Because if I hadn’t chosen to snorkel instead of dive that day on the Thai islands... I wouldn’t have stepped on a sea urchin. I wouldn’t have been told the local advice was to pee on it. It wouldn’t have gotten so infected I ended up in Bangkok for emergency toe surgery. I wouldn’t have limped through the streets, toe wrapped in gauze, elephant pants swishing, craving a beer. I wouldn’t have found the one open seat on Khao San Road, outside an Irish bar where the music drifted out to the street. I wouldn’t have waved to the waitress for the check and been told the boy across from me had already paid. I wouldn’t have met the cute Danish boy who had landed just hours earlier on his first solo trip, frustrated his SIM card wasn’t working, wandering Khao San for a beer. And now... My Danish residency. My master’s degree. My marriage of five years. My home in Europe. My Danish-American son. All because of that one small choice. That one ripple. That one butterfly. The butterfly effect — in all its astonishing, unpredictable, beautiful power.