranoid about little things I did.

Is this a sad or happy story? I guess the drama is sad, but loss of faith? is that a bad thing?



On hte topic, I often wonder how my life would have been if I chose differently at different points in time. And I generally think that I like what I have now decent enough...

 

[WinkyTheGreat]

This is actually fairly recent. I have two very good friends that live about 30 minutes away from me (a couple, one guy, one girl). I met the girl during a Psychology class that we shared and the guy through the girl. On the second day of class, we had a reading to do. A reading that I forgot about entirely. I get to class early every day and sit in the hall outside of the classroom. While I was sitting, the girl approached me and asked if I had done the reading. We both got the "oh shit" look on our faces and I suggested that we go down to the computer lab on the first floor (of which, she didn't know about). Later that day, we chose partners for an assignment and since we already shared a moment of terror, we teamed up and hit it off. A few months later, she brought her fiance to dinner with me and I hit it off with him. We've been hanging out ever since and I wonder what would have happened if one or both of us had remembered to read our homework.

 

[Ambi]

I joined a particular forum where I discovered facts that led to my loss of faith, and I also found a few people I became online friends with, and my IRL friends became friends with them, and there was all this stupid drama. I still talk to one of them nowadays, and I found this site through him.

The day I made an account on the first forum, I actually remember having this feeling telling me not to make it, but I did anyway, and I rationalised that it wasn't a big deal. I knew about the butterfly effect since I was eleven or so, and it just made me paranoid about little things I did.

Is this a sad or happy story? I guess the drama is sad, but loss of faith? is that a bad thing?



On hte topic, I often wonder how my life would have been if I chose differently at different points in time. And I generally think that I like what I have now decent enough...

Both good and bad things happened. I made a good friend, and I learned so many things and developed better critical thinking skills that helped me in school sometimes. I learned things that contributed to my agnosticism, which is still uncomfortable for me to think about sometimes because it'd make my parents and friends sad. I cried a few times because of those people I talked to, but that doesn't matter at all now, we're all good.

Sometimes I speculate about what could've happened if it wasn't for the internet. It's ultimately pointless, and maybe I'd still be wondering even if I did things differently, because nothing would've been absolutely perfect. Like you, what I have now is decent.

 

[ReservoirAngel]

Deciding to hang around my house one night instead of going out with my friends to get drunk and play X-Box.

If I'd gone out that day, I'd have never had that house party sprung on me, and would likely never have met my boyfriend. Or I would have met him later and not had enough Dutch courage to talk to the guy, so I'd be single and miserably right now.

 

[Wintermoot]

me not having the balls to fight against my bullies has left me with regret and forcing me to end my school a year later then planned

 

[Luvbird49]

Hm...thinking about where I am now, I can trace through a chain of events all the way back to when I was about 7, with a single event: the pastor of our church at the time stepped down from his position and left our church. Fast-forward to 13 years later; because of that event, I eventually experienced a church split, got involved with a new church (which caused me to begin coming out of my shell), attended and graduated from a private school, and through a teacher in said school we found our current church, and through that church I heard about the college I am currently attending, and after two years at said college, I have come even further out of my shell, and become a much different person than I was before. And I know it isn't going to stop there; life goes on.

 

[SuperNova221]

I generally don't think about it on such a small scale, I don't see my life as important so I think of it more in terms of what the entire planet could have done to hae brought itself here and there's near infinite variables.