So I just finished season 1 of the Flash on Netflix and the episode ended in a very profound fashion. SPOILER ALERT!!! (kinda anyway) The Flash had the opportunity to change something in his past and made the move to do so but then didn’t change the past. Instead, he said goodbye to what could have been and accepted what is. This immediately led to me wonder would I change my past if I could. I can definitely think of a couple events that I could alter that would have the same kind of profound effect but would I change them?…
NO…
The past happened the way it did for a reason. That reason is sometimes very difficult to understand or justify but there is a reason.
My life is what it is because of the events that have occurred. I think of the events that led to me applying for late admission to Cleveland State University and how my life would be different if I truly did go away to school and I don’t even get passed that… Mostly, because I was at Cleveland State when I started dating my now wife and we had our two beautiful kids then. I started my career on the path it has gone because of my connection to CSU and can’t imagine any other life. I don’t want to imagine any other life.
I have thought of what life would be in a two parent home and realize I am the father I am because I didn’t have my biological father around. I instead saw various people as role models and looked up to different people for different reasons. I tried to take all the good of those experiences and put that into what I thought a father should be. I know what I felt I missed and I won’t ever let my kids miss on that. I may not have had a father but they will have the best I can be.
Saying, “If only this one event didn’t happen” is easy. Because that event happened and there is nothing you can do about it. Living through that event and driving forward is hard, no doubt there. But if life was easy wouldn’t we all be millionaires living on a beach with yachts, cars and everything we always wanted?…
Interesting, thought-provoking post. There was an event from my college days I always wondered why it played out the way it did, and in a recent set of events, I’ve been forced to face that past. While I wasn’t too pleased of what happened, I finally see its impact on me and why I have handled recent things the way I have. So yeah… this post definitely gets me thinking. As time goes on, I’ve realized that it’s much easier to acknowledge what happened and move on, rather than getting trapped by the vicious “what if…?” cycle.