Privilege of choice
Choice; it is a privilege that we as humans are afforded. We are presented with almost a 100 instances each day to make a choice. The alarm rings and we either choose to wake up or hit that snooze button; we choose to rush out into our busy world having breakfast or going without; at school, work or during our day-to-day activities, a million situations come our way that require us to make choices. So how do we use this privilege to our advantage?
A choice denotes authority; it is ‘our’ call and the final decision rests with us. We choose to enjoy life or waste precious moments of it complaining, in anger, or not being content with who we are and what we have. Every choice affects our lives and thereby the lives of the people around us. As young people, the choices we make today have a great impact on our tomorrow. For instance, we can choose to put off our work for another day and slowly create a mountain of work that eventually becomes overwhelming; or we can finish the day’s work without leaving it for tomorrow.
In short, our choices, however big or small, insignificant or important, determine our future. They determine our actions, our words and our thoughts; our choices decide if we succeed or fail, live or die. They are canisters of power, explosive, in that they can impact our lives for the good or the bad and steer us forward or backwards; they define who we are.
Volunteering is a choice too, and it is just as powerful as all the others; it has a great impact on our lives, our attitudes, our thoughts and our actions. Today you might choose to postpone ‘volunteering’ for another day while on the other hand another person would’ve chosen to do otherwise. The truth is as youth we have taken our power of choice for granted. Some of us make the choice to use our talents and skills on seemingly ‘important’ things whereas that talent or skill would have greatly benefitted someone or some situation in great need of it. Think of all those young people that took their own lives; such tragedies could’ve been averted if different choices were made; it would’ve produced a different outcome. One lost person is one lost talent, one less person to impact the lives or community around; and that is a great loss indeed. Some spend extravagantly on ‘things’ that would most often only satisfy a want; part of that spending could’ve been devoted to helping a family in need, or a person in dire need of something to eat. As was related in the last column, people have this mentality of ‘every man for himself’, and that is true; today our choices revolve around ourselves- how will this benefit me, will I succeed, will I lose?
Where have your choices led you? How have they affected you? Choices, each with a different outcome and path, like tiny canisters of power waiting to be released, float around our minds each day. The question is will it affect our lives for better or worse? Choose wisely, youth of tomorrow!
This column was written by a STITCH volunteer to learn more visit www.stitchmovement.com