Making the Right Decision

“Psst, I need to talk to you.” My best friend, looking super excited, is pulling me toward the nearest classroom. It’s empty, and she shuts the door. “This is really big. I made a time machine, and it can take our brains back in time if you know how to use it. Come on, we’ve got to test it out!”
    
I’ve just realized what everything she said means, and before I can protest, my friend flips a bunch of levers, and a machine in her hand starts glowing. The room tilts, dissolving under my feet.

I try to process what I’m seeing. It’s me, talking to a kid from last year. I remember what this is about. The boy wanted me to let him cheat off of my test in science, but I said no. Many nights, I’ve wondered what might have happened if I’d let him copy my test. We were  good friends up until that year, but now, I barely remember him. We’ve hardly spoken with each other this year either. I’ve wished so many times that I’d chosen differently and let him copy my work. Maybe then this wouldn’t feel like a wrinkle in my life timeline. A moment when I made a big mistake.
    
Then I remember we’re back in time. I can change this! But I can’t move as the floor dissolves again, and my friend and I appear back in the classroom. She doesn’t mention anything about what we just saw, and I don’t bring it up.

We exit the classroom and run into the same kid outside the door. He apologizes for what happened last year. When the bell rings, the three of us walk to class together.

Things have a way of working out eventually. Wrinkles can be ironed. We can’t see the future and will never know what might have been different. We could spend our entire life going what if . . . But the best thing that we can do is make the right decision for the time.