This is not some hypothetical what could have happened if say, Kurt Cobain lived or if the 2003 invasion of Iraq never occured. No, this is the true story of a different path that would have been. This is a cautionary tale about young love.
What is generally regarded as a beautiful thing, is still that for most; a beautiful thing. It has a romantiscm to it, because it has an air of mystery and pleasant expectations associated with.
Many moons ago I entered into a relationship with someone that I considered to be a close friend, quite possibly the closest friend I had up until this point. Admittedly I was not a social butterfly, so the relationship became twofold for me. We developed a close bond with many shared interests, but that growing closeness soon became overshadowed by a mutual attraction for one another.
It's a normal thing for people of all ages to wonder about their future. Hopefully one has to do less wondering as they push towards adulthood. Hopefully by adulthood, they are on track to begin their journey or are seeing years of studying and planning pay off.
I wish I could say that I was of this category, that I was well on my way to a ununiversity or my savings were to what I would call adequate, but alas that is not the case. I squandered that precious gift that was adolescence.
I had a plan for myself that I had vetted years ahead of schedule before meeting whom I thought to be my other half. I was fortunate not to get stuck on the stary eyed romanticism that clogs down youth on the question of 'what should I be when I'm older?'
What I never calculated into this plan was love or what I perceived the notion to be be. I did not account for how companionship would eat into my free time; valuable time that I had allotted for working during the school recess.
Financially, I had hamstrung myself from saving a tiny reserve, but I would also waste the unexpected earnings that came in the form of allowances and gifts.
That still left me with entering the workforce in my chosen profession, well that, as you can imagine at this point, was yet another missed opportunity. My significant other was deeply opposed to my chosen career path, and so I moved in a different direction to appease her.
This, like all the other things I had attempted to keep our relationship a float was a resounding miss. If you have read up until this point, I'm not going to bore you with the sordid recounting of a misbegotten youth, but I will tell you this. I failed.
I failed in every way possible. I never scored a job when I reached the legal threshold, missing out on valuable work experience, and an income. I would further jeopardize my financial future by wasting allowances and gifts on misguided attempts to earn her affection. I suppose as a consolation prize, I did enter my chosen profession late into the last decade.
Without much fanfare, our relationship withered and died like the plants do every winter. I would eventually go on to meet and start a family with the love of my life. Unsurprisingly, it lacked any of the trappings of my squandered youth.
As I reflect on that time in my life, I realize that the path forward was very much one of my choosing. I take full responsibility for my inability to plan for love, and issue it a decisive blow when it morphed into something horrendous, and at times life threatening.
So no, this was not some what if, but a full fledged admission to someone who had taken stock, and allowed life to play out its natural course, fully aware of what had been lost. The old adage remains true: the road is paved with good intentions.