Got A What-If That Might Have Changed Your Life Drastically?

Do you sometimes indulge in “What-If,” thinking?” Like, what if you had married your high school sweetheart? What if you hadn’t evaded the draft and chickened out on going to Vietnam? What if you didn’t mouth off to your boss so much and lose your job?

Sam and I think most people indulge in what-if thinking occasionally. I can’t speak for him, but personally I sometimes get caught up in what-if thinking. I don’t necessarily like it when that happens because some what-if thinking can bring back pretty painful memories. I try to avoid painful memories as much as possible these days.

But for some reason – maybe because it’s fall and nearing the end of the year and my 69th birthday is rapidly approaching – I am doing what-if thinking today; like a year-end roundup or something. But I don’t want this to be just the usual what-if, so I’m wondering what if I had joined the U.S. Coast Guard after high school.

I thought about joining the Coast Guard. We had this job career fair at my high school. That was 1963, before Vietnam recruiting really ramped up, but all the military recruiters were there nonetheless, including the Coast Guard. I don’t know about you but I used to pay scant respect to the Coast Guard. I wasn’t sure what to do with myself when I graduated and my steady girlfriend had announced she was moving out of state and leaving me. And going to college to become a teacher didn’t sound all that exciting. So, there I was checking out the military booths. No way was I going to join the Army. The Marines had a spiffy dress blue uniform but I knew they always wound up going to war first and getting killed first. I wasn’t smart enough to learn how to fly an airplane so the Air Force was out. That left the Navy – I thought. At first, joining the Navy seemed like a pretty keen idea. I liked ships a lot and never got car sick or boat sick or anything like that. But if I was going to join the Navy I didn’t want to be some jerk swabbie, I wanted to be an officer and I knew that one of my classmates already had been nominated by our congressman to the academy in Annapolis.

But wait! There was the Coast Guard. They had ships and their mission of rescuing people at sea seemed very respectable and exciting. I was betting not too many of my classmates were clamoring to get into the Coast Guard Academy either so here was a possibility. Maybe my marginal honor-roll status would qualify me for congressional nomination. When I picked up a brochure, there was a picture of some “Coasties” in their dress blues graduating from the academy. Inside the brochure one of the activities depicted at the academy was the annual Cadet’s Ball. Ahoy shipmates! I could see myself taking my girlfriend to the ball, she would love me in my uniform and respect me for serving my country in such a noble way. We’d wind up getting married and live happily ever after.

Where did I sign up?

But before I signed up I discovered the Coast Guard Academy was clear across country in Connecticut. What? All that way! Too far from home. Forget it.

Now, of course, I’m glad I didn’t become a Coastie. A college friend of mine a couple of years later joined and told me about their “man-overboard-drills.” Phew, dodged a water spout there. Besides they’re involved in so much drug interdiction now the duty might resemble too much DEA enforcement without the good pay. I didn’t think I wanted to be a cop on the high seas.

That’s my what-if for this blog. Wanna’ share yours?