Do you ever think about the choices you've made that have brought you to where you are today?

Of the college you decided to attend … or not to attend? Of the high school sweetheart you married … or didn't marry? Of the job you took … or didn't take?

I have three children at various stages of early adulthood, each making choices now that will help determine the set of their lives for years to come.

When I was my daughter's age, 17, coming of age in the late 1960s in a small manufacturing town in Ohio, I wanted to go to college at a time when few of the young women (and men) in my high school graduating class went away to school.

My father, who had quit school after the eighth grade to help out his family during the Depression, thought my aspirations somewhat extravagant.

"Why do you need more than a high school diploma?" I remember him asking me in my senior year, noting that a college degree seemed unnecessary for someone who was likely to marry her high school sweetheart, work for a while, then settle down and raise a family.

But, like several of my older brothers, I wanted to go away to school. It wasn't that I had a grand plan for my life, only that I liked the idea of being a teacher, and college seemed more interesting that settling into a job right after high school.

So, contrary to my father's expectations, I went to college and earned a degree in secondary education. I also didn't marry my high school sweetheart, although I did teach for only a short while before marrying and settling into my role of a stay-at-home mom. (To stay active in my field, though, and to help out with the family finances, I taught writing classes part time at a local community college.)

Life went on that way for more than a dozen years, me being the chief cook and bottle washer and my husband bringing home (most of) the bacon.

But anyone who has lived long enough knows that life can throw you curves, and our family was no exception.

When he was in his early 40s, my husband experienced serious health problems that prevented him from working full time. So I had to find a full-time job … fast. Using my college degree, I landed one as a reporter for a weekly newspaper and began building a career of my own. My husband, on the other hand, learned to adjust to his new role of Mr. Mom.

Many times over the past decade I've thought about my father's question — although asked in a different era and under vastly different circumstances than someone graduating from high school today. Little did I know at that time how important a degree would become to me.

Today, when I watch my own children make choices about their lives, I better appreciate the far-reaching consequences their decisions might have on their futures, often carrying more weight than they themselves can imagine at the time they are being made.

Linda K. Schmitmeyer is a freelance writer living in Middlesex Township. Her e-mail address is lks260@zoominternet.net.