Last week, I was putting together some questions for a very special interview I’ll be conducting in the near future and came up with a couple “what if” questions for the person I’ll be interviewing. (Intrigued yet? It’s going to be good!)
While I don’t yet know the answers to the questions I wrote since I have yet to pose them, I started thinking along those lines in regards to life in general. We all have those moments, don’t we, when we ask what would have happened if we had chosen the other path at the proverbial fork in the road.
I know I’ve done it frequently as a parent, a teacher, and a coach. What if I would have tried this for potty training? Would it have been completed sooner? What if I had explained an assignment a different way? Would the students have understood it better? What if I had called a different out-of-bounds play with time running out? Would we have gotten a better shot?
So here are some other “what if” questions I came up with and some possible answers!
What if I ran for president and all I promised was never to have to change our clocks again? The biggest problem here is that the election is usually right after we move clocks back. If it happened at this time of year, right after we sprang ahead, I could probably win just on that ticket! What an outdated idea that people in power are too afraid to change “because that’s the way we’ve always done it.”
What if people didn’t feel the need to hit “Reply all” when responding to a general announcement on an e-mail? I’d have less cleaning of my inbox. Seriously, we’re happy that you’re happy about something, but unless your reply directly affects all of us, skip the “all” portion. If it’s a group message about ideas to solve a problem or set a meeting, that’s different.
What if I’d taken more time to think upon being offered my job here? When Mr. Lorenz called and wanted to hire me, I answered yes immediately despite the fact that I had another job interview the next day at St. Mary’s in Owatonna. Sometimes I wonder if I had told him I needed a few days and gone to that interview, would things have turned out the same? Or might I have taken a job in Owatonna? If so, would I still have met Michelle? Possibly, since we still might have been set up on a date due to proximity.
Maybe you’ve thought about this with your own job. If you had more than one opportunity, do you ever explore what might have happened had you taken the other one? It’s intriguing to think about at times, just for a mental exercise. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t regret jumping at this job, but it’s worth a what if.
What if both my kids would have been girls? I get asked this from time to time. Would we have tried for another child so we’d have a chance at a son? I don’t think so. When Jayna was born, I was happy to have a healthy daughter. When we were expecting Anton (and we didn’t find out in advance the gender), I told myself it didn’t matter as long as we had another healthy child. I do know if we’d had a second girl, our children would be Jayna and Olivia!
What if Fortnite just went away? Oh please, let this happen soon. I’m so sick of hearing about this online game from students. Every day, they talk about how they did the night before and how long they were up playing. When parents say they wish the kids wouldn’t play it so much, I just want to say, “Then take it away!” I know it will eventually fade and be replaced by some other inane fad. Remember fidget spinners?
What if we did away with the party system in government and just voted for candidates based on their views? Imagine having to research a candidate instead of just saying you always vote for a particular party. We already do this with local elections. Let’s get rid of the waste from the Democrats and Republicans, who spend more money trying to get re-elected than they do studying the problems and how best to solve them. This would also open things up for the average person to run for office if we also put limits on how much money can be spent on an election. Drive around, meet people, and put together a packet of information on what you believe in. I bet we’d have a more efficient government as a result!
What if people read about an idea, agreed with it, and then went out and did something about it? I’ve heard in recent weeks some really great feedback on recent columns regarding the attacks on coaching, gun control and our schools, and the need for more music and phy ed. I love the feedback, whether you agree with me or not. But I’m only one voice in the wilderness. If you truly want to see these things happen (or even one of them), then you need to speak up as well. Depending on the topic and who can make decisions, anyone can contact legislators, city council members, school administrators, and school board members. We live in a democracy where you can make your voice heard, but many voices create more noise, and voices raised in unison, organized for impact, can truly effect change.
What if I ran out of ideas to write about? Then you’d get a column like this where I mix together whatever is floating through my head!
Word of the Week: This week’s word is prolegomena, which means preliminary discussion, as in, “The meeting started with some prolegomena for everyone to get their feet wet on the topic.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!