35 People Only Realized Years Later That They Narrowly Escaped Disaster

Most of us carry at least one memory that hits different in hindsight. A job you did not take. A partner you finally left. A trip you postponed for some random, annoying reason. At the time, it felt like life being inconvenient or boring or mildly disappointing. Only later do you realize it was something else entirely.

There is a strange comfort in that realization. You think back to the version of you who just wanted a paycheck, or to be loved, or to get on with your plans, and you want to tap them on the shoulder and whisper, “You have no idea what you just avoided.” It makes ordinary days feel less ordinary.

An online thread recently invited people to share the biggest “bullet” they dodged without knowing it. The answers range from darkly funny to deeply heavy. Near-death moments, cult pitches, abusive relationships, financial disasters that never landed. Some are pure luck. Others come from one small decision that made absolutely no sense at the time, only to turn into a turning point.

Taken together, they read like a quiet reminder that life is full of invisible forks in the road. The scary part is how easily things could have gone wrong. The hopeful part is that sometimes, without even realizing it, we walk away.

1. Law school. I lived in a college town with a great law school. I took the LSAT, and did really well. I put together all of my application documents, official copy of my test scores, etc.

I went to the law school admissions office to drop them off, but the person there told me I had to upload them to a third party website and they would get them from there—for a fee of $250 dollars.I was dumbfounded. A public university was telling me—as I stood with all my materials in hand—that I had to pay a huge amount to have a private company send these same documents to _this very same office_, with a huge time delay on top of the fee.I told them I wouldn’t take up any more of their time, turned around and left. I’d never intended to apply to any other schools, so that ship sailed for good.But I would have been miserable as a lawyer. It took me a little while, but I found an _amazing_ career and did things I could never have dreamed of before. I’m in a rough patch now, but I’m hoping that turns around soon. But whatever comes next, I’m lucky that I’m not a lawyer.KayBeeToys

2. For a while I dated the most attractive, wildest, most fun girl I had ever met. Too much drinking and partying got overwhelming for me and we broke up.

I thought I made a big mistake at the time, but I ran into her a year later and she was an alcoholic selling substances. Still looked great though.sudomatrix

3. "I was going to rob houses with a kid"

4. Had an ex-boyfriend who turned out to be monster. He would later ruin several people's lives. I am thankful I got out when I did.

WalkTheClank

5. When I was 4 years old, I chased a golf ball I had been playing with out into the street and almost got hit by a car.

Luckily, the driver was paying attention and had swerved to avoid me.I wasn’t the smartest 4 year-old.Sociolinguisticians

6. "I could have gotten my heart broke for nothing."

7. When I was 18 my gf cheated on me and got pregnant.

At the time My dad told me to send the guy a gift basket bc I owe him one. That girl is now divorced twice and has kids with 3 guys.Jc110105

8. Dated a toxic women that I believe was trying to baby trap me. When I got a vasectomy she ghosted me.

AtomicBlastCandy

9. I don't know about the "biggest", but a bullet I remember dodging was when a bunch of my friends in college joined one of those "sales" companies that are just multi-level marketing schemes trying to disguise themselves as something else.

It was a soft drink company called something like Vemma. I remember my friends were super excited to join to start making side money as broke college students, and they got me to come to one of their presentations as I was definitely curious (since I was also broke haha). The presentation was so weird, the entire time they were trying to convince us they are not a pyramid scheme, but instead they work as a "reverse funnel" system (lmao). I found it very strange that pretty much the entire presentation was essentially spent reminding the attendees that they are NOT a pyramid scheme. I noped out after that, despite several of my friends trying to convince me to join, which I eventually came to realize that they were just trying to make money off of me joining. They all ended up losing thousands of dollars as that's how much the original investment cost.ohpsies

10. I got laid off after 17 years with the company.I got a decent severance package, and had a new job within a few months.

About a year later the company went under and all the people who were still there, some for 20-30 years got no severance. Some who had taken stock options instead of a 401K lost it all.Imaginary_Ad_6352

11. Turning down a marriage proposal from someone I loved.

Years later the relationship ended *horribly*, so thank goodness I had gone with my gut and not said yes to getting married.BatScribeofDoom

12. Almost became a franchise restaurant owner in Fall 2019 but had to back out unexpectedly one week before signing due to an unexpected family situation.

TheDadThatGrills

13. Not being able to get pregnant by my ex-husband. HUGE bullet dodged. Thankfully.

Adventurous_Spell222

14. Dragged my feet on buying a house for a while, then finally got my finances in order, credit pristine, a hefty chunk saved for a down payment, and actually found the perfect house for me.

Closed on it in November, 2019. I’d be renting now if I didn’t somehow get my life together- and I only paid $167k.DrDorg

15. Vietnam. I enlisted in the army right out of high school in 1964. At the time, if you qualified, you could pick your MOS and your duty station. So I chose to be a medic and picked Germany.

