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“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-/ I took the one less traveled by,/ And that has made all the difference”. The profound words of Robert Frost make us question ourselves and how we view the world. Are we predisposed to believe that the world exists based on a perpetual cycle of despair and that misery is an inexorable fact of life and destiny, or do we have a choice on how we live our lives and view the world? Do we have the opportunity to make the most of our circumstances, evoke change, and leave an indelible mark?
What defines who we are? Is it nature or nurture? Are we a product of our genetics or our environment? I believe we are a combination of both. We may have our mother’s eyes and our father’s laugh, but we also have the ability to create our own futures- we are accountable for our decisions in life.
Belief in our ability to succeed is defined by our understanding that we need to do the unthinkable and forge our own paths so we can impact the world in our own way. Famous examples of icons who broke down the barriers of society and defied the unfathomable, creating something tangible and magical, include Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, Thomas Edison, who invented the light bulb, Walt Disney, who created Disney land, and Mahatma Gandhi, a man immortalized for the words “Be the change you want to see in the world.”
When my sister was younger, she was diagnosed with a serious gastroesophageal illness called achalasia that required her to spend most of her childhood in hospitals having serious surgeries. It was the biggest challenge of her life because of the psychological and physical roadblocks it presented which often felt insurmountable. Every day she had a choice - live life to the fullest or become a victim of her circumstances; she has chosen to live in technicolor.
It's easy to subscribe to a belief in the idea that the world, with all its undesirable traits, contemptible wrongdoings, and unjustifiable indifference to human suffering, is incapable of having good in it. However, how we see the world is based on our attitude towards life. Simply put, this is all it takes to remove ourselves from the perpetual shackles of our minds that think the world will always be this way. It’s the people who hold out a hand to help and take the step towards change that make a significant impact on the world and the people in it.
The story of Kyle told through the eyes of his best friend is one of my favorite examples of how one person can make a world of difference. “As I was walking home from school, I saw a young boy walking down the road carrying a stack of books. A group of kids ran towards him and knocked the books out of his hands and his glasses with them, Kyle landing hard in the dirt. All I saw was the terrible sadness in his eyes as a tear ran down his face. I helped him up, gave him the glasses, and took some of his books walking home with him, receiving a smile. We spent that whole weekend together. Over the next few years, Kyle and I became best friends. Kyle was our valedictorian and had to prepare a speech for graduation. On graduation day, he looked great, he had really grown into himself during high school. He began his speech, 'Graduation is a time to thank those who helped you make it through those years. I am here to tell you that being a friend to someone is the best gift you can give them. I am going to tell you a story'. I looked at my friend with disbelief as he told the story of the day we first met. He had planned to kill himself over the weekend. He talked about how he had cleaned out his locker so his mom wouldn’t have to do it later and was carrying his stuff home. He looked hard at me and gave me a little smile. 'Thankfully, I was saved. My friend saved me from doing the unspeakable'. Not until this moment did I realize the depth of this boy’s weakest moment. Never underestimate the power of your actions. With one small gesture, you can change a person’s life”.
In life, we have a choice. We can choose to accept the condition of the world and the people around us, evil and indecencies, or we can choose to evoke change by forging paths into the unknown, being kind and generous, and believing that there is more to life than what we’re told, we’re not predisposed to accept the world as it is. I’ll leave you with some anonymously penned words to change your perspective, “The pages of yesterday cannot be revised, but the pages of tomorrow are blank and you hold the pen. Make it an inspiring story”.
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