What If and then What Now
The Hopeful Tree
16 March 2026
Today I was just scrolling through TikTok and came across a short snippet from the movie "Letters to Juliet". Not even the full movie — just a small clip. But somehow it caught my attention.
So I went to find out how the story ended.
The movie talked about something very simple but very powerful — two words that can stay with a person for a long time.
What if.
And that got me thinking about my own life.
You know, I think about things like this quite a lot.
What if I had done things differently?
What if I had been more responsible with some of the choices I made earlier in life?
What if I didn’t let certain setbacks affect me so much?
When I was younger, I wasn’t actually a bad student. I did reasonably well. I came from a primary school that was affiliated with a secondary school I really wanted to enter.
But I missed the cutoff by just five points.
Five points.
I remember appealing for months… still hoping somehow it would work out.
But it never did.
And somewhere along the way, something inside me just gave up.
Maybe not all at once. But enough.
So sometimes I wonder…
What if I didn’t let that setback set me back?
There are other “what ifs” too.
What if I never started smoking?
What if I quit earlier?
Even today I sometimes ask myself…
What if I consistently chose the decisions that push my life forward
instead of the ones that slowly pull it backwards?
But maybe the purpose of those words isn’t to trap us in regret.
Maybe they’re meant to wake us up.
Because the past cannot be changed.
But the future still responds to the decisions we make today.
So maybe the better question isn’t what if.
Maybe the better question is:
What now?
✝️ SCRIPTURE
“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on…”
— Philippians 3:13–14
Not what if…
but what now 🌿
📖 Scripture Reflection
What is one “what if” you’ve been holding on to…
that you need to turn into a “what now”?
Thank you for reading The Hopeful Tree 🌿
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