It's A Wonderful Reality

Over the years I have had my imagination tweaked by the idea of multiple realities and outcomes. Reading Flash comics back in my pre-teen years first hipped me to the notion that there could be another Earth just next door to our own, vibrating at a frequency that makes it impossible to see, unless you can control your vibrations like the Scarlet Speedster can. Things over there aren't a whole lot different, but just enough to keep things interesting. It is the "what if" portion of the DC comics galaxy. On Earth 2, Batman and Catwoman could get married, for example. Different planet, different choices.
That whole "alternative timeline" thing came back to me in the new Star Trek movie got me thinking. There could be a reality in which I decided to stay in Santa Fe as a freshman. Instead of washing out after one night in my dorm room, I stuck it out and became best friends with my roommate, who I met only once on this plane. This would have set off a new flurry of forks in the road: Would I have been able to cling to my high school sweetheart? Our angst-filled passion eventually wore us both out. Maybe the distance would have saved our romance. Or time and space could have done the same job we managed ourselves back here on Earth 1. If I graduated form the College of Santa Fe, I never would have met the boys from Slocum Hall, and no one would have had to choose to move to Boulder. I wouldn't be left behind on that sunny October afternoon. No crash. No funeral.
I would have missed the start of my management career at Arby's. No Beef 'n' Cheddar and eventually no Trivia Bowl. I might have made a home for myself in the desert southwest. Close enough to make it home for Christmas, but far enough away to have to find a place to do my laundry. Eventually, I would have reconnected with that girl from high school who ended up at Saint John's College, just up the road. Maybe we kept in touch, and eventually I came to visit her in the Bay Area when she transferred to Mills. We fall in love and make a home in those hills. And maybe things just have a way of working out no matter what planet you're on.