I realized today, while watching a clip from the war in Iraq, that the past four years of my life could have taken a much different path. Four years ago, before I bought my first house, I had seriously considered joining the Marines -- serious enough that I had contacted a recruiter to ask questions (he called me every 6 months after that, up until last year, to ask if I was still interested in joining). No one knew how seriously I was considering it.
However, around that same time, my parents introduced me to an old friend of my Dad, Paul Brouillete. He is one of the top real estate agents for Century 21 in this area. After I bought my first house, he was nice enough to spend a lot of time talking to me about real estate investment and how to develop financial freedom. From that point, my whole life moved in a different direction -- I started doing computer consulting on my own, I bought two more houses, learned a lot more about plumbing, electrical, roofing, house framing, and many other things.
So, do I like the path my life has taken thus far? I won't say that I don't like it, but I can't help but wonder and imagine how things could be different right now. Would I be in Baghdad, Iraq instead of Cambridge, Massachusetts? Would I be sleeping in a tent in the middle of the desert with gun shots echoing in the distance, instead of dealing with leaky water pipes and worrying about waking up late for work in the morning? Would I be driving a humvee, praying I don't hit an IED, instead of trying to find a parking spot close to my apartment?
It hit me pretty hard when I was watching the video of soldiers in Iraq and I suddenly said to myself -- "Wow, that could've been me".
Life is a train which can easily, and probably does quite frequently, jump the tracks. Our paths are about as defined and predicable as ripples from a line drawn in the waves of a turbulent ocean.