Every life is a package

Have you ever come across the question - if given a chance, would you exchange your life with someone else's? Or, Have you ever wished to exchange your life with someone simply because they're doing well in life or have achieved the things that you aim for? 

A spontaneous answer maybe 'yes' to these but after a deep thought and analysis, almost everyone ('almost' being the keyword here, obviously) will appreciate their own particular life or at the least, not complaint about their own hardships (as much). 

What's that deep thought or the analysis? - Everyone's life is a packaged deal. 

Well, life isn't a super market (and the world isn't run by a wish-granting genie) where you could hand-pick circumstances and hence the outcomes. You're a sum total of your circumstances, experiences, what you make of them, how you handle them. Basically, although it may not make a ton of sense at times or seem like it is all connected, that is the case (fortunately for the most part). It's like a chain of events where the preceding one may not appear like it would have resulted in the one following it but that is what is happening. If you're at station A, and there are 'n' stations that you could get to (directly) from A - your logics, thought process, people surrounding you, analysis of the outcomes of reaching each of  those stations, conditions at hand and most importantly, feasibility of the travel - the net total of these will decide where you actually end up. 
And much naturally, each of those 'n' stations could lead you to a whole other set of  'n' other points in life - that you could never have a clue about! 

Now, if you were to exchange your life with someone else's, you won't get to pick pieces out of it. Even if you did, it'd be constructing a whole new chain of events - and you may not like future parts of it! All in all, the trade won't be worth it. 

So when you look at someone living the life you wanted for yourself - or rather a piece of it - know that there's a good chance you were made to press the skip button on this particular piece only to land at a much better place than you could've possibly imagined!

Wrapping it up with a quote that I'm reminded of - 

"Nothing is ever as good or as bad as it seems"