What if?

The question in my mind, is what if I had joined karate at an earlier stage
of my life? How would it have affected me? I surely would not be the same
person;is what comes to mind instantly. Half the things that occurred in my
life, may never have come to be and perhaps I would have found the happiness
as well as confidence I have now, much earlier. Would my resolve be the same
as it is now? I do not know that for sure, I was always a dedicated person
but who knows. A couple of my friends have been in martial arts before I was
bornor at least have years more experience than me, so I wonder, would I have
turned out something like they have? I am proud to be a karateka now, and in
this short year I have accomplished more meaningful things at once than I
could have before in the state I was in, I guess I was allowing the whole
self fulfilling prophecy to get to me. That brings up another what if. What
if, I believed when people said that I could not do this? I should give up or
I was going too soon enough anyway? Well I would not be the most outstanding
Shotokan Karateka in my dojo for 2010 nor have skipped a belt or even have
become a purple belt in the time that I did(a capable one at that, so I have
been told by friends, peers and senseis alike) It is strange when we sit and
reflect and realize how much we have changed and how much we have done as
well but also how close we came to never achieving them. If I had listened to
those people, I would have quit and believed I could not be a martial artist
of any sort. Thank God that is another what if moment and nothing else but
that.