Vietnam was just rumors at the time, though there was more going on there than they were telling…But had I not enlisted, I would have been highly likely to be drafted. As it was, I did my 3 years in Germany and flew home, free and clear.I watched Ken Burns’ series on the war, and the interview with one of the grunts who was at My Lai. The guy even LOOKED like me….Bikewer

16. Both of us in the military, I wouldn't entertain a marriage proposal from him for a year (he was a bit eager).

Two weeks after I said "yes" and told my family I'd be getting married, I found out he was cheating on me. But at least it wasn't after we were already married, right?purefoysgirl

17. This happened decades ago, but the roof over the ice rink at Kolonnade mall collapsed and injured a bunch of people.

I only avoided this by a minute. After parking my car and starting to walk to the ice rink, I realised I had forgotten to move my bag to the boot. I walked back to do that and then headed to the rink again.As soon as I reached the entrance of the mall, the roof came down. I would have been injured by the roof collapse if I had not walked back to my car. .ZyronZA

18. That one guy who wanted to take me to get coffee who, thank god, I didn't go out with. He ended up dating someone I knew and living off her couch for months

He turned out to be such a nightmare, like a really gross roommate she couldn't get rid of. I think she had to have him physically removed from her couch and it was this huge drama. I think her two older brothers, who were these huge bouncer guys, ended up going over there to do the "removing.".MsVixenFab

19. "Had to withdraw from a masters program"

20. Getting let go from my last job. The company lost funding shortly after. I found a better job before all hell in our sector broke loose. Kind of like I got a head start in musical chairs.

speakb4thinking

21. I was moving to the other side of the country and was driving. The whole drive took over a week.

I had lived in an apartment in a dodgy area and the apartment had a Facebook page for residents just to post about anything important, basically just an online message board.Like if there's a homeless guy sleeping in the elevator again, or if one of the cars in the parking area was getting broken into. That stuff.Anyway day 2 of the drive I see a notification from that page. It's pictures of the entire apartment building engulfed in flames.Great timing on the move out.Appearently the residents weren't allowed back until months later after a remediation company went though, and people found their valuables had gone missing once they were allowed to get their stuff.13thmurder

22. Got under a heavy table in the garage to block a possible mouse hole with a brick, and then later realized 20 years of humidity had warped these tables enough to where you could collapse them with 1 moderate push from the side.

The screws attaching the legs to the table top just ripped right out.Aloha1959

23. "I even went to the cafe that was shot up."

24. Got into a fight with a guy on the other team after a soccer match and decided to walk away. Dude went out and shot someone dead right after.

NachoWindows

25. I interviewed for and was offered a management position at a living history museum a few years ago.

I ended up turning the job down. A few months later the guy who took the job got stabbed by one of the actors.NewspaperBlanke

26. Almost accepted a job in January 2020 as a researcher 'collecting samples from ICU patients with unknown upper respiratory illnesses'.

standret

27. The FWB I got hung up on who didn't want a relationship.

15-ish years later, he called me up to say he had regrets, admitted that he had a friend neg me to damage my confidence so I would sleep with him, and gently suggested I should start something up with him even though he knew I was happily married.Brrp_brp_AnotherAcct

28. I guy I was dating for almost five years went momentarily psycho on me. Just for an instant. I said no, flew back home mid-vacation. Changed my locks.

Turned out he was living a double life and that was his MO. When he got serious with someone new, he’d go violent on the person he was dating so they’d run away quickly. No messy breakups or attempts of reconciliation. And the ex’s would go out of their way to avoid him out of fear he’d go nuts on them.Because the world is weird, I’m now friends with two other ex’s and we’ve compared notes. The dude lives a completely scripted life. Same love letters. Same birthday gifts. The three of us each have the exact same custom made t-shirt.WritingParking

29. Standing on a granite cliff ledge about 30ft above ground when the "tested by me" grip I was holding on to broke off.

I went over headfirst backwards. Flailing I got my fingers around a pine branch just long enough to swing my feet underneath me. All I got was a nasty Charlie horse and sore knees but it sure was a close call.

Mysterious-Alps-4845

30. Found out I was preggers in HS. I hadn't gained any weight at all, still had a period, and only some weird breast tenderness made me take a test.

Made an appt with a clinic 3 hours away, turns out I was months into it, and only a few days away from the cutoff, as in 'no, you can't get an abortion'. They did mine the next day. Thankfully I was 18 at the time, so I could do it on my own, parents never found out until decades later.

I couldn't believe how close I cut it, and every now and then I think what a completely different (and truly awful) path my life would have taken if I had been a few days later.

genx_meshugana

31. I was at a small music festival and they were selling helicopter rides.

I stood in line with a buddy. It could take 4 people and there were 3 people in front of us. Because I wanted to ride with my friend I told the guy behind us he could go. It crashed and everyone was gone but him. However, he was gone later in the hospital. Coulda been me...scalable_thought

32. It’s a very sad story, but I got a dog from a rescue. I’ve had dogs all my life and plenty of rescues before this one.

After a month foster trial he went back. I was heartbroken, but there was something not right. I still can’t really put my finger on it, but he went back and we got a new foster trial with another dog we did decide to keep.We eventually learned that the dog we didn’t keep at his next foster attacked the woman fostering him, out of the blue, from behind, and bit her multiple times without any warning or provocation. She ended up in the hospital for several days. This was someone with years of rescue experience with difficult dogs and the dog needed to be euthanized.I definitely dodged a very dangerous bullet.builtbysavages

33. "A couple came up behind me and nearly made me jump out of my skin"

34. I was supposed to be on the Air India 814 flight from Kathmandu to New Delhi that was hijacked by the Taliban.

Inner-Boysenberry228

35. 9mm. I was in front of my folks' laundromat sweeping the sidewalk like always, when some folks started shooting at each other across the street.

They missed each other, and barely missed my head too. I was facing the wrong way, and just thought it was fireworks.uwillnotgotospace

Reading these stories feels like watching a version of fate in slow motion. One small no, one delayed form, one weird vibe you decide to trust, and a whole future quietly rearranges itself. It is scary to think about how close some of these came. It is also strangely comforting to remember that sometimes we step away from danger without even knowing it.

Maybe you have your own near miss. A person you did not date, a house you did not buy, a flight you skipped at the last minute. Take a moment to think about it, then share it with someone. You never know who needs the reminder that walking away, or being delayed, can be its own kind of miracle. And if this made you pause, pass it on.