Fulfillment or not?

When it comes to a person's feeling of personal fulfillment, I think there are three different kinds of scenarios for people, and I've outlined them:

The first type of fulfillment is that of the people that actually get to personally experience success during their lifetime--Either their own success or the success of their offspring. They are able to reap the fruits of their labor and experience the joy first hand, and to bask in the limelight of their successes. They get the immediate gratification that might make some people say to themselves, "My job here is done." The Catch-22 here is that a lot of people that achieve what others would call success never would think their job was done. This type of fulfillment is apparent to both themselves and to those around them.

The second type is the seemingly missing feeling of personal fulfillment. This one belongs to those that never know their place or purpose in life. They don't necessarily grieve or rue their lack of accomplishment, but ponder their life and wonder if they missed their true calling. They might think that if they had made a different choice at some point in their life things might have been drastically different. Opportunity is a key factor in this type of person. Some people have opportunities and others don't, and some people just have more opportunities afforded to them to begin with. In some cases, it's simply a matter of being able to spot the right opportunity that's being presented to them. Not all opportunities come with a sign saying, "This is an opportunity for you... You'd better seriously consider it."

The third type is the definite lack of fulfillment. The person who, either through fault or no fault of his own doing, has his life cut short without continuing the family bloodline. These are the people that never lived long enough to choose any particular path to begin with.

I obviously fall into the second category. I'd be lying if I said I had never wondered where I screwed up--Wondered if things would have been vastly different if I had chosen differently as some point in my life. I can't beat myself up over it though, and the reason is because I simply don't know what choice or choices I would have made differently. If there was a choice that I could have made at some point in my life, I certainly failed to recognize it. Instead I would like to believe that my son and my daughter will both achieve success in their lives and enjoy the gratification that I feel that I missed.

While I may or may not experience a particular success that either of them accomplishes during my lifetime, I can at least rest assured knowing that I have left behind two beautiful people that are better equipped than I was for the rest of the world to enjoy, and I'm okay with that.