What If...

What if our lives played out exactly as we had planned for them to? Would the world be a better place because we achieved everything we wanted in the manner that we wanted to achieve them?

I was thinking today about the path my life has taken; looking back I can see many of the forks in the road. What if I had taken one fork rather than the other? One event stands out for me every time I take this journey back in time.

It was the summer of 1989, I was trying to decide if I really wanted to dive in a meet in Indy known then as the White River Parks State Games. I had participated in this event each year it had taken place but had some other things I wanted to do that weekend. I decided to go, no sense in missing a year so I could go hang out with my friends doing whatever it was we had planned.

We arrived at the IUPUI Natatorium around 6:30 the morning of the meet. My family was there to watch as well as a foreign exchange student they had living with them at the time. I was getting ready to start my third year of college in a couple of months so it was nice to see everyone.

Warm ups on spring board went ok, nothing great about them but nothing terrible either. I decided to get through a platform warm up for an event later that day. For those that may not be aware of what platform is, think of diving off the top of the Madison County Government building. It is rather routine when you do it every day, but never stops giving you that adrenaline rush that hitting water at 35 miles an hour tends to do.

I remember standing on the top of the tower, launching myself into the air and completing the dive. As I was lining up to hit the water it felt great, then I felt nothing.  What should have been a feeling of warm water rushing past my body was nothing. I am under water and can’t feel a thing. I think I am swimming to the surface, yet I am not moving anywhere. I eventually make it to the surface and off to the hospital and everything turns out fine. Fine that is except my career as a diver is over.

I was at the time on top of my game. I had just missed making the NCAA Zone Championships and getting better every day. The Olympic Trials were 3 years away and the possibility existed that I would find a way to qualify for them. Then, in less than a blink of an eye it was over. In case anyone wonders, yes I would do it all over again even if I knew how it would end.

As I think back and ask what it would be like had I simply not gone to that meet I wonder if life would be better. What would I have now that I currently don’t? For a long time after that day I thought if only I had done this different or done that different things would be so much better. When I look back on it today I see it so much different.

You see, we cannot change on detail of our life and not expect the majority of our life to change. Had it not been for that injury I would not have ended up bored in a small town in Florida recovering from a surgery with only the Internet to keep my mind busy. I would never have run up a $360 bill dialing long distance to connect to Prodigy. That led me to joining forces with a local guy trying to start up and Internet Company with local access. This in turn led to our falling out and me getting a job offer in Nevada. I meet my son’s mother there and we got married. She was then homesick so we moved back to Anderson where I was blessed to meet my son as he was born.

That tends to get me thinking about my family and my divorce. That felt like the worst time in my life while it was taking place. But that led to me needing to keep my son with me 24/7 during the custody hearings and that was why he learned to swim and in part how I got back into the world of diving. Once back in the sport of diving I have been fortunate enough to become associated with the most famous names in the sport and my son knows most of them.

That led to the most amazing Olympic Experience I can personally remember. My son and I were watching the Opening Ceremonies and he says “Look daddy, that’s my friend from the pool!” Later as we watched the diving he got excited every time he saw “his friends” diving on TV.

So the question is, what if. What if we had the chance to go back and change one thing? Would you be willing to give up all the great things in your life to do one thing over? I used to think so, but not anymore. I wouldn’t trade my son for the world.