Like, not the big dramatic stuff — I mean the tiny things you barely think about.

I was just reflecting on how many times something small ended up leading to something huge. For example:

When I decided to grab coffee at a different café and randomly mer someone who later became a close friend.

Saying “yes” to a last-minute invite and discovering a hobby that became a huge part of your life. In my example it was bouldering.

Now if I spin this further, if I hadn’t gotten into rock climbing I probably wouldn’t have injured my shoulder a year ago.

Now look at the other examples on this planet. A person who called in sick on 9/11 or missed that flight.

It’s insane. If I wouldn’t be writing this post maybe I would have gotten hit by a car?

  • DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works
    3·
    21 days ago

    Butterfly effect lol.

    My brain keeps thinking about alternate timelines.

    The earliest event I think about is regarding my birth. (Might be slightly political, just a heads up, didn’t intended to talk politics but the laws are kinda intertwined with politics) So my mother had me after she already gave birth to my older brother. Official government policy is that having a second child was supposed to be illegal in mainland China (aka: One Child Policy), so my mom told me she went to GuangZhou to hide from the authorities. She told me she had to quit her job so people wouldn’t know about the pregnancy. I assuming because of jurisdiction issues (Hukou is from a village), this kinda slipped through the cracks (think like a cop from one US State not being able to cross into another state), and cross-jurisdiction cooperation was kinda broken at the time. But like just one person snitching on my mother’s locationwould’ve resulted me not being born, which means this comment wouldn’t exist.

    The second instance was when I ran away from home once. Apparantly abductions were kinda a problem in mainland China, and cops being lazy af and didn’t do much about that.

    TLDR about the incident: So I had a fight with my brother, I ran away. Don’t wanna explain all the details, but if I had wandered into the wrong street, I could’ve gotten abducted.

    Or maybe that’s just my mom fearmongering to have more control over me, IDK.

    Then there’s this one thing which is probably the turning point of my life. I almost forgot about this till now.

    When my family arrived in the US, and my mom was enrolling me in public school, my mom told the school admin to put me one grade below than I was supposed to be so I can “learn English better”. And the school accepted her request.

    So… this one semmingly tiny change defined my life trajectory.

    Think of all the people I’ve met, imagine the other timeline where I didn’t get put one grade lower and stayed on the grade I was supposed to be.

    All those acquaintances I would’ve never had (people normally say “friends” but I consider them “acquaintances” since I always kinda felt like I was left out of conversations), all the bullies I would’ve never had to meet, all the shitty teachers (I mean I might’ve been assigned into a different class).

    Maybe that trajectory is better because the “dice roll” of classmates I got might’ve been better.

    Or maybe worse, I have no idea, I don’t got a time machine.

    But being one of the oldest in my class made me have self esteem issues, it further worsened my socially awkwardness. Sometimes there teachers eould ask about the age for some class activity, or some “ice breaker” or something and I was always embarassed to talk about it, so sometimes I lied about being one year younger to fit in.

    So yea, I might’ve never met my cat in that timeline, since… you know, butterfly effect.

    Maybe I got a different cat, maybe a more mischevious cat, or perhaps a more friendly cat.

    Idk, alternate timelines always make my head spin. My head hurts thinking about it.

    Edit: P.S. If you haven’t already, play Life is Strange (the first one). Its worth it I promise. (It’s about time travel and butterfly effects. One of the most lifechanging experiences I ever had.)

    Edit 2: I want to add, that was only like 10 minutes of my mom talking to the school admin. So like… that was just one small school office, and a conversation of about 10 minutes ended in me being essentially starting school in the US being demoted one grade, which culminated in a whole different timeline. Let that sink in. One small room. A 10 minute conversation. Just that. An entire different timeline.

    This universe is just chaotic and crazy.