Into Geek: If I was Never Born…

Today is a blog of two distinct halves. The second half is a video but the first half is something a little different. Let’s get onto to it then.

Several films revolve around what would happen if the main character had never been born, most recently Shrek Forever After but more famously Christmas flick It’s a Wonderful Life. The other day I thought it would be interesting to imagine that I myself was the main character in such a film and imagine what the world would be like if I had never been born. It’s quite a terrifying thought but let’s delve into it shall we.

Now the most direct people my lack of existence would affect would of course be my parents. Now one must assume in this parallel universe that I wasn’t stillborn or anything, I just wasn’t created. I would imagine that the likelihood would be is that my parents would have had my brother and had another child. How the other child would turn out is hard to say, though one would assume with my parents that it would grow up to be a good person. There is a reasonable chance that it would grow up and make more money than me and perhaps even be able to give my parents a better life than my poor teaching wages will ever be able to give them. It would probably make little difference to my parents then, which is a scary thought.

The next people I guess it would affect would be my friends. Most of them it would make little difference too and I certainly feel that my uni friends would be no worse off or at least better of if I didn’t exist. But I am trying to be as honest as possible with this entry and I would imagine that my lack of existence probably would make a difference to my closest friends. I would imagine that their levels of happiness, especially during sixth form, would be reduced but I don’t know how much by. It would be big-headed to suggest that I am capable of making someone much happier with their life but perhaps I could have made a positive difference.

I’m already running out of people I know now that those two categories are done. Ex-girlfriends would probably be a little different. Perhaps they would have grown up a little slower without me being around the difference would be minimal. I mean, both the big ones seem to have moved on and virtually forgotten about my existence anyway so I can’t have played that important a role in their lives. Of course, if I was never born I would not meet any future girlfriends or wife I may one day have. I can’t really discuss the affect this would have because I haven't met said person/people yet. If I do end up having a long-term marriage then of course that woman’s life would be completely different. But then again, surely they would just marry someone else and could be as happy.

Now this has been pretty miserable so far but I’m not writing this as a “I’m useless, nobody likes me” kind of post. I am genuinely considering the question and there is one fairly large group of people that I have yet to mention. The children I teach during my year’s of being a teacher. Now I assume I will get through uni and be a proper teacher and I am fairly sure that I will be quite a good one. Now I think I could make a huge difference to hundred’s of children’s lives. I might give them a better education than another teacher would, help them through a difficult time better than another teacher or improve the children’s life in other ways. So if I wasn’t born then perhaps hundred’s of children would have a worse childhood and possible even a worse life because of that. So I guess that my existence does make a difference.

Oh and if I didn’t exist you wouldn’t be reading this right now. Think about that!

The second half of today’s post is a video which is the first “episode” in a series of videos I am doing called “Personal Preference”, which are videos all about me. They will keep me entertained over the summer and will let you get to know me a bit better. Here’s the first video: