Decisions, Decisions

What if you just didn't make that one decision? Where would you be? Where wouldn't you be? This deep question I was pondering once while making the routine trek from the lunch room to the band room to consume my food. Oddly enough, Cucumber was thinking the same thing. Then came the typical comment. "We should blog that!" (Of course, by now the word 'blog' has almost been synonymizified with the word 'analyze.') So here it goes.

Look back on your lives for a bit, right down yon memory lane. If it looks like a straight shot from there to here, look harder. Look at all those windy paths you could have taken, some leading you possibly for better, others for worse. And while we're at it, conjure up 'Two roads diverged in a yellow wood...,' the Frost poem we all know so well. Of course it's been analyzed and beaten into the ground before, but it really holds significance. Can any one of us look back at our decision to do something seemingly small at the time, like take a certain class, talk to a certain person, or choose between the greater of two goods, and not see how different we would be if one thing were altered just a little bit?

I can't imagine myself not doing a few fundamental things in my life, and I'm often scared to do so. I can't see myself not in band. That was a pivotal point in my life that led me to some of the most fantastic friends in the world that have encouraged me to be who I should be and not who the world wants me to be. Even before that was the dawn of my musical interest as I started taking piano lessons. Without them, I might be, what, musically inept? What a horror! I would probably be dead of boredom by now. Along with that, I can't imagine myself not joining marching band. That was one of the best things that ever happened to me because in it I learned fundamental things about leadership, unity, friendship, and teamwork.

Oddly enough, I can't see myself growing up anywhere but this old house on the emu-street in central Orem. Not that it was my choice to do so, but my decisions made in this house regarding schooling, church, and friends have changed everything. It's hard to look back to the crossroads and not see a guiding hand that led me here.

Taking all that and throwing it 180 on to the unknown path that is the future in a wilderness of possibility, who knows what decisions lie ahead. Who knows how many different people I could become, should I make ever so slight choices that seem so insignificant a few feet from the crossroads. The most disheartening or encouraging fact is that once you choose, you can't go back to exactly the way it was before. But either way, the great thing is that no matter what we choose, we're in for something new. Each moment is a new one, yet is but a spark. Each change is an opportunity to grow, tinder for the flame of enlightenment to thrive. As life is suddenly changing with choices that will determine the majority of our future looming close, it is crucial that we all know who we are and generally where we are headed before we start down the road. And one day, we'll look back and say, "Where would I be if I didn't do that one thing? Where wouldn't I be? And how grateful am I that I'm here?"