Cheat your own adventure...

The other night, I told Badass--
(Gosh, I feel like I should change his name. I'm struck so much more by his kindness than his coolness... I'm aware this is on the list of things you shouldn't say about men--sorry friend. Lucky for him, Sweetass sounds wildly inappropriate, so until I think of something better, Badass will have to do.)
Anyway, I told Badass about how lately, I've been wishing I could press pause, try out a few paths, etc. He said, "Like a choose your own adventure?" I said, "Yes!"
But somewhere on the Red Line ride home, I thought, 'Not like a choose your own adventure.' Because the premise of a choose your own adventure is to choose a path and follow it to an end. Life is already a choose your own adventure. What I want is a cheat code. I want to pause everything, try each of the paths before me, play them through long enough to find out where they'll send me, then come right back to this point with that knowledge, and press play, ready to choose a path based on its result.
This is totally cheating. And it's totally not the way life is supposed to go. We're supposed to just enjoy the journey. But what do we do when we place the pros and cons and gut feelings on a scale, and they never stop teetering? When did I miss the lesson about making blind life choices?
And another thing--if you hate the way a choose your own adventure book ends, you can laugh it off and pick up a new one. Or you can try again. But we're talking about life path importance here...
I believe that one of the great joys in life is the element of surprise that results from not controlling everything. Another is that we have the free will to make our life what we'd like it to be. So when there are too many means to countless endings, and the goal is simply happiness, don't you ever want the cheat code?

At least I feel a song coming on... : )