[Izulde]

I've found the older I get, the more any regrets I had are diminishing. I look back at all the possible outcomes that I foresee could have happened, points of clear divergence in which my life would have been radically different, and go, "You know, there's a hell of a lot of worse timelines I could have ended up in."

The ambitions I had when I was younger, many of them I took stabs at, and they didn't pan out. No problem - at least I tried. And some of my ambitions, I still can yet realize (though at 42, some of those windows are getting perilously close to closing. Others I'm sure will remain viable right up until the day that either my mind starts disintegrating or I'm dead - whichever happens first).

I remind myself that I've done a lot of cool shit, and had a lot of experiences that some people will never have and quite frankly would have dreamed of someday having.

My mom, as she was in hospice, was frequently asked if she had any regrets in life. She said no - she'd had an amazing life and done a lot of wonderful things, and there was nothing to regret. Even the things I personally think she would have done differently, there were still great parts that came out of those choices.

Are there different pathways that probably would have led to a better, happier life than I have right now? I'm sure there are. But there's a hell of a lot of to be said for pretty good in a lot of respects - especially since I (and many of us) grew up in a time that proved a liminal and transitional period between the Information Age and the Internet Age. When you live in those border epochs, the percentage chances of a failed, unhappy life are much higher - you can find yourself making the wrong bets/choices and getting a bad ending very easily.