Have you ever had something negative happen to you that ended up being the best thing to have happened? What was the situation?

I was laid off for the first time ever. For a time, I was crushed by the feeling of being unwanted. I created my own consulting business, which I ran for more than a decade, and it was the best thing I ever did.

@Marina Awesome! So what happened to the business?

Well, it was doing great until the first Internet crash, which coincided with a case of burnout for me so I ran away and lived on an island for a few years and ran a small country store.

@Marina Wow you got to run away and live on an island? Where do I sign up for that trip?

This is pretty minor, but I didn’t get into any of the colleges I really wanted to go to. I had to go to my safety, but as a senior I know this was the right school for me. I wouldn’t have chosen it had I gotten into other schools, and I would have missed out on all the great stuff I did here.

@sliceswiththings Why didn’t you get into those other ones? Just curious. When I was younger I never was motivated enough to try to choose a college.. I just went with the flow and it landed me with no degree and in the military. Sometimes I wish I had been more motivated.

My boyfriend in high school broke up with me. I thought it was the end of the world. We were supposed to get married and everything. But if he wouldn’t have ended it then I wouldn’t be married to the most wonderful man in the world and have the two most awesome kids in the universe! slight exaggerations, I know! Sounds small and insignificant but to me it’s not! He broke up with me right after we had sex, so you can guess why…

The divorce from my first wife. It was hell when it began but ultimately proved to be the best thing that could have happened to me. I was drowning in that marriage and couldn’t see that until things were completely over. Moving on led to a much happier life. Now I’m in a healthy marriage and things couldn’t be better.

I had to leave my job in a family business because of the conflicts it was creating. The week after I left, I got a part time professional job back in an academic library which is where I am now. Much bertter!

I was really bummed when my first marriage ended. I was so afraid that we had just ruined the friendship we had before we had started dating. Now, thirteen years after our divorce, we are still best friends and get along better than ever. It’s a good thing we ended the marriage before we hated each other.

I applied for a job as a typist, and completely screwed up the fourth page of the test.
As I was leaving, I was pulled aside by a manager who asked if I would be interested in a different job. I ended up being an operator, and quickly left to work in Manholes and on Telephone poles as a splicer. Had I gotten the typing job, I would have been locked in there for years.

These are some good answers. I guess someone up there knows what’s going on after all. The thing I really wonder about is the really bad stuff that happens.. does it work out to be a good thing in the end? I find it hard to believe sometimes.

@filmfann That is a great story! As Mick Jagger once sang, “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you just might find you get what you need.”

@Marina okay, but I’m not really that into David Bowie.

On the night of my 21st birthday my first daughter was conceived, I was brickin it!..... 6 months into the pregnacy, I was getting made redundant and we’d just signed for a mortgage, fortunately I got another job after only being out of work for 3 days, we moved in and 2 weeks later Ellie was born, and after 4 years of hell going out with and then living with a witch I’d finally realised what love was. I now have a beautiful wife and another three kiddies that I wouldn’t swap for eternal life.

So if I hadn’t been pushed into a blind date with beelzebub I would never have realised what love was, or found it.

Oh so many things. Getting fired from a job I hated to find the best job I ever had. Confessing to my wife that I had been seeking love outside our marriage lead to my diagnosis, which probably saved my life. Getting kicked out of my house, which lead to me learning how to handle myself starting with nothing, having never found an apartment or a job before in my life. Not getting accepted at any school I was interested in. I was only accepted by the school I thought of as my safe school. I mean, I’d never heard of it before they sent me a letter asking me to apply. It turned out to be the perfect college for me. I made my most durable friends there. And it seems that that college I had never heard of was actually pretty damn prestigious. Who knew?

I don’t actually think it’s any big deal. Humans hit setbacks all the time. If you keep on going (and really, what other choice is there?), you do something else, and if that doesn’t work, you keep on trying something new until you find something you really enjoy. At that point, there really is no choice. You would not have gotten to the thing you like if you hadn’t gone through all that other stuff first. In truth, the difficult thing is to avoid making lemonade when you’ve managed to harvest a bagful of lemons.

Yes. As my Dad always told me “You don’t have to like everything that happens to you, but you do have to make the best of it.” – a variation of the old lemon/lemonade story.

@NaturalMineralWater Too busy being a badassssss senior year of high school to do my homework.

Yes, my first student apartment in 1983. It was horrible. After 2 months I wanted to leave, but it wasn’t easy to find a new one. I was looking for people who might know something. A young woman did. Five years later she became my wife.

@mattbrowne That’s such a great “Awwwww” story. I love serendipity.

Thanks @Marina !

Yes. Chapter 13 Bankruptcy. I learned I can do without many things that I believed I had to have. When anyone goes through Bankruptcy, either you learn to scrimp and adapt or you sink. If I couldn’t pay cash for an item, I really didn’t need it. Coupons are a way of life even now. Havn’t had a Credit Card for seven years and have no plans to get one. The Debit card is all that’s needed and that is used sparingly. Cash, cash cash or you’ll repeat what made you declare Bankruptcy in the first place.

tincansailorforever I’ve been on the verge of declaring it myself.. but we’re going to pull through.. I think. @.