The Road Not Taken, What If

By Warren Wong

The road not taken. Endless possibilities of what ifs. At every point in our lives we are making seemingly insignificant decisions that may very well alter the course of our lives. There are the micro-decisions we make in our day to day, to the bigger decisions we make about who we partner with, our profession, and where we live.

Life is a series of choices. There are simple choices, and ones that can alter the course of our lives. How can we tell between the two? Are there ways in which we can positively alter the course of our lives just by making better and more informed choices?

Alternate Realities

If you’ve watched enough science fiction movies as I have, you would have heard of these alternative realities, also known as a parallel universe. A parallel universe is a separate world or universe that coexists with our own but can be very different from it depending on choices its inhabitants make.

Imagine at every point in your life there are decisions that you failed to make, but in an alternate reality you did make it and that alternate world is now based off of that decision. That world could be similar or drastically different from the one you’re in now. That is the idea behind alternate realities, which is just pseudo science, but illustrates a very interesting concept we can ponder on. 

Have you ever wondered how your life would have turned out if you had made different choices? Perhaps you did go on that study abroad program in Europe or took that gap year to travel South America. Maybe you could have met the love of your life while learning Italian, or learned a valuable life lesson while climbing the Andes.

Of course there is a time and place to revisit the what ifs in our lives. Perhaps it’s during a night out with the boys or when nostalgia hits while listening to a song you shared with a high school crush.

What if we can turn those what if’s into reality? One that we haven’t given serious consideration, but could in fact be the right choice.

Looking Closely

When we make a decision there are many other choices that could have been made. Those are opportunity costs. And, sometimes they are harmless, and other times they are costly.

There is value in examining past decisions to gain a better idea of how we made them. Why did we choose this versus that? What was I feeling at the time I made the decision? Did my choice ultimately turn out like I had hoped? 

Sometimes, the choices we made were logical, other times purely emotional. Logic doesn’t always triumph over emotions. There is a time and place for both. 

Sometimes life makes no sense, however we look at it, because we don’t see the bigger picture. We can’t just zoom out and view our lives in 10, 20, 30 years. All the seemingly fragmented pieces of our lives may somehow be connected, the paths we take and the ones we didn’t.

Sometimes we need to let our decisions marinate, other times we need to decisively pivot. This ultimately comes down to experience. The ability to make better decisions as we age.

Conclusion

Yet, it is very human to need to know. The answer to “what if”, whether that’s a cure for heartache or hope we can cling onto. We ask the universe why it happened or yell at some higher power for another chance. 

The road not taken is a series of alternative realities and endless possibilities, but at the end of the day, peace is the answer. Peace with the choices we have made, but setting to do better in the future. 

We can’t change the past, but we do have a hand in the future. And that is where we can focus our energy towards.