April 25, 2024

BY ASHLEY CURRIE

A wise person once taught me that life was all about choices. That man was my seventh grade homeroom teacher, Chris Brown (not to be mistaken with rap/r&b artist Chris Brown). It was his mantra, his answer to everything and he would not let you forget it.

I never really understood the significance of this statement until I got a little older, but I think I get it now.

Life is all about choices. Everyone makes choices every day. Regular or skim milk in your latte? Go to bed early or stay up late? Do your homework or go out partying?  Some people make mostly bad choices, and others make mostly good choices, but no one is perfect and no one can make perfect choices all the time.

This is where it gets a little more complicated. When you come to a moment in your life where you need to make a choice there are a few tools you are going to use to help you make the decision.

The first one is logic. What is going to happen if you make choice A? What is going to happen if you make choice B? Which of those is the desired outcome? Logically you make the choice that leads to what you want.

The next factor in choice-making, and the thing which dictates most choices made by most people, is feelings. If you are angry or happy or sad it is going to influence what choices you make. If you are happy you might chose to do a good deed and make someone’s’ day, if you are angry you might chose to seek revenge and end up hurting someone. Either way, your feelings are going to influence your choices.

It is because of these annoying feelings that people often regret the choices they make. However, these people are wrong.

If you made a choice based on the way you were feeling then it was exactly the right choice for you at that time. You should never have to regret or apologize for the way you were feeling.

A choice you made might not have been the best one but it was based on your logic and your feelings at the time and it made sense to you.

Life is all about choices.

Next time you’re faced with a tough choice like whether to get regular or skim milk in your latte, or you look back on a past choice with regret, remember that at the time it was exactly what you wanted.