Being mediocre isn't so bad (why "Tapestry" isn't for everyone)

In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Tapestry”, a god-like being called “Q” visits Captain Picard in the afterlife after he dies due to the failure of his artificial heart.  In flashbacks, we see that Picard received the heart when he was a Starfleet ensign fresh out of the Academy.  Picard stands up to an alien in a dispute over a pool game and gets in a fight which results in him being stabbed.  As a result of this injury, he receives an artificial heart. We see Picard the ensign: headstrong, brash and emotional. 

Picard tells Q he wishes he could change the way he was as a young man.  Q gives him that opportunity by allowing him to relive the incident that resulted in him being stabbed.  This time, Picard avoids the fight.  When the young Picard decided to avoid confrontation and be less headstrong, brash and emotional, we see that this change resulted in him never becoming a captain.  Instead, he stayed as a lower-level science officer.  To quote Q in the episode:

"The Jean-Luc Picard you wanted to be, the one who did NOT fight the Nausicaan, had quite a different career from the one you remember. That Picard never had a brush with death, never came face to face with his own mortality, never realized how fragile life is, or how important each moment must be. So his life never came into focus. He drifted through much of his career, with no plan or agenda... going from one assignment to the next, never seizing the opportunities that presented themselves. He never led the away-team on Milika III to save the ambassador, or take charge of the Stargazer's bridge when its captain was killed. And no one ever offered him a command. He learned to play it safe... and he never, ever got noticed by anyone."

Picard says he would rather die on the operating table than live the life as he changed it.  Q acknowledges this, and takes him back – only this time Q saved his life.  The episode ends with Picard acknowledging how the young man he was enabled him to be what he is today, a captain.

That’s a good story.  Let me tell you another one, about me.  I graduated high school 6^th in my class of over 300, with a 3.9/4.0 grade point average.  I likely could have gotten into any college I wanted to, including the ivy leagues.  Instead, I went to Louisiana State University.  I graduated with a mediocre GPA, couldn’t find a job and applied for Officer Candidate School with the Army.  The acceptance rate was less than five percent, but I was accepted.  During Army basic training, I was the Distinguished Honor Graduate out of a class of four hundred.  At OCS, I lasted two weeks before dropping out.  

After my army stint, I took the Law School Admission Test on a lark and scored in the 97^th percentile. I applied for and was accepted at Vanderbilt Law School, but instead went to LSU.  Once again, failed to live up to my potential and graduated squarely in the middle of my class.  After law school, I went to work as an attorney for the state of Louisiana, practicing insurance administrative law for twenty-five years. 

How does all this relate to Tapestry?  Like Jean-Luc Picard, I had all the potential in the world.  I could have gone to Harvard or Stanford, but I settled for LSU.  I could have been an Army officer, but I settled for enlisted.  I could have gone to a top-10 law school and gotten a high-paying corporate law job, but once again I settled for LSU.  I could have applied myself at LSU and made law review, but I settled for being mediocre.  I stayed in my insurance administrative law job for twenty-five years, when I could have taken risks and looked elsewhere.  I played it safe. My point is, I am the science officer Picard.  Unlike him, though, I am one-hundred percent content in how my life ended up.  I took no risks, did not dream, was perfectly satisfied in my mediocrity.  The Picard in “Tapestry” could not bear to be that person.  I embrace it.  It enabled me to end up in the city I always dreamed of living in, with a house, a car, a nice pension and comfortable financial situation.  I did not come close to the equivalent of “leading an away team on Milka III to save the ambassador” or “taking charge of the Stargazer’s bridge when the captain was killed”.  I’m fine with that.  No part of me at all regrets not going to a upper-tier university college, becoming an Army officer, or going to Vanderbilt Law.  The Captain Picard in “Tapestry” is not for everyone, certainly not me.  I am Lieutenant Picard, and I have zero regrets.