I Would Have Done Everything Differently
<p>If<em>I had known then what I know now </em>… Those wistful words taste of regret, a bitter pill to swallow when life takes all our well-laid plans and tosses them around like confetti. The implication is clear: I would have done everything differently.</p>
<p>And I would have, if I’d known.</p>
<p>If you’d told me I’d end up as a divorced single parent, I doubt I would have worn that white dress and walked down the aisle while uncertainty simmered only in the darkest corners of my mind, unacknowledged and unspoken. But then, I wouldn’t have my beautiful, brilliant children.</p>
<p>If you’d told me that the career that I worked years to achieve would end abruptly on the certainty that the path I had chosen was the wrong one, I’d have changed it all. I’d have picked another direction. I’d have tried to guarantee a happier conclusion. But then, I wouldn’t have become a writer.</p>
<p>If you’d told me that the first relationship that truly felt like home would begin with so much fanfare and end with so much devastation, I would have walked away. I’d have called it a one-night stand or kept it thoroughly in the friend zone. But then, I wouldn’t have known that connections like that truly exist outside of fiction, and I wouldn’t have the home I bought while still grieving that loss.</p>
<p>Would’ve, could’ve, should’ve ends here.</p>
<p>If we’d truly known the pain life would cause along the way, who among us would sign up for it without pause or reservation? Who would make those choices knowing that some of them would lead to inevitable disaster? We do our best until we know better. If we’re learning and growing, none of that devastation is truly a waste.</p>
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