It's very likely that you've accidentally ruined someone's life without realizing it.

I simply can't agree with any of this. Sure, I'd say it is pretty likely that you have unintentionally ruined someone's day, or afternoon/morning/night, or maybe even week, with something you said or did. Hell, I took a call at work earlier from a complete asshole and it was a couple of hours before I dug out of that bad mood funk, so sure...that is very likely a true statement for ruining someone's limited amount of time measurement.

Otherwise, the real world isn't a teenybopper drama or a Netflix series where a single statement or action by someone normally "ruins" another person's entire life. Has it happened? Sure. Is it "very likely" that the hundreds or thousands (or more) people reading this shower thought have had some moment in their life that ruined someone else's entire existence? No.

Don't confuse a bad day or individual memory with a ruined entire life.

No I did that intentionally

to myself

I have and I know.

One kid who died in college because of hazing. He only joined that group (rotc officers) because of my stupid recommendation.

Can confirm. I did this. Disclaimer: i have an exceptionally bad memory for people, it's a known flaw. The experience below taught me to forewarn people when I meet them, just in case.

When in my teens, I had this heart-to-heart conversation with a guy at a party, which had a profound and lasting impact on his life, and also which I promptly forgot about completely. As I heard it many years later, he looked forward to and anticipated seeing me again and winning my heart and mind with all the amazing change and growth our conversation had spurred in him. Except when we next met I didn't remember him and was busy or something, and it broke his heart or whatever... But I didn't hear about it..although some mutual friends did. I only learned about any of it when, some ten years later, I was chatting with one of our friends about a sort of reunion get-together we were planning and they said, "(insert name) wants to come but feels really weird about seeing you again" the worst part is I still didn't remember him and my friend had to go over the entire story. I vaguely remember hanging out on the swings and talking philosophy. I still don't remember the dude. I'm willing to bet he's over it by now, but when we were all young, it loomed large for him.

I think its very likely you have ruined someone's DAY without knowing it, but not so likely you have ruined a persons LIFE.

How many people have had their Lives ruined? I would say few. I know people who have had bad days (like everyone), but no one that has had their Lives ruined. In order for you to very likely be the cause of someone have their life ruined, even accidently, there would have to be a LOT of people with ruined lives. Otherwise, not likely at all.

So be happy with the consolation prize: You have probably ruined several people's day once or twice.