Whatever Get's me There

I believe one of the the most crucial themes in life is choice. Whether we take one road or the other, choose a diet coke over regular, or wear black socks instead of white, we decide which one will benefit us the most. I think a lot of what I'm dealing with right now in high school is directly related to decision-making. as we got to studying Freud's theory of the Id, Ego, and Super-Ego, I was entertained by the recurring image of the devil and the angel on my shoulder. Yet, I went on to look past the childhood image and got to dig down deeper in to what choice really means. As I live my life, I have a vision of where I want to go, then I pick the best way to get there. I have been aware for quite some time that the easy road in life almost always turns out to be the hardest. I have always been taught that the right thing to do is almost always the hardest at first. And I'm not saying taking a short-cut isn't right, but it can often be deceptive in its predicted benefits. On and off, I have been a sucker for the easy road, but most times I have fun doing the right thing. On Christmas eve, I got the oppurtunity to spend the day at the Salvation Army, cleaning and serving food to the homeless, so I took it. I usually spend Christmas eve with my family, but this year I thought I'd get a kick out of helping out at the Salvation Army. So I stayed down there the whole day by my lonesome and got to talking with a lot of interesting people. All of them were sent to clean up the cafeteria as a part of their rehabilitation program. So I cleaned the cafeteria with them for a couple hours. I met one man who had been addicted to crack, another who had been involved in robbery, and another who had been selling drugs. They all had different stories about troubles they had experienced and horrible things they had seen. One man told me about how his brother was shot and killed, and another told me about his decisions to use cocaine. The whole time I couldn't stop thinking about the word choice. I thought about what these guys must have been through, and why they did what they did. And it all narrowed down to it: choice. He chose to live life high so he wouldn't have to face his life problems and he chose to rob a convenient store so he could take food back to his family. It all struck me so fast. The reason why all of these guys were in this place is because they made poor decisions. As a kid living a sheltered life-style in a nice private school, I've had limited opportunities to see how choice can affect me in the long run. But for a day, I was able to see a clear, non-tampered picture of what making the wrong decisions can do to one. These men decided to listen to their Id and disregard their super-ego. I think that through their bad decisions they lost sight of where they wanted to go in life, and now they are trying to get back on their way. I have high expectations for my future, and I have a deep yearning to find the best ways of getting there, so I'll keep on trying to take the high road whenever I can manage to fight against my childish desires. I'll take whatever road gets me there.