Twenty years ago I took a test. A BIG test. I failed that test. One test after a series of passing test after test after test for seven years. One. My whole life changed that day. I came upon the fork in the road and had to choose which path to take. I had to choose. Did I make the right choice? Some would say yes, some would say definitely not. Did my choice affect other people. Yes. Did it affect me? Yes. Twenty years later, can I honestly say if it was the right choice or wrong choice? No. I am where I am today because of the choices I made. That day and every day since and every day before. I can look back to that day and see it caused a choice, many choices, to be made but can I say my life would have been different if I had done this or that? There’s honestly no way to know that. The same thing happens to people every single day. Sometimes a person doesn’t even realize making some small choice will change their life in some profound way. Sometimes the choice is major and obviously life changing. What I can say is I made the choices I made. I’ve zigged and zagged this way and that trying to course correct but how do I know my life path hasn’t worked out the way it should have, the way it was supposed to? How do I know that the BIG test I thought I failed was just a small test in the bigger test of living? Did I learn lessons? Yes. Did I experience other things in my life that I never would have if I hadn’t failed that test? Yes. Do I have anything or anyone in my life that I might not have had if I hadn’t failed that test? Definitely. So even though failing that test seemed to be a tragedy at the time, even still at times, I can honestly say that event led directly to at least one of the greatest joys of my life. And today I am still me. I’ve had twenty years to process my failure, other people’s opinion of my failure as well. Every now and then I even still to this day have to answer the question why didn’t I take the test again. Because I didn’t that’s why. I just didn’t. Will I take it again one day? Maybe. Who knows what life will bring? I know the answer to that test and I’d pass it. The answer is change. Life will bring change. Fail the test or pass the test. Life will still change. Will you end up the same place or in the same condition? Who knows? But at the end, who wants to know? Who would ever want to know everything about how life works out? It’s a grand mystery. But that mystery is magic. And I wouldn’t miss the magic. Pass or Fail, I’m all in for the journey. Oh, and the love. I’m always in for the love!