Vanilla or chocolate? Left or right? John Green or Dan Brown? The Departed or Spider-Man 3? From choosing the time to get up from your bed to choosing the subjects that will make the rest of your life, choices really do fill our world today. But, as society advances, these choices only get tougher and more complicated. I mean, there was a time when the caveman simply had a few choices like "cooked meat or raw meat?" However, now it’s more like steak, butter chicken, tandoori chicken, or shredded lamb. I guess you can see how it can get to be more than a mouthful. Yet, on the other hand, we would not have advanced without these choices. I mean, imagine if Newton had chosen to do something else in life rather than wonder why an apple fell from a tree. We’d probably still be struggling to understand gravity. Looking back through history, I cannot help but admire how even a little turn has made what is the present and how one little deviation may have changed it greatly. Imagine if the Indians had won the first war of independence in 1857. I doubt that we would have had one unified country today if that had been the case. Even today, when we talk about who is better between two individuals, we are, in effect, comparing the choices they make. At the end of the day, it is the right choices that separate the winner from the loser. In a game of tennis or squash, it is the choice of the area where the player hits the ball that accounts for his or her winning the match. Have you noticed how life can be dramatically changed by a single choice? If a person suddenly chooses to jump off a cliff, no one can stop him. Yet it is, after all, a choice that makes the difference between his life and his death. One choice is all it takes. If you examine the choices you have made on any given day, you will realise the many compulsions and pressures that have gone into their making. Some a little more frustrating than others. From parents and peers to TV ads and tradition, all play a part, however subtle, in influencing us. Yet, ultimately, the responsibility is ours alone. Making choices gives us the most valuable experience of what is right and what is wrong. If we make the wrong choices again, we can choose whether or not to learn from our mistakes or to make the mistake of not learning and making the wrong choice again. Don’t waste your choices by choosing just because the alternative is worse — those aren’t real choices. Start making active choices to make the most of this privilege we call choice; to grow your already robust foundation that millions are denied.
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