The Choices We Make

Over the past year, I have made many choices. I have made choices that I have been proud of; others cause me to cringe when I look back upon them. I have hurt people, both verbally and physically. These are choices that I cannot take back; these are choices that I made knowing fully what I was doing. Despite the fact that I made these choices when angry, when vengeful, when sad, I was still the person who chose to make them. The person I was angry with, the person who I felt vengeful towards, the person who caused me to become sad, did not force me to make these decisions. Was I influenced by them? Yes. Was I forced by them? No. I am responsible for my actions and therefore, no matter what the consequences, I must take responsibility for them. Just as the person who influenced my decisions cannot shift the blame for the acts they have committed, I cannot either. Instead of being defined by these choices, I will choose to grow from them. In the future, I will make better choices because of what occurred when I made those bad choices in the past. I have to accept these acts and fit them into my life story, because in the end, I am a product of my environment and the choices I make within it and in spite of it.