What If?

In Enrique’s Journey, by Sonia Nazario, the question of “what if” is repeatedly asked throughout the story.  The characters in the novel repeatedly wonder of what could have been if they had gone down another pathway in their lives.  One of the biggest “what if’s” that is in this novel is what if Lourdes had never left Enrique in Honduras to travel to the United States for a job.  After Enrique finds his way back to Lourdes, she wonders, “Would he have turned out different, she asks herself repeatedly, if she hadn’t left him?”(Nazario, 201).  Lourdes asks herself this question over and over again because Enrique had become addicted to drugs and their relationship was struggling.  I feel that if Lourdes had not left Enrique behind in Honduras there would have been less of a possibility for Enrique to have been drawn to drugs than there was without his mother there.  On the other hand, if Lourdes had stayed they would have been so poor that Enrique would possibly result to drugs despite his mother staying with him.  Later on in the novel, Don Francisco asks Lourdes if it was worth it, she responds, “To tell you the truth, on one hand it was worth it--at first.  But on the other hand--no.  I lost their childhood. Sometimes, you feel bad.” (Nazario, 245).  It was a hard decision for Lordes to make to leave her family, but she will probably wonder “what if” her whole life.

Have you ever been in a situation where you had to make a tough decision and from then on have always wondered “what if”?