Alternate Timelines and Life Plan Version X.X
So I've been in my head quite a bit more than usual. And a bit depressed as well. John passed away 5 years ago yesterday. Which always gets me thinking about the path not taken.
In comic books, they have the alternate timeline, it's how they reinvent the characters every 5 years or so and create a new universe for them. I've been thinking about the alternate timeline for my storyline if John hadn't passed away. We would probably be living in north Arlington in a nice house with a big yard for the dogs. He would be a partner at a law firm in DC where hopefully he wasn't working 80 hours a week. I would probably still be at my company. We would be going on fabulous vacations together (two incomes = Four Seasons resorts!) and hosting fun dinner parties. That's the pretty version of my alternate timeline. But I know that it wouldn't be the complete version. Relationships are hard. We would have our fights, our arguments, our challenges. But in my utopian version of my alternate timeline, I don't want to think about that. As we say at work, that's a problem I want to have. And I would gladly take all of those problems and more to have him back. But that alternate timeline is not meant to be.
I'm a planner. It's what I do. Personally, professionally, I have to have a plan. And yes I know life if what happens while I'm making plans, but it's just how I live. I have to have a plan. Life plan 2.2 was where I was going to graduate from USNA with my BS in Naval Architecture and become a Naval Flight Officer. I was going to fly for 8 years (required commitment for flight school training) and then stay in if I like flying. If not, I was going to move to Europe to build ships since we don't really build a lot of ships here in the US. That life plan sort of fell apart when I had to change my major. And when I ended up a SWO, not a NFO.
Life plan 3.1 was where I stayed in the Navy even though I was gay (hey, Don't Ask, Don't Tell could have worked!) and changed career fields to do IT stuff. And that plan sort of worked. Obviously not the DADT part. And when I got passed over for LCDR, well the staying in the Navy part didn't work either, but the moving into IT was the right call.
Life plan 3.5 was where I was going to be a defense contractor for 2-3 years just to get used to working in the civilian world and then I was going to do real IT stuff. Like for a commercial IT company like Apple or Google.
Life plan 4.6 was where John and I were going to get married.
Current life plan? Life plan 5.0 is still a bit of a work in progress. I'm on a 5 year plan for retirement and I'm going to start taking classes to become a traveling ASL interpreter. But we'll see. I suspect something will happen to turn my plan on it's head. It would be nice if whatever changes my plans does so in a good way. Maybe I'll meet someone special who makes me change all of my plans. Wouldn't that be nice?