There's an episode of Doctor Who where Donna Noble (played by Catherine Tate) was forced to make one simple change in her timeline, turning right instead of left at an intersection, and her entire life changed as a result. Of course during the episode everything is rectified thanks to Rose Tyler (played by Billie Piper) and she eventually turns left again and restores her timeline.
I've been thinking about this concept for a while now, more so lately after some big changes in my personal life. Some people call it the butterfly effect, where one tiny change leads to other small changes that eventually cause monumental shifts in your timeline. Like the people who have survival stories from September 11, where they missed a bus or a train or ran late and because of it never made it to work on time and likely are alive today for that sole reason.
There have been a number of points in my life where these choices have occurred for me, where one tiny adjustment would in time cause monumental shifts in the eventual outcome. The most poignant for me as it is quite literally down to a single word was when I first started school. I was 5 years old and went with my parents to the school I wanted to go to and had an interview with the Principal. Due to when my birthday fell I had a choice of which year I could start into with the school, either the class above or the class below. As was the case with so many things in my life my parents let me decide for myself and asked me to pick. I only needed to say one word, which year I wanted. I chose the class above and everything led to where I am today.
The thing that blows my mind about turning left is how different things could be if you turn right instead. If I had uttered a single word instead of the one I did and chose the class below, my life would have completely changed. I likely would never have met any of the people I did. It would have been a year later that I went to college if I even went, the same with University and from my time at both of those I know the chance that I would have mixed with anyone other than my year was very slim. I wouldn't have lived with the same people in halls of residence as I had either. The impact those changes could have made on my life is untold. As for work for that matter, as it was one of my flatmates that got me my first job, I likely would never have worked there either or even met anyone I did - consequently they went into administration after a year of me working there [through no fault of my own] so I would not have even had the chance to work there.
Outside of school and work the people I mixed with may have stayed the same for the most part, I might have even been closer to some of them than I am. Moving house would have been delayed by a year as that was purposely delayed until I finished school so that would have taken an extra year, and at that point we probably would have moved to a different house than we did.
To delve a little deeper into the dark side of my life, some of you know some of the details of what happened to me when I was younger, most of you do not. I often wonder if that would even have happened if I had made that one small change, if we would even have met. So much of who I am and the problems I have in life are inexorably linked to what happened and if you suddenly took that away my life might be completely different. I say "might", I am almost completely convinced it would. Not being so paranoid and being able to actually trust people would monumentally shift the course of my life and the decisions I made through its course.
Something to think about. Every choice has an impact on our lives no matter how big or how small they may seem in the moment, they can completely change your life.
