What if?
Dear younger me
Where do I start?
If I could tell you everything
That I have done so far
Then you could be
One step ahead
Of all the painful memories
Still running through my head
I wonder how much different
Things would be
If I was able to help you
Dear younger me
Dear younger me
I cannot decide
Do I give some speech of about how
To get the most out of your life?
Or do I go
Deep
And try to change the choices that you made
Cause their the choices that made me
Even though
I love this crazy life
Sometimes I wish
It was a smooth ride
Dear younger me
It’s not your fault
You were never meant
To carry this so far
Dear younger me
I thank you
For all the things that you did
For all that you’ve been through
I realize now
I am what I am meant to be
I am the product of myself
And I love this version of me
Do you regret your past life? Do you regret your youth? Are you haunted by the choices that you have made in your life? Do you wish that you could do it all over again, only this time you’d do it the right way? If so, then stop now. I regret a lot of things but I would never change them no matter how much I am ashamed.
Sometimes in life, we often make mistakes, and some mistakes that we make turn out worse than others. The natural response to such shame and regret is to wish to have a second try or another chance.
In the years that I have lived, I have learned that life is not meant to go as planned because that’s not how it works. Life is meant to try, test, frustrate, mock, and most often annoy us until we want to scream. But it’s also there to help us learn, grow, evolve, and the best one, to live.
One song does come to mind by the country artist Darius Rucker called “This”.
The lyrics go like this:
“Got a baby girl sleepin’ in my bedroom
And her momma laughing in my arms
There’s a sound of rain on the rooftop
And the game’s about to start
I don’t really know how I got here
But I’m so glad that I did
And it’s crazy to think that one little thing
Could have changed all of this
Maybe it didn’t turn out like I planned
Maybe that’s why I’m such, such a lucky man
For every stoplight I didn’t make
Every chance I did or I didn’t take
All the nights I went too far
All the girls that broke my heart
All the doors that I had to close
All the things I knew but I didn’t know
Thank God for all I missed
‘Cause it led me here to this
Like the girl that I loved in high school
Who said she could do better
Or the college I wanted to go to
Till I got that letter
All the fights and the tears and the heartache
I thought I’d never get through
And the moment I almost gave up
All led me here to you
I didn’t understand it way back then
But sittin’ here right now
It all makes perfect sense
Every stoplight I didn’t make
Every chance I did or I didn’t take
All the nights I went too far
All the girls that broke my heart
All the doors that I had to close
All the things I knew but I didn’t know
Thank God for all I missed
‘Cause it led me here to this
Oh I cried when my momma passed away
And now I got an angel
Looking out for me today
So nothing’s a mistake
Every stoplight I didn’t make
Every chance I did or I didn’t take
All the nights I went too far
All the girls that broke my heart
All the doors that I had to close
Everything I knew but I didn’t know
Thank God for all I missed
‘Cause it led me here to this
It led me here to this”
I love this song. I love how he sees the importance in the choices he has made, the things he has missed, and the things that have happened to him and he thanks the Lord for blessing him with the outcome of them all.
So it’s okay to regret, because then that motivates you to learn, to grow, and never do that again.
It’s okay if you have made mistakes, it’s okay if you haven’t had the greatest past, it’s even okay if you want to change it all, but understanding that all that has happened to you since the time you were born until this moment is all part of living and better things are ahead.
I used the title “What if?” because that is the question I want to ask.
What if you had the chance to change the past? What if you could correct ever wrong you have done? What if it were possible? What would you do?
Personally, I would go back in time and tell my younger self, “Keep up the good work!”