Butterfly Effect

About a month ago, with the encouragement and almost force of a coworker I joined Facebook. Like most of my friends, I had reservations. The first thought was, Facebook = mini me MySpace, uhhh No Thanks. To my surprise, that isn’t really the case. Yes they are both social networks and yes they have a similar format with the whole profile and friend request business. But for some reason Facebook turned into the ultimate online reunion experience. During my first week I caught up with friends from high school which was pretty amazing. Then it turned into a Six Degrees of Separation game. I’d catch up with one friend and find about 10 others. Then I’d find out that this friend knows that friend. Now my friends list consists of people as far back as elementary school.

With such an unexpected but positive experience, I soon spread the word to other friends who reacted the same way I did “Nah I’m not interested; I don’t want to be found; It reminds me of MySpace and who wants that?” Of course, all of them within less than a week signed up and are just as addicted as anyone else I know.
So today I started thinking about the butterfly effect. If certain decisions had been different, how different would my life be right now? When I graduated from 6th grade I assumed I would attend Alice Deal Junior High School. When I found out my parents went out of their way to get me into Hardy Middle School instead I cried (BTW, our web site is wayyyyyy better than yalls LOL). I remember thinking how could they do this to me? I won’t know anyone because all my friends were going to Deal. Remember I was a kid. This was a huge deal for me at that age. As far as I was concerned my life was over. I held a grudge against them during my first few weeks at Hardy. After that I found myself with a new best friend and a new outlook on everything. Life goes on.

When it was time to graduate from Hardy to Wilson Senior High school, my best friend and I decided to join JROTC. Who would have guessed that this one decision would impact my life as much as it did? Once again I found myself with another group of great friends and a completely different high school experience than the one I could imagine if I had not joined JROTC. I also met up with some of my old buddies from elementary school and of course we were still cool but by then we all moved in our own circles. Fast forward to now, almost 20 years later.

I have to say that connecting back with all these people, the ones that knew you when you weren’t as refined as you may be now, makes you appreciate them more. Most of us have grown up, some of us have kids, spouses and in some cases ex-spouses (wow! at that). I’ve also played the “I wonder if we did this instead of that” game with a few folks. I’m getting know people that I spent 4 – 10 years in school with but didn’t really know back then. At times I’ve wondered why we didn’t hang out back then but who knows? maybe we would have hated each other now if we did then. Then there are the people that I wonder, why the hell DID I hang with you then? LOL!

Either way, anyone you have met on the way to were you are now has impacted the path you are on now. Even those that may not have left you with warm and fuzzy feelings about them have possibly introduced you to people that you couldn’t imagine your life without. They may have introduced you to a life altering experience or great once in a life time opportunity.

The point is, if it weren’t for the decisions we have made or been forced into, how different would our lives be? I know I wouldn’t be who I am now and I love the person I am today so thanks to everyone that helped.

I will always love this song ...the original.