By Shawn Clark

I believe everyone thinks about this, in one way or another at some point. Since no one knows what the future really holds, it’s a fascinating topic. Will it be the incarnation of the Jetson’s or maybe a replay of Back to the Future for the umpteenth time. Yes, I’m old enough to have watched “The Jetsons,” and I loved Back to the Future.

Anyway, the future can be scary at times when you think about what we’ve witnessed over the past 25 to 30 years. We were around to witness the creation of the internet, not to mention cell phones. We’ve lived through the worst terror attack in our country’s history that killed thousands of Americans. The start of Desert Storm was terrible to witness. And who could forget the pandemic of Covid 19? There were also some great times. For instance, in 1995, I was married and had my daughter two short years later. Researchers have moved leaps and bounds toward curing cancer. There are now cars that can drive themselves. And let’s not forget the invention of the drone. The drone has even changed the way fireworks are displayed now. Like um or hate um, drones are here to stay.

In 2015, if you were to ask me this same question, I think you would have received a different answer. Back then I would have said that I only think about the future and never look back. Now I think to myself, if I don’t look back, I will never know where I came from. Without looking back, how can you measure progress? You see, I used to think that life should be lived without regrets. Now I know that is not possible. If I lived without regret, I would be the biggest lowlife who lived on God’s green earth. I do not believe it is possible to not have some regret. We all make mistakes, and to some extent we should live our lives looking forward and never forget where we came from.

I am extremely hopeful for what the future holds. I am hopeful that I will get the opportunity to rekindle my relationship with my daughter and be a part of her life. I am hopeful that my father will not have to live in too much pain. I am hopeful that our country can recover from the horrible debt it is in. I am hopeful that I will be granted parole when I see the board in March 2027. There is so much to be hopeful for that I could go on and on.

I think that keeping all this in mind, I would still rather travel to the past. As much as I would love to see my future self and my daughter and the rest of my family for that matter, I would rather travel back to one year before I was arrested. I would rather go to 2014 with my happy little family and my happy job in my happy home. I would go back there and change my ways. Change my path so I wouldn’t have hurt all those I love so much. I would have been able to save my family from splitting apart. I could have saved my marriage. You see, to me that would be worth any expense. I would give myself to know that my family wouldn’t have had to go through all the pain I put them through.

I hope that in the future we can see what the future holds for ourselves. Ponder that sentence for a minute –how nice would it be to see that you were about to make a horrible or stupid mistake? That you could change your current path for the better. How nice would it be if you could see your children’s troubles and help guide them to a better, safer direction? I think that is coming. Maybe not in our lifetime. When, well that is the real question. With the leaps and bounds our world has grown for a better tomorrow, it can only get better. Yes, there will be setbacks like in every good that happens there is a bad. I think they are called yin/yang or something along those lines. There has to be sadness in order for there to be happiness. In order to have a winner, there must also be a loser.

It doesn’t matter how we live, whether it’s fretting about the past or looking at our flying cars in the future. There will always be a good side and a bad. All I can do now is make the best of the opportunities afforded to me and strive for a better me when I get out of here. That, and a little prayer can’t hurt either.