In reply to Flinticus:
I suppose I have had the usual turning points in my life, that have decided what I do for a job, who I am friends with, where I live, etc.
My dad said offered to pay for me to go to private secondary school (the local grammar school had just been abolished, and replaced with a comprehensive system in the area). I chose to stay with my primary school friends, and go to the comprehensive. Who knows what might have happened if I'd gone to the private school? Would my character have been significantly different, or was it already pretty determined by age 11? I left the comprehensive with the highest results in the school, having done not a lot of work, which backfired at sixth form; I'm not sure if a lack of work ethic towards study was in me before I went to school, or because I didn't need to work at school. Or maybe it was down to doing well if I thought I was doing well. I now have contact with only one person from primary school, and that's only at Christmas. I have no contact with anyone from secondary school (the primary school friend excepted).
My a-level choices at sixth form, and who I became friends with there was pretty formative; I am still friends with a small core I met there.
Then there's the choice of university, and subject. I had got into electronics as a hobby at school, and continued that at university, and now in my career. What else might I have done? Product design, perhaps, at the technical, rather than chunkily-contoured, pastel-coloured blob end. There are a few friends from university, based around the film society, that I am in infrequent contact with.
Job? I had an industrial year placement with an electronics company. I'm still there, having been employed by their research arm after graduating. My next turning point will be when I retire, I suspect. Which may not be many years away.
Then there is UKC. Yes, really; there is a sizeable bunch of people who I have met through UKC, and am still close friends with. Most of them have long since left UKC, but I still see them, or chat with them via email or facebook.
Then there are the 'what ifs' about girls I'd asked out, who weren't interested, or the relationships I ended because I wasn't besotted, which means that I've been on my own for most of my adult life. I'm not sure if I regret not having children; I love playing with other people's kids, but I'm not sure I could cope with the responsibility of my own...
I'm where I am now, and very rarely have any 'what if' thoughts. Then again, I very rarely have any 'what next' thoughts...