Choices, Choices, Choices

1-21-13

Lauren,

Yes, I know it's been a while.  That's not to say that I haven't thought about writing.  I have, trust me. But thinking about something and doing something are two completely different things.  Obviously, I didn't do anything.  But that was a choice I made, and here I am four months later finally choosing to bust something out.  Am I writing because I feel obligated to? Nah.  Am I writing because I missed it? A little.  Am I writing because I still want to leave me legacy and words of wisdom for you? Most definitely.  I may have slacked on this project for a while, but I think that subconsciously I was choosing not to write because, quite honestly, I didn't know what the heck was going on in my own life for quite some time.  And if I don't even know what I'm doing to myself and why I'm doing things, then how can I help you and tell you what to do? It's something to think about.

It is a new year, not only in a number sense, but in many other ways as well.  I am now 25, and have been for 13 days.  Each birthday starts another year for me.  It is also a new year for our country.  Today, on Martin Luther King, Jr Day, Barack Obama was sworn in for his second term as President of the United States.  Normally I would watch the inauguration (I'm a sucker for the speeches; what can I say, I love words), but today I was at work and without a TV, and so I could not watch it.  Of course, the first thing I did when I got home today was to find his speech on the internet and watched it.  Speeches like these always get me thinking.  And thus, here I am writing to you.

After listening to his speech, I was reminded of one major thing.  In America, we all have the opportunity to make choices. We get to make major choices, like voting for the president, picking what college we go to and naming our children when they are born.  Then we get to make smaller, every day choices as well.  Some of these choices could be like what clothing we wear for the day, how we do our hair, what to eat for dinner and what radio station we'll listen to on our way to work.  But just because these choices are smaller, it does not mean that they are any less important.

If I have learned anything from all of my shambles and celebrations over the last two years or so, it is that the choices we make as individuals mean everything.  Often, we take this freedom to choose for granted.  We don't think about what could happen as a result of our choice.  And when this happens, negativity can often find its way into our lives.  Trust me, I have learned the hard way more than one time in my adult life, and even as a teenager.  You must think before you make a choice.

But choices aren't always about materialistic things, either.  We make a choice in our attitudes every day.  We decide to look to at something as a positive thing, or we decide to be negative towards something.  Often in America, we hear of the daily battle between Republicans and Democrats.  Trust me, I'm not trying to make this political, I'm just using them as an example.  One would hope that as our leaders that they would look at a situation, and rather than seeing it as one side versus another, they would CHOOSE (there's that word again) to work together towards a common goal of bettering lives for the American people.  But unfortunately, more often times than not, individuals make the choice to let politics and power get in the way.  We as individuals tend to do the same thing in our own personal lives. Rather than choosing the well thought out, positive path, we choose what seems nice at the time only to find out later that it would end up costing us in one way or another.

As you get older, I hope you keep this lesson in mind.  Think about the choices you make.  They often end up defining who you are as a person, even if you don't necessarily intend for them to serve that purpose.  Your choices build your life, so I hope you make strong, good-minded ones so that your life may be a positive one.

Love you!

Meghan