I had been living with a woman that dumped me, and the onus to move out was on me. I did some couch surfing and sleeping out of my car for a bit, and eventually found this really awful loft in a sketchy area downtown. I stayed there for about three days while the guy was drawing up papers for me to sign a year-long lease since he'd had a lot of people (understandably) bale on him (he was also pretty sketchy).

The day I was supposed to sign the lease, I had an interview with a couple of women on craigslist to move into their place, month-to-month. My family was gonna send me a check to help me get back on my feet, but they had to wait for me to have a place of residence. I had less than no money, my cards were all overdrawn, the women lived about 30 miles from where I was, and I had enough gas to get, tops, 10 miles. They were meeting with other people, and I knew if I didn't make it, I'd have to sign the lease and stay at the loft.

There were two gas stations in the general area, and I decided to just go for broke and try my overdrawn cards, hoping that the charge would just hit me later. First gas station, all of them were declined. I had to decide between using what gas I had left to get back to the loft, sign the lease, and try and make the most of it, or just 'fuck it' and try the other gas station. I went to the gas station. My car literally ran out of gas as I was pulling up to the pump.

Card goes through somehow, I fill up my tank, I go and meet the girls, I get the place.

In the two and a half years since then, I:

Had a whirlwind rebound relationship with one of the women I moved in with.

Decided I couldn't stay there anymore, post-turmoil, at about the same time that my best friend wanted to get a bigger apartment.

Managed to get a seriously nice apartment in a seriously nice area for as much as I was paying to live in a living room.

Lived with my best friend for a while.

Kept the place and got a great new roommate afterwards.

Met a lot of cool people.

Somehow made decent amounts of money.

Met my girlfriend of the last year thanks almost entirely to proximity.

Mended my relationship with my family.

A billion other things.

If I'd done the responsible thing and taken my car back to the loft, I have no idea where I'd be now, but my life wouldn't even resemble what it's become. At the very least, I wouldn't have met my girlfriend, and I wouldn't be as close as I am with my best friend. I imagine, beyond that, things would've gotten much worse.