Did you have a major "fork in the road" decision in your life?

• Did you have a major "fork in the road" decision in your life? by D.A.L.U.I. on 03 Feb, 2013 14:15
• Recently, for whatever reason, I started thinking about a point in my life at the time I graduated from undergrad school.  I had three letters of acceptance to consider and decide what to do.  Two were from law schools, the third from the Peace Corps.  I was very, very fortunate that my parents were entirely okay with whatever I chose to do.  
  The two law schools--that was pretty easy, and I made the preliminary choice based on the schools' relative reputations for quality & of course what their grads were pulling down after school.  The third was a little more challenging.  I had--again for a reason that entirely escapes me now--tested for and qualified for the Peace Corps.  There was a test, language apptitude and an essay.  My acceptance letter said return and sign, you will be going to I believe it was Cornell for an intensive language program in Swahili, and I would be posted in Tanzania for my term of work teaching English.  I sat on the letters for several days, wondering what it would be like to be separated for more than two years from everything I had known, friends, family, living in a great town and living in East Africa--it was exciting, yet frightening.  My parents said, go to law school after, the law school was okay with putting off my entrance.  At the time I knew, but was not totally committed to the lady who became my wife and mother of my children.  She also was cool with whatever I did.  There was the war in Viet Nam, but I had pulled a "good" number in the lottery and had little chance of being drafted to visit Southeast Asia! I finally decided to be "adult" and get on with my professional choice and I signed the law school letter.    But I wonder, what would my life have been like, what effects on my outlook would have occurred if I had signed the Peace Corps letter.  It's a path not taken, a door not opened.  Too bad we can't do all this at least twice.
  Did any of you face any "fork in the road" decision or decisions?
  
• #1 by Frontier Guy on 03 Feb, 2013 14:50
• Although I think "forks" are common, and I am seeing it regularly in the lives of people around me ... it never happened to me. Opportunities presented themselves to be singly and carried me off to new adventures, often totally unexpected.
  
  Had I been presented with a fork, I would have taken the path which seemed most satisfying with the condition I would never look back.
• #2 by Raulski on 03 Feb, 2013 20:32
• In 2008 i was 4 years into my PhD when my son was born. I'd been unhappy with the whole academic scene for some time & saw this as an opportunity to pursue something else but I'd already invested so much time (10 years of Uni). Anyway, I did leave & there were times when it felt like a massive mistake but now I've got a position driving coal trains & I've never been happier on my job
• #3 by benlen on 03 Feb, 2013 20:37
• Very recently I decided to take the plunge and go to graduate school––I am VERY fortunate to have parents who have financially helped me through undergrad and now graduate school, though for awhile I considered not doing graduate school and striking out/doing something else unknown. I think I made the right decision, because as much as I want to be wild and young and do something unknown, I dislike dead end jobs and lack of financial security. I want to take adventures but have a place to call my own. I think there is a balance.