Alternate Life?

Yesterday a former colleague I worked with as a teacher at a bilingual school in Bangkok confirmed me as her friend on Facebook.

She was another English teacher, an American just a few years younger than me, who had come from Vietnam to teach in Thailand.

Ended up she didn't like teaching at that particular school very much (spoiled kids) and her long-term European boyfriend couldn't get work, so she finished her contract and moved back to Vietnam with him.

On my side, I had a baby and then moved back to the USA with my little family. I haven't seen or heard from her since.

But I looked her up the other day on FaceBook and she's been living in Vietnam the whole time, teaching English, getting her advanced degree to further her opportunities. So that's what - 5 or 6 years in Vietnam?

Now she's moving with her partner to Bangladesh to teach in Dakha.

Wow, what a life. It would have been mine, you know.

Before meeting Golf I was planning on moving to a different country to teach English. I would have gone to at least a few more countries for the experience, excitement and to move out of my comfort zone.

So after contacting her, I reflected on what her life must be like and what my alternate life would have been like had I not met Golf and gotten married.

I had fun doing it because I'm GRATEFUL for how my life has turned out today, but still like to imagine if things had been different. And now I can follow her around on FaceBook and watch how this new chapter in her life unfolds. How exciting!