Even when he’d been very young, the boy had been regarded as a prodigy.
“That one will go far,” his parents were told. “As soon as he’s old enough, he must be enrolled in the Academy. He has the potential to become a Time Lord.”
The boy wondered whether anyone would bother asking him if he wanted to be a Time Lord. Didn’t he get any choice in the matter?
Looking back, the Doctor wonders what his life would have been like if he’d taken a different path. He has countless regrets, but becoming a Time Lord isn’t among them.