Good news! It is “Pretend to Be a Time Traveller Day!” OK, PTBATTD was actually a few days ago, December 8th to be precise. But let’s pretend to travel back to the 8th, and then we can pretend to time travel even more.

Is there any spot in your life you would like to travel back to? Any moment that was so marvelous you want to experience it again and again, ala a good Groundhog Day? Or any Sliding Doors instant that you would have changed, and that may truly have altered the flow of your life, presumably for the better? How about the moment that you decided to do something out of the ordinary that set you on an unexpected course? Lots of instants to choose from.

I’m going to set some ground rules, some restrictions. It must be a moment you were actually present for. And let’s knock out the obvious choices; no choices of “the day my partner and I formed an official union” or “the day that my child was born or adopted.” Now the moment your baby was conceived…that could be a perfectly acceptable choice if it really was that great of a morning, night, plane flight, or whatever.

I’ll go first–and I’ll volunteer an example for each of the three situations I described above.

Most fabulous moment–the instant Barb and I walked into the ballroom at our daughter’s wedding and began to dance. It was electric: the band, the room, the people, the joy-the culmination of months of planning, all the details melding into surreal perfection. I hope it was as exquisite for our daughter and her new husband.My sliding door? The ranking of residency choices for “The Match.” I chose an outstanding community hospital program over a challenging academic one. I have had a great career in pathology, but it could have been very different (and at least as rewarding) had I ventured into a program where I would have done research as well.And then the unexpected. I volunteered to serve on a committee in the local grammar school district. I never anticipated that this would lead to a 20 year committment to public school leadership. And if I get to choose two more fantastic moments, they would presenting each of my children with their high school diplomas signed by me as President of the Board of Education.

OK, enough of me baring my soul. What about you? If you could go back to any single day in your life, what would it be? And you don’t have to stop at one. The more you spill, the better we will get to know you. And be glad I didn’t choose to honor “Let’s All Talk Like a Pirate Day!”

Like what you read here? Add your name to our subscription list below. No spam, I promise!
___

———————————–