[Rain Man]

In terms of actual changes I would go back and make, it would be eating a healthier diet. I'm paying now for bad decisions back then.

There are other events that were bad, but I survived them and they led me to my current life, which I'm very happy with. So I wouldn't risk upsetting that path. I learned something from the various bad things, so maybe having those experiences kept me from having them again later.

Here's an oddity, though, and I wonder if I could have avoided some major headaches without changing my path.

What actually happened: After college, I took a job in St. Louis mostly to mollify a girlfriend and my mother, who both wanted me to stay in the Missouri area. I spent five years there, and was miserable the entire time. Nothing went right, except for one key thing: I met my wife. If not for that, I would easily root for changing my decision there. And it's possible that I could do it anyway. Why? See below.

What could have happened: I had two nearly identical job offers, one in St. Louis and one in Texas. I wanted to move to Texas, but didn't for the reasons cited above. But let's say I did. I would have dumped the girlfriend, which would have been a huge positive, and gotten some distance from my family, which would have been another huge positive. The jobs were more or less the same, so that's neutral. But what about meeting my wife?

Well, I met my wife when she took a job in my company. So would I have met her if I hadn't taken that job? As it turns out, she moved to Missouri from Texas to take the job. Her old job in Texas? It was at the very same company that had offered me the job. The two companies were partnered on a big contract, so she was working on the same project that I was, just at the other company. So it's quite possible that we would have met even if I had taken the Texas job. If I went back in time and took the Texas job, I could have avoided a five-year dumpster fire in St. Louis and still harvested the one positive takeaway.