Choices

I recently finished a book called "The Midnight Library" by Matt Haig for a local book club. Even though I enjoyed the book, I would not have picked the book for myself. It is a fantasy genre and not my type to read, but it was meaningful to me. At the beginning of the book the main character tries to commit suicide with wine and antidepressant pills and is unconscious (if you feel depressed, get help). She finds herself stuck at midnight in a magical library that is run by an elementary school librarian she knew and loved when she was a student. The plot of the book is that she gets to go "into a book" to see what her life would be like if she had decided differently at various points in her life. The character in the book was filled with regrets and "if only" thoughts. These thoughts only brought her down deeper in depression. Ultimately, she decides to go back to her "root life" and make changes to be the best version of herself.

I think that as we get older, we reflect on times when we made decisions that we knew would influence our life's direction and wonder where we would be or what we would be doing if we had made a different decision. For example, I have thought a few times about my university choices and degree choices. When I have thought back on degree choices, I have felt better about my choice to become a teacher instead of a veterinarian. I would rather be in a room full of 5-year-olds than a barn full of sick cows. I would rather try to figure out why a student isn't connecting letters to the sounds they make than do surgery on an injured dog. But I am sure the vet feels the same sense of pride and accomplishment when they save a sick or injured animal.

Jeremiah 29:11-12 says, "For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you." First Corinthians 12, which is about spiritual gifts, also helped me to know I had made the right choice to become a teacher. In a church I once attended as a teenager, I was told by a retired schoolteacher/nursery worker that I had a "way" with little children. The character in my book, after she returned to her real life, started using her strengths to help others, and she quit regretting what could have been. The successes I had in teaching young children let me know that I made the right choice. I do not regret choosing to be a teacher instead of a veterinarian.

--Tina