What if you had never gone to Jamaica?

My uncle used to say, “If you come to a fork in the road….pick it up”.  It always made me laugh but lets get real for a minute.

What IF that first time you ever went to Jamaica never actually happened to you? 

Have you ever thought about that?  Have you ever thought about how your life would be different if you did NOT visit and discover Jamaica?  I’m guessing your life would be significantly different because the fact that you’re even following this blog is a byproduct of loving Jamaica!  Somewhere along the way you Googled or Facebooked your way to this very spot.

I’ve asked myself this question a billion times in the last thirteen years.  For me, the Jamaican culture was always a part of my life even from childhood.  I grew up with Jamaican neighbors and my sister and I always played with those kids.  And as a teen and young adult I was frequently in contact with Jamaicans simply because I was into the hip hop and Caribbean scene in my city.  But then I had a baby, got a job, got a life.  As I wrote in my book a few years back, travel was NOT a priority for me and if not for a local Calgarian radio station and the fact that I loved Sean Paul at the time I would have never won that first trip that sucked me into Jamaica in 2003.

Here are some things that I know for certain, if I had not discovered Jamaica:

I would have resorted to writing about dysfunctional family syndrome if I didn’t have Jamaica to write about.  Those are the two most significant things in my current life – Jamaica and dysfunction lol.

My favorite food would be Mexican.  Actually, don’t hate me but Mexican still IS my favorite food genre no matter how much I love Jamaican food.

I would have fifteen years (and counting) of employment for the municipal government under my belt right now, instead of leaving that job after ten years in 2011.  I can’t say for sure if I’d be as miserable as I was at work had I not discovered Jamaica though.

Guaranteed I would have bought into real estate at home and I’d probably own a bunch of dogs!

I would have never met my husband and gotten married.  Don’t make any assumptions here….he’s American (of Jamaican descent) and we met on a chat forum about Jamaica.  That started and finished quickly although I’m still legally married and could be living in Orlando!  We’re still friends to this day.  And I swear that one day there’s going to be a “trash the dress” photo shoot on some beach in Jamaica!

The most heart wrenching thing to think about is that I wouldn’t have even crossed paths with my current best friends if not for Jamaica and this blog.  And I would have never met a bunch of you over the years.  That’s always been one of the most fascinating pieces of this journey for me – meeting SO many of my blog readers who have become such great friends and influences!

I can’t say for sure that I would have ever traveled internationally.  As I said, it was NEVER on my to-do list.  Up until Jamaica in 2003 (I was 30 years old at the time) I had only been all over the United States and thought it was the be all and end all!  California beaches were the bomb lol.

If not for Jamaica I would have zero brothers and my family would be a lot smaller!  Because of my travels I have a couple of brothers and sisters from other mothers in Toronto and I’m an honorary Davis and McIntosh in Jamaica.

I would have never done synchronized swimming in the ocean at sunset!  Can you imagine NOT doing this?

This list could go on for days if I really sat around and thought about it hard.  It crushes me to think of the people I wouldn’t know if this journey had never started.  But then again, would I even know the difference?  I guess not!

Life is funny that way.  We never get to find out what would have happened if we chose the other road.

Tell us in the comments below, how do you think your life would be different if you’d never, ever stepped foot in Jamaica that first time?