The Paths That Guide

By Cayli Duttry

Have you ever thought about how many paths you could have taken that are different from the ones you chose?

You could have gone by a different name, one that I wouldn’t have ever thought twice about.

You could have chosen something different to eat for breakfast that morning, something that made you sick and kept you home.

You could have scheduled a different class in the place of the one we had together, or taken this one at a different time in the day. 

You could have turned down a different road on your way here and gotten in an accident, god forbid. In that case, maybe you would’ve been late and caught my attention anyways.

You could have chosen a different university to go to in general. You could have gone to Brown, or Yale, or Harvard. You were accepted to all of them and you still chose to be here.

You could have remembered to log out of the library computer before you left.

You could have closed your curtains before I walked by.

You could have blocked my number after our project was turned in.

You could have screamed.