Curiosity About Alternate Universes

[debka_notion]

I've been wondering sporadically lately, what I'd be like if I hadn't decided to be observant. I remember being at a Shabbos meal at nuqotw's place last year where she asked what we'd be doing if we weren't frum, and I think my answer then was dancing (it was the weekend of a dance camp), and another time was hanging out and talking- i.e. nothing all that different from what I was in fact doing. But really, I wonder who I'd be if I were doing something different with my life. I'm in no hurry to find out- that's for sure, I like the me that I'm creating. But it's an interesting to think about- would I be more daring? more happy? less happy? more comfortable? more tense? Where would I be?

Anyone else wonder those things? (Or the equivalent question for your own situation.)

Comments

[tovah623.livejournal.com]

[shirei-shibolim.livejournal.com]

I haven't thought about that, exactly, but I've taken a different angle. If I had been told at, say, the end of high school that this is what my life would be like in eight years, how would I have reacted? Would I have even believed it?

[margavriel.livejournal.com]

If I hadn't "frummed out", I would probably be studying in a semikho program at YCT, and living on the UWS, rather than studying at a semikho program at YU (and wondering whether I should arrange to take semikho bechinôs with some rabbi from Breuer's), and living in Washington Heights. I would probably still be davvening at (gasp!) KOE, and only walking up to Breuer's once or twice a year, rather than being an active member of Breuer's, and davvening there several times a week.

And if you had told me that I would one day be where I am now, I would not have believed you. I would have said: "No, you're a chareidi simplificator who doesn't understand where I stand." And maybe I would have been right. :-)

[skyblue-dreamer.livejournal.com]

Definitely, on occasion. On another subject, if I didn't enjoy school so much, I would wonder what my life would be like if I weren't a graduate student (I'd probably have a job!).