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CATHARSIS CHRONICLES SEPTEMBER COMPETITION | THE LIFE I DIDN’T LIVE
The Paths I Didn’t Take Gave Me A Life I Never Imagined
How my bratty arrogance became hard-earned wisdom
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I used to boast about all the opportunities I’d missed and the lives I hadn’t lived. I’d meet strangers at parties or social gatherings, and when they’d ask, “So, what do you do?”, I’d reply with enthusiasm, channelling my once-brazen extroverted self, “That’s tedious. Let me tell you what I didn’t do…”
They’d laugh at this reversal and hang on my every word — ever the eternal storyteller. Imagine that.
My arrogance should’ve been case-studied. I’m not a narcissist. I just always imagined the lives I didn’t live were far more interesting than the one I had.
I stood at several crossroads in my youth, each marking pivotal choices I didn’t make. They may have led to something magnificent, something extraordinary, but in my youthful ignorance I assumed something better awaited me. As if I were privileged or talented, as if the world owed me something.
This belief had no place in my reality. I wasn’t special. Shy and withdrawn as a child, I’d hide behind Mum’s skirt…
