married the first man I fell in love with, I'd be a widow now.
married the second, I'd be divorced now.
stayed in my corporate job instead of taking a leap to follow creative interests, I'd be VP of a software company now.
gone with the first choice I filled out on my "The Right Career for You" form in high school, I'd be a poet now.
pursued the second one, I'd be a rock star now.
taken the path of least resistance instead of the one that scared me, I'd be a mental patient now.
There will always be forks in the road and no way to know for sure how things would have played out. But I do know that I would not have been a good wife. I was a terrible poet. A double dose of social anxiety and stage fright would have sucked the fun right out of being a rock star (not to mention my addictive tendencies and easy access might have led to being a dead rock star). Career decisions made by 15-year-olds aren't particularly well thought-out, are they? Why do they have those tests in high school anyway? What kid is going to say s/he wants to be a street sweeper? A rental store clerk? The smart ones say "doctor" or "lawyer." The stoners say "roadie." The easy girls say "model" or "actress" and the easy boys say "rapper who lives with model/actress."
If I listened to reason instead of my heart, it might not have been a disaster, but I wouldn't be happy. I'm the Me I'm supposed to be, but I still like to think about what could have been.
What are your "roads not taken?"
Interior designer. What the F was that about?
ReplyDelete(BTW, this is PLD, but I can't seem to log in)
Miss Hell Hole Swamp
ReplyDeleteI thought you were Miss Hell Hole Swamp! I'll trade you my Little Miss Sunshine trophy for that one.
ReplyDeleteI think I'm going to steal this as a self-tagged meme.
ReplyDeleteI'd have been an archaeologist. And a damn good one, too. Sometimes I think I could still make it happen...
i wanted to be an archaeologist in the first grade, but i think i just wanted to impress my teacher. i could also impress her by spelling pneumoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. it's a coal miner's disease and the longest word in the dictionary... always had a thing for words!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was nine I decided I wanted to be a railway porter. We didn't take trains very often so it always seemed really special to me, and I wanted to wear a uniform and be in charge. Of suitcases, apparently!!
ReplyDeleteGreat to see you posting so much :)
If I'd have married the first boy I loved, I'd be on Death Row now.
ReplyDeleteAnd I thought I was Miss Hell Hole Swamp.
Iwould've been teaching scuba diving lessons in the Keys...and I would've never met Johnny, so it's a fair trade.
ReplyDeleteHush! It's not like I put my titles on my resume or speak of them in public... Miss Chitlin Strut, Miss Peanut Festival, Miss Blue Crab Festival, Miss Grits Hollar, Miss Darlington 500, Miss Kandy Kane-- wait, that one was from Patrick's...
ReplyDeleteI was a cop, left that to be a songwriter in Nashville. Left that to be a flight attendant. Left that to come back to NY.
ReplyDeleteNow I'm a payroll clerk in a shabby little office in a bad part of town.
Damn, I miss those handcuffs!
;-)
Of course, had I stayed a cop, there's no guarantee I'd still be alive today, times being what they are....
The main thing is following your dreams, I think. I am anxiously awaiting the next "dream", because this job certainly AIN'T IT.
- M