Doppelgangers

One of my favorite television shows is How I Met Your Mother. I know it's a little off the wall and some of the story lines are not very classy but I'm an adult and I think the show is it's hilarious. And since we don't have cable, it's one of the few shows we get. And since we don't have cable we have started investing in buying TV on DVD sets when they go on sale.

When I saw HIMYM on sale at Target a while back I knew I had to pick it up. Each episode has a snazzy name and the last episode of last season was entitled "Doppelgangers" In common vernacular a doppelganger is refers to a double or look-alike of a person.

***spoiler alert coming in case you want to watch and have not yet seen the last episode last season's HIMYM***

HIMYM has 5 main cast members and all but one (Barney) has had a doppelganger seen by the group. In this episode Lily thinks she sees a doppelganger of Barney, thus providing confirmation that she and her husband Marshall should start trying for a family. Through twists and turns, it comes out that she didn't see a Barney-doppelganger but Barney himself.

And Lily is disappointed; disappointed because she thought that the confirmation of the 5th doppelganger was natures way of saying it was okay to begin a family and also disappointed that she's become a person she never thought she'd be - waiting for someone else to tell her it was okay to do something and not being the artist she's dreamed of but a kindergarten teacher wanting a baby.

Robin (my least favorite character) wisely tells her that each of us are our own doppelganger. That 5 or 10 years ago you probably never pictured were you would be now.... and probably not recognize yourself either.

And while I'm not sure I have a doppelganger out there [smile], Robin's comments really stuck with me. 10 years ago I was approaching high school graduation (eek!), deciding between colleges, majors and prom dates. I thought I would go to a prestigious college, major in engineering (ugh), achieve a fabulous job making lots of money and maybe start thinking about marriage around the age of 28.

10 years later I'm a college graduate not from a prestigious college but a wonderful state school all the same. I gave up engineering because of the torture they called Linear Algebra and never even found a job in my field. Instead I worked at a child development center where I formed the deepest, most intrinsic and valuable friendships I could imagine.

Rather than getting married at 28, I got married as a fresh-faces 23 year old and dreamed of having a family almost immediately.

And while I always wanted to be a mom (I remember answering that to the "what do you want to be when you grow-up question in grade school), I figured I'd have time to be a mother when I was ready. I was just ready long before I had initially planned.

5 years ago I would have never envisioned that I would be a SAHM to a 'special needs' child or that I would have chosen that path either. I also never would have envisioned that I could have the love for a child burn so deeply that I haven't seen, touched or even know if they've been born yet. Oh, how people change.

So I am my own doppelganger. As a soon-to-be high school graduate I am 100% positive that I would not recognize myself today. But somehow I managed to be right where I'm supposed to be.

Are you your own doppelganger, or have you perhaps seen your doppelganger? [smile]