Choices

Life is made up of moments all strung together in time. Each decision you make leads you down another path. Some decisions move you more slowly than others, but each one moves you forward always, whether you like it or not.

I can understand how, in one moment, you can stop to wonder, “How did I get here?” But that’s the incredible thing about time, right? In order to answer that, you would have to go back. The question is, how far?

Some moments you can trace back a short while. For instance, “How did I get so full?” Well, that one was easy. 10 minutes ago I scarfed down a burrito.

Other questions though, they take longer. Like, “How did I get so lucky?” or “How did I turn out this way?” I feel like something that elusive isn’t made up of a single decision. It’s made up of a series of choices. One after the other strung together in a way that makes no sense at the time.

What I find incredibly scary is how one choice can lead to a series of rippling consequences.

Now, we can look back on those choices and think, “What if?” What if I hadn’t struggled with anxiety? What if I hadn’t gone to the bar that night? What if I hadn’t been on the dance floor at that exact moment? How far back does it go? How do events align so perfectly that allow for such profound moments in your life to happen? And, if they didn’t, who would you be?

But we can’t look back and think, “What if?” because it doesn’t exist. Time moves forward always. All we can do is try to make the best choices possible and then sit back and marvel at how time does its job.