I was born in 1950 so was 50 in 2000 and started contemplating my life, thinking about, "when I'm 88 and on my death bed, what will I regret?" that sort of thing? I suddenly wondered about my 1967 life dream and where it had gone and ended up picking it up again and moving forward with it (to where I am today, still pursuing it). That has been a weird experience sort of like you describe I think. In 1970 my life split and until 2001/02 I was living a different one than I was "supposed" to be? It has all come together well though, the split was not as abrupt as one would assume and works well with where I am, have gone now, it just was not something I could imagine back then, like a new branch of my tree growing instead of a "mistake".