You often hear people comment, “If I knew then, what I know now, I’d never have ….” I have had great reason to consider these words over the years and occasionally I think about the idea that I might have done something differently, yet the truth is – knowing what I know now? I wouldn’t change a thing. Because all the decisions I made in the past – the good ones and the bad ones – led me to right where I am.
First Married
Sure, if you look back to how you may have handled your first disagreement, it would be fun to change that. If for no other reason than after 11 years together and 8 years of marriage, I know a little bit more about handling and resolving relationship conflict than I did those first years. I know more about trying to be reasonable rather than trying to win the fight.
Yet, ultimately, each and every decision brought me to the place I am now, with the daughter I have now. I could have enlisted in the army at 23, I didn’t. Instead I ended up in Virginia where I met my husband and the father of my child. I could have gone to the Air Force Academy, but I ultimately elected against it – apparently at about the same time as my future husband did. (Coincidence?)
I could have avoided leaping before I looked when I was 22 and moving on the spur of the moment to California, but without that leaping and charge ahead, I would never have taken that opportunity to move to Virginia.
Weak Moments
Sure in a weak moment or a moment of frustration, considering the things I could have done differently does occur to me, but then I hear my daughter laugh or my husband walks into the room and I know – I wouldn’t change a thing for fear that it would change what I have now.
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