Life's Funny That Way

A bit of Time Travel

Tonight at work we were discussing the 1980s in general.  Of course, there were very few of us there tonight who were adults or almost adults at the time (okay, I was one of two).  That lead to a discussion about what we would change if we could go back to that decade and the decisions we would make differently.  The 80s, which I commonly refer to as the decade of synthesizers, spandex and excess, were not kind to me. In fact, if that particular decade never would have happened, I think I would be okay with it.  There are a lot of reasons for that, which I won't go into here.  Then again, 1990 was not my shining year, either.  I got married, probably against my better judgement.  Why, one may ask, would I get married if it really were against my better judgement?  My only answer (and a weak one at that) is probably "because I just lived through the 80s."

At any rate, my staff, sans one this evening, was born in the 80s, so they couldn't really contribute much to the conversation, but the other "old foggie" and I discussed what things would be like if we could go back.  I stated that I would have probably gone into the military, as I had planned (I would have been in Desert Storm.... looking back, that may have been better than my marriage... and maybe even lasted longer), rather than stay here and get married, etc., etc., etc.  He said he would have stayed in the military.  We looked around at the restaurant and solemnly realized we could both be "retired" by now.

Then I got to thinking.  We are all a product of our experiences.  Not only do I like my life now, I like who I am now.  I would not be who I am without having gone through all of the... well, interesting?  Horrific?  I'll go with "interesting" things that happened to me over the years.  I guess, with that in mind, if I could go back in time... even knowing what I know now, I really couldn't change much.  Everything was a learning experience.  My parents, I'm sure, would wish that I wasn't such a slow learner at times, but that's okay.  I feel bad that I put them through certain things, but that's okay, too.  My mistakes are part of what makes them who they are as well.  Five years ago, I may have wanted to change it all.  Ten years ago, I'm sure I would have changed everything.  Now, though.... I wouldn't change a day.

I guess that's what life's all about... getting through everything you have to get through to get to the point where you feel like this.  It was such an interesting conversation, and one that made me really think about life, so I thought I'd share it here.
Thanks for reading!