I thought about the movie Sliding Doors recently when asked for movie recommendation.
It’s one of those films that stays with you long after the credits roll, not because of the story itself, but because of the question it asks.
What if one small moment had gone differently?
In the movie, everything changes because a woman either catches a train… or misses it. Just a few seconds. One closing door. Two completely different lives.
As I sat thinking about it today, I realized how many sliding door moments have existed in my own life.
What if my parents had never left Trinidad?
What if I hadn’t moved to Texas?
What if I hadn’t come to Canada?
What if I had never worked in IT?
What if I had never experienced burnout?
What if I had decided not to take that first solo cruise?
What if I had never picked up a bubble wand?
What if I had never written a Fringe play?
It’s amazing how many of life’s biggest chapters can be traced back to moments that seemed almost insignificant at the time.
A decision made in a few seconds.
A chance meeting.
A phone call answered.
A job accepted.
A relationship begun.
Or ended.
The funny thing is that we spend so much of our lives wondering about the roads we didn’t take.
Would that marriage have worked?
Would that career have made me happier?
Would that move have changed everything?
The truth is, we’ll never know.
And maybe that’s okay.
Because while one door closes, another quietly opens.
I’ve come to realize that every version of my life would have brought its own joys and its own heartbreaks. There isn’t a perfect timeline waiting somewhere in another universe. There are only different stories, each with their own lessons.
For a long time, I wondered if burnout had stolen years from my life. Now I wonder if it gave me years I never would have lived otherwise. Without it, I might never have travelled. I might never have become the Bubble Maestro. I might never have stood on a stage telling my story.
Those weren’t the life I planned. But they became the life that shaped me. Perhaps that’s the lesson Sliding Doors has been trying to teach all along.
Life isn’t about finding the perfect path. It’s about fully living the one you’re on. Because every time one door closes, another opens.
And sometimes, years later, you look back and realize that the door you thought you missed…
Was actually the one that led you exactly where you needed to be.
“Everything happens for the best. You’ll never know if you don’t try.”
Sliding Doors (1998)