How Would Your Life Be If...

Do you ever wonder how different your life would be if something else had happened other than what actually happened? Take the place you grew up for example. I was born in California, spent my early childhood in Oklahoma, and the latter part of it in Texas. But I wonder what the scenario would be like if:


My family had never left California. I was born in Walnut Creek, which is a little town about 20 minutes outside of San Francisco. My parents originally moved because the cost of living was too high and they worried about me growing up there. My mom had some terrible image in her head that when I would become a teenager, I would take the Bart (San Fran's version of the Dart) far away from home whenever I would get upset. But I think it would have been really interesting to grow up in the Bay Area. Here are a few ways my life may be different if we had stayed there:


-- I would have grown up in a much more liberal community, which may have differed my political views from what they are now. 
-- I would have been more city savvy, since San Francisco is such a vibrant, urban area.
-- I would have been even more a chocoholic than I already am (Ghirardelli headquarters, duhh)
-- Instead of playing tennis in high school, I may have taken up surfing as my weekend hobby.
-- I could have had a different personality altogether. After all, your personality is partially influenced by who your friends are, and I obviously would have had a completely different circle of friends.
-- I may have ended up somewhere besides SMU (but who knows, maybe I'd still be here. There are a lot of California kids here).


As interesting as it is to come up with ways my life would be different if I had never moved, I think that things worked out for the best. Since I moved around so much I think it's a symbol for how my life will be. After all, I do want to travel as much as I can while I'm still young, so I think that living in a few different places may have been my calling for this because now I know that I can adjust to new places. I'm not meant to sit still; I'm meant to be a doer, an explorer, a discoverer. And I know that the way I have lived my life will help me with this destiny.