The "Could Haves" and the "Should Haves"

It sort of blows my mind to think of how much of my life would be different had I not attended the college I did. A friend and I got to discussing this over the weekend (while stuck in the car with a flat tire) and it's one of those thoughts that leaves your mind reeling - seriously, try it. Pinpoint a moment in life and then imagine if it had never happened. What lesson wouldn't you have learned? Who would you have never met?

College was the first thought that popped into my mind when I thought of this because had I not gone where I did, I'd have never met my two best friends, I would have never met my ex (which the lessons learned from that relationship are beneficial enough to count this as a negative), I probably wouldn't be employed where I am...I could go on. Attending school where I did changed my life forever and I wonder what path I'd be on at the moment if that hadn't happened how it did.

Looking at life like this, through the lens of "what would I have missed out on had I not"..., is, I think, pretty positive. I've since looked at some bad situations through this light and it certainly brings about a new value. Each moment in life leads you to the next, no matter how crappy that moment is. Everything is a building block. You have to sort of believe that every moment will lead you to the next and once that happens, the bad moments, albeit still bad, will make a little more sense.

My challenge this Monday and really, for all of 2015, is to learn to look at life through this lens more often